“I’m trying to explain, Luc, that I’m okay with it.”
“Okay with what?”
His black scowl terrified her. If she handled this wrong, he might back out entirely. “I understand that it makes sense for us to be intimate…while we’re together. A man and a woman living in the same house…married. I’m willing.… That’s all I wanted to say.”
His lip curled. His dark eyes were impenetrable. “Well, you were right about one thing.”
“I was?”
“I did want to talk about sex.”
“I thought so.”
“But while I am deeply touched by your desire to throw yourself on the sacrificial altar, I don’t need your penance.”
“I don’t understand.”
His legs were outstretched, propped on the coffee table. He feigned relaxation, but his entire body vibrated with intense emotion. “It’s simple, Hattie. All I wanted to say was that it seems somewhat degrading to both of us to exchange physical pleasure for money.”
The way he drawled the words physical pleasure made her belly tighten. “You’re confusing me.”
“Sex has nothing to do with this marriage agreement. Is that clear enough? If we end up in bed together, it will be because we both want it. I’m attracted to you, Hattie…just as I would be to any beautiful woman. And I have a normal man’s needs. I’ll welcome you to my bed anytime. But you’ll have to come to me. Your body is not on the bargaining table.”
He was being deliberately cruel. Perhaps she deserved it. But humiliation swept through her in burning waves. She had offered herself up in all sincerity, and he had reduced the possibility of marital intimacy to scratching an itch.
Dimly, apprehensively, she began to understand what Luc was going to get out of this marriage. He was going to make her dance to his tune. He was going to make her beg.
And what scared her even more than being totally at his mercy was the inescapable knowledge that she would be the one to crack. And she might not make it through the honeymoon.
Chapter 6
The days before the wedding flew by. Hattie was consumed with setting up the nursery and shopping for an appropriate dress in which to become Mrs. Luc Cavallo.
After the embarrassing scene with Luc in the den, Hattie saw little of him. He spent four days in Milan at a conference, and when he returned to Atlanta, he worked long days, ostensibly getting caught up so he could be away for a week’s vacation. No one at his office knew anything about a wedding.
Deedee was thriving. There had been no further word from Eddie, and on the surface, life seemed normal.… Or at least as normal as it could be given the current situation.
Sherman and Ana adored Deedee and spoiled her with toys and other gifts. Hattie relished being part of that circle. She had never known her own grandparents, and the new relationships she was building helped fill the emotional hole in her soul. Things might become awkward when the marriage ended, but she would worry about that when the time came.
The wedding was only four days away when trouble showed up. Not Eddie this time. A loud knock sounded at the front door midday, and Hattie answered it. Sherman was out back washing the cars, and Ana was making dinner preparations.
The man standing on the doorstep was familiar. “Leo,” she said, her heart sinking. “Please come in.”
“Well, isn’t this nice,” he sneered. “Playing lady of the manor, are we?”
She ignored his sarcasm. Clearly, he did remember her…and not fondly. “Luc’s not home.”
Leo folded his arms across his broad chest. “I came to see you.” He was a physically intimidating man, and his brains more than equaled his brawn. Back in college he had played at flirting with her. Not seriously, just to get his brother’s goat. But the look on his face at the moment said he’d just as soon toss her in the river as look at her.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t. But I knew something was going on. My brother’s been acting damn strangely. And now I know why.”
Ana appeared, wiping her hands on a dishcloth. “Mr. Leo. How nice to see you.” She turned to Hattie. “If you would like to step out back to the patio, I’d be happy to bring you a snack.”
Leo smiled at the housekeeper, a warm, I’m-really-a-nice-guy smile. “Sounds wonderful, Ana. I’ve been running all day and missed lunch.” He eyed Hattie blandly. “What a treat.”
Hattie felt Leo’s eyes boring into her back as they made their way through the house. She hadn’t expected a warm welcome from Luc’s brother, but she also hadn’t anticipated this degree of antipathy from him. They sat down in wrought-iron chairs, and moments later Ana brought out a tray of oatmeal cookies and fresh coffee.
The older woman poured two cups and stepped back. “I’ll put the monitor in the kitchen, Hattie, so I’ll be able to hear the baby if she wakes up.”
Leo paled. As soon as the housekeeper was out of earshot, he swallowed half a cup of coffee and glared at Hattie over the rim of a bone china cup. His big hand dwarfed it. “Luc’s a daddy?”
“No, of course not. Or not in the way you’re thinking. Has he told you anything about my situation?” It was difficult to believe that Luc would cling to his intent of keeping Leo uninformed.
“Luc didn’t tell me diddly squat. All he mentioned was that I should show up on the fourteenth wearing my tux when and where he said.”
“Oh.”
“Perhaps you’d like to fill me in.” It wasn’t a request.
“I’m sorry he’s been keeping secrets from you. It’s my fault.” She quickly gave him the shortened version of the last two months. “I think that until the lawyers get a handle on this custody thing, Luc thinks the less said the better.”
Leo ate two more cookies, eyeing her with a laserlike stare as he chewed slowly. “That’s not why he didn’t tell me. Luc knows I can keep my mouth shut. But he knew I would try to talk him out of this ridiculous sham of a marriage.”
Hattie’s heart sank. The two brothers were close. Could Leo, even now, derail what Luc and Hattie had set in motion?
She set down her cup so he wouldn’t see her hand shaking. “Why would you do that? If you’re worried about the money, or the company…you needn’t be. I’ve already signed a prenup.”
Leo snorted. “You may be a lot of things, Hattie, but even I know you’re not a gold digger.”
“Then why is this any of your business?” She heard the snap in her own voice and didn’t care. What did Leo Cavallo have to gain by sticking his big Roman nose into her affairs?
He pulled his chair closer to the table, his knees almost touching hers beneath the glass. His accusatory mood made her want to run, but she refused to give him the satisfaction. He spoke softly, with menace. “Ten years ago, you almost destroyed my brother. You let him fall in love with you, encouraged it even. And then when he proposed, the first and only time he’s ever done that by the way, you shut him down. A man has his pride, Hattie. You let things go too far. If you weren’t going to love him back, why in the hell did you sleep with him? Why did you let him think you were his girl, his future?”
She bent her head, staring down at the crumbs on her plate. “That’s just it, Leo. I did love him. I was sick with loving him.”