Page 57 of Pregnant and Stolen by the Tycoon

He’d arrived on his superyacht mid-afternoon yesterday and insisted Seve spend his last evening of freedom onboard the vessel. He’d refused, of course. For some reason spending the night under a different roof from Genie felt...undesirable.

‘You have time to mock when you’ve also been checking your phone every five minutes? Tell me it’s not a woman behind that frantic checking.’

‘Frantic? Hardly. And no, it’s not a woman. Well, at least not the type of female that attracts my attention.’

‘I could pretend I care, or I can—’ He stopped, his breath leaving his lungs when he saw movement on the terrace. But it was a member of the catering staff.

His jaw gritted as Alessio laughed under his breath and Lita shot a worried look over her shoulder.

Eleven minutes.

He’d make it a clean dozen before he...what? Did the unconscionable thing and hunted down his pregnant fiancée and forced her to the altar? In full view of a watchful Lorenzo, whose presence speared jagged knives of fury and bitterness through him? Perhaps he should’ve listened to Genie and uninvited him. Was he misguided to pick this occasion to look the devil in the eye and show him he was...what? Better than him? That he intended to succeed where his father and Lorenzo had failed?

Yes.

He ignored the tinge of guilt that came with it. Didn’t want to examine if his vigour in persuading Genie to remain in Cardosia had partly been because he’d needed to prove to himself that he was...impervious to letting past trauma and Lorenzo’s shadow damage his future.

He shifted as the guilt intensified, but, alongside it, determination to see this through burned steadily in his chest.

Lorenzo didn’t matter any longer save as an obstacle to be disposed of for the betterment of Cardosia. Nothing more.

His presence here was a good opportunity to show him his ‘failure to subjugate’.

Genie’s words intensified the flame. Re-grounding him.

Dios, where was she? She hadn’t changed her mind. She’d given him her word.

Hadn’t she?

As he thought back over their conversation two nights ago, a stone lodged in his chest. She hadn’t actually given the promise. Considering he was marrying a renowned genius, had he allowed himself to be tricked? Perhaps the courtesy of two weeks had been a mistake on his part, considering he’d bided his time for overfour months.

He should’ve swept her into his arms and found the nearest church the moment she’d stormed into his office and announced she would marr—

Another movement stopped his chaotic thoughts, and every muscle froze in his body.

‘She’s here. Maybe it’s time to throttle back the murderous intent on your face?’ Alessio quipped under his breath, but Seve barely heard him.

He was far too riveted by the sight drifting down the lawn towards him. He wanted to say Lita had outdone herself with the dress, but it was the woman wearing it who created the breathtaking vision. The low scoop of her gown and cinch of the high waistline highlighted her very pregnant state, and Seve was certain he’d never seen her more magnificent.

She carried no flowers in her hand but a circlet of white and purple flowers rested on her crown, her hair elaborately braided and pinned away to leave her swanlike neck on display. Her face bore minimal make-up, and her skinglowedunderneath the Cardosian sun. And—

Barefoot. She wasbarefoot.

A dismissing of norms or because Genie Merchant, soon to be Valente, was confident enough in her power to simply do as she pleased?

Who cared? She was here.

He took a breath. Then another. But the clamour didn’t ease inside him. It’d been building for weeks and, for the first time in his life, he couldn’t exactly pinpoint the source of it. All he knew was that he...yearned. And while he pondered fatherhood often enough, the totality of that yearning wasn’t centred around his unborn child but rather the woman carrying it. The rage and kinship he’d felt that day when she’d confessed why she clung to her basement workspace. His shock and elation when she’d blatantly confessed what he made her feel.

He’d wantedmoreof that, he realised.

Had he deluded himself into believing he was marrying for one reason when the reasons were manifold?

The soft green grass only accentuated her bare feet, expanding her allure until it consumed him whole. Until he knew, deep in his bones, a fundamental shift had occurred. That he did not want just a connection with this woman through their unborn child or their shared dysfunctional upbringing. He wanted...more.

And he didn’t have a clue how to get it.

‘Seriously, you’re beginning to terrifyme, and I’m the one who triggers terror in others,’ Alessio rumbled quietly beside him.

---