Dante had always known he would marry. It was a given. He had no plans to love his wife, as indeed he had no plans to love, much less the ability. But he had always thought that he might want a son. Someone to carry on what he had started.
He was a man from nothing. Nothing had been given to him. And he had much that he could pass on to an heir.
So yes, he had often thought that he would marry. Why not Minerva? Why not when it would benefit them so?
No, he would never be attracted to the skinny, dull little hen, but it didn’t matter. They already had a child between them, as far as the world was concerned. And genetics meant nothing to Dante. The man who had fathered him had gone off God knows where and hadn’t given a damn about him. While his mother...
She had cared the best she could. But she had been an old, tired whore—in a literal sense, not a euphemistic or insulting one—and in the end, the comfort of drugs was much more enticing than the grind of impoverished motherhood.
She had given up taking care of Dante when he was about eight years old. And she had given up living when he was ten.
He had been on his own ever since.
And while he was not sentimental, not really, on that score, he felt some measure of passion over the idea of protecting Isabella.
He did not need to become emotionally entangled in order to do this. It required legal paperwork and public trappings, and it was all the sort of thing he could engineer easily without needing to change diapers or rock her to sleep in private.
He also felt some grudging admiration for Minerva.
Minerva was protecting her child. She had come up with the solution that had seemed best to her in a moment of panic.
And he had the means to protect a child. He would not leave Isabella exposed. Not as he had been.
After all, he had been dependent upon the good graces of a man who had not been his father. Robert King was, in many ways, the closest thing he had to a father.
No, genetics were not required to make a family. Genetics, however, had been required for him to gain access to Robert King’s company. And now...well. Now he’d have a link there, as well.
“Marriage?” She recoiled. “You have to be kidding me.”
“I’m not.”
Where did she get off looking horrified by the prospect of marrying him? He was the one who would be saddled to this plain little creature from now until eternity. He was the one who ought to be concerned.
“Yes, Min, marriage.”
“You’re old,” she said.
He barked a laugh. “And you’re a child. But you wanted my protection, and I am willing to give it. But you have to give me something in return.”
“Marriage.”
“Yes.”
“What are your motives? Because I know it isn’t to gain access to my bed.”
“Indeed it is not. But what I would like is for your father to consider merging his company and mine, and barring a family connection, he is not interested.” Her green eyes were jewel-bright and full of rage.
“So you’re willing to help me, but only as it benefits you in a business sense?”
“Please, Minerva,” he responded. “I don’t need this. Make no mistake. Had I needed a family connection I would have pursued it on my own terms long ago. With Violet. Not you.”
Her cheeks flooded with color. “Oh, really?”
“She is much more in keeping with my image.”
“Your image!”
“Though, to be perfectly frank, little one, I could have seduced you at any point over the years if I’d wanted to. I did not need your little scheme. Had I wanted to marry you, I’d have done so.”
She looked a second away from howling. “You could not seduce me, Dante Fiori,” she spat. “I don’t even like you. I never have.”
“Oh, is that why you used to follow me around like a puppy?”
He did not know why he felt the urge to prod at her, only that he did. She was the one who had walked them into this situation, and now she was going to put up a fight because he had found a way to make it tenable for him. Well. He would not have it.
This little sprite did not own him, and she was not in charge here.
If it weren’t for the fact that he was not quite the monster that the press made him out to be, he could destroy her farce easily. All it would take was a simple paternity test.
“You are using me to clean up for your bad choices, Minerva. All the better for you if you’d been seduced by me. Because at least I would have offered marriage, and I would have posed you no threat.”
“You are a threat,” she said darkly.
“A threat to what?”
“Common human decency.”
The door to the study opened, and Robert King filled the space. “I think we need to have a talk,” he said.
“Whatever you have to say to Dante you can say in front of me,” Minerva said.
“I don’t think that’s true, Min,” her father responded.
“It is,” she said stubbornly.
“Fine,” Robert responded. He slammed the door behind him. “How dare you use my hospitality so poorly. She’s a child compared to you.”
“You weren’t angry when I came home with the baby!” she protested. “But now you’re mad?”
“Why rail at you for your decisions?” Robert asked. “You were out in the world on your own, and you did not consult me on your choices. You came home and presented them, and what was the point in holding a postmortem on it? I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at him.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Minerva shouted.
But Dante knew that it did. Because Robert knew exactly where Dante was from. Not only that, he was thirteen years Minerva’s senior. A man who had seen more and done more than Minerva ever would.
She had been cloistered, sheltered by her family connections, and Robert had extended the same to him.
Robert had always counted on Dante to take care of Minerva.
Oh, yes, the fact that he was treating it as a betrayal made perfect sense to Dante.
And it spoke volumes about Minerva’s actual inexperience and age that she did not.
“Just tell me that you never took advantage of her when she was younger,”
