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She shook her head, looking both flummoxed and shaken, which he supposed was better than pitying. “I had no idea such a thing could happen. I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. She sounded like she meant it, but Christos shook off the stirring of answering emotion he felt at her kindness. Much better—and safer—to stick to practicalities. He did not want to feel anything for this woman, even if he was already starting to. He would stop. Immediately.

“So, you see why this baby is our only hope,” he stated flatly. “Our only chance of a direct descendent who can inherit.”

She was quiet for a moment, her lips pursed. “Yes,” she said finally. “I see that.”

She didn’t say anything more, and the silence stretched on between them, elastic and then ever tightening. Rose was staring into the middle distance, seemingly lost in thought, her forehead furrowed, her head cocked to one side, so her hair tumbled over her shoulder.

Christos knew she had to have questions. Concerns. He could not expect her to make such a momentous decision in a matter of minutes, and yet…he needed her to. Or at least, he wanted her to. He wanted to bring home the Amanti heir as he’d promised his mother. A duty to his family, to his legacy, and most importantly, to his brother. Maybe then the guilt he’d felt would ease, just a little. Maybe life would feel a little more bearable.

“Christos,” his mother had implored before he’d left for New York, clutching at his hands. “It all depends on you.”

He’d nodded, accepting, as he always was. It always depended on him. Keeping the family business going. Developing new avenues of revenue that couldn’t be taken away by his grandfather’s will. Keeping Luca in line and then keeping watch over him whenever he’d done something reckless, which had been often. And now this.

It was always, always up to Christos. After the disappointments his parents had faced when they realized their heir apparent couldn’t have children, couldn’t be the son they’d wanted…and then, even worse, when he hadn’t been able to keep their beloved Luca safe…he remembered when they’d heard about the car accident and his mother had turned to him, her face filled with grief.

“Why didn’t you…” she’d begun before stopping, but Christos knew the sentiment was still there. Why didn’t you keep him safe? This is your fault.

Now he would do whatever he could to atone for his own failings, and that meant bringing Rose Delaney and her baby back to Italy.

“Then…” he prompted when Rose, her forehead still furrowed as she nibbled her lip, didn’t say anything else.

“I can’t make this kind of decision in the space of a single afternoon,” she finally burst out. “That’s a little crazy, even for me.”

“Even for you?” Christos repeated, and she shrugged, giving a good-natured grimace. “You’ve said before that you’re not always sensible,” he remarked, and Rose made another face, sticking out her tongue at him in a way that was both annoying and adorable and totally unlike anything Christos had experienced. The women he knew always wanted something—attention, celebrity, money, status. Rose Delaney did not seem to want any of those things, and the novelty was refreshing, if unsettling.

“I’ve made a few reckless decisions,” she confessed on a sigh, seeming more philosophical than regretful about those choices. “I have to say, having a baby on my own is just the latest one in a pretty long line.”

“Ah.” Christos leaned forward. “But you don’t have to have this baby on your own. Far from it.”

“I walked right into that one, didn’t I?” Rose replied with a laugh as she rolled her eyes. “All I meant to say was…moving to Italy with a stranger after half an hour of conversation is pretty crazy. You can’t really expect me to agree that quickly?” She tilted her head to one side as she smiled, her nose crinkling in a way that drew Christos’s attention to the golden-brown freckles scattered across her nose. They were the same color as her hair.

“I mean,” she continued, her eyes starting to dance, “you wouldn’t want me to be that…imprudent, would you? Because you seem to be a very sensible kind of guy.”

The way she said the words almost made it sound as if she were flirting. Her eyes were still dancing with golden-green glints, and Christos found his stare caught on her parted lips, soft and pink and very inviting. Resolutely he yanked his gaze up to her eyes, but then he found himself strangely mesmerized by the way they sparkled. He had the urge to shake his head the way he might to clear it, but he kept himself from it and frowned instead.

“I try to be,” he told her levelly. “And what seems sensible is simply a compromise. You agree to visit, to experience and learn what it is to live as an Amanti. To be part of our family. You said you didn’t have a family,” he reminded her. “But now you do. A family who is ready to welcome you—”

“Welcome me,” Rose interjected skeptically, “or just my baby?” She bit her lip, her eyes wide and glassy. “Because you don’t know the first thing about me. Your brother didn’t even know the first thing about me. I’m just some random stranger you…you have to deal with.” Something in her tone, the jagged brokenness of the words, made Christos suspect she wasn’t talking about him and his family. At least, not just about him and his family.

“You and your baby,” he told her firmly, although that wasn’t entirely true. “But of course we need to get to know you, and you us,” he continued as he smiled and spread his hands wide. “If you visited for an agreed length of time, that could happen.”

Rose’s eyes narrowed. “And what would this agreed length of time be?”

“Three months,” Christos replied without hesitation. Surely that would be long enough to figure out a way forward…whatever it was.

“Three months…” She started to shake her head.

“Just the summer,” he replied. “You wouldn’t even have to miss work.” He knew from the investigator he’d hired that she worked as a teacher, although he supposed she would be taking maternity leave. And from what she’d said, as well as what she hadn’t, it didn’t seem like there was much keeping her here in New York. All the more reason to go to Italy with him.

Rose let out a hollow laugh. “That doesn’t matter so much anymore, unfortunately.” Before he could ask why it didn’t, she let out a little sigh. “Your suggestion certainly sounds reasonable,” she told him in a tone that indicated she didn’t feel like it was.

“Good,” Christos replied simply. It did sound like a reasonable suggestion, he acknowledged, and it was one he had no intention of sticking to. Rose Delaney was coming to Italy…and staying until she had her baby.

Then, and only then, could she decide whether she wanted to return to New York…alone.

* * *

Rose could feel her instinctive resistance to Christos’s incredible suggestion melting away like wax in the summer sun. When she let go of her initial Netflix notions of nefarious plots and being strong-armed into giving up her baby to a heartless stranger, she could see the reasonableness of Christos Amanti’s position, as outrageous as the whole thing still no doubt looked on paper.