The Marriage Clause. Alexx Andria

Donato family, but then, I was only a kid. Who cared what my feelings were, right?”

      I knew Katherine had as strained a relationship with her father as I had with mine, but unlike me, Katherine seemed uninterested in gaining her father’s approval.

      Resolve shone in her eyes, and I understood the hard line she was willing to draw to be free of anything remotely connected to the Donato name.

      Her demand was like a punch to the gut. I’d never expected her to go that far. I could give her the world on a silver platter if she’d only let me, but no, she wanted fucking out.

      “You’re willing to go that far to satisfy a bruised ego?”

      She shook her head, obviously seeing things differently than me. “You’ll never understand, Luca. That, above all else, is why I can’t marry you. When people show their true colors, it’s best to believe them. And I don’t like your colors.”

      My mother would fall over in a perfumed faint if a scandal of this proportion reached her little social circle. My father would lose his temper and bring all the attorneys under our employ down on Katherine’s head for breach of contract. He would ruin her. She had no idea the fire she was playing with.

      I’d done this.

      I’d turned a sweet, loving girl into a Donato-hating shrew who found me to be the devil.

      I couldn’t let Katherine’s broken heart ruin our second chance before we even got started.

      It would be ugly.

      That blue-eyed gaze slivered, sending spikes through my heart as it raced. In business I was known as a boardroom shark. I could sense the tiniest drop of blood before my opponent even knew he was in trouble. Nothing scared me.

      Except the thought of losing Katherine for good.

      “Give me a week to change your mind,” I proposed, my gaze pinning hers, willing her to agree to my deal. I needed this to work. “If by the end of the week, you still want to be free...I’ll do what I need to release you from your obligations to the Donato family without penalty, as long as you promise to keep the details of our contract confidential.”

      Katherine stared with suspicion, clearly believing my offer was pure crap. “You’re lying. I don’t believe for a second that your family would walk away from an investment.”

      She was right, but I planned to win, so the consequence of failure was a nonissue. However, I couldn’t exactly say that without sounding like an arrogant ass. Instead, I said, “This isn’t about an investment—it’s about me and you. Give me a chance to change your mind.”

      “I’m serious, Luca. I don’t want to marry you.”

      “You’ve made yourself perfectly clear.”

      “Then let’s skip the experiment and just call it done. You go your way, I’ll go mine.”

      Never. “If you’re so sure your feelings won’t change, where’s the harm in letting me spin my wheels?” While she considered my point, I pressed my agenda, saying, “Give me one week,” because I wasn’t going to stop until she agreed.

      The fact was, I loved her. I didn’t want anyone but Katherine.

      Now it was up to me to remind her why, once upon a time, she’d loved me, too.

       CHAPTER TWO

      Katherine

      WAS LUCA ACTUALLY offering me a way out of my contract? Was it that simple? Agree to spend a week with him and at the end he’d let me go?

      Offering the deal went against Luca’s nature—he was hardwired to go after the win, no matter the cost.

      In business, he was ruthless and vicious. His reputation in certain circles was downright scary, and yet he was offering me an opportunity to walk, free and clear.

      My belly trembled at the implication, even as there was the tiniest sliver of hesitation that perhaps I didn’t want to be free.

      Of course I wanted to be free. Why else would I have made such a bold move to get away from the Donato family?

      Because maybe you wanted him to know heartbreak, too?

      I shoved aside that annoying voice that seemed to whisper in my ear at the worst moments. I felt nothing for Luca but contempt. I wasn’t going to hitch myself to someone I couldn’t imagine looking at from across the dining table without wanting to throw the saltshaker at his head.

      But even more so, I couldn’t give my heart to someone I couldn’t trust. Giovanni had taught his sons that fidelity was expected of their wives but was not necessary for men. The more I’d gotten to know Giovanni, the more I knew I wanted nothing to do with his family.

      Especially after Luca had proved he was nothing more than a chip off Giovanni’s block.

      But I knew that if I didn’t at least give Luca the appearance of having a shot at winning me back, he’d never give up, and I didn’t look forward to the idea of Luca chasing me from state to state.

      “What would this week together entail?” I asked warily. I knew without his admitting it that he, no doubt, thought if he could get me into bed, I’d melt like chocolate in his hands and stumble over my own feet just to walk down the aisle with him. Not fucking likely. The sex had been good—but had it been freedom good? Yes. I couldn’t even begin to delude myself into thinking otherwise. Sex had been the one thing between us that had worked spectacularly. So the answer was obvious—avoid anything that put our naked bodies in close proximity. A slow smile followed as I tacked on slyly, “What if I said there would be no sex between us?”

      He shocked me with an easy shrug, saying, “Then there’s no sex.”

      Yeah, right. I barked a short laugh. “I don’t believe you.” Luca needed sex the way the human body needed air.

      “You have trust issues, Katherine,” he admonished, as if I didn’t already know he was a man slut who fucked anything that walked. “It’s an unattractive trait in a woman.”

      “If I do, I do because of you.”

      He exhaled, the subtle twitch in his jaw the only indication of his irritation, but Luca did his best to seem reflective. “I’ve made mistakes. I was young.”

      “If that’s your idea of an apology, you suck,” I said.

      Donatos didn’t apologize. Every action was deliberate, good or bad. From Luca’s viewpoint, he had nothing to apologize for. I could already hear his argument. Was it his fault that I’d given him my heart before he was ready? Was it his fault that I hadn’t been able to go with him to that stupid yacht party? In Luca’s mind, I’m sure the blame for his mistake landed squarely on my shoulders.

      Since our breakup, I’d had time to figure out who I was and what I wanted in my life without Luca’s blinding influence clouding my judgment.

      “It’s true, I probably do,” Luca conceded with a modicum of humility that momentarily shocked me. “I can’t say I’ve had a lot of practice, but believe me when I say I’m sorry for hurting you.”

      I didn’t want a life with a man who couldn’t take responsibility for his fuckups—and offering a blithe semiapology years later didn’t count.

      Where was his apology when it’d happened? When I was broken into pieces, sobbing my heart out, utterly betrayed? My lips pressed together to keep from venting all the frustration that he wouldn’t listen to years ago from vomiting out. Why couldn’t I let it go? Whatever had happened had happened years ago. Live in the now, not the past, as Alana liked to say airily, because she didn’t give two shits about anything deeper than when the newest Prada bag was dropping.

      But I wasn’t that way. Okay, sue me—I hold grudges. Deep ones.