Page 39

They were driven to a small building, historic in spite of the fact that it was nothing more than a registrar’s office.
“I thought it was slightly complicated to get a marriage license in Italy.”
He laughed. “Nothing is complicated when you are a billionaire. And of course we’ll draw up a document to protect both of our assets.”
“A prenup?”
He nodded. “Of course. It is sensible. It will hold both of us to the terms we’d agreed to.”
“I suspect you already have that all handled?”
“Obviously.”
She wondered right then if that was the real reason he pursued wealth. Another way to eliminate complications. He certainly didn’t seem to revel in luxury.
She was marrying a billionaire.
That thought made her feel slightly off-kilter.
They were taken before the officiant, and the ceremony was done in Italian, with no fanfare whatsoever, and no kiss. It was simply a legal matter. They both signed paperwork, and she had to sign an extra paper making it clear there were no impediments to the legality or morality of her marriage.
All in all, it took no time. And she felt foolish for changing. Felt foolish for believing it would even be half so momentous as a ceremony in front of a justice of the peace. It wasn’t that. It wasn’t anything.
It was quintessentially Luca, she supposed. All business, nothing else. When they found themselves back in the car, though, his gaze met hers.
“You are my wife,” he said.
He said it matter-of-factly, as he did many things, and yet it made her burn.
There was an answering heat in his eyes that made it difficult for her to breathe.
“And you are my husband,” she said. But the moment she did, she had to purse her lips together, as if to bite off the rest of that statement.
She looked out the window, her heart beating in her chest like a trapped bird in a cage. They had agreed that this wouldn’t be...physical.
She was supposed to have a job at the company. They were going to raise the baby together.
She looked at his profile, taking a chance at pinning her gaze to him again. What would it look like? Raising a baby with him? She hadn’t even wrapped her head around what it would look like for her to raise a baby with herself.
She was caught up in a sweeping tide of change. One that had begun with her deciding to leave him. And had ended with her back here, married to him.
She was utterly stunned by the whole thing.
Suddenly, she felt dizzy. She had been unwell off and on the past few weeks. Not morning sickness so much as sickness whenever it felt like showing up. And it was definitely happening now.
He studied her. “You don’t look well.”
“I’m...fine.”
What good would it do to let him know that she felt like collapsing? What good would it do to show weakness?
Her parents had only ever used it against her. He had tried to use the baby against her.
She turned over that harsh, sharp thought. What he’d done amounted to using their child as leverage, it was true. But the subtle difference was he had laid it all out on the table in front of her, rather than trying to manipulate her.
She shoved that to the side.
She wasn’t angry with him, not like she had been before, but she couldn’t trust him either.