A Ring to Claim His Legacy

by Rachael Thomas

  Now as the elevator sped towards Marco’s penthouse apartment she was on edge, wondering if agreeing to coming as his fiancée, to a city she’d always wanted to visit, had been the right thing to do. Not only for her, but also for Marco’s family and even her family. More important than that, was it the right thing for her baby—their baby?

  ‘Oh, my goodness.’ The words rushed from her as she walked into the apartment, the distinct shape of the Empire State Building dominating the view of New York. Already the city’s lights of early evening were beginning to sparkle. It was as if she’d stepped back into a world of escape. ‘The view is amazing.’

  ‘The view?’ Marco frowned and looked at it. ‘I suppose it is.’

  ‘How can you not be in awe of such a view?’ She couldn’t help but tease him; the sense that none of this was real, as if they were the couple they had been on the island, was too strong.

  He shrugged. ‘I’ve seen it many times.’ His dismissive tone brought her up sharp, making her acutely aware that they were as far from the couple they had been on the island as it was possible to be. They were so very different and it wasn’t just that they were expectant parents; it was as if they’d both put up insurmountable barriers and were now fiercely protecting them.

  She walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows which spanned the entire width of the living area and looked out over the city that notoriously never slept. She’d always wanted to see it, always wanted to be here, but never in her wildest dreams had she thought her first experience of it would be from the luxury apartment of a man like Marco Silviano. A man so very different from her. A man whose world looked nothing like hers.

  ‘How are we going to make this work?’ The question slipped from her in a whisper as she spoke more to herself than Marco.

  Marco moved to stand behind her, his hand resting on her shoulder. ‘We worked before,’ he said softly, his voice more reminiscent of the week they’d shared on the island, and she knew instantly how easy it would be for her to fall back to that moment, to believe it was real. If she did nothing else to protect herself, she had to remind herself of the deal he’d put to her as if he was merely negotiating a new contract.

  She turned to face him, shocked when she found just how close he was, but it was the heavy darkness in his eyes, the unmistakable desire, which really shocked her. She couldn’t deal with this, not after the way he’d asked her to come here as his fiancée, making it sound like a business deal. If she allowed herself to be lulled into a false sense of security by him now, allowed herself to be fooled into thinking he genuinely wanted her, she knew her heart was in grave danger of becoming his. The cold, hard fact was that if she hadn’t been carrying his child, if he hadn’t overheard her and Julie talking, they wouldn’t be here together right now. That was something she needed to hold on to no matter what.

  Imogen doubted he would even have recognised her in the compulsory navy skirt and jacket she wore at work instead of the designer dresses she’d worn during that week. People like her only existed to make the lives of people like him more comfortable, which was the harsh reality she was already well aware of. Men like Marco thought he could snap his fingers and get exactly what he wanted. The fact that he’d arranged for her to leave her job so easily, without any questions directed at her, made her well aware of that.

  ‘We did, yes. But that wasn’t real, Marco.’ She wanted to step back from him to put up barriers, create some distance, but the desire in those dark eyes just made her long for the impossible. She wanted to kiss him, to be kissed by him. She wanted it to be like their week together, but it could never be like that. ‘Neither of us wanted more from that week. We didn’t even let each other know who we really were. It was an escape from reality for both of us.’

  ‘But now we have more, Imogen.’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head hard and moved away from him, away from the temptation of drifting back into the fantasy they’d shared for such a brief time. ‘We have nothing but a deal, Marco. I agreed to be here, to be your fiancée, the mother of your child, so that your father could know about the baby—because he is ill. That’s all and I’m doing it for my baby, so that one day I can tell him or her that I met your family.’

  He turned to look out of the windows. ‘And if we are going to make it convincing then I should also provide you with an engagement ring.’

  ‘That’s not necessary.’ She couldn’t help the laughter which filled her voice, the only way she could deal with all this. ‘I don’t need an engagement ring.’

  ‘My sister has already arranged an engagement party for us tomorrow night.’

  ‘You’ve already told your family we are engaged?’ Shock made her whirl round to face him.

  ‘I have, yes, and you will need to be wearing my ring. Everyone will want to see the woman who has finally tamed Marco Silviano, I can assure you of that.’

  ‘Everyone?’ Nerves tore through her. This wasn’t part of the deal. She’d had images of visiting a sick man in hospital, of meeting Marco’s mother and maybe his sister, but not this. ‘A big party?’

  She paced across the open-plan living space and despite the vastness of the view felt confined. As if she’d been lured into a trap. How had everything got so out of hand?

  ‘Yes, a big party. My sister doesn’t know half-measures.’ He turned to look at her and her heart flipped over when he smiled. It was a real smile. One that made his eyes sparkle, and memories of their fun-filled date on the last day on the island rushed back. ‘I’d like to see you in that black dress again.’

  Imogen blushed. He remembered what she’d worn the night they’d spent in the cabana on the beach. The soft, seductive tone of his voice left her in no doubt of that, but that dress had only just fitted her then. There was no way it would fit now. ‘I’m afraid nothing I have with me is suitable for a party, even if it did fit.’ She instinctively flattened her palm against the soft swell of her tummy, blushing again as Marco’s attention went to where his baby was now beginning to make its presence obvious.

  * * *

  Marco watched as Imogen placed her hand over her stomach, over the small bump of his child growing inside her. A fierce streak of protectiveness crashed over him, just as it had when she’d moved out from behind the chair in her office, as if to prove her claim of carrying his child. He looked at her fingers splayed over the bump of his baby, the reality of it all sinking in deeper. Beneath her palm was his child. The child he would now do anything for. That unfamiliar truth settled over him and he knew that no matter what, he would do exactly that.

  He pushed down that protectiveness as it threatened to unleash emotions he had no need for right now. ‘In that case, if you are feeling well enough after the flight, we should shop for a ring and a dress.’

  ‘I really don’t think it’s necessary.’ She looked uncomfortable and, dressed in a casual, loose-fitting sweater over black leggings, she didn’t look at all like the woman who had captured his attention in that blue silk creation which had showcased every delicious curve of her gorgeous figure. She looked vulnerable and very innocent. Even so, she still had the same effect on him, still filled his body with fiery need.

  A dart of hot lust shot through him and he bit down on the need to satisfy it. He might be back in New York, back to his reality, but Imogen had never been part of that reality. She belonged in the erotic and hot dreams which had plagued him since he’d left the island. Or at least just Imogen did. Imogen Fraser, however, belonged very much in his reality now.

  This Imogen was part of his future. A future he hadn’t ever looked into, but now she was part of it he realised that becoming a father, a married man, was about far more than just pleasing his family.

  ‘A ring is necessary, Imogen. You made your conditions and now I am making mine. You agreed to come here, to be my fiancée. Now you will accept from me everything I need to give you to convince my family t
his is real, whether that is a ring or a dress. No one must doubt our engagement, least of all my mother or father.’ The word almost stuck in his throat.

  If he was honest with himself, Marco knew he wasn’t doing this just for his father. Or at least not the man he’d grown up thinking was his father. He was doing it for his grandfather, the man who had left Sicily to live in America with his new wife, where they had set up a coffee shop. Marco often wondered what his grandfather would think to know that his little coffee shop was the foundation of Silviano Leisure Group and something he’d strived to keep even when his father had tried to suggest it was part of the past, that it had no place in the company’s future.

  ‘I’m not sure I can go through with this.’ Imogen moved away from the windows and sat down on the softness of the sofa. She looked weary. ‘We hardly know each other.’

  Marco remembered that last night with her, recalled the pleasure they’d given one another. ‘I think you will find we know one another quite well.’

  She gasped and blushed as his meaning became clear. ‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’ The reprimand in her voice made him laugh, which only served to make her blush deepen. He’d never known a woman who blushed so prettily, so genuinely.

  He sat beside her, took one of her hands in his and looked into her face. The caution in her eyes reproached him and he knew he needed to be open with her, tell her everything about his family. ‘Imogen, my father is a strict man and I fear I was not the easiest of children. At least, not like my younger sister.’

  As Imogen’s attention fixed on him he wasn’t sure he was ready to tell her the whole truth yet. It shocked him to realise he was telling her anything about his family, something he’d never done with any other woman. In a way he didn’t yet understand, Imogen had opened the door to his past, to his childhood, and also uncovered the hurt of the truth his mother had finally confessed to.

  He was beginning to understand Imogen’s remark about his father being her baby’s grandfather. Guilt slashed at him again as he recalled how often he’d been harsh on his father, unaware of the truth. The knowledge that he’d been responsible for his parents’ marriage initially being so rocky was hard to bear. If the man lying ill in hospital could raise another man’s child, then there was no way he could turn his back on his child. Whatever kind of man his upbringing had shaped him to be, he wouldn’t turn his back on Imogen or the baby. He wouldn’t be as cold as his father.

  ‘Are you trying to warn me that this little one—’ she looked down at her tummy, again placing her hand on the small bump ‘—is going to be a whole lot of trouble just like his father?’

  He laughed, thankful she had lightened the mood, thankful he hadn’t spilt out the entire story of his past as if it was some kind of excuse for being the hard-edged businessman who’d never wanted to settle down. He’d just never met a woman who’d made him want that.

  He let her hand go and went to stand at the window once more, the early-evening dusk almost gone now as the sky became darker. Slowly he turned to face Imogen, aware he should have made his plans much clearer from the outset, but he’d been so shocked at the discovery of Imogen, let alone pregnant Imogen, he hadn’t handled things as he should have. He hadn’t been his usual cool and in-control self.

  ‘My family has become more and more insistent that I marry and produce the next Silviano heir to inherit.’

  ‘I see.’ She slowly stood up and hugged her arms around herself as if cold—or was it a protective move? ‘So what exactly are you expecting of me, Marco?’

  ‘I want us to be married—before the baby is born. But I’m not being manipulated by family pressure and tradition. I want us to be married because this is my baby and I want it to be born a Silviano.’

  Imogen’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out. Then she sat back down, disbelief all over her face, and when she did look up at him there was sadness in her eyes and he hated that he was hurting her, upsetting her.

  He couldn’t go to her and hold her as he wanted to. If he did he’d be showing weak emotions and that was something he never did—except for a blissful week on a paradise island.

  ‘You and the baby will want for nothing, Imogen.’

  ‘You brought me here on the pretext of introducing me as your fiancée to make your seriously ill father happy that you had a child on the way. You accepted I wanted to return to England, that marriage wasn’t part of the deal. Now you change all the rules, all the conditions and say we must be married?’

  ‘I will be part of my child’s upbringing, Imogen. Surely you can see that marriage will be the best way? That it will be best for all of us?’ Marco bristled and defended himself.

  ‘There is one thing I want, Marco, one thing my baby will want, and you haven’t mentioned it once. Not once.’ She looked tearful and he suddenly felt completely out of his depth.

  ‘I have told you I will give you everything you both need.’

  She shook her head slowly. ‘Not everything, Marco. Your luxury lifestyle can’t buy everything.’

  He scowled at her. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I can’t marry you just because we are having a baby.’ Her voice implored him to understand, but he didn’t. ‘I can’t even truly be your fiancée, although I will do what I agreed to in England and meet your father and mother, but after that I want to return home.’

  ‘That makes no sense, Imogen. I am the baby’s father.’

  ‘And you will always be that. You can spend time with him or her whenever you want, but...’ Her voice trailed off.

  ‘But what?’

  Imogen looked at Marco as he stood there, his tall, athletic body dominating the New York skyline behind him. Just a few moments ago she’d thought she’d seen the real Marco, the man he didn’t want the world to see. She’d been wrong. The real Marco was this commanding man who dominated and dictated. The man who thought he could dangle the carrot of his lifestyle before her and make her do exactly what he wanted.

  ‘What about love, Marco?’ Her words had become a quiet whisper by the time she said his name, her voice frightened away by the severe expression the word ‘love’ had brought to his face.

  ‘Love?’ The word rushed from him like a bullet from a gun.

  ‘Yes, Marco, love.’

  ‘My reason for us to marry is because of our baby, not love.’ He ground the words out as if they were poison, dashing any glimmer of hope she had that after their romantic week on the island they could find love.

  ‘When I marry I want it to be for love.’ Imogen tried to push aside the thought that she would never find a man to love her, the cruel taunts over her weight when she was a teenager surfacing rapidly, wiping away all the time she’d spent accepting herself for who she was. While all the other girls had had an endless stream of boyfriends she’d been at home studying, trying to pretend she didn’t care. Even Gavin, who’d claimed he loved her, had left her and sought the company of glamorous, thin, model-like women.

  ‘But you are pregnant with my baby.’

  ‘This is the twenty-first century, Marco. That doesn’t mean I have to marry you.’

  She watched his brow furrow as he thought of what she’d said and bizarrely she wanted to laugh. The mighty CEO of Silviano Leisure Group had been reduced to confused silence—by her.

  ‘I want to be a part of my child’s life and marriage will give me the security that I can be, even if you insist we are on different sides of the world.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Marco, but I’ve made my decision. Once I have done what I agreed to do, I am returning to England, not marrying you.’

  ‘What else do you expect from me, Imogen?’ His voice had sharpened, and she knew he was frustrated, but this was for the best. Soon enough he would forget her and move on to the next svelte woman. She’d be a fool to think this man was any different fro
m Gavin.

  ‘That’s just it, Marco.’ She stood up and walked towards him, desperate to make him see he didn’t have to do any of this out of a sense of duty. The only way they could be together was if he loved her and, despite the romantic week they’d had on the island, she now knew without any doubt that love was not part of this man’s life. ‘I don’t want or expect anything from you.’

  ‘When I walked into the office you and Julie were talking—she was saying you had to tell me. You must have wanted something from me?’

  ‘You don’t know me at all if you think that.’ Sadness filled her voice. ‘I wanted you to know for the baby’s sake. It’s important to me that my child knows who his or her father is because family is everything. It’s why I agreed to come here in the first place.’

  ‘Then I must convince you that staying here in New York as my wife will be the best way to do that.’ He turned from her. She had no idea if he was brooding over the view or calculating his next move. Either way, she had to make her decision clear to him.

  ‘We can see your father tomorrow, then I’m going home.’ She had to make him understand that a marriage like that was not what she wanted—for her or the baby.

  He turned swiftly to her. ‘You will stay until we have convinced my parents and my sister that we are serious about marriage, that we will be bringing up the baby as a Silviano.’

  Imogen’s emotions were all over the place. In fact, they had been since she’d returned from the island and she’d put that down to missing Marco, to having to end the escape they’d shared. Not for one minute had she thought it was due to being pregnant. Now those emotions were getting the better of her despite his cold attitude. She had to remind herself he was doing this for the baby, for its right to be a Silviano.