Page 4 of Italian Baby Shock

Perhaps she was here because she’d wanted to see him? And pretending not to recognise him? Then again, why would she bother? And what had she said about Ravenswood?

Annoyed that his shock at her arrival had meant that he hadn’t taken in anything she’d said, Cesare pulled himself together. Emotional control was vital and he couldn’t let her unexpected appearance get to him. He was the head of Donati Bank, for God’s sake, not a teenage boy with his first crush.

He gave her a cool look. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That’s exactly who I am. And as head of Donati Bank, I expected to see Mr Ravenswood himself not you.’

Her smile didn’t falter. ‘I know, but Mr Ravenswood has had a terrible bout of flu and he wasn’t in any condition to travel. He also didn’t want anyone to rearrange their schedule because ofhim, so he asked me if I’d be willing to look at your items on his behalf.’

She was still smiling warmly and shock was still bouncing around inside him, and he was aware that a very male part of him was noting how low the neckline of her blouse was, and how it showed off her pretty creamy skin as well as the dips and hollows of her collarbone. Skin he’d spent a long time tasting. Dips and hollows he’d spent a long time tracing with his tongue. In fact, he’d spent a long time following every line of that delectable, curvy body of hers with his hands and his mouth, and he’d relished every cry he’d brought from her. She’d smelled of vanilla, he remembered, like a sweet confection, making his mouth water...

He shoved the erotic memories aside, ignored the sudden increase in his blood pressure. No, he shouldnotbe thinking about that night. It was over and done with, and no matter how pretty this woman was, and no matter that she didn’t recognise him, he wasn’t going to let either of those things affect him.

It had only been physical attraction, nothing more, and he’d never let something as banal as lust rule him. He was in complete control of himself as he was in complete control of everything else he did, and while he’d enjoyed that one night, he wasn’t going to pursue another. He’d never needed to chase a woman and he wasn’t about to start.

‘And who exactly are you?’ he asked tightly.

She gave him that bright, sunny smile again. ‘Oh, I’m Mr Ravenswood’s personal assistant.’

‘And do you know anything about antiques?’

‘Not as much as he does, it’s true.’ This time her smile was self-deprecating. ‘But I’ve been training with him for the past six months and he’s told me what to look for. I’ll also be taking some photos if that’s okay.’

His annoyance, already simmering, deepened. He’d given up some of his precious time to oversee this particular matter himself. The pieces were valuable, dating from the Renaissance, and were worth a lot of money.

He was going to sell them—he was going to selleverythingin the palazzo—and donate the money to charity, so he wanted to get the best price he could and that meant having them appraised accurately. He’d already had the list of charities he was going to donate to drawn up and all of them his father would have disapproved of. That satisfied him unreasonably.

What did not satisfy him was having his one-night stand turn up at his palazzo and apparently not remember that she slept with him. It shouldn’t matter to him and yet for some reason it did.

‘If all that was required were some pictures, I could have taken them myself,’ he snapped.

Generally, when he took that tone, people leapt to either do his bidding or apologise for whatever transgression they’d made, but Lark merely gave him another of those pretty, sunny smiles, as though she hadn’t heard the annoyance in his voice.

‘Oh, no, that’s not necessary,’ she said soothingly. ‘Mr Ravenswood was very insistent that I view them personally. Again, I’m so sorry you were inconvenienced. All you have to do is show me where the pieces are and I can do the rest.’

She really was very pretty, with a delicate nose and chin, and a perfect little rosebud of a mouth. And her expression radiated warmth and openness, her sea-green eyes sparkling.

It was as if a shaft of summer sunlight had suddenly illuminated the room, making everything feel lighter and brighter. Not so cold and oppressive and...dark.

She made him remember that night, the warmth he’d felt radiating from her, the way she’d opened her arms to him,welcoming him with such passion. And how no matter what he told himself, he had never forgotten her...

He didn’t like it. He didn’t want it.

Just then something vibrated on the small seventeenth-century table in front of the sofa. It was a phone, the screen lighting up.

The smile on Lark’s face faltered, her expression tightening.

So, it was her phone. And clearly she was distracted by it.

His decision, already half made, solidified into certainty. He didn’t want her here; she was distracting and he couldn’t afford to be distracted now, not when he had so much to organise.

‘I’ve changed my mind,’ he said. ‘There are plenty of other companies I can sell these pieces to. Companies who take this more seriously than—’

The phone vibrated again, interrupting him in midflight, and this time Lark made a sound. Her gaze darted to the phone on the table.

‘Are you listening?’ He knew he sounded demanding and graceless, but he’d come to the end of his patience and once that occurred, he was done. ‘Because if you’re not—’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Lark said quickly as the phone vibrated again. ‘But I really need to get this. It’s my daughter’s nanny. This is the first time I’ve left Maya for longer than a day since she was born and well...’ She broke off as the phone vibrated yet again, her attention on the screen. ‘Sorry, I just have to...’ Before he could protest, she bent to pick the phone up off the table, turning as she looked down at it, presumably to hide whatever text she’d received.

She wasn’t very tall, though, so he could see the screen over her shoulder. On it was a photo of a very young child, a little girl dressed in a pink nightgown and smiling at the camera. She had a cloud of soft rose-gold curls and blue, blue eyes.

---