Her heart slammed against her chest at the first touch of Luca’s lips, and her body melted in a pool of heat as the kiss deepened. She found herself clutching at his shoulders as his tongue played with hers, and with each second that passed, she could feel her knees starting to weaken.
The elevator reached the penthouse floor and the doors slid open.
Dimly, she heard gasps and realizing belatedly what it meant, Vivian froze. “Luca,” she begged against his lips.
With a sigh, Luca lifted his head but he didn’t let her go. Instead, he kept her chained to his side as they stepped out of the elevator. Again, everyone at the penthouse stared at them, but everyone was also wise enough not to question what they saw. News had traveled fast, with everyone greeting Luca and Vivian and congratulating them on their engagement.
Vivian smiled and mumbled incoherently while Luca took everything in stride.
When they entered his office, Luca turned around to lock the door. When he turned back to Vivian, it was to see her slowly falling to her knees like a wilted flower. She told him seriously, “I don’t think I can take it anymore.”
“What?”
“The way they look at you and me.” She shook her head morosely. “And I can’t even blame them.”
“Do you mean because I happen to own this company and you’re one of my employees?”
She sighed. “It’s worse.”
Luca echoed with genuine puzzlement, “Worse?”
“Yup. They see you and then they see me, and they’re like ‘whut?’”
Another startled laugh escaped him.
“If we’re really going to marry tomorrow—-”
“We are,” he assured her swiftly.
“Can you do me a favor? Can you please make yourself, I don’t know, a bit uglier?”
Grinning, he crouched down on one knee in front of her. “I’ll do my best,” he teased her, “but I can’t promise anything.” Her sigh made his grin widen, but inside of him, Luca became aware of the slightest bit of misgiving, like a bad omen. It was starting to dawn on him just how oddly he had acted, to go to such lengths simply to ensure that no one would harm Vivi.
The sudden tension in the air had her stiffening and she gazed up at Luca searchingly, asking, “What is it?”
Such innocence in those green eyes, he thought broodingly. It could have been an exquisite sight – if only they did not, at that moment, remind Luca of how his ex-wife’s gaze was once like that, too.
“Nothing,” he heard himself say.
And it was nothing, except that he silently wished she would not change like Maria had.
Because if she did—-
What Luca would do to her would make his treatment of the receptionist earlier appear the height of kindness.
So for your sake, cara, never change.
Chapter Nine
Wednesday. This – and not Tuesday nor Monday – was the real beginning of a new chapter of her life. Today was the day she would be Luca Valencia’s wife and Eula’s stepmother. Today was the day everything would change—-
“For the better,” she finished out loud. Staring determinedly at her reflection on the mirror, she told herself firmly, “Got that?”
The bathroom door opened, and Maggie complained, “Will you please stop talking to yourself when you can talk to me?” Sauntering inside the hotel suite’s expansive toilet, she took a hold of her friend’s shoulders and used it to get Vivian to face her. What she saw almost had Maggie wincing, with the way Vivian’s pale face looked even smaller and thinner, her body dwarfed by the too-large terry robe wrapped around it.
Scared out of her wits, Maggie thought, like she should be.
“Are you going to tell me I’m making a big mistake?” Vivian asked fearfully.
Maggie smirked. “I would…if I didn’t know that’s exactly what you want to hear from me.”
“I hate you,” Vivian mumbled. “I really, really, really hate you.” Maggie clearly knew her too well, she thought. She should have asked for a private talk with the judge first. A third party would no doubt tell her that—-
Maggie gave Vivian a quick shake when she saw her friend’s eyes beginning to glaze. “Keep it together, Viv,” she growled. When Vivian blinked at her, she told her friend firmly, “This is something only you can decide, okay?”
Vivian nodded.
“So we’re going to talk about it, and maybe it will help clear your mind.”
Vivian nodded again.
“First – have you asked him?”
“Ask him if there’s a catch in marrying me?” Her friend’s gaze skittered away.
Maggie gave Vivian a harder shake this time. “You didn’t ask him, did you?”
“Umm…”
“Vivian!”
“I didn’t want to,” Vivian cried out, “because I already know the answer to it.”
Maggie froze.
Finally looking at her friend, Vivian said haltingly, “If there’s one thing I was able to understand about him all those times we were talking, then it’s the fact that he’s a control freak. And honestly? I don’t mind that, at all. You know how my dad was like. He was the opposite. He was way out of control, and people always had to rein him in and when you grow up with someone like that, it gets tiring.”