by Lynne Graham
CHAPTER FIVE
THE next morning, Kathy woke up feeling sick again.
Although she was afraid of using the pregnancy test she had bought too soon and wasting it, her nerves would no longer stand the prospect of a longer wait. It shook her that it took so little time to perform a test that was of earth-shattering importance to her life. A few minutes later and she had the result that she had dreaded: she was going to have a baby. Her tummy flipped with panic and nausea and she had to make a dash for the bathroom. In the aftermath, even a morsel of toast was more than her tender digestive system could contemplate.
Had she but known it, Sergio was not having a very satisfactory start to his day, either. He had only just arrived at the Torrente building when his senior executive PA, Paola, and his security chief, Renzo Catallone, requested an urgent meeting with him.
Paola laid the watch that Sergio had never expected to see again down on his desk. ‘I’m really sorry, sir. I’m very upset about this. I came into the office very early on the morning I went on holiday because I wanted to check that I’d taken care of everything before I left. I saw your watch lying on the floor of your office and I locked it in a drawer in my desk for safe keeping—’
‘You found my watch?’ Sergio interrupted with incredulity. ‘And said nothing?’
‘I was in a hurry to leave. There was nobody else around. I did email another staff member to say where your watch was, but evidently the message was overlooked,’ the troubled brunette explained unhappily. ‘When I came back to work this morning, someone mentioned that your watch had gone missing and that everyone thought it had been stolen. It was only then that I realised that nobody knew what I’d done.’
That morning, Kathy could not help noticing every pregnant woman in her vicinity and she was amazed by how many of them there seemed to be. Even though the reality of her predicament had yet to sink in she could feel panic waiting to pounce on her. Other women managed to cope with unplanned pregnancies and so would she, she told herself doggedly. She had to consider all the options open to her and stay calm. But if she chose to be a single parent she would not be able to manage without financial help—his financial help. That lowering prospect made Kathy stiffen with distaste. She could not forget Sergio Torrente’s crack about how having his child would be a ‘lucrative lifestyle choice.’
‘Call for you,’ Kathy was told by her colleague on Reception.
‘Why are you not answering your mobile?’ Sergio enquired, his rich dark drawl thrumming down the line and paralysing her to the spot.
‘I’m not allowed to take personal calls. I’m sorry I can’t talk to you,’ Kathy told him flatly and cut the connection, furious that he had dared to phone her. Was there no limit to his arrogance? Was he incapable of appreciating that she wanted nothing to do with him? The night before he had left her in peace to get dressed and eat the meal that was brought to her. She had travelled home in a limo and cried herself to sleep. Of course, she would have to speak to him sooner or later, she acknowledged reluctantly. But just then later had much more appeal to her than sooner.
Mid-morning a spectacular designer flower arrangement was delivered to her. Kathy opened a card signed only with Sergio’s initials. Why was he phoning her and sending her flowers? Uncomfortably aware of the amount of attention the extravagant vase of exotic tiger lilies and grasses was generating, she tried to hand it back to the delivery man. ‘I’m sorry but I don’t want this—’
‘That’s not my problem,’ he told her and off he went.
An hour later, another phone call came from Sergio, but she refused to take it. At noon, her supervisor approached her and took her aside to speak to her in a low voice. ‘You can take extra time for your lunch break today. In fact, I’ve been told to tell you that it’ll be fine if you want to take the rest of the afternoon off.’
Kathy studied her in bewilderment. ‘But why?’
‘The boss received a special request from the CEO. I believe Mr Torrente’s driver is waiting outside for you.’
Kathy flushed to the roots of her hairline. She wanted to sink through the floor. But as she parted her lips to protest that she did not wish to see Sergio and had no wish whatsoever to be singled out for special treatment the other woman went into retreat, her uneasiness palpable. Sergio had the subtlety of a ram-raider, Kathy thought in outraged embarrassment as she squirmed beneath the covert glances and low-pitched buzz of comment that accompanied her departure from the agency. What Sergio wanted he had to have and he refused to wait.
Fizzing with fierce resentment, Kathy climbed into the waiting Mercedes. Should she tell him that she was pregnant? Or did she need to deal with her own feelings before she made an announcement? Fifteen minutes later, she was set down in front of an exclusive hotel. A doorman ushered her into the opulent interior. One of Sergio’s bodyguards greeted her in the foyer and escorted her into the lift. She was shown into a palatial reception room.
Sergio strolled through the balcony doors that stood ajar and came to a fluid halt. As an entrance it was unrivalled in the performance stakes, for he was a dazzlingly good-looking guy. Her heart jumped and her breath shortened in her throat. No matter how she felt about Sergio, or how often she saw him, his physical impact did not lessen. Her response was involuntary. She looked at him and she knew she would look again and again and again. It was as if some wanton, rebellious sixth sense of hers had already forged a permanent connection with him.
‘What do I say?’ His dark drawl as rich and smooth as vintage wine, Sergio spread graceful lean brown hands. ‘I am rarely at a loss, but I don’t know what to say to you—’
‘Well, believe me, I’m not stuck for words!’ Kathy broke in to tell him roundly. ‘How dare you put me in a position where I had no choice but to come here and see you? I liked my job. But what you did today—going to the boss to demand that I get out of work—was the equivalent of career suicide!’
‘I needed to see you and I made a polite request. Don’t exaggerate.’
‘I’m not exaggerating.’ Her apple-green eyes were bright with indignation. ‘I didn’t know that you owned the advertising agency, as well as the recruitment company. A request from the CEO is the same as a demand. Now you’ve made it obvious that we have some kind of personal connection, I’ll be the equivalent of a plague-carrier at work! After this, nobody’s going to take me seriously and my colleagues will be counting the days until my temporary contract ends.’
Sergio expelled his breath on a measured hiss. ‘If there is a problem, I’ll secure employment for you elsewhere.’
Her slim white hands knotted into fists of frustration. ‘Nothing is that simple. Is that really all you have to say?’
‘No. I had to see you today to apologise.’ His astute dark eyes were level and unflinching. ‘My watch was not stolen, it was misplaced. Please accept my sincere regrets for accusing you of something which you did not do.’
That change of subject and the information that his watch had been found momentarily distracted Kathy and her brows pleated.
‘But there is one thing that I cannot understand,’ Sergio continued with a slow shake of his handsome dark head. ‘Why on earth did you admit to stealing my watch in the first place?’
‘What else could I do? You didn’t believe me when I told you I hadn’t taken it!’
‘You didn’t persist in pleading your innocence for very long. When you offered to play me for my watch, I naturally took it as a confession of guilt and I acted accordingly.’
‘You acted appallingly.’ Anger drove colour up over Kathy’s slanted cheekbones as she voiced that contradiction.
‘I’m not a soft touch. If you offend me I fight back. Circumstances weren’t in your favour. You are a convicted thief and it did colour my judgement.’ Sergio traded that defence without hesitation. ‘But if you had not challenged me to that game on the terms that you did, I would not have slept with you last night.’
Kathy trembled with rage. ‘So, even
though you have apologised, it’s really all my own fault?’
‘That was not what I said. I fired my security chief over this affair today—’
‘The ex-policeman? You gave him the sack for jumping to the same conclusion about me that you did?’ Kathy exclaimed in disgust. ‘How can you be so unjust?’
Disconcerted by that reaction, Sergio breathed, ‘Unjust? How?’
‘Unlike you, that man never met me and had no personal knowledge of me. He was only doing his job. You should blame yourself for misjudging me, not him.’
‘Your compassion for Renzo surprises me. Why don’t we discuss our differences over lunch?’
‘I’d have to be starving to eat with you!’ Kathy flung back, unimpressed.
‘I love your passion, but I am less fond of drama, cara mia.’
Powerful dissatisfaction gripped Kathy, for she felt like a wave trying to batter a granite rock into subjection. He was stonewalling her. Her accusations had washed clean off him again. Her pain and anger were rising in direct proportion to her inability to break through his ice cool façade. ‘Last night I was afraid you would call the police. I was terrified of ending up back in jail. That’s the only reason I slept with you and I truly hate you for it—’
‘You’re angry with me. I accept that and I’m prepared to make amends by whatever means are within my power. But I do not accept that you only shared my bed out of fear.’
Fury roared through Kathy in an energising flood. ‘Of course, you’re going to say that!’
‘But we both know that that claim is untrue.’ Sergio rested glittering golden eyes on her in a challenging look as scorching as his touch.
The atmosphere was electric.
Kathy was so tense her muscles ached. Her heart thumped inside her tight chest. She sucked in a ragged breath. ‘Don’t tell me what I know.’
‘Then admit the obvious. The sexual chemistry between us is extraordinarily strong. Don’t you know how rare it is to feel this much excitement just being in the same room with someone?’ Sergio murmured huskily.
Her legs felt weak and wobbly. The butterflies were back in her tummy and her mouth was running dry. ‘That doesn’t matter—’
‘It always matters.’
A fleeting encounter with his brilliant predatory gaze pierced her with a flood of erotic awareness. The sensitive peaks of her breasts tingled. She remembered the taste and the urgency of his mouth on hers. Her slender hands tightened into defensive fists. Excitement was like a dangerous drug in her veins, powering a sensual awakening. She shivered in the grip of that madness and fought her weakness with all her might, her anger surfacing again. ‘I don’t want anything more to do with you—’
‘But if I touched you now you’d burn up in my arms, delizia mia,’ Sergio savoured that forecast with blazing assurance.
‘Don’t even think of getting that close!’ Her reaction was raw in tone. ‘I’m not stupid. I know how you think of me. You were too quick to remind me today that I’m a convicted thief. You said that in virtually the same breath as you apologised for accusing me of stealing your watch.’
Sergio rested unrepentant dark eyes on her. ‘I won’t lie or prevaricate. How do you expect me to feel about your history as a former offender? It’s not acceptable. How could it be?’
Kathy was stunned to feel a prickly surge of tears threatening the backs of her eyes. She wasn’t the tearful sort, but around him she was not her rational self and her emotions were in a chaotic tangle. How would he react when she told him that regardless of her shameful history she had conceived his child? Just then she couldn’t handle the thought or the prospect of that humiliation. She focused studiously on the balcony where she could see the corner of a table and a crystal wineglass. ‘I hope I’m getting a lift back to work,’ she said tightly. ‘I only get an hour for lunch and I’m already late.’
‘I want you to stay,’ Sergio spelt out.
‘You can’t always have what you want.’ Kathy was struggling to control the see sawing thoughts and feelings attacking her in waves. ‘Things have become more complicated than you appreciate.’
‘What things?’ Impatience stamped his lean dark features and his intonation.
His only use for her was sexual, Kathy thought in bitter mortification. But no doubt his ease of conquest had encouraged that attitude and she knew she could not blame him entirely for that. Even so, the base line was that he had the blue-blooded arrogance of wealth and privilege and her criminal conviction made her the lowest of the low in his eyes. That would never, ever change. She wondered why she was holding back on telling him that she was pregnant, for the passage of time would alter nothing. Indeed, she reasoned heavily, breaking the bad news and giving him the chance to come to terms with the idea was probably the more dignified plan of action to follow.
‘I’m pregnant,’ Kathy told him flatly. ‘I did the test at home this morning.’
The silence that fell was bottomless, absolute and endless to her fast fraying nerves.
The instant she spoke, Sergio had veiled his keen dark gaze. His olive skin took on a faint ashen tone that she put down to shock. But that was his sole visible reaction, for his reserve and self-discipline triumphed. ‘A doctor should check out that result,’ he drawled without inflection. ‘I’ll organise it right now.’
Disconcerted by his cold-blooded calm, Kathy gave an uncertain nod of agreement. He was already using the phone and a few minutes later he told her that he had arranged a private medical appointment.
‘If it’s confirmed, have you any idea what you want to do?’ Sergio enquired.
Her tension increased at that warning glimpse of a guy who preferred to solve every problem at speed. ‘I don’t want a termination,’ she said in a taut undertone, feeling that it was only fair to tell him that up front.
‘I wasn’t going to suggest that option.’ Sergio escorted her from the suite.
Lunch, she noted, was no longer on his agenda. In the lift, she said awkwardly, ‘You don’t need to come with me to see the doctor.’
‘We’re in this together.’
‘The doctor can confirm the result. That’s all you need to know at this stage.’
‘I was trying to be supportive.’
Kathy shrugged a narrow shoulder, reluctant to be drawn. She didn’t trust him. She didn’t want to be put under pressure. The very fact that he was being careful not to betray his true feelings about her condition put her on her guard.
‘I’ll see you tonight, then,’ Sergio conceded.
‘I’d like a few days to think over all this.’
‘How many days?’
As the uneasy silence thundered Sergio closed a hand over hers. ‘Kathy…’ he prompted.
‘I’ll phone you.’ She tugged her fingers free from his, setting a boundary as much for her own benefit as for his. Although he did not voice his dissatisfaction the atmosphere had acquired a distinct chill.
Little more than an hour later, the smoothly spoken middle-aged gynaecologist confirmed that she was pregnant and warned her that she was underweight. A nurse gave her a sheaf of advisory leaflets. There and then, the new life Kathy carried within her began to seem rather more real to her. Back at the advertising agency she tried not to seem conscious of the curious looks she was receiving and the sudden silences when she passed by. Quite deliberately, she stayed late to make up the time she had missed over lunch.
The following morning when she arrived at work a colourful weekly gossip magazine was lying on her chair. Carefully folded open at the relevant page, it showed Sergio emerging from a New York nightclub with a famous young film actress clinging to him for support. A voluptuous blonde, Christabel Janson was reportedly very taken with her latest lover. Her throat so tight that it ached and her mood plummeting, Kathy forced a smile onto her lips that felt like concrete and dropped the magazine into the bin. Well, that was that. Someone had done her a favour in drawing that picture to her attention. It had certainly nipped any foo
lish expectations or romantic fancies in the bud. She might be expecting Sergio Torrente’s child, but that really was the sum total of any continuing relationship that they now had.
That evening when Kathy took her break at the café, she told Bridget everything.
During that confessional, Bridget made several brusque comments about Sergio and gave the younger woman a reassuring hug. ‘Falling pregnant is not the end of the world, so stop talking as though it is—’
Kathy gulped. ‘I’m terrified—’
‘It’s the shock. Not to mention the fright Sergio Torrente gave you when he assumed that you had stolen his watch,’ Bridget muttered tight-mouthed. ‘When I think of what you’ve already gone through, his attitude makes my blood boil.’
‘At least he was honest,’ Kathy muttered heavily. ‘But I hate him for it. How fair is that?’
‘Forget about him. I’m more concerned about you.’
‘Why am I crying all the time?’ Kathy lamented, hauling out a tissue to mop at her overflowing eyes.
‘Hormones,’ Bridget answered succinctly.
Over the next forty-eight hours Kathy discovered two missed calls from Sergio on her mobile and she kept it switched off because she didn’t want to speak to him. That evening she had an unexpected visitor when Renzo Catallone knocked on the door of her bedsit.
‘I’d like to speak to you. Will you give me five minutes?’ the former police officer asked bluntly.
Pale and stiff with unease, Kathy gave him a grudging nod.
‘Mr Torrente has given me my job back as his chief of security,’ Renzo volunteered. ‘I understand that I have you to thank for that change of heart.’
Kathy was astonished by that assurance. ‘But I only pointed out that it wasn’t fair to blame you for misjudging me when you didn’t actually know me.’
‘In the circumstances, it was very generous of you to make that point on my behalf,’ the older man told her warmly. ‘I wanted to thank you and tell you that if there is ever anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask for my help.’