Page 20 of A Baby Scandal in Italy

Rafa stood up and pulled his trousers on before he picked up his shirt. He walked over to Ivy and slipped the shirt around her shoulders. ‘Here, wear this.’

Black tracks of mascara were running down her face. She looked a heartbreakingly beautiful mess, and he felt guilty that he had made her cry. ‘Stay and talk to me. Please,’ he said gruffly.

She scrubbed her hand over her eyes. ‘You don’t want to talk.’

‘Yes, I do.’ He realised it was true. Admittedly, it was not how he had envisaged the night would unfold. When they had escaped from the party, he had been so turned on by her that he’d almost made love to her in the lift.

To his relief, Ivy did not resist when he took her hand and led her over to the sofa. ‘You are a gorgeous, sexy, independent woman, so how come you are still a virgin?’

She sat down and tucked her feet under her. His shirt swamped her tiny frame, and he was struck anew by her fragile beauty. She waited until he joined her on the sofa and said in a low voice, ‘I had cancer when I was a teenager and for a while it was touch and go if I would survive.’

Whatever Rafa might have expected her to say, it hadn’t been that. He felt a cold sensation on the back of his neck. Ivy was so full of life, and it was shocking to hear that she had come close to death.

‘It was a type of blood cancer. To begin with my symptoms were vague. I felt lethargic and bruised easily, but I didn’t think anything was seriously wrong. I’d left home at seventeen because I hated my new stepfather. Gemma had been working for a cruise company based in Turkey and I went to stay with her.’

Ivy smiled. ‘It was a perfect summer. I got a job as a waitress in a café, and I met my first boyfriend. Luke was also English. He was a couple of years older than me and a builder on a new hotel development. Every day after work we used to hang out at the beach. He was my first love, and I thought he loved me and we would be together for ever. But then I became ill.’

‘What happened?’ Rafa prompted when she fell silent.

‘By the time I was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia, I was really sick, and I was given huge doses of chemotherapy, which made my hair fall out. I’d had waist-length, dark blonde hair and I was distraught to lose it, especially when Luke decided that he couldn’t cope with the way I looked.’

‘He sounds like a jerk,’ Rafa muttered. How crazy was it that he wished he could track down Ivy’s heartless boyfriend and rearrange the guy’s face?

She shrugged. ‘I was as bald as an egg, and even my eyelashes fell out. But, yeah, it wasn’t the best time to suffer a broken heart. I should have expected it, really. My mum had always been let down by the men she’d fallen in love with, including my dad. I was worried that I’d inherited her poor judgement with Luke.’

After a moment, she continued. ‘My sister and I moved back to England so that I could complete my treatment. Gem was amazing,’ Ivy said softly. ‘She looked after me and kept me upbeat when I had bad days. For the next few years, I put all my energy into getting better, and I wasn’t interested in dating. I trained as a dancer and performed at holiday camps. Gemma was working on a cruise ship and when a position as a show dancer became available I successfully auditioned for it. I loved travelling, but the lifestyle is not good for relationships.’

Ivy sighed. ‘The truth is, I’m wary of being hurt again. I’ve dated a few guys, but I never know whether to blurt out straight away that I am very likely to be infertile from the chemotherapy. The doctors who treated me in Turkey were brilliant, but because I was so ill there was no time to discuss the possibility of freezing my eggs so that I might have a chance of a family in the future. If I mention children on a first or second date with a guy, it makes me look like I’m hoping for a long-term relationship.’

‘Are you holding on to your virginity until you marry?’

She gave him a startled look. ‘No. I never want to get married. My parents’ disastrous attempts at marriage put me off,’ she said wryly. Soft colour stained her cheeks. ‘I didn’t deliberately lead you on tonight. I don’t know why I respond to you the way I do when you kiss me. You make me feel things I’ve never felt before.’

Rafa gave her a wry look. ‘It’s called sexual chemistry,cara, and I agree that it is inconvenient.’

It was more than that, he brooded. The developments of the past few days were potentially damaging to his position at Vieri Azioni, and more importantly to his mother’s emotional state if, as he suspected, Bertie was his father’s child. He still believed that Ivy was responsible for the story that had been reported in the media, and he was determined to keep her close so that she could not cause any more harm. But he did not get involved with virgins who had Bambi eyes and a tendency to cry easily. He was going to have to ignore his desire for Ivy. Surely he would not find it too difficult to think with his brain instead of being ruled by his libido? Rafa mocked himself.

He turned to her and saw that her head was resting on the cushions and that she was half asleep. ‘I’ll take you to your bedroom,’ he murmured as he lifted her into his arms.

‘I can walk.’ But she did not insist that he set her on her feet when he carried her down the hall and into her room. She weighed next to nothing. Once again, he felt an odd pang at the idea that she’d battled a life-threatening illness.

‘Are you fully recovered now?’

‘I’ve been cancer-free for more than five years. But none of us can know what the future holds. I certainly never imagined that Gemma would go out to buy nappies and never come back.’ Ivy’s brown eyes shimmered with tears. ‘The reason I wanted to find Bertie’s father was in case anything happens to me and I can’t look after him.’

Rafa frowned. ‘Nothing is going to happen to you.’ Her vulnerability tugged on his insides. ‘We have to wait for the result of the paternity test before anything can be decided about Bertie’s future.’ He pulled back the bed covers and lowered her onto the mattress. ‘Buona notte, Ivy.’

‘Rafa.’ Her sleepy voice made him halt on his way out of the door. ‘If I had been more experienced, I would have had sex with you.’

He swore softly. ‘You are going to kill me,cara.’

Ivy pulled the duvet over her head and prayed that her memories of the previous night were a bad dream. Had she really told Rafa that if she hadn’t been a virgin she would have slept with him? Images flooded her mind of how she had been practically naked in his arms, and how she’d kissed him so enthusiastically that it was little wonder he had assumed they would become lovers.

She couldn’t even blame her mislaid inhibitions on being drunk. Having beaten cancer, she felt that she’d been given a second chance at life, and she tried to eat healthily and never drank alcohol. It was even more important that she looked after herself now she was responsible for her sister’s baby.

Bertie! She jerked upright and saw on the bedside clock that it was past nine o’clock. She had missed Bertie’s seven a.m. feed. The nanny would have given him his milk, but that wasn’t the point. Guilt churned in Ivy’s stomach as she leapt out of bed and hurried into theen suitebathroom. She resembled a panda, with her make-up smudged beneath her eyes, and she quickly scrubbed her face clean. She’d slept in Rafa’s shirt, but when she heard the baby’s cries she did not waste time getting changed.

The nanny was in the living room talking to Rafa while she pushed the baby in the carry cot, evidently hoping that the motion would send Bertie to sleep. But his yells reached a crescendo. Ivy’s heart contracted when she lifted him into her arms and he buried his face in her neck.

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