The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain

She hid her smile of satisfaction at the evidence that if nothing else, the man wanted her. Then she looked up at him from between her lashes. “Are you saying you’re not interested?” she asked in a tone that said she didn’t believe it. “Your body says otherwise.”

“Maybe my body isn’t the one in control here.”

She arched her back, relief coursing through her when the shift in her pelvis the movement caused didn’t so much as result in a tiny twinge of discomfort. “Maybe it should be.”

“Damn it, Therese, what is going on?”

He never swore in front of her. It shocked her so much that she relaxed back into the water. What if he didn’t want her? A man might not be able to control the physical responses of his body, but he didn’t have to give in to them. Not if his mind was turned off in spite of his body’s cravings.

He was upset with her for turning him down earlier. She should have realized he would be, but normally he acted as if her diminished desire didn’t impact him at all. After all, he was a busy man. He had about as much time for sex as he did for meaningful conversations with her, which meant he had almost no time at all.

Saying nothing because she was afraid she’d beg if she did, she stood to get out of the tub.

“What are you doing?” he asked in a low growl.

“What does it look like? I’m getting out.” He could turn her down, but he didn’t need to rub her nose in it.

He made a sound that sent a shiver down her spine. “Stay where you are, you provoking little witch.”

CHAPTER TWO

“I WASN’T trying to provoke you,” she denied.

He yanked his tie off and started on the buttons of his shirt. “Then I don’t want to see what you are like when you do try.”

It suddenly occurred to her that he wasn’t turning her down, but intended to get into the oversize tub with her. She smiled in pure relief. “Are you sure about that?”

He jerked his pants down, pulling his shorts with them and revealing the impressive length of his angrily throbbing erection. He really wanted her, but from the expression on his face, he wasn’t happy about it.

He stepped into the tub and pulled her to him all in one movement, rubbing his rigid length against her in a blatantly sexual gesture. “I’m not sure about much of anything with you anymore.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, reveling in the feel of his hard muscles and heated skin against her. “I thought you were always sure of me…about everything.”

“I wish.” His mouth slammed down onto hers and there was none of the seductive finesse she’d come to expect from him.

Something had really upset him and he was barely in control. Her ultraurbane husband was showing a basic side to his nature he’d always kept carefully hidden. She doubted he even knew it was there. She had always suspected, though. She saw glimpses sometimes when they were making love, but this was the first time she sensed his control was really at risk. She didn’t mind. In fact, she loved it.

Uncomplicated passion was exactly what she needed right now to get her mind off things she could not stand to think about. She kissed him back, letting the desperation she felt translate into a physical need that more than matched his. A growl rumbled low in his chest and he deepened the kiss with a thrust of his tongue that took total possession of her mouth.

She let her fingers run down the hard contours of his chest, tangling in his black, curling hair and tugging gently.

His mouth broke from hers. “Sì, cara. You know how much I like that. Do it again.”

She did and then bent forward to taste the salt of his skin with the tip of her tongue. If only he could love her and not merely what she could do to him. But thinking along those lines would bring pain, not pleasure and she slammed the door shut on that part of her mind with a ferocious clang.

She nuzzled him, loving his scent and the feel of his warmth against her face. He was so perfect for her physically.

His big hands cupped her bottom and he lifted, rubbing his erection against the juncture of her thighs bringing forth a damp throb of response that she wallowed in. She made a mewling sound, her need so intense she dug her fingers like claws into his hot skin.

She loved him so much and in this—for right now, he was absolutely and totally hers.

She pressed her breasts against his chest and rubbed side to side, the stimulation to her aching peaks along with the way he was bringing their bodies together intimately almost enough to send her over the edge.

Suddenly he dropped into the water with her on top of him, sending hot, scented waves sloshing over the sides of the tub and onto the marble floor. He spread her legs so she straddled him and thrust upward pulling her down with a near-bruising grip on her hips. His aim was perfect and his rigid length speared into her, filling her completely in one powerful thrust.

Her body jerked at the shocking intrusion, but it didn’t even sort of hurt.

It felt so good, so right…so tight. They fit each other so absolutely perfectly in this way…how could her body make her imperfect for him in the one way that mattered most?

His mouth tore from hers. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

She stared at him, her eyes burning with tears she would never let him see. “Nothing. You feel so incredible inside me,” she panted.

“You went stiff.”

“It’s always a little tight at first.”

He smiled, masculine ego glowing from his dark eyes. “Yes, but you like it, no?”

“I love it.” I love you, she whispered deep in her heart. Forever.

“Then let me take you again.”

“Yes.”

And she did, thrilled by the lack of pain and hoping it would last the entire lovemaking session. She was careful not to take him too deep and he let her control things. She’d often teased him this way in the past and it was highly pleasurable for both of them.

Putting his head back and breathing harshly, his face contorted with pleasure, he said, “You are so good at this.”

“And you are incredible.”

He went stiff beneath her, his body filled with a tension that had nothing to do with sensual delight. “Then why do you turn me down so often lately?” he asked, his voice edged with dark emotion.

She didn’t have an answer…at least not one she was prepared to discuss right now when the pleasure was on the verge of letting her forget everything. So, instead of saying something that might mess that up, she kissed him.

He kissed her back, his mouth quickly taking control and then claiming her lips as if intent on punishment. Only she didn’t feel punished. She responded with ferocity of her own and increased the pace of their lovemaking until she felt the pleasure spiral tight inside her and she went through the stratosphere, all rational thought flying from her mind as her body convulsed with the ultimate satisfaction.

He grabbed her hips and thrust upward, once, twice…three times and sent her into a second climax, so close to the first that her lungs seized along with everything else.

He shouted and she felt his warmth inside of her as she took a long shuddering breath into her oxygen-starved lungs before collapsing on top of him.

She kissed his chest. “That was wonderful.”

“Yes,” he said, his breathing still heavy. “It always is.”

“Yes.”

“So, why—”

She put her hand over his mouth. “No talking. Just enjoy. Okay?”

He frowned.

“Please,” she pleaded.

He nodded, one quick jerk of his head.

She smiled and let her head settle against his chest again. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”

“You said no talking.”

“So I did.” She kissed him again because she couldn’t help herself and then relaxed there.

His hands moved from her hips to her back and she cuddled in the circle of his arms, their bodies still connected in the most intimate way possible.

Eventually he carried her to the oversize glass shower stall and they made love again under the cascading spray before washing and then going to bed where she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

She woke up alone and buried her face in his pillow, wallowing in Claudio’s lingering scent.

The night before had been incredible. He’d woken her sometime in the early hours of the morning and made love to her with such tender gentleness, she had cried when she climaxed. He’d held her afterward, rubbing her back and whispering how much he enjoyed her body and how beautiful she was in Italian.

But after three years, she realized being beautiful to him was not enough. It was not love and could not last forever because outer beauty did not last forever. And outstanding sexual satisfaction could not make up for her inability to give him the one thing he expected from her.

Heirs for the Scorsolini throne.

It was time to tell him the truth.

But when she went downstairs, it was to discover he’d flown out for a meeting in New York. She’d forgotten all about his trip and didn’t know if she could wait the three days until his return to settle things between them.

She didn’t miss the fact that he’d left without bothering to wake her and kiss her goodbye, either. Somehow, that made everything worse. Maybe because it was a huge indication of the lack of true intimacy in their relationship and any real reliance he had on her.

There wasn’t any. They were married, but she was no more necessary to his life than any of his other many employees. If it wasn’t for the sex, their relationship would not be any more personal than it was with any of the others, either. And when the sex wasn’t on, neither was their relationship. How many business trips had he scheduled during her monthly? Had he ever once asked her to accompany him? No.

She was a convenience to him and she might as well admit it.

But damn it, it hurt.

She needed to be more to him. The only hope for their future was for her to mean something more to him. Which meant there was no hope at all.

Her mobile phone chirped and she scooted up in bed to answer it. When she saw that it was Claudio, her breath caught. She flipped it open. “Hello?”

“Good morning, bella.”

For some reason that endearment hurt this morning. Wasn’t she more than a face and a body to him? Was her value truly determined by her outer looks and her poise as her mother had always insisted it was?

“Good morning, Claudio.” She waited expectantly for him to get to the purpose of his phone call.

“I’m on my way to my hotel and wishing you were with me.”

Her heart stopped. “Are you really?”

“Sì. I do not like when our schedules separate us.”

“Then why didn’t you ask me to come with you?” she asked, hope uncurling like a slow bud inside her heart.

“You have your obligations. I have mine.”

“And do the obligations always come first?”

“They must. It is our duty.”

“They don’t always for Tomasso and Maggie or Marcello and Danette.” But then his brothers were in love with their wives.

One of the things that had hurt the most this past few months was seeing what a Scorsolini prince in love acted like and acknowledging it was nothing like Claudio’s behavior toward her.

“My brothers are not in line to be the next ruler of Isole dei Re. They can afford to put duty second on occasion. The country does not depend so heavily on them. And their wives do not have the same requirements put upon you as my wife.” He spoke like a teacher reciting a lesson to a student that he had recited many times before.

The practiced patience in his voice was worse than if he’d snapped at her.

“I miss you,” she said baldly.

“I have been gone less than a day.”

“Are you saying you don’t miss me?” she asked, wishing the question did not feel like a razor shredding her insides. So much for him wishing she was there.

“I will miss you tonight.”

If he had planned it, he could not have said anything more wounding. “In bed,” she said flatly.

“We are good there.”

“But nowhere else?” she asked, for once making no effort to hide how much that displeased her.

“Do not be ridiculous. You are my wife, not my concubine. Why would you even ask such a question?”

“Perhaps because that is the only place you deign to miss me.”

“I did not say that.”

“Excuse me, but you did.”

“I did not call you to get into an argument.” The frozen tone of his voice came across the phone line loud and clear. “But for the record, if you took what I said to mean such a thing, it did not.”

Maybe he didn’t know he meant it that way, but he had. The facts spoke for themselves.

“Why did you call? We both know it was not merely to say hello. I don’t rate those kinds of phone calls from you.”

“What is the matter with you? Perhaps that is exactly why I called.”

She wasn’t even remotely convinced. “Not likely.”

“I was thinking of you and wanted to hear your voice, all right?” he asked, sounding thoroughly annoyed with her.

Oh. Man. Did he mean it?

Of course he meant it. Claudio never consciously lied, but still she had to ask, “Is that true?”

“I do not make it a habit of lying to you.”

“I know you don’t. It’s one of the things I appreciate most about you.”

Her father had lied to her, to her mother, to anyone at all…all for the sake of convenience and had called it diplomacy. But she didn’t think that that kind of diplomacy belonged in a family. It was best saved for other politicians, all of whom were expecting it.

“Can you say the same thing?”

Shock coursed through her that he would ask such a thing. “Of course I can. You know I don’t lie to you.”

“Only perhaps you do not feel withholding information from me is the same as lying?” he asked.

Could he know about her condition? Impossible…she’d been far too careful to keep it a secret. “I don’t know what you mean.” That at least was no lie, but it was also not the full truth. Perhaps there was more of her father in her than she wanted to admit.

“Are you sure about that?”

“No one tells everything, but that doesn’t mean I lie to you,” she said, defending a position he did not know why she’d taken. But there was no way she could tell him the news of her infertility over the phone.

“I hope that is true, Therese.” He sighed. “I have another call coming in. I have to go.”

“All right. Goodbye, Claudio.”

“Goodbye, bella.”

She hung up the phone, but as she got ready for the day and then left her apartments to traverse the grand marbled hallways of the palace, she couldn’t stop thinking about what he had said, what she had said and what she hadn’t been able to say. She owed him the truth—both about her condition and what she planned to do because of it.

He would be relieved. He had to be.

But a tiny part of her heart hoped against all logic that he wouldn’t be. That he might even refuse to let her do the right thing…the only logical thing to do in the circumstances.

Walk away.

“Your Highness…”

Therese looked up from her musings to find her personal secretary standing in front of her. At one time Ida had worked for her mother, but the year Therese had married, her mom had sacked Ida in order to hire someone else. The other woman was younger and had connections high in the social set Therese’s parents were now moving in. Ida had been only too happy to accept Therese’s offer of a job.

Ida’s loyalty was unwavering, her discretion without equal and her finesse with a schedule second to none. She was the only other person besides Therese’s Miami doctor and his assistant who knew about the laparoscopy and the results.

“Your morning appointment is waiting.”

“Ida…I have to go to New York.”

The older woman barely blinked. “I believe I can clear your schedule. If you could take care of your current appointment, I will have a maid pack for you while I begin clearing your schedule.”

“Just like that?”

“There are things you and the prince need to talk about,” Ida said kindly. “I’m assuming those things did not get said last night.”

Therese shook her head.

“That gives a trip to New York precedence over anything else in your schedule.”

“I hope Claudio feels that way.”

“Men, even brilliant men, are not always the brightest spark when it comes to relationships.”

“Even brilliant men, hmm?”

“Yes.” Ida sighed, the sound filled with exasperation. “Sometimes I think it’s the really bright ones that are dumbest when it comes to women.”

Therese laughed. She thought maybe Ida was right. Look at how stupid King Vincente was about Flavia.

“Just you remember, young lady…a marriage is not all about having children.”

Therese smiled disappeared. “My marriage is.”

“Don’t you believe it.”

She wished she shared the older woman’s assurance, but she couldn’t.

She landed in New York later that evening, her nerves stretched to screaming point. She’d spent the entire flight going over in her head what she was going to say to Claudio, but she couldn’t get past the first sally because every time she thought about him agreeing that their marriage should be dissolved, her throat clogged with tears.

She had asked security not to alert her husband to her intention to join him. For some reason, she felt the element of surprise might be on her side. She was informed he was at the hotel preparing for a dinner meeting when her plane landed. It seemed fortuitous and she hoped it boded well for the meeting to come.

Her eyes barely registered the opulence of the oversize suite when security let her inside. She was too busy trying to control her tortured emotions.

Claudio was tying his tie when she walked into the bedroom.

“Hello, caro.”

His big body jerked, blatant testament to how shocked he was by her presence. Then his head snapped up, his dark eyes zeroing in on her with physical intensity. “Therese, what are you doing here?”

“You said you’d like it if I was.”

“You are not here because of my phone call this morning.” His expression dared her to contradict him…to lie.

“No, I’m not. We need to talk.”

“Do we?”

“Yes,” she said, trying to ignore the fact that his expression was about as welcoming as an accountant faced with a tax auditor.

“I suppose you have something you have to confess that has weighed on your conscience long enough,” he said in a voice that dripped in ice.

She didn’t know what triggered his hostility, except maybe that she’d changed her schedule. Claudio didn’t like surprises and he had a worse one coming.

“You could put it that way.” She couldn’t even assure him it was nothing bad because it was.

In a marriage like theirs, it was a death knell and nothing less.

Claudio went back to what he was doing with cold precision. “It will have to wait. I have a dinner meeting.”

“Can you cancel it?”

“You mean like you obviously canceled all of your obligations so you could fly up here and have a conversation that surely could have waited the three days it would take me to get home?”

“Yes.” She didn’t care how he made it sound. That was exactly what she wanted.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Would it really be so terrible?”

“Obviously you do not consider it so, but I do not appreciate my wife letting down her obligations and therefore me.”

“And are our duties the only thing that matter in our life together?”

“Duty must come first. At one time, I believe you understood this.”

“Is that why you married me?”

“You already know it was one of the primary reasons I decided you would suit me well as a wife. Your parents could not have raised you more suitably for the life of a princess if they had been royalty themselves.”

That reminder was as unwelcome as it was painful. For she better than anyone knew how carefully her parents had raised her. Her father with the hopes she would pursue a political career and her mother with the desire to live her life’s ambitions through her daughter. Neither had ever cared what dreams beat in Therese’s heart.

“My appreciation for duty was my main attraction to you…and of course the fact that I was physically compatible with you,” she said, long denied hurt coming out as bitterness.

“Would you have expected me to marry a woman who did not understand or fit the role of princess and future queen?”

“Your brothers weren’t so worried about suitability when they chose their wives,” she reminded him.

“As I said last night, I am not my brothers.”

“No, you are the crown prince, which means duty must come first, last and always with you.”

“You knew this when we married. It is not something I expect to be raised as an issue of contention now.”

“You don’t expect anything to be raised as an issue of contention.”

“How perceptive of you to realize that.” He pulled on his black dinner jacket. “As scintillating as this conversation is, I must go or I will be late.”

“Just like that? I fly all the way from Isole dei Re and you walk out on an important conversation because your damn schedule demands it?” How was she going to tell this cold-faced stranger anything, much less the intimate details of her latest doctor’s visit?

“Do not swear at me,” he said, contriving to sound shocked.

She said a truly foul word. “You mean like that?”

“I do not know what your problem is, but I suggest you get over it. I will be back quite late. If you still feel the need to discuss whatever it is you think is so important, we can talk then.”

“And if I don’t feel like waiting?”

“You have no choice.”

“When have I ever?”

“You made a choice to marry me. No one forced you to speak your vows. If they are chafing now, please remember, you have no one but yourself to blame for your circumstances and I will not tolerate you dismissing your promises or your duty as my wife as easily as you did your duties as a princess this morning.”

“They’re pretty much the same thing, aren’t they?” she asked in a voice filled with angry pain.

“No.” His gaze seared her. “You have personal obligations to me that have nothing to do with your responsibility to the crown.”

He meant sex, she was sure…but he was wrong. That aspect of their marriage was as wrapped up in her role as princess as everything else. Because it was supposed to result in an heir to the throne and it wasn’t going to.

“Maybe I’m feeling unsure about all of my obligations right now.”

Fury filled Claudio’s gaze, but his voice was controlled and even when he spoke. “I suggest you get sure of them by the time I return to the suite tonight.”

“And if I don’t?” she dared to taunt.

“Then it will be a very unpleasant night for us both, but I warn you…my weapons are and will always be superior to yours.”

“You are so damm arrogant, Claudio.” She sighed, her anger draining away. “Anyway, don’t be so sure my weapons can’t best yours because I have an awful feeling they can.”

Her condition and infertility because of it was pretty much nuclear bomb strength when it came to the power necessary to destroy their marriage.

He paled.

“I do not have time for this.”

He left.

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