A Dark Sicilian Secret

“I didn’t remember you being such a restless sleeper,” he said, his long black eyelashes dropping to conceal his eyes. “You kicked and thrashed half of the night.”

“Is that why you left so early this morning?”

“I stayed with you all night, only leaving so that I could have Maria bring you breakfast.”

She flushed. “I didn’t know.”

“Yes. Apparently there’s a great deal you don’t know.” He paused, studied her thoughtfully. “Just as there are many things I need to understand about you.”

CHAPTER SIX

JILLIAN did not ask what he meant and Maria arrived with Joe j

ust as the seat belt sign flashed on.

Jillian gratefully took Joe onto her lap and wrapped her arms around him. Blinding sunlight poured through the jet windows as the Boeing 737 dropped lower and lower until the jet’s wheels finally touched ground. Once on the runway, she dropped a kiss on the top of her son’s head, happy they’d landed safely.

As she kissed him, his cloud of soft black hair tickled her nose and she breathed in his sweet baby scent.

Feeling Vittorio’s gaze, she glanced up, her eyes locking with his. He was sitting across the aisle from her and yet she could practically feel him. He had such a strong presence, a very physical energy that made her body hum even now.

“You have shadows under your eyes,” he said.

“I shouldn’t. I actually slept well last night.”

“It sounds like you don’t get a lot of sleep.”

She shifted Joe in her arms. “Babies wake up a lot at night. And then of course, there’s my need to check on him.”

“You should have had more help with him.”

Jillian knew what he was really saying—that if she’d come to him, she would have had help, she wouldn’t have had to struggle on her own.

“It will be easier for you to sleep when Joseph is in his own crib, in his own room,” he added. “And he does have his own room at my house. There’s space for Maria to sleep in the nursery should we need her to—”

“I like having Joe close at night,” she interrupted. “I can’t imagine not having him there.”

“And I can’t imagine making love to my wife if my son is present.” His voice was firm, decisive. “Joseph will be fine in his own room. Trust me.”

“So you’ve had a baby before?” she flashed, angered that he’d again start making decisions not just for Joe, but for her.

“No. But I can read a how-to-raise-a-baby book just as well as you, and I do have all those nieces and nephews.”

She bit her lip to keep from replying sharply, and still struggling with her temper, turned her head to look out the window. It was a gorgeous clear morning. The sun was still rising and the sky stretched overhead, a lucid, cloudless blue. “You said I looked tired,” she said. “Should I put some makeup on?”

“That’s not necessary. You look fine. Just be yourself.”

Ah, there was the dilemma. After falling into Vittorio’s arms after so many months of running from him and fearing him, Jillian didn’t even know who she was anymore. “As if it were that easy.”

“It’s not?”

Her lips twisted wryly. “No.”

“Why not?”

She wanted to tell him she’d lived too many different lives in too many places. She wanted to share that more than once she’d sat frozen in a classroom or the cafeteria, terrified to open her mouth in the event she said the wrong thing. In the event she’d forgotten her part.

Lee. Carol. Anne. Jillian.