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Her heart was pounding.
Theo had insisted on replacing the line in the prenup that she’d tried to cross out. They’d both signed the original version, which listed financial penalties for adultery—by either party. In spite of her weak protests, he’d seemed utterly confident that he’d soon be able to seduce her.
Emmie shivered, fearing he was right. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep him from her bed, or even if she should, when she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her. Even now, just looking at him, her body was fire. She didn’t realize she’d licked her lips until she tasted lipstick.
She wanted him.
She always had, from the day they’d met at Honora and Nico’s wedding years before, Emmie as maid of honor, Theo the best man. Even though he was a handsome billionaire playboy, and she’d been a chubby, working-class nobody, not remotely pretty or interesting. She’d still wanted him. Desperately. She’d hidden her longing with barbed insults for years.
Now Theo was going to be hers.
No. He’d already been hers, though she had not known it. He’d had no other lover since the night they’d conceived their baby.
He’d had no reason to be faithful. They’d never officially been a couple. Why would a playboy be faithful to a one-night stand?
And yet he had. He’d wanted only her.
Knowing that, how could Emmie resist?
“You’re practical,” he’d told her. “Modern. You don’t do feelings. You’re like me.”
She wished he was right. That she could simply enjoy sex with her husband, without letting her heart get in the way.
But that wasn’t her, and she knew it. She had to resist.Had to.Because if she succumbed to her desire, there would be nothing to keep her from falling in love with him all over again. Even though she knew her husband would never, ever love her back.
And she’d be lost...
As they reached the pergola, her father transferred her hand to Theo’s, and he kept his large hand wrapped reverently around hers. Emmie looked up at the soft flicker of light playing across her bridegroom’s rugged face from the columns of tall white candles.
The vows were spoken. A plain gold band for him, a thin platinum band matching the diamond engagement ring for her. There was nothing religious in the judge’s words, and yet this moment held a breathless hush to Emmie as they were united, their lives tied together forever.
Then the judge grinned. “You may kiss the bride.”
As the guests standing around them applauded and cheered on the terrace, their noise echoing out into the warm summer night in this sparkling city, Theo lowered his head and kissed her.
And as his lips touched hers, Emmie trembled and was suddenly scared she was already lost.
It was over. He’d done it. They weremarried.
There was no getting out of it now.
As Theo pulled away from the brief kiss, after the judge proclaimed them husband and wife, he looked down at his new bride amid the applause.
Emmie’s eyes were luminous, glowing brighter than the candles around them, brighter than the city lights or stars in the darkness above. But he saw something in her expression. Some private grief, some agonized question.
And he felt something tighten painfully in his chest.
“Congratulations, man,” Nico said, clapping him on the shoulder. His best man had been a rock through this. That very morning, when Theo had returned to the penthouse at dawn after finding reasons to stay at the office all night, he’d felt cold and clammy and wondered if he was coming down with something.
Fear. He’d been coming down with fear.
Emmie, of course, had no idea of his surfaced doubts. He’d known he couldn’t tell her. Their union was already on shaky-enough ground, without him sharing, just hours before their wedding, that he felt sick to the soul at the promise he was about to make.
To love and cherish forever? What was he thinking? No one could promise that. Life was hard and uncertain.
And fidelity? It had been easy to be faithful to her for the last seven months. He hadn’t even wanted another woman. But how could he promise that he’d never feel differently? What if he did?
What if Emmie did? What if she—
