I couldn’t keep my mouth from curling up in cynical bemusement. ‘What do you require, then?’
‘Just a legal document saying I’m married.’ He took another sip of his espresso before resuming. ‘I’ll pay you a million euros up front and then two hundred and fifty thousand euros for every year we remain married. Your housing and all expenses will be provided, and we will never have to lay eyes on each other again.’
I shook my head slowly, unable to take it in. To take him in. Because he was so overwhelming, with his dark hair and steely eyes, his body made up of hard, powerful lines, each one emanating an authority I recognised even if I couldn’t begin to imagine it.
One million euros.
It was crazy. He was crazy. And yet he didn’t look crazy. He looked remarkably and alarmingly sane.
‘Why do you need to get married so badly?’ I asked in a shaky voice.
‘Because my grandfather requires it before I take control of his company—which is something I very much wish to do.’
The words were terse, but I saw the way his jaw clenched and his hands briefly curled into fists, and I knew there was a great deal more to that complicated relationship than I could ever know or guess.
Still, I wondered, why me?
‘Surely you have someone more suitable to ask.’
‘I don’t want someone “suitable”.’
He smiled at me rather grimly before draining his espresso.
‘I want someone unremarkable who will be glad for what I give her, not ask any awkward questions, and most of all stay out of my life, as well as out of the public eye.’
‘So you want a wife who doesn’t act like a wife?’
His smile gleamed white as he nodded his approval. ‘Exactly.’
‘I’m sure there are plenty of women who would accept the money you’re offering. You hardly needed to approach a stranger like me.’
I shook my head, still sensing a catch. Matteo was way out of my league. Why not ask some grasping socialite? Someone with status and privilege and beauty? Most people, I’d found, would do a lot for money.
Matteo leaned back in his chair, crossing one long, powerful leg over the other as he eyed me in consideration.
‘Possibly, but I’m in a rush, and I don’t want any complications with someone who might not view my offer with the gratitude I’d prefer.’ He gave me a quick, cool smile. ‘I’d like to keep my marriage quiet. I don’t want it to…hamper…any of my activities.’
It took a few seconds for his meaning to sink in. ‘You mean you don’t want it to affect your other relationships?’
‘I wouldn’t call them relationships,’ he answered with a quick, hard smile. ‘But, yes, you have grasped the essentials.’
In a flash I understood why he’d asked me—because I was clearly desperate and would be pathetically grateful for what he was offering. And I wouldn’t mind if he slept around while I stayed silent in the shadows.
I felt too tired to be stung, because of course he was right. I was desperate, as well as pathetic enough to be considering his offer seriously for the first time since he’d broached it. At least Matteo, unlike other people I’d met since moving to the city, was honest about his intentions.
‘So,’ I began slowly, ‘we get married and you go on your merry way? That’s it?’
‘Not quite. I need you to move to the island of Amanos, off the coast of Greece, where I have a villa. It’s a very pleasant place, and my home is exceedingly comfortable. You would want for nothing.’
That was quite a big addendum to this deal of his, and yet I had no ties to this city, much as I’d tried to make some. No ties anywhere. Still, I was cautious—and definitely cynical. I’d learned to be.
‘Why there?’ I asked.
He gave me the glimmer of a smile, but there was a warning in his eyes. ‘You are currently not meeting my second requirement.’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘Do you actually expect me to accept an offer such as yours, and move to a foreign country at that, without asking a few questions?’
Not that I was actually thinking of accepting it. At least not very much.
‘Very well, I will explain it in detail,’ he replied, leaning forward. ‘But in actuality it is really very simple.’
His silvery gaze pinned me to where I sat.
‘This will be a convenient marriage in name only—nothing more than a document to sign. No expectation of any relationship—physical, emotional, or otherwise. You will stay on Amanos so I know where you are, and can call on you if needed, but you will be out of the public eye. In a year—no more than two—the marriage will be annulled and you can go—how did you put it?—on your merry way, quite a bit richer.’
‘Call on me “if needed”? What does that mean?’
He shrugged impatiently, barely more than a twitch of his powerful shoulders. ‘I doubt it will be necessary.’
‘But…?’
‘In case my grandfather needs proof of some sort or wants to check on you…make sure I am indeed married. It is merely a precaution, that is all.’
And also a way for him to be in control, because I strongly suspected Matteo Dias was a man who needed to be in control of everything—including me. Something I resisted instinctively.
‘And in a year or two?’ I asked. ‘Why would you annul the marriage then?’
‘My grandfather has been diagnosed with cancer. He’s not been given very long to live.’
He spoke so coldly that I drew back a little.
Matteo bared his teeth in a grim smile. ‘As you are most likely able to surmise, we are not close.’
‘So you want me to marry you and then live on some remote island for a maximum of two years?’
Not that it sounded so bad right then. I was a breath away from being homeless as it was. And yet it would be a prison of sorts, and it meant giving this man all the power—two things I really didn’t like.
‘There could be worse things, surely?’
Of course there could. And yet…
‘Why should I trust you? I could agree and you could bundle me into the back of a van in the next second.’
Matteo’s eyes flashed with ire, as if he disliked being accused in such a way. ‘I could bundle you into the back of a van regardless of whether you agree or not. If you need some guarantees I shall put them in place.’
‘How?’
He shrugged. ‘Everything will be written in a legal contract and witnessed.’
I shook my head. ‘That’s not worth very much. How do I know I can trust you not to take advantage?’
His gaze raked me from head to toe. ‘Trust me, I will not take advantage.’
Ouch. My cheeks flushed and I focused my humiliated gaze on my coffee. Why was I even having this conversation?
‘But if it makes you feel better, everything can be done in public—the contract, the marriage itself, your transport. I’ll book a first-class ticket on a commercial airline.’
I hesitated, because it all sounded too good to be true, and I knew what that looked like. I knew what it felt like. Just the memory of Chris Dawson’s leering face and grasping hands was enough to turn my stomach and make me want to hang my head in shame. Surely I’d wised up since then? Realised that people spouted honeyed words and then watched you get stuck in them?
‘There must be some catch,’ I protested.
‘No catch.’
‘There’s always a catch.’
‘This time there isn’t.’
He placed one hand on my arm, making me jolt. A warm rush of longing swept through me, surprising me in its strength, because his touch was so clearly one of empathy rather than desire. I was smart enough to realise that this man did not think of me that way, and most likely never would—which was a good thing. That was a complication, not to mention a danger,
I most certainly didn’t need.
He gave me a smiling look of understanding and compassion, and its warmth strengthened that surge of longing in a way that made me feel deeply uneasy. It was one thing to be physically attracted to a man like Matteo Dias. That was inevitable. It was another matter entirely to connect with him emotionally—even for a second. Far, far too dangerous.
I pulled away and he dropped his hand.
‘I understand why you’d be concerned. You’ve had a bad experience recently, and it’s all too easy to be taken advantage of these days—especially when you are a young woman on your own. You are on your own?’
It was barely a question, and it grated that it was so obvious I had no one in my life—no boyfriend, no family, no friends, even. ‘Yes.’ I forced myself to give him a direct look. ‘How did you know?’
Matteo shrugged. ‘There is a…a loneliness about you. Like a mist.’
I looked away, hating the fact that my eyes were stinging at his surprisingly compassionate and yet brutally honest assessment. A loneliness like a mist? Yes, I felt that—cloaking me in its sadness even though I didn’t want to be sad. I’d always tried to see the sunny side of life, to be optimistic even when there was little reason to be so. Sometimes it felt like the only good thing I had, but too many experiences lately had robbed me of my hope. My joy. And now this…
‘So please,’ Matteo continued, ‘let me reassure you that this offer is entirely above board. I will draw up an agreement that will protect your rights as well as my own. If you come to the courthouse in an hour you can read and sign that agreement, and then I’ll deposit the money in your bank account and arrange your travel to Athens. I can have someone meet you there, or you can arrange your own travel, if that makes you feel safer. Let someone know where you are going if you need a safeguard. Whatever you want. You’ll be in control of everything, with zero risk.’
His mouth curved, his teeth flashing white as he read the name badge on my waitress uniform.
‘Trust me, Daisy, this is your lucky day.’
And so it was—although I felt more anxious than excited when I met him at the courthouse an hour later.
We went over the contract in painstaking detail, although the numbers and words all blurred in my mind.
‘Are you sure about this?’ Matteo asked me seriously.
Again that surprising compassion warmed his eyes, making me do the one thing I’d been sure, right up until that moment, I wouldn’t. I said yes.
Triumph blazed in his eyes then, and I wondered if I was crazy. Was I throwing my life away? My freedom and even my safety? I didn’t know this man.
And yet something about him, despite his hard ruthlessness and innate arrogance, made me trust him. Stupidly, because I’d already learned not to trust people, and yet some stubborn part of me still kept wanting to.
Besides, I told myself, as Matteo had said, I would be in control. I watched him wire the money to my bank account. I saw him book the first-class ticket to Athens. He did both just minutes after the marriage ceremony, which was so fast I could have blinked and missed it. We exchanged no rings. We didn’t even touch. It felt completely soulless, and yet it was legally binding.
Afterwards Matteo took my hands in his own, which were warm and dry and strangely comforting. He stared into my eyes, a smile curving his mouth, making him seem softer somehow. Kinder.
‘Thank you, Daisy,’ he said, and his voice was full of warmth.
Foolish me, my heart fluttered.
Foolish because the next words out of his mouth were, ‘Hopefully we’ll never have to see each other again.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘I STILL DON’T understand why you want an annulment.’
Daisy Campbell—no, Daisy Dias—had surprised me a few too many times this evening, and this surprise was the most unwelcome one of all. I’d given her everything she could possibly want. Why would she want to hand it all back? It was the last thing I expected. The last thing I wanted.
I married Daisy Campbell both to satisfy and to spite my grandfather, and it was so very sweet to experience both when I tossed the marriage certificate on Bastian Arides’s desk and informed him of my new status.
‘You made a condition and it has now been met.’
‘And your wife?’ he asked, looking stunned by my bloodless coup.
I laughed as I told him the truth. ‘A dumpy nobody of a waitress I picked up from a diner in New York. She’s currently residing on Amanos, in case you feel the need to check.’
Bastian’s mouth dropped open; he’d expected me to marry some suitable socialite he could add to the family pedigree—some way, perhaps, to justify my place in his life, bastard grandson that I was. Little did he know me. Little did he realise how deep my need for vengeance, for justice ran.
‘I think you’ll find I’ve won, old man,’ I said as I strolled out of his office. ‘The condition you made to the board has been met in full.’
Bastian shook his head, his expression one of both defeat and fury. ‘That is not what I meant, Matteo, and you know it.’
‘Too bad you weren’t more specific, then.’
The clause in the agreement to transfer his shares to me had been clear—marry, and stay married, in order to get his shares and sixty percent of the stock in Arides Enterprises, and therefore complete control of the company. The board had agreed; everyone had signed. And I’d done what he asked.
I had what I wanted and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. I was now in control of Arides Enterprises—the company his father had built from scratch, the company he’d wanted to hand on to his legitimate grandson, Andreas.
But of course that was impossible. Instead he’d had to hand it to me, his only heir and the only person in the company capable of running a multimillion-dollar enterprise. The person who had taken the lagging sales and outdated practices and dragged them into the twenty-first century—and into the black.
Now, as I looked at my so-called dumpy waitress of a wife, I realised she was neither. She sparkled—and it wasn’t just the dress. Her eyes glittered like topaz, her cheeks were flushed and her chest heaved. Everything about her seemed alive and shockingly vibrant. Desirable. How extraordinary. How unexpected. It made me pause, my mind reviewing everything she’d said.
‘I told you—I want a chance at a real marriage,’ she insisted. ‘A family.’
‘A family? The biological clock is ticking, I suppose?’
She folded her arms, her expression turning mutinous. ‘Something like that.’
I could give her a baby.
It was a novel thought, and admittedly not entirely unwelcome. Yes, I needed an heir…eventually. It was something I’d postponed, put off to the misty, distant future because it hadn’t felt urgent or necessary. And yet…I was thirty-six. The lifestyle I’d been living was starting to lose its appeal—at least a little. And I was already married.
Why would I want to bother with the hassle of courting some other woman when I had one right here? One I was, much to my own surprise, finding desirable?
Still, this would take some thought. Some planning. The last thing I wanted to do was rush into a lifetime commitment with someone who was still essentially a stranger.
And yet…Daisy was biddable. Acceptable. And she’d already agreed to a marriage of convenience. Why not a marriage that was convenient on slightly different terms?
‘You’re still young,’ I remarked. ‘Another year wouldn’t make much difference to your plans.’ Although for some reason the prospect my words implied irritated me.
‘And is that how long it would be?’ she countered. ‘A few months ago I read in the paper that your grandfather is celebrating his unexpected all-clear from cancer.’ Her lips twisted. ‘Something I doubt you expected.’
Damn those nosy tabloids. ‘I’m pleased he’s had such s
uccessful treatment, of course,’ I answered levelly.
He’d been declared in remission, rather than in the clear, but I wasn’t going to debate the point. The truth was he’d lasted longer than anyone had expected—myself most of all.
‘And you need to remain married for as long as he’s alive, as I recall?’
Her golden-brown eyes met mine in challenge and held me there.
‘Did you ever plan to inform me that the duration of our marriage was going to be a bit longer than you had said?’
‘I assumed you were satisfied with the arrangement,’ I stated coolly.
‘You assumed wrong.’
Her voice was as cool as my own. When had she developed such confidence? Such poise? The woman I remembered from the diner had been beaten down by life, as well as frightened of its possibilities. I’d chosen her for exactly those reasons. And while, judging by her dress, Daisy might still need to develop some sense of style, she had plenty of courage.
I felt a flicker of admiration for her, and promptly suppressed it.
‘Why not wait another year?’ I pressed. ‘I doubt it will be longer than that. Then you won’t have to give back the money. You’re giving up a lot, Daisy, and for what? A chance at something that might not even happen?’
Hurt flashed in her eyes as her chin went up. ‘Thanks a lot.’
‘There’s no one at the moment, is there?’ I reminded her, thinking that she had better not be lying to me about that. ‘And you said you intend to stay on Amanos. Do you really think you’re going to find Mr Right there?’
‘I have better chance of doing so if I’m not married to Mr Wrong,’ she retorted. ‘Although perhaps I’ll just act as if the marriage has been annulled if you refuse to agree it.’
Fury surged through me along with something else—something hot and molten and fierce. Although I suspected her words were nothing but an empty threat, they still had the power to enrage me.
‘You will not go down that forsaken route,’ I ground out. ‘Is that clear?’
She shrugged, the movement of her slender shoulders tautening the material across her breasts.
The Sicilian's Surprise Love-Child / Claiming My Bride Of Convenience: The Sicilian's Surprise Love-Child / Claiming My Bride of Convenience (Mills & Boon Modern) Page 18
