Rebecca Winters - The Baby Bombshell - The Billionaire's Baby Swap / Dating for Two / The Valtieri Baby

“I could, but I won’t and you know why. Now I’m going to say good-night.”

She closed the door and leaned against it, terrified she’d give in to anything he had to say. Valentina touched her lips. He’d awakened a new longing in her. If she did what he was asking, then she’d be putting her own selfish need ahead of her son’s needs. What Giovanni was asking just wasn’t possible.

Rini had warned her it wasn’t a good idea to see Giovanni again. She’d thought she could handle it. She’d wanted to handle it for the babies’ sake, but she hadn’t counted on caring for Giovanni to this extent. After Matteo, she thought she’d learned her lesson and couldn’t imagine ever getting close to another man again. The love for her baby would be all that mattered to her.

After another minute, Valentina opened the door again so she could listen for Ric. Then she turned off the light and slipped out of her robe. Once in bed, she buried her face in the pillow. That way she could smother her tears. Tomorrow she would have to be strong. Tonight she couldn’t help but give in to the emotions roiling inside of her.

Giovanni’s kiss was all she could think about. Ever since the hospital, he’d infiltrated her thoughts. Her Vito had gotten his start with the kind of exceptional man she hadn’t known existed. It was all turned around. Now there were two babies she loved with every atom of her body. Worse, she’d fallen deeply in love with Giovanni. There was no other explanation for the reason he’d taken up lodgings in her heart.

CHAPTER FIVE

A WEEK LATER when Giovanni saw the name on the caller ID, he picked up. “Stanzie?”

“Forgive me for disturbing you at work. I know I’ve done it every day this week, but I don’t think Riccardo likes me or Paolo. If you want to hire a nanny, maybe you should.” He could hear in her voice she was close to tears.

There was only one woman Ric wanted when Giovanni wasn’t there. This business couldn’t be allowed to go on. “Of course he likes you, but he’s still not used to the change. I’ll be home early and we’ll talk.”

After he got off the phone, he alerted his pilot, then told his assistant to reschedule any appointments because he was leaving for the day. A half hour later he’d hired a limo with a car seat for an infant to drive him from the helipad in Positano to the Montanari villa. He told the chauffeur to wait.

Giovanni used the wrought-iron knocker to bring someone to the door. If it was Rinieri himself who answered, so be it, though he imagined he was still at work. With no results the first time, he knocked again.

When the door opened, he heard a gasp. “Giovanni—” Valentina held Vito in her arms. She sounded like she was out of breath and had hurried to the door.

“I had to see you, but if I’d phoned, I feared you wouldn’t pick up.”

The sound of his voice must have brought Vito’s head around. The second he saw Giovanni he made jerky arm movements and started to cry. Though she held him fast, he kept looking at Giovanni instead of hiding against her and cried harder.

“He wants you,” she murmured. “He’s been looking for you all week. Go ahead and hold him.”

Giovanni didn’t need an invitation. He drew him into his arms and cuddled him against his chest and shoulder. “It’s only been a week, but you’ve grown!” Vito cried a little longer, then rested peacefully against him. “I’ve missed you, too, Tiger.”

He glimpsed tears in Valentina’s eyes. She looked tired but beautiful in a sleeveless top and shorts. “Your bonding with him was so strong. Rini doesn’t fill the bill, wonderful as he is.”

Rejoicing that she’d admitted it, he tried to give Vito back to her, but he clung to him. “I’ll tell you why I’m here. Stanzie called me at work a little less than an hour ago and said I needed to hire a nanny because Ric doesn’t like her or Paolo. I told her I was coming home. After we hung up I flew straight here, knowing what needs to be done. Ric misses you terribly. Nothing has been the same since you left the villa.”

She wiped her eyes. “Maybe you could bring Ric here and I’ll take care of both babies for a few days. Then I’ll take Vito there and you can watch both of them for a few days. It would mean rearranging your work schedule.”

He shook his head. “That won’t work and you know it. I’m as exhausted as you are trying to comfort Ric, so I’ve come to ask you to move in with me. For how long I have no idea. Unfortunately the babies had just enough time to get attached to both of us, so instead of trying to fight the obvious, let’s get together for the sake of their happiness and our sanity.”

Valentina eyed Vito. “It’s true that if I tried to take him from you right now, he’d have a meltdown.”

“Ric was having one when Stanzie called.”

An anxious expression broke out on her face. “If we get together now, it can’t be for too long. Otherwise it would cause too much damage to the children and I wouldn’t be able to handle it. But there’s another risk. You know how people talk. I was never married. People would say I was a loose woman using you for what I could get out of you.”

“People could say I got rid of Tatania because I’m a womanizer who wanted you and that’s why we’re divorced. None of it’s true.”

“You admit it could create a scandal both our families would have to live with.”

“My parents learned a long time ago I make my own decisions.”

“But your mother-in-law—”

“No matter what, she wants to be a grandmother to Ric. I say to hell with what anyone else thinks! Our babies were switched at birth and nothing has been normal about it.”

After a pause, she said, “I know what Carlo would say. Get over it and lead your own lives.”

“And Rini?”

She looked away. “He hasn’t said anything, but he’s aware of how Vito has behaved. H-he knows how much I mourn the loss of Ric,” she said, her voice faltering.

“If you asked your father, what do you think he’d say?”

“To follow my heart. That has always been his advice.”

“Did you ask his advice about Matteo?”

“No. I already knew he wouldn’t approve of my getting involved with a professor so much older.”

That was news to Giovanni. “How much older?”

“Twenty years.”

That explained a lot about the engineering professor having a midlife crisis with a student as utterly delectable as Valentina. No doubt it fed his ego to seduce the daughter of one of the celebrated Montanari engineering family.

Giovanni nuzzled Vito’s neck and kissed him. Her fragrance went where the baby went. “He gave you a beautiful son.”

She swallowed hard. “He did.”

“So what does your heart say now?”

There was an interminable silence while he waited for her answer. When she looked at him, he saw more tears. “You already know the answer or I would have closed the door on you before Vito got the chance to realize who it was.”

Relief swept through him in waves. “I have a limo waiting. Go ahead and do what you have to do to get ready. I want time to play with Vito. We’ll walk around out here.”

“I’ll have to leave a message for Rini and a note for Bianca. She went to the market.”

“Take your time. You don’t have to bring everything yet. There’ll be other days to come back for more things. We’re in no hurry.”

He wandered around the courtyard, admiring the explosion of flowers and Rinieri’s exquisite taste in buying this two-story villa. Its design reflected a bygone era of elegance and refinement. Like Giovanni, Rinieri had his own helipad at the rear of the estate, but he wouldn’t have been so presumptuous as to use it.