Page 35 of Abducted By the Mafia Don
That spreads a warmth through me. The most delicious secret. I know that he might have made me pregnant, and he doesn’t know that I know.
14
DOM
The theatre is full. It’s a charity concert, and I’m scraping the barrel for public events to take Taggie to, because this is fuckingopera.
At least the private box—a little closed-in area with just two seats, high at the side of the theatre, looking down on the stage—gives us space and the illusion of privacy.
Taggie looks amazing in a floor-length light-blue dress in a silky material. It’s strapless and reveals her creamy shoulders, and when I saw it, I very nearly vetoed leaving the house.
Except, then I wouldn’t get to touch her.
The show starts, and there’s immediately squawking in Italian. I pretend to listen, but all my attention is on my fake wife.
“What’s it about?” Taggie asks me in a whisper, after a few minutes. She has given up on the little binoculars provided.
“I think it’s going to be a tragic love story,” I mutter back, leaning close. I breathe in the scent of her, and all thesinging is suddenly much more bearable. We watch, tilted into each other, arms brushing.
I needed this. Taggie next to me.
“Do you want children?”
My head snaps around.
Taggie is looking up at me questioningly, with her big eyes. That sweet pink bow of a mouth is wet, and my heart is trying to launch out of my body through any location it can. My throat. My ribcage. My stomach.
How does she know?
“Children?” I gasp.
“Yeah. I believe it’s something married couples do,” she replies teasingly, keeping her voice low, even as the music soars.
“Why do you ask?” I’m in a panic. Feverish almost. I’m hot and cold, and I think there is sweat trickling down my spine.
She doesn’t know. She can’t. The idea that women have magical powers that allow them to recognise they’re pregnant is absurd.
It isn’t possible. She wasasleep.
“I was just thinking about how we could be even more convincing as a couple,” she replies. “And I’ve always wanted to have a baby.”
Oh fuuuuck. Why did she have to tell me that?
“I wonder if we should pretend I’m pregnant,” she muses quietly, turning her attention back to the stage. “Maybe the Essex Cartel won’t believe you care about me if I’m not pregnant.”
“What?” No one could possibly think that, because it’s not true. Taggie is the centre of my universe.
“Kids are permanent, right?” she adds. “Without kids,or if you don’t want kids, Thaxted will assume I’m disposable. Just a first wife.”
“No.” The idea of faking that is too much when she might be pregnant for real.
“But you said Richmond is all about family—” she begins.
“It was until the rumour I betrayed and had them all killed.” I press my lips together and stare at the stage like it did me personal injury. I see nothing.
The two of us starting a new family would heal parts of me I hadn’t fully realised were broken. I want this far too much.
“Would you like to have children with me?” she continues, “Would you mind if I got pregnant?”
