Page 25 of A Baby Scandal in Italy

Heat unfurled in his groin. Ivy’s body was supple and sexy, and he was mesmerised as he watched her. He guessed the routine was one that she had performed when she’d been a show dancer on a cruise ship. The music pumping out of the speakers quickened in tempo, echoing the drumbeat of desire pounding in his veins.

Ivy spun round and saw him, but she did not stop dancing and beckoned to him. ‘Come over here, I need you.’

Rafa was uncomfortably aware of his arousal straining against his trouser zip as he walked across the ballroom.

‘Stop there,’ Ivy told him when he was close to her. ‘I need you to be my dance partner and catch me when I jump into your arms.’ She spun round faster and faster, keeping time with the music that was building to a finale. ‘Ready?’ She made a graceful leap, and Rafa quickly thrust out his arms and caught her against his chest. ‘Ta da!’ She giggled at his stunned expression.

Her brown eyes made him think of molten chocolate, and her laughter was infectious. ‘You are crazy,’ he told her. A little of the ice around his heart melted and he laughed out loud. He couldn’t remember the last time he had really laughed. It felt...good.

‘The dance is meant to be a duet. I need a dance partner—I could teach you the steps. I heard that you were pretty quick around the basketball courts.’

‘Playing basketball and dancing are hardly the same. It’s true that I was the fastest player in the American professional basketball league.’ Rafa did not try to disguise his pride. He’d been the best in the game and had been called a legend by the California Colts’ legions of fans.

‘Do you miss playing basketball?’

He nodded. ‘I miss my team mates and the excitement before an important game.’

Ivy was the first person to show an interest in his sporting career since Rafa has moved back to Italy. He had dominated the basketball courts in the US and around the world for nearly a decade, but his father had thought that playing sport was not a serious job, and had put emotional pressure on Rafa to commit his future to Vieri Azioni.

He acknowledged that since he’d joined the company he’d enjoyed the challenges of corporate business. But basketball had been his independence and where he had found himself, instead of being a replica of his father. That was until Tiffany had made him question everything Rafa had thought he knew about himself.

‘I guess you miss being a show dancer,’ he said, running his eyes over Ivy’s sexy costume.

Her smile became wistful. ‘It feels like another life when I worked on cruise ships. When my sister died, and I became responsible for her baby, my life changed for ever. But I don’t regret being Bertie’s guardian. He is my only chance to be a mother after my brush with cancer.’

Rafa stared down at Ivy’s pretty face. Her cheeks were pink and she was breathless from dancing. He wished he could carry her up to his bedroom and make love to her. His body tightened as he imagined her naked body flushed with sensual heat.

‘I’ve never met anyone like you,’ he said roughly. She was so full of energy, and she had brought light and laughter into the castle and into his life. He did not only want to take Ivy to bed. He liked talking to her, and being with Bertie and her. Rafa knew he was on dangerous ground. The embittered man he had become after his divorce warned him to keep his distance, but he was drawn to Ivy’s shining light like a moth to a flame.

Abruptly he set her down on her feet and silently cursed his rampant libido when his gaze was drawn to the outline of her nipples beneath her top. ‘We seem to have acquired a cat,’ he muttered.

‘Oh, have you met her? Isn’t she sweet? I’ve named her Jasmine.’ Ivy’s big brown eyes filled with tears. ‘The poor little thing had been abandoned and she is about to have kittens. Arturo has promised to feed Jasmine and her family when I’m not here.’

‘Why won’t you be at the castle?’

She seemed surprised by the question. ‘I assume I’ll move out when we end our engagement. I didn’t tell Arturo that our engagement is fake,’ she said quickly when Rafa frowned. ‘I mentioned that I will take Bertie to visit my family. I spoke to my mum a few days ago, and she invited me and Bertie to stay with her in Cyprus in early September. That will be about the right time for us to break up, don’t you think?’

Rafa did not know what to think. He was surprised by how much he disliked the prospect of Ivy and Bertie leaving the castle. But the baby scandal story in the media would soon be yesterday’s news and there would be no reason to continue their fake engagement.

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘IMUSTGO,’Ivy said as she glanced at her phone. ‘Anna has messaged that Bertie has woken from his nap.’

They walked back to the main hall and saw Arturo emerge from the study. ‘A file has just been delivered by a courier,’ the butler told Rafa. ‘I left it on your desk.’

Rafa assumed the file contained work documents and wondered why his PA had not given them to him before he’d left the office. He opened the study door and frowned when the ginger cat wove around his ankles and preceded him into the room.

‘Jasmine has been showing signs that she will give birth to her kittens soon, and she seems to like your study,’ Ivy murmured. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’

‘What makes you think I’d mind my study being used as a labour ward?’ he muttered, but his sarcasm was lost on Ivy.

‘Thank you!’ Her bright smile had a peculiar effect on Rafa’s heart rate.

The cat was curled up on an arm chair in the study and gave Rafa a disgusted look when he walked in. The file on the desk was marked confidential and, when he opened it, he was startled to find several documents and a handwritten note to him from his father’s personal assistant. Beatriz had worked for his father for twenty years and had retired soon after his death. She had been devoted to Rafael. The note explained that she had hidden the enclosed documents when Rafael had died, to protect his privacy.

With a sense of foreboding, Rafa read the first document—a letter that had been sent to Rafael Vieri from Gemma Bennett, informing Rafael that she had given birth to his son.

The second document was a letter that Rafa’s father had written to Gemma Bennett. Rafael had accepted that Bertie was his son, resulting from an affair he’d had with Gemma while they had been on the cruise ship.

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