‘Nothing would make me happier than if you’d agree to marry me, Skye. Say you will.’
The words seemed to glisten in the air around her, dancing and lifting her up. She nodded with all the enthusiasm that her heart gave rise to. ‘Of course I will!’
‘I don’t like seeing you without it on,’ he said with a shrug.
Skye reached for the box but made no effort to liberate the ring inside. She ran her finger over the huge diamond, remembering how her first reaction had been one of mixed feelings. Delight, euphoria and bliss at the thought of marrying Matteo Vin Santo, whom she had loved from almost the moment they’d met. But disappointment too that he’d thought her pretentious enough to want a ring such as this. She supposed it was the fact she was a billion-pound heiress, that people presumed she was used to expensive items and only valued those things that had a high material cost.
It wasn’t true, though. Skye had always shied away from ostentation and visible signs of wealth.
‘You don’t like it, do you?’ he asked quietly, his eyes reading every nuanced expression that crossed her face.
She lifted startled eyes to his. ‘I... It’s... It feels a little like a prison sentence now,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘That’s all.’
‘Now who’s the liar?’ he countered silkily, suspending the conversation when another waiter appeared.
‘Good afternoon, madam, sir. I... Oh! Scusa—mi dispiace! I’m so sorry! I’m interrupting a special moment. My apologies...’
‘It’s fine,’ Skye hastened to reassure him.
‘I go, I go. I give you time.’
Skye watched the man leave, perplexed, and then turned her attention to Matteo. He hadn’t moved. His attention was still on Skye’s face, watchful and attentive. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
She knew what he meant and didn’t bother to obfuscate. ‘You chose it,’ she said with a shrug. And now she lifted the ring out, holding it between her forefinger and thumb. ‘I used to love it for that reason alone.’
‘But it’s not what you would have chosen?’
‘I would never have wanted to choose my own ring.’ She fixed him with a determined gaze. ‘In hindsight, it should have told me how little you knew me.’
His lips twisted with mockery. Directed at her, or himself?
He reached across, retrieving the ring from her hands and sliding it back onto her ring finger. ‘Wear it until I arrange a replacement.’
Her blood bubbled and swirled. A replacement spoke of such permanence. And in the meantime?
She stared down at the enormous diamond—a diamond that had kept her company all the time she’d been married to Matteo, a diamond she had thought she would wear for ever, and felt a hint of disloyalty. ‘Perhaps we can have it turned into a pendant. If it’s a daughter, she can have it for her sixteenth birthday.’
His eyes held a sparkle she didn’t understand. ‘Certainly. Or we can sell it for our son’s first car.’
‘God, this is really happening, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, cara. It is.’
‘You seem so glad about that.’
He shrugged. ‘Having not planned it does not make the news less welcome.’
‘You didn’t want children.’
‘You are so sure of that?’
She nodded. ‘You said so.’
A frown pulled at his features. ‘You are twenty-two years old, Skye. I cannot think what I was doing at twenty-two, but it was not raising a child.’
‘You were running your business,’ she pointed out. ‘In fact, you had been doing so for several years.’
‘You remember so clearly.’