Page 40 of Marry Me Not
“Sauna. I have one at my house. I use it a few times a week.”
Slight color appeared in her cheeks. “Huh. Didn’t expect that. You seem more of an ice-bath kind of guy.”
I cocked a brow. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You strike me as someone who’d glorify discomfort and call his ability to withstand it a virtue.”
I hid my surprise. She…was correct. Comfort meant complacency, and in my world, complacency got you killed.
I also did, in fact, have an ice bath next to the sauna, but I wasn’t about to volunteer that information.
“Let me guess,” I said, “you relax with candlelit massages and love to read by the fireplace.”
“I do like to read,” she admitted. “But I'm not a big fan of massages. I’m too ticklish.”
An image of her lying topless on a massage table flashed in my head, sending a jolt to my cock. I cleared my throat. “I think that’s enough personal trivia for one day. Let’s talk about the wedding. I want to move it up to three weeks from now.”
Fabiana’s eyes all but fell out of her head. “That’s impossible. We won’t be ready.”
“Nothing is impossible.”
“I mean the venue?—”
“If the venue is the problem, give me their number, and I’ll make sure they stop being a problem.”
“The band?—”
“Cut the band. Cut whatever you need to. The celebration can’t be what we planned before my father died. We’ll be getting married during the mourning period.”
Fabiana looked flustered. “Okay. I’ll have to talk to your mom about the changes.”
I shook my head. “No. This is between you and the planner. My mother isn’t contributing to the planning anymore. She’s grieving, and this is the last thing she needs to be doing right now.”
Fabiana didn’t know Mother was competing with me for the succession. Shecouldn’tknow. Vita hadn’t informed anyone of her ambitions besides me and my brothers. I had a feeling she was waiting to reveal them at a moment that would best serve her, but I gained nothing from exposing her early. The longer I could operate as Dad’s assumed successor and rally the capos around me, the better off I’d be.
After that dinner, after I’d learned that Nettle was genuine, I trusted her…to an extent. But a piece of information this sensitive? There was no need for her to know it.
Fabiana frowned. “But she’s been the final decision maker on everything up until now.”
“You’re an event planner, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I’ve never planned a wedding.”
“I have complete faith in your ability to handle this.”
She seemed startled. “You do?”
“Sure. The event you threw for Messero was well done, despite the questionable art. Talk to the planner and come to me if you need any help. But it needs to happen three weeks from now.”
She swiped her palms back and forth over her thighs. “Okay. Right.” She blew out a breath and sat up straighter, as if rallying herself. The anxious look in her eyes gave way to determination. “Could we maybe look at the agenda together now? Just so that we can agree on what we’re keeping.”
“Fine.”
“Can you pull it up on your computer? I think you’re on the email chain.”
While I clicked through my inbox, she came around my desk to look at the screen. She stood beside me, and the scents of lemon and lavender hovered at the edge of my attention.
“Here,” I said, opening the attached file.
