Her breath hitched and her yellow-brown eyes melted into liquid gold. “You realize my passport says Lauren Green.”
Paolo’s body seemed to consolidate into a statue of tested strength. His grip hardened on her chin. His eyes closed and for long seconds his only movement was the flare of his nostrils and the visible pound of his pulse in his throat.
“You are a cruel, cruel woman, Ms. Green.”
She couldn’t help the wicked smile that traced itself across her lips. Her heart fluttered in pleasure and anticipation.
He looked down at her with pupils that had expanded to swallow all the color from his irises, inciting a shiver of delicious excitement. His hand slid to her neck and his other one splayed at her waist, firm and possessive.
“But this is important to me, Lauren. I want my wife in my bed. No one else.”
Lauren was still anxious at how fast things were moving between them, but honestly, if she had wanted to raise this baby alone, she never should have told Paolo he was the father. He was too paternal to let that go and she wanted him in her life.
Her heart gave a little thunk as she realized she might have been expressing that desire with her phone call to him. As foreboding as Ryan’s disappearance had been, she hadn’t been reacting as a wife fearing for her husband. Her marriage had been over. Ryan had been a big part of her life and she would never want him to suffer the kind of tragic end he’d met, but she could have waited to hear the truth. She had known answers would come eventually, delivered on the standard military need-to-know basis.
Instead she’d seized the excuse to reach out to Paolo, sensing that her tenuous connection to him was about to fray away completely. The truth was, she had been longing for five years to explore what might have happened between them if Paolo had not been engaged when they had met in New York.
Her heart felt like it was beating outside her body, unprotected and at risk. The reason she had turned to Ryan in the first place was that he hadn’t been able to reach through her inner barriers the way Paolo did. That spinelessness had led her to marry the wrong man.
As scary as it was to open herself to Paolo, she had to or they’d never stand a chance. There was no shrinking back into the shadows here. She’d come too far. It was time to adapt to the new world she’d put herself in.
She nodded jerkily. “I want to be married, too.”
Until she saw the ease that washed over him, she hadn’t realized how tense he’d been. Marrying her was important to him. Touched, she let her gaze flick to the desk where he’d left the ring.
He stepped back, hands dropping away from her. “If you don’t like it—”#p#????#e#
“What? No! I didn’t mean to be rude about it. I was just so angry— Oh, Paolo, it’s lovely.” She melted into near tears as she took a proper look at the antique ring, so simple and delicate and obviously treasured.
He slid the ring onto her finger and lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles, his expression shining with masculine pride.
And from there they had to have a real kiss. Had to. He moved his hand to the back of her neck, holding her in place while he stole one deep kiss after another, his mouth moving on hers as though savoring her. Lauren moaned in pleasure, but before she could press herself into the hard ridge of his erection, he pressed her back in a show of merciless discipline.
“Get some sleep,” he said gruffly. “Because I swear after that ceremony tomorrow, I’ll be keeping you awake. A lot.”
CHAPTER TEN
SOMEHOW PAOLO PROCURED a perfect wedding dress overnight. The simple sheath with an overlay of eggshell lace was stylishly understated, just right for a midmorning wedding. New shoes, better than Cinderella’s, were a perfect fit and sparkled with promise. Her hat with a short veil completed the outfit, making her feel chic and sophisticated.
All good omens, Lauren told herself, as her groom’s appearance nearly knocked her off her feet.
The familiar couched energy of Paolo’s dynamic personality was vaguely austere in a tailored Italian suit. His shoulders, sharply defined by the cut of his jacket, eased slightly when he saw her. He looked a little tired, a lot determined, and sexy as hell.
Nerves struck her. Marriage was permanent. Not to be entered into lightly. At the same time, Lauren had the sentient feeling that this was inevitable. Like she and Paolo would have come to this no matter what.
Therefore, it seemed both right and surreal that he took her to a towering cathedral to speak their vows before an archbishop, of all people. Paolo had said it would be a small, private ceremony with only two witnesses, so she wasn’t entirely surprised to see Vittorio and Maria waiting on the steps, Maria’s daughter Alys in tow.