‘You let me go now and this is what will happen. I want children. Your children, specifically.’
His eyes glittered.
‘But if you won’t do the job then I’ll have to find someone who will, and I’ll do it. For San Nicolo. I’m still Head of State and my people need an heir.’
He stared down his nose at her, but his eyes flashed.
‘That means there’ll have to be a man in my life. Allowed to put his hands on me. Imagine that for a moment, Leo. Seb just took my arm in platonic friendship and I know you couldn’t handle it. You looked positively murderous back there.’
That muscle in his jaw was working overtime. ‘You can even see my standard from your castle. You’ll know when I’m home, with my husband, and what we’ll be doing in bed together, night after night.’ She pushed her face into his. ‘Until I’m pregnant.’
‘Violetta,’ he warned. ‘Stop this.’
‘He’ll hold me, kiss me, touch every intimate inch of me. You know how I like to be touched, don’t you, Leo?’ she purred.
He was utterly still, rigid but for the tic of a muscle in his jaw.
‘So let me ask you. What frightens you more? How you feel now or how you’d feel then?’
‘Violetta.’ It was part anger, part desperation and wrenched from the depths of him as if he’d been gutted and left to bleed.
‘Bothers you, doesn’t it? That image.’
She reached up to stroke a lapel. His big frame shuddered beneath her touch. As if she’d run her fingers over naked skin, not finely tailored satin.
She was getting to him and she wouldn’t spare him a single detail. She’d make him admit how he felt. She was done with letting him hide away.
‘And when there’s a baby, Leo, an heir, a little boy or girl. What will you feel then?’
‘Violetta.’ His voice dropped to the barest whisper. ‘Please stop.’
‘No, Leo. I won’t. Not until you give me a damn good reason why we can’t be together. We so obviously love each other, and don’t even bother trying to deny it.’
He couldn’t help himself. He reached out to lightly touch the brooch in her hair.
‘You wear this all the time.’
Eyes dark and compelling as midnight gazed up at him, filled with all the emotions he was trying so hard to suppress in himself. ‘You must know why?’
He let out a long, slow, shuddering breath. ‘You’re trying to tell me you still love me.’
‘Yes.’ So sure, so utterly certain. How he envied her that.
‘But what if we can’t make it work? What if our duties get in the way?’
‘Leo, I’ve just saved my country from financial ruin. You’ve just rebuilt yours after Mother Nature did her worst. Compared to all that, co-ordinating two schedules will be a breeze.’
She made it sound so simple. But there was more to this than that.
‘What if I can’t make you happy? What if I’m too broken to love you back?’ It was a dark confession.
‘Are you?’ Her hands settled flat against his jacket and the comfort of a honeyed warmth spread through him. ‘You feel pretty whole to me.’
She placed an ear to his chest. She’d easily hear his heartbeat. It was pounding so hard anyone within ten metres would be able to hear it.
‘Yup, all sounds fine and dandy. Nothing broken in there.’
‘I drove my mother away because I didn’t love her enough. It was my fault she left.’ He could hear Leo the boy in that statement, but it was time for honesty and there was, after all this time, a part of him that believed it.