wine and then placed the glass back down on the counter. Bella married? Not on his watch. ‘You realise you can’t marry anyone without my permission?’ he said.
She blinked. ‘What?’
‘It’s clearly stated in your father’s will,’ he said. ‘I have to approve your choice of husband if you choose to marry before the age of twenty-five.’
Her eyes widened and then narrowed. ‘You’re lying,’ she said. ‘It does not say that. You’re in control of my money, not my love life.’
‘Go check it out with the lawyer,’ he said, turning back to his chicken dish on the stove.
Edoardo could feel her anger building in the silence. It made the air heavy, loaded with anticipation, like that tense period after lightning flashed, just before the thunder bellowed.
‘You put my father up to this, didn’t you?’ she said. ‘You cooked up this little scheme to get absolute and total control of me.’
Edoardo put the wooden spoon down on the spoon holder and turned back round, folding his arms across his chest and crossing one ankle over the other. ‘So why do you want to marry this Julian guy?’ he asked.
She put up her chin. ‘I’m in love with him.’
He laughed and unfolded his arms. ‘Now, that’s funny.’
She sent him a gimlet glare. ‘I suppose it is to someone who doesn’t have an emotional bone in his body,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t recognise love if it came up and bit you on the face.’
Edoardo looked at her mouth again, at those lips he had fantasised about for years, remembering how soft and yielding they had been beneath the pressure of his. He had fantasised about them moving over his body, kissing and sucking on him until he exploded. A red-hot dart of lust shot him in the loins. He could just imagine her taking him to heaven with that sexy little mouth of hers. It would certainly make a change from her spitting at him like an angry little cat. ‘Ah, yes, but I recognise lust when I see it,’ he said. ‘And you are positively simmering with it.’
She hissed in a little breath, her eyes flashing in fury. ‘How dare you?’
‘Oh, I dare,’ he said, trailing a light fingertip down the length of her arm.
She pulled back from him as if he had scorched her. ‘Don’t touch me.’
‘I like touching you,’ he said in a low, growly tone. ‘It does things to me. Wicked things. Sinful things.’
Her slim throat moved up and down agitatedly. ‘Stop this,’ she said. ‘Stop this right now.’
‘Stop what?’ he asked. ‘Stop looking at you? Stop imagining how it would feel to thrust inside you right to the hilt? To have you bucking and screaming underneath my—’
She raised her hand so quickly he almost didn’t block it in time. He captured it within a hair’s breadth of his cheek, his fingers clamping around her wrist with bruising force. ‘I can do rough if you want, princess,’ he said. ‘I can do it any way you want it.’
‘I do not want you,’ she said, spitting the words out like bullets.
He felt her thighs bump against his. He felt the softness of her breasts where they brushed against his chest. He felt the drum beat of her pulse against his fingers. He felt his need race through his blood with an almighty primal roar.
It would be so easy to slam his mouth down on hers like he had done before. To taste her, to tempt her with the pleasure he could feel building like a dam inside him. She would go off like a firecracker. He knew they would be dynamite together. She needed someone strong enough to control her wild impulses and reckless behaviour. The men she dated danced around her like moths around a bright light.
He would have her. He knew it in his bones. He would have his fill of her, purging her from his system once and for all.
And she would enjoy every pulse-racing second of it.
Edoardo slowly released her wrist. ‘Got that nasty little temper of yours under control?’ he asked.
She gave him a fulminating look as she rubbed at her wrist. ‘I pity the women you take to bed,’ she said. ‘They probably leave it bruised from head to foot.’
‘They leave it panting for more,’ he said with a smouldering smile.
She made a scornful sound. ‘Why? Because you don’t know how to properly satisfy a woman?’
His eyes mated with hers. ‘Why don’t you try me and see?’
She gave him a withering look. ‘I’m about to become engaged, remember?’
‘So you say,’ he said. ‘Has he asked you, or are you just clearing it with me in case he does?’
She gave him a reaction that reminded him of a bantam hen ruffling its feathers. ‘The man doesn’t always have to do the proposing,’ she said. ‘What’s wrong with a woman asking a man?’
‘That could work every four years, but this year isn’t a leap year, so you’ve either got to buck the trend or wait.’ Edoardo picked up her left hand. ‘So where’s the ring?’
She snatched her hand away. ‘I’m having one designed specially.’
‘Who’s paying for it?’
She frowned at him. ‘What sort of question is that?’
‘So you’re paying,’ he said with a mocking look.
‘I don’t have to discuss this with you,’ she said. ‘It’s none of your damn business.’
‘Yeah, well, that’s where you’re wrong, Bella,’ he said. ‘It is my business to see that you don’t get ripped off by some gold-digging sleazebag. That’s why your father appointed me as your financial guardian. He didn’t want you to be taken advantage of until you were old enough to understand how the world works.’
‘I’m twenty-four years old!’ she said. ‘Of course I know how the world works. My father was old-fashioned. He was two generations older than my friends’ fathers. You had no right to agree to this stupid scheme. You should’ve talked him out of it. I should’ve been given control when I turned twenty-one.’
‘You were too young at twenty-one,’ he said. ‘I think you’re still too young even now. You don’t know what you want.’
Her hands were in tight little fists by her sides. ‘I know I don’t want you messing up my life,’ she said. ‘I love Julian. I want to be his wife. I want a family with him. You can’t stop me marrying him. I’ll fight you every step of the way.’
‘Fight me,’ he said. ‘I’ll look forward to it. But you won’t win this, Bella. I will not allow your father’s life’s work to be frittered away by your impulsive choice of a partner. I’ll put a hold on your allowance. I’ll freeze your assets. You won’t have a penny to buy a cup of coffee, much less pay for a wedding.’
‘You
