Italian Billionaire's Unexpected Lover (The Romano Brothers 2)

Gianpierre opened his eyes and stared down at his phone with determination. “I’ll be there. Four weeks.”

“Excellent! I will inform the teams.”

The call ended and Gianpierre slouched back in his chair, angry with himself and angry with the world. To have his dream of leading the build team in Dubai, he was going to have to seal up the restoration efforts of the Romano del Mare and leave them until later… a lot later. The Dubai job was due to take a minimum of four years to finish, and the Romano del Mare’s fate would be long sealed by then. The honor of restoring his family’s legacy would be lost to him if he went to Dubai. His brothers would have to give his job to someone else. It would be a part of his life that would forever go unfinished.

“Here!” Natalia exclaimed, holding against her chest a laptop that was nearly bigger than she was. She all but dropped it in Gianpierre’s lap before slapping the top of its hard shell with her open palm. “I want to watch videos about fairy castles.” She barked it out as well as any good drill sergeant would.

Little Natalia and Luciana had moved in almost two weeks ago, and Gianpierre had already started to forget what it had been like to live in the apartment without them. He had thought that their constant presence would be an annoyance, but instead the three of them had fallen into a comfortable rhythm of daily life that felt natural—so natural that Luciana had managed to talk him into babysitting while she had a girl’s night out with his soon-to-be sister-in-law, Adeline. The two women had met on site at the Romano del Mare and had become instant friends.

How Adeline had managed to talk his younger brother, Nicolo, into settling down, he had no idea. But to the man’s credit, Gianpierre had never seen Nicolo happier. He was going to be a father, and to the surprise of both of his brothers, his pending fatherhood suited him.

Gianpierre evaluated the demanding Natalia as she stared him down with unblinking eyes, pouting lips and her arms crossed over her chest. “What did your Mama say about you watching videos online?” While the little girl had called her birth mother Matri, Luciana had encouraged her to adopt Mama to refer to her. It made sense. Natalia was so young, and whether it was how they had wanted things to be or not, Luciana was now the little girl’s mother, and sometimes a name did matter. Calling her Mama instead of Aunt would have an emotional impact in the years to come as Natalia grew up into a young woman. It would lessen her sense of loss as she faced the many life benchmarks ahead of her, Gianpierre was sure of it.

“She said I couldn’t,” she said in a world-class, defiant pout.

“So why are you bringing me the computer?”

“Because she didn’t say that you couldn’t watch the videos.”

Gianpierre’s brows went up. Natalia’s argument was impeccable, yet he knew that it was a loophole Luciana would most likely not appreciate him helping Natalia exploit. As he stared at the girl and she stared right back at him, he appreciated how pure her w

ant was. It was all very simple with no conflicting feelings one way or another. She wanted to see fairy castles. Period.

“You are a very smart girl,” Gianpierre said, hoping to win her over to his side by starting out with a compliment, “but your Mama, she’s very stern. I don’t want her to yell at me if she finds out that I helped you watch videos about fairy castles online. You know that she doesn’t like you watching anything that she hasn’t reviewed first.”

The little girl narrowed her eyes, apparently not pleased with the direction the conversation was going. Gianpierre could already hear her tantrum screams ringing in his head, and his mind raced to offer her an alternative that they could both be happy with. Latching onto the perfect solution, he grinned from ear to ear.

“What if,” he said excitedly, “we make a fairy castle instead?” Making elaborate sand castles with his grandfather had been a favorite memory of his. In fact, constructing them together, seeing how important the foundation was and how all the parts needed to work together, was what had sparked Gianpierre’s love of medieval architecture. He couldn’t have been much older than Natalia at the time, and the thought of sharing a similar experience with her now suddenly flashed a spark of pure, unconflicted excitement in him—the first he’d felt in years, and he found himself holding his breath in hopes that Natalia liked the idea.

Natalia’s gaze went from his face down to the computer, back up and then down again before finally settling on his face once more. He could see her struggling with her desire to see the fairy castle videos that she’d had her heart set on. Then she cocked her head sideways as if considering the situation from a new angle. “If we make a fairy castle, does that mean I’ll have a fairy castle?”

Gianpierre smiled. He had her. “It does. Your very own. I’m very good at such things, you know. Some would even say that I’m one of the best people in the world at making fairy castles.”

Natalia smiled then, and it was as if the sun started shining on a gloomy day. Suddenly, everything was brighter and Gianpierre’s worries slipped away. In comparison to her joy, everything else ceased to be very important.

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

“Yes!”

Gianpierre laughed and then held out his hand. “Partners?”

Natalia’s little hand curled around two of Gianpierre’s fingers in a surprisingly strong handshake and her answer was filled with unfiltered glee. “Partners!”

8

Luciana

Luciana closed her eyes and moaned as she took a bite of eggplant parmesan. Its creamy texture made it feel as though the delicious morsel melted in her mouth.

“You don’t moan like that around Gianpierre, do you?” Adeline asked with a laugh.

Luciana’s cheeks heated in embarrassment but she couldn’t stop her smile. She hadn’t had a fun night out for herself in nearly three months, and she was determined to make this one count given that she had no idea how long it would be before she got another one. Never before had she had to think of someone other than herself before making every single little decision. It was exhausting. How all the other parents of the world did it, she had no idea. But she now understood why. When Luciana’s sister died, her niece became the most important person on the face of the planet, bar none. And while Luciana would have preferred to have her sister back, she now cherished her role as Natalia’s mother.

“Don’t hold back,” Adeline continued to tease. “Is he as good in bed as he looks?”

“It’s not like that,” Luciana said, laughing.

“But do you want it to be like that?” There was no laughing this time as Adeline posed her question. Luciana was surprised at how fast the two of them had bonded and become good friends, and she had definitely needed a friend. Adeline had become a lifeline to her sanity when the whole world seemed to spin out of control.