Page 30 of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child
He smiled then. Not a grin. Not even a real smile. Just a brief quirk of the lips that might have signalled amusement or impatience or even annoyance.
And still his eyes bored into her like lasers.
‘We need it, Carys.’ His words were crisp, clear and unmistakeable. ‘Because we’re getting married.’
He reached out and stroked a finger down her cheek. Fire streaked across her skin and blasted through her hard won calm. ‘It’s the only possible course of action. You must have known we’d marry once I discovered the child is mine.’
For an eternity the words hung between them. She stared up at him, lush mouth sagging, bright eyes stunned. Then, like the flick of a switch, animation returned.
‘The child has a name, damn you!’
Carys jerked from his touch, catapulting from the chair and almost knocking it over in her haste. She stood defiant and furious, feet planted squarely and chest heaving.
‘Don’t you ever talk about Leo again as if he were some…some commodity!’
Madonna mia! With her eyes flashing and high colour in her softly-rounded cheeks, energy radiating from her in angry waves, she was stunning. More than pretty. Or beautiful. Something far more profound.
Enough almost to distract him from the important business of securing his child.
Alessandro felt the drag of attraction in his belly, his limbs, his mind. It was the possessive hunger he’d felt for days but mixed with another sensation so deep-seated it rocked him where he stood.
In that moment the careful logic that dictated his decision to marry faded. This was no longer about simple logic. The force that drove him was purely visceral.
She would be his. He would accept no other alternative.
He would have Carys and his son. A wave of hot pleasure suffused him.
‘Of course he’s not a commodity. He’s Leonardo.’ Alessandro inclined his head, savouring the name. ‘Leo Mattani.’
An image of intelligent jade eyes, handsome dark hair and a small determined chin surfaced. His son.
His son!
Satisfaction and pride welled in his chest and—
‘No! Leo Wells, not Leo Mattani. And that won’t change. Marriage is a preposterous idea, so you can forget it.’ Carys took a step closer, her chin rising.
Once more a blast of white-hot hunger shot through him.
What a woman she was! So fiercely protective and proud.
And as a lover…? Alessandro inhaled sharply, breathing in her skin’s warm cinnamon scent. He looked forward to rediscovering the passion they’d shared. It must have been spectacular for him to take the unprecedented step of inviting her to live with him.
But first, most important, he would secure his son.
A twist of deep-seated memory skewered Alessandro, ripping a familiar hole through his belly. Of the feckless way his own mother had abandoned her ‘caro Sandro’ without a backward glance. How selfish greed had triumphed over the supposedly unbreakable bonds of maternal love. She’d put her own salacious desires and hunger for wealth above her son.
Despite Carys’fiery attitude and her protectiveness, Alessandro knew the frailty of maternal love. The fickleness of women.
He would safeguard his son. Shield him and ensure he never wanted for anything.
The terms of the prenuptial agreement, with its hefty allowance for Carys while she stayed with him and his son, would ensure stability in Leo’s life.
Alessandro’s legal team had worked night and day to make it watertight. The obscene amount of money Alessandro had allocated to buy his wife would keep her just where he wanted her. Where Leo needed her.
With Alessandro.
‘My son will grow up as Leo Mattani. That is not open to debate.’ Alessandro waved his hand dismissively, his expression remote. ‘Any other alternative is unthinkable.’
‘Unthinkable?’ Carys planted her hands on her hips as she stared into the proud, arrogant face of the man she’d once loved. ‘He’s been Leo Wells since he was born and he’s been just fine, thank you very much.’
‘Just fine?’ Alessandro shook his head abruptly, voice deepening and nostrils flaring with disapproval, the epitome of masculine scorn. ‘You think it fine that my son is born illegitimate?’
For a moment Carys stared helplessly into his dark, heated gaze, reading indignation and outrage.
In a perfect world Leo would have been born into a loving family with parents who were permanently committed to each other. But that hadn’t been an option.
‘There are worse things in the world,’ she said quietly, wrapping her arms round her torso as old pain tore through her. The pain of lacerated dreams.
She’d done everything she could to ensure Alessandro had known about her pregnancy. But even if he’d known, even if he’d proposed marriage, nothing could change the fact that he wasn’t a man she could trust with her heart. Or that she’d never fit into his world.
