The Secret His Mistress Carried

‘What came over you?’

Billie groaned. ‘I felt cornered and threatened. I didn’t get the chance to think anything through. I know Gio’s going to be furious when he finds out the truth.’ She pushed away the curls flopping on her brow and groaned. ‘I’m going to text him and ask him to come over.’

‘I think you’d better. I mean...the minute you realised that he knew you had a child, you should’ve come clean. After all, if you don’t tell Gio, what happens if Theo decides that he wants to meet his father ten or fifteen years from now?’ the blonde woman asked anxiously. ‘I know Gio hurt you but that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t be a good father.’

Dee wasn’t telling Billie anything she hadn’t thought herself during the long lonely hours of the night. Gio walking back into her life had changed everything. It was no longer acceptable to conceal the truth of Theo’s paternity and pretending that some other man was responsible for his conception had been downright unforgivable, she acknowledged with eyes that ached from the tears she was holding back. Ashamed of that moment of cowardice, she swallowed hard and lifted her phone, selecting the number she had never deleted, hoping it remained unchanged, texting...

I have to speak to you today. It’s very important.

Gio texted back.

Eleven, your house.

Clearly, Billie was planning to tell him the truth. Gio’s mouth curled; he wasn’t impressed. The truth would still be coming fifteen months and more too late...

CHAPTER FIVE

RESTIVE AS A cat on hot bricks, Billie peered out of the window as Gio sprang out of the limo and she tensed up even more at the sight of his formal attire. He wore a faultlessly tailored black business suit teamed with a white shirt and purple tie. This was Gio in full tycoon mode, eyes veiled, lean, strong face taut with reserve, and unsmiling.

‘I have something to tell you,’ she said breathlessly in the hall.

Gio withdrew a folded sheet of paper from his jacket and simply extended it. ‘I already know...’

Her heart beating very fast, Billie shook open the sheet, lashes fluttering in disconcertion when she saw the photocopy of the birth certificate. ‘I don’t know what to say—’

‘There’s nothing you can say,’ Gio pronounced icily. ‘You lied last night. You deliberately concealed the truth from me for well over a year. Evidently you had no intention of ever telling me that I was a father.’

‘I never expected to see you again,’ Billie muttered weakly.

‘I want to see him,’ Gio breathed in a driven undertone.

‘He’s having a nap—’

Poised at the foot of the stairs, Gio sent her a sardonic appraisal. ‘I will still see him...’

Billie breathed in deep and started up the stairs, brushing damp palms down over her jeans. If she was reasonable, even a touch conciliating, they could deal with this situation in a perfectly civilised fashion, she told herself soothingly. Naturally, Gio’s first reaction was curiosity and, since he was divorced, Theo’s existence was probably less of an embarrassment than it might otherwise have been.

‘We need to be quiet,’ she whispered. ‘Dee’s very tired and she went back to bed. I don’t want to wake her.’

Billie pressed open the door of the room that the three children shared. Theo’s cot was in the corner. Gio strode up to the rails and gazed down with a powerful sense of disbelief at the baby peacefully sleeping in a tangle of covers. His son. Even at first glance, the family resemblance was staggering. Theo had a shock of black curls, a strong little nose and the set of his eyes was the same as Gio’s. Gio breathed in deep and slow, his broad chest tightening on a surge of emotion unlike anything he had ever felt. This was his little boy and he had gone through serious surgery without Gio. Any sort of surgery on babies was risky. His child could have died without Gio ever having known of his existence. Rage shot through Gio like a rejuvenating drug, ripping through the carapace of uncertainty and shock. Not trusting himself to remain quiet, he swung away from the cot and walked back to the door.

Billie studied him uneasily. Colour scored along the high blades of his cheekbones. His eyes were a glossy brilliant black she couldn’t read and his wide sensual mouth was clenched into a hard line.

‘Theos...I will never ever forgive you for this,’ Gio ground out at the top of the stairs, his dark velvety drawl as chilling as an icicle shot into her flesh.

Consternation winging through her at that inflexible assurance, Billie’s tummy flipped and her legs felt hollow and clumsy as she descended the stairs.