Maisey Yates - Rising Stars

“Wait,” she choked out as he turned away. “You can’t go. Not until I tell you—”

He whirled to face her, his expression cold. “Do not fight me. We must never see each other again. There is nothing you can say to make me change my decision.”

She took a deep breath.

“I’m pregnant with your baby,” she whispered.

THUNDER pounded the dark sky, shaking the earth beneath her feet. Lilley held her breath, waiting for his reaction.

The violently swinging fairy lights above the hedge caused shadows to move across the sharp planes of Alessandro’s handsome face as he said hoarsely, “Pregnant.”

“Yes.”

A sharp flash of lightning illuminated his grim black eyes as he took a single step towards her. “You can’t be.”

“I am.”

“We used protection.”

She spread her arms helplessly. “That one time, in the shower …”

He sucked in his breath. “No.”

“But—”

“No.” Clawing back his wet black hair, he paced three steps across the lawn. Lilley watched him with a building sense of despair. Her body felt ice-cold, soaked to the bone. But that was nothing compared to her heart. She’d known he didn’t want her, and that he wouldn’t want their baby. But knowing it in her head and hearing him say it out loud were two different things.

She wrapped her arms around her shivering body, trying to comfort herself and the baby inside her. It’s all right, she told herself, using the words her mother had often said to her when she was young and sad. It’ll be all right, sweetheart.

It worked. She felt the anguish give way a fraction inside her. Lifting her head, she looked at Alessandro. She whispered, “It’s all right.”

He stopped pacing. “What?”

Love was a gift, Lilley realized. Love was always a gift. Even if the person you loved chose not to love you back.

She looked at Alessandro, so handsome and impossibly sexy even with his expensive suit soaked with rain. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead and tousled. Compassion for him, for this man she’d almost loved, filled her heart, crowding out her grief for the husband and father he could never be. She took a deep breath. “Nothing has to change for you.”

The expression on his face was suddenly as dark and ominous as the storm. “What?”

“You told me from the start that our affair would only be a fling.” She shook her head. “I don’t expect you to help me raise our baby. I just thought you should know.”

Alessandro’s eyes were black. The muscles of his powerful body tightened. “If you don’t expect me to raise your child, exactly what do you want from me?”

She blinked. “Want?”

“What are your demands? A house? Money?”

His words were hard, but she saw the tremble of his body beneath the sheeting rain. And Lilley suddenly wondered what sort of people he’d lived with, that his first thought upon hearing she was pregnant was to expect her to demand money.

“I don’t need anything,” she said quietly. Except a father for my baby, came the painful thought. Except for a man who can love me. But she would have to be brave, to be both mother and father to her sweet baby, who would need everything she could give. “Thank you for giving me two nights I’ll never forget. Thank you for believing in me. And most of all,” she whispered over the ache in her throat, “thank you for giving me a baby.”

Blinking fast, she looked up at his face for the last time, trying to memorize his features into her memory. The aquiline silhouette of his nose. The hard angle of his jaw. His eyes like dark embers, blazing fire. “I hope your life is full of joy. I’ll never forget you.” She turned away. “Good-bye.”

Lilley started walking back towards the villa, her sandals squishing in the wet grass, her heart breaking.

His hand grabbed her shoulder, whirling her around. He looked down at her as the rain continued to pound them both. His eyes burned with fury. “You think you can tell me you’re pregnant—and just leave? ”

Lilley sucked in her breath, almost frightened at the darkness in his eyes. “There is no reason for me to stay—”

“No reason?” His voice was nearly a shout. He visibly controlled himself. His jaw twitched as he loosened his grip on her upper arms. “If you truly are pregnant with my child,” he ground out, “how can you just turn and leave? How can you be so cold?”

“Cold?” she gasped, ripping away. “What do you want from me? You want me to fall to the ground and cling to your knees, begging for you to love me and this baby, begging for you never to let me go?”

“That at least I would understand!”

“I can’t change your nature!” she cried, then took a deep gulping breath. “You made your feelings clear. You want a wife you can be proud of. You want Olivia. And you want me three thousand miles away!”

His eyes narrowed as he said in a low voice, “That was before.”

“Nothing has changed.”

“Everything has changed, if the baby is really mine.”

It took several seconds for the meaning of his words to sink in. Then her eyes went wide. “You think I would sleep with another man, then lie to you about it?”

Alessandro’s posture was so taut, he seemed like a statue. Like a stone. She could barely hear his voice as he said, “It happens.” His expression looked strange. “You might have gone back to the jewelry designer. Accidentally gotten pregnant, than decided to cash in.”

“Cash in?” she said incredulously. “Cash in how?”

He searched her gaze. “Do you swear you’re telling me the truth? The child is mine?”

“Of course the baby is yours! You’re the only man I’ve ever slept with in my whole life!”

“I want a paternity test.”

She stiffened. “What?”

“You heard me.”

The insult was almost too much to bear. “Forget it,” she whispered. “I’m not doing some stupid paternity test. If you trust me so little, if you believe I’d lie to you about something like this, then just forget it.”

Lilley’s body shook as she turned and walked away. Tears streamed down her face, blending with the rain. She was halfway across the empty lawn before he stopped her, and this time, the expression on his face had changed.

“I’m sorry, Lilley,” he said quietly. “I do know you. And you wouldn’t lie.”

Their eyes locked. She exhaled as the knots in her shoulders loosened. Then he spoke.

“Marry me.”

She heard the roar of her own heartbeat above the splatter of rain. “Is that a joke?”

His sensual lips curved upward. “I never joke, remember?”

Her head was spinning. She’d never expected him to propose, not in a million years, not in her most delusional dreams. “You … want to marry me?”

“Is that so surprising? What did you expect—that I’d kick you and our unborn child to the curb and merrily go and propose to another woman?”

Biting her lip, she looked up at the ruthless lines of his face. “Well … yes.”

“Then you don’t know me at all.”

“No,” she whispered. “I guess I don’t.” She felt dizzy and still a bit sick. She’d barely made it to Sonoma in Nadia’s old car without being sick, she’d been so nervous. And now he wanted to marry her? She licked her lips, feeling as though she might cry. “You want to help raise our baby?”

Alessandro’s jaw was tight. “I will protect you both. I will give the baby my name. It is my duty.”

Her heart, which had been soaring in blind hope, crashed to the ground. His duty? She exhaled. “You don’t need to marry me to be involved in our baby’s life.”