Claiming His Scandalous Love-Child

He shook his head. ‘If I had only let you speak—let you explain your secrecy...’

She swallowed. ‘And if I had let you speak in Rome—let you explain about Carla, about everything...’

He gave a shaky laugh. They had come so close to losing each other. To losing what was most precious between them.

‘Never again!’ he breathed. ‘From this day onward, my beloved, we shall always, always hear each other out! About everything!’

Her answering smile was wavering, and tears still weighed on her lashes. But inside her huge, sweeping emotions were lifting her high. Joy was lighting within her...happiness was soaring. And then the tears suddenly cascaded down, shedding their burden. Her face convulsed.

‘Eloise!’

Alarm was in his voice and he wrapped her to him again, enveloping her as sobs broke from her.

So many emotions—so many hopes, so many fears, so many dreams. And now those dreams had come true. Vito was hers, and she was his, and their child was theirs for ever...

He let her weep, let all the emotions spill out of her, echoing the tumult draining from him too as he cradled her in his arms, murmuring in his own language to her, words and fragments of words that held a lifetime’s love in them.

And when at last her tears were shed, and a wondrous peace eased into her, a shining joy filled her to the brim, his hands gently lifted her face away from where it was buried in his shoulder.

His eyes were soft and filled with a tenderness that caught at all her senses. His kiss was as gentle as a summer’s breeze, as true as the love between them. Happiness filled her.

As he drew back his eyes held hers, entwining with hers. ‘How blessed I am,’ he said. ‘To have you and our child to be born.’

‘As blessed as I am,’ she echoed, her face softening with love. ‘To have you and...’ She paused, then smiled as she spoke on. ‘And our son to be born.’

Vito stilled. ‘Son? You know?’

She nodded, drawing a little back from him, nodding. Smiling. So joyous to be telling him.

‘I had early tests done, because I was anxious to know all was well, and they asked if I wanted to know the baby’s gender. I said yes, because I’m never one to bear suspense!’ She gave half a laugh, then smiled again. ‘And because I knew Johnny would ask once he realised I was having a baby, once I’d started to show.’

She paused a moment, her expression changing.

‘Vito—what was your father’s name?’

The question hung in the air, heavy with portent. He knew why she had asked, and he loved her the more for it.

‘Enrico,’ he answered. There was the slightest choke in his voice.

‘Enrico...’ Eloise echoed, with the same musing smile playing around her lips. ‘Would Rico be the diminutive form, do you think? Suitable for a baby?’

Vito’s long lashes swept down. ‘Entirely suitable,’ he said. His hand slid over her abdomen, and there was a look of wonder on his face. ‘Little Rico,’ he murmured.

‘Little Rico,’ she echoed tenderly.

He kissed her again—gently, softly—his hand resting where it was. Family already...as they would always be.

The jarring ring of the phone startled them, and with an exclamation Vito relinquished her to answer it.

He listened, then frowned. ‘We have a visitor in the lobby,’ he announced. ‘She wishes to speak to you.’

Eloise frowned, too, then came to the phone.

‘Mum?’ she said incredulously.

Her mother’s crisp tones penetrated even to Vito.

‘I came the moment I got your voicemail. Eloise, what on earth is happening? The last I heard was that you’d decided to accept this man after all! So why this talk of custody challenges?’