Page 13 of Italian Baby Shock

‘I can live with that,’ he said.

It would do him no harm to wait, and there was no point antagonising her more than he had already. ShewasMaya’s mother after all, and while his own had been a ridiculous excuse for one, it was obvious that Lark was a different kettle of fish. She was fierce and protective, which his own mother, too involved in her own petty jealousies and intrigues over his father, had never been. He approved. In fact, he’d already decided that she would have to be a part of Maya’s life.

Is that really your decision to make?

Well, no, it was hers too. But he’d meant what he said when he’d told her that he wouldn’t take Maya away from her—a child needed a loving mother and it was obvious that Lark was indeed loving.

However, he wouldn’t allow himself to be cut out of her life either. She was a Donati, heir to a vast fortune and the poisonous legacy that came with it, and she would need him to guide her around the pitfalls and traps that being a Donati entailed.

She would need him to set her on the right path, to ensure that the poison that infiltrated his entire family tree stopped with him. That she would never carry the same stain.

Lark was still looking deeply unhappy at the thought of him coming to London. Too bad. She would have to get used to the idea of him being in her life now, the two of them tied to a little girl neither of them had expected.

‘I just don’t understand why you want this,’ Lark said unexpectedly. ‘You never even knew of her existence until ten minutes ago and now suddenly you want to run a paternity test and come to London to see her. Threaten to take her away from me. Why? She’s nothing to you.’

‘She is not nothing to me,’ he said. ‘And we shared more than our bodies that night, Lark. You won’t remember, but I did tell you that I never wanted children. Never wanted a family, not with a history as toxic as the Donatis’ history is. But then I saw the photo of her on your phone and I knew she was mine.’

‘What? Just like that?’

He saw no reason to deny it. ‘Yes, just like that. Call it an instinct. But whatever it was, I know she’s my daughter, which makes her my responsibility. And I’m not a man who walks away from his responsibilities.’

‘You can walk away from this one, believe me. I won’t mind if you do. In fact, I’d even prefer that you do.’

‘No.’ He put every ounce of authority into the word. ‘I will not leave any child of mine without a father, especially not a Donati child. She’ll be my heir and inherit a wealth and a legacy that are beyond your wildest dreams, little bird. And she’ll need me to guide her in how to manage both.’

Lark’s lovely mouth tightened. ‘Do you know how unbelievably arrogant that sounds?’

He shrugged. He didn’t much care how arrogant or otherwise people thought he was. Arrogance was part and parcel of the Donati way, and he was all that and more. Arrogant, and selfish, just as his parents had been. But what made him different was that he owned it. They never had.

‘I don’t care how it sounds,’ Cesare said. ‘As long as you know that I will be part of Maya’s life whether you want me to be or not.’

‘Only if you’re really her father. I could have slept with other men that night, you don’t know.’

He allowed himself a smile at that. ‘You were in my bed all night, Lark. And we didn’t sleep. So unless you have the ability to be in two places at once, I’m pretty sure that the only man you were with that night was me.’

‘I could have had a boyfriend.’

‘But you didn’t. You told me so.’

‘I might have lied.’

But he was tired of this conversation. Now that he’d made the decision to fly to London, he was impatient to be there. Impatient to see Maya. And he had to get his lawyers to draw up an agreement, then let his staff know he’d be taking the jet.

‘You didn’t lie.’ He walked over to the table and placed her phone down on it, then took his own out of his pocket and glanced down at the screen. ‘You were a virgin.’

‘What?’

He glanced up at her shocked gaze. ‘You told me you were a virgin and indeed you were. Now, are you coming with me to London or are you going back to your hotel?’

CHAPTER FOUR

LARKBADLYWANTEDto tell Cesare Donati where he could put his stupid agreement.

He’d handed it to her the moment they’d got on his luxurious private plane—how he’d managed to have it drawn up in the time it took for them to go from his palazzo to the private airport where he kept the Donati jet she didn’t know, but she’d spent all the taxi and taking off time going over it.

She wasn’t a lawyer, but she’d had to deal with various legal documents while being Mr Ravenswood personal assistant, so it wasn’t a difficult read. In fact it was unfortunately very clear. She almost wished it wasn’t, just so she could keep on arguing about it with him.

She badly wanted to keep on arguing with him full stop.

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