by Lia Lee
He raised his eyebrows at her. "Do you?"
There was a devil at the back of Pearl's mind that wanted her to say yes, to see what he would do, but instead she shook her head. "No."
"Is it mine?"
"Yes. That is... I've not slept with anyone else..." Her cheeks flamed red at that, and he gave her a cool look.
"What's the matter?"
"I'm sorry," she burst out. "I'm just not used to talking about this as if...as if it were normal! I always thought I was free of the bullshit that women want, like weddings and romance and things like this, but I never expected to be having an 'is it your baby' discussion!"
To her surprise, Luciano reached across the table for her hand. The warmth of his skin returned her to herself, and she sighed a little.
"I didn't expect to see you again," he said softly. "The fact that I have... Well, we're both in uncharted waters, aren't we?"
She found it in herself to smile a little. "I suppose we both are. I'll be honest, I'm glad that this is new to you too, you know? At least I'm not alone in this."
Luciano nodded. "Of course. And it may comfort you to know that even if I have not done this before, either, I know what is to be done."
Something in the sound of his words made a prickle of fear run up her spine. "What do you mean by that?"
"We must decide what to do about the baby," he said, and there was something so calm in his gaze that Pearl almost gasped. "Of course you must know that I cannot pretend ignorance and let you go, Pearl."
Chapter Seven
Pearl was still, and she felt as if time had stopped.
As long as I live, I will never forget this moment, she thought, and then she rose from her seat. She had the element of surprise at least, and she shoved the chair she had been sitting in towards Luciano, bolting towards the door. The waitress was coming in to take their drinks, and Pearl pushed her at Luciano as well, wincing at the girl's surprised squawk.
Sorry, but I need to get the hell out of here, she thought.
She glanced around the elegant dining room, worlds away from Murphy's, and spotted the kitchen door. She dashed towards and through it, into another world of clean white tile, steam and wickedly sharp knives. At someone's shout, she pushed through, heading towards the back door that would lead into the alley.
I just need to get out of here. I need to get out of here. I can disappear, I can...
She had nearly gained the mouth of the alley when a grasp like an iron band came around her wrist. Luciano spun her around to face him, and she stared up at him, ready to bite and claw if she had to.
"Dear God in Heaven, I'm not going to hurt you!" Luciano growled. "I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do."
"Swear it," Pearl said, aware that she sounded a little hysterical.
"I swear on my mother's grave," he said immediately. "I promise you, Pearl, there is nothing sinister or deceptive about what we need to talk about. Just pragmatic. Please. Will you come back in?"
Before she answered, he let her go, as if showing he trusted her. She almost wanted to make another break for it, but when she looked into his face, there was something there that made her trust him.
"All right," she said softly. "It...might be a little awkward for the people who I crashed through to get out."
"They'll live," he said. "I'll tip them well."
Back in the restaurant, Pearl nervously sipped a little bit of water as Luciano drank from a glass of expensive white wine.
"Are you safe right now?" he asked abruptly. "Do you owe anyone any money, or is someone holding something over your head? If there is, you should tell me now."
She blinked at him. "No, no, not at all. Why would you say that?"
"You ran out of here like...well, someone used to running. I thought it might mean that you had trouble on your tail."
Pearl smiled mirthlessly. "I take care of everything myself these days, but that wasn't always the case. When I was first on my own, I got good at rabbiting off in case of trouble."
"When you were first on your own... When was that?"
She shrugged, because that was the last thing she wanted to talk about. "When I was seventeen. But that's old news. What did you mean before, where you said you couldn't pretend ignorance and let me go?"
"Pearl, do you know who I am?"
She blinked and shrugged. "Someone important enough that other people have to listen to him, I suppose?"
He sighed. She wondered if there was a strange regret in his tone, as if he were letting go of something.
"My name is Luciano Alessandro Philip Donati, Prince of Milan, first of his name, and major stockholder and CEO of Donati Enterprises."
She blinked, and it seemed to take her brain a few moments to catch up with what it had heard.
"You're...you're really a prince?" Pearl asked, thinking back to their first conversation, and he smiled.
"Sort of, but it gets the point across, doesn't it? Italy has always had a bit of a love-hate affair with nobility, and my title really is just a title and some ancestral land scattered across the country. I'm also a billionaire, and today Donati Enterprises encompasses dozens of large companies all over the globe."
She nodded, still stunned. "So the reason why you can't pretend ignorance..."
"Is because children are always a dicey affair when it comes to property. If I allow you to leave here tonight without locking down some kind of arrangement or at least the promise of an arrangement, a child with my blood could be the basis for a great deal of scandal, even a power grab in the company."
Pearl snorted. "I just likely got fired from my job at a sports bar. Blood or not, I'm pretty sure I'm in no place to sue something like Donati Enterprises for squat."
Luciano's smile was slightly chilling. She could tell this was a man who defended what was his, and he would be utterly remorseless about it.
"That doesn't mean that you might not find allies, or perhaps someone will decide that the child in your belly is a weapon perfect for use against a family that heretofore has had a reputation for virtue."
"My baby is not a weapon," Pearl said heatedly, but he cut her off.
"Our baby. I believe you, but I think a paternity test would be a good idea. We want a record of everything, and we can make sure that there are no bumps or hiccups."
Pearl could feel herself bristling again. It seemed that this man thought the child they had conceived out of mutual pleasure was a weapon or an object, property at best. Under the table, she cupped her belly and wondered what in the world she could do against it.
"What are you thinking?" she asked cautiously. She wondered if she saw him relax a little at the idea of her being compliant.
"I was thinking a trust fund. An agreement to offer the child a set sum of cash upon entering adulthood as well as a stipend for you, generous of course. Our child could go to the finest schools, stay in luxurious housing for all its life, all in exchange for signed paperwork to make sure that everything stays in line. No talking to the press, no conniving with unscrupulous shareholders, that sort of thing."
Pearl thought she could see the future then, a long, empty corridor of beautiful, sterile rooms where she and her son or daughter would be kept away from life for fear of making a scandal for Luciano.
"Well, that all sounds very discreet," she said, and he raised an eyebrow at the tone in her voice.
"Did you have plans to sell your story to the tabloids? Because believe me, I can make a better offer, and I can make sure that you regret it if you go to them..."
"Lay off the threats," she snapped. "I can promise you here and now that neither I nor my child have any interest in conniving against you, all right? Whatever weird soap opera life you're living, it's a lot different here on the ground. We don't think that way."
"The thing you seem to be forgetting is that you don't have to live on the ground," Luciano said. "Better housing, you wouldn't have to work at all. You could look after our child. You wou
ldn't be working in places like Murphy's anymore."
She started to answer, but food had arrived, and she couldn't stop her belly from rumbling hard at the delicious smells. Brazilian food was heavy on rich meat and roasted vegetables, and she had been living off of ramen and frozen vegetables for far too long.
They ate together, and to her relief, Luciano was content to do most of the talking. He seemed to take her silence for assent, and now he was telling her about a house in Tuscany or perhaps one in the hills outside of Venice, a place of quiet and peace.
What she heard was “isolation,” and she knew she couldn't let this happen. She wasn't going to let him lock her up and make her a prisoner. She wouldn't. Soon enough, he would learn that.
Chapter Eight
Luciano was slightly shocked when Pearl confessed that she didn't have a car, and he adamantly refused to drop her off at the bus stop. They drove to her apartment in silence, and Luciano finally had a few moments to think about the whirl of events.
He couldn't believe he had found his mermaid again, and the fact that she was pregnant with his baby seemed beyond comprehension. He could hear his dead father and uncles laughing at him for believing immediately that a strange woman's baby might be his, but deep in his heart, he knew it was true.
There's a strange connection between Pearl and I, he thought. She feels it too. Fate has placed us on a very strange road, but perhaps it is the right one after all.
When she had run, Luciano had felt as if his heart was being tugged out of his chest. His mind had suddenly flashed with pictures of her slipping and falling, being burned in the kitchen or cut by a surprised chef. He had skydived and scuba dived and raced some of the fastest cars on the planet on a flat track. Somehow, despite all of that, he wasn't sure that he had ever been more afraid than he was when he saw Pearl running into danger.
He thought she understood now. As distasteful as it might have been, he had spoken nothing but the truth at dinner. He had always been taught to protect his family, protect its interests, and that included the child he had just found out about.
He risked a glance at Pearl herself, pushed against the passenger door and gazing out at the passing lights. When he looked at her, his heart squeezed tight. Some of it was because of the idea that she was carrying his baby, but he was too wise to think that was all there was to it. She had a face of surprisingly delicate beauty. Her profile, slightly snub nose and all belonged on a cameo. The pleasure he had found in her arms still echoed through him, and the idea of that wild mermaid carrying his baby struck him straight in the heart.
She directed him to a small apartment building on a plain street. It didn't look rough, but it wasn't pretty, either, and Luciano felt a momentary pang at letting her out alone, even at her own doorstep.
"Tomorrow I will send someone for your things," he told her. "Just pack what you need to get by for a few days, you can buy new things when you settle."
"Of course, my lord," she said, her lip curling a little. "Do you have any other instructions?"
"Just one question," he said honestly, and she looked at him warily. "Can I kiss you?"
Pearl hesitated, and there was a wild and cautious look in her lovely eyes that cut him to the heart. Luciano didn't miss the way her hand stole up to her belly, covering the curve of it protectively.
"I want to," she said finally. "But is that a good idea? I mean, there's so much about you and me that's up in the air. We've...we've gone through a lot, and there's a lot ahead of us..."
She was still talking when Luciano leaned in, cupping the back of her blonde head with his palm. The kiss started out slow and exploratory. They were two people who were getting to know each other all over again after a long absence. The sweetness of her filled him with a need that he hadn’t been able to recapture after they had parted. He could feel her lean into him, and his body was full of a kind of longing that had no name.
Pearl was only quiet under his touch for a few moments. Instead of pushing him away, she reached up and grabbed two enormous fistfuls of his shirt, holding him in place. He could have told her that there was no need to hang on so tight, that he wasn't going anywhere, but that didn't seem to matter to her.
In the space between one moment and the next, the kiss went from sweet and soft to something much more needy and desperate. She kissed him as if she would drown otherwise, and in a flash of insight, Luciano knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there had been no one since their fateful night on the beach. It might not have been intentional, but there was a kind of loyalty to it. He knew in that moment that she had needed him as much as he had needed her.
His arms came up around her, dragging her close. Pearl melted into him with a sweetness that took his breath away, and the soft moan she uttered against his lips made him shudder.
No, I can't let her go again, I never should have let her go before...
Just as abruptly as their kiss had started, it ended again. Pearl let go of his shirt and pushed hard, pressing her back against the car door. Her vivid green eyes darted back and forth, and she looked so much like a beautiful animal brought to bay that his heart ached.
"Pearl..."
"We can't do that," she said, her voice high and slightly panicked. "God, the last time we did that... You can't kiss me like that again!"
A protest rose up in Luciano's throat, but after a moment, he nodded with chagrin. He would have to bear the fault for this one, even if it was unfair. It would do no good to talk to Pearl about their chemistry, the longing he was certain resided in her heart just like it did in his own.
"All right. I'm sorry."
She scanned his face desperately as if she wasn't sure he was telling the truth, but finally, she nodded, satisfied.
"I should get going," she said stiffly, but she looked to him as if for permission.
Luciano nodded silently and walked her to the apartment door. She raised an eyebrow, but he gave her a fierce look.
"I want to see you safe," he growled. "That's not one that you can talk me out of."
"This area's not bad," she said with a heedless shrug. “More car crime than anything else. No real problems with robbery or muggings, anything like that."
Luciano scowled at that, but nothing was getting fixed that night. He had to plan, and things were already taking shape in his mind.
He thought she would simply bid him goodnight and disappear into the building, but she paused.
"I...I have missed you," she said, the words sounding as if they had been torn from her. "Tonight was... I was happy to see you tonight."
Luciano smiled with half his mouth, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
"You don't have to lie to me, mermaid," he started, but then to his shock, she leaned up, hands braced on his chest so she could brush a soft kiss over his jaw. Then, probably before she had to explain herself or even think about what she did, she darted back into the building, the door shutting behind her.
Luciano stood on her doorstep for another few moments, his fingers coming up to brush the place her mouth had touched. He wondered if it was really tingling a little, as if such a simple touch could make so much of an impression.
He thought of her words, and about the feel of the kiss against his face, and he grinned. She hadn't been lying after all.
***
Back in her dim little apartment, Pearl locked her door and shot the bolt before slumping into the single overstuffed chair that was, besides her bed and a small nightstand, the only piece of furniture in the small apartment. Her face felt hot, as if she had spent a great deal of time in the sun, but she knew it wasn't the sun that had made her feel this way.
Pearl realized that deep in her heart, she had never expected to see Luciano again. Even if she had, she had never thought the insane chemistry between them was something that would reappear.
Now, it seemed as if she was wrong on both counts, so what was she going to do with that?
"He can't have you, you're not his alone," she mur
mured to her belly, and she felt that surge of maternal protectiveness again.
Pearl knew above and beyond anything else that her duty was to her child. Her child's needs came first, even if it wasn't a child yet. She told herself that she knew little about Luciano besides the strong attraction she had felt for him and how good and right he felt to her foolish heart. Despite all of that logical sense, however, there was a part of her that softened at the idea of him holding a little baby in his hands, a baby that had his dark hair, perhaps her green eyes.
God, I know I could do this alone, but what does Luciano mean in all of this?
She wanted what was best for her child. Luciano was an actual prince, a man who could probably buy and sell her city block a few times over. How in the world could she fight him if she thought he meant her harm?
She buried her face in her hands. Just six months ago, life had been so simple. She wanted to swim, she wanted to see the world, and the idea of a child was a distant dream, something for someday, perhaps, when she was ready to settle down.
Now, with her belly growing rounder by the day, the last thing she felt was settled, and here Luciano had showed up to muddy the waters further.
She knew every part of her body craved him, but was that enough?
Pearl also knew from long experience that she could go over and over the different alternatives and paths in her mind until she drove herself crazy. That was why swimming and playing a mermaid were so good for her. They allowed her to focus only on the task at hand rather than chasing a thousand different rabbits down a thousand different holes.
She forced herself to calm down, taking several long breaths, and rose up to shower and dress for bed. It was still ridiculously early, but she had been feeling so tired lately. Ruefully, she passed her hand over her belly.
"It sounds like things are going to get a bit hectic for a while, huh, baby? Let's try to take it easy on each other."
Lying curled on her side in her small bed that night, she wasn't thinking of her baby, however. Instead, she was thinking of the warmth and comfort of Luciano's body curled up against her back, his arm heavy over her hip and his lips next to her ear, whispering soft, sweet things to her as she drifted off...
