Trapped Into Marriage (23 page)

“So, how did it happen? How did you get to remember everything?” he asked with a weary sigh.

Keyonna shrugged, hugging her arms to herself. “Nothing fantastic, I’m afraid. I simply took one look at Trisha and suddenly, it just…clicked.”

“Trisha?”

Keyonna turned to view Nick’s confused frown. “Mark’s cousin – well, adopted cousin. You might have heard that Marilyn Tucker, Mark’s aunt, has an adopted daughter. Well, like you once did, she believed I’d treated Mark unfairly. Anyway, she was the one who fed me stories about your one time involvement with your stepmother.”

And quelling her inner distaste for the topic, Keyonna related everything Trisha had told her, and how she’d followed him and his stepmother and found them alone together.

“It wasn’t just the things you said,” Keyonna said, shoulders hunched as her arms tightened around her shivering frame. “But the way you said them. Like I was nothing to you. Like I didn’t matter at all. Back then, I was stupid enough to think I could love you for both of us. I’d begun to nurse feelings for you despite the fact that you’d blackmailed me into being your wife for a year. I kept telling myself I could make you care. But that day I realized that I couldn’t bear the thought that you married me but loved someone else.”

“Oh God, Keyonna,” Nick groaned, stepping forward as if to come to her, but she backed away, and this made him pause as he flinched.

Sighing raggedly, he pushed fingers back through his ruffled hair. “It’s true that when I was younger, I believed myself infatuated with Lena. We lived in the same house, saw each other every day. She was married to my father but was closer to me in age and I was at that point in my life that I really hated my father and didn’t care about going against him. I was so sure Lena felt the same for me but she was much too good at withholding her feelings. I told her to run off with me but she bluntly refused, claiming not to want to come between my father and me. Devastated, I left home, determined to make it on my own. But a few years ago my father reached out to me, saying he was ill and didn’t have much time. I never knew if he’d guessed what had almost happened between Lena and me, and frankly I didn’t care because my feelings for her had long died. I was ready to put it all behind me if my father would. We were never close, him and I, but we grew to have a grudging respect for each other and when he died, I did feel the loss very strongly for a man who never tried to know his son like a father should.”

Nick turned away for a moment, shoulders rigid. “One thing I never did put behind me though, was Lena’s rejection. It made me cynical about love and about women. I always believed she’d stayed with my father because of his money and power, and wasn’t going to give that up for any short-lived passion she said was all we’d ever have. Anyway, I had no wish to ever fall in love; romance or a woman’s affection meant nothing to me. That’s why Rachel suited me just fine. She didn’t pretend to love me. We had an understanding; we knew the score. She didn’t care that I could never give her the true intimate passion a man can provide a woman he truly cares for.”

He moved forward once more, and this time didn’t stop until he was right before her. Keyonna edged back against the wall, though her eyes were mesmerized by the dark flames swelling in his gaze.

“That’s why I was such a jerk to you at that party when I overheard you turning Mark down. It was like watching a re-hash of what had happened between me and Lena. To me you were just like those opportunistic females always holding out for something better. Dumb, isn’t it? What made it worse was how attracted I’d been with you from day one. I was so torn that I couldn’t stop myself from sticking my neck in. But I’m glad I did because it gave me the excuse I needed to get close to you.”

He cupped her face, his hold firm so that she had no choice but to look up into his smoldering gaze. “And the things I said to Lena in that garden…the stuff you must have overhead…
Cara
, that was just big talk, don’t you see? My feelings for you were still too raw to confess to anyone, and certainly not to my stepmother. I didn’t want to risk her laughing in my face for being such a softie. But it was that stupid pride of mine that sent you away from me. When I said those things, I didn’t mean them and I certainly didn’t mean for you to hear me say them.”

He rubbed his thumbs against her cheeks, his eyes soft with a stirring plea. “You believe me, don’t you?”

Keyonna’s gaze fell. “I don’t know what to believe. It all sounded so real. I felt empty and…and used. I kept thinking how I never really felt good enough. That you picked me just because I was gullible and easily bent to your will. I just felt…I wanted to die. And when you kissed her…”

Nick let out a dismayed sound. “Keyonna, she kissed me. And short of throwing her off me, I tried to endure it. If you’d waited long enough, you’d have seen me wrench myself away from her. Afterwards she called the kiss a ‘congratulatory gesture’ now that my marriage had earned me my ‘fortune’. Little had I known she’d set up the whole display for your benefit. And when I got back to the reception and you were nowhere to be found, I almost went berserk. I couldn’t believe you could just get up and leave without a word.”

“It was childish of me, I know,” Keyonna breathed, her gaze sinking low. “I guess I’d always been escapist; preferring to run and hide than stay and fight. But I wish I had. I wish I’d given you the chance to explain. And now…”

“And now what?” he asked, and Keyonna could tell he was striving to keep the anxiety from his tone.

“And now I know you do love me,” Keyonna said at last, gazing up into his eyes at last. “Maybe not at first, but I guess you let yourself grow into the idea that maybe you do care for me after all.”

She smiled impishly, and Nick suddenly hugged her in relief, his grip so hard it made her squeal. “Care for you? You are
la vita mia
, Keyonna. My life. I knew the potentials of what we could share. That’s why I made you think we needed to be married for a year, which wasn’t true. All I required was the marriage certificate to make it valid. But I needed an excuse to make sure you stayed as long as it took until we could discover how deep this could go between us. Now just to keep you I’d give up everything, even the stupid billions that got us together.”

“I wouldn’t call the Vitale fortune ‘stupid billions’,” Keyonna murmured teasingly. “At least, it made you desperate enough to marry someone like me.”

Her eyes twinkled up at him, referring to that first night they’d clashed on the balcony and he’d told her exactly what he’d thought of any man falling for ‘someone like her’.

“It made me the luckiest guy alive,” Nick said soberly, and as he bent his head to slant his lips over hers in an open-mouthed kiss, words faded as he let his heart do the talking…

Epilogue

Oh
hell no.

Nicky did not forget today was their wedding anniversary.

Half-smiling as she thought of her chosen pet name for Nick, Keyonna was also frowning as she checked the time while stirring furiously on the different pots on the stove.

She heaved a sigh just glad that the kids were with her best pal Natasha, who had one toddler of her own with her utterly adorable husband Hurley who also happened to be her publisher. Natasha had stopped working with the magazine, and had left celeb gossip to focus on her writing career. Now she wrote fictional novels about the rich and glamorous, and her books were selling out stores and making all the top ten lists. Keyonna was really happy for her.

Not that Keyonna was doing bad herself. Yes she had a billionaire husband but she was proud to have her own career. Thanks to her daring investment moves, in two years she was more or less raking in the millions and now she could pick the design jobs she wanted to do. These days many of her clients were A-list celebrities – and when she could spare a minute off taking care of her three and four year-old sons, she was either creating a home office for a talk show host, a guest bedroom for a supermodel or a nursery for a rock band bass guitarist.

So yeah, her life was pretty much perfect. She had a wonderful career, marvelous kids she adored and a husband she loved but would skin alive if he forgot to come home on time for their anniversary…

Keyonna resisted the urge to ring Nick’s cell, knowing he might probably be on his private plane getting back. She hoped. His business trip had taken longer than either of them had expected – almost two weeks. In the past week she’d restrained from mentioning anything about the anniversary. Part of her wanted to think he was deliberately keeping mum about it too, as a surprise – but another part of her was scared he’d completely forgot.

Which meant she was taking a big risk for not bringing it up this morning to remind him when they’d spoken for a few minutes.

“I miss you,
piccino
,” he’d said deeply, and Keyonna could remember how she’d squirmed in her covers since she’d still been in bed when he’d called early that morning. She wondered why he continued to call her that pet name ‘tiny one’ when Keyonna felt anything
but
right then.

Thinking about that, Keyonna suddenly paused in front of the reflective door of the refrigerator and viewed her figure from different angles. Yep, she was as huge as a house, especially with baby number three in the oven.

“And I miss little Nando and Gio. And baby Aida,” Nick had added, and Keyonna had rolled her eyes. Ever since Nick knew they were having a girl, he’d been over the moon, already had the name set and Keyonna just went with it because well okay, it was great to see him so happy.

“We all miss you, Nicky,” Keyonna crooned, hiding a giggle. If any of his he-men cousins or tough business associates and competitors had a clue what Nick let her get away with calling him…But it felt so sexy that she could get so irreverent with her big, hunky business magnate husband. And hey, she let him get away with calling her ‘tiny’ and ‘flea’ all the time in Italian – though those names sounded nice when he said them in that delightful native tongue.

There’d been a whole lot of soul, sweat and tears she’d put in this marriage but the best part of it was being validated every single day by her loving man. He didn’t see their differences and it never mattered to Keyonna how the world perceived them. No one ever thought they’d last this long but here they were, five years on and still going strong.

Keyonna stared one more time at her reflection and tried not to cry for the figure she’d lost and might not get back in a hurry. Her tits were humungous and it felt like she was carrying a barrel beneath her jersey wrap dress.

Oh shit, she thought, suddenly panicking. Was she ever going to be sexy again? How could Nick even stand to look at her now? She’d always been dedicated in shedding her pregnancy-gain with her last two babies. But it was almost three years since Gio, and with this pregnancy she seemed to have doubled in size. From the start Nick had been supportive and told her she was still the most beautiful woman in the world especially with carrying his babies. But now, checking herself out Keyonna couldn’t help feeling a pang of glumness.

He always told her she had that
glow;
that special beauty of imminent childbirth that expectant mothers have.

Keyonna knew enough about the things that came with imminent childbirth. It made you hungry, horny and fat. In the past two weeks since Nick was gone she’d given in to her food cravings as much as she could without pigging out, but when it came to her bedroom needs, nothing could ever do but her devastatingly capable husband giving her the lovin’ her body deserved.

So where was he, Keyonna thought, biting on her thumbnail as she thought of all that food keeping in the oven and the cooler. The gourmet and soul food plus his favorite Mediterranean salads and their best wine – for him since she couldn’t have alcohol. Everything was set up right to the candlelight for the dinner and the rose petals on the sheets in the bedroom.

They’d never had a real honeymoon night, thanks to Keyonna running out on him during their wedding reception. So the anniversary of their wedding date always held special value as they always made sure they were together. They always tried to make it special, no matter the location they chose to be at.

Nick’s many business concerns lately had him traveling from home more than usual and Keyonna was in no condition to be jetting around with him as she sometimes did. The boys always had willing babysitters in Keyonna’s parents or friends. Keyonna knew she was lucky to have so much support from everyone and even on Nick’s side of the family, she could count on a few cousins and aunts who adored spending time with their little nephews.

Keyonna rubbed her six month pregnant tummy and felt the baby move. She checked the time and it was already a few minutes past seven p.m. Nick wasn’t coming. She just knew it. Something must have held him up. All those Asian oil deals he was into now. Big-time pipeline contracts. Keyonna understood he needed to keep the Vitale fortune going but did he really need to work all through the most special day of the year in their marriage?

Why would he even want to come home to this? She thought with anger at herself as she looked down at her figure for another unflattering perusal. He was still getting supermodels and actresses flinging themselves at him even now that he was a married man with kids.

Shit shit shit! Keyonna thought as her eyes filled with emotional tears. Not again. She told herself a long time ago she wouldn’t give herself a headache wondering about any of the hot women who could possibly be trying to tempt her husband away from his wife and kids. Nick was a real family man; he wouldn’t let anything or anyone mess with his commitment to his flesh and blood, right?