CHAPTER SIX
LUCA FELT HIS jaw drop.
Of all the things she could have said, that was absolutely the last he was expecting.
Sucking in a lungful of air, he shut his mouth and tipped his head on one side.
‘Is that all?’ he said softly, wondering how something that should have been amazing and incredible and a source of celebration could have been reduced to something as technical as a name on a piece of paper. ‘You want my name on the baby’s birth certificate?’
‘Yes. For the baby’s sake. My father died when I was two, and because my mother wasn’t married to him, she had no protection in law, no legal status as a widow, no right to his estate. She’d been buying our house—that awful house—for some while, though, so we weren’t homeless, but his wife’s family were dreadful to her.’
He was still wincing over awful, but that got his attention. ‘Wife?’
‘He was married—to someone so emotionally unstable he couldn’t tell Mum about her. And then he died and his wife found out, and it was horrendous for my mother. I didn’t know anything about it, of course, I was only a few years old, but I gather it was dreadful. And I don’t want that happening to my child.’
No wonder she was so wary. It was enough to make any woman suspicious of men. But he wasn’t her father, and there was no wife waiting to take revenge.
‘Well, if it’s any consolation there’s no wife and I have no intention of dying.’
She glared at him. ‘Will you please be serious?’
‘I’m being totally serious. I’ve never been more serious about anything. But you have to know, Isabella, that I intend to be very much more to my child than a name on a birth certificate, whether I’m married to you or not.’
‘Well, I won’t marry you, so don’t even think of asking me.’
‘I won’t—not yet. I think getting married just because you’ve made a baby between you is a very shaky way to start a marriage, but I would ask you not to rule it out for the future.’
The glare changed, softening into confusion. ‘Luca, I can’t—’ She bit her lip, her eyes filled with pain. ‘I don’t want to get married. I don’t want that sort of relationship.’
‘Well, you should have thought about that before you had unprotected sex, shouldn’t you, cara?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Yes, you did. You told me you were on the Pill, but you weren’t, not reliably—not religiously taking it on time, because you weren’t taking it for that reason, and if I’d known that I would have made sure you took the morning-after pill.’
‘I was taking it—I was airsick.’ she said drily. ‘Not even you could have altered the turbulence.’
He gave a brittle laugh. ‘Possibly not, but now I’m facing the reality of becoming a father to a baby whose mother won’t contemplate forming a stable, loving relationship with me.’
‘Luca, you can’t love me!’
‘Why? Why can’t I?’ he demanded.
‘Because you don’t know me,’ she said, her voice distressed, ‘and I don’t know you. I can’t love you.’
There was something in her voice that troubled him, and he reached out a hand to cover hers.
‘Why can’t you love me, cara?’ he asked softly. ‘If you give yourself time, then maybe…’
‘It isn’t time,’ she admitted, her eyes fraught with emotion. ‘And it’s not that I can’t love you, Luca—it’s that I can’t trust you. I can’t trust any man.’
‘Because of your father?’
‘Partly.’
‘And?’ he coaxed. ‘The other part?’
She shook her head, and he sighed softly and lifted her hand into his, cradling it between his palms, willing her to talk to him, to let him in. ‘Who was he, Isabelle? What did he do to you? Tell me, tesoro. Talk to me.’
She swallowed hard and tilted her chin in that endearing way, and he saw her eyes were clouded with tears. For a long time he thought she wouldn’t tell him, but then she turned and met his eyes defiantly.
‘He was my fiancé. He changed his mind, just before the wedding, and went back to his old girlfriend. They got married, and the last I heard they had two children and they’d split up. Now you tell me, why should I trust a man after my father and my fiancé have both proved that they can’t stay faithful?’
And that was why, of course, she was wary—not only because of her father, but because of her fiancé, and Luca wanted to find the man and kill him for hurting her so badly.
‘Oh, Isabella,’ he said softly, and without waiting for an invitation, he swung round on the bar stool and drew her into his arms. For a moment she sank against him, then she straightened up and turned away.
‘Luca, stop it! I don’t want to lean on you. I don’t want to need you.’
‘Why? What’s so wrong with needing me? You can’t do everything alone.’
‘Why? My mother did.’
‘And did it make her happy?’
She sucked in a fraught little breath and turned her head away. ‘Luca, I can do this.’
‘Of course you can. But you don’t have to, and I don’t want to be shut out, Isabella. This is my baby, too. I need to be part of its life, on a daily basis—starting now. And you’re going to have to learn to trust me.’
‘How? How on earth am I supposed to do that? Luca, I can’t! I don’t know you.’
‘So get to know me. Spend time with me, cara. Come to Italy with me and meet my family, see my home, have a bit of fun. We’ll start today—we’ll go out for a walk, get some fresh air, feed the ducks—anything you like.’
She hesitated. It seemed like a lovely idea—and if nothing else, she had to get to know the man who was the father of her child. He couldn’t remain a stranger to her. So she nodded, and said, ‘Yes. All right. But—just that. Just spending time together, no—’
She broke off, and he smiled wryly. ‘No reruns of Florence?’ She nodded. ‘OK. That’s fine. It’s better. Sex is too distracting. We’ll stick to other fun stuff.’
So they did. They went out, via her house so she could change into jeans and trainers and a thick fleece, and they went for a walk on the park near her house and fed the ducks and he made her eat lunch—nothing elaborate, just a simple sandwich in the sunshine outside the pub.
While he was in the pub paying the bill his phone rang, and she stared at it dubiously. ‘Gio,’ she read, and bit her lip. His brother—or one of them.
‘Hello?’
‘Well, that’s not Luca.’
‘No. He’s in the pub, he won’t be a moment. Can I get him to call you?’
‘In a minute. Who’s that?’
‘Isabelle.’
‘So he found you.’
She blinked. He knew about her? ‘Um—yes. We’re working together.’
His brother laughed softly. ‘I knew it. So how much do you know about my brother, Isabelle?’
‘Not much,’ she confessed. ‘Not enough, really.’
‘Well, don’t hurt him. He’s been through enough, and he hasn’t had a relationship that I know of for years. Many, many years. Well, not one that’s lasted more than a few weeks. But he’s a good man, and you seem to have got right under his skin. I’ve never seen him like he was that morning, when he’d left you at the airport. And when he realised he’d missed your call—well, he was pretty mad with himself. He wanted to talk to you.’
‘It wouldn’t have made any difference, I didn’t want to see him.’
‘So—what’s different? What’s changed?’
Oh, lord. She couldn’t tell him. ‘Um—we’re working together,’ she said, flannelling desperately.
‘Not today, if you’re at the pub. So I assume you’re seeing each other.’
‘Sort of,’ she admitted, wondering how much of this she should be sharing with his brother and when Luca was coming back.
‘Well, don’t worry. He’s a good guy, and he’s free—and personally I’d be only too delighted if you got togeth
er. He needs a good woman to save him from himself.’
‘But you haven’t met me.’
‘I don’t need to. I’ve only got to hear his voice when he talks about you. I think you might be what he’s been waiting for all his life.’
Luca appeared at her side and arched a brow questioningly, and she turned away, filled with confusion.
‘You can’t—he can’t know that.’
‘I don’t agree. I think he can. And I really hope you’ll give him a chance, because of all the people I know, he’s the best, most decent, honest, reliable man—and the kindest.’ He hesitated, then went on, ‘You have to know he’s been hurt in the past. I don’t want to see that happen again. But just a word of advice—if you hurt him deliberately, or cheat on him or trick him in any way, you’ll have me to deal with—and I don’t lose in a court of law. Get him to call me, can you?’
‘Um—he’s here. Luca, it’s your brother.’
She handed the phone over and stared at him, trying to read his face. When had he been hurt? And how? Who had hurt him? Some woman. I don’t want to see that happen again. Her eyes filled with tears and she turned and blinked them hastily away.
‘Luca?’
‘Yes, Gio. I hope you didn’t scare her to death.’
‘I don’t know. If she scares that easily, she’s no good for you. But if you’re getting into this as deep as I think you are, you’d better let me get you a pre-nup organised—and I’m serious about this. We need to talk about it. After what happened—’
‘Sure. If it’s relevant—which it’s not at the moment, I’ll call you. Ciao.’
He hung up and met her eyes again. ‘Well? What did he say?’
‘Nothing much. I’m sorry I answered your phone, but I didn’t know if it was important.’
‘That’s fine, but I know Gio, he never says nothing. So what did he say?’
‘He seems to think the sun rises and sets on you,’ she said, and he laughed a little roughly and sat down beside her, slipping the phone back into his pocket.
‘I’m sure he didn’t say any such thing.’
No, he’d said that he thought Luca had been looking for her all his life. Was it possible? Could it be true? And could she trust him?
‘He was very protective.’
He laughed at that, too, but there was something guarded in his eyes. ‘Protective? Just what did he say?’
‘Only that you’d been hurt.’
His mouth tightened. ‘He talks too much. Anyway, it’s irrelevant and it was years ago.’
‘How many?’
‘Ten? It doesn’t matter. He had no business discussing it with you.’
‘He didn’t,’ she corrected. ‘He just…’
‘What?’
‘Warned me off, I think,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘But only if I meant you harm. He must love you very much. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a brother.’
‘Suffocating,’ he said frankly, ‘and I have two brothers and three sisters, so you can multiply that by five,’ but then he smiled and touched her cheek gently with his hand. ‘Ignore him. He’s just a lawyer. He spends his life immersed in the criminal mind. It distorts his vision.’
She smiled, as she was meant to, and then shook her head. ‘Luca, I can’t just marry you because of the baby.’
‘Of course not. I realise that. And I’m not offering marriage yet. I wouldn’t do that until I was sure of my feelings, and yours. But give us a chance—please. We’re having a good day today. Let’s do it again, see if we have what it takes to make a stable home life for our baby. See if we can fall in love.’
She gave him a sad little smile that twisted something inside him. ‘Oh, falling in love with you isn’t the problem, Luca,’ she said softly. ‘I fell in love with you that first night. It’s trusting I have difficulty with. Trusting any man. And that won’t come easily just because I want it to.’
He felt a surge of hope, then, that they might come out of this with something good, something honest and decent and lasting—because she did want it to, if only he could persuade her to take that leap of faith. And she loved him.
‘Come to Italy with me, meet my family. Ask them all about me. They’ll tell you the truth—especially my brothers. They won’t hold back. You’ll get chapter and verse on every time I borrowed their bikes or stole their girlfriends, and my father will tell you how I used to take his car and return it with an empty fuel tank so he’d run out on the way to the petrol station. You want the truth about me, warts and all, ask my family.’
‘That’s very brave,’ she said, wondering if she’d be so honest or daring, and he just gave a crooked grin and shrugged.
‘There’s a lot at stake, cara. It’s going to take some courage, from both of us, but the rewards—’ He broke off and swallowed, and she could see the emotion in his eyes. ‘I want to be a good father, Isabelle. Please don’t deny me the chance.’
It was that which swayed her. The sincerity in his eyes, the genuine wholehearted endorsement from his brother. The not-even-thinly veiled threat.
‘All right,’ she said softly. ‘But I’m scared, Luca. I don’t trust easily, and it’s so long since I’ve had a relationship I’m not sure I know how.’
‘Then we’ll find out together.’ He smiled tenderly and held out his arms, and she moved into them, resting her head on his shoulder and feeling instantly at home. How could she? How was it possible to feel so much at ease with him when her life was in such chaos?
Or maybe it wasn’t in chaos at all. Maybe, for the first time in her whole life, it was actually on the right track…
She spent the rest of Saturday with him, but she wanted to go home in the evening.
‘Stay with me. Let me look after you,’ he said, but she refused, and so he drove her home, picking up some food for her on the way.
He put it in the fridge, closed the door and shook his head. ‘There—that should last you a day or two, you stubborn girl. I wish you’d stay with me.’
‘I’m fine, Luca. Really. I’ll make sure I’ve got a flask of iced water by the bed, and some crackers and an apple. I’ll be fine.’
‘Well, let me stay here, then.’
‘No. Really, I’ll be fine.’
‘I’ll come and see you before you get up.’
‘You don’t need to.’
‘Si, I do. I want to. It’s the least I can do. This is my fault.’
‘How can it be your fault?’ she asked, remembering her patient Lindsey telling her husband Mike that it was his fault and him reminding her that she’d been the one to forget her pills.
‘I should have taken care of you,’ he said gruffly, ‘not been so wrapped up in my own needs that I forgot something so basic and simple as protecting you when we made love.’
His words curled round her heart, and she felt a fissure open up in her defences. ‘Luca, I was there, too. It wasn’t just your fault.’
His hand came up and cradled her cheek, and his eyes were sombre. ‘Nevertheless, I should have been the one to take control of that part of it, and I’m sorry to have put you in this situation, but I will stand by you, Isabella. I will be here, and if and when we marry, it will be for ever. I will never leave you, or divorce you, or let you down intentionally, and I will absolutely, categorically, never be unfaithful. It isn’t the man I am.’
His words nearly reduced her to tears, but he had such faith in their ability to make this work, and she wasn’t sure she could share it. Not yet.
‘Can we just take one step at a time?’ she asked with a fragile little laugh, and he smiled and cupped her cheeks in his hands.
‘Good idea,’ he murmured, and, bending his head, he feathered a kiss over her mouth, teasing her lips apart with a soft stroke of his tongue so that she opened to him with a tiny sob of need. How could she want him so badly? Need him so damned much, after so short a time?
She didn’t know. She just knew that his kiss, his touch, his arms were what she’d been
waiting for her entire life, and nothing had ever felt so right.
‘Isabella,’ he groaned, his fingertips shaking as they traced her jaw, his eyes on fire. ‘I have to go.’
‘No,’ she said, her hands holding him against her, and after a breathless moment, he gave an untidy sigh and wrapped her hard against his chest.
‘I have to go. You aren’t ready for this. We already know we’re good in bed. You need to get to know me, bella, know if you can share your life with me, and this is just a beautiful distraction. Come on, let me go. We agreed.’
He squeezed her gently, then let her go, and she could have cried.
‘I’ll come back tomorrow,’ he promised. ‘We’ll go shopping for you.’
‘Shopping?’ she said, dazed. ‘What kind of shopping?’
He shrugged. ‘Clothes for our holiday? We could go to Harvey Nichols or Harrods.’
She felt her jaw sag. ‘I’ve never been there in my life!’ she said. ‘And besides, why do I need clothes? I have clothes.’
‘Enough clothes? No woman has enough clothes.’
She ignored the teasing smile. ‘I have plenty. Why would I need more?’
‘To take to Italy?’ he said softly. ‘To meet my family? We—well, no, we don’t exactly dress for dinner, but we change into something a little smarter. And if we’re there a week or so…’
Oh, lord, he was serious! She’d thought he was joking, but clearly not. ‘I don’t know how much holiday I’ve got,’ she flannelled. ‘When are you thinking of going?’
He shrugged. ‘Soon? A week? Two? We’ll have to take a look at the rota.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Two weeks? What about booking?’
‘Booking what? We’ll stay in Tuscany with the family.’
‘But—we have to get there.’
He just smiled. ‘I’m sure we’ll find a flight,’ he murmured. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow. Sleep well.’
The Valtieri Marriage Deal Page 10