Page 7 of Bride of Betrayal
A cheer had gone up and he’d smiled at her and turned around, arms in the air, a moment that had gone viral. She couldn’t even remember what they’d been talking about but clearly he’d called her bluff. He’d had to pay a fine for that act but the authorities had let him off any other charges, as charmed by him as she had been…
So, no, he didn’t bluff. He obviously meant to go through with this outrageous act. And suddenly Angelica was somewhere between past and present, her body humming to be close to this man again, humming in a way that told her she hadn’t got over him at all.Physically,she told herself desperately. Emotionally, he could never hurt her again.
She pulled her arm free of his loose grip. ‘Are you kidnapping me all the way to the altar, Leo?’
He took a step back. ‘You’re free to go. But I can assure you that marrying me will be so much easier and efficient in the long term.’
‘Because if I don’t you’ll drag me through the courts to get what’s yours?’
‘Something like that. Even if you were to sign over Aldo’s shares to me, it wouldn’t be that simple. It’s your inheritance from him and it’s bound up by all those legalities. Probate et cetera. But through marrying me, it will become my property too.’
She frowned. ‘Won’t probate still take time?’
He said, ‘Yes, but marriage to you will expedite the process, helped by the fact that I’ve been proved innocent and have a right back to my company. It was your choice to marry Aldo, and to collude with him and to let me rot in jail. Now you face the consequences.’
Angelica’s brain was racing. Leo had a point but he didn’t know the truth of it. She’d had no choice. She couldn’t tell Leo about the blackmail without revealing the truth about her family, and she couldn’t trust what he would do with that information. He’d probably use it as Aldo had, to make her comply. She couldn’t go through that again. They were safe now and she wasn’t going to jeopardise their safety.
He’d also just assured her that if she walked away, he’d come after her and he’d end up finding out about them anyway.
‘How long?’ she blurted out.
‘How long what?’
‘How long would you want to be married?’ She wasn’t going to even contemplate this without a get-out date.
‘Six months minimum.’
‘One month.’
He shook his head. ‘Not long enough.’
‘Two months.’
He cocked his head on one side. ‘Four months. That’s about enough time to work out the legalities and establish myself on the scene.’
‘Three months. That’s the most I’ll agree to.’ Three months she could do. There was an end in sight. It wasn’t insurmountable. And then she’d be free of this debt owed to Leo and she couldfinallymove on with her life.
‘OK.’
She blinked. ‘OK?’
‘Yes. But we get married right now and you’re mine for the next three months.’
Angelica shivered delicately. He’d said those words,you’re mine, to her before, sounding desperate. It was why she’d hoped that when she told him she loved him, he would feel the same. Surely he’d had to have felt it too…the intensity between them.
But he hadn’t. And now she was in a bind with the man who had crushed her heart to pieces. But that was OK because she had no illusions any more. She was as cynical as he was. Probably even more.
‘I will marry you, Leo, but I belong to no one, not now, not ever. I also have work commitments that I’m not prepared to renege on. I have a professional reputation to consider.’ She wasn’t going to tell him about her jadedness with her job, and how she wanted to move on and do something more meaningful with her life.
‘As long as you’re available when I need you we won’t have a problem. If there are conflicting interests we’ll discuss it.’
How could he sound so reasonable when he’d just kidnapped her from her husband’s funeral and was now about to march her down the aisle? Because he had been reasonable once. Kind, even. Part of what had made her fall in love with him was how he’d treated others and how he’d always had an air of being able to handle anything.
Any veneer of civility was well and truly gone though, and in that moment she said with feeling, ‘I truly wish we’d never met.’
His jaw tightened and then he said, ‘Too late for regrets.’
‘You’ll wish you never married me. Do you really think I’ll make this easy for you?’ She’d locked herself away mentally and emotionally from Aldo and she would utilise those skills again. Three months. She could do it.
