Page 8 of Italian Baby Shock

It would be easy to agree with Lark, to accept that indeed he wasn’t her father, that he couldn’t be. To let Lark look at these antiques, take her pictures, and then leave Italy. He’d never have to see her again, never have to think about her again, and certainly never have to accept that he even had a daughter.

Yet he’d seen that photo now and he knew he was no longer the only Donati left, that there was another. Nothing could erase that knowledge, nothing could change it. The Donati linewouldcontinue, whether he wanted it to or not, and so he had to alter his course of action.

He could never forget what his parents had done to him, how their petty jealousies and pointless grudges, their burning, relentless hatred of each other, had killed them both and nearly ended him. And he’d never wanted to repeat that cycle. Never wanted a family where that might happen.

But now Maya existed, and because she existed, the cycle could repeat itself. And he was almost certain it would. The Donatis were hot-headed grudge holders, not to mention rigid and dictatorial, and compromise had never been in theirvocabulary. Their selfishness was innate, he was positive, and Maya had the potential to be the same.

He couldn’t let her. He had to take charge, teach her how to manage the Donati flaws, help her grow up to be a better person, a better person than he was. A better person than either of his parents.

He also had the opportunity to create something new out of the ashes of the old, something different. Something new. A legacy without all the emotional manipulation his parents used, lashing out at each other and using their child as a go-between. A legacy without hatred or rage. Where a child was safe.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the more certain he became. Under his guidance, Maya could be part of a new generation, the start of a healthier legacy that would erase the toxic history of his family.

There was, of course, one small catch. Lark.

She was standing in front of him, that gorgeous smile of hers gone. Her face was pink with anger, her sea-green eyes fierce and determined.

Kissing her had been a mistake and he knew it. He’d hoped it would remind her of their physical chemistry that night, jolt her into admitting she’d been pretending all along. Yet it had backfired on him, reminding him of how good it had been to have her beneath him, and he didn’t need any more memories of that. Especially considering she’d said that she had none.

An accident that had erased her memory...

He wasn’t sure he believed her. It seemed far-fetched and a little too convenient, and made him wonder if she was lying in order to keep her child. He couldn’t blame her for that. He might even do the same thing himself, though it wouldn’t make any difference.

Maya was his and now he knew about her, now he’d made the decision to claim her, he was going to do so immediately andnothing and no one was going to stand in his way. He hadn’t let anyone do so before and he wouldn’t let anyone do so now.

Only your parents.

Ah, but that was different. He’d only been a boy back then, thinking that if he was obedient enough, good enough, they wouldn’t argue about him any more. That they wouldn’t argue, full stop. It had all been in vain, though. Nothing had made them stop hurting each other and him, and after they’d died, after his mother had nearly killed him, the only thing he could think was that if you couldn’t beat them, you joined them.

So he had. People did what he said, jumped through his hoops, or simply jumped when he told them to because that’s what he wanted and what he wanted he got.

He was a Donati through and through, and Donatis were selfish, and he didn’t care.

‘If you don’t want a paternity test, then you don’t want one,’ he said. ‘But I’m claiming my daughter regardless.’

A hot green spark lit in her eyes and perhaps it was perverse of him to enjoy that spark even more than her bright, placating smile. Nevertheless, he did. He liked the angry flush in her cheeks too. That same flush had been there the night he’d lain between her thighs and pleasured her with his tongue, leaving her trembling and crying out his name.

‘You will not,’ she said hotly. ‘She’s not yours. She’s no one’s but mine.’

‘Do you really think you can stop me, Miss Edwards? I have governments in my pocket and resources you can’t possibly imagine. If I want her, I’ll take her and there’s nothing you can do about it.’

He expected her to give in. That she’d realise how little power she had in this scenario and that giving him exactly what he wanted was the best course of action.

Except she didn’t.

Instead she took a step forward, getting into his personal space in much the same way as he’d got into hers. As if she wasn’t afraid of him or the fact that he was nearly a full foot taller than she was.

She looked up into his face, her eyes full of fury, and a very male part of him growled in appreciation. She wasexceptionallypretty when she was angry.

‘That’s really how you want to play this?’ she demanded. ‘You’d take my daughter away from her home? Rip her away from everything she’s ever known, including her mother just because you feel some kind of strange territorial possessiveness?’

He stiffened at her tone. ‘That’s not what—’

‘How dare you?’ She took another step, her eyes blazing. ‘Howdareyou think you can take my daughter from me? Men like you are all the same. Just because you’re rich and powerful, you think that can take whatever you want.’ She took yet another step closer, and this time, rather to his own surprise, he found he was the one taking an automatic step back. ‘She’s only a little over a year old,’ Lark continued fiercely. ‘She’s ababy. Don’t you care how that might affect her?’ She stepped forward again and again he stepped back. ‘But no, you don’t care, do you? You don’t care about how that might affect her or me. And God, youkissedme, damn you.’ She continued forward, her hands clenched into fists at her side, her green eyes glittering with outrage. ‘Did you ever think that perhaps that wouldn’t be welcome? That I might not want it? No, of course you didn’t. It never occurred to you because the only thing you care about is yourself, you stupid, selfish,horribleman!’

Cesare found himself backed halfway to the doorway, Lark standing furiously in front of him, her delicate features pink, her eyes full of fire. And he was glad she didn’t actually have a weapon in her possession, because he was pretty sure she mighthave used it on him. He was surprised she hadn’t lashed out with one of those small, tightly clenched fists.

And while some of him was incensed that she’d had the gall to speak to him like that, most of him was shocked. Because no onedidspeak to him like that, let alone a woman he barely knew.

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