New Arrivals: One Secret Child

‘So you like being captain of your own ship—but do you honestly like being alone? Raising a child on your own is far from easy, no matter how many opportunities for advancing your career come your way. When the baby is ill do you welcome being her sole carer, with no one but yourself to rely upon to make the best decisions for her welfare? And when she’s ill what do you do if you can’t take time off work for fear of losing your job and your income? ‘

Moving back across the room towards her, Dante had that faraway look Anna had seen before in his eyes.

‘Once when I was five I had the measles…had it quite severely. My mother had no choice but to go out to her job in the evening—it was literally a matter of whether we ate or starved. She asked a close neighbour if I could stay with her for the evening, but the woman refused because she had five children of her own and didn’t want to risk them getting infected. My mother left me in bed. The neighbour promised to regularly check up on me while she was gone. I had a raging fever, and by the time my mother came home I was convulsing. We didn’t have a telephone. She ran with me through the night to a man she knew who owned a restaurant, and he called a doctor. If it weren’t for that I probably wouldn’t have made it.’

His tone bitterly rueful, he shook his head. ‘My mother went to hell and back that night. If she had had someone to help her, someone who cared equally for my welfare, she wouldn’t have suffered the torment and guilt that she did. And I have no intention of ever letting my daughter be in the precarious position I was…no matter what your assurances.’

Barely knowing how to answer him, Anna wept inside for the agony Dante and his mother must have endured that terrible night. It was the kind of nightmare scenario every mother dreaded.

Before she realised it her impulse to touch him, to comfort him in some way, overtook her, and she laid her hand against the side of his face. His skin was velvety warm, pulsing with the vibrant strength she’d detected earlier. ‘I love that you care for Tia so deeply already. But I’m lucky, Dante. I may be a single mum, but I have friends—people who really care for Tia—people who would help us at the drop of a hat.’

‘That may be so, but I have no intention of leaving my child’s well-being to the precarious fair-weather attention of mere friends! No matter how much you might trust them, Anna. So…’ He winced a little when she withdrew her hand, almost as if she’d struck him. ‘There’s only one solution to our dilemma, and I’ve already told you what that is. Now it’s just a matter of arranging things. The sooner the better, I think.’

Stroking her hands up and down her arms, Anna sensed their tremble.

‘I’m not getting married…I told you.’

‘Then regrettably, you’re pushing me into taking action I’d much rather not take,’ Dante retorted. ‘But I will take it if it means I can be with my daughter. I’ll go to court to get full custody of Tia.’

Was it only to her own hypersensitive hearing that her heartbeat sounded so deafeningly loud? Anna thought. She’d been musing on a mother’s worst nightmare but surely this was one of the most horrendous threats a woman could face? That her child’s estranged parent might sue for custody and take her away—maybe to live in another country entirely? Searching for compassion in Dante’s flint-like stare, worryingly, she found none.

‘No!’ she protested loudly, tears stinging the backs of her lids.

He lifted an eyebrow, but looked no less resolved on his course. ‘If you don’t want me to take such an action, then I suggest you stop putting obstacles in the way and agree to our marriage.’

‘That’s so disrespectful. You’d resort to something as low as blackmail to get your own way?’

‘I told you.’ His broad-shouldered shrug was unapologetic. ‘I’ll do anything I can to be with my daughter… the daughter you have so callously denied me knowledge of for four years because my so-called reputation made you believe I didn’t deserve to know about her. And you have the audacity to stand there and lecture me on respect!’

‘I didn’t keep her from you deliberately.’ Wanting to cry in frustration as well as pain, Anna stared pleadingly into the heartbreakingly handsome features of the well-dressed man in front of her. ‘Don’t you think I would have preferred to be in a good relationship with my baby’s father than be asked not to try and get in touch after we parted that night? I know it was a difficult time for you, but it didn’t exactly make me feel wanted to know that you could just walk away from me and never look back. And how do you think I felt when I discovered I was pregnant? Especially when it was the first time I—’ She bit her lip on what she’d been going to say and continued, ‘I was shocked, lonely, scared. I experienced every one of those states—but even taken together they don’t come near to describing how I felt.’

She noticed that Dante’s glance was quizzical.

‘It was the first time you…what, Anna?’

Backing up nervously, she reached for the glass of wine she’d left on the side-table near the armchair and drank some. She let the alcohol hit before raising her chin with a defiant air born of Dutch courage. Her dark eyes focused firmly on Dante.

‘It was the first time I’d slept with a man.’

The oath he swore was in Italian, and because she was shaky after revealing her news Anna returned her glass to the table, waiting for the tirade of disbelief that she was certain would explode towards her.

But when next he spoke Dante’s voice was surprisingly quiet, his words measured. ‘You were untouched when I took you into my bed…that’s what you’re telling me?’

‘I was. Couldn’t you tell I was no experienced seductress who made a habit of going to bed with male guests? I’d barely even been kissed before!’

‘Yet you were molten heat in my arms. Everywhere I touched you, you made me burn.’

Praying for some way to steady the deluge of emotion that tumbled forcefully through her, Anna despaired of ever feeling calm again when she saw the renewed flame of Dante’s desire sinfully reflected back at her… just as if it had never gone away. With a disparaging toss of her head, she answered, ‘I think I lost my mind a little that night. I would never usually behave in that way with a strange man…with any man for that matter.’

‘We lost our minds together, Anna.’ He sounded seductively accepting and non-judgmental. ‘And the result was little Tia. Can you regret such an outcome? ‘

‘Never.’

‘Then we have to deal with this situation like adults, instead of feuding children, and that means our daughter’s welfare takes priority.’

‘You mean…’ Anna surveyed him with a frown. ‘You mean you still believe marriage is the only answer? ‘

‘I do.’

‘If that’s the way you want to go, how about trying a trial period of living together first?’

‘Too uncertain—and it hardly represents the security I want for Tia.’

‘Surely that depends on how we deal with it? If we’re committed to making it work, then living together could be just as secure as marriage.’

‘No. That’s not what I want.’

‘And if I refuse? You’d really take me to court for custody?’

‘I would.’ His piercing glance was as unyielding as ice.

CHAPTER SEVEN

IT DIDN’T exactly enhance his self-esteem or his pride, having to potentially resort to blackmail to persuade Anna to marry him, but since he had made the earth-shattering discovery that he was a father, Dante’s determination to help bring up his daughter was cast-iron. There was nothing the redheaded beauty could say that would deter him.

But in truth he was taken aback that she could so easily refuse him. He’d met plenty of women on his travels who considered him quite the catch.

Once upon a time his ex-wife Marisa had said those very words to him. ‘You’re quite a catch, Dante… It’s a wonder that you’ve been allowed to say free and single for this long…’

But that assertion by her had soon turned to ashes when she’d discovered that for her husband raw ambition came first and his most intimate relationship a very poor second. Even when his marriage had been in its dying stages he hadn’t sought to rescue it, or been able to express his emotions. Marisa had walked into the arms of another man and Dante had simply let her—if he was honest, feeling nothing but relief.

Now the greatest shock that he had ever received…the news that he was a father…reverberated doubly on learning that Anna had been a sexual innocent when he’d slept with her. It also made him remember the flicker of apprehension in her eyes when, for a few moments as she lay beneath him, he’d sensed definite tension in her slender frame. What must she have thought when he’d asked her to spend the night and then warned her not to expect anything else? Not a phone call, not even his real name—nothing! What an introduction to the world of adult relationships she’d had.

Fast forward five years on, and Dante knew that if he’d met Anna today he would never have let her go. not for all the million-dollar real estate in the world. With her gorgeous flame hair flowing unhindered over her shoulders and her brown eyes sparkling like fire-warmed brandy she was vivacious, pretty and completely unpretentious. Her eye-catching dress with its patent green belt highlighted how tiny her waist was, and the black leggings she wore cleaved lovingly to her long, model-slim legs.

Studying her now, he acknowledged that she made the blood pound through his veins like no other woman he’d ever met. So, even if she despised him for putting her in such a compromising position, he would endeavour not to disappoint her as he had disappointed his ex. He certainly wouldn’t give her cause to accuse him of ignoring her. He would also show her that he intended to be the best father to Tia that a child could have. She would not want for anything materially, and for as long as he lived Dante would dote on her. There would be no need for Anna to be lonely either, because he fully intended to keep her warm at nights and reintroduce her to the delight and pleasure of passionate lovemaking…

Having returned to the old-fashioned floral armchair, she now sat nursing her wine glass, her glance wary and resentful when it locked with his.

‘I’ll have to tell the Cathcarts about us,’ she murmured.

‘Yes, you will.’ Shrugging off his jacket, Dante dropped it onto the arm of the couch. Turning back to Anna, he smiled enigmatically. ‘But don’t worry. they’ll have plenty of time to absorb the news.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because after discussing the changes that need to be implemented I’m going to suggest we close the hotel for a month while it’s being refurbished and modernised. In that time we will travel to Lake Como with Tia, where you and I will marry.’

‘You’re intending to close the Mirabelle for a whole month?’ Slamming her wine glass precariously on the side-table, Anna widened her brown eyes in disbelief. ‘What about the staff? What about their jobs? They can’t possibly afford to take a whole month off.’

‘It will be paid leave.’ An irritated muscle flinched hard in the side of Dante’s cheekbone. He’d just told her he was taking her to Lake Como to marry him and all she could think about was what was going to happen to the staff! It seriously irked him that Anna’s soft heart did not include fretting about him in such a concerned manner.

‘Can you afford to do that?’ she asked in wonder.

He could have replied that he could buy and refurbish the hotel and fund the staff’s leave several hundred times over and still have change, but Dante didn’t. The stunning house he owned in Lake Como would be a surprise and hopefully a delight to her when she saw it, and perhaps would bring home to her just how wealthy her soon-to-be husband actually was. But there was a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach that he should take refuge in something so superficial when in truth he wanted Anna to regard him totally for himself, to see the man behind the thousand dollar suits and impressive portfolio, not what his money could buy.

‘I have interests in several very successful businesses worldwide, Anna, so trust me…’ His hand cut expressively through the air. ‘Worrying about whether I can afford it is not something that even has to enter your head.’

She was puzzled that he seemed so annoyed. Had she dented his ego by querying whether he could afford to do as he’d said? But, more perturbing than that, Anna was under siege from far more unsettling concerns. Events were moving at a pace she hadn’t remotely expected, and one major issue was disturbing her above all else. Dante’s insistence that they marry was making her feel as though he wanted to control and possess her, and was disturbingly reminiscent of her father’s behaviour as she was growing up.

Frank Bailey had had two major passions in his life… his love affair with booze and his diminutive, too passive wife—Anna’s mother, Denise. He’d been so possessive and jealous that he’d completely banned her from even having friends, because he couldn’t bear her attention to be on anyone else but him. That jealousy had even transferred itself to Anna if he thought she was too demanding—which even as a small child she rarely was. But her father had been able to misread the most innocent situations, and had made his judgements with an authority that chilled the blood.

Consequently, Anna had lost count of the times she’d witnessed his rage—and that included being frequently belittled by him verbally. An occurrence that had become even more frightening and threatening to her peace of mind when he was drunk. She knew intimately that mental torment was just as destructive as physical violence. There were too many times when, upon hearing her father’s key in the door, she’d sat on her bed quaking with terror, praying to disappear, praying for a greater power to make her so small that he wouldn’t even notice she was there.

In agitation, she rose to her feet… ‘Dante. about us going to Lake Como to—to get married…’

‘What about it?’

She obviously had upset him, because his handsome face was fierce for a moment. But, however unapproachable he seemed, Anna refused to be intimidated by him.

‘I’ll go with you on one condition.’

‘I have already told you that—’

‘Hear me out.’ Although shaking inside, her tone was unerringly firm, and there was a definite flash of surprise in Dante’s light-coloured eyes. ‘I don’t want a wedding arranged until I see how we get on together. And I won’t have you issuing me with threats of going to court for custody of Tia either. I’ve seen the damage it can do to a woman’s spirit to have a man try to control her, and I won’t accept it from anyone…not even and especially the man who fathered my child!’

‘You’re speaking from personal experience?’ Although Dante’s voice had turned quiet, it was underscored with shock and a sense of impatience too—as if he wanted to hear the full extent of what Anna had endured.

‘Yes, I am.’ She crossed her arms in front of her, knowing there was no point in keeping her past a secret. It wouldn’t serve her in the long run, however painful it was to talk about it. Ghosts could only haunt a person if they colluded with them to keep them hidden. ‘My father was a cruel and jealous drunk, and he made my mother’s life a living hell.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘No longer in this world…thank goodness.’ An icy shudder ran down Anna’s spine.

‘And your mother…where is she? ‘

‘She’s gone too.’ She briefly pursed her lips, fighting hard to win the struggle over her tears. ‘They said at the hospital that she died of heart disease, but I know that’s not what killed her. She was simply tired and worn out… beaten down by living with my brute of a father.’

His glance glinting with anger as well as sympathy, Dante stepped towards her. ‘Was he a brute to you too, Anna?’ he demanded huskily.

‘A man with a propensity for intimidation doesn’t care who he tries to intimidate. He just gets off on the power. His children are the easiest targets of all—especially when they’re too scared to answer back in case they get another verbal lashing. And the situation becomes even more horrendous when the impulse to dominate and show what a big strong man he is is fuelled by alcohol.’

Shame and despair cramped her throat for a second. ‘Have you any idea what it’s like to have foul beer or whisky-smelling breath right in your face, and a mocking voice yelling at you how useless you are? How worthless? Anyway, I don’t want to talk any more about this right now.’ She made as if to move towards the kitchen. ‘I don’t think I can drink any more wine, lovely as it is. I think I’ll make some coffee. Would you like some?’

‘No.’ Dante laid his hand on her arm to prevent her from turning away, but he didn’t curl his fingers to grip it. Right now he needed to tread very carefully. He could see the fear and terror in her eyes from her disturbing memories and it shook him deeply. ‘We’ll do as you suggest. We’ll go to Lake Como and live together for a while before embarking on marriage. Does that make you happier, Anna? ‘

Perversely, the look of relief crossing her face was like a hammer blow to Dante. He didn’t want to possess Anna—he knew that would be wrong. In the light of what she’d experienced with her bullying father it would be doubly wrong. Just the thought of such a man hurting her in any way brought out the most base of animal instincts in him to deal with anyone who threatened her or Tia. Ultimately all he wanted to do was take care of them both—to show Anna that beneath the facade of wealth and success his genuine heartfelt desire was for family and connection. He wanted the chance to prove that underneath the outward material trappings and his drive for achievement existed the good, responsible, caring man that his mother had always insisted was the real Dante Romano.

‘Thank you,’ she answered softly.

Reluctantly he let go of her arm, even though touching her through the material of her dress made him long for so much more.

‘Perhaps while you make your coffee I could look in on Tia? I just want to sit beside her bed and watch her sleep for a while,’ he said.

‘Go ahead. Take as long as you like.’

* * *

Half an hour later, Anna opened Tia’s bedroom door to find Dante comfortably ensconced in the cosy slipper chair beside their daughter’s bed, his elbows resting against his long-boned thighs in his exquisitely tailored suit trousers and his body quite still. His avid gaze was transfixed by the angelic blond child who lay sleeping peacefully beneath the Walt Disney character-decorated pink duvet, one arm flung out by her side and the other clutching her favourite chewed teddy bear.

Anna needed a moment. It was as though one of her favourite made-up stories had come to startling, vivid life, and she hardly dared breathe for fear of disturbing it and making it disappear.

But Dante had heard her come in and, turning in his chair, treated her to the most disarming, knee-trembling smile she’d ever seen.

‘She’s so beautiful,’ he breathed quietly. ‘I don’t want to leave her…not for a minute or even a second. I’ve missed so much of her growing up.’

Anna didn’t mistake the catch in his voice. Advancing into the room, which was illuminated only by the soft night light glowing in the corner, she dropped her hand on his hard-muscled shoulder, silently thrilling to feel the sensuous warmth that emanated through the luxurious cashmere of his sweater.

‘She’s still got a lot of growing up to do, Dante…she’s only four. And children quickly adapt to new situations and people. One day she’ll forget there was even a time when you didn’t mean the world to her.’

Covering her hand and holding it against him, Dante held Anna’s gaze with a passionate heated look. ‘I want her to know I’m her father. I want her to know as soon as possible. Can you understand that?’

Gripped by the pain in his voice, Anna breathed out slowly. ‘I do. Of course I do. But we just—we just have to pick the right moment.’

‘Tomorrow when you pick her up from school we’ll take her somewhere for tea. It will give her and me the chance to get to know each other a little. But I don’t want her to be kept in the dark about who I am for long, Anna.’ He let go of her hand. ‘I don’t think I could bear that.’

‘We’ll tell her soon,’ she said reassuringly, seeing by his expression how in earnest he was about Tia knowing he was her father.

Clenching his jaw for a moment, Dante exhaled a heavy sigh. His eyes flashed like distant lightning in a velvet midnight sky.

‘Good…that’s good. Now, I think it’s probably time I left. We have much to do tomorrow. I’ll see you in the morning, Anna.’ His lips brushed briefly against her cheek as he stood up. ‘Try to get some proper sleep tonight, eh?’

The sensuous trail of his cologne and the seductive warmth that was the legacy of his lips lingered on Anna’s skin long after he had gone.

She asked if Anita could spare a few minutes to talk during their afternoon tea break. Expressing her usual amicable concern, the older woman kindly welcomed Anna into the office she shared with her husband—an entirely organised and smart office in comparison with her son Jason’s. Grant had gone out to visit a new supplier and wouldn’t be back until later, she confided.

She appeared much happier, Anna noticed—as if a world of worry had been lifted from her shoulders. Dante’s rescue package for the Mirabelle was already making a difference, she realised. There was no doubt in her mind that he would turn the hotel’s fortunes around. He was an accomplished, experienced investor, and even their sous chef Cheryl, and Amy and Linda the receptionists, were already referring to him as their ‘knight in shining armour’. She didn’t know why their praise and ingratiating admiration should put her back up, but it did.

‘What’s troubling you, sweetheart?’ Stirring her tea, Anita sat back in one of the three easy chairs arranged round a coffee table, surveying Anna with concern.

‘Am I that easy to read?’ the younger woman

quipped.

‘Not always… But for some reason today I definitely sense that you’re anxious about something.’

‘It’s about Dante,’ Anna began, her fingers knotting together in her lap.

Her cheeks flamed red when Anita raised a curious eyebrow. The casual form of address had slipped out, because he’d been on her mind almost constantly since last night. Especially when she remembered that look on his face and the tremor in his voice when he’d passionately declared that he wanted Tia to know he was her father.

‘I mean Mr Romano,’ she corrected herself quickly.

‘What’s wrong? I know he’s been a little…shall we say abrasive with you, dear—but he can be extraordinarily thoughtful of people too. He’s already won friends here. And when he’s talked to me and Grant about plans for updating the hotel he’s consulted our opinion at every turn. There are exciting plans afoot!’ Her lips splitting in a grin reminiscent of an excited schoolgirl, Anita all but hugged herself. ‘We’re going to call a staff meeting later, to give everyone an update, but as you’re our assistant manager I may as well tell you confidentially that Dante has deemed it a good idea to close the Mirabelle for a month while the modernisation gets underway. All the staff will get paid leave.’

‘How do you feel about that?’

‘We’re perfectly happy. Not only is it necessary, but it’s a great idea too. Grant and I haven’t had a break in so long. We plan to devote some time to our much neglected garden, and spend some genuine quality time together. You should think about having a little holiday, Anna…you work so hard and you and Tia deserve it.’

‘Maybe I will.’ Shrugging lightly, Anna wished she could hear herself think over the clamouring of her heart. ‘Look, Anita…there’s no way of couching this or making it sound less surprising…I’ve got something important to tell you.’