damned job,’ Nicole said quickly, before moving a hand to her mouth with instant regret.
Rigo sat forward, pressing a button on the digital recorder swiftly. ‘I think we need to take a break.’ He stood, gesturing for Nicole to follow him.
The woman—Diane—spoke quickly. ‘Oh, no, I am here to do my job after all. So as a matter of interest for the article, does your fiancé know the kind of family he’s marrying into?’
‘Diane...’ Nicole shook her head sadly, a bleak look in her eyes.
‘This is not proper conduct when in the home of your subjects.’ Rigo walked towards Diane, using his height to appear imposing towards the woman.
‘I just thought that you might want to know a few things about your wonderful bride-to-be. Like the fact that she and her mother are the most slippery creatures to walk this planet.’
‘You have personal experience with my fiancée that gives you this opinion?’ Rigo asked.
Diane spluttered at his challenge. ‘Her mother is a witch, a horrible—’
‘Goldie Duvalle is not in this room, and I would like to know why you are attacking her daughter—unless you have some personal reason.’
The woman froze, her mouth opening and closing twice in quick succession.
‘That’s what I thought.’ Rigo shook his head, looking down at his designer watch. ‘I don’t have any more time for this. Leave now. All of you. You’ve got what you came for.’
Nicole sat completely still, with her shoulders down so far he thought she might be trying to disappear into the settee. As the magazine crew packed up their things and filed out into the hall, the interviewer looked pointedly at Nicole one last time.
‘Oh, and, Diane, was it?’ Rigo said darkly. ‘I’d expect a call from your superiors this afternoon if I were you. You’ll want to start job-hunting.’
‘You people think you run the world!’ she said angrily as Rigo herded her out through the door. He closed it with a resounding snap as she continued to curse him from the other side.
Rigo looked down at his fiancée, his gut tightening as he noticed her pale face. He refilled her glass of lemon water, offering it to her.
She took a sip, looking away from him towards the windows. ‘I didn’t know it would be her doing the interview.’
‘I take it from that display of hostility that you are previously acquainted?’
‘Yes. You could say that.’ Nicole shook her head sadly. ‘The man my mother is currently getting a divorce from is Diane’s seventy-year-old father.’
NICOLE FELT THE tension in her temples rise to breaking point. ‘That’s the third time she has confronted me like that and I still never know what to say to her.’
‘Why would you say anything at all?’ Rigo shrugged. ‘She is clearly angry at your mother and using you as a scapegoat.’
‘I sympathise with her. I feel guilty about what my mother did to her family. Her parents had been happily married for decades before...’ She felt sadness encompass her, knowing exactly what it felt like to have your parents disappoint you that way. ‘My mother has this uncanny knack for taking someone’s life and turning it completely upside down.’
She had been sure that Diane knew about her mother giving that interview, had braced herself for the other woman to announce it and ruin the shaky friendship that she and Rigo seemed to have come to. But now she was gone, and they were standing here discussing her mother. She knew the time had come to tell him.
‘You are not your mother’s keeper, Nicole. Do you realise that?’ Rigo said softly. ‘She is a grown woman who is responsible for her own actions.’
‘Most of the time her actions directly affect me in some way or another.’ Nicole cleared her throat, looking up at him. ‘Diane was right. I was arguing with her last night.’
‘That’s why you ran out?’
She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. ‘She told me something so awful that I just couldn’t bear to stand across from her a moment longer.’ She stepped away from him, taking a deep breath as she tried to find the right words. Wringing her hands, she turned back to face him. ‘Goldie was the anonymous source, Rigo. She’s the one who leaked the story.’
He was completely silent for a moment, looking at her with something akin to curiosity. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this last night, when you were confessing all your sins?’
‘I was afraid of how you might react.’
‘In other words, you thought I would believe you had a part in it?’
Nicole paused, her eyelids fluttering up to meet his gaze. ‘Well, don’t you?’
Rigo shook his head, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. ‘Before last night, maybe. But I’m coming to see that I’ve been very quick to judge you.’
‘Well, I suppose I should be thankful for that, at least.’
‘Nicole, I can see why you want to walk away from this marriage now. But I’m asking you to reconsider. For Anna, if nothing else.’
‘We proved to each other last night that we can’t be civil or separate in this arrangement. We’re just not good for each other,’ she said quietly.
He was quiet for a moment, looking out the window. ‘Nicole, I want this marriage to work. If that means me staying as far away as possible then I will do it. To keep you and Anna safe.’
She looked into his eyes. He was being earnest. But she didn’t want him to stay away at all—that was the problem. She walked away from him, crossing her arms over her chest as she followed the progress of one errant raindrop down the window. Within a matter of seconds it had begun to pour, the landscape turning a dull grey.
She knew that backing out of their arrangement had been a decision made in the heat of the moment. Marrying Rigo was the best choice for Anna and it always would be. Looking into his eyes, she could feel the shift between them—not quite enemies any longer, but it had put them in a kind of limbo. He made her feel off balance...as if simply being around him for too long put her at risk of making a fool of herself all over again.
‘Send the staff away,’ she said suddenly. ‘Just until we leave for the wedding. Give them extended holiday leave. Then there will be no need for us to share a bed. We can each have our space until the wedding is over.’
‘Consider it done.’ Rigo nodded once, his face completely unreadable.
‘Thank you.’ Nicole took a deep breath, feeling decidedly less filled with dread than she had this morning. And yet she still felt that same tug of unease in the back of her mind. As if somehow by putting more distance between them she was denying herself something vital. But she didn’t need Rigo’s kisses in her life, and she definitely didn’t need him in her bed. Sleeping or otherwise. Boundaries were the only thing protecting her from the damage this man could do to her if she ever let him close again. This was safe.
* * *
Nicole looked down at the slim diamond-encrusted watch on her wrist and felt her anxiety peak. The rehearsal dinner was due to start in twenty minutes and Rigo hadn’t arrived yet. His entire family was downstairs, waiting to meet his bride-to-be for the first time, and she couldn’t hide up here a moment longer.
She hadn’t seen him for more than a passing greeting in the past weeks, since the magazine debacle. True to his word, he’d had Diane fired and a new journalist had taken her place. The interview had gone without a hitch and now the whole world was geared up and waiting with bated breath to witness the wedding of the decade.