The Italian Billionaire's Pregnant Bride

‘Grazia?’ Kathy prompted in fascination. ‘Who’s Grazia?’

‘Surely Sergio has mentioned her to you?’

‘No.’

Abramo contrived to look stunned by that oversight. ‘When Sergio was twenty-one he got engaged to Grazia. I too loved her,’ he confided with a grimace. ‘When Sergio was deposed as heir to the Azzarini wine empire and I took his place, Grazia panicked and changed her mind about marrying him. I didn’t waste the opportunity. I married her before she could change her mind.’

Kathy marvelled at his honesty and at his evident hope that Sergio would absolve him from what must have been a devastating double betrayal. ‘I’m not sure I understand why you’re telling me all this.’

‘Sergio is about to marry you. You have a child. All our lives are in a different place now. I want to offer my good wishes for your future. I have a great need to make peace with my brother.’ Abramo gave her a look of unashamed appeal. ‘Will you speak to him?’

Ella wakened in the room next door and her cries created a welcome diversion. Kathy lifted her tiny precious daughter from her cradle and hugged her gently close. Family ties were important, she reflected helplessly. Although Abramo’s sincerity had impressed her, she was reluctant to interfere in a situation about which she knew so little. She took Ella out to meet her uncle. He was one of those men who absolutely adored babies and was enchanted with his niece. Kathy was surprised to learn that he had no children of his own.

‘I’ll have a word with Sergio after the wedding,’ Kathy said finally. ‘But that’s all I can promise.’

Abramo gripped her hands in a warmly enthusiastic expression of gratitude and swore she would not regret it. As soon as he had left, Kathy made use of the internet and did a search for Grazia Torrente. A startling number of websites came up: Grazia was a celebrity in mainland Europe, the fashionista daughter of an Italian marquis with an alarmingly long name. Up came a picture of an ethereal blonde with the face of a Madonna and a figure that would make even a sack look trendy. As couples went, Abramo and Grazia matched like oil and water, whereas Sergio and…Her face tight with discomfiture, Kathy closed the page and scolded herself for snooping. After all, it was eight years since he had been engaged to the woman who was now married to his brother.

That night the cheerful nanny whom Kathy had picked from a short list arrived to help with Ella. The next day, they departed for the airport, where they met up with Bridget and Nola. Ten minutes later, Kathy’s mobile phone rang.

‘I hear you’re having a good time,’ Sergio murmured teasingly.

Kathy stiffened. ‘Have you got your security team spying on me now?’

‘No need, delizia mia. I can hear the giggles from where I’m standing and it sounds very much like a hen-party.’

‘From where you’re standing?’ Kathy froze and looked up. Her searching gaze fanned round before it homed straight in on Sergio’s unmistakable tall, well-built frame. Sun shades in place, he was talking on his phone about fifty yards away. ‘I didn’t know you were here—’

‘No, don’t come over. Ignore me,’ Sergio urged as she began to rise from her seat. ‘We’re travelling separately. You’re flying to Italy in a Pallis jet to keep the paparazzi off our trail.’

‘Is your friend Leonidas throwing in male strippers to enliven our flight?’ Her apple-green eyes were bright as danger flares. ‘Maybe I want to do more than have a giggle over a cup of coffee during my last hours as a single woman.’

Across the concourse, Sergio raised lean brown fingers to his lips and blew on them as though he had been burnt. ‘You are never going to let me forget that stag cruise, are you?’

Chin at an angle, Kathy lifted and dropped a slim shoulder in an exaggerated shrug. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think that christening my yacht Diva Queen was an act of prophecy, delizia mia,’ Sergio drawled. ‘By the way, be nice about Leonidas. He and his wife are hosting our wedding…’

CHAPTER EIGHT

A COURTEOUS steward escorted Kathy and her party onto the Pallis jet.

Kathy was surprised to find two women waiting on board to greet them. A shapely chestnut-haired girl with violet eyes and a ready smile introduced herself as Maribel Pallis and her stunning blonde companion as Tilda, Princess Hussein Al-Zafar. They were the wives of Sergio’s friends from his university days, Leonidas and Rashad.

‘The guys are like t

his…’ Tilda meshed her fingers together in a speaking gesture to explain the strength of the men’s friendship. ‘We couldn’t wait until you got to Italy to meet you.’

‘I always thought it would take a big game hunter to land Sergio,’ Maribel teased.

Kathy resisted the urge to comment that a six-pound baby had accomplished that feat all on her own and without the use of a weapon. It might be the truth, she thought heavily, but it would also be a conversational killer when Tilda and Maribel were making a wonderful effort to extend a friendly welcome. Then Ella opened her baby version of her mother’s unusual light green eyes to inspect their new acquaintances and any remaining barriers fell, for every woman present was a mother and there was plenty of common ground to share. That led into Maribel asking soon after takeoff if there was any chance that Kathy fancied a night out rather than a sedate pre-bridal early night.

Kathy gave Maribel a look of surprise. ‘Any sort of a night out would be a thrill,’ she confided ruefully. ‘I stayed in while I was pregnant and after the birth I was tied to the hospital until last week.’

Tilda and Maribel exchanged smiles. ‘Let’s go for the thrill.’

‘Sergio always does.’ Kathy spoke her thoughts out loud and then blushed at that revealing comment, which her companions were too tactful to pick up on.

When the jet landed in Tuscany, Ella and her nanny were borne off to the Pallis country estate while Kathy and her companions headed into the medieval splendour of Florence for a whirlwind shopping trip. There Kathy finally got to make use of the credit cards Sergio had given her and that breathless, chattering tour of exclusive boutiques was a lot of fun. It soon transpired that the night out was a pre-planned event that had merely required her approval. The five women enjoyed the comfort of a luxury hotel suite as a changing room and sashayed out to dinner in style.