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CHAPTER NINE
“CAN’T YOU GO SLOWER?” Scarlett pleaded.
“No.” Her husband sounded annoyed.
“Just a little—”
“Scarlett, this is Rome. If we go any slower, we’ll be run over.”
Sitting in the backseat of their brand-new Bentley SUV, she looked anxiously at their three-day-old baby quietly tucked in his baby seat beside her, looking up at her so trustingly, with those big dark eyes like Vin’s.
At least, she comforted herself, he hadn’t insisted on using the sports car. The two-seater had been professionally cleaned, and Vin had donated it to the highway police. “A little gift to say thanks,” he told her.
Scarlett was glad it had gone to a good home, and grateful to the kindhearted policeman who’d helped them get to the hospital so quickly.
She still remembered how terrified she’d been that day, and how awful labor had been. Her body had felt ripped apart. But already, that memory of pain was starting to fade every time she looked at her baby.
Scarlett was happy to be leaving the hospital. The hospital staff had been lovely, but she was ready to go home. Ready but also terrified. Because that meant there would no longer be medical professionals hovering to give quick advice if Nico couldn’t sleep at night or didn’t seem to be eating enough.
But at least Scarlett knew she had one person she could rely on. One person she could trust. The person who’d never left her side, not once, even though that choice had cost him dearly. And she loved him for it.
She loved Vin for that, and so much more.
She was totally, completely in love with him. There could no longer be any question. She’d known it when, after holding her hand uncomplainingly through long hours of labor, he’d tenderly placed their newborn baby in her arms.
“Look what you’ve created, Mrs. Borgia,” he’d said, looking down at her with a suspicious gleam in his black eyes. “You should be proud.”
“We created,” she’d corrected, looking up at him.
“We,” he’d whispered tenderly.
And that was that.
She loved Vin.
Another thing that thrilled her—and terrified her.
Heart in her throat, she looked at him, in the front seat beside their driver. Bodyguards were following in the black SUV. Vin had told her he wished to remain in Rome for the foreseeable future, in hopes of patching up the deal with Mediterranean Airlines. Scarlett had been delighted. She already adored this country, this city. How could she not?
But at the moment, her husband was looking back at her, his handsome face the picture of disbelief. “Are you sure you really want to do this?”
His tone implied she was crazy. He’d asked her the same question at least six times since their driver had picked them up from the hospital.
“I’m sure,” Scarlett said calmly.
“I have reservations at the best hotel in Rome. The royal suite. We’d have an entire floor to ourselves, in total luxury with an amazing view. Room service,” he added almost desperately.
Smiling, she shook her head. “That’s not what I want.”
Vin folded his arms, his expression disgruntled. “It’s a mistake.”
“It’s not a mistake to want our baby to have a real home, instead of living in some hotel. I don’t care how fancy it is.”
“You’ll care tonight, when there’s no hot water and the beds are lumpy. The roof probably leaks.”
“You’d really rather stay at a hotel than your own childhood home?”
“It wasn’t particularly great then, and I’m sure it’s worse now.” He turned away as the driver drove them deeper into the city. “I’ve rented it out for the last twenty years, and from what my staff has told me, the tenant didn’t exactly improve the situation.”
“Oh, come on,” Scarlett said with a laugh, rolling her eyes. “It’s a villa in Rome. How bad could it be?”
The answer to that question came soon, as she gingerly entered the faded, dilapidated eighteenth-century villa, set behind a tall gate with a guardhouse and a private cobblestoned drive.
Holding the baby carrier carefully in her arms—she’d refused all offers from bodyguards and her husband to carry it, as her baby’s eight pounds was precious cargo to her—Scarlett went through the enormous front door into the foyer. Stepping over the crumpled trash on the floor, she went farther into the villa.
