Page 56 of Bedding the Baby Daddy

“Can you put her on?” He attempted to summon patience from some deep, deep well that he sincerely hoped he had.

“She left her phone behind tonight by accident. But you could meet her at the gala, which you will, if you’re feeling impatient, which you are.”

“Right. What gala?”

“The Von Willebrand’s fundraiser that she’s been planning? Over at the Hilton Ballroom.”

Dante had felt as if he’d been punched in the face. Of course she’d still gone through with planning that fundraiser. Because she was such a good person with such a good heart.

“Right,” he’d said again. And hung up.

He’d stopped home long enough to grab a dress for Michelle and a tux for himself.

And now he was wading through the rich clientele of this fundraiser and desperately searching for Aurora. Michelle had floated over toward the buffet table the minute they’d come in, and that was fine by him. He’d rather not have an audience for the emotional ransacking he was sure he was in for.

Dante scanned the crowd yet again. Even though he didn’t see Aurora, however, something else caught his eye.

Giovanni Esposito pulling a little redheaded woman into a back hallway, crowding her up against a wall.

What. The. Fuck.

Dante saw red. Gio was still fucking around with Rose when he and Aurora were together? Or, even worse, had Aurora agreed to be his side piece?

Dante bowled through the crowd, not giving a royal fuck whose champagne he was spilling as he made a straight line for Gio.

Rose ducked through the bathroom door just as Dante rounded the corner of the hall. He found himself face-to-face with a smugly grinning Gio.

Dante cold cocked Gio right in his dumb, handsome face.

“Jesus fucking lord, Dante!” Gio doubled over, checked his lip for blood, and straightened. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Dante was vibrating with barely contained rage. “I cannot fucking believe you’d do that to Aurora.” He viciously pointed toward the door Rose had just walked through.

Gio looked behind him, seemingly completely confused. “What?”

“You’re out here, publicly messing around with Rose right in Aurora’s face? Can’t you see that she’s a person? She’s the best fucking person? She’s got a heart the size of the universe and she seems so calm and cool, like she can handle anything, but she’s fragile too. And you can’t just treat her like this. Like she’s disposable.” Dante had Gio backed against the wall of the hallway, each word wrenching out of him like a knife.

“Yeah, I know everything you’re saying, asshole. But I still don’t know what kissing my wife at a party has to do with Aurora.” Gio shoved Dante backward. “Or what it has to do with your dumb ass.”

Dante blinked at Gio. “You’re actually trying to pretend you’re not hooking up with Aurora on the side? Stringing her along?”

Gio’s mouth fell dead open. “What. The. Fuck.”

Dante’s brow furrowed. That reaction had seemed genuinely shocked.

“I have never, nor will I ever, hook up with Aurora LeMonde. She’s my good friend and business partner. And I love my wife, you son of a bitch.”

Dante stepped back. Confused and irritated. “But I saw you.”

“You saw me what?”

Suddenly Dante’s evidence seemed very small. Irritatingly small. “I saw you hugging her in her office a few months ago. It looked like you were…”

He trailed off.

Gio squinted his eyes, looking for all the world as if he was wracking his brain. “Hugging Aurora in her office? I have no idea what you’re… Oh. That was the day I found out about her pregnancy. I was consoling her because she didn’t know how the father was going to react to the news.”

If Gio said more, if the world kept spinning, Dante had absolutely no awareness of it. He was stunned. Utterly and completely stunned.

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