The Count's Christmas Baby

by Rebecca Winters

  “Sami? I’m curious about something. If you hadn’t traveled to Innsbruck, do you think you would have changed your mind about Matt?” The possibility that those two could still get together had been troubling him to the point he had to ask her about it.

  “No.”

  “Yet since the avalanche you’ve left a door open for him.”

  She sighed. “Learning of my pregnancy, I realized another little person was going to be totally dependent on me. When I was young, my parents were taken from me. I was sad my baby would also be deprived of a father, so I determined I would be there for my son or daughter every minute.

  “But Matt’s a great guy and I have no doubts he’d be a great father. Maybe in time I could learn to love him as I should. I’m sure you know what that’s like. But if we married, I’m worried he would feel he comes in second best with me because of the baby. That wouldn’t be fair to him. He deserves to start out marriage with a woman who doesn’t have a history like mine. No one has a history like ours, Ric,” she half moaned. Her face closed up.

  “Maybe I’ll change my mind later and get in touch with him. But by then he might have found someone else. I just don’t know. For a while longer at least, I’ve got to find my own way.”

  Hearing those words, Ric felt as if someone had just walked over his grave. His dream of a week alone with her and the baby had just gone up in smoke. What they were dealing with was too heavy, too serious, for him to live in denial any longer.

  “So do I,” he ground out. “The air’s getting cooler. It’s time to go home.”

  He hoped she would beg him to stay out longer, but she said nothing. With his gut churning, he pressed the button that pulled up the anchor and they headed back to the villa without further conversation.

  Eventually they reached the point. By this time Daimon and Mara had come up on deck. As Ric pulled up to the dock, Daimon jumped out to secure the boat with the ropes. Ric helped him. Still hunkered on the pier, he looked down at Sami. She was busy removing the baby’s life preserver.

  “I’ve made a decision, Sami.” She glanced up at him nervously. “Eliana’s waiting for me to call her, but I need your input first before I make that call, because whatever happens from here on out, we’re in this together.”

  Her expression sobered. “In what way?”

  “Shall we fly back to Genoa in the morning? Once we’re settled in the palazzo, I’ll bring her over to meet you and Ric. Or, I can tell her to board her family’s jet and fly down here tomorrow afternoon. Which option do you prefer?”

  She handed him the baby before climbing onto the pier with the diaper bag. “I’m thankful you’ve decided to tell her. It’s the right thing to do. I think we should face her here where there’s no possibility of anyone else being around. As your future wife, she deserves every consideration we can give her. This is going to be very painful for her.”

  “I agree.” Sami’s courage and decency made her a remarkable woman.

  “She’ll be Ric’s stepmother,” she added. He heard the quiver in her voice. It reached deep inside him. “If it’s possible, I want to be friends with her. But I realize that will take time considering the shock she’s going to receive.”

  With those comments he’d just discovered Sami had a goodness in her not found in most people. For their baby to have a mother like her thrilled and humbled him.

  “So be it. I’ll call her when we go inside and tell her I want her to join me tomorrow evening. I won’t indicate the reason until I pick her up at the airport. Until then, I’d like us to enjoy our vacation as long as possible. You’d like to spend time out by the swimming pool tomorrow, wouldn’t you, piccolo?”

  Ric clutched the baby to him, recognizing he only had another twenty-four hours before everything changed.

  * * *

  Sami headed for the villa and went up the stairs to the bedroom where she put the baby down. Ric followed. The baby had fallen fast asleep. After she covered him with a light blanket, she started to rise up and found herself too close to Ric. Instead of moving out of her way, he lifted his hands to her shoulders and kneaded them with increasing restlessness.

  His eyes, so black and alive, devoured her features. “If you and I had been taken to the same hospital after the avalanche, we would have been able to get to know each other in the light and hold each other while we thanked providence our lives had been spared. Instead, it’s taken all this time for us to finally meet. This is long overdue. After spending today with you, I need to hold you for a minute, Sami, so don’t fight me.”

  He pulled her in to him, not giving her time to answer. The second he buried his face in her hair, she felt his hands rove over her back. Sami moaned and instinctively moved closer to his hard-muscled body. The feel of him, the enticing male scent of him, all were too familiar. The way he touched her and kissed the side of her neck brought déjà vu, sending a river of molten heat through her body. His touch had the power to turn her insides to liquid.

  This was like before. She’d could hardly get enough air then, and she had the same problem now, but not because of being enclosed by tons of snow. This time there was room to stand, and the fragrant air from the flowers growing outside moved through the windows and alcoves of the villa. Once again he’d intoxicated her, filling her with rapture that made her senses spiral and silenced her conscience.

  “You’re the most naturally beautiful woman I’ve ever known, Sami. I want you even more than before,” he cried urgently before his mouth sought hers in a frenzy of need neither of them could control.

  She didn’t remember being carried to the bed. Somehow she was there with him, responding to her growing desire for this man who was thrilling her senseless. Every kiss created pure ecstasy. She felt herself going under, deeper and deeper.

  “Since the avalanche, I’ve dreamed about us so many times. To think you’re alive... Sami—”

  “I know.” She half sobbed the words. “I can’t believe it either.” She kissed the scar where the beam had hit his forehead. But in the act of doing it, she was suddenly seized by a cognizance of what was happening here.

  When Ric would have found her mouth again, she rolled away from him and got to her feet, just far enough away that he couldn’t reach her. She lost her balance and grabbed on to the end of the dresser.

  “Don’t do this to us. Come back here,” he begged. His eyes were smoldering black fires.

  She was one trembling mass of desire. “You think I don’t want to? But we can’t just do what we want, Ric. It’s clear you and I feel an attraction because of what happened during the avalanche and the miracle of meeting up again. But that’s all this is. So far we’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. That’s why this has to stop here and now, and never happen again.”

  He got up from the bed. She thought him even more gorgeous with his black hair disheveled. “So what are you saying?” he said in a voice of ice.

  She backed away from him. “I’m saying that in Austria you and I were like two colliding heavenly bodies out in space. But those bodies have long since orbited away from each other despite the pull we’ve felt today. I suppose it’s understandable since we both thought the other was dead.”

  He folded his arms. “So now that we’ve discovered we’re amazingly alive, what about the next time we see each other and feel the pull?”

  Sami took a shaky breath. “We’ll deal with it. We have to. Yes, we shared one amazing connection together in the avalanche, but it wasn’t real life. You have a whole new married life about to unfold. I have my studies.”

  When he didn’t respond, she added, “In January I’m going to get on with my school work. I need a good career to be able to provide for me and Ric.”

  A tiny pulse throbbed at his temple where he’d been injured. “Where exactly?”

  “At the University of Reno. I transferred my credits there when I left California. The nice thing is, the computer engineering department has a program that lets you go to school at nigh
t, so I’ll be with Ric during the day. I’ve already arranged for several babysitters who’ve agreed to trade off helping me nights. It will all work out.

  “As for you, you’ll be married in a few weeks. After you and Eliana talk things over tomorrow evening, the three of us will sit down and work out a mutually beneficial visitation arrangement for our son. I’m praying that if she’s a part of it, then she’ll be more accepting of the situation.”

  Ric moved closer. “You think it’s all going to be that simple?” he asked in a dangerously silky voice.

  “No,” she said, still looking at him. “Do you have a better solution? If so, I’m willing to hear it. But not tonight. I’m really tired after my swim. We all need a good night’s sleep.”

  Stillness surrounded him. “If you should want me for any reason, I’ll be in my study downstairs making a phone call.”

  Please leave now and get it over with. Sami’s willpower was nonexistent.

  Ric must have heard her plea. In the next instant he was gone.

  * * *

  Sami slept in late. When she came downstairs the next morning, she discovered Mara had served breakfast out on the patio surrounding the pool. There was no sign of Ric or the baby, but his carrycot was there. As she sat down to eat, Ric came through the alcove holding her little darling. Their eyes met.

  “Good morning. I’m sorry I got up so late.”

  He walked over so she could kiss the baby. “That’s the idea when you’re on vacation. It gave Ric and me a chance to go for a walk and have a talk together, man to man.”

  She smiled. “Did you two set the world straight?”

  “Of course.” He reciprocated with a heart-melting smile of his own.

  On the surface, you wouldn’t think they had a care, but Sami couldn’t take the invisible tension she was feeling any longer. She needed an answer to one burning question. “Were you able to reach Eliana last night?”

  He nodded without noticeable emotion. “She’ll be arriving at six-thirty this evening.”

  “I realize she doesn’t suspect anything. That makes me nervous.”

  “If it will ease your anxiety, I did tell her I had something of great importance I needed to talk to her about. It put her on the alert, which was good.” He expelled a deep breath. “If there were someone to blame in this...but there isn’t.” His voice trailed. “You and I clung to life until the last breath. If that was a sin, then so be it, but I won’t allow our son to suffer because of it.”

  “I believe you.”

  Sami didn’t know how she was going to stand meeting Eliana, but she had to go through with it. No doubt Ric’s fiancée was an outstanding woman, otherwise he wouldn’t be marrying her. But tonight when he would introduce them and they would look at each other, Eliana’s eyes would be staring at the woman Ric had made love to in the dark with the result of pregnancy.

  Could Sami expect to see any understanding, or would bitter resentment always cloud the other woman’s vision?

  She looked up at the powder-blue sky. The weather had warmed up to seventy degrees at the pool and was almost balmy. With such brilliant blue water beyond the point, it was hard to believe it was December.

  Sami cast a covert glance at Ric, who’d gone over to lie down on one of the sun loungers to play with the baby. He’d dressed in a wine-colored polo and white cargo pants. His well-honed body made it difficult to look anywhere else.

  Another sigh escaped. She could only imagine what was going through his mind right now. Once he told Eliana the truth, the word would be out. It wasn’t just his fiancée he would have to placate. His family and hers, their friends, everyone who knew and loved him would have questions he would have to answer.

  What made this so hard was to realize that a very private act between the two of them—an act even they had trouble explaining—would become public knowledge. Because of Ric’s prominence, both he and Sami would be the targets of gossip, in some cases malicious. She would hate the notoriety, but she and the baby would be back in Reno where she wouldn’t have to be around the paparazzi on a twenty-four-hour basis. Ric would bear the brunt of it.

  Of course he’d handle it, but his marriage would suffer. And though she knew he’d go to the greatest lengths to protect their son from being hurt when he was on visitation, it was inevitable the baby would feel it and have to live with it growing up.

  Her desire to lift Ric’s spirits until Eliana arrived prompted Sami to get up from the table. “Excuse me for a minute. I’ll be right back.”

  “Hurry. We like your company.”

  His little personal asides made mincemeat of her emotions. She dashed through the villa and up the stairs for his gift. She’d started making it for his father after finding out she was pregnant. Little did she dream she would be giving it to Ric himself.

  Formula wasn’t the only thing at the bottom of her suitcase. She opened the lid and pulled out the scrapbook which she’d wrapped in Christmas paper ahead of time. Hugging it to her chest, she hurried back downstairs to the pool.

  He was so preoccupied with the baby, he didn’t see her coming. “Merry Christmas again, Ric,” she called to him, announcing her presence.

  He looked up in time for her to hand it to him. “I brought this to give your father for Christmas. I’ve decided now would be the best time for you to have it.”

  While he sat up to open it, she picked up the baby and stood there to watch him leaf through the pages.

  Sami had put everything in there: pictures of her, her grandparents, more pictures of her sister’s family and their parents, the apartment in Reno, the picture the hospital had taken of Ric right after he was born, cards from friends, comments from the pediatrician, more pictures of him turning one week, then two, then three, his room, his crib and baby toys. Everything she could think of to preserve memories for his grandfather.

  “Those three photos are the ultrasound pictures. Can you believe that’s our little Ric there? The technician said he had a strong heartbeat and everything looked normal. You’ll never know my relief.”

  Ric went so quiet, she wondered if something was wrong. Then he looked up with those jet-black eyes suspiciously bright. “I’ll cherish this forever, Sami.” She hardly recognized his voice it was so husky.

  Thrilled with his response she said, “When you told me you’d missed the first two months of his life and didn’t want to miss any more, I was doubly glad I made this. While you enjoy it, I’m going to put this little guy to bed for a nap.”

  “Wait— Stay right where you are.” He got up from the lounger and dashed into the villa. Not a minute later and he came back outside with Daimon.

  “He’s going to take a picture of us with my cell phone,” Ric explained. In the next breath he came to stand next to Sami and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close enough to set off a burst of adrenaline.

  “This one’s for posterity and will go in the last page of the book. Take a dozen pictures, Daimon. Then we want to take pictures of you and Mara holding him. Before long I intend to fill up a whole new scrapbook with memories.”

  But when, Ric? Here on the island isn’t real life.

  After all the picture-taking was done, they went upstairs to put the baby down, then tiptoed out of the room. Sami assumed Ric would use this free time to do the business he’d come to Paphos to accomplish. Nothing could have surprised her more than when he told her he wanted her to drive to town with him.

  “I’ve arranged for Mara to watch the baby while we’re gone. I want to show you around the ancient part of the city.”

  “What about your work?”

  “It’s getting done.”

  When? In the middle of the night? How did he do it and still get up with the baby?

  “If you feel you have time, I’d love to do some sightseeing.” As long as she could be with him, she honestly didn’t care what they did. She was storing up memories before she had to go back home.

  “The weather’s warm enough to
go without a coat, but if you want one, I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

  “I’m fine the way I am.”

  When his eyes smiled like that, she felt complete. “Then let’s make the most of the time.”

  Within minutes they were driving on the A-6 toward the city they’d passed on the cruiser yesterday. He gave her a running commentary about the origins of the sprawling modern coastal town of 47,000 people.

  Once in the busy part of the new Paphos, Ric stopped to buy a stroller for the baby. “We’ll need one. It’ll be nice to push him around whether we’re out walking around or at the villa.”

  Sami saw a clothing shop and popped in to buy an extra couple of outfits for herself. Everything was decked out for Christmas. Nearby Ric found a sweets shop that sold drinks and loukoumades. He bought a sack of the delicious donut balls with syrup for them to eat along the way. “My friends and I used to stuff ourselves with these.”

  “I can see why. I can’t stop with just one.”

  They drove on. No one was more fun than Ric when he was lighthearted. She became the pushover who went along with all his ideas because she couldn’t help herself.

  “Ahead of us is Palaepaphos, the old city. It was the island’s capital in Greco-Roman times and the main focal point of Aphrodite-worship for the entire Aegean. I’m taking you to see some outstanding mosaics that still remain in the Roman governor’s palace.”

  For the next two hours they explored the remains of everything from villas, palaces and theaters to fortresses and tombs. “Oh, Ric, this is all so incredible.”

  “Isn’t it? I spent all my holidays here, pretending it was my secret world. Come on. I want to show you one more thing before we go back.”

  Sami dreaded the fact that this time with Ric was almost over. Nothing would be the same after Eliana arrived. If it were in her power, she’d make this time with him last forever.

  They soon came to a jewel of an ancient church. “This is the Agia Kyriaki Chrysopolitissa parish church, one of my favorite places. My mother loved it and always brought us here.”