Elizabeth Power - Italian Bachelors - Unforgotten Lovers - The Change in Di Navarra's Plan / Bound by the Italian's Contract / Visconti's Forgotten Heir

Dio, she had fooled him but good. She’d gotten past all his defenses and made him care, however briefly. Anger spun up inside him. But there were other feelings, too, desire being chief among them. It rather surprised him how sharp that feeling was, as if he’d not had sex in months rather than hours. Quite simply, he wanted to spear his hands into her hair and tilt her mouth up for his pleasure.

And then he wanted to strip her naked and explore every inch of her skin the way he once had, and let the consequences be damned.

Her expression was hard as she looked at him, and he wondered if she knew what he was thinking. Then she walked over to the couch—a distance of about four steps—and set the baby carrier on the floor. She grabbed the diaper bag from him and began to rummage in it. Soon, she had a bottle in her hands and she took the baby out of the carrier and began to feed it.

Drago watched the entire episode, a skein of discomfort uncoiling inside him as she deliberately did not answer his question.

It wasn’t a hard question, but she looked down at the baby and made faces, talking in a high voice and ignoring him completely. Her long reddish-blond hair draped over one shoulder, but she didn’t push it back. He let his gaze wander her features, so pretty in a simple way, and yet earthy somehow, too.

She had not been earthy before. Now she bent over the child, holding the bottle, her full breasts threatening to burst from the white shirt, her legs long and lean beneath the tight skirt of the casino uniform. The only incongruous items of clothing were the tennis shoes she’d changed into.

Drago suddenly felt out of his element. Holly Craig nursed a child and turned every bit of love and affection she had on it, when all she could spare for him was contempt. Watching her with the baby, he had a visceral reaction that left a hole in the center of his chest. Had his mother ever focused every ounce of attention she had on him? Had she ever looked at him with such love? Or had she only ever looked at him as a burden and a means to an end?

“Holly,” he said, his voice tight, and she looked up at him, her gaze defiant and hard. If he’d been a lesser man, he would have stumbled backward under that knife-edged gaze of hers. He was not a lesser man. “Whose child is that?”

He asked the question, but he was pretty certain he knew the answer by now.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” she told him airily, “but Nicky is mine. If this changes your plan to have me model for Sky, then I’d appreciate it if you’d get out and leave us alone.”

* * *

Holly’s heart hammered double-time in her chest. She hadn’t wanted him to know about Nicky at all, not yet, not until the contract he’d agreed to provide was signed and she knew she’d get her money for doing the Sky campaign at the very least.

But of course her luck had run out months ago. First, she’d gone to New York, spent every dime she had and come home empty-handed. Then she’d lost the house and property—and found out she was pregnant. God, she could still remember her utter shock when her period hadn’t started and she’d finally worked up the courage to buy a pregnancy test.

And she’d driven two towns over to do so, not wanting anyone in New Hope to wonder why she needed a pregnancy test.

She looked down at the sweet, soft baby in her arms now and knew for a fact he was not a mistake. But he’d definitely been a shock on top of everything else she’d had to deal with just then.

And now, of course, when all she wanted was the absolute best for him, when she needed to protect him and provide for him and keep him secret until she had this job sewn up, Mrs. Turner had heard her come home and brought him to her. What if Drago figured it out? What would happen then? She’d lose the opportunity to provide a better life for her baby.

Drago was looking at her with a mixture of disdain and what she thought might be utter horror. Resignation settled over her. She’d already lost the opportunity then.

But you can still tell him the truth.

Would he ignore his child’s needs if he knew? Could she take that chance?

“How old is the child?” he asked, brows drawn low, and her heart did that funny squeeze thing it did when she was scared.

“A couple of months,” she said vaguely, ignoring the voice. She couldn’t tell him. How could she take the chance after everything that had happened? Not only that, but why did he deserve to know when he’d thrown her out and left her to fend for herself?

Guilt and fear swirled into a hot mess inside her belly. She’d always done the right thing. But what was the right thing now?

“You wasted no time, I see,” he said coolly.

“I’m sorry?”

He looked hard and cool, remote. “Finding another lover,” he spat at her.

A hard knot of something tightened right beneath her breastbone. Of course he thought she’d gone home and gotten pregnant by someone else. Of course he did. Holly closed her eyes and willed herself to be calm.

It didn’t work.

My God, the man was arrogant beyond belief! Resentment flared to life in her gut, a hot bright fire that seared into her. “Why should I have waited? Thanks for showing me what I’d been missing, by the way. It was ever so easy to go home and climb back on the horse.”

She gazed down at Nicky, who was sucking the bottle for all he was worth, and willed the irrational tears gathering behind her eyelids to melt away. Drago di Navarra not only thought she’d intended to use her body to get what she wanted out of him, but he also thought she’d been so promiscuous as to run straight home and get pregnant by another man. As if she could have borne another man’s touch after she’d had his.

“Perhaps you should have been more careful,” he said, and a fresh wave of hatred pounded into her. Her head snapped up. She didn’t care what he saw in her gaze now.

“How dare you?” she said, her voice low and tight. “You know nothing about me. Nothing!” She sucked in a shaky breath. “Nicky is a gift, however he got here. I wouldn’t trade him for a million Sky contracts, so you can take your disdain and your contempt and get the hell out of my home.”

She was shaking, she realized, and Nicky felt it. He started to kick his little arms and legs, and his face scrunched up. The bottle popped out of his mouth, but before she could get it back in, he turned his head and started to wail.

“Shush, sweetie, Mommy’s here,” she crooned, her eyes stinging with tears and gritty from lack of sleep. She just wanted to put her head down and not get up again for a good long time.

But that wasn’t possible. It wasn’t ever possible these days.

“Forgive me. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Holly cuddled Nicky, rocking him softly, and looked up at Drago. Shock coursed through her system at those quiet words, uttered with sincerity. It was a glimpse of the man she’d found so compelling last year, the one who’d made her feel safe and who’d made her laugh and sigh and then shatter in his arms.

She’d liked that man, right up until the moment he’d proven he didn’t really have a heart after all. And while she told herself not to be fooled now, she was moved by the apology. Or maybe she was just too exhausted to keep up the anger.

Nicky continued to wail, and Holly stood and bounced him up and down in her arms. “Hush, baby. It’s okay.”

“You need help,” Drago said.

She didn’t look at him. “I have help. You saw Mrs. Turner. Gabi helps, too. It’s my turn now.”

“You’re tired, Holly. You should get some sleep.”

“I can’t sleep until he does.” She paced the floor, giving Drago as wide a berth as possible in the small room. “You should probably go. Your driver will be wondering if I bashed you over the head and took your wallet.”