AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She glanced around again, slowly regaining a little equilibrium as she put some distance between herself and Vito. She couldn’t believe how powerfully her body had responded merely from being confined in a small space with him.
As she looked about, she noticed the marks where furniture had once stood, and shadows on the wall where pictures had been removed. It was a soulless space, like a home that had been gutted.
It didn’t seem right that she was in this bleak place with Vito. In her mind her time with him was associated with his palazzo in Venice, or even just going out and about with him. It wasn’t the level of comfort and luxury that was missing—it was simply being together. Being with Vito had always felt like being home. Now she had no home.
‘Where are you living?’ Vito asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
‘London,’ Lily replied briefly. After the way he’d treated her, she didn’t see any reason to let him know how unsettled her situation was.
‘Alone?’ he probed.
‘That’s none of your business.’ He was standing only a few feet away from her, and she met his hard blue gaze with her own. She didn’t want him to think that he intimidated her, even though she was feeling very shaky and uncertain. And she was sure he’d seen how being close to him in the elevator had affected her.
‘The baby’s father.’ He spoke through gritted teeth. ‘Are you living with him?’
For the second time that morning, Lily’s heart skipped a beat.
Vito’s words didn’t make sense. He couldn’t really mean what she thought he did—could he?
‘What are you talking about?’ she gasped, laying her hand protectively against her still-flat stomach. ‘I know it wasn’t planned—but of course you are the father.’
He was staring at her from beneath black brows, but the morning light flooding in from the massive windows caught his eyes, making them look almost metallic. For a moment she hardly recognised him. This really couldn’t be the man she’d lived with for five wonderful months of her life.
‘Don’t bother with your lies,’ Vito said. ‘Just tell me if you are in contact with the father. Does he know you are pregnant?’
‘You’ve made a mistake,’ Lily said, still struggling to process the implications of what he was saying. ‘You know I’ve only ever been with you.’
‘I may have been your first lover,’ Vito said. ‘But I wasn’t your only lover.’
‘But why do you think that?’ Lily gasped. ‘I don’t understand. Did somebody tell you something about me?’
‘Just tell me if the father knows,’ Vito grated.
‘You are the father!’ Lily cried. ‘There’s no one else and there never has been.’
His eyes pinned her for a moment longer, as if he was assessing a cold, emotionless business situation.
‘From that, I take it that he doesn’t know—or maybe he doesn’t want to know,’ Vito said. ‘Whatever the case, from now on, as far as the world is concerned, the child you are carrying is mine.’
‘It is yours.’ Lily said hollowly. She felt like she was banging her head against a brick wall.
Still holding her with his cold blue stare, Vito nodded once. The decisive movement of his head was strangely unnerving.
‘We will be married immediately,’ he announced.
CHAPTER THREE
‘MARRIED?’ Lily echoed, staring at him in utter shock. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard. ‘If that’s some kind of cruel joke, I’m not falling for it.’
‘It’s no joke.’ Vito sounded completely serious, and was looking at her with the hard expression she was starting to get horribly used to. ‘We will be married at once.’
‘How can you even ask me that?’ Lily gasped. Six weeks ago she would have accepted willingly. A proposal from Vito would have been like a dream come true—but not any more. Now it was more like a nightmare. ‘After the way you’ve treated me, I’d be mad to marry you.’
‘I’m not asking,’ Vito said. ‘I’m telling you that we will be married. And, as far as the world is concerned, the baby you are carrying is mine. He or she will be brought up as the Salvatore heir.’
Lily’s head was spinning and her stomach churning. With every passing second, Vito seemed more and more like a stranger.
Her mother, Ellen, had warned her how men could easily change. She’d had personal experience of it. Lily’s father had gone from adoring lover to threatening brute overnight, when Ellen had told him that she was pregnant. That was when Ellen had found out that Reggie had been married all along.
