Her tear-wet cheek was buried in his neck. She could smell the raw maleness of him and feel the warmth which radiated from him. His arms were tight and strong and protective. Nothing could hurt her here. At least, no outside forces could—her ache in her heart was the most dangerous thing she had to fear.
She drew away from him, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. ‘I’m sorry,’ she sniffed.
‘Don’t be sorry.’ He touched away a last stray tear with the tip of his finger. How shocked would she be if he told her that a part of him liked seeing her weak, like this? For her weakness meant that his own strength could come to the fore, and wasn’t that the way he liked it best? ‘What would happen if you told them you didn’t want to go back to work? At least for the foreseeable future?’
‘It would probably be the end of my career. Viewers have very short memories and even shorter loyalties.’
‘Yes, your career. Your damned career,’ he said softly. ‘What’s going to happen when the baby is born, Eve? Who will look after our son or our daughter when that car whisks you away to the studio every day?’
She looked at him. He was still so close, close enough to kiss, but she did not dare. ‘I don’t know anything any more,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t even know how much I care about my career.’ Her eyes glittered defiantly. ‘I suppose you think that’s a shocking admission?’
It was the best thing he had heard her say in a long time, but he was clever enough not to say so. ‘Why should it be?’
She shrugged, thinking that the woman he had been attracted to was the smart, able career woman. ‘I guess I think that my job defines me.’
‘No job should define a person. And you haven’t answered my question,’ he persisted. ‘What’s going to happen when the baby is born?’
‘I don’t have a choice. I have to work.’
‘But that’s just the point, Eve—you do have a choice. You can
come back to Italy with me. As my wife.’
There was a long, breathless silence.
‘You don’t mean that.’
‘I never say anything I don’t mean. But believe me when I tell you that I will not ask you again.’
She sat back against the cushions. ‘Why? I mean—really?’
‘Truthfully?’ He rubbed his finger along the shadowed line of his chin. ‘I would like the child to be born in Italy, and I want to see that child grow up.’
At least he hadn’t told her lies. Told her that he loved her and couldn’t live without her. ‘You think those are good enough reasons for getting married?’ she asked, and her voice was trembling in a way that didn’t sound like her at all.
‘I can’t think of any better,’ he said simply. ‘What is the alternative? That you bring up the baby here, alone.’ His eyes darkened. ‘Or maybe not alone. Think what you like of me, Eve—but the thought of another man bringing up my child as his own sickens me to the stomach.’
She nodded. Oh, yes, she could see that. They were qualities of possessiveness and ownership, certainly, but at least he had had the guts to admit it. He wasn’t to know that the situation would never arise and she wasn’t going to tell him that no man would feature in her life, not after him. For who could hold a candle to Luca Cardelli?
And the flip-side to his not being able to stand the thought of another man was the spectre of Luca being with another woman. Could she bear that? Imagine if Luca married someone else, and she had to send the child to stay with them, weekends and holidays and, worse, alternate Christmases? Another woman being a stepmother to her child. If there were qualities of ownership and possession, then Eve was just discovering that Luca didn’t have a monopoly on them.
Shouldn’t she give what they had—however precarious—a chance? Rather than risk time and distance making them grow further and further apart, so that it didn’t become a case of if he got another woman, but when.
She thought of what he was offering her. ‘It’s more than just marriage, though,’ she pointed out thoughtfully. ‘It’s a whole new life in a whole new country.’
‘An adventure! A beautiful country, and a beautiful city.’ His eyes glittered and his voice softened to rich velvet. ‘I could so easily make you fall in love with my city, Eve.’
She didn’t doubt it for a moment. He had managed to make her fall in love with him without even trying. But Luca was a passionate man, and there was an aspect to marriage he hadn’t even touched. The aspect which had turned everything upside down, including their lives.
‘When you say…marriage…’
He saw the way she bit her lip. ‘You are afraid that I am going to start demanding my “rights”?’ he mocked softly.
‘Well, are you?’ It should have been a teasing response and if it had been then who knew how he might have reacted? But, as it was, it came out more like a sulky little question and hung on the air like an accusation.
A pulse began to beat at his temple. ‘I will demand nothing of you, Eve,’ he retorted silkily. ‘If that’s what you’re worried about.’
Could it be any more complicated than it was? she wondered. What had happened had put up barriers between them, of course it had. Luca had shown no sign of wanting to make love to her ever since she had first told him that she was pregnant. At first she had put it down to his anger, but now that the anger had gone he still hadn’t gone near her. Which could mean that he no longer found her physically attractive.