by Maggie Cox
‘Katherine!’ she heard him call after her, and she registered the sense of frustration and bewilderment in his voice even as she hurried away. ‘Are you ill again? What is the matter? Dio! Why will you not tell me?’
By the time Kate felt well enough to return to her office, it was to discover Luca staring out of the window. The tension in his broad shoulders was palpable as he stood with his back to her. Hearing her come in, he turned to face her. His expression was so haunted that Kate sucked in a shocked breath. He looked like a man who had been shaken from a dream—and a singularly unhappy one at that. Something inside Kate rose up in protest at the sudden idea that he was hurting, and she momentarily forgot the reason for her hasty dash to the bathroom. Almost.
‘Luca? Are you all right?’ she asked.
‘It is me that needs to ask you that question!’ he retorted, impatience edging his tone. ‘Clearly something is not all right when you turn the colour of pure white marble and rush from the room! What is wrong with you, Katherine? And I do not want you to spare me anything! Just tell me the truth, will you?’
Taking a deep breath, and drawing out the chair behind her desk to sit down, Kate sighed and admitted softly, ‘I’m pregnant.’
‘You are pregnant?’
It wasn’t a question that Luca responded with, merely an unaffected statement of fact that sounded rather distant and detached. The sensation of sluggish melting ice meandered slowly down Kate’s back. Somehow his detachment sounded far more forbidding than outright anger—which, in truth, was what she had been expecting.
‘By your ex-fiancé? Is that what you are telling me?’
His assumption took her aback for a moment.
‘I broke up with him three months before we met, Luca…I’m only just twelve weeks pregnant. So, no…he’s not the father of my baby. That’s not what I’m telling you at all.’
‘Then what you are trying to say is…that I am the father?’
‘Yes.’
Her fathomless dark eyes seared into his very soul. Luca inhaled, and although he sensed and heard his own sharp intake of breath, he felt more like an observer, looking down at himself, rather than the actual owner of the stunned unmoving form that occupied his chair. A surreal moment ticked by when his thought processes seemed frighteningly suspended from all sense of reality. Then as he began to devastatingly react, long-frozen feelings desperately tried to creep round the ice that packed them.
The woman who sat in front of him, dark eyes holding his with surprising steadiness in light of the emotion she had just caused to erupt inside him, waited for him to speak. How could she know that Luca was seriously struggling right then with the means to do that? When he did reply, his voice sounded as though he had narrowly missed choking on dust.
‘And you expect me to believe this outrageous claim?’
‘You wanted the truth. Don’t spare you anything, you said.’
As the fear icily gripped him that Katherine might be deceiving him—or, worse, trying to blackmail him into taking responsibility for another man’s child—rage acted as extremely effective lubrication for Luca’s dry throat.
‘We only slept together once, cara mia—remember? It is over three months since I saw you last! How do I know how many men you have had in your bed since then?’
Instantly she looked as distraught as if Luca had struck her. But his sympathy was in short supply right then. He really did want the truth. Even if it was painful. Was this woman he barely knew, yet who had caught him in her spell, even capable of giving it to him? She had no idea of what turmoil and—perversely—what bittersweet hope her news had produced inside him because of his own painful journey to this juncture in his life. Even as she had jumped up and run from the room Luca’s thoughts had inevitably gravitated to Sophia…to the tragic way she had lost her life…He had thought he couldn’t bear it if he learned that Katherine might be taken from him, too.
‘Whatever you believe, I’m not someone who sleeps around!’ she exclaimed now. ‘What happened between us was like a bolt out of the blue…a once-in-a-lifetime event! I may still have been upset about what had happened with my ex, but I swear to you I didn’t sleep with you on the rebound!’
‘And you truly believe the child you are carrying to be mine?’
‘I’m absolutely certain. It’s not something I would make up. I—I’m not angling for money or anything like that! I just thought I owed it to you to tell you what had happened after I left. I swear I have no ulterior motives!’
‘And yet you made little effort to contact me to tell me that you were pregnant? And even now it is not by design that you turn up in my office but, if I am to believe it, mere coincidence! What would have happened if you had not been given the assignment as my temporary PA? Answer me that! Exactly when were you planning to let me know of your condition, Katherine? When the child was born? When it was five, maybe ten years old?’
Luca walked abruptly away, then came slowly back again. He could not understand it! For Katherine not to have tried to contact him when she had first learned she was pregnant was enough to make him lose what little hold on patience and understanding he had left. Whatever her reasons for the unacceptable delay in getting in touch with him, this time Luca was going to make absolutely sure that she did not run away. Because, in spite of the fury and frustration he felt towards her right now, miraculously she had given him the one piece of news that he had for so long yearned to hear and had feared he never would…At last he was to become a father.
Still seated, and looking rather too pale again, Katherine touched her hand to her chest, as if to calm her racing heart. ‘I would have told you as soon as I had found out if I could have! But the friend I went to your party with moved to the States and I had no way of contacting her. I couldn’t remember the address of your mansion in Milan, and not knowing that you worked in London I didn’t even think of trying to look for you here! I swear I racked my brains to try and think how to reach you, Luca…I mean it! But it just wasn’t possible. Can’t you imagine what turmoil I was in when I found out I was pregnant? It was a genuine shock! I was still on the pill…but there were a couple of days in Milan when I was so upset about things that I must have forgotten to take it. When I realised what had happened, and the result of it, I was honestly stunned! But I’m determined to keep the baby…even if I have to raise him on my own! I wasn’t expecting you to support me even if I did manage to contact you. I was wary of seeing you again when we had only known each other for just a night. And there…there was always the possibility that you might not even remember me!’
Sucking in his breath, Luca inadvertently bit the inside of his cheek. Ignoring the sting of pain, he silently dismissed the ludicrous suggestion that he might have forgotten her. After such a night together? Impossible! Last night, watching Katherine win over everyone in the room with her beauty and grace, Luca had known—despite what he had told her when she’d first arrived in his office—that he most definitely did want a repeat performance of that magical night they’d shared in Milan! But for some reason, feeling the need to guard his heart after his confession about feeling lost that night, he had not been ready to allow things to proceed in that direction. Now he made himself focus on the other possibility Katherine had just mentioned. Raising the child on her own….
The thought absolutely affronted his profound sense of honour and duty, to do what was right—not to mention the fact that this child would be the sole heir to his family fortune, all that Luca possessed! There was no way—no way on God’s earth—that Katherine was going to raise this baby alone! If she thought that he was going to meekly stand aside after all the pain, devastation and bitter disappointment he had been through before he met her, and again after she had left, then he had to quickly and catagorically disabuse her of that idea!
‘I will, of course, insist on a paternity test once the child is born, but for now I will accept what you say as the truth. I pray for your sake it is the truth, Katherine! That
said, there is something that I need to make perfectly clear to you.’
Stalking across the room to the huge window that shared the same panoramic views as his own office, Luca did not have to dwell for long on what he wanted to say.
‘There is no way that you are going to raise my child single-handedly, without my help. It is an unthinkable idea! Preposterous, in fact!’ As he turned to face her again, his jaw resolute, Luca witnessed the indignant surge of heat that poured into Katherine’s cheeks.
‘There is something that you ought to know too,’ she declared with a frown. ‘I’m not unhappy that you want to take your share of responsibility in raising this baby—in fact, I am relieved to hear it! But I’m not going to let you get all heavy-handed with me about it either! I’ve looked after myself for a long time now, and if you try to ride roughshod over my wishes I’ll simply walk away and you’ll never hear from me or the child again!’
So infuriated was Luca by Katherine’s threat that before he’d realised even what was in his mind, he strode across the room to where she sat and roughly hauled her to her feet.
Her pupils dilated in shock. They were both breathing hard, but it was he who recovered first. How dare she have the audacity to threaten him with walking away when it was his baby that she carried? The idea that the one thing he had longed for above all else—a child—might be taken away from him before the infant was even born was like being threatened with a painful, slow death after all that he had endured. Blue eyes blazing, Luca brought his face just inches away from Katherine’s—and for once the sight of her beautiful features and the seductive scent of her body did not have its usual powerful, bewitching effect on his libido.
‘How dare you? How dare you throw such a threat in my face? I will forgive you for it just this once, because you clearly know no better, but make it a second time and I will drag you through every court in the land if I have to! And once the child is born I will be the one who has sole custody of his welfare. Mark my words, cara mia! I do not say them idly! Persist in this disagreeable vein and you will soon come to bitterly regret your foolishness in issuing me with such a warning!’
Her tender flesh throbbing with discomfort from where Luca’s hard fingers had seized her arm, Kate felt her legs all but turn to jelly at the fury in his voice. This wasn’t how she’d imagined him receiving the news of her pregnancy—becoming instantly possessive and threatening to haul her through the courts for sole custody should she dare to even suggest she might walk away and raise the child by herself! She had only said that because he had sounded so domineering, and a fear had suddenly consumed her that he might not turn out to be the man she’d yearned for him to be after all.
Guessing that her colossal mistake with Hayden had had a lot to do with her fear, she wondered if she could ever truly accept the possibility of a healthy relationship with a man? Something told her that Luca was decent—kind, even—but a man did not become as successful and powerful as he was without having a streak of ruthlessness. Right now she needed to concentrate on the serious prospect of having his baby—a baby Kate already loved with a passion that she could hardly believe. For that reason, if nothing else, they simply had to reach some kind of mutual understanding and respect for each other’s wishes when it came to how he was going to be raised.
‘Please let go of my arm.’ Her gaze met Luca’s with quiet, dignified resolve, but she was a hair’s breadth away from tears. ‘You’re hurting me.’
Glancing down at her limb, as if only just becoming aware he was gripping it so tightly, he released it with a dark, unreadable look in his eyes. Letting fly a passionate Italian curse, he stalked away. Kate wasn’t sure if it was she he was mad at or himself.
‘I didn’t know that you’d react like this,’ she told him honestly, her voice not quite steady. ‘There are plenty of men who’d run a mile if they found out they’d made some girl they’d only spent one night with pregnant! For all I know this could have been the worst news for you to hear if you were in a relationship with someone!’
‘Well—’ he grimaced, one corner of his mouth twisting ironically, ‘—luckily for you, Katherine, I am not in a relationship with anyone at the moment. And even if I were I would still claim responsibility for this child if it is mine, and I would definitely want to help raise it! Do not make the mistake of judging all men by the poor example of your ex-fiancé!’
Realising she had done exactly that, Kate said nothing.
‘You crushed your biscuits,’ he observed, frowning, staring at the forlorn packet on the floor. ‘Let me ring Catering and ask them to bring you something to eat. I do not want you passing out from lack of nourishment! You are having a baby and you need to take care of yourself.’
A jolt of surprise zigzagged through Kate’s insides at his words. That last sentence had sounded gruff, yet strangely tender too. She told herself she was probably just imagining it. Hormones making her overly emotional and all that…
‘Please don’t bother. I don’t want anything to eat right now.’
‘You are sure?’
‘I’ll eat something decent at lunch.’
‘Well…in that case I think I will go out for a while,’ he announced, his gaze restless. ‘You will be all right?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean…you will not be ill again?’
Kate flushed. ‘No. I’ll be fine, I’m sure. The sickness comes and goes, and thankfully it doesn’t last all day.’
‘Good. Then please take messages for me and tell whoever calls that I will get back to them as soon as I can.’
‘Okay.’
Unconsciously rubbing her arm where Luca’s steel-like grip had bitten into her, she glanced up to find him staring down at her with such a look of near-desolation in his troubled gaze that her foolish heart turned over in her chest and made her ache to go to him. There was so much about this man that she didn’t know, and yet that night he had made love to her the connection between them had been almost beyond words. Was there no chance of making that connection again? Last night, when he had admitted that he had been feeling lost too at his party in Milan, Kate’s heart had soared with sudden delirious hope. But then, when Luca had suggested that it was time for her to go home, that hope had been dashed.
‘I will see you later.’ Tearing his eyes away from her, he strode to the door and went out.
With the brisk March wind gusting round his ankles and cutting into his face, Luca pounded the London pavements that led to a nearby park with a steely-eyed grimace that would have put the fear of God into even the bravest soul, should one have been foolhardy enough to confront him. There was much to preoccupy his mind as he walked.
Katherine turning up in his office had been shock enough, but then to learn that she was pregnant! Was the baby really his? The fast pace he had set himself momentarily slowed as the twin swords of fear and doubt pierced his chest. He so wanted to believe her, yet he did not want to be made a fool of and accept her word for it without question…at least not until a paternity test could be done. And, despite her threat to walk away if Luca got too dictatorial about the baby’s future, he had to find out for himself if there was a possibility that she was trying to blackmail him in some way. He was an extremely wealthy man, and there was certainly enough information in the public domain about him and the illustrious firm of architects he had founded for anyone daring or cunning enough to seize a chance to extricate money from him in some way.
What if Katherine had not broken up with this ‘despicable’ fiancé of hers after all? What if they had concocted some scheme together after she had slept with Luca, to persuade him to financially support a child that wasn’t even really his? The mere idea made him sick to his stomach.
Pushing the thought angrily away, he spied an empty park bench under a spreading oak and walked across the grass to sit there. Dropping his head into his hands, he considered the other real possibility that what Katherine had told him was true and that the baby she was
expecting was his.
How ironic and bittersweet that this should happen after just one night with another woman when he and Sophia had tried for three long years to have a child. His wife had endured many uncomfortable and sometimes painful investigations in order to try and discover why she could not conceive, and Luca himself had also voluntarily undergone tests. It had turned out that there was no reason he could not father a child with someone else, but for some reason Sophia’s ovaries had not developed properly and there was no possibility of her ever becoming pregnant. She had been devastated. Luca’s suggestion that they adopt had not eased her grief at the knowledge that she would never bear a child naturally, and a few weeks after the doctor’s findings—when they had been holidaying with friends on their yacht—she had to all intents and purposes thrown herself overboard and drowned.
Had Luca’s own strong desire for fatherhood added to Sophia’s distress that she could not bear her husband a child? He had tried to reassure her that it did not matter, that they could still have a good life together, but she had not been convinced and their marriage had gone downhill fast after that. There had just been no reaching her…
Shaking his head to fend off the knife-like anguish that surged into his chest, Luca pushed impatiently to his feet and started to walk again. From now on, he decided grimly, he would be shadowing Katherine like a hawk. And if he got even the slightest hint that she was lying to him in any way she would not get off lightly for deceiving him….
CHAPTER FIVE
WOULD Luca come to believe that the baby really was his? Kate fretted. Priding herself on always being a very honest person, she hated the idea that he might think she was lying. Yet she could easily see why he might doubt her. The truth was she had left it too long to get in touch with him—and perhaps she really should have tried much harder to find him?