The nurse entered and took the infant from Gianfranco and placed her in the crib.
‘Rest, Signora Maldini,’ she said, and, turning back to Kelly, gently eased out a pillow to allow Kelly to lie back down in the bed.
‘Yes,’ Kelly sighed. ‘I am rather tired.’ Her long lashes fluttered down. She smiled as she felt the soft brush of Gianfranco’s mouth against her own. ‘Nice,’ she murmured, and slept.
When Kelly awoke three hours later the first of the flowers were delivered, and by evening the nurse complained they were running out of vases. From Gianfranco came dozens of red roses; the card read simply ‘Thank you, my love’ and his name. From the staff, from friends…half from people Kelly didn’t know. But the headily scented blooms that filled the air completely eclipsed the faint hospital smell.
It was the best week of her life. Gianfranco visited morning and night, and he presented her with an exquisite diamond bracelet. For our daughter, he had said, and kissed her. He brought Anna with him one morning, which delighted Kelly, and on another Olivia, which did not. When Gianfranco was talking to the nurse Olivia got her dig in. ‘You couldn’t even do this right—we wanted a boy.’
Kelly ignored her; she was so happy. Judy Bertoni arrived, and let drop she was pregnant again, and the two girls arranged, with Gianfranco’s tacit agreement, to spend a few days’ shopping when the baby was a bit older.
Apart from the doctor, all the staff spoke only Italian, and much to Kelly’s satisfaction her own Italian had improved dramatically, thanks to her tapes.
The following Saturday it was mid-morning when Gianfranco strolled in. Casually dressed in beige trousers and shirt, with a lambswool sweater draped across his broad shoulders, he looked sensational.
‘Ready to go, Kelly?’ Gianfranco asked in a deep, husky drawl.
‘Yes.’ She rose to her feet; something warm quivered deep down inside her as her eyes collided with deep dark brown. ‘Though I don’t know about this dress,’ she said, suddenly nervous. It was one Judy had brought in for her, a mint-green wild-silk sheath buttoned down the front from the slightly scooped neck to the hem. Good for feeding, Judy had said. But to Kelly it seemed a little short and a lot clingy under Gianfranco’s discerning gaze.
In one lithe stride he was beside her and, wrapping an arm around her waist, he smiled down into her exquisite face. ‘You look perfect,’ he murmured, and kissed her.
Excitement lanced through her nerve-endings, and sent her pulse-rate racing. Kelly was shocked, fighting against a tide of fierce physical awareness. She had just had a baby; somehow she had thought it would make a difference but it didn’t.
‘Come on, the car, the baby carriage—everything awaits you, Kelly, and I have a surprise for you.’ Gianfranco slashed her a gleaming smile and kissed her again.
‘But first the nurse has to carry the baby off the premises and I have to sign you out.’
They stopped at the reception desk, and Kelly waited impatiently while Gianfranco completed the paperwork. She glanced across, as he seemed to be taking a long time. When he came back to her his smile had gone and he looked oddly sombre.
‘Something wrong?’ she asked, fearful that she might not be able to leave yet.
A muscle jerked beside his unsmiling mouth. ‘No, nothing at all.’
But, by the time the car drew up outside the Casa Maldini, though Kelly had tried to hang on to her optimism, she’d failed. They had hardly spoken a word, and it was a tight-mouthed, austere Gianfranco who helped her into the house with baby Anna.
Their reception committee was waiting. Carmela, Olivia and the staff—everyone fussed over the baby. Until Gianfranco took the carrycot holding the baby in one hand and Kelly by the arm with the other. ‘I’ll take you upstairs.’
A few minutes later Kelly was standing in the middle of a nursery, with every conceivable object a baby could possibly want or need. Gianfranco, with amazing efficiency, had placed the sleeping child in the delicate crib provided, and, straightening up, he gestured with one elegant hand to one of two doors set in one wall. ‘Through there is a connecting bedroom with en suite bathroom for the nanny, and another bathroom.’
‘It is beautiful.’ She gazed around at the walls, skilfully painted with a nursery-rhyme scene of a rolling landscape with all kinds of field animals. When her eyes finally reached the figure in the mural she realised it was Little Miss Muffet. She bit back an exclamation at the sight of the enormous spider! She was lost for words…
‘While you thought the guest rooms were being decorated this nursery suite was being devised, and it connects with ours. It was Olivia’s idea to keep it a surprise.’
The spider should have told her Olivia had had a hand in it, she thought cynically. ‘Yes, it is a lovely surprise.’ Tearing her eyes from his, she moved to the cot and smiled down at her sleeping baby. ‘We will be fine here, won’t we, darling?’ she murmured.
Straightening up, she glanced back at Gianfranco. ‘I think I’ll check out the rest later; I could do with a lie-down.’ She tried to smile brightly, but it didn’t quite come off as she crossed to the door that connected with her old room.
Long, elegant fingers wrapped around her arm and stopped her. ‘Wait, Kelly; Mamma has arranged some interviews this afternoon to choose a nanny—obviously you will want to take part,’ he said, scrutinising her with dark, impassive eyes.
‘No,’ she said tightly. ‘Let’s get one thing clear right now: I am not having my baby looked after by a nanny for quite some time—if ever.’ On this point she was adamant. ‘Is that clear enough for you?’
‘Yes, clear enough. I get the message. I can’t do anything right in your eyes.’ Gianfranco suddenly exploded. ‘Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday last Saturday?’ His abrupt change of subject made Kelly’s head spin. ‘I would never have known except when I signed you out at the hospital the nurse suggested if you had given birth an hour earlier you and Anna would have shared the same birthday. Have you any idea how low that makes me feel?’
‘Not half as low as I felt,’ Kelly responded with muted sarcasm.
‘I don’t need to be reminded of that.’ Dark hooded eyes met hers. ‘Do you imagine for one second I would have left you alone on your birthday, or that I don’t regret missing the birth of our child?’
‘If you say so,’ she agreed. Their baby was sleeping not three feet away and she did not want to argue. She heard his hissed intake of breath and put a hand on his arm. ‘I’m sorry but I assumed you knew it was my birthday when you applied for our marriage licence. And you took my passport.’ She justified her reasoning, but, seeing the grim expression in his eyes, she changed tack. ‘I know you are a Leo, born on the third of August,’ she tried to placate him. ‘But perhaps it is a male-female thing—Venus, Mars. Let’s not fight about it.’
‘You’re right; I should have known. I’ll make it up to you.’ He reached out, his strong hands clasping her tense shoulders, drawing her closer. He dropped a kiss on her upturned face, his dark eyes burning into hers. ‘I don’t deserve you.’
Her heartbeat thudded and she drew in a quick, excited breath, a wealth of emotions welling up within her. She loved her husband, the father of her child; what else mattered? Kelly lifted her hands and circled his neck, pushing her fingers slowly into his thick, luxuriant hair, and she had an almost unbearable longing to be held in his arms again, to feel the long length of his hard body pressed against her without the inconvenience of her once swollen stomach. ‘No, you don’t, but you’ve got me,’ she teased.
He didn’t laugh, but bent his head and let his tongue dart between her parted lips in an erotic invasion that turned her bones to water, and made her tremble. ‘Ah, Kelly,’ Gianfranco husked in his accented drawl. ‘You don’t know what you do to me.’
She knew what she would like to do to him, she thought breathlessly, the hardness of his aroused body setting her imagination in overdrive.
‘Oops, sorry.’ Olivia giggled. ‘I couldn
Gianfranco’s arms fell from around Kelly. ‘She loves it. Don’t you, cara?’
The phrase ‘dropped like a hot brick’ sprang to mind… Kelly moved stiffly back and, glancing at Olivia, said, ‘Yes, it’s great.’
Anna started to cry. Saved by the baby. ‘If you will excuse me, Anna needs feeding.’ Crossing to the cot, she lifted Anna in her arms.
‘You really should get her on a bottle as soon as possible,’ Olivia offered. ‘Then anyone could feed her.’
Ignoring the other woman’s comment, Kelly settled down on the nursing chair, and in minutes Anna was suckling greedily at her breast.
Gianfranco surveyed the mother and child, his black eyes fixed on Kelly’s breast. Astonishingly he felt a stab of something very like jealousy towards his daughter. He wanted to be where Anna was, and his body warned him to get out fast. ‘I must go,’ he said shortly.
Kelly glanced up, but he was already exiting the room. Now that she was left with the baby and only her thoughts, the events of the last half-hour ran through her mind, and warning bells rang loud in her head. What kind of woman had she become? Placating Gianfranco at any cost! Actually apologising to him for his forgetting her birthday! Afraid to speak her mind except on the simplest of topics, in case she offended him or his family. What kind of weak example of womanhood was that to set her precious daughter?
Four weeks later, restless and unable to sleep, Kelly slid out of bed. She glanced briefly at the connecting door to the room Gianfranco occupied and for a moment was tempted to go to him. But he had decreed no sleeping together until she got the all-clear from the doctor at six weeks. He had given her a diamond necklace to match the bracelet as a belated birthday present, also a car for her personal use, and he was good with Anna—when he was around. But he was not around much.
Love was a fearsome emotion, she thought with a sudden shiver. Except for the love of her child—that was totally different. She would do anything for Anna, and with that thought in mind she walked along to the nursery. Her breast milk was drying up, and the nurse had suggested supplementing Anna with formula, but the baby did not seem to like it much. Quietly she opened the nursery door, and shock held her rigid for a second.
Olivia had Anna in her arms and was feeding her with a bottle of formula. ‘What the hell do you think you are doing?’
Olivia looked at Kelly. ‘Practising for when you are gone.’
Snatching the baby from Olivia’s arms, Kelly was shaking with anger. Now she knew why Anna was not feeding well from her. ‘Get out, and keep away from my child,’ she snapped.
‘Your child?’ Olivia sneered. ‘Haven’t you realised yet? Gianfranco is going to dump you as soon as you stop breast-feeding and we are going to be a family. Why do you think your so-called marriage was only a civil ceremony in England? He does not even need to divorce you to marry me in church, you stupid cow.’ And Olivia walked out.
Kelly tried to tell herself it was the ravings of a slightly unhinged woman. But deep inside she didn’t really believe it. She had put up with a lot to stay with Gianfranco, but when it came to her daughter she would fight like a tigress.
CHAPTER NINE
Three years later.
ST AIDEN’S COVE in Cornwall was virtually deserted, although it was early summer. Kelly stood beside the outcrop of rocks on the tiny beach and watched her daughter methodically shovelling sand into a small red bucket; nothing would stop Annalou’s determination to build a sandcastle, and Kelly was vividly reminded of Gianfranco. Annalou had her father’s eyes, and also his confidence. Nothing seemed to bother her.
Unfortunately the same could not be said for her mother, Kelly conceded wryly. It had been a June day, much like this, when she had made her escape from the Casa Maldini.
In the end it had been quite simple, she recalled, her mind going back to that traumatic time. She had told Gianfranco what Olivia had done, and he had told her she was overreacting. They had argued, but for once Kelly had refused to give in.
The night before she was to go to the doctor for her final check Gianfranco had walked into her bedroom. She could see him now in her mind’s eye, looking breathtakingly handsome, wearing only a robe, his long tanned legs slightly splayed as he had stared down at where she lay in the big bed. ‘Tomorrow you see the doctor—I am right?’
His dark eyes, smouldering with a brooding intensity, had caught and held hers, and she had felt every nerve in her body leap to quivering life. As if compelled to, he had sat down on the side of the bed and taken her in his arms. The warm, musky male fragrance had been dizzyingly familiar as he’d covered her mouth with his and kissed her with a hungry, urgent passion.
‘Bella mia,’ he had groaned against her mouth, his supple fingers stroking her breast, his other hand lifting to sweep the soft fall of her hair down her back, his night-black eyes skimming her upturned face, the softly parted lips. ‘Hurry back tomorrow. I am dying of frustration.’ He’d kissed her again.
Fool that she was, two kisses had been all it took to convince her that her fears were groundless and Gianfranco loved her. They were a family, and the future looked rosy. But his parting comment—‘Remember to ask the doctor to give you the Pill—it is the safest birth control’—had dented her euphoria somewhat.
But nothing like the shock she had got the next day. She had returned from the doctor’s, excitement bubbling inside her, and headed straight for Gianfranco’s study, unable to wait to give him the good news.
Even now it still hurt, Kelly thought bitterly. The door had been partially open, and she had seen them together. Gianfranco and Olivia in each other’s arms. Judy’s warning, Olivia’s actions—all had made perfect sense. But it was what her husband and Olivia had said that had horrified her, had prompted her decision to leave immediately.
‘I can assure you, Olivia, Kelly and I will certainly not be having any more children.’
‘So why wait? Get rid of her now, Gianfranco. I can take care of Anna Louise; I love her.’
No way was Olivia getting her hands on Kelly’s child.
Kelly had acted her socks off. Her sad face had been genuine when she’d told Gianfranco later that the doctor had said another week, but not for the reason he had thought. With a little persuasion Gianfranco had agreed Kelly and the baby could visit Judy Bertoni for a few days, while he took the opportunity to clear up some business in New York.
Ironically Gianfranco had provided her means of escape. He had given her a state-of-the-art mobile phone, with instructions to call him any time, so that way he would not disturb her when she was busy with Anna Louise. Raiding his study, she had looked for her passport and by a bizarre stroke of luck she had seen the new one Gianfranco had obtained for her with the baby listed on it. He had said he would take her on holiday, but she couldn’t believe the nerve of the man. Obviously the holiday was to have been her pay-off! Well, he was in for a rude awakening, she had vowed.
The next day she had been on a plane to England, and by the evening she had emptied her bank account—the money from the sale of her house a welcome bonus. She’d made a point of telephoning Gianfranco several times, so as not to arouse suspicion. The final call she had made the next morning, when she’d left the hotel where she had spent the night. She told him she had left the car at Rome Airport and she had left him. Olivia was welcome to him, but not her baby.
He had still been yelling down the telephone when she’d switched it off and thrown it into the road. A black cab had put paid to it.
Remembering her honorary Uncle Tom from her childhood, she had headed for his home in Cornwall, and he had welcomed her and Anna Louise with open arms. After he had heard her story, he had insisted she stay with him in his cottage overlooking the bay. He had introduced her to his neighbours as Kelly Hope, his recently widowed niece, and her baby, and told Kelly all she had to do to stay hidden was to stay off any government computer—Inland Revenue, health and education systems etc.
With the money from her house in Tom’s bank account, it had been no problem. Ellen Jones, whose father was a friend of Tom’s, ran a small gymnastics club in the nearby town of Newquay, and she had given Kelly a part-time job helping out at the club, and she paid her cash.
For three years Kelly’s life had worked fine. She glanced back at Annalou. She was gritting her little teeth, her whole attention concentrated on making the ‘biggest sand castle ever’ for Uncle Tom.
Kelly’s eyes squeezed shut in a spasm of pain. They had buried Tom yesterday. It was Tom who had shortened Anna Louise to Annalou. Yet they would never, ever see him again. She would never hear that deep Cornish burr in his tone as he comforted and cajoled her. Their lives would have to change…
Gianfranco hesitated, to control the pounding of the blood in his veins. It was Kelly, more beautiful than ever, her luscious body honed to perfection; even the cheap black dress she was wearing could not hide that. The neckline was low enough to reveal the upper curve of her breasts, and short enough to reveal her shapely legs. Her silver-blonde hair was longer, untamed, falling almost to her waist. He had given her everything, and she had betrayed him…
Silently he moved forward.
‘So this is where you are hiding, Kelly?’
After three years Kelly recognised the deep, accented voice instantly. Her eyes flew open, shock lancing through her. She stared; she couldn’t help it. He was standing not a foot away. An all-powerful male. His tanned face had a few more lines, but they only added to his dark, devastating good looks. He was dressed in perfectly tailored black trousers and a black roll-neck sweater. With his great height and broad-shouldered, virile body, that simply oozed sex appeal, he looked like some avenging angel—or devil—she realised as his eyes, black as night, roamed over her with unconcealed contempt. Goosebumps erupted all over her body and she reeled back against the rock as though blasted by the banked-down violence in his eyes.
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