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Gianni loosed a cynical laugh. ‘I thought you’d be able to manage that one…’
‘I’m damned if I do…and I’m damned if I don’t, aren’t I?’ Milly countered painfully.
‘Only a week ago you were madly in love with another man—’
‘And then I got my memory back and everything changed!’ Milly argued vehemently. ‘Judging me on that isn’t fair… I—’
She snapped her mouth shut in despair, for she knew now that she had never loved Edward. She had wanted to love him and had convinced herself that she did. The illusion had vanished the instant she got her memory back. But even before that point she had been responding to Gianni. Dear heaven, she had gone to bed with him again! Was it any wonder that he saw that wanton surrender as yet more evidence that her emotions ran only skin-deep?
‘Gianni…think what you want,’ Milly sighed.
‘I always do. I also want to celebrate my way,’ he murmured silkily. ‘I’ll need you tonight at the house in Paris—’
She stiffened in astonishment. ‘You still have the house?’
Aware that Gianni had only bought that house for her occupation, and equally aware of the ruthless efficiency with which he usually cut loose from the past, she was genuinely amazed that he hadn’t long since sold it.
‘Around seven,’ Gianni continued, as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘You’ll be picked up this afternoon and you’ll be back with Connor early tomorrow.’
‘But I don’t have a passport!’ Milly was wildly disconcerted by his proposition. ‘I lost it three years ago and I never applied for one as Faith Jennings, so if you’re thinking that I—’
‘You didn’t lose your passport, cara. You left it behind in the townhouse and I eventually took it back to London with me. Fortunately it’s still current, and it’ll be waiting for you to collect at the airport. How did you contrive to get back into the UK without it?’ Gianni enquired drily.
‘I was a ferry passenger. I didn’t realise I didn’t have my passport until just before I got off. I was ready to panic, but in the end I wasn’t actually challenged,’ Milly recalled ruefully. ‘In the crush I managed to slip through. But I’ve never been so nervous in my life and it’s not something I’d ever try again. I felt like a criminal, waiting for a hand to fall on my shoulder.’
‘I wish Immigration had picked you up and thrown you in a cell until I caught up with you,’ Gianni confided grimly. ‘I wasted a lot of time searching France for you!’
‘I don’t want to come to Paris tonight,’ Milly admitted in a taut undertone.
‘It’s not negotiable. I’ll see you later,’ Gianni countered, and finished the call.
Celebrating his way? In Paris, where they had been happiest? Stefano had never set foot in the townhouse. The moment Gianni’s brother came into her mind Milly tried to push him out again, but her bitterness rose simultaneously and it was impossible to evade her memories…
Gianni had kept Milly and Stefano in separate compartments. If Stefano hadn’t chosen to breach those boundaries, Milly believed she would never have met him. Throughout their entire relationship Gianni had maintained his own homes in New York and London, and although he had occasionally mentioned Stefano, he had never once suggested that they should meet.
Stefano was Gianni’s half-brother, born of his putative father’s relationship with his stepmother. At the age of eleven, Stefano had been taken to Sicily and Gianni had become his legal guardian. Milly had first met Stefano at the New York apartment which Gianni had purchased for her use. By then Stefano had been studying at Harvard. He had just arrived on the doorstep one evening when Gianni was staying.
‘I hardly see Gianni any more. Now I now why!’ Stefano had laughed.
Initially, Gianni had been uneasy about his kid brother’s descent, but, knowing how fond he was of Stefano, Milly had been pleased. It was so hard now to remember that she herself had once liked Stefano.
He had been immature, and pretty spoilt by Gianni’s indulgence, but he had been easy company. During the final months of her relationship with Gianni, Stefano had called in whenever she was over in New York. Sometimes Gianni had been there; sometimes he hadn’t been. Registering that Gianni had actually been enjoying the fact that he was seeing more of his brother, Milly had made every effort to be welcoming.
‘If my brother really cares about you, he should marry you,’ Stefano had said once, seriously embarrassing her.
But at the time she’d thought little of that comment—certainly hadn’t registered that Stefano’s interest in her had become rather too personal. After all, Stefano had had a live-in girlfriend of his own. And Milly had been very wrapped up in Gianni and her own concerns. It had been shortly after first meeting Stefano that she had discovered that she was pregnant.
Even after Gianni had told her that he didn’t want to lose her, Milly had gone on feeling insecure. He hadn’t ever said up front that he wanted their baby. And although he had been more tender and caring in all sorts of quiet ways she had feared that he was simply making the best of a bad situation. She had also waited for Gianni to tell his brother that she was pregnant. When Gianni had stayed silent, Milly had become more and more uneasy about his attitude.
The night that her world had fallen apart, she had been alone when Stefano dropped in to visit. He had been drinking, and for the first time Milly had felt uncomfortable with him, although even at that late stage she hadn’t understood why—until he’d spoken, and shattered the casual camaraderie she had believed they’d had.
‘You just don’t see me, do you?’ Stefano launched at her bitterly, his darkly handsome features flushed as the condemnation simply erupted from him. ‘I don’t exist for you except as Gianni’s brother. I come round here to see you and all we ever talk about is him.’
‘I don’t understand…what—?’
‘I’m in love with you!’ Stefano shot at her accusingly. ‘You haven’t even noticed, have you?’
Milly was aghast, exploded out of her self-absorption with a vengeance. ‘You’ve had too much to drink…you don’t know what you’re saying—’
