The Di Sione Secret Baby (The Billionaire's Legacy 2)

Waves of ice drenching her, she slid from her bed and stood with her heart thudding dully. Thoughts of the possible consequences slammed through her mind, each worse case more frightening than the last. She took deep, steady breaths, forcing herself not to panic. She was on the pill, one with high levels of success. And that last, lust-inflamed move, she concluded, face flaming hotter, had been right before their final release. Her fears abated slightly as she confirmed that her pill dosage was right on track.

It had to be.

She was nowhere near equipped to assume the huge responsibility of caring for a child.

Her track record was woefully lacking to even begin to contemplate motherhood.

And really, would the odds be so cruelly stacked against her for seeking one moment of passion?

But it hadn’t been just the once...

Rahim had stayed true to his word. His hunger hadn’t abated until the first streaks of an orange sunrise tinged grey skies. Her body ached in places thoroughly alien to her and, with each breath, she felt the residual power of his possession.

Allegra knew that if it hadn’t been for her subconscious nudging her to acknowledge her folly, she would be as dead to the world as Rahim was now. Her breath caught anew as she stared down at him.

In sleep, he was a little less overpowering, but every bit as magnificent. With the sheets tangled around his waist and one arm thrown over his head, his incredible body was on display, reminding her just how hungry she’d been in turn. How hungry she still was. The force of that need had her taking a step back. When her back touched the cold railing, she suppressed a gasp.

She was naked in the bedchamber of a man she hadn’t met this time yesterday. A man who was only supposed to have been a means to an end. An end she’d failed woefully at achieving.

Far from the woman she’d taken pride in believing herself to be once she’d acknowledged her basic flaws, Allegra felt the humiliating burn of deep shame and she hurried silently down the stairs to the lower floor of Rahim’s chamber. Each stealthy breath she took hammered home her spectacular failure.

Ruthlessly she locked her thoughts down to be dealt with when she was far away from Dar-Aman. It was either that or lose her mind along with everything she’d thrown under the bus of her weakness. Slipping her wrinkled negligee over her head, she crossed to where Rahim had dropped her wrap earlier. As she straightened, her gaze fell on the Fabergé box.

Don’t fail me, ragazza mia.

Her grandfather’s words resonated loudly in her head, as if he stood next to her. Hopeless tears filled her eyes. She plugged the sob that threatened with her fist and took a step back from the cabinet.

She couldn’t.

She wouldn’t.

But hadn’t she lost everything she deemed worthy tonight? She’d come into Rahim’s room with the intention of finding some way of taking possession of the box. When he’d caught her red-handed, she’d lied and thrown herself at him to cover her subterfuge.

Her integrity was already in shreds. But did that warrant adding stealing to her sins?

She shook her head as another sob rose. She’d failed her family in so many ways. Adding another failure...returning home to her grandfather empty-handed... The thought tore at her heart.

Hands shaking, she slid back the cabinet glass and reached for the box. Shrugging her wrap off her shoulders, she wrapped the priceless ornament in it and slowly turned.

With one last quick glance up to where Rahim lay sleeping, she slipped out as quietly as she’d entered.

But even as her feet carried her back to her suite, and she hurried through packing her suitcase and reassuring a bewildered Nura that she would much prefer a taxi to the airport over a palace driver, Allegra was certain the stain on her soul would never be erased.

The stain deepened even as she sent silent thanks to the media who’d widely documented her visit with Rahim. As a guest of His Royal Highness, she was informed with deference by the airport officials; she didn’t need to go through customs. Allegra cringed with shame as she was escorted into her first-class seat on the commercial jet.

Nevertheless, she cradled her grandfather’s Lost Mistress throughout the flight, unwilling to let it out of her sight.

The tiny voice that mocked that she did so because the box also signified the only part of Rahim she would ever encounter again in this lifetime, she harshly ignored.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Two months later

ALLEGRA HEARD THE slow footsteps and the added click of the walking stick and summoned a smile as her grandfather walked into the sunroom.

Situated on the east wing of the Long Island villa, the shaded coolness of the room was what Giovanni favoured these days, although he spent an hour on his favourite terrace in the mornings, before the mid-July heat became too unbearable.

She turned in her seat as the footsteps halted. ‘Ragazza, I didn’t hear you come in.’