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Her heart took a further hammering when he sat up easily, one strong arm secure around his son as he rose fluidly to his feet and raked a tidying hand through his hair, looking sexily and sinfully dishevelled as he stared down at her.
‘Ah. Your mamma has decided to grace us with her presence.’ Dark blue eyes gleamed as they raked her form, lingering over her cleavage and hips in ways that made her hot all over.
Gianni beamed his approval. ‘Mummy...lovely,’ he said.
Setting down the bag before it fell from her suddenly clammy fingers, she reached for Gianni. ‘I changed him just before breakfast so he doesn’t need changing. I’ll just put his sweater on and we can be on our way.’
Rocco handed him over, but his gaze stayed on hers for a charged second, sending spikes of heat through her and bringing thoughts of their earlier conversation flooding through her. She felt his gaze on her as she carried Gianni over to the sofa, sat him down and pulled his sweater over the long sleeve T-shirt and jeans he wore.
When she looked up, Rocco had the door open and the case in his hand. ‘I’ll take him so you can lock up.’
Unused to having another adult presence in Gianni’s life since her grandmother’s death, and feeling bereft at being relieved of him so quickly, she hesitated.
Rocco’s eyes narrowed and the last of the warmth left his face. ‘I’m not going to spirit him away the second your back is turned, if that’s what you think.’
But that was just the problem. She had no idea what to think, since she had no idea what role he intended to play in his son’s life. Biting her lips over her jumbled emotions, she handed Gianni to him, fished her keys out of her bag and locked the door behind her.
She approached the car in time to see him settle Gianni into a brand-new car seat. Seeing her surprise, he raised his brows in query.
‘Did you think I would forget such an important safety issue?’ he drawled.
If she was honest, yes, although now she thought of it, she realised Rocco, with his menagerie of nieces and nephews produced by his extended family, had more experience with children than she’d ever had, and the thought caused her even more worry.
Sliding into the silver Bentley to sit opposite her son, she felt unmoored, as if her life were spiralling out of her control, which was ridiculous. All he’d done was buy her son a car seat. Nothing wildly strange about that, she assured herself.
‘I flew in by helicopter this morning, but as I wasn’t sure how Gianni would react to the flight, I suggest we travel by road.’
Gianni would’ve probably loved it, but since she hadn’t been keen on Rocco’s helicopter rides during the times she’d had to accompany him on site visits, she nodded. ‘It’s probably best.’
She crossed her legs and immediately uncrossed them when her calf brushed the warm material of his trousers. Heat, delicious and stinging, raced along her skin, tightening her nipples into painful points. The immediacy of the reaction sent a gasp flying from her lips. And the thought that she had to endure almost two hours of Rocco’s dark, masculine presence sent a moan chasing after it.
‘I would ask you what is wrong, cara, but I already know. I felt it too.’ Molten eyes the colour of a storm-tossed sea speared her with flames of desire.
/> She swallowed hard. ‘Whatever I feel...whatever you feel, this is going nowhere,’ she warned, more to herself, she suspected, than to him.
His eyes dropped to her mouth, lingered for tense, dangerous seconds, before arriving back to hers. ‘We shall see.’
The words sounded so very much like a challenge, Mia swallowed again. Her gaze fell on her son and she breathed a sigh of relief. While Gianni was in the car with them, Rocco would not try anything.
Would he?
She cast him a furtive glance and caught his gaze on her face. Reading her features clearly, he smiled. It was a wholly untamed, deeply devastating smile that reeked of masculine arrogance.
Colour shot up her face, but she raised her chin and stared him down. After several seconds he turned his gaze on Gianni.
For several miles he entertained Gianni, leaving Mia to suffer his more than occasional, seemingly innocent contact every time he adjusted his large frame. And with each brush of body against hers, she experienced a bone-deep tingle that reignited primal sensations and a fierce yearning to pull closer to the powerful, masculine temptation that was Rocco.
Instead, she forced her hands to stayed curled in her lap, her attention on the grey motorway that whizzed past her window.
‘Grazie.’ The pull of his scrutiny, accompanied by the solemnly uttered word, drew her attention. She turned to see his gaze shift from his dozing son’s smooth, innocent face to hers. As much as she tried not to be affected by the hypnotic gleam in their stormy depths, several missed heartbeats told her she hadn’t been successful.
‘For what?’ she asked with genuine puzzlement.
‘For naming Gianni after my grandfather. He’s an exceptional boy. Nonna will be so proud.’ There was a discernible vein of pride in his voice coupled with a fierce possessiveness.
She couldn’t help the blush that suffused her face, and nor could she pull her gaze from his compelling eyes that made deadly promises she knew he wouldn’t deliver, no matter how difficult. God, hadn’t she learned her lesson?
Pushing down her despair, she answered with a thin shrug. ‘I know how much your grandmother misses your grandfather, even after all these years. I... I hoped this might in some way help her cope with her loss.’
