The Prince's Love-Child (The Royal House of Cacciatore 2)

As it was, she had said nothing—just made a pot of herbal tea to distract herself.

Oddly enough, when they drove into Solajoya the Rainbow Palace seemed welcoming—who would ever have thought she would be so glad to see the grand and glittering building? Yet it felt like home.

Or maybe that was because Nico and Ella came running out to meet them.

‘You’re back early!’ Ella exclaimed.

‘Morning sickness,’ said Lucy, not daring to meet Guido’s eyes.

‘But you’re feeling much better now that you’re back, aren’t you, Lucy?’ questioned Guido smoothly.

‘But how was it?’ asked Ella excitedly, linking her arm through Lucy’s in a sisterly way. The physical contact was oddly moving and made Lucy want to start to cry. ‘Aren’t the mountains the most beautiful you’ve ever seen?’

Instinct made her nod, but then Nico made things a million times worse.

‘Oh, Ella,’ he purred, with a grin. ‘I don’t imagine that they will have done much sightseeing!’

And Lucy did look up then, straight into the mocking dark ice of Guido’s eyes.

Gianferro’s stern face softened when he saw Lucy.

‘You are keeping well?’ he questioned.

Lucy nodded. ‘Oh, yes,’ she said staunchly, as if her very life depended on it. ‘Very well.’

And, of course, there was Leo—gorgeous, gurgling Leo—who Lucy couldn’t resist.

Guido came to the Nursery bathroom one day, just as Lucy was towelling him dry. She had suds in her hair and her face was rosy, and she looked up from blowing raspberries on Leo’s plump little stomach to find her husband standing in the doorway watching her, some indefinable emotion flitting across his face. But she reminded herself that Guido didn’t do emotion.

‘Nico and Ella have gone out for lunch,’ she said, by way of an explanation he had not asked for.

He frowned. ‘And there is no nursemaid?’

She pinned a nappy in place—there were no new-fangled disposables at the Palace—and looked up at him. ‘It’s her day off, and besides—I like doing it.’

The way she was kneeling made the size of her growing bump quite unmistakable, and he wondered how she managed to look so sexy when she was dripping with water and dealing with a squirming baby. He felt the jack-knifing of desire. God, if he had to endure a second longer of this hot-house of frustration then he would burst.

‘You have to have something to fill your day, I guess.’

She nodded. It wasn’t a very subtle barb, but she would ignore it. She certainly wasn’t going to have a row when there was a little baby around. All the child care books—which she was currently devouring—said that babies were very susceptible to the atmosphere around them. Which did not bode very well for the future.

‘I need as much practice as I can get, of course.’

‘Of course,’ he echoed. He stood there for a moment or two longer and then said, ‘I have to fly to New York.’

Her fingers stilled in the act of buttoning the crisp lawn romper suit, and she looked up, feeling the blood drain from her face. ‘To New York?’ she questioned dully.

‘That’s right.’

‘Oh?’ Her voice trembled. ‘Any reason why?’

He smiled. ‘I have business to attend to—why else?’

A couple of reasons sprang to mind, and one of them was disturbing enough to make her tremble. But if she challenged him he would only deny them, and then it would look as if she didn’t trust him.

But she didn’t trust him!

He paused, still standing like a dark, carved statue by the door. ‘You could always come with me.’