Page 57 of The Tycoon's Shock Heir

‘I’m getting to really like it. Having all those little faces staring at me, trying to help them without criticising... And the feeling when they get it right is amazing. Almost as good as dancing itself.’

‘You must be a natural.’

‘Oh, I’m not a natural—far from it. I just love dancing and so do they.’

Just then the crowd of little girls came rushing up the grass, back from their afternoon break. They crowded around Ruby, jumping up and down, giggling excitedly.

‘Where are you going?’

‘Are you coming back tomorrow?’

‘Please come back and teach us again—we had so much fun.’

And then they all swarmed off, like a cloud of starlings.

‘You see, you’re a natural,’ he said solemnly, nodding and then he squeezed her hand to underline his message. ‘Just like you’re going to be with our little one.’

They walked towards the car, and he felt her fingers weaken in his grip as silence descended around them again. But he wasn’t going to let it take hold of her. He was going to power through. He could not afford for her to get cold feet.

‘We’re all set for the weekend. We’ll go from here to the airport and land in Rome about seven. My mother will arrive about midnight, so you won’t see her until tomorrow. Ceremony’s set for eleven...’

He paused, stole a quick glance at her over the roof of the car. But her face was hidden behind huge sunglasses and her mouth gave nothing away.

‘I spoke with Augusto this afternoon, too. We’re expected there next Friday, by which point we’ll be married...’

She was pulling her seat belt across her body with infinite care. He started the engine and nosed the car along the driveway.

‘Which is just as well because it turns out Claudio is going to visit them immediately after us.’

He turned sharply to look at her, to see her reaction. There was none.

‘So anything he tries to say—any dirt he tries to dish up—we’ll have covered all the bases. We’ll play the happiest, cutest newlyweds this side of the Apennine Mountains. And there’s nothing Arturo loves more than a young Italian family and all that promises to follow. Kids and houses and happily-ever-after.’

He turned again to see her, but she had turned her head to stare out of the window.

He reached for her hand, squeezed it. ‘Everything OK?’

‘Yes, of course. Obviously I want to get back to work as soon as I can. Now that I’m getting into it I really don’t want to go disappearing for long.’

‘Obviously,’ he said, turning resolutely back to face the road. ‘It should all be tied up one way or the other in about ten days. That’s not too long to be away, is it? It is your wedding, after all.’

They rolled along in silence but he could hear her thinking as clear as day.

It’s not a real wedding, though, is it?

And he knew that. He knew it all the way from his overloaded brain down to the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. What he was doing was wrong. It was wrong to make her do this. It was wrong to bind her to him like this because he wanted this merger so badly.

But, more than that, he wanted his little family.

Yes, he did.

He wanted his little girl and he wanted her mother. And he was prepared to do anything to get it—because he had to. He had to make this work. He had to move those wheels, push all those pieces into position himself.

It was the long game—and he’d been playing it his whole life. If he didn’t push on with this, then what? The bank would sink into oblivion and this woman would disappear off and some other guy would marry her.

No!

He slammed the steering wheel with his open hand so suddenly that the car veered slightly off the road and Ruby turned round, alarmed.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to do that.’ He shook his head, furious at his lack of composure. He could not allow cracks to show. Not anger, not alcohol, nothing. ‘Ruby, I really want this to work.’

‘I know you do.’

‘No, I mean really. I really want this to work. It would mean the world to me. I’ve never properly come out and said it, but I can’t get it out of my head. You and the baby. The bank. Everything.’

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