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Richard looked over the boy’s head at Isabella. Her eyes were twin storms. She was terrified. Of whe
re this might lead. Truth be told, he had no idea where it would. And was just as afraid.
But he had only one answer. “Yes, I will.”
Planting a noisy kiss on Richard’s cheek, Mauricio slipped free, flashing him a huge grin before skipping off.
The moment she could, Isabella hit him with the burning question she’d postponed for the past hour. “Do you intend to tell Mauri the truth?”
There was only one answer to that, too.
“No. Not yet.”
Nine
Not yet.
Every time those two words reverberated in Isabella’s mind, which was all the time, it made her even more agitated.
Not yet implied he would tell Mauri the truth eventually.
But he’d also implied that even if he did, it wouldn’t mean anything would change. Mauri would only know he had a father, and would get the benefit of all his wealth and power.
As if that wouldn’t change everything.
Before he’d left that night, he’d confessed he hadn’t thought this through, didn’t know what to expect himself. But the fact remained that Mauri had a right to everything he had as his only heir. While he...he only wanted to know his son. Only time would tell how that would translate into daily life or in the long term. They’d just have to wait and see how things worked out.
She had no other choice but to do just that. Now that he’d expressed the wish to know his son so unequivocally, she’d been unable to deny him his desire.
Ever since that day three weeks ago, she’d succumbed and gone along for the roller-coaster ride of having Richard in her family’s everyday life. And he’d been with them every possible minute. After their workdays, from early evenings to past the children’s bedtime, he’d been there. And he’d shocked her more with each passing minute.
His unstoppable charm continued on full-blast. But she could no longer believe it to be anything but genuine. Though he dazzled them all, she was now certain it wasn’t premeditated. He clearly liked being with her family. He really was interested in all of their concerns and indulgent of all their quirks.
But with Mauri, he was something she’d never seen a man being toward a child, not even her own loving father.
That almost tangible affinity they shared had disturbed her, worried her from that first day. It shook her to her core to see it growing every day, in Richard’s eyes, in his vibe. Such absolute focus, such a heart-snatching level of emotion.
What shook her as much was seeing him through new eyes. There was far more to him than the lethal seducer who’d taken her heart and body by storm, or the merciless void who’d taken Burton apart, or the ruthless manipulator who’d threatened to tear her life apart when he’d first returned. There were depths and passions in him she doubted even he knew he possessed. And no one seemed more surprised to discover these hidden qualities than Richard himself.
Just today, he’d done something she was certain he’d never contemplated within the range of possibilities.
He’d taken them shopping.
She’d agreed only after he’d promised no splurging. After the fact, she’d kicked herself for not defining splurging. To him, it could be keeping it under a million dollars.
As it had turned out, she shouldn’t have worried.
Thinking they were shopping—rightfully so—with the genie of the lamp, the kids had asked for things they wouldn’t dare ask of their family. She’d bated her breath, hating to have to shoot him down in front of them if he succumbed to their demands. But he’d only given them the most subtle but stern lesson in needless excess and its detriments. After that, they’d let him choose, and he’d picked reasonably priced stuff they’d been delighted with, but would also truly enjoy and benefit from.
Mauri was the one who didn’t ask for anything, excessive or otherwise. He was overwhelmed each time Richard picked something out for him that he revealed he’d intensely wished for. What he’d never asked her for. Mauri never asked for anything, as if he was aware of her burdens and never wanted to add to them, even when she entreated and cajoled him to ask for anything. It forced her to try to predict his desires. Clearly very inaccurately. It upset and stirred her in equal measure that Richard, after such short if intense acquaintance, was the one to read him so accurately.
After the shopping for the kids was concluded, she told Richard he was forbidden from buying the adults anything. He again said she didn’t have a right to dictate terms on the others’ behalf. She grudgingly conceded that his relationship with her family should remain independent of theirs.
Especially since that was now nonexistent.
Ever since he’d come offering his so-called alliance, there’d been no hint of the voracious predator he’d been. Each day, each hour that passed without him bringing up his desire for a continuation of their affair left her partially relieved...but wholly distraught. For she wanted him now, this new him she could admire and respect, far more than she’d ever wanted him before. But it seemed her earlier assumption had been correct. The reality of her being the mother of his son, the domesticity of her life situation, seemed to have doused his passion irreversibly.
Just as she was considering putting herself out of her misery and asking him what his intentions were, she found Rose and her family right in their path.
