Pregnancy Of Passion

‘And I demeaned you by taking what I should have waited until after marriage to take.”

She didn’t want to dwell on the past. The present and the future were what concerned her now.

‘Do you believe me?” He was talking as if he did but she wasn’t taking any chances on misreading him.

It was too important.

‘Si. Had I been less certain of your experience I would have realized your innocence. There were enough clues.”

‘But Papa said what he did and you assumed he knew what he was talking about.”

Tension filled the big body under hers. ‘He and I will have words.”

She lifted up until their eyes met.

‘I think I should talk to him first.”

He looked as if he wanted to dispute her words and she laid her finger across his mouth.

‘No.This is between him and me. Let me talk to him, all right?” He nipped her finger and then kissed the small wound.

‘lf that is your wish.”

She appreciated the lack of argument. He might be primitive in many ways, but he wasn’t a total di poseur.

She was ready to label him a tyrannosaurus rex and be done with it three hours later.

Crossing her arms over her chest she glared at the man she’d thought was so accommodating earlier. She felt like laughing at her naivety. He was about as accommodating as a ten-tonne truck.

‘But I don’t want to go to my father’s for dinner tonight.”

She’d been outside on the terrace relaxing and reading a book trying not to think about how she and Salvatore had spent the afternoon when he came out and dropped the bomb on her.

‘l’m not even dressed for it for heaven’s sake.” Wearing a pair of Espadrilles and a casual shorts outfit, she didn’t feel anywhere up to dinner with her father’s perfect little family.

‘You can change your clothes. They are not expecting us for another forty minutes.”

‘I don’t want to go.”

‘You wanted to stay in his home not so many hours ago. Why this aversion to dining with him?” If Salvatore did not look so genuinely puzzled, she’d be ready to hit him.

‘Because I’m not ready to talk to him.”

Salvatore’s dark eyes warmed with an understanding that undermined her determination to remain emotionally distanced from him. Not that making love with him all afternoon hadn’t already done its bit to destroy that particular goal.

‘I will be with you, carA.”

‘And is that supposed to make all the difference?” Unsurprised when he frowned at her sarcasm she turned her head away so she didn’t have to see the disapproval in his expression. But not seeing didn’t mean being unaware, particularly when his scent still lingered on her skin-even after a long, hot shower.

‘He thinks I’m a tart.”

She’d been committed to her course of action in speaking with her father and she still was, but the very need for the conversation hurt. She wanted time to mentally prepare for it.

Did other daughters have to tell their fathers they weren’t floozies?

‘I am convinced Francesco is working under a misapprehension.” Salvatore brushed her long hair away from her face.

‘perhaps he misunderstood something you said.”