A Ring for Vincenzo's Heir

Her tremble became violent. She looked so vulnerable, so stricken, so caught—she, who could have had any man she wanted with her beauty! Vin realized that he, too, was shaking.

His blood was pounding with the need to take her.

Then he remembered the bodyguards watching from the parking lot, the appointment at the clinic looming overhead.

Soon, he vowed to himself. Soon, he would satiate himself with her completely.

“You’re right about one thing.” He cupped her cheek. “I don’t believe in love. At least not the romantic kind. But I do believe,” he whispered, “in desire. I never stopped wanting you. From the moment we first met.”

“But you were going to marry another...”

“Because I thought you were lost to me. I thought I couldn’t have you. Now...I know I will.” Vin ran the pads of his fingertips lightly along the edge of her jawline, to her earlobes, to the tumbling red waves of her hair. “I will have you, Scarlett,” he growled. “At any price.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“THERE CAN BE no doubt, Mr. Borgia. The baby is yours.”

The Swiss doctor beamed at them. She was obviously pleased to be giving them good news.

Scarlett saw a flash of emotions cross Vin’s hard, handsome features—pride, relief, joy and then, as he looked at her, anger. He hadn’t forgiven her for running away.

Just you wait, Scarlett thought, giving him a bland smile.

But she’d thought she’d escape before this. Certainly before they drew the blood that they’d already tested in their in-house, state-of-the-art medical lab. She’d never intended for Vin to have the actual proof he was the father of her baby, proof he could use against her in courts of law.

But he’d never given her the opportunity. From the moment they’d arrived at the medical clinic, to the hour they’d spent waiting for the results, having lunch at a nearby elegant restaurant on the lake, Vin had never let Scarlett out of his sight. Even when she’d excused herself to use the restroom, he’d waited outside in the hallway, in an apparently courteous gesture. When she needed to get her handbag from the car, he’d insisted on sending a bodyguard to collect it.

Over lunch at the Michelin-starred restaurant, as he’d enjoyed lamb and asparagus in a delicate truffle sauce and a glass of wine, he’d expounded on what he would expect of her as his wife, each detail more outrageous than the last. He expected to dictate everything in her life, from the friends she kept to the clothes she wore!

She’d tried her best to lull his suspicions, listening meekly as she ate her lunch and sipped sparkling water. But inside, she was fuming.

Vin was so sure he’d won. He thought he could bully her into giving all her rights away—being nothing more than his indentured servant, the wife he could dominate, holding power over her future and their child’s! He was as bad as Blaise!

What century do you think we’re living in?

The century a rich man can do whatever he wants. To whomever he wants.

Actually, Vin was more dangerous. Because from the moment she’d met him, when he’d taken her in his arms and made her feel things she’d never felt before, pleasure and joy beyond imagining, he’d made her want to surrender to his demands. And he could do it again, if she let him.

I will have you, Scarlett. At any price.

She shivered as she remembered the hunger in his black eyes. The same hunger she felt for him.

But the price was too high. She couldn’t allow herself to surrender, not when it would cost her everything!

“Do you want to know the baby’s sex?” Dr. Schauss asked now in slightly accented English.

Vin’s eyes were wide as he looked at Scarlett. He cleared his throat and said in an unsteady voice, “Sure.”

The doctor smiled. “You’re having a boy!”

A boy? Scarlett’s eyes filled with tears. In just a few weeks, a sweet baby boy would be in her arms!

“A boy?” Vin’s face lit up, and he looked at Scarlett. His usual hard, cynical expression fell away and he looked suddenly young and joyful. Then he turned back to the doctor. “And the pregnancy? Is Scarlett well?”

If she’d loved him, or even trusted him, she might have been touched by the anxiety in his deep voice.