an affair…’ he mused out loud. ‘But something else. What could it be?’
Was he really so dense? Had the concept of true love really never occurred to him? Was it so off his radar that he couldn’t imagine me or anyone else wanting it? Or was it that I was so unappealing to him he couldn’t imagine anyone wanting me?
I shook my head, deciding to end his misery. ‘I’m twenty-six years old, Matteo. I want a real marriage one day. A real family.’
I heard the ache of longing in my voice, and I knew he heard it too. A baby…that was what I really wanted. A family of my own—something I’d never had. I’d take the husband too, of course, but his image was a lot hazier.
‘A family?’ He looked surprised. ‘You want children?’
‘Yes—children, a husband, the lot. Most people do. Don’t you?’
He was silent for a moment. ‘I will need an heir eventually,’ he said at last.
I spread my hands. ‘There you go. We both need something other than a convenient marriage in name only. So this annulment works for both of us.’
‘I already told you it doesn’t for me.’
‘Because of your grandfather?’
‘Yes, because of him. As long as he is alive I must stay married—which you know.’
‘You said it would no longer be an issue after two years.’
‘Because I thought he would be dead.’
I flinched at that, because it sounded so horribly cold. Matteo swore under his breath and then whirled around on his heel, driving one hand through his ink-dark hair, making it ruffled in a way that would have been cute—except nothing about Matteo Dias was cute. He was dark, deadly, powerful, and incredibly charismatic. I felt drawn to him like a moth to dangerous flame, and unlike that hapless insect I knew I’d get burned.
Which was one of the reasons I wanted an annulment. Without Matteo Dias even on the periphery of my life there was far less danger of being singed. I’d already spent too much time poring over those magazine articles, wondering about the man I’d married and wishing he’d show a little interest in me. But I should have known someone as potently male, as powerful and autocratic as Matteo Dias, would balk at the idea of an annulment. He was a man who called the shots, who needed to be in control. And here I was, trying to take the reins.
Matteo turned around to face me, and that rush of incredulous rage had been replaced by something icily composed, leaving the angles of his beautiful face hard and unforgiving.
‘I am not giving you an annulment.’
‘You don’t have any choice,’ I shot back.
But inside I quailed. Matteo Dias had a lot more money and power than I did. Giving back his money was going to have me living on pennies, no matter what I’d told him. But I had to be free. I had to have a chance to pursue my dream of love and family—otherwise what point was there in anything?
But of course Matteo didn’t understand that, and I had no desire to spell it out for him.
Looking at him now, I saw a new hardness in his eyes, felt the unrelenting iron in his soul, and I wondered what had caused him to be so ruthlessly unyielding. It reminded me that I knew nothing about this man beyond what I’d read in the tabloids and what he’d chosen to tell me when we’d first met.
I’d been at my lowest point then: six months in the city, out of cash and—in the last few seconds before we met—out of a job for slapping a man’s hand away when he tried to grope me. But more than that, I’d been out of hope—and that was what had led me to consider Matteo’s outrageous offer even for a second and then to accept it.
‘I have a deal for you.’
Those were his first words to me. I was standing on the street in the lashing rain, hugging my bag to my chest and waiting for the bus, when he came out of the diner from where I’d just been fired and walked straight towards me.
I glanced at him uncertainly, because he wasn’t the sort of customer the rundown diner catered to. He was a dark beacon of privilege there on the grimy street, standing tall and proud and determined. I had no idea what he was doing there, much less what he wanted with me.
‘A deal?’ I eyed him warily, pretty sure that any deal he offered would be one I’d want to refuse.
‘Yes, a deal. I saw what happened back in the diner. You were fired for doing nothing but defending yourself. That was wrong.’
The quietly spoken statement, the certainty of it, reached me in a way nothing else had. Ever since I’d arrived in New York I’d been fending off people who wanted something for nothing, who were far too quick to swindle or lie or cheat. Or attack…
A simply spoken truth delivered by a stranger meant a lot…more than it should have.
‘Thank you,’ I managed, with as much as dignity as I could muster. ‘Unfortunately it doesn’t change anything.’
I had enough money for my bus fare and not much else, and I was already a month behind on my rent. I had no family, no friends, nowhere to go—and, worst of all, I wasn’t sure I had the capacity to care about any of it any more.
‘Actually, it could,’ Matteo said quietly, his voice carrying a subtle, silky power. ‘I could. If you will but give me a few moments of your time.’
I eyed him suspiciously. I’d arrived in this city full of wide-eyed optimism, ready and even eager to believe the best of everyone, but I’d wised up since then. At least I’d been trying to.
‘I don’t think so, mister.’ I hunched my shoulder against the rain and peered down the street in the vain hope that a bus would lumber by soon.
Matteo gave a little reassuring smile. ‘It’s not that kind of deal, trust me.’
The way he said it made me flush, because of course it wasn’t that kind of deal. He was way, way out of my league and we both knew it.
‘This is perfectly respectable and legal—entirely above board.’
I eyed him warily. ‘What, then?’
‘I want you to marry me.’
I gaped. I couldn’t process those six words; they bounced off my brain, refusing to make sense. Then, when the shock wore off, I looked around for the spectators, the punchline. Surely he was making fun of me?
Matteo must have seen something of that in my eyes, for he said quietly, ‘No joke. I’m completely serious.’
He nodded towards a café a few doors down from the diner—a far nicer establishment than the one of my previous employment.
‘Why don’t we get out of the rain and talk through it for a few minutes?’
I hesitated, because my instinct was to say absolutely not. Only a few weeks ago I’d believed what a man had said and I’d paid for it—sorely.
