Mediterranean Tycoons: Tempting & Taken: The Italian's Runaway Bride / His Inherited Bride / Pregnancy of Revenge

‘So why are you here?’ she demanded bravely, tilting her head to look up at him, and the gleam of triumph in his dark eyes sent a shiver down her spine. Suddenly she had a horrible suspicion she knew the answer to her own question, and she immediately voiced her fear. ‘If you think I am going to have an abortion, forget it!’ she declared, her blue eyes flashing flames. ‘This is my child, my responsibility, and you can get lost.’

‘Dio! Jumping to conclusions as usual.’ Gianfranco leapt to his feet and stormed across the small living room. Tearing off his topcoat, he flung it on a chair and flipped open his jacket; he was boiling with rage. He had been ever since, after months of fighting his desire for Kelly, he had succumbed to the temptation to seek out Judy Bertoni and ask after her. With relish Judy had told him Kelly was pregnant by some local Italian youth. Of course, he had known immediately he was the father, and when he had got over the initial shock he had been furious that Kelly had not told him herself.

‘How dare you say that to me?’ he demanded arrogantly. She saw the naked anger flare in his eyes, and something more she did not recognise. ‘To suggest I would wish to kill my own child? What kind of monster do you take me for? What did I ever do to you to give you such a low opinion of me?’

‘Pretend to be someone else,’ Kelly slipped in snidely.

He stilled in the middle of the floor, his broad shoulders tensing, and said, ‘So I am to pay for that one silly mistake for the rest of my life. Is that why you never saw fit to inform me you were having my child?’ he asked hardly, his hooded eyes half-closed, masking his expression. ‘Is that why you never turned up for our date on the Friday evening?’ With each question he moved a step closer. ‘Is that why you now accuse me of wanting to murder my child?’ Gianfranco asked bitterly, his dark eyes flaring with contempt. ‘Pay-back time on your part? My God, I thought better of you than that, Kelly.’

‘You actually kept our date?’ She was staggered by his revelation, her brief burst of anger draining away as she accepted the thought; it pleased her enormously, and restored some of her battered pride. She had spent the last few months in abject misery because of this man. At the lowest point, when her pregnancy had been confirmed, she had been tempted to call him, but she only had to recall his horror the one time they had made love and he’d discovered she was not protected to know it would be a waste of time. But he was obviously not the complete bastard she had thought him.

Gianfranco focused on her seated figure with a blistering fury that seemed to increase with each word he spoke. ‘Kept it? I waited all night and drank myself into oblivion. And where were you? Marta the housekeeper told me the next day. Back home in England after refusing a free holiday. That’s how much you cared.’

As the meaning of his outburst hit her Kelly could only stare at him open-mouthed. He actually had cared about her. The notion was as startling as it was seductive.

‘Nothing to say? I am not surprised,’ Gianfranco drawled with savage derision. ‘You used me, got yourself pregnant and came scurrying back to England without the least intention of ever telling me.’

‘No. It wasn’t like that,’ Kelly burst out impulsively. ‘I was going to meet you on the Friday, but…’ She trailed off, nervously moistening her dry lips with the tip of her tongue.

Gianfranco’s black brows arched in surprise. The Kelly he remembered had been bluntly honest, to the point of indiscretion. He drew a steadying breath, banking down his anger, and his eyes narrowing on her lovely face, he took a step towards her. ‘But what, Kelly…?’ he prompted silkily, and in another stride he had crossed the space dividing them and settled on the sofa next to her. He reached out and caught her by the shoulders, gently urged her back against the soft cushions. ‘Tell me…’ Anger would get him nowhere with Kelly, she had too much spirit, but a little judicious questioning should do the trick.

Gianfranco’s brilliant eyes clashed with hers and her breath caught in her throat, his proximity doing unimaginable things to her nervous system. ‘I…I…’ Kelly stammered to a halt, embarrassed by what she had almost revealed.

‘Go on,’ he encouraged, his dark eyes burning into hers with mesmerising effect.

Why not tell him? She was no good at dissembling anyway. ‘On the Wednesday I saw a picture of you and your latest girlfriend—a very beautiful redhead—taken two nights before in New York, in the newspaper,’ she confessed bluntly. ‘There did not seem much point after that.’

Her response stunned him. He drew back slightly, and looked down at her with incredulous eyes for a long moment. ‘You were jealous…’ he declared, and for the first time in months his firm lips parted over gleaming white teeth in a broad self-satisfied smile.

‘I was not,’ she denied adamantly, but the scarlet blush that enveloped her face told its own story.

Gianfranco’s hand slipped from her shoulder to encircle her waist and pull her towards him, his night-dark eyes never leaving hers for a second. ‘No matter,’ he murmured in a low-pitched undertone, and covered her lips with his own in a long, slow, sensual kiss that drove every sensible thought from Kelly’s mind, and ignited the familiar electrifying sensations in every part of her body.

Dazed and breathless when he finally lifted his head, she could only stare at him in bemusement. ‘Why did you do that?’ she murmured.

Gianfranco eased her back against the cushions, lifted a large hand, and rested the tip of a finger against the pulse beating madly in her throat. ‘To prove you still want me,’ he drawled huskily. ‘An essential prerequisite in a wife.’ Cupping her chin, he added, ‘And we are going to be married, Kelly.’

On seeking out Kelly, Gianfranco had told himself he simply wanted to check up on her and make sure she was financially provided for. He was as surprised as Kelly looked to hear the offer of marriage come out of his mouth. But the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. His mother would be delighted—she was always nagging him to marry, and produce an heir. With Kelly already pregnant there could be no doubt of the girl’s fertility, unlike poor Olivia. Yes, it was the right decision.

Kelly stared at him blankly, unable to believe her ears, and, leaning over her, his breath fanning her cheek, he slipped a hand under her legs and suddenly she was stretched out on the sofa.

‘Wait.’ She tried to object, but the word ‘marriage’ had shocked her rigid.

Gianfranco lifted his head, a wide, confident smile parting his lips. ‘We have both waited long enough, Kelly.’ And then he kissed her again.

She wanted to resist, and she did try—she lifted her hands to his chest to push him away, but feeling the firm beat of his heart beneath her fingertips had the opposite effect, and of their own volition her hands snaked up to clasp around his neck. Her lips parted, her tongue duelling with his instinctively in a desperate hunger of passion too long denied.

His hand slipped under her sweater to curve over the full mound of her breast, and she quivered, heat surging through her veins. Pressed against the awesome male body, she forgot everything but the feel, the scent of him. She ached for him.

Gianfranco groaned, raised his head, and with one deft movement pushed her jumper up so her lush, unfettered breasts were open to his gaze. ‘Dio, I love your breasts.’ Black eyes glittering, he ran an exploring finger over the pouting rosy tips, and her whole body arched in shivering delight. His dark head lowered and his mouth closed over a rigid peak.

‘Gianfranco.’ Kelly moaned his name in a pleasure that was almost pain.

His head jerked up, eyes clashing with hers. ‘Did I hurt you? The baby, is it safe?’

CHAPTER FIVE

THE baby! It was like a douche of cold water on her over-heated flesh. Struggling to sit up, she pushed at his mighty chest. ‘Get off me.’

Gianfranco reared back and, lifting her into a sitting position, smoothed her sweater down over her breasts. ‘I promised myself I would not jump on you, Kelly, but I only have to look at you to want you,’ he said huskily. ‘Even with this glorious bump.’ One large hand spread out over her stomach, and right at that moment the baby kicked. ‘It moved,’ he declared, his dark eyes fixed on her stomach in rapt fascination. ‘I can’t wait till we are married and I can look after you both properly.’ He lifted his head. ‘I didn’t hurt you or the baby?’ His gleaming eyes sought hers for reassurance.

‘No, no, you didn’t,’ Kelly said stiltedly. She could not lie to him, but neither was she going to let him walk all over her. It was the sheer conceit of the man that angered Kelly. She hadn’t seen him for almost five months, and he strolled back into her life and offered marriage as if he was doing her a favour. ‘As for marriage—that will not be necessary,’ she told him bluntly.

He did not want her; it was only the child he was interested in. And, getting to her feet, she glanced down at where he sat, the look of puzzled outrage in his dark eyes enough to make her want to laugh. ‘I can do without your noble gesture—I am perfectly capable of looking after my own child,’ she said sweetly. ‘Now, would you like a coffee before you leave?’ she offered.

Before she could move, Gianfranco leapt to his feet, his hands grasping her shoulders.

‘What the hell are you talking about, Kelly? Noble? I am not noble—I haven’t a noble bone in my body.’

‘I thought all “counts” were noblemen, or supposed to be,’ she prompted mockingly.

He paused, his hard mouth curving in a bitter, cynical smile. ‘So that is what is bothering you—the fact I have a title. I should have guessed you would be the opposite of most women of my acquaintance, who love the idea.’ His hands tightened on her shoulders, his brown eyes clashing with her blue ones, and her heart gave a curious lurch at the glittering intensity of his gaze.

‘I never wanted nor ever expected to have a title—that was my brother’s birthright. But three years ago he was killed in a yachting accident and the title was thrust upon me. Do you really think I enjoyed giving up my freewheeling lifestyle working in the financial markets of the world to take on the burden of the family estates as well, to have to work twice as hard with twice as much responsibility?’ he spelt out grimly. ‘The day I met you was the first time in three years I had taken a weekend off, and the first time I had been back to Desenzano since my brother’s death.’

‘Why are you telling me all this now?’ she asked, intensely aware of his hard male body towering over her, his long fingers kneading her slender shoulders, as if he would force her to listen.

‘Because the minute I saw you, so beautiful, so carefree, I decided to forget about everything and give myself a holiday and try to get to know you. So, yes, you are right in a way, I should have told you who I was, but for once I simply wanted to enjoy myself; is that so hard to understand?’

Kelly had never coveted wealth. She enjoyed her life, and as long as she had enough to get by on she was quite happy, but she could understand great wealth must bring with it great responsibilities. ‘Yes, I suppose so.’ The thought that he thought she was beautiful was balm to her bruised heart, and slowly she was recovering from the shock of seeing him again. ‘But marriage?’ That was something else again, she thought, unaware she had voiced that thought out loud.

‘Yes, Kelly,’ Gianfranco cut in, pulling her closer to the hard heat of his body. ‘You will marry me, and have my child. I have not spent the last few months going crazy over a blonde-haired little spitfire to be turned down now.’

He smoothed a possessive hand over her quivering length, lingering on her stomach. ‘You are mine, and this baby is mine,’ he husked quietly, and smiled.

How did he do that? One minute he was all outraged predatory male and moments later he was smiling tenderly into her guarded blue eyes. ‘Yes,’ she murmured, thinking, in her confused state, he was asking if the baby was his.

His dark head lowered and he let his tongue trace the fullness of her lips before delving into the moist depths. His hand slid down her back to the base of her spine, moving against her in a way that made her blatantly aware of his arousal.

Kelly tried to remain rigid in his embrace, but her body softened against the hard heat of Gianfranco’s massive frame.

‘You want me, and I want you; what more is there to say?’ He breathed the words against her mouth and softly to her throat and ear, then back once more to her pouting lips. He nudged her lips apart again and dipped into her mouth with his tongue, in a rhythm that made a moan rise in her throat.

‘Gianni,’ she gasped helplessly, but she retained enough common sense to know he was deliberately trying to seduce her.

He felt her tremble and loved her reaction. ‘You called me Gianni; you have not forgotten.’ He groaned with feeling against her mouth, scanning her with glittering eyes filled with hunger and something more. He stared down into her dazed yet wary eyes and he wanted to take her there and then, his body screaming for release. Instead he drew in a steadying breath and eased her to arm’s length. ‘Perhaps a drink is in order, but not coffee—I need something stronger,’ he opined bluntly.

Kelly heard the faint humour in his tone and smiled. He sounded like a man sorely tried. ‘I think I can oblige. There is half a bottle of whisky left over from Christmas in the kitchen. Have a seat and I’ll get it.’

She badly needed to put some space between them. He was right about her wanting him. She did, always had since the first moment she’d set eyes on him. Gianni or Gianfranco, it didn’t matter; he was the man she loved, she acknowledged as she walked into the kitchen on shaking legs. If she was honest with herself, Gianfranco’s surprising offer of marriage was more than she had ever hoped for, and it was very tempting. She opened a cupboard and withdrew the bottle of amber nectar.

A few minutes later she walked back into the living room, with a tray bearing a glass of whisky and a glass of milk. A quick glance and she saw Gianfranco was leaning against the mantelpiece, one hand fingering the silver-framed photograph of a couple with their arms around each other. His eyes caught hers before she could look away. ‘Your parents?’ He indicated the picture. ‘I never thought to ask…where are they?’

‘Both dead,’ she said softly.

‘So you are alone in the world,’ he declared grimly. In one lithe stride he was beside her, and, taking the tray from her hands, he placed it on the coffee table. Straightening up, he handed her the glass of milk. ‘You should not carry anything in your condition.’

His fingers brushed hers as she took the glass, sending a tingling sensation up her arm. Their eyes met, his dark and knowing, hers guarded. ‘I’m not ill, only pregnant,’ she said drily. ‘I’m still at work,’ she tagged on, sinking down into a convenient armchair with a sigh. She was also tired and emotionally confused, but she had no intention of telling Gianfranco. Instead she lifted the glass to her mouth and took a long swallow of the cool creamy liquid.

‘You still work!’ he exclaimed, and stared at her as if she had gone mad. ‘That’s it.’ Gianfranco drained his glass of whisky in one gulp, banged it down on the table, and turned to frown down at her. He had flown to England angry, not sure what he was going to do about Kelly, but one look at her and he had heard himself asking her to marry him. Thank God he had. It appalled him to realise she was alone in the world, and it also brought home to him how little he really knew about her. Well, all that had to change, he decided in his usual arrogant manner.

‘As I remember, you were going to work as a research chemist.’ His dark brows drew together in a thunderous frown. ‘That is out. There is no way you should be anywhere near a laboratory—you could catch anything, do untold damage to our child.’

Her head tilted back, her blue eyes lifting to his, and what she saw made her suck in her breath—he was deadly serious. ‘But…’

‘No buts. You will resign tomorrow—in fact, I will do it for you.’

‘Now wait just a minute…’

‘No. On this I will not budge. As my wife, you are not working in a laboratory.’

‘Gianfranco, really, it is the twenty-first century—women work all through their pregnancy at all sorts of jobs. Some go back three months after the child is born.’

‘Not you,’ he declared adamantly.

She could argue, she reasoned, but somehow she didn’t want to. There was something very seductive about having a man take charge.

‘You are not going to argue?’ One dark brow arched in puzzlement as she watched and she almost giggled. He was standing over her, his great body taut with tension.

‘Do you want me to?’ she asked softly. Incredible as it seemed, she was beginning to think that perhaps there was some hope for them. She loved him, she was carrying his child, and he wanted to marry her. Common sense told her at least to listen.

‘No. Oh, no. Kelly.’ To her astonishment, he dropped to his knees at her feet.

He caught her hand and turned it over in his much larger one. ‘I know our relationship got off to a rocky start,’ he said, picking his words with care. ‘I know this is not the ideal situation to find ourselves in. But know this, Kelly.’ His rough, deep voice was thick with some overwhelming emotion. ‘I really do want to marry you, child or no child, the sooner the better.’

Kelly trembled as Gianfranco lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a tender kiss into her palm, before raising his head, his gaze roaming over her beautiful face. There was no mistaking the sincerity, the simmering passion in the deep brown eyes that finally met hers.

‘Kelly, my love, give me a second chance.’ He took a deep, rasping breath. ‘I don’t want to rush you into anything you don’t want, but marry me soon,’ he pleaded huskily. ‘You know it makes sense.’

Kelly wasn’t aware she was giving him a second chance, she thought muzzily, but, as his arms drifted around her again and pulled her gently into the warmth of his embrace, she didn’t resist. She could not. His dark head lowered and his lips found hers. This was where the last hour had been leading; this was what she had been afraid of. She was incapable of controlling her own response. Why deny it, she asked herself with a flash of insight, when she wanted him so much? Her senses were swimming with pleasure, her mouth clinging to his as he held her tightly against him, his tongue darting between her lips, exploring her mouth with an urgent passion.

‘Dio, you feel so good. You don’t know what you do to me, cara.’ His deep voice shook as he eased her slightly away from him. ‘Say yes, Kelly.’

For months she had been telling herself she would be fine as a single parent. But was she being fair to her unborn child? Kelly asked herself, studying Gianfranco’s handsome face with brilliant blue eyes. Now she had a choice; he was offering marriage, and two parents must be better than one. It was no contest because, dear heaven, she loved him.

Instead of the ‘yes’ that trembled on her lips Kelly heard herself ask, ‘Who was the redhead?’

‘Natalie. The wife of an American cousin of mine. Her husband was in the Far East on business and I deputised for him at the charity dinner,’ he explained huskily. ‘Only at the dinner, I swear.’

For a long moment she stared into his incredible eyes, and she believed him. ‘In that case…’ She reached her arms around his neck, urging him back to her, ‘Yes, oh, yes.’ Her long lashes fluttered down over her brilliant blue eyes, her fingers tangling in the silky black hair of his head, her lips blindly seeking his again.

She never saw the flare of triumph in his night-dark eyes as he gathered her close and kissed her long and slow, and when she finally opened her eyes she gazed up at him, totally enslaved all over again.

‘You have made me the happiest man alive.’

‘Happiest man…’ she murmured, floating in a sensuous bubble. ‘Are you sure you want to marry me?’ She had to ask. It was like a dream, and she wanted to pinch herself to make sure it was true.

‘I have never wanted anything more in my life, except perhaps tonight I want to make love to you, as I should have done the first time. Long and slow, very slow.’

‘Sounds good,’ she sighed, and tightened her hands behind his head.

‘No, not here—the bedroom.’ And, lifting her in his arms, he carried her out of the room, up the stairs, and without hesitation walked into the first bedroom he came to. One glance at the double bed and Gianfranco wanted to lay her down on it. But he forced himself to lower Kelly slowly to her feet.

As if waking from a dream, Kelly stood in the middle of the floor and looked up. Gianfranco was towering over her, his arms linked loosely around her waist. His eyes, dark with desire, roamed over her small frame, but when his hands reached for the bottom of her sweater she froze.

Suddenly she was terribly conscious of her altered physical state. ‘No,’ Kelly whispered and grasped his hands with hers. ‘I’m not the same.’ She looked up into his handsome face and placed a restraining hand on his chest. ‘I’m fat—my waist has gone,’ she said, scarlet with embarrassment.

Gianfranco wanted to laugh, she looked so beautiful, so woebegone, but he had more sense than to do so. ‘You are not fat, Kelly, you are luscious and swollen with my child. I have never seen you more beautiful.’ And, lifting her hand from his chest, he led her to the bed. Then, squeezing her hand, he added, ‘But if you are nervous you can undress me first.’ His dark eyes held hers as he quickly removed his shoes and socks, and then, straightening, more slowly removed his tie, undid the first two buttons of his shirt. ‘Help me, Kelly,’ he husked.

Intrigued, she forgot her own embarrassment and, sliding her small hands over his chest, she quickly unbuttoned the rest of his shirt. He slipped it from his shoulders and Kelly slid her hands back up over the tanned hair-roughened chest with tactile delight. ‘You feel hot,’ Kelly murmured, lifting fascinated eyes to his. ‘And so hard.’

Gianfranco almost groaned out loud. She had got that right; he was so hard he thought he’d burst. But even if it killed him he was going to make it right for her this time, he vowed. He smiled gently. ‘Now the trousers,’ he prompted.

Her head dipped, her slender fingers making short work of the waist fastening, but she hesitated a second before pulling down the zip, her knuckles stroking the rigid length of him through the fine fabric of his shorts.

There was something very exciting, empowering, about undressing a man, Kelly thought, her heart racing as she gently eased his trousers down over his hips, then, dropping to her knees, she slid them down his long legs. Intent upon her task, she never saw the grimace of agony on his face as her long hair brushed against his naked thighs and the hard length of his arousal, barely covered by black silk.

Stooping, Gianfranco lifted her to her feet. ‘Enough,’ he said huskily as he bent to her mouth. ‘I can’t wait much longer.’

As his mouth covered hers his hand slipped under her sweater and lifted it, his hands gliding up over her breasts, caressing her with expert tenderness.

Kelly shivered, her whole body flushing with heat, and lifted her arms, but before she could put them around him he had whipped her jumper over her head, and claimed her mouth once more.

She forgot about her thickened waistline, forgot everything, and mindlessly kissed him back.

He lifted his head and pulled her arms from around him. Stepping back, he whipped off his shorts and slid his hands down the elastic waist of her leggings, easing them down her hips.

‘No panties, Kelly?’ He grinned, but his eyes darkened to black as he looked at her. ‘I didn’t know how beautiful a woman could be until now,’ he husked softly, blatantly scrutinising her high firm breasts with their rosy tips so hard, so tempting, the soft swell of her stomach, and lower to the long shapely legs and the cluster of pale curls at the apex of her thighs.