Shock: One-Night Heir

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘But we…we’re not supposed to sleep together,’ she faltered.

  ‘The doctor didn’t say we shouldn’t,’ he said. ‘I specifically asked him while you were getting dressed in the ultrasound room. He just said to be careful, not to be too vigorous about it.’

  Maya was incensed he had discussed it without her being there but, then again, she thought she might have found it excruciatingly embarrassing if he had. ‘I didn’t agree to resume a physical relationship with you as if nothing has changed,’ she said. ‘We’ve been separated for months. You can’t expect me to jump back into bed with you as if nothing drove me out of it in the first place.’

  ‘You left, not me,’ he said in a clipped I-am-nearing-the-end-of-my-patience tone. ‘And anyway, you jumped back into it pretty quickly once you had the chance. I barely touched you that night before you were tearing at me like a wild woman.’

  Maya had never slapped anyone in her life. She abhorred violence of any sort, but somehow, without her even realising she was doing it until it was too late, her hand flew through the air and connected with the side of his jaw in a stinging slap that jerked his head sideways.

  She watched in silent horror as a dark red angry patch appeared on the side of his face. She put both of her hands up to her mouth, covering her gasp of shock at what she had done.

  The air tightened as if someone was pulling it from opposite ends of the room.

  Anger, disgust and scorn burned in Giorgio’s gaze as it held hers.

  Fear, shame and remorse filled Maya’s eyes with tears. ‘I’m sorry…’ She choked over the words. ‘I don’t know what came over me…I’m so sorry…Did I hurt you?’

  He moved a step closer, taking her still stinging hand and placing it on the side of his face, holding it there like a cold press. His eyes continued to hold hers, but they had lost their glint of anger. His mouth lifted upwards in a wry version of a smile. ‘You really are surging with hormones, aren’t you, tesore mio?’ he said. ‘I have never known you to strike out like that, but then I think perhaps I deserved it, si?’

  ‘No, it was wrong of me.’ Maya removed her hand from his face and, stepping up on tiptoe, placed her lips there instead. Her lips clung like silk to sandpaper to the stubble on his jaw. Her breath stalled as she filled her nostrils with his male scent: the grace notes of lemon on a citrus stave.

  Time froze in place, as if someone had blocked the second hand of the clock from ticking any further.

  Maya felt her breath hitch in her throat as it got started again, her eyelids fluttering and then closing in silent surrender as Giorgio’s mouth came down and covered hers.

  Chapter Nine

  THE thing that most took Maya by surprise was how tender Giorgio’s kiss was. The night of his brother’s wedding, the passion had flared like a struck match. They had both hungrily fed off each other’s mouths like wild animals. It had been primal and sizzling and totally out of control.

  This was different.

  So exquisitely, breathtakingly different.

  This was slow and sensual but no less sizzling. She felt the heat come up from her toes, melting her spine along the way, pooling in a lake of need at the very core of her being.

  His tongue stroked ever so softly against the seam of her mouth and she opened to him, sighing with pleasure as he slid through to meet hers, curling around it like old lovers embracing after a long absence.

  He tasted so familiar and yet so dangerously new: exciting and exotic, tantalisingly male and torturously tempting. Her tongue flirted with his, any thought of not following through with this long gone now. She wanted more of his kiss, more of his touch, more of what he had given her during that night just over six weeks ago, more of what she had secretly longed for ever since.

  His mouth continued its tender assault on hers as his hands moved to the small of her back, pressing her into the hardened warmth of his body. She felt his erection, that delicious reminder of the power and potency that was hers for the asking. How could she say no to this? Her body was already screaming for the release it craved. She felt it in every pore of her skin, the tightening, tingling feeling of crawling need that overruled any common sense she possessed.

  His hands moved again, this time to unbutton her shirt, button by button, each deliberately slow movement of his fingers ramping up her need. She felt the brush of his fingertips in the valley of her cleavage, her skin bursting into joy at that brief contact.

  She pushed up against him, a silent plea for more. He gave it, lowering his mouth to her now uncovered breast, suckling on it hotly, teasing the tight nipple with his teeth until she gasped at the sensations rushing through her like a torrent. Her breasts seemed overly sensitive and she felt her inner core responding to each and every caress of his lips and tongue. It was unlike anything she had felt before.

  ‘You feel bigger,’ he said in a low sexy voice as he moved to her other breast.

  ‘Hormones,’ she managed to croak out as he took her other breast in his mouth and sent her off on another tingling journey of delight.

  His mouth came back to hers and kissed her with renewed purpose. There was an edginess about his kiss, as if his passion for her was being stoked beyond his earlier control. Maya urged him on, not caring that she might regret her actions later. This was about now, about having her needs met and meeting his.

  ‘Dio,’ Giorgio said, tearing his mouth away and breathing hard. ‘I don’t think I can do this. I might not be able to control myself. I might hurt you or the baby.’

  Disappointment was like a slap with an ice-cold wet towel. ‘You said the doctor said it would be all right,’ she said, tying her arms around his neck to stop him pulling away.

  His chest rose and fell against hers. ‘Maya, I want you so badly.’

  She pulled his head back down to his. ‘Then have me,’ she whispered against his mouth.

  He lifted her in his arms as if she weighed practically nothing and carried her upstairs to the master bedroom. He laid her on the bed, dispensing of his clothes, watching with furnace-hot eyes as she did the same with hers.

  He came down beside her, placing one leg over her to balance his weight, careful not to crush her, his mouth covering hers again in a kiss which stoked the fire that was burning deep inside her.

  She reached between their bodies to take him in her hand, to feel that glorious silky length of him, to feel the thunder of his blood against the curl of her fingers. She began to stroke him rhythmically, the up and down sweep of her hand inciting a growl of desire from the back of his throat. She saw him suck in his ridged abdomen and secretly delighted in the feminine power she had over him.

  He pushed her hand away with a grunt and began to kiss his way down her body, starting at her breasts, travelling down her sternum, lingering over the tiny pucker of her belly button, before going to the cleanly waxed heart of her. He touched the soft naked skin, his eyes gleaming with pleasure. ‘I noticed how sexy you looked when we were at the doctor’s,’ he said. ‘I thought you might have stopped waxing after we separated.’

  ‘I got used to it like this,’ she said, wriggling so his fingers kept working their magic. ‘It feels fresher.’

  ‘It’s so damn sexy,’ he said, bringing his mouth down to taste her.

  Maya lifted her back off the bed in response. She was so close to going over the edge, every nerve was twitching and dancing, poised to let go. But he made her wait. He strung out her pleasure, leading her to the edge again and again before pulling her back before she could freefall into oblivion. In the end she was almost weeping, begging him to let her come.

  Finally he gave her what she wanted, but not quite how she wanted it. He used his mouth and tongue with clever little licks and flicks that sent her into a thousand pieces of pleasure, her whole body shook and rocked with it, making her shudder with the aftershocks.

  ‘Now it’s my turn,’ he said, bringing her hand back down to his erection.

  ‘But don’t you want to…?�
�� How silly, she thought, to be so coy about something they had done so many times in the past. ‘Don’t you want to come inside me?’

  He kissed her neck, nuzzling there until she squirmed as her skin tingled in response. ‘Of course I do but no rough sex until we get the all-clear,’ he said. ‘You know exactly what speed and pressure I like.’

  Maya did as he said, her belly quivering in excitement as she watched him prepare to let go. Her hand tightened around him, the slippery movements making him tense all over before he spilled over her stomach with a guttural groan of release, such an intimate act, so raw, so intensely erotic.

  She lay back, looking at him, wondering if he had any idea how much she loved him. He could so easily have insisted on full on sex, but he hadn’t. He had done all he could to protect their tiny baby.

  The baby he wanted more than anything.

  The baby he wanted more than her.

  It was a painful reminder of the tenuous position she was in. He was insisting their marriage would continue, regardless of whether or not they were successful in having a child, but what sort of marriage would that be? Would he have numerous affairs, as his father had done years ago until he had finally settled down? Would she be as forgiving as Giovanna had been? Maya wasn’t so sure she could handle a philandering husband. Turning a blind eye required much more strength and confidence than she possessed.

  Giorgio rose from the bed and reached for his trousers.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Maya asked.

  ‘To get you a cool drink and something to eat,’ he said, sliding up his zip. ‘It’s been ages since we left my grandfather’s place. You need to keep your nourishment up.’

  It was all about the baby, Maya thought as she turned her back to stare at the wall once he had left. Please, my precious little baby, don’t die on me, she begged as she placed a gentle hand on her abdomen. Please, please, please…

  When Giorgio came back with a drink and some food on a tray Maya was soundly asleep. She was curled up with one of her hands tucked under her cheek, the dark fan of her eyelashes such a contrast to her platinum blond hair.

  He set the tray down carefully and sat on the edge of the bed, just watching her.

  Sometimes he found it hard to unravel what he felt about his wife. He had never intended to fall in love with her or anyone. For most of his life he had worked hard to keep his emotions in check. He had shut off his feelings to protect himself, just as he had done when he had found his baby sister lying cold in her cot. The shattered emotions of his parents had terrified him as a child; he had imagined he or one of his brothers would be next to die unexpectedly, or even one of his parents. It had affected him far more deeply than he had ever let on, mostly for his parents’ sake. They had needed him to be strong, to be there for his younger brothers, just as he’d had to be strong when his father was injured and subsequently died. There had not been time for his own grief to surface. He’d had to see to the business side of things: to arrange the massive funeral, to transfer all the important documents into his name and so on. He had switched to automatic. He had done it so often during his life that most of the time he wasn’t even aware he was doing it any more.

  Emotion frightened him. The vulnerability of loving too much terrified him. Loving someone too much left you open to unthinkable pain if they were taken away from you.

  He saw it in Maya, the way she let her emotions control her until there was no control. She was at the mercy of her feelings, tossed about and worn out by them instead of facing things rationally.

  But then that was Maya, the woman he had been attracted to from the first moment he had met her. Shy, virginal, not sure of herself, a little girl lost looking for a large family to envelop and protect her.

  He reached out and brushed a strand of her hair back off her cheek. She let out a tiny sigh, her lips fluttering with the movement of air, just like a child’s. He looked down at where her other hand was pressed, softly and protectively against her belly.

  He felt his heart give a painful squeeze and he gently laid his hand over the top of hers and silently prayed for the child they had conceived, not in love and mutual desire, but in anger and bitterness.

  Giorgio hoped to God it would not suffer for his sins.

  Maya woke during the night and found Giorgio lying propped up on one elbow watching her in the light of the moon that shone in from one of the windows. There was a slight frown over his eyes, making him look troubled, as if something was weighing heavily on his mind. ‘I hope I didn’t disturb you,’ she said, running her tongue over her dust-dry lips.

  He picked up some wayward strands of her hair and tucked them behind her ear. ‘You didn’t disturb me,’ he said. ‘I often have trouble sleeping.’

  She shivered in delight as his long fingers brushed and then lingered against the skin of her neck once he had secured her hair. ‘You work too hard,’ she said huskily. ‘You drive yourself all the time. When was the last time you had a day off?’

  He gave a rueful movement of his lips as his fingers found another few strands of her hair to toy with. ‘I have a large corporation to run, Maya,’ he said. ‘Especially now, with my grandfather fading so quickly.’

  ‘But surely Luca and Nic are helping you?’

  He gently coiled her hair around his index finger. ‘They are a great support and both work very hard but there are some things I just have to see to myself.’

  ‘You didn’t answer my question,’ she pointed out. ‘When did you last have a day to yourself?’

  He let her hair unravel from his finger as his eyes came back to hers. ‘I will take some time off once my grandfather passes,’ he answered. ‘Maybe we could go somewhere together if the doctor gives the all clear to travel. It could be like a second honeymoon.’

  Maya traced her fingertip over the sculptured contour of his top lip, his dark stubble catching on her soft skin. ‘If we lose this baby…’

  He captured her finger and tenderly kissed the end of it, his eyes still holding hers. ‘We haven’t lost it so far, cara,’ he said. ‘Hang on to that hope. We have come this far. Hopefully, we can this time around have what we both want.’

  As his mouth came down to cover hers, Maya said a silent prayer that somehow what he said would be true, even though she was well aware that she wanted much more than he was prepared to give.

  Chapter Ten

  OVER the coming weeks Maya saw less and less of Giorgio. Salvatore’s illness had progressed to the point where he needed around the clock care. Giorgio had to divide his time between keeping the intrusive press at bay, as well as seeing to his grandfather’s affairs on top of his own workload, which was considerable at the best of times. Maya began to see for the first time since they had married that the frenetic fast-paced life he lived was not perhaps his choice, but rather something he did because so many people relied on him. It made her more committed to trying to support him in the background, making sure the villa was a comfortable and quiet refuge when he came home, sometimes well after she had gone to bed.

  She was still getting used to being back at the villa. It was a different environment without the crew of household workers that had worked there previously. The new sense of space gave her time to think. She was too frightened to plan too far ahead, but she was content for the time being to support Giorgio as much as she could through the difficult time of facing his grandfather’s passing. She even spent long hours with Salvatore in order to give some of the other family members a break. She enjoyed sitting there with the old man, chatting to him if and when he felt up to it, or simply reading the paper to him or from one of his favourite novels.

  In spite of his long absences from the villa, Giorgio still shared Maya’s bed at night. She looked forward to those passionate interludes, when he would silently reach for her, gathering her into his arms and showing her a world of sultry hot delights that made her flesh hum and sing for hours afterwards. He still refused to have penetrative sex, which she found frustrat
ing, but she was hopeful now that she had passed the danger zone of her pregnancy he would soon change his mind.

  She was now close to twelve weeks pregnant. She still could barely believe it. Even seeing the baby on the follow-up ultrasound she’d had earlier that week seemed like a dream. As each day passed she felt a fraction less terrified that this too would end in despair.

  That Giorgio was thrilled about the progress of her pregnancy was unmistakable, but what was less certain was what he felt about her. To be fair to him, she understood he had a lot on his mind at present, so his air of distraction at times had probably very little to do with her but more to do with the stress he was dealing with. He was gentle and solicitous towards her. No one looking in from the outside would take him for anything but a loving husband, proudly awaiting the birth of his surprise baby.

  Giorgio’s family showed no signs of thinking anything different. Maya and Giorgio had joined them for dinner at Giovanna’s invitation only the week before. Although, of course, everyone was feeling rather subdued because of Salvatore’s deterioration and because he was too unwell to join them downstairs, the event proved to Maya that the family took it for granted she was back in the Sabbatini fold and was not going anywhere in a hurry.

  Bronte, Luca’s lovely wife, was fast becoming a friend. Maya had offered to help her learn Italian and they had enjoyed a couple of sessions at the villa with little Ella joining in with much enthusiasm. Maya had loved being with the little toddler, who seemed to be blossoming as each day passed. Bronte too, who was fourteen weeks pregnant now and glowing with it, helped Maya to feel a little less worried that things would go wrong this time around.

  The persistent and rather hideous nausea Maya was still experiencing, Bronte assured her, was a fantastic sign, similar to what Giorgio had said, which the doctor too had confirmed only that afternoon when she had gone in for a check-up.

  Maya was sitting curled up with a book waiting for Giorgio to come home when she heard the front door of the villa open and close. Gonzo whined as if he sensed something was wrong even before Giorgio walked into the room.