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‘It went well,’ Raffaele remarked with satisfaction when their last visitor had departed. ‘Fences all mended...and you and Izzy enjoyed yourself.’

‘We did.’ The silence smouldered. ‘Would you have preferred to have married someone like Aurora?’ That question just bounced off Maya’s tongue before she even knew it was there.

Raffaele dealt her a surprised appraisal and strolled back into the lounge. ‘Why are you asking me that?’

Maya compressed her lips and gave a jerky shrug. ‘She’s definitely more your style than I ever was.’

‘Realistically, I don’t think it could ever have been a legal option because a niece isn’t as close a relative as a granddaughter,’ Raffaele fielded. ‘When she made that remark, she was only trying to get a rise out of you. I think she’s jealous that she missed out on what she would have seen as an opportunity to enrich herself.’

‘No, she was jealous because I’m with you.’

‘Then, she doesn’t know what I put you through,’ Raffaele parried. ‘Your twin was watching me like a hawk while I was with Aurora. It’s pretty obvious that she thinks I’m not to be trusted around other women. I hope that doesn’t last.’

‘It won’t matter if it does, will it?’ Maya cut in curtly. ‘We’ll be separated and you won’t be my business any more and I doubt if there’ll be any reason for you to meet my sister again.’

Frowning, Raffaele studied her. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I get pregnant and then we split up,’ Maya reminded him doggedly, choosing to voice her biggest, deepest fear as if throwing it into the open would magically dispel it. She shifted restively as her phone vibrated in her pocket. ‘We agreed.’

Raffaele breathed in deep and slow, dark eyes flaring like fireworks. ‘I’m not ready to let you go.’

‘I thought you played by the rules. That was our business deal.’

‘That deal ended in Sicily and we renegotiated,’ Raffaele informed her.

‘I don’t remember renegotiating anything!’ Maya slung back at him tartly.

‘You came to my club and told me that I wasyours,’ he reminded her.

Maya coloured hotly at having that reminder tossed at her. Her phone vibrated afresh against her hip and with a muttered apology she dug it out and listened to the voicemail, waving her hand at him in a frustrated silencing motion as she tried to listen to the lengthy harassed message left for her. The breeder who had sold her the puppies had been taken into hospital for emergency surgery. The caller was the breeder’s daughter and she was ringing to tell Maya that she would be dropping off the pups early because she was unable to look after them while her mother was in hospital. Dismay and disappointment filled Maya and she wondered how much earlier the puppies would arrive because she really had wanted them kept until the day of Raffaele’s birthday.

‘Why did you tell me that I was yours?’ Raffaele asked with icy precision.

‘I should think that would be obvious to a man of your intelligence.’

‘Oddly enough, it’s not,’ Raffaele contradicted.

In a storm of turbulent emotions and growing mortification, Maya turned back to him. ‘I’m not having this conversation with you right now... I can’t think straight!’

As she stalked off towards the bedroom, Raffaele followed her. ‘We’re having this conversation now.’

‘This is not the right moment to be dominant,’ Maya told him shakily.

‘I need an honest answer.’

‘All right, I would have told youanythingthat night to keep you away from other women and get you home,’ she admitted between clenched teeth. ‘Happy now?’

‘You mean...you werelyingwhen you said thatallyou wanted from me was another baby?’ Raffaele pressed hoarsely.

‘Yes, I was lying. I was desperate. I was jealous and scared that you were going to go off and do something really stupid that there would be no coming back from,’ she muttered in a bitter surge.

‘If the “doing something really stupid” involves me going off with other women, that was never a risk. I don’t cheat and I haven’t wanted anyone but you since I first laid eyes on you at that hen party and you pretty much told me to go to hell,’ Raffaele advanced rawly. ‘I’m disappointed that you felt the need to lie to me about anything though. But why were you feelingdesperatethat night?’

The bell buzzed and she heard Sal’s voice mingling with their housekeeper’s, a strange low whining sound, the noise of something heavy being shifted over the tiled floor and a lot of exclamation from at least two male voices. And then the animal whines penetrated and she realised that the puppies must have been delivered and she shut her eyes tight, wondering what else could possibly go wrong in the space of one short day.

‘I was desperate because I love you,’ she told Raffaele flatly, assuming that that would end the humiliating dialogue. ‘Having another baby was only an excuse to hang onto you. It was the only excuse I could come up with in the time I had. And youwentfor it. You went for the sex, which is OK...youarea man and you do like things simple. Excuse me...could you stay in here for a while? I have something to sort out.’

What on earth was she going to do with the puppies? This, the very day their marriage disintegrated, wasnotthe moment to gift Raffaele a pair of dogs. But she couldn’t ask the breeder’s daughter or whoever was delivering them to take them away again because they were now Maya’s responsibility.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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