The Count's Christmas Baby

by Rebecca Winters

  There was no sign of the baby. Ric and Eliana must have come in to take care of him. If not them, Mara. With her pulse racing, Sami quickly dressed in jeans and a blouse before hurrying downstairs. She expected to find him with Ric and Eliana in the breakfast room of the villa. Instead the housekeeper was the one to greet her.

  “Good morning, Sami. Enrico is at the pool with the baby. I’ll serve your breakfast out there.”

  “Thank you, Mara.”

  She rushed through the alcoves to reach the pool at the side of the villa. As he’d been yesterday, Ric was seated at the umbrella table, but this morning he was dressed in a pale blue suit and tie. Rather than reading the newspaper, he was playing with the baby, whose animated responses touched her heart. An empty baby bottle lay next to his coffee. Apparently Eliana wasn’t up yet.

  Ric saw her and got to his feet, the quintessential Genoan aristocrat. Her baby’s father. Not in a hundred lifetimes could Sami have dreamed up this picture.

  “I’m glad you’re awake,” he said as she approached. “We have to talk. Ric has been looking for you.”

  Sami leaned over their son. “I think your papa is just teasing me to make me feel better. You’ve been having a wonderful time, haven’t you?” She caught his little hands and pressed kisses all over them and his face and neck. After she lifted her head, she turned to his father. “Is Eliana still in bed?”

  His eyes roved over her features for a moment. “No. I just got back from driving her to the airport. She flew home in her father’s company jet.”

  Sami’s composure slipped. “I’m sick for her, Ric,” she cried. “The news had to ruin her dreams. With your wedding so imminent, I don’t know how she’s handling it.”

  Lines marred his striking face. “She’s not” came the grim admission. Sami’s heart plummeted. Ric rubbed the back of his neck as she’d seen him do before. “There’s much more to Eliana’s reaction than even I had imagined.”

  “You’re talking about the inevitable scandal,” she whispered. “I know it will be awful, but compared to a little baby who needs a father and mother, surely she’ll come to terms with this in time?”

  The lines marring his features made him look older. “The baby plays a negligible part in what’s happened.”

  Sami frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Early this morning I heard from my attorney. The title is now officially gone.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “What you said in passing was prophetic. Knowing she’ll no longer be addressed as Countess is what has destroyed Eliana’s dream. She’s demanding that I have it reinstated.”

  “Did you tell her that’s impossible?”

  “She doesn’t understand the word. As for little Ric, she has no intention of being a stepmother to my child.”

  “She’s saying that now because she wants her own children with you, Ric.”

  “Not if there isn’t a title to bestow on our firstborn son. Her solution to the problem is unthinkable,” his voice rasped, igniting her panic.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “She won’t consider visitation. Either I give up all rights to Ric and never see him again, or the wedding is off. She’s giving me until Christmas Eve day to make a final decision. In the meantime she won’t discuss this with anyone.”

  Sami swallowed hard. “She’s not a parent yet, or she wouldn’t have laid down those rules. Eliana doesn’t mean what she said. It was her pain lashing out. You have to give her time. Though the pain’s excruciating, in a few days she’ll have recovered enough to think more clearly.”

  “No. She’s thinking clearly now. Until last summer Eliana and I only knew each other socially and were never in any kind of relationship. What happened between you and me had no bearing on her, but now she’s in a rage because I never told her about you. I explained that I’d gone looking for you and couldn’t find you. For all I knew, you had died. Even if I’d found you, I wouldn’t have dreamed I’d made you pregnant.”

  “I had to explain the same thing to Matt. When the doctor told me the reason why I hadn’t been feeling well, I almost fainted and had to stay lying down for an hour before I could leave his office. He talked to me about diet and prenatal vitamins, but I hardly heard him for the shock I was in.

  “If I hadn’t become pregnant, none of it would have come out.” Sami shook her head. “Eliana could have no idea how this situation has affected you and me, but it’s so hard to explain.”

  “She doesn’t want an explanation. All she cares about is the title.”

  “Ric—I have to believe that when the worst of her agony subsides, she’ll realize she wants to be your wife under any circumstances.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. You weren’t raised a princess with specific expectations to be met.”

  Sami hugged her arms to her waist. “Do you think she’s capable of understanding what it would mean for you to give up your parental rights to Ric?”

  “She doesn’t want to understand, because the baby isn’t a factor.”

  “But he’s your son!”

  “Eliana grew up in her father’s world of black and white. His daughter is a product of that environment. When he hears about this, he’ll demand I get the title back, because he puts his desires above everything else. He’ll tell me to pay you off for the child I fathered by some freak accident.”

  She shuddered. “I’ve known all along no one would believe what happened to us.”

  “Certainly not Eliana. When I told her you were in Austria on a working vacation for your sister’s travel agency, she’s convinced you targeted me when you found out Count Degenoli was registered there. Employing your wiles, you ended up sleeping with me in the hotel before the avalanche struck, and decided to use the tragedy as an alibi to cover our flirtation.”

  Sami sank into the chair. “Actually I can’t blame her for thinking that.”

  “Nor I. She assumes you came to Italy as soon as the baby could travel in order to extort money from me. Moreover she thinks I decided to rescind the title because you phoned me from Reno and told me about the pregnancy a long time ago.

  “Because I was already engaged to her, she assumed I immediately made the necessary arrangements so I’d be able to legally claim Ric as my firstborn, thus cheating her.”

  “You can’t fault her logic, Ric. I’m afraid everyone who learns about us will think the same thing. Do you think Eliana always hoped to marry you?”

  “I have no idea.” He came to a standstill, gripping the back of one of the dining-room chairs until his knuckles showed white. “Our fathers have brushed shoulders in the same business circles for years, but I didn’t consider getting to know her until June of this year. In November I asked her to marry me and we set a date for the wedding.”

  “She’s very lovely. Not very many women in her kind of pain would have handled our meeting with so much poise.”

  “Interestingly enough, she said the same thing about you.”

  Sami couldn’t look at him. “Unfortunately if Eliana thinks you’ve lied to her about our first meeting, then she does see me as a menace. It wouldn’t matter how many times I tell her I won’t stand in the way of her happiness, she won’t listen.”

  He cocked his dark head. “Perhaps deep down she does believe it. That’s what bothers her more.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Do I need to spell it out?” he fired. “Not every woman and man trapped in a situation like ours would have sought comfort as we did.”

  Again her body grew warm. “I know,” she admitted reluctantly.

  “I’m still haunted by those feelings and why we acted on them. I can assure you my life hasn’t been the same since that experience.”

  “Neither has mine,” she confessed in a tremulous voice. “Maybe it was because we believed our time had run out and we were both single and free at the time to act without hurting anyone else. But the same can’t be said of us now.”

  “No,” he murmured. “Sinc
e then, we have a marvelous child who needs his mother and father.” Without warning he scooped up the baby, laughing triumphantly. The happy sound was a revelation. He alternated kissing and cuddling him close. Ric treated their son as if he’d always been in his life.

  Her heart ran away with her. “But everything has changed—”

  “I agree. We’ve all changed. Last night Eliana could feel a certain tension between you and me she couldn’t cut through. Don’t forget you kissed me back yesterday and the day before, Sami.”

  “I’ve forgotten nothing!” When he’d laid her down on the hotel bed in Genoa to talk, her body had come alive again without her volition. Yesterday they’d reached blindly for each other in the bedroom after putting Ric down. She’d only come to her senses at the last second.

  He eyed her with a penetrating glance. “I’m glad to hear you say it, because you’re not going back to Reno yet. Since you’ve flown this long way, the three of us are going to stay here and enjoy this time together while Eliana works this out in her mind.

  “Maybe the impossible will happen and she’ll decide she wants this marriage badly enough to compromise. It’ll mean going up against her father, but she knows my terms. Without visitation, I won’t marry her.”

  Sami couldn’t stop shivering. “This is all so mean. She’s been looking forward to her wedding day since you announced the engagement in November. To defy her father’s wishes in order to keep you will be a hard thing, Ric. If she isn’t able to go against him, then she’ll be forced to call off the wedding and suffer the humiliation of having to undo all the arrangements of a huge public marriage like yours.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Sami. With my family still in mourning, we’d already planned our wedding to take place in the privacy of the palazzo chapel with only our families in attendance. No reporters will be allowed inside. The news will leak out, it always does, but there’ll be no photo ops or press releases, no official reception.”

  “The poor thing.” Tears filled her eyes. “Why didn’t you fly back with her?”

  “After you left us last night, I told her I’d take her back to Genoa in my own plane this morning and we’d talk to her parents together while you and the baby remained here. She agreed. But when we reached the airport this morning, she suddenly changed her mind and told me she needed to talk to her parents alone first.”

  That’s why he was dressed in a suit. “Why do you think she didn’t want you to be with her when she faced them? With you there explaining everything, how could they possibly doubt your honesty?”

  “You want the truth?” he rapped out.

  “Ric—if we don’t have that, we don’t have anything!”

  “She assumes you and I have slept together since your arrival in Genoa. Last night she asked me not to touch her.”

  Sami moaned. “Does that mean—”

  “It means she slept in the other guest bedroom,” he answered.

  She bit her lip. “Did she help you with the baby when you got up in the night to feed him?”

  “If she heard me and Ric, she didn’t make an appearance.”

  “Obviously she was in too much pain.”

  He exhaled sharply. “It’s commendable how much credit you give her.”

  “I’m not the woman who has been looking forward to her marriage to you. She’s crushed. In the face of what she’s dealing with, I admire her more for her honesty, no matter hard it is on both of you.”

  Ric raked a hand through his black hair. “You’re an extraordinary woman, Sami.”

  “No, I’m not—” she cried. “This is so awful for both of you. I have my own life to go back to, but you two have to wade through so much to make this work!” She buried her face in her hands. “Did you disabuse her about us?”

  “In what regard?” he drawled.

  “That nothing has happened between us since I came to Italy.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” he countered in a tone that sent little darts of awareness through her body.

  Exasperated she said, “You know what I mean.”

  “Just because you and I haven’t ended up in bed yet doesn’t rule out what goes on whenever we’re near each other.” Her trembling started up again. After a pause he added, “Even if I’d assured her we didn’t pick up where we’d left off in January, do you imagine it would have done any good?”

  Her shoulders slumped. “I should never have come.”

  “We’ve been over this ground before,” he said in an iron-clad voice. “Don’t ever say that again.”

  She took a deep breath to pull herself together. By acknowledging his son from the start, Ric hadn’t given his fiancée a choice. Surely Eliana was aware of his strong will. He wouldn’t capitulate. It was up to her to decide what she could handle. No doubt she wanted to scratch Sami’s eyes out or worse.

  “You need to fly back to Genoa where you’ll be close if she wants to see you. I’ll leave for Reno on the next plane out of Paphos.”

  “No. That you won’t do. For the sake of propriety, she’s already set down the condition that you and I stay away from the city until the twenty-fourth.”

  “Ric—tell me the truth. If she doesn’t come around and there’s no marriage, then what will it cost you besides the woman you asked to marry you? Don’t insult me by pretending this won’t shake your world.”

  He wore an implacable expression. “That’s for me to worry about.”

  “But I do worry!” she declared. “My reappearance in your world has done irreparable damage. If anyone should go to her parents, I should. I’ll ask my sister and her husband to come with me. They’ll verify what we’ve told Eliana.

  “If we can convince her parents that I wasn’t out to extort anyone or try to break you up, then it’s possible they’ll forgive you for having a human weakness. Good heavens, they’re parents and will have to understand you want to be able to see your son on a regular basis. If Eliana is willing to accept the baby, then the marriage can still take place.”

  His smile wasn’t reflected in his eyes. “Your reasoning is without fault, Sami. You’d make a very convincing courtroom lawyer. But the crux of the real problem lies in the loss of the title. Eliana has been imagining herself as Countess Degenoli.”

  “You honestly think she can’t get over that?”

  “Not her or her father,” his voice grated. “She’s conflicted at her foundation. It wouldn’t matter if you and your family were there to plead my case and win over her parents. She has her own war to fight inside. As I told you earlier, I’m going to find out what’s really important to her.”

  Ric was a wonderful man. A prize. All this time Sami had assumed Eliana had learned to love him more than life. But what if that wasn’t perfectly true? What if she loved him with strings?

  Since this was virtually an arranged marriage, it was obvious there was a voice inside Ric that had always entertained his doubts about her. He’d gotten rid of his title as soon as he could. Maybe it had been a test. When Sami had asked him if it was such a terrible burden, his answer had left her in no doubt.

  While she stood there trying to analyze his psyche, he peeled off his suit jacket and loosened his tie, as if he couldn’t wait to remove the shackles of society. “After I’ve changed, we’ll take another boat ride, this time in the other direction.”

  “What if someone who knows you and Eliana sees us together with Ric?”

  “If they do, it won’t matter because the person who needed to know the truth was Eliana. By now she’s talked to her parents on the phone. If I’m not mistaken, they’ve already laid out a strategy to deal with the gossip in case Eliana says she wants to end the engagement. Until then, that leaves you and me free to play. When the time comes for us to leave Cyprus, you’ll have seen many of my favorite haunts.”

  Warning bells were going off. “You said you were here to work. If I go home, it will give you the time you need.”

  His body stiffened. “If you can give me one good r
eason why...” His voice snaked through to her insides.

  “Even if Eliana has set up the rules for this intolerable situation, it’s not right for us to be together like this while you’re still engaged.”

  He moved closer to her. “I think the real reason goes deeper than that. You’re afraid to be alone with me.”

  She clutched the baby tighter. “My greatest fear is that your fiancée will always consider me an immoral woman. I felt it without her having to say it. If she’s willing to work out visitation so your marriage can go through, I don’t want her to hate me forever. Otherwise it could reflect on little Ric.

  “To be honest, it hurts me that she doesn’t know the real me. For that matter, neither do you. These last few days haven’t been an example of real life, Ric. We’re still strangers with our own individual lives to lead once I’m gone.”

  The silence between them was tangible. Finally he spoke. “Then let me get to know my son and his mother better while we have this rare free time together. Since we’ll be sharing him for the rest of our lives, why not start this minute?

  “You felt strongly enough about Ric’s Italian ties to come to Genoa in search of them. Let’s not waste your efforts this trip. It’s a fact you’re here with our son. Until you have to go back, we’ll enjoy him. I swear I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”

  If there was one thing she knew about Ric, it was that he’d stand by his word.

  “We’ll fill our days with fun and laughter. It’s been ages for me, and I daresay for you since that’s happened.”

  There was a nuance in his voice. A longing for something he wanted, needed to trust. Her heart ached for him. Between that and his promise to be circumspect around her, his logic had once more defeated her.

  She kissed the baby’s soft cheek to hide her emotions. “I’ll need to let my sister know I won’t be coming home quite yet.”

  A glint of satisfaction lit his eyes for a moment. “There’s a seaside restaurant further along the coast with the most luscious purple grapes hanging from the ceiling. You won’t be able to resist them. The food just keeps coming. Taramasalata, tahini, kebabs, dolmades, eggs, feta cheese and homemade bread and beer. You’ll love it. So will our piccolo.”