A Ring for Vincenzo's Heir(12)

He tried to think of a way to reason with her. But as he looked into her  beautiful, anguished eyes, as he saw the tears streak down her cheeks,  he suddenly didn't want to argue. He just wanted to make it better.

Without a word, he pulled her into his arms. She fell against him, and  he wrapped her in his coat, stroking her hair and back, murmuring gentle  words until her sobs quieted and she was no longer shaking.   





 

"All right," Vin said softly. "We don't have to fly. I'll never make you  do anything you don't want to do. I'll always look out for you,  Scarlett. Always."

Nestled against his white button-up shirt, wrapped beneath the lapels of  his long black coat, Scarlett lifted her head with a ragged breath. She  looked so beautiful in the sunlight, he thought. Her tearful eyes shone  like emeralds.

She was vulnerable. It was the moment Vin should have pressed his  advantage, gotten her to acquiesce to his proposal, boxed her in.

Instead, he felt something twist in his heart. And instead of pouncing  on her weakness, forcing her to agree to his demands, he did what he'd  wanted to do since he'd first seen her standing in the New York  cathedral, her red hair tumbling over her shoulders, her green eyes  luminous and pleading beneath a beam of golden light.

Cupping her face in his hands, Vin lowered his head and kissed her.





CHAPTER FIVE

SHE HADN'T EXPECTED him to kiss her.

The world seemed to whirl around Scarlett, making her dizzy as Vin's  lips moved against hers. The kiss deepened, his mouth becoming hard and  demanding, as if she belonged to him, and he owned the right of  possession. He held her tight, her rounded belly and overflowing breasts  pressing against his taut stomach and the hard muscles of his chest. He  wrapped her in his warmth, protecting her from the wind, and she shook  as she felt a hot rough pulse of electricity course through her.

She'd forgotten what it was like to kiss him. She'd forced herself to  forget. But now, as she felt the tip of his tongue flick inside her  mouth, as she felt his hot mouth silky against hers, she clutched him  closer, never wanting to let him go. She couldn't. Not when every night  for eight and a half months, she'd ached for him, dreaming of the hot  night he'd ruthlessly taken her virginity, given her mind-blowing  pleasure and filled her with his child.

He'd made her feel wanted. Adored. Even...loved.

"I've wanted you so long," he whispered against her skin. Her heartbeat  tripled in her chest. "Say you'll marry me, Scarlett. Say it..."

"I'll marry you."

His handsome face lit up with joy and hope, and she realized what she'd just said. With an intake of breath, she met his eyes.

"Do you mean it?"

She saw in his dark eyes that he wanted her to marry him. Desperately. And she...

She wanted to be in his arms. She wanted her baby to have a father. She  wanted her child to be safe and loved and live in a comfortable home.  Was she a fool? Of course she wanted those things!

But only if their marriage could be real. If she and Vin actually cared for each other, they might have a chance at happiness...

Will you take a chance on me, if I take one with you?

Vin was willing to marry her without a prenuptial agreement. He was  taking the biggest risk. Was she willing to take a smaller one?

For the potential happiness-for all of them?

Yes.

"I'll marry you," she choked out and realized she was crying. She had no  idea why, until he pulled her into his arms and held her tight, and she  knew.

Vincenzo Borgia, so handsome and powerful, could have chosen any woman for his wife.

But he'd chosen her. Not only that, he was giving her incredible power  over his life. If he could be brave enough to do that, so would she.

She'd be brave enough to make the choice based on her hopes, not her fears...

"I'd never take advantage of your trust," she whispered.

"I know," he said with a private smile, then kissed her tenderly. "You've made me so happy."

"Me, too," she said, smiling through her tears.

"Let's marry as quickly as possible." He caressed her cheek. "But the  marriage laws are much stricter in Europe. My assistant says the  quickest options include Gibraltar and Denmark, but at your state of  pregnancy, I'm not sure you'd find a long car ride comfortable. I also  have to be in Rome in five days to close a business deal."

"What deal?"

"A controlling interest in Mediterranean Airlines. After I lost the deal  with Air Transatlantique so spectacularly a couple of weeks ago-" he  gave a wry smile "-I'm determined to get it. It's a closely held company  and the founder insisted on meeting with me before he'd sell his  shares."

"So let's get married in Rome."

He hesitated, then nodded. "It'll take a little longer to get married  there, with the required paperwork, but if we drive straight through, we  could be in Rome by late tonight. I think I even own a house there."

She gave an incredulous laugh. "You think you own a house? You're not sure?"   





 

A ghost of a smile traced the edges of his sensual lips. "I haven't been  back to my birth country for twenty years. I grew up in Rome, but-" his  lips twisted bitterly "-my memories aren't terribly happy there."

His voice was strained, and his jaw tightened in a way that suggested  she shouldn't ask any more questions. But Scarlett was dying to ask  them. It occurred to her that she knew very little about his past, or  what had driven him to become a self-made billionaire who was cynical at  the thought of love.

But before she could try to think of a way to formulate the question  that he might actually answer, Vin took her hand and led her across the  grass, back to the clinic's parking lot, where the bodyguards waited  with the cars.

As they walked, Scarlett glanced down at Vin's hand holding her smaller  one. Feeling the warmth of his rough palm against hers, skin on skin,  his fingers wrapped so possessively around hers, made her tremble as she  walked. Her lips still tingled from his kiss.

"Congratulate us." Vin brought her to the three hulking, scowling  bodyguards. "Scarlett has agreed to be my bride. We'll be married in a  few days."

The three bodyguards lifted up their mirrored sunglasses, and their  scowls gave way to bright smiles. They looked almost human as Vin  introduced each of them by name. Each man shook her hand, murmuring  congratulations. It was amazing how much less scary they suddenly  seemed. Scarlett couldn't help smiling back.

"You're on her protection detail now," Vin told them, "as much as mine."

The men snapped to attention. "We're on it, boss."

"Welcome to the family, Miss Ravenwood," the first bodyguard told her  with a big smile. Then the sunglasses snapped back, along with the  scowl. "We'll keep you safe."

"Thank you." She hid a smile. As if she needed protecting! What was she,  some politician or celebrity or something? But she was willing to play  along.

Vin opened the door of the red sports car for her, then spoke quietly to  the bodyguards before he climbed into the driver's seat beside her. He  started the engine with a low smooth roar.

To her surprise, he didn't drive back immediately to the expressway but  went the other direction, with the bodyguards following them in the SUV,  deeper into downtown Geneva. "Where are we going?"

Vin turned onto the exclusive Rue du Rhône. "You agreed to marry me."

"So?"

His eyes slanted sideways to her hand. "You need a ring."

An hour later, they'd left the elegant jewelry store and were crossing  into the French Alps, near Chamonix and Mont Blanc, en route to Italy.  The mountain scenery was breathtaking, but Scarlett couldn't take her  eyes off the biggest rock she'd ever seen: the ten-carat, emerald-cut,  platinum-set diamond now on her left hand.

As she moved her finger, the enormous diamond reflected sparkling prisms  of sunlight against her body, against her face, against the luxurious  interior of the car. Against the handsome, powerful man driving beside  her.

"I didn't need such a big diamond," she said for the tenth time.

He changed gears. "Of course you need it. You're going to be my wife. You must always have the best."

The ring was spectacular, but she felt briefly troubled. She would have  been fine with a plain gold band, but his desires had overridden hers.  What if her original fears were proven true-that he would attempt to  rule her life?

Calm down, it's just a ring, she told herself. And if she were truly  honest with herself, part of her was dazzled by the huge diamond,  over-the-top and impractical as it was. She tried not to think about how  much it had cost. More than she'd ever earn in a lifetime, that was for  sure.

The highway wound through mountains and tunnels as they headed south. As  they traveled, Vin kept asking if she was comfortable, if she'd like to  stop for a meal, for a break or just to stretch her legs and admire the  view.

Anxious to arrive in Rome so she could be done traveling and settle in,  she mostly refused, stopping only briefly at a truck stop near the  Italian border.