Claiming His Wedding Night Consequence

But Nico shook his head slowly. ‘No... I want the baby to be healthy, like you. It’s just hard to get my head around. I think I’d just assumed it would be a boy.’

His honesty eased something inside Chiara. After all, neither of them had been prepared for this or expected it. Or planned for it.

She plucked nervously at the bedcover. ‘My father wanted a boy. I mean, he would have been perfectly happy with a daughter as long as he had a son too, but then...when my mother couldn’t have any more children...he was left with me. I felt the weight of his disappointment my whole life.’ She looked at Nico. ‘I don’t want that for our daughter.’

He met her eyes. ‘I will be the first to admit that my experience at the hands of women hasn’t always been positive, but I’m not going to punish my daughter for other people’s actions.’

There was something fiery in his eyes, and for a moment Chiara had a vision of him with a small dark-haired girl squealing with laughter on his shoulders. In a bid to stop him seeing the emotion she felt, she said, ‘You said “women” and “other people”...what did you mean?’

Nico got up and paced in the small space. He’d taken off his overcoat and wore a dark suit with an open-neck white shirt. He oozed confidence and virility. Chiara hadn’t been unaware of the lingering looks from the female staff of the private clinic, and it was probably only the fact that her doctor was close to retirement age that made her somewhat immune to Nico’s charms.

Chiara wondered a little desperately how any woman could ever come to terms with being with a man like this, who would be in constant demand and the object of women’s lust?

He turned around and looked supremely reluctant to speak. She sensed he wouldn’t. So she said, ‘Nico, we’re about to become parents. I deserve to know who you are.’

He ran a hand through his hair, making it messy. It only enhanced his appeal. Damn him.

‘There was a woman...when I was much younger. I thought I was in love with her.’

Chiara’s heart clenched. He had believed in love. Once. ‘What happened?’

Nico’s voice was harsh. ‘I found her in bed with my best friend and business partner. She’d encouraged him to betray me by doing a deal with a client behind my back and cutting me out. She overestimated his ability and severely underestimated mine. I cut them loose and went to America, and I never looked back.’

And now he was King of the World.

Chiara was realising that Nico might put on a cool, emotionless front but he was far from being that. He’d been hurt by his mother and then this woman and it had affected him. A lot. The fact that he’d once let a woman close enough to hurt him crushed something inside Chiara—the seed of hope that he would one day let her get close.

Quietly Chiara said, ‘Not all women are like that...greedy and duplicitous. Our daughter certainly won’t be.’

‘If I hadn’t met you I might still believe the wor

st of people, but maybe you’re right.’

He came to the end of the bed and wrapped his hands around the frame. Chiara was acutely aware of his long fingers, recalling all too easily how they’d felt on her skin...inside her. Her breathing got faster.

Just then there was a knock on the door and a nurse popped her head around, her eyes gravitating naturally to Nico and then widening comically. ‘Your doctor has another appointment scheduled but she’d like to chat to you before you leave.’

Chiara felt like saying something tart and snappy, to get the girl’s attention away from Nico, but he just said thank you and barely glanced at her. He was oblivious to his effect on women, or else just so used to it he didn’t notice any more.

He looked at her and she must have had an odd expression on her face because he said, ‘What? What did I do?’

She shook her head. ‘Nothing.’

He glanced at his watch. ‘My plane is ready and waiting at the airport. It’s time to go back to Sicily.’

He left the room so she could get dressed and Chiara felt alternately excited and full of trepidation about seeing her home again, never having expected to be returning like this.

* * *

The first thing Chiara noticed was that there were new gates—steel and reinforced. They opened automatically when Nico pressed a button in his sports car, which had been waiting for them at the airport.

As they drove up the driveway she saw gardeners working on the gardens. They’d been cleared and new plants put in. She immediately wanted to get out and inspect what they were doing, as her mother had used to love gardening before she’d got ill and the gardens had run wild. They’d even had a herb and vegetable garden outside the kitchen.

But then they rounded the last corner and Chiara’s favourite view appeared—the castello, perched on the edge of the world, with nothing but the sparkling sea behind it.

She gasped. ‘What’s all that?’

‘Scaffolding. The builders are almost finished doing the exterior refurbishment work.’