Carole Mortimer - Secret Heirs - His One Night Consequence

Would Alessandro make good on his threat?

Once she’d thought she’d known this man. Had trusted him. Had even believed he was falling in love with her.

What a naïve innocent she’d been.

She’d learned the hard way not to trust her judgement with him. Better to assume him capable of anything to get his own way. He’d already made a fool of her once.

He was her enemy, threatening the life she’d begun to build, her independence, even, she feared, her child.

‘What do you want?’ She didn’t care that her voice was scratchy with distress, despite her attempt to appear calm.

‘To talk. We have unfinished business.’

He didn’t wait for her to assent but slid back across the wide leather seat, making space for her.

Unfinished business.

That was how he described one little boy?

Her throat closed convulsively as the fight bled out of her. She couldn’t ignore Alessandro. She had to face him and hope against hope she could retain some control of the situation.

She tottered forward on numb legs and entered the limousine, her wet coat sliding along a leather seat that looked and smelled fresh from the factory.

Only the best for the Conte Mattani.

Under no circumstances would she, an ordinary single mum with not an ounce of glamour, be classed as the best. Alessandro had made that abundantly clear in Italy.

Her heart bumped against her ribs. Had Alessandro decided her little boy was a different matter?

The limo door shut with a quiet click and she sagged back, shutting her eyes. She was cold to the bone.

There was no escape now.

Moments later the front door closed and the vehicle accelerated. Belatedly she remembered to do up her seatbelt. A swift sideways glance told her Alessandro wasn’t happy, despite having got her where he wanted her.

The proud, spare lines of his face seemed austere and forbidding silhouetted against the city streets. He looked as approachable as some ancient king, brooding over judgement.

The flicker of unease inside her magnified into a hundred fluttering wings. She was at a disadvantage to him in so many ways.

His silence reinforced that she was here at his pleasure.

Carys flicked her gaze away, not deigning to ask where they were going. Two could play the silent game. It would give her time to marshal her resources.

As she stared straight ahead, trying to control her frantic, jumbled thoughts, she found herself looking through a smoky glass privacy-screen at the back of Bruno’s head.

Recognition smote her.

‘He was on my street. Last night!’ Carys leaned forward to make sure. There was no mistaking the bunched-muscle silhouette of the minder’s neck and shoulders, or the shape of his head.

As she’d walked up the ill-lit street to her block of flats in the early hours, she’d faltered, her heart skipping as she noticed a brawny man in jeans and a leather jacket just ahead. He looked to be waiting for someone. But as she’d hesitated he’d turned to stroll away in the opposite direction.

Nevertheless, she’d scurried inside as fast as possible. Her street was peaceful by day, but the shopping strip a few blocks away had been attracting unsavoury characters at night.

‘Bruno, your bodyguard. He was outside my home.’

She swung round to find Alessandro watching her steadily. His lack of response infuriated her.

‘You’re not even bothering to deny it!’

‘Why would I?’ His brow furrowed in a hint of a frown that, annoyingly, didn’t detract from his handsome looks.

‘You had him follow me?’ Already Alessandro had pried into her personnel records. Now his stooge had been scoping out her home. He had no qualms about invading her privacy.

‘Of course.’ He stared coolly as if wondering what the fuss was about. ‘It was late. I had to make sure you got back all right.’

His explanation took the wind out of her sails and she slumped in her seat, her mind whirling.

‘You were trying to protect me?’

Something indefinable flickered in his eyes. ‘You were out alone at an hour when you should have been safely home.’

At least he didn’t mention her state of disarray. Even in a pair of shoes borrowed from the staffroom, and with her shirt buttoned again, she’d felt as if the few people she’d met on her journey took one look and knew exactly what she’d been up to in the presidential suite.

Alessandro made her sound like a teenager in need of parental guidance. Not a twenty-five-year-old woman supporting herself and her son.

Yet it wasn’t indignation Carys felt rise like a tide inside her. It was warmth, a furtive spark of pleasure, that he’d cared enough to worry about her safety.

In the old days she’d been thrilled by the way he’d looked after her, showing what she’d thought was a strongly protective nature.

Until she’d discovered her mistake. What she’d seen as caring had been his way of keeping her isolated, separate from the rest of his life. It had been a deliberate tactic to ensure she didn’t know how he used her.

The lush melting warmth inside her dissipated as a chill blast of reality struck right to the bone.

‘I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself! I was doing it long before you turned up.’ Carys wrapped her arms around the faux-leather bag on her lap and turned away.

She was proud of what she’d achieved. When she’d arrived in Australia she’d been a mess, her heart in tatters, her confidence shattered. Even her destination of Melbourne was unplanned. She’d been too distraught to do more than turn up at the airport and board the first available flight home.

Now she’d built a new life for herself and Leo. She was working hard to achieve the financial security they needed.

‘Is that so?’ Scepticism dripped from each syllable as he held her with a glacial green stare. ‘You really think that the best neighbourhood to bring up a child?’

Her fingers, busy fiddling with the zipper on her bag, froze. Every muscle tensed.

Now they’d come to the crux of the matter.

She waited for him to accuse her of being a bad mother, to demand his rights and push his case. Yet he remained silent, only his lowered brows hinting at displeasure.

‘The flat is sunny and comfortable. And affordable.’ It went against the grain to hint at her lack of funds, but no doubt he knew about her precarious finances.

Despite working right up till she went into labour, Carys had used all her meagre savings in the months after Leo’s birth. If it hadn’t been for the money her father had sent long-distance, she wouldn’t have been able to support them. When the going had got really tough, she’d even thought of moving to be with her dad. Till she imagined his horror at the idea.

Only now, with her job at the Landford, could she make ends meet, though most of her wages went on childcare and rent and there was precious little for other necessities.

‘And the location? Your neighbourhood is becoming a hub for drug dealing and prostitution.’

He didn’t bother to hide his disapproval. If she hadn’t been wearing a thick coat, his coruscating glare would have scraped off layers of skin.

‘The reports are exaggerated,’ she bluffed, refusing to admit he’d tapped into her own fear. That the cosy nest she’d created for her son grew less desirable by the week.

Only days ago there’d been more syringes found in the park and another bashing in the street. Carys had decided that, despite the friends she’d made locally, she’d look for somewhere else to bring up Leo.

‘If you say so.’ His tone implied boredom.

Carys was puzzled. This was his opportunity to weigh in with comments about her inability to care for Leo. To make a case that she shouldn’t have sole custody.