The Marciano Love-Child

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘The DNA test will tell us if he is a carrier or likely to develop the disease,’ he said into the silence. ‘We need to prepare ourselves for the results.’

  Scarlett could feel the hammer of dread she had been trying to ignore begin to pound again deep inside her, the shockwaves reverberating with terrifying, sickening clamour inside her head.

  She couldn’t bear the thought of her precious little boy becoming ill in any shape or form, much less with a disease with no known cure at this point in time. The thought of Matthew being a carrier was perhaps a little less distressing, although she imagined it would be a heavy burden for him to carry when he became an adult and started thinking about having children of his own.

  Alessandro sent his hand through the thickness of his glossy black hair and met her gaze once more. ‘I have so many regrets about how I have handled this situation,’ he said. ‘I realise there is very little possibility of you ever forgiving me for letting you down the way I did, but I beg that you will try and find in it in yourself to do so.’

  There was a beat or two of silence.

  ‘I do forgive you, Alessandro,’ she said, surprised that she actually meant it.

  His eyes contained a hint of moisture, and his throat looked as if he was having trouble swallowing. ‘I do not deserve such ready forgiveness, Scarlett,’ he said. ‘You should be making me suffer much more for my sins.’

  She gave him a twisted smile. ‘I think there has been suffering enough on both sides without any more being added to the pile. Matthew is the important one now. We have to concentrate on what his needs are now and in the future.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, sighing as he looked down at his hands for a moment before raising his gaze again. ‘Whatever happens…’ he paused as he fought for control. ‘I want to thank you for having him. It is an experience I had so very determinedly decided I would never have—and yet seeing him living and breathing, laughing and smiling, has made me realise my life would have missed something very precious if fate had not stepped in the way it did.’

  ‘You believe it was fate?’ she asked.

  He gave her a glimmer of a smile. ‘Meeting you that day in Milan was fate, was it not?’ he asked. ‘Remember?’

  Scarlett remembered it all too well—the way she had tripped over something on the pavement and had pitched headlong into Alessandro’s tall body coming the other way, her face practically buried in his groin until she had righted herself with the help of his strong hands on her upper arms.

  The instant jolt of attraction had taken her completely by surprise. Her heart had felt as if it had been short-circuited by the electricity charging from his body to hers where he’d been still holding her. She had smiled up at him in embarrassment, her stomach doing somersaults and backflips when he’d smiled back.

  ‘Yes…’ she said, moistening her mouth. ‘I remember.’

  ‘The ceremony will be a simple one at five in the afternoon,’ he said after a short pause.

  ‘I see,’ she said, not sure there was anything else she could say to stop the fast-moving train of Alessandro’s determination.

  Things were rapidly moving out of her control, and yet she could barely get her voice to frame a protest. It seemed Alessandro was intent on getting things done, and done quickly, and nothing and no one was going to stand in his way. It worried her that she was so willingly going along with everything, but she couldn’t find it in herself to try and stop the process of her life being totally subsumed into his. He was trying to make up for lost time, and yet he had not once mentioned his feelings for her. He cared for Matthew, that much was clear, why else would he have insisted on giving him the protection of his name?

  As to what he felt for her, that remained a mystery. He desired her, but then physical attraction was always so much less complicated for men than for women. It had been that way in their relationship four years ago. She had fallen in love with him but he had not once voiced the reciprocation of those feelings.

  ‘I have also organised an appointment with a dress designer, as well as a hair and make-up session. I will take care of Matthew while you are otherwise occupied.’

  ‘You seem to have thought of everything…’ she said with a little frown. ‘But what about my flat and all my things? I still have six months on my lease.’

  ‘The lease I will take care of,’ he said and, rising to his feet, gave the sitting room a cursory glance before he added, ‘But there does not seem to be very much to move. My staff will see to it during the ceremony so as not to disturb you or Matthew.’

  ‘What about guests?’ she asked. ‘Am I allowed to invite anyone?’

  ‘If you would like to do so, then of course, but I would like to keep things fairly low-key and simple. We will not have a full reception, just some champagne and hors d’oeuvres before we settle in as a family at my house.’

  She gave him a look that contained a hint of petulance. ‘There doesn’t seem much for me to do except turn up at the church on time.’

  ‘I have tried to make things easier for you by taking care of every detail, Scarlett,’ he said with an element of frustration in his tone. ‘It would be unfair to expect you to organise a wedding at short notice on top of your work commitments.’

  ‘You are controlling everything as if I’m a puppet that has to dance when you say so,’ she said as she rose from the sofa in one jerky movement. ‘What about what I want? Have you thought about that?’

  He drew in a breath and came to stand in front of her. ‘I know that you want what is best for Matthew,’ he said. ‘That has been your number-one priority thus far, has it not?’

  She pressed her lips together and lowering her eyes, she nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, of course it has.’

  He tipped up her chin and locked gazes with her. ‘Then on that we are united, cara,’ he said. ‘Is that not a good place on which to start a marriage?’

  ‘I just wish…’ She gnawed at her bottom lip momentarily. ‘I just wish things were different…you know…between us.’

  Scarlett felt him tug her towards him. It was such a gentle movement, but she could feel the steely purpose underpinning it. She went all too willingly, her body coming into contact with his from chest to thigh. She moistened her mouth again, her eyes going to the sensual curve of his, her body set alight by the embers smouldering in his hazel gaze as it secured hers.

  ‘I want you like I have wanted no other woman,’ he said, skimming his hands down to her cup her breasts, and shaping her intimately until she began to whimper in response. ‘I want you now. I told myself I would wait until we are officially married, but I cannot stop this urge to have you in my arms again. I have been fighting it all day.’

  ‘I’ve been fighting it too,’ she confessed. ‘I thought I hated you but….. but I….. but I don’t….’

  His hands stilled on her. ‘I do not want your pity,’ he said, frowning. ‘You do not have to sleep with me because you feel sorry for me.’

  ‘It’s not about that,’ she said in earnest. ‘I want you just as much as you seem to want me, maybe even more so.’

  His hands gently cupped her face. ‘I cannot give you what you want, Scarlett. I cannot give you what you deserve. You spoke of your longing for another child. You must realise I cannot agree to that.’

  ‘But I’m not a carrier,’ she said. ‘Matthew is fine. I just know he is.’ I am praying he is, she inserted silently. ‘We could have another baby, another two babies, and they could be just as healthy as he is.’

  His hands fell away from her face. ‘No. I will not allow a child of mine to suffer the way Marco did.’

  ‘I’ll have a test! Then you’ll see it’s OK.’

  ‘You are forgetting something, Scarlett,’ he said heavily. ‘It is not a matter of playing Russian roulette. I am a carrier, Matthew could be too, and so too could any other child I father. I had genetic counselling years ago. There is a fifty-percent chance of me fathering a child who is a carrier. I do not want that on my conscie
nce.’

  She looked at him in despair. ‘But…but I could already be pregnant.’

  He brought her chin up so she had to meet his gaze. ‘We will deal with it,’ he said. ‘We will deal with it if it turns out you are pregnant.’

  She swallowed back the painful restriction in her throat. ‘You’re not asking me to…to…’

  He shook his head. ‘No, of course not. That is your decision and one I will support either way.’

  ‘I can’t do it, Alessandro,’ she inserted passionately. ‘My father asked it of my mother, and she wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t be here today if she had done what he had insisted.’

  He cupped her face once more, his eyes warm as they held hers. ‘I would not ask that of you. You were very brave to have gone ahead with the pregnancy with Matthew. You had no one to support you, but if you are pregnant this time I will stand by you. But in the meantime all I am asking of you is to give me a chance to be a father to my son.’

  ‘I w-won’t stand in your way,’ she said, emotion contorting her voice. ‘I want you to be there for him. I really do.’

  ‘So you will agree to marry me next Friday?’

  ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes, I will marry you.’

  ‘I hope you will not regret doing so, Scarlett,’ he said. ‘I will make sure you are well provided for if things do not work out.’

  ‘You mean…if…I mean when we get divorced?’

  ‘If anything should happen to Matthew…’ He swallowed tightly and continued. ‘I would not want you to be tied to me, as my mother has been to my father, in a loveless, pointless marriage.’

  She looked up into Alessandro’s tortured face and felt the last, hard nut of her anger dissolve completely. ‘You love him, don’t you? You love Matthew even though you’ve only known him such a short time.’

  He put his hand to the nape of her neck and pulled her back against his chest. ‘Yes,’ he said on the tail end of a deep sigh. ‘I did not think it was possible, as I have not allowed myself to feel anything more than mild affection for anyone for many years.’

  She lifted her head and met his hazel gaze. ‘Is that what you felt for me four years ago—mild affection?’

  A small frown began to pull at Alessandro’s brows as he looked down at her. ‘No,’ he said. ‘What I felt for you was different.’

  She ran her tongue over her lips in an apprehensive gesture, her gaze still locked on his. ‘Are you going to tell me?’ she asked.

  He lifted her off her feet and carried her to her bedroom next door. ‘I would much rather show you,’ he said, and kicked the door shut with his foot.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  SCARLETT WOKE during the early hours of the morning to find one of Alessandro’s hair-roughened thighs lying heavily over one of her smoother ones, and her breasts pressed against the possessive band of his arm. Her bottom was wedged against his pelvis, the hard ridge of his erection nudging her provocatively from behind.

  She wriggled experimentally, and his mouth began to nuzzle against her neck. ‘You are not tired of me yet, cara?’ he asked in smouldering tones.

  Scarlett knew she would never be tired of him. He made her whole body pulse and hum with erotic delight, and even though they had made love twice earlier she felt her need for him building all over again. ‘I thought you were asleep,’ she said, too shy to admit how much she wanted him.

  He turned her over, his body pressing its delicious temptation against hers. ‘I was, but I was dreaming of you,’ he said. ‘I have done that a lot just lately.’

  Hope lifted like a balloon in her chest. ‘Have you?’

  He smiled and pressed a teasing kiss to the side of her mouth, so close to, but not quite touching, her lips that tingled for his touch. ‘Not just lately,’ he confessed. ‘For years, actually. I have never forgotten how you felt in my arms.’

  Scarlett felt her love for him rising to the surface of her skin like champagne bubbles spilling over the rim of a glass. She was overflowing with love for him. Every pore of her body was soaked with it. She touched his face, her soft fingers catching on the stubble that had grown along his jawline in the hours they had been in bed, her stomach doing a little fluttery movement as he reached past her for where his wallet was lying on the bedside table.

  ‘I have only one condom left,’ he said as he tore open the packet with his teeth. ‘That is, unless you have a supply handy.’

  A tiny frown pulled at her forehead. ‘I told you, Alessandro, I haven’t slept with anyone since you. Don’t you believe me?’

  It seemed a long time before he answered. ‘Yes, I believe you.’

  She looked at him, her stomach tripping over itself at the look of respect she could see in his eyes as they held hers.

  ‘You have been a wonderful mother to my son,’ he said in a husky tone. ‘I know I have said it before, but I do not know how to thank you for protecting him the way you have done. You have sacrificed your own life to provide for him.’

  ‘I love him, Alessandro,’ she said softly. ‘As soon as I knew I was carrying him I loved him.’ And I love you too, she desperately wanted to add, but she realised he wasn’t quite ready to hear it.

  So much had happened in such a short time. He was struggling with a host of complex emotions—regret, guilt and grief at what he had lost so far in his little son’s life. She could see the pain in his eyes; it was etched too in every chiselled feature on his face. She would only be adding to his burden of guilt to tell him she had never stopped loving him.

  Besides, he might not believe her. He might think she was only saying it out of pity, as he had hinted at earlier. He was a private man, but a very proud one for all that. There would hopefully be time after they were married and Matthew’s health status was established.

  She reached up and stroked his face again, his gaze burning with sensual promise as it held hers.

  ‘I cannot wait much longer,’ he said, his now-sheathed body searching for the silken warmth of hers. ‘I do not want to make you sore, but I cannot quench my desire for you.’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, opening her legs to accommodate him, sighing in bliss when he surged into her heated core. ‘It feels as if you have never been away.’

  He kissed her deeply, his tongue setting fire to hers as his body rocked against her in the passionate climb to the summit of sensual release. Scarlett was with him every step of the way, her body tensing exquisitely, inexorably, as he brought her breathlessly to that final moment of suspension between agony and ecstasy.

  She finally tipped over with a high cry of pleasure that came from deep within her body, the waves rolling her over and over until she was lying totally spent in his arms. Her breathing was still choppy and uneven as she felt him pump himself to paradise, his harsh groan of release making her skin lift in a shiver of delight that she had brought him to this moment.

  She stroked his back with her fingers, up and down in slow, sweeping, caressing movements that brought another sigh of deep pleasure from his throat. ‘You have such a sensual touch,’ he said against her neck, the movement of his lips tickling her sensitive skin.

  ‘I’m a little out of practice,’ she said, becoming bolder as she stroked the taut curve of his buttocks.

  He propped himself up on his elbows to look down at her. ‘I am sure we will get you back up to scratch in no time at all.’

  She toyed with a strand of his hair that persisted in falling forward. ‘How long do you think our marriage will last?’ she asked, not quite able to meet his eyes.

  He frowned, and captured her hand to still its movements. ‘I cannot really answer that,’ he said. ‘No one can answer that these days. It is up to so many variables.’

  ‘It’s a big commitment,’ she said, bringing her eyes back to his. ‘And a legally binding one.’

  A glint of cynicism entered his gaze. ‘I have already told you that you will be well provided for if or when we decide to bring the marriage to an end.’
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  ‘I wasn’t suggesting—’

  ‘Before we marry there are legal papers to sign,’ he said. ‘I have to protect my business interests and my shareholders. I do not mean any offence, but that is the way it has to be. Prenuptial agreements are more or less commonplace these days.’

  ‘Not between couples who trust each other,’ she said. ‘You seem to be suggesting that I will take the first opportunity I can to grab half of your assets.’

  ‘You have every motivation to do so, Scarlett,’ he reminded her. ‘What better revenge than to have me lulled into a false sense of security? I have let you down—not intentionally, of course, but no less despicably, and dare I say unforgivably. Even though you say you have forgiven me, you could very well be quietly plotting and planning your revenge—but I am not going to allow it to come to fruition for one reason and one reason only.’

  ‘Let me guess,’ she said with a scornful glare as she tried ineffectually to get out from under the erotic weight of his body entrapping hers. ‘Your pride is the issue at stake here. That’s all you really care about it, isn’t it? Your damned pride.’

  ‘No,’ he said, capturing her flailing hands and holding them above her head. ‘This is not about my pride. It is about our son. He does not deserve to be exposed to whatever bitterness we feel towards each other.’

  Scarlett felt tipped off course emotionally as she struggled against his hold. She was the one who was supposed to be feeling bitter, not him. What did he have to feel bitter about? It wasn’t as if she had kept their child a secret from him. She had been upfront and honest from the word go, but he had chosen not to believe her. ‘Let me go,’ she bit out, arching and bucking beneath him.

  His green-brown eyes glinted as her body came into intimate contact with his. ‘You do not really mean that, Scarlett, now do you?’

  She arched her spine again, but it only intensified the intimacy. She couldn’t resist him now. She gasped in submission as he slid inside her needy warmth, her body wrapping around him tightly, almost greedily.