Sweet Temptation

“I’m glad, but things between Cassio and me are too tense. One day, we’ll have to work together again, but right now it’s for the best if we don’t see each other.”

“I understand. When will you leave?”

“Tomorrow.”

I hugged him. “Don’t be a stranger and call me.”

Cassio and Faro drove off shortly after, and I went into the dog park with the kids and Loulou. Surprise washed over me when Mansueto limped toward me not ten minutes after our arrival.

“Giulia, may I join you?” he asked. Elia stood immediately, making room on the bench.

“Of course,” I said, suspicious of his motives. “How did you know I was here?”

“Domenico.”

I nodded, slanting my older bodyguard a glance, but he was pointedly looking somewhere else.

Mansueto turned to Elia. “Give us some privacy.” Elia walked toward Simona and Daniele, who were watching Loulou play with a dachshund. Domenico had taken up watch a good distance away.

I blew into my hands to warm them, acutely aware of Mansueto’s intense scrutiny. “I’d like you to reconsider your decision not to get pregnant.”

My eyebrows skyrocketed. “It’s not only my decision. It’s Cassio’s as well. He doesn’t want more children right now. Simona and Daniele need our full attention.”

Mansueto watched a group of dogs chasing each other. “That’s because he prefers to pretend the kids are his.”

“You don’t know that they aren’t. Andrea and Gaia might have said it to hurt him.”

“So he told you everything?”

I bit my lip. “You should accept Cassio’s decision.”

“He’d change his mind if he knew the truth.”

“What truth?”

Mansueto fixed me with a sad look. “That the children aren’t his.”

“You don’t know that.”

“That’s not true. I did a paternity test without Cassio’s knowledge.”

I froze. “What?”

“Neither Simona nor Daniele are his. The test confirmed it. They are Andrea’s.”

My heart sank. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because Cassio doesn’t want to know. If I tell him… he can be very stubborn. I need your help.”

“I won’t tell him either. He doesn’t want to know, and I respect his wish.”

“Then don’t tell him now. One day he’ll find out. It’s bound to happen. At least, make sure Cassio will have an heir by then. Give him a baby. Don’t you want your own child, Giulia?”

Simona and Daniele giggled when Loulou and her dog friend had a tug of war over a long branch. “I can’t do anything.”

Mansueto touched my hand. “Cassio won’t be angry if you forget to take the pill and get pregnant by accident. You’re young and got a lot on your plate.”

I couldn’t believe what he was suggesting. “No,” I said firmly. “I won’t trick Cassio like that. Please don’t ask me for something like that ever again. Let Cassio believe Daniele and Simona’s are his, if that’s what he wants. He loves them.”

Mansueto let out a gravelly sigh. “No wonder he’s infatuated with you.”

Daniele spotted his grandpa and rushed over to us, throwing his tiny arms around him. Mansueto stroked Daniele’s head. “You’re fast, sweet child.”

Daniele smiled up at him and began telling him about Loulou and her dog friends. I stood and caught Simona, who’d stumbled twice in her haste to follow her brother and was bawling. Mansueto lifted Daniele on his lap and pointed at a Great Dane. Slowly, I returned to them.

Simona beamed at her grandfather, and he stroked her chubby cheek with a kind smile. He treated them like his grandkids.

Before he left for home, I cornered him alone. “Please promise me you won’t let anything slip to Daniele and Simona. Daniele’s getting better. He speaks. He loved his first day of preschool. I don’t want old wounds to open because blood is more important to you than anything else.”

“You should remember who you are talking to.”

“I’m not someone to show disrespect. But I’ll protect these children, even against their own grandfather if necessary.”

Mansueto let out a croaky laugh then patted my shoulder. “Cassio’s a lucky man.”

He turned around and limped back toward the black limousine with his bodyguards.

“Everything okay?” Elia inquired.

“Yeah.” I hoped I’d convinced Mansueto.

Cassio worked late and I fell asleep beside Daniele. When I woke past midnight, I followed the trickle of light downstairs and into the cigar lounge.

Cassio sat in his armchair in front of the fireplace, a tumbler with whisky in his hand, his brows drawn together as he stared into the flames. His jacket and tie were thrown hazardously over the second chair. He was still in his vest, but the top buttons of his shirt were undone and so were his cuffs. He rubbed his stubble with his palm, looking as if he’d been set up like that for an aftershave or whisky commercial.

“You’re brooding,” I said as I stepped into the room.

“I’m not.”

I locked the door. Cassio’s eyebrows rose as I strode toward him. “Yes, you are. You keep worrying too much.”

He shook his head. “There’s too much to worry about.”