The Sicilian's Marriage Arrangement

“And it could not wait until I returned to the villa?” he asked with one sardonic brow raised.

“We don’t talk when you’re home,” she said with a tinge of the pained frustration that caused her.

He didn’t reply but led her to a chair by the huge plate-glass windows overlooking Palermo’s wealthy business section.

He took the chair closest to her own. “Would you like something to eat or drink?”

She shook her head. “I want to talk.”

He looked at his watch. “I have a meeting in ten minutes. Perhaps this can wait.”

“No.”

His expression was not encouraging. “Make it short.”

Darn it. This should be special, but he made it impossible, or was that her timing? Maybe she should have waited to tell him at home, but she was here. She might as well finish it. For a second, the words simply would not come.

He moved impatiently and looked pointedly at his watch again.

“I’m pregnant.”

He went completely still, the sculpted angles of his face moving into emotionless rigidity. “You are sure of this?”

“I went to see the doctor today.”

“And he confirmed your suspicions?”

“Yes.” Why wasn’t he reacting? He was acting like they were discussing the details of a rather boring business deal.

“I am surprised you didn’t do something to prevent conception so early.” His black eyes mocked her in a way she did not understand. “I had the distinct impression you were enjoying our physical intimacy.”

Did he think they couldn’t make love now that she was pregnant? “The doctor said there would be no risk to the baby during normal intimacy.”

“You asked. This surprises me. You are still shy about some things.”

She blushed under his mocking scrutiny. “He offered the information.”

He nodded. “That is a more believable scenario.”

She waited for him to say something about how he felt knowing she was carrying his child, but he stood and looked at his watch again. “If that’s all?”

She stood too. “Yes, but…”

“But what?”

“Are you glad about the baby?” she blurted out.

“You must know that I have every reason to be pleased that you have conceived so quickly.”

Was this the man who had made love to her with such gentleness the night before that she had cried?

“I could do with you saying it.” She could do with a lot more, but she would settle for that.

He smiled derisively. “I am happy about the baby. Are you now satisfied? May I return to my business?”

He had managed to say the words she most wanted to hear in a way that caused pain rather than pleasure. Tears burned the back of her eyes as pain radiated from her heart outward. Why her? What had she done to earn this kind of constant rejection from the people that were supposed to care about her?

She jumped to her feet and spun toward the door, not bothering to answer his hurtful question. Obviously his upcoming appointment was much more important to him than his wife or the knowledge he would be a father.

She stumbled toward the door, her vision blurred by tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Hope!”

She ignored him and made top speed for the elevator outside his office suite. Following a pattern set in early childhood, she wanted only to find someplace to be alone where it would be safe for her to grieve in private. That precluded going back to the villa.

She couldn’t even stand the thought of getting in the di Valerio limousine and exposing her pain to the chauffeur. She hated the fact that Luciano’s secretary had no doubt seen the tears.

She used her mobile phone to call and dismiss the driver, telling him she would find her own way home.

Anger warred with pain in Luciano. He wanted to go after Hope, to hold her and tell her he was thrilled about the baby. The thought of her pregnant with his child was sweet when it should be sour.

He wanted to wipe the look of misery off her face and he despised himself for his weakness.

She had lied to him.

But what was the lie and what was the truth? She had looked so lost, so vulnerable when she told him about the baby and he had forced himself to contain his response.

The woman who had colluded with Joshua Reynolds to trap herself a husband was not vulnerable.

But Hope had been vulnerable. And she had been hurting. Was it possible he had misunderstood what he had heard on the phone two weeks ago? His brain rejected the thought as the words replayed themselves in his mind. Yet, he could not reconcile those words with the woman who gave herself so completely when they made love.

She was too generous in her passion to be such a heartless schemer. And yet, what other explanation was there? Joshua Reynolds had blackmailed Luciano and Hope had known about it.