The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain (12 page)

But wouldn’t a woman complain about things that bothered her before doing something as drastic as ask for a divorce? Particularly a woman as conscious of her duty as
Therese
?

“I did not ask for a divorce because I wanted out of our marriage over the way you treated me. If you will recall, I did not ask for a divorce at all.”

“Do not argue semantics with me,” he growled. “You said we had to divorce.”

“We do.”

“But not over my treatment of you?”

“No.”

Only one circumstance could have prompted a woman as responsible and loyal as
Therese
to dismiss those considerations and ask for divorce. She had to be in love with another man. Love made fools of even the wisest and most strong minded people. Look at his own father. His love for Flavia, coming as it did when he was still in love with his dead wife, had tormented him and ultimately because of it, he had betrayed himself and her.

The thought of
Therese
loving another man like that evoked a feeling of jealous rage so strong it almost overcame him. He forced it down however, unwilling to give way to such weakness. “I would appreciate you having a formal pregnancy test done.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Having a period is no guarantee you are not pregnant.”

“And if I was pregnant…would you be bored with me? Would you still be so content to give me a divorce?” she asked with a scathing sarcasm that was entirely unlike her.

Pride
forbade him give her an honest answer, so he said nothing at all.

She sighed, deflating like a pricked balloon. “That is what I thought. I’m sure I am not pregnant. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“You have been doing something to prevent conception?” he asked suspiciously.

How deeply had her subterfuge gone?

“No.”

“Then the risk is there. You will have a formal test done.”

She shrugged tiredly, giving in with her body language before saying the words. “If that is what you want.”

“What I want has little to do with this conversation.”

“Well, it certainly isn’t about what I want.”

Claudio
’s expression said he thought their conversation was about exactly that. He grabbed
Therese
’s shoulders, his grip not hurting her physically but causing mental anguish he would not begin to understand. “If you carry my child, there will be no divorce.”

Which was exactly what she had thought. She didn’t understand how she could feel more pain on top of everything else inside her, but she did. He’d spelled it out with words that could have no other interpretation. She mattered to him only in her capacity as potential incubator for the Scorsolini heir. For his child, he would remain married to a woman who bored him.

“Whatever you say.” She was so tired and disheartened, she didn’t have the energy or the desire to argue.

Besides, it didn’t matter. She knew she wasn’t pregnant. Having the test would not change anything.

His big body vibrated with a tension she did not understand. “You must be very certain it is not a possibility because the prospect of losing your possible freedom does not appear to upset you.”

Beyond caring what she revealed, she sighed. “Perhaps because I am not overly concerned about it.”

“Yet you just now told me that you are taking nothing to prevent it.”

“I’m not.”

“If that is true, how can you be so certain?”

“I don’t lie and I am certain.”

“The only evidence you have that you are not is that you have started your period. That is hardly full proof.”

“I haven’t started.”

“But you said—”

“That I’m sure I’m not pregnant,” she interrupted, just wanting the conversation over so she could take a hot shower. “I know my own body and my period is coming. All the signs are there.” Including the pain of the endometriosis. Though, thankfully, so far only the twinges she had had the other night.

“As I said, your period is no guarantee.”

“I told you I would have the tests. I don’t understand why we have to argue about it. Can’t we drop this conversation now? I want to change and go to bed.”

“Yes, you agreed to have the tests, but you also told me that you wanted to have my baby very much. I do not know what to believe. I do not understand.”

And he could not let it drop until he did.

Tears that should have been impossible considering how much she had cried already, burned the back of her eyes. “I did want to have your baby.”

She still did, which made her stupid as well as a complete failure in the love stakes.

“Did…past tense.”

“What do you expect? No woman wants to learn she is pregnant by a man who is bored with her and their marriage.”

At least she shouldn’t, but the thought that he would not let her go if she was pregnant taunted her, making her wish for the impossible and angry at herself for doing so. Bored or not, he would never allow the mother of his child to walk away.

“I do not know what to expect from you at all any longer,
Therese
. I do not understand you,” he said again, his undertone one of angry bewilderment. “I thought I knew you well, but discovered I was very wrong in that assumption.”

“What difference does it make? You’re bored with what you do know. You said so.” She spun away and rushed into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her, unwilling to let him see how much those words hurt.

She stripped and stepped into the oversize shower stall. Not because she wanted another shower after the long one she’d taken in the hotel, but because it was the one place she could safely vent her emotions. She turned on the taps and icy cold jets of water hit her from five directions.

Her mind was in such a state of turmoil, that the frigid temperatures barely registered before the water started to warm to her preset selection on the control panel by the door. Pleasantly hot water was cascading down her body when she felt another presence in the cubicle.

She turned around, her mind telling her instincts they had to be wrong, but they were not.
Claudio
was there just as she had known he would be.

He stood magnificently naked, the water running in rivulets down his bronze chest. “I decided not to wait on my shower.”

“Get out,” she gasped.

“But why should I? We’ve done this together many times before.”

“But everything is different now.”

“You are still my wife.” And there was a message there she did not quite get.

“Only temporarily,” she said to punish herself as much as him.

“So you have said.”

“And you agreed. You said you wanted it…the divorce,” she said, unable to hide her pain at that truth.

“Perhaps I spoke hastily. I am not bored with every aspect of our relationship,
cara
. Not yet.”

Was that supposed to make her feel better? It didn’t and neither did the look of desire hardening his features.

“You want sex?” she asked in total shock, having just worked that out.

“Why so surprised? It is something we are very good at together.”

“But you said…” He’d said that her value as a partner had gone down when she started turning him down, not that he didn’t want her anymore.

“I said?”

“Things that hurt me.”

“And your demand for a divorce did not hurt me?” he asked.

Had it? Probably. But then why would he want sex now? Nothing made sense anymore. “I don’t understand,” she said, echoing his sentiments earlier.

His dark eyes narrowed. “Welcome to the club.”

“You can’t want me.”

“Now that is where you are wrong,
Therese
. Very much wrong.” He leaned down and kissed her with blatant seductive intent, his lips molding hers, his big hands sliding around her waist to pull her closer to his naked maleness.

She was so stunned by this turn of events that she did nothing, neither fighting him nor acquiescing.

He lifted his head, the slumberous passion in his eyes much hotter than the water pelting their bodies. “What is the matter? You were quick enough to respond only a night ago.”

How could he ask something so stupid? “That was before…”

“Before you told me we had to divorce?”

“Yes. I don’t think—”

His wet hand covered her mouth. “I do not want you to think. For then I must think and I do not wish to. About anything.”

And she understood…or thought she did. Had she not been so tired, she would probably have anticipated this.
Claudio
needed comfort. His father lay in a hospital bed, his future uncertain and her strong husband would never willingly admit fear on that score. Or any other if it came to that.

The question was what was she going to do about it?

But even as she asked herself that, a realization came to her. She needed comfort, too.

He did not love her and that hurt. King
Vincente
’s health was at risk and that hurt as well. Even if he survived his surgery, which there was every chance he would do…she would lose him along with the other Scorsolinis from her life when her marriage ended. That knowledge added pain on top of pain.

The careful little world she had built around herself in which she had people she loved, if not those who loved her in return, was crumbling.

Soon, she would be living a life entirely separate, one in which she would have to stand on the sidelines. She would have to watch from afar while the things and people she cared about existed and thrived apart from her.

Her pet projects would be taken over by someone else, the issues she thought were so important would find another spokeswoman. Her role in the political infrastructure of
Isole
dei Re
would be filled in by someone else, doing things differently…prioritizing differently and wanting to accomplish different things.

More painful to her heart was the knowledge that her sisters-in-law would blossom in their new roles, have their babies, and more children besides. All without her around to experience, if only vicariously, the reality of a family love.

Flavia and Vincente would finally find their way back to each other…it was obvious to anyone with eyes in her head that they were head over heels in love and always had been. But she would not be around to rejoice with them. She would once again be on the outside looking in.

She would try to fill her life with meaningful endeavors, but the cold winds of loneliness were already blowing across her soul. Because most devastating of all,
Claudio
would one day remarry and have his own children and they would not be hers.

Pain so intense it was physical shook her frame as
Claudio
stared down into her eyes, his own expression unreadable except for the physical need that burned in his dark gaze. “I want you,
cara
. If you are honest with yourself…you will admit you want me, too.”

She looked down where his gaze had traveled. Her breasts were flushed a soft pink with desire, her nipples as hard and crimson as frozen berries. They ached under his hot scrutiny, the skin tight and throbbing with the blood pulsing below it and the engorged tips crying out for the relief of his touch.

A million memories of how it felt to have his mouth and his hands on her erogenous zones tormented her mind. And what he could not see, but she could feel, was the way her most intimate flesh had swollen as well and throbbed with a need to be filled by him, connected to him.

Both her emotional pain and the physical need surging through her sprang from the deep well of love she had for him. It did not matter that he did not return that love. It was too much a part of her being to dismiss and each set of emotions caused by her love warred for supremacy.

One promised empty loneliness that tears would not assuage and the other oblivion. She chose the oblivion. “Yes, I want you,” she said with some despair.

He took no further urging, but swooped down on her mouth with the speed and power of an invading armada as he yanked her into full-body contact. His lips devoured hers and his hard, masculine body imprinted a message of sexual need on her own.

It was one that found an answering craving in her and she did not remain passive against him, but touched him as if it would be the last time. She reveled in the contrast her fingertips found between the silky tautness of his skin and the whorls of dark curling hair that marked his body so different from her own. A man’s body, the epitome of masculine perfection to her senses.

She traced the outlines of ridges created by honed muscle, memorizing anew the way his body felt. She did not know how she was going to live the rest of her life without this. It was too special…so perfect, she often cried afterward at the sheer beauty of the feelings he evoked in her.