Page 21 of A Baby Scandal in Italy

‘It’s all right Bobo, I’m here,’ she crooned. Gradually his cries turned to little snuffles and she kissed his flushed cheeks.

‘I feel terrible for sleeping in so late,’ she told the nanny.

‘Bertie was fine until a few minutes ago,’ Anna reassured her. ‘Signor Vieri explained that you were tired after all the excitement of last night.’

Ivy’s startled gaze flew across the room and met Rafa’s sardonic expression. ‘I told Anna that we became officially engaged at the party,’ he said drily.

‘May I see your ring? It’s beautiful,’ the nanny murmured when Ivy held out her left hand. ‘Congratulations. I hope you will both be very happy.’

Bertie had fallen asleep. He’d probably worn himself out with crying, Ivy thought guiltily as she placed him in the carry cot. ‘Shall I take him to the nursery?’ Anna offered. She looked over at Rafa. ‘I’ll go and pack.’

‘Why is Anna leaving?’ Ivy asked when she and Rafa were alone. Although she had argued against having a nanny, she had to admit that it was a relief to share her worries about caring for Bertie with Anna, who was experienced in childcare and a mother herself to a nineteen-year-old son.

‘We need to get out of the city, and I have decided that we will spend some time at my home in Abruzzo. Anna has a few things to do first and she will join us at the castle tomorrow.’

‘You own a castle?’ Ivy wondered if Rafa’s coldness was because she had refused to sleep with him. At their engagement party she had felt a rapport with him, but now she sensed there was a chasm a mile wide between them.

‘The castle was originally built as a fortress in the Apennine mountains. The remote location means we won’t be bothered there.’

‘Bothered by who?’

‘The media. I was contacted this morning by Luigi Capello.’ Rafa’s voice was even grimmer than his forbidding expression. ‘The journalist from the newspaperDi Oggie—as I’m sure you know,’ he said when Ivy looked blank. ‘Capello mentioned Gemma. He said he wanted to clarify who exactly is Bertie’s mother.’

‘I’d forgotten the journalist’s name.’ She bit her lip. ‘How and what does he know about my sister?’

‘You tell me.’ Rafa’s eyes gleamed like tensile steel. ‘You must have spoken to Capello. Only you and I know that Gemma was Bertie’s mother, and I sure as hell haven’t spoken to the press.’

‘Neither have I.’ Tears pricked her eyes when Rafa sent her a scathing look. ‘I swear I threw the journalist’s business card in the bin. Oh, it’s hopeless for us to pretend to be engaged when you refuse to believe me!’ she snapped, her temper bubbling to the surface. ‘I only agreed to your crazy plan because I feel sorry for your mother. We will have to call off our fake engagement.’

She tugged the yellow diamond ring, but the re-sized band was a snug fit on her finger, and she struggled to pull the ring over her knuckle.

‘Leave it on,’ Rafa commanded. He strode over to her and captured her chin between his fingers, tilting her face up to his. ‘My mother is in hospital with a lung infection. The doctor has reported that her condition is stable, but every time something like this happens it leaves her weaker,’ he said gruffly. ‘She wants to meet you—and her grandson.’

Ivy stared at him. ‘How can we introduce Bertie to your mother when he might be the result of your father’s infidelity? It feels wrong to lie to her.’

Rafa’s jaw clenched. ‘I agree, but the likely truth will break her heart. We must continue with the pretence that we are engaged, at least until we have the result of the paternity test. I’ve arranged for us to pay her a brief visit at the hospital before we drive to the mountains. We’ll leave in an hour.’

He skimmed his gaze over his shirt that came to Ivy’s mid-thighs, and she felt her breasts tauten when his eyes narrowed to glittering slits.

‘You had better go and get dressed.’ His voice had thickened and sent a shiver of response through her. Without her high heels that she’d worn to the party, Rafa towered over her, and her bare feet seemed to be welded to the floor.

‘Damn you, Ivy,’ he said harshly. ‘My instincts warn me that I can’t trust you, yet I still want to do this.’

Ivy watched as he lowered his face and angled his mouth over hers. The sensible part of her said she should move away from him, but she did not listen, and parted her lips beneath his. The kiss was slow and sensual, an unhurried tasting of her lips as Rafa coaxed a response from her that she was willing to give. He was impossible to resist, and he tempted her like no other man ever had. She tried to remember all the reasons why kissing him was a bad idea, but her body did not care if it was right or wrong, and the drumbeat of desire in her veins thudded in a powerful rhythm.

When Rafa finally broke the kiss, they were both breathing hard. ‘Go,’ he growled, ‘Before I am tempted to take this further and do something that one of us regrets.’

The dangerous glint in his eyes made Ivy’s heart miss a beat. She was no longer sure she would regret taking her relationship with Rafa to the next level. But perhaps he was less keen to make love to her now that he knew how inexperienced she was. Sleeping with him would only make the situation even more complicated.

CHAPTER SEVEN

RAFA’SMOTHERLOOKEDfragile lying in the hospital bed with her hair a silver cloud on the pillows. Her breathing was laboured, and every few minutes she pulled an oxygen mask over her face to help her breathe.

‘Is there anything I can do for you,Mamma?’ Rafa asked in a gentle voice that Ivy had never heard him use before. His affection and concern for his mother was obvious. He leaned forward on his chair next to the bed and stretched out his hand to clasp her fingers.

Fabiana opened her eyes. ‘You cannot help me, Rafa. I am not sad that I am dying, for I will go to my dearest Rafael, and my children who I did not meet in this life, but I know are waiting for me in the next.’

Ivy noticed a curious expression flicker on Rafa’s face, almost as if he was hurt by his mother’s words. When they had driven to the hospital he had explained that his mother had suffered with depression for much of her life, a result of losing several babies during her pregnancies. They must have been the children she had referred to, Ivy supposed. Rafa was a devoted son, but his mother seemed to think more of the children she had lost than her son who was so caring about her.

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