He looked her up and down, automatically checking for signs of pregnancy, but there was no evidence of her condition yet. If anything she’d lost weight, making her look incredibly thin. The linen suit she was wearing was unflatteringly loose and baggy, and her hair was tied back in an uncompromisingly severe style.
But, even though she wasn’t looking her best, he simply couldn’t take his eyes off her. With her light-blonde— hair and her pale clothing she stood out like a beacon against the dark-suited executives in their dark and gloomy conference room.
Why had she done it?
The question thrust itself forcefully into his mind.
He gritted his teeth, trying not to let his thoughts continue down that path. He was always in control. He was the one who called the shots, in his private life as well as in business.
All the women in his life understood how it was. Nothing permanent. No strings attached. But always absolute fidelity on both sides while it lasted. Up until the blow Lily had dealt him, that had never been an issue. He was man enough for any woman. Or so he’d thought.
He stared at her through dangerously narrowed eyes, watching her behind the glass. It only took a moment to figure out she’d gone back to her old job, selling web-conferencing software.
Although she looked pale and tired, she appeared calm and in control of the meeting, but he knew she was punching above her weight with this lot. He didn’t like the head of Corporate Communications at L&G, and he knew he’d never invest in a new system, even though it was exactly what was needed to bring the company into the twenty-first century.
Why had Lily been unfaithful to him?
The question hammered persistently in his head.
Things had been good between them, both in and out of the bedroom. The time they’d spent together had been a wonderful counterpoint to the cut and thrust of his business life. And the sex…The sex had been nothing short of incredible.
She’d given him her virginity—something he’d considered— a truly special gift. But that just made it all the more shocking that she’d fallen into another man’s bed so quickly.
The thought of Lily with another man was unbearable. A vein throbbed in his temple and he surged forward, opening the door into the meeting room with a crash.
Lily looked up in shock.
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.
Her worst nightmare had come true—Vito was here.
‘What…?’ D’Ambrosio started to bluster at the interruption,— but the second he realised it was his Venetian boss he fell silent.
Lily dragged a shallow breath into her lungs and felt her heart jolt back into life after the shock of seeing Vito. It began to beat painfully hard as she stared at him.
She’d missed him so much—but he’d hurt her so badly. Looking at him produced a physical ache in her chest. She longed to dash across the room and lose herself in the warm strength of his embrace—but she knew there was no warmth there any more. He’d made that clear when he’d thrown her away.
Despite the pain of seeing him, her eyes roamed urgently over his body as he stood in the doorway. He looked absolutely magnificent. His hand-tailored suit fit him to perfection, but did nothing to conceal his raw, masculine power. She recalled the athletic strength of his lean body only too well. Remembered exactly how it felt to be held close to his hard-muscled form.
But now she shuddered as she saw how intense his expression was. His bronzed skin was pulled taut across his high, slashing cheekbones, and a muscle was pulsing on his strong angular jawline.
And his blue eyes were fixed on her, in a way that made her blood run cold. She looked straight back, matching his gaze with her own. An icy shiver skittered down her spine as she recognised the steely anger in his eyes. Apart from her final day in Venice, he had never looked at her like that. It was a nasty reminder of how brutally he had ended things between them.
‘Tell me why L&G Enterprises should invest in your product.’ Vito spoke suddenly.
Lily gripped her shaking hands together tightly and stared at Vito in surprise. She hadn’t expected that. She’d thought he would throw her out, or perhaps call Security to do his dirty work for him. She didn’t know what game he was playing, but she had no choice but to play along. She certainly wasn’t going to turn tail and run from him.
Suddenly a strong smell of coffee assailed her nostrils— and a wave of nausea washed over her. She looked down to see a steaming lake of black coffee spreading across the smoked-glass table from D’Ambrosio towards— her laptop computer. Vito’s dramatic arrival had obviously startled him into spilling his drink, but he was making no move to clean it up.
He looked at her, and with a shock Lily realised he was expecting her to do it. God, he was arrogant! But now, with Vito standing there staring at her, she had more to worry about than D’Ambrosio’s spilt coffee.
She took a deep breath, inadvertently pulling the sickening smell of coffee deep into her lungs, and moved her laptop to one side. Then, looking straight at Vito, she began to speak.
Her voice rang out amazingly clear and steady in the ominous silence of the meeting room as she concentrated on delivering the presentation she had previously prepared.
‘…and so this new system will give you the very best in web conferencing, saving your business both time and money, not to mention freeing you from the annoyance— of using an outdated system that frequently fails to perform according to basic requirements.’
Lily finished her spiel and continued to match Vito’s gaze. She knew it was pointless. Mike had been right— L&G was a hard sell. But now Vito had arrived it was more than hard—it was impossible.
The room was deathly silent as everyone waited for Vito to speak and, out of nowhere, her thoughts suddenly— turned to her unborn baby. Vito’s child. It still hardly seemed real. Some of the time she almost forgot she was pregnant for a few minutes. But then, even if the nagging nausea wasn’t enough to remind her, the constant worry over getting a job so that she could provide for her baby slammed the reality home.
She remembered all the warnings her mother had given her about men, and now she was in exactly the same situation as her mother had once been—ruthlessly cast aside because she’d made the mistake of getting pregnant.
Lily’s father had refused to acknowledge her, and had even threatened her mother if she ever revealed their relationship. He had his own ‘real’ family to protect—a wife and two daughters living in a lovely suburban home.
Lily and her mother hadn’t been good enough. They’d been a potential embarrassment, always to remain hidden far away in the countryside where they couldn’t do any damage to his impeccable reputation.
Lily knew her father was a first-class hypocrite and, as she’d grown older, she’d told herself she’d been better off without him. But it had been tough growing up without a father. Her mother had found it hard to cope, and— that had made life difficult and unsettled for Lily.
‘We will take your web-conferencing system on three-months-trial basis.’ Vito broke the silence abruptly. ‘D’Ambrosio, clean up here. Then take Ms Chase’s equipment up to my office.’
‘But…’ For a second D’Ambrosio looked annoyed by his boss’s snap decision, but then he recovered himself and jumped to his feet. ‘Of course, it would be a pleasure to do business with you,’ he said, holding out his hand to Lily almost desperately. ‘Your company’s system really does sound very impressive. We’ll get it all arranged—my people will meet your people, and…’
In other circumstances, witnessing D’Ambrosio’s turnaround from obnoxious to obsequious might have been amusing, but at that moment Vito turned his eyes onto Lily with a penetrating look that made the breath catch in her throat.
‘Ms Chase, you will accompany me to my suite.’ His voice rolled down her spine like thunder, setting her insides quaking. He’d never spoken to her like that before.
‘I…I should make arrangements with Mr D’Ambrosio, ’ Lily prevaricated. Par
t of her longed to go with Vito, but the sensible part of her mind told her to keep well away from him.
He was not the man she’d thought she knew—the tender lover who’d taken care of her and made her feel safe. This was a very different man—a heartless beast who’d thrown her out of his house one horrible cold night in March.
That night had turned into an escalating nightmare. The airport had closed early because of the fog, leaving her no escape and nowhere to go.
‘Come with me.’ His words were nothing short of a command, and Lily found herself moving forward even before Vito’s hand closed around her arm.
She gasped as he made contact, and her step faltered. It felt like an electric shock had jolted through her. She turned shakily to look up into his face.
Any hope that still flickered in her heart was extinguished— as his hostile gaze knifed through her. The anger that glinted in his blue eyes was so cold and relentless that it felt like shards of ice were piercing her soul.
She wanted to get away, but there was no way out. She wanted to bolt for the door—willingly sacrifice the sale and her potential job—but Vito had her arm.
The glacial touch of his gaze ravaged her like a blizzard, but heat from his hand was steadily burning through the sleeve of her linen jacket, spreading insistently— through her chilled veins, making her acutely aware of every single inch of her body.
It only took seconds to reach his private elevator and, before she knew it, he’d pulled her inside with him.
She exhaled with an involuntary whoosh as the doors closed, cutting them off from the rest of the world, enclosing them in a space that suddenly seemed too small to contain Vito. The sheer power of his presence was pressing out in all directions, bouncing off the mirrored walls of the elevator, becoming— increasingly magnified with every moment that passed.
It felt like she was trapped inside a capsule with him, in a place that was completely saturated by his powerful presence. The air that flowed around his body, slipping underneath his designer clothes and sliding across his firm bronze skin, was moving sensuously over her too.
Every breath she took was laced with his achingly familiar scent, setting her nerves alight, making the tiny space they shared more real and vibrant than the world outside.
His fingers still pressed into her arm, but from the way her heart was racing and her skin tingling it was as if his touch extended way beyond that. It was more like he was running his hands all over her naked body. And in a distant part of her mind she was aware of the elevator travelling up, further away from the outside world. Further away from escape.
Then suddenly the mirrored doors slid open and he stepped forwards, taking her with him. She blinked in surprise as he let go of her arm, momentarily disorientated— by her new surroundings, and stared around at the cavernous space she found herself in.
‘What is this place?’ she asked, saying the first words that came into her mind. The floor was covered in a luxurious light-grey carpet, but there was no furniture apart from one imposing desk which was set to the side near the floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windows.
‘The penthouse suite,’ Vito responded shortly. ‘I have no use for it—it’s being converted.’
She glanced around again, slowly regaining a little equilibrium as she put some distance between herself and Vito. She couldn’t believe how powerfully her body had responded merely from being confined in a small space with him.
As she looked about, she noticed the marks where furniture had once stood, and shadows on the wall where pictures had been removed. It was a soulless space, like a home that had been gutted.
It didn’t seem right that she was in this bleak place with Vito. In her mind her time with him was associated with his palazzo inVenice, or even just going out and about with him. It wasn’t the level of comfort and luxury that was missing—it was simply being together. Being with Vito had always felt like being home. Now she had no home.
‘Where are you living?’ Vito asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
‘London,’ Lily replied briefly. After the way he’d treated her, she didn’t see any reason to let him know how unsettled her situation was.
‘Alone?’ he probed.
‘That’s none of your business.’ He was standing only a few feet away from her, and she met his hard blue gaze with her own. She didn’t want him to think that he intimidated— her, even though she was feeling very shaky and uncertain. And she was sure he’d seen how being close to him in the elevator had affected her.
‘The baby’s father.’ He spoke through gritted teeth. ‘Are you living with him?’
For the second time that morning, Lily’s heart skipped a beat.
Vito’s words didn’t make sense. He couldn’t really mean what she thought he did—could he?
‘What are you talking about?’ she gasped, laying her hand protectively against her still-flat stomach. ‘I know it wasn’t planned—but of course you are the father.’
He was staring at her from beneath black brows, but the morning light flooding in from the massive windows caught his eyes, making them look almost metallic. For a moment she hardly recognised him. This really couldn’t be the man she’d lived with for five wonderful months of her life.
‘Don’t bother with your lies,’ Vito said. ‘Just tell me if you are in contact with the father. Does he know you are pregnant?’
‘You’ve made a mistake,’ Lily said, still struggling to process the implications of what he was saying. ‘You know I’ve only ever been with you.’
‘I may have been your first lover,’ Vito said. ‘But I wasn’t your only lover.’
‘But why do you think that?’ Lily gasped. ‘I don’t understand. Did somebody tell you something about me?’
‘Just tell me if the father knows,’ Vito grated.
‘You are the father!’ Lily cried. ‘There’s no one else and there never has been.’
His eyes pinned her for a moment longer, as if he was assessing a cold, emotionless business situation.
‘From that, I take it that he doesn’t know—or maybe he doesn’t want to know,’ Vito said. ‘Whatever the case, from now on, as far as the world is concerned, the child you are carrying is mine.’
‘It is yours.’ Lily said hollowly. She felt like she was banging her head against a brick wall.
Still holding her with his cold blue stare, Vito nodded once. The decisive movement of his head was strangely unnerving.
‘We will be married immediately,’ he announced.
CHAPTER THREE
‘MARRIED?’ Lily echoed, staring at him in utter shock. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard. ‘If that’s some kind of cruel joke, I’m not falling for it.’
‘It’s no joke.’ Vito sounded completely serious, and was looking at her with the hard expression she was starting to get horribly used to. ‘We will be married at once.’
‘How can you even ask me that?’ Lily gasped. Six weeks ago she would have accepted willingly. A proposal— from Vito would have been like a dream come true—but not any more. Now it was more like a nightmare. ‘After the way you’ve treated me, I’d be mad to marry you.’
‘I’m not asking,’ Vito said. ‘I’m telling you that we will be married. And, as far as the world is concerned, the baby you are carrying is mine. He or she will be brought up as the Salvatore heir.’
Lily’s head was spinning and her stomach churning. With every passing second, Vito seemed more and more like a stranger.
Her mother, Ellen, had warned her how men could easily change. She’d had personal experience of it. Lily’s father had gone from adoring lover to threatening— brute overnight, when Ellen had told him that she was pregnant. That was when Ellen had found out that Reggie had been married all along.
He’d already had a wife and two children, and was steadily working his way up the hierarchy of his father-in-law’s— accountancy firm. Despite the sweet words of his seduction, he’d never been interested in anything m
ore than a fling with Ellen. Her pregnancy had come as a wake-up call to him. He’d had too much at stake.
If his wife, or her father, had discovered his infidelity— Reggie could have lost everything—his family, his professional status and, most importantly to him, the prospect of taking over a successful business when his father-in-law retired.
To protect himself, Reggie had set Ellen up in a tiny country cottage. He’d paid her rent and had made measly maintenance payments for Lily, but it was based on the strict understanding that Ellen could never reveal herself or her illegitimate child to his family.
‘Look, I don’t know what game you’re playing with me.’ Lily put her hands on her hips and met Vito’s gaze straight on. Her childhood had been blighted by her father’s duplicity, and suddenly she felt she’d had enough of dishonesty and secrets to last a lifetime. ‘But, whatever you’re playing at, I don’t have time for it. If you want to buy the web-conferencing system, that’s good—I need the commission to get myself a flat. If you don’t want it, that’s fine too. Just let me leave so I can get on with my life. I have to go find a permanent job.’
She had to get a job so that she could provide for her baby. She couldn’t let herself end up like her mother. Or in a situation that was even more financially precarious.
Ellen had been devastated when Reggie had showed his true nature. To find herself blackmailed into silence by the man she’d fallen in love with had been unbearable. But with no one to turn to for help, and a baby to consider, she had reluctantly accepted his financial support. Then, as the years had gone by, she had become increasingly dependent on it.
With her trust in people and her confidence in herself eroded, she’d found it impossible to find a job that fitted around caring for Lily. Eventually she’d found solace working as a volunteer at the local hospice. She’d poured all her energy and love into craft projects to bring enjoyment— and satisfaction to the terminally ill patients.
Lily loved her mother dearly, even though her childhood— had been extremely difficult. She knew it would break her heart if she found out that Lily was pregnant and alone. Whatever happened, she had to protect Ellen from the truth—at least until she was settled. And the first thing she needed to do was find work, so that her future seemed more secure—financially at least.
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