Free Dante's Stolen Wife by Day Leclaire

we’re meant to be together. Lazz has decided that you two have enough in common to make marriage a logical choice, but that’s not reasonable grounds for marriage.”
    “It’s more reasonable than the way you went about it,” she retorted. “Until last night, we’d been in each other’s company for a whole five minutes. And now you’ve locked us into this bogus marriage.”
    “It’s not bogus,” he corrected calmly. “My legal name is on the marriage license. The priest used it during the ceremony.”
    She stared in dismay. “He did?”
    He hesitated. “I might have distracted you about then. It’s possible you weren’t paying strict attention.”
    “Oh, Marco.” Satisfaction flared to life in his eyes, brought on, she suspected, by her use of his real name.
    “This isn’t going to work. You realize that, don’t you?”
    “You’re right.”
    She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again when his comment sank in. “I am?”
    “It’s not going to work if you’re unwilling to take a chance.”
    He wrapped his arms around her. She shuddered at the familiar feel of his arms, at the scent of the oils from their bath that still clung to his bare chest. More than anything she wanted to close her eyes and return to those magical hours they’d shared the previous night. To tumble into bed with this man and sleep, secure in the certainty that all was right with her world.
    Only it wasn’t. Not any longer.
    “I can’t stay married to you. I don’t know you.”
    “Yes, you do.” He settled a hand over her heart. “In here you know me better than anyone. Or do you think that’s not enough? That what we shared last night won’t last?”
    “It can’t. We’re strangers, Marco.”
    “We’re lovers , Caitlyn. And in time we’ll be friends and companions as well as lovers. In time we’ll learn each other’s secrets. We’ll fight on occasion and adjust to accommodate each other. We’ll talk and laugh. And all the while this bond we share, this Inferno, will bind us together until we think and feel as one. All you have to do is give our marriage a chance.”
    “You’re asking me to build a life with you based on fairy tales and wishful thinking. There’s no foundation here,” she said desperately. “Sex isn’t enough.”
    “We’ll create that foundation together over time.”
    “What about Lazz?”
    A change swept over him. Where before he’d been the ultimate charmer, now a toughness tautened muscle and sinew and struck like flint in his voice. “I’ll deal with Lazz.”
    “He didn’t do anything wrong,” she urged. “He was attracted to me, just as you were.”
    “Don’t.” He moderated his tone slightly. “Don’t defend him to me. What he did was carefully calculated. He knew I wanted you and deliberately intervened to keep us apart.”
    “I can’t believe it was deliberate, Marco.”
    “I won’t discuss this with you, Caitlyn. I just want your promise to keep your distance from now on.”
    “Because I’m yours now?” His silence said it all, and she fought free of his embrace. “You realize that’s going to be difficult since both Lazz and I work in finance? Our paths cross on a regular basis.”
    “I’ll take care of it.”
    That didn’t sound good. “You’ll take care of it…how?”
    But he simply shook his head. “He’s my brother, Caitlyn. My twin brother. He’s my problem from now on.”
    If she were smart, she’d put an end to things right now. Walk—hell, run—in the opposite direction. But memories of their hours together intruded. Of the picture-perfect wedding and a night unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. As much as logic and reason warned her to end things, irrational desire drew Caitlyn to Marco.
    As though sensing her weakness, he captured her hand in his and give a gentle tug. “Kiss me, Caitlyn. Just once. Kiss me—Marco—and not my brother.”
    She could read between the lines. He was asking for what amounted to a