The Italian's Baby of Passion

‘Which one? We’ve got quite a few here. Should you lie down, perhaps…?’ she suggested tentatively. ‘If you’re not feeling well?’

‘I’m feeling fine.’ The strained smile she produced to prove the point did nothing to soothe Scarlet’s fears. ‘The little boy I’m talking about is the one who gave me the flowers? The one sitting there.’

Scarlet followed the direction of the ashen-faced woman’s strangely haunted gaze as Natalie nodded through the glass partition that separated Scarlet’s office from the big, newly equipped play room, towards a small dark-haired figure sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Sam was meant to be outside with the other children watching the magician they’d engaged as entertainment. With the party in full swing he had obviously managed to slip away unnoticed. Sam was a very resourceful child.

He had wanted to finish his jigsaw earlier, and when he wanted something, as she knew to her cost, he could show remarkable focus. His little face was a mask of concentration as he slotted the final piece into a complicated wooden jigsaw and gave a triumphant smile.

‘Sam,’ Scarlet replied, a puzzled frown forming between her brows as she registered the throb of emotion in the other woman’s attractively accented voice.

‘I hope I didn’t alarm him.’

‘Sam takes most things in his stride,’ Scarlet returned honestly.

‘I thought he might,’ came the puzzling dry rejoinder. ‘His mother…does she work at the university?’

‘Sam’s my son, the one I mentioned.’ Scarlet was trying very hard not to glow too obviously with pride. ‘One of the perks of running the university crèche is I get to bring him to work with me.’

This hadn’t happened by accident. Early on Scarlet had realised to leave Sam on a daily basis would be too painful, not necessarily for the child, who possessed an adaptable and sunny personality, but for herself.

‘You?’

Scarlet endured with equanimity the astonished, searching scrutiny that came her way. The reaction didn’t surprise her. Sam was an exceptionally beautiful child, and Scarlet knew the only thing exceptional about herself was her ordinariness, but even so the softly breathed, ‘Unbelievable!’ did bring a faint flush to her pale cheeks.

As if she realised her lapse in manners, a flicker of something akin to embarrassment flickered across the beautiful features of the VIP guest.

‘And how old is Sam?’

‘He was three in April.’

‘He seems very advanced for his age.’

‘Sam is quick,’ Scarlet agreed, unable to stifle a flicker of parental pride at this praise.

‘You and your husband must be very proud of him.’

‘I’m not married.’ Even in this enlightened age Scarlet was used to her single motherhood producing disapproval in varying degrees, but the inexplicable flicker of relief she saw in Natalia’s brown eyes was not a reaction she’d encountered before.

It only lasted a moment and Scarlet almost immediately put it down to a trick of the light or her imagination. After all, she asked herself, why would her being unmarried make a total stranger relieved?

‘Then Sam’s father…?’

‘There’s just me and Sam and we like it that way,’ Scarlet explained cheerfully.

CHAPTER TWO

‘BUT it must be hard for a woman alone?’

‘One-parent families are not exactly unusual.’

‘But you’ve never been married?’

Scarlet, who was beginning to feel puzzled with the older woman’s pursuit of the subject, shook her head. ‘Never.’ This might be a good time to change the subject and admit she had contacted the tyrannical son.

‘Listen, Mrs O’Hagan—’

‘Natalia, please, my dear.’

‘Natalia, I know you asked me not to.’ Scarlet took a deep breath and made a clean breast of it. ‘The thing is I called Mr O’Hagan…that is your son, the control freak one,’ she explained unhappily.

‘I don’t blame you being angry with me,’ she continued, ‘but I really did think that someone should know—’ Scarlet stopped in response to a cool hand laid on her arm.

‘I’m not angry with you, child.’

Scarlet gave a sigh of relief. ‘I’m glad about that.’

‘Did you speak to Roman yourself? I ask,’ she added, ‘because I have a problem doing so myself sometimes.’ She gave a light laugh. ‘He is guarded zealously.’

You can say that again!

‘I did manage to, eventually,’ Scarlet admitted with a guarded smile.

There was something in the other woman’s manner…she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but Scarlet couldn’t shake the feeling that she was missing something.

‘My, you must be a determined girl, or have special access that I don’t?’ Her laughter had a forced sound to it.

‘I could have done with it, but I had to fall back on my natural talent—I’m stubborn.’

Natalia nodded; her expression suggested her thoughts had already moved on. ‘I sometimes think this security business has got out of hand, you know. Since the stalker affair Roman is not a very accessible person, but no doubt you know that.’

‘Stalker?’ Scarlet queried, pausing to briefly wonder why his mother would assume she knew anything at all about her son.

‘Oh, I’m sure you read about it. That woman who became obsessed with him? It was about four years ago.’

Scarlet shook her head. She was not about to explain that four years ago her world had narrowed to the bedside of her dying sister.

‘Perhaps you were out of the country?’

‘Not likely,’ Scarlet returned. ‘I get seasick and have a phobia of flying.’

‘How inconvenient. Actually it was covered quite widely in the papers—this woman developed a thing about Roman.’

‘An ex-girlfriend?’ That figured. Any woman who went out with him had to be slightly unbalanced to begin with.

‘Well, no, that’s the thing, they had never actually met, but she became convinced they had a relationship. She wrote to him, telephoned him, sent him gifts…initially Roman felt sorry for her and thought if he ignored her she’d go away. Things came to a head when he arrived at the office one morning to find her holding his PA at knifepoint.’

‘Gracious!’ Scarlet gasped, her eyes widening in horror. ‘Was anyone hurt?’

‘Roman managed to talk her into letting Alice go and apparently she was going to hand over the knife when the police arrived. The woman panicked and became quite frenzied. Roman and Alice both got injured, Alice badly. Fortunately they both recovered.’

‘That must have been very traumatic.’

‘It was, though Roman was more concerned that he had unwittingly put someone else’s life at risk. Oh, I know it wasn’t his fault.’ Scarlet, who hadn’t been going to suggest anything of the sort, remained, silent. ‘But Roman has a very overdeveloped sense of responsibility.’

Scarlet smiled politely and wondered privately how much a mother’s natural bias had coloured this version of events. Certainly this caring, sensitive paragon didn’t sound much like the man the newspapers were so fond of writing about or the one she had spoken to earlier!

‘Roman admires a woman with spirit.’

Roman manages to hide his admiration pretty well. ‘Really…?’ she responded, not sure what else she was supposed to say to this apparently irrelevant comment.

‘And what did my son have to say for himself?’

Beyond threaten to sue the socks off me? ‘Oh, we didn’t really chat,’ she responded lightly.

‘Well, you’ll be able to get reacquainted properly when he arrives. The years have changed him, you know, my dear.’

The turn of phrase struck Scarlet as distinctly odd, but she was so relieved that the older woman appeared resigned that her son was coming to collect her that she didn’t comment on it.

‘Scarlet.’ David appeared at the door. ‘Could I have a word for a moment? Mrs O’Hagan, it’s good to see you looking so much better.’

Now that he said so, Scarlet too saw that the older woman had perked up considerably. ‘I’ll be right back,’ she promised.

Actually she wasn’t right back because David had been informed that Roman O’Hagan was in the building and, as he put it, thought that, ‘a more senior member of staff should be here when he arrives. No reflection on your abilities, Scarlet, but as a sign of respect.’

Scarlet gave him no argument. ‘I think it’s the least he would expect,’ she agreed.

It suited her down to the ground not to be there when the bullying millionaire put in an appearance. If she had to be nice to him she’d choke.

‘I might take that time owing me and nip off now with Sam, unless you want me to hang around?’

Roman ran his long fingers through the gleaming strands of his dark hair in a gesture of impatience. The same impatience was etched in the strong, symmetrical lines of his darkly handsome face as he looked down at his mother.

‘Yes, it was necessary for me to bring Philip; he is your doctor.’

‘And as I have told him, I fainted, nothing more. You are fussing like an old woman, Roman,’ she told her son scornfully. Graciously she extended her arm for the suited figure to apply a blood-pressure cuff. ‘Normal?’ she asked as the medic removed the stethoscope from his ears.

The doctor nodded. ‘If all my patients were this healthy I’d be out of business,’ he told her cheerfully.

Natalia shot her son a triumphant look. ‘I told you so,’ she murmured complacently.

‘But you will carry out further tests?’ Roman addressed his query to his friend.

‘I could, but—’

‘Do them.’

Natalia gave a sigh of exasperation. ‘This is exactly why I didn’t want them to ring you. You come rushing here when I’m sure you have a million more important things to do.’

‘Several million things, actually,’ Roman corrected, the corners of his wide, sensual mouth lifting in a sarcastic smile. ‘Naturally all much more important than my mother’s health.’

‘Well, I’m glad to see that family is still important to you, Roman.’

One dark brow quirked as, with slightly narrowed eyes, he scanned his mother’s face. Never slow when it came to reading between the lines, he asked, ‘Am I missing something here?’

‘You spoke to Scarlet on the phone, I believe.’

‘Scarlet—the blonde?’

‘She is not blonde. Though I suppose she might have been blonde when you knew her, though women usually go from brunette to blonde, not the other way.’

‘I don’t and didn’t know her.’

‘Well, why did you say she was blonde?’

‘She sounded blonde.’

His mother looked at him blankly. ‘Sounded blonde? Really, Roman, do not insult my intelligence,’ she rebuked coldly.

‘Did she say I knew her?’ He was accustomed to women trying to get to him, but if this one thought she could use his mother to do so she could think again!

‘Relax, Roman. She hardly mentioned you at all, which,’ Natalia added heavily, ‘is hardly surprising,’ his mother reproached. ‘This must have been a very painful experience for her.’

‘Told you I threatened her, did she? Well, she deserved it. How could anyone not have the wit to get medical help?’

Natalia stared at her son for a moment, then appeared to come to a decision. She turned to the doctor. ‘Philip, dear, do you mind? I’ve got something I need to say to Roman.’

The doctor clicked closed his case. ‘Of course, no problem.’

Roman flashed his friend a brief nod. ‘We’ll see you back at the clinic in fifteen minutes.’

Other than give an exasperated click of her tongue, Natalia did not respond to his comments.

‘Is this going to take long, Mother?’ Roman asked as the door closed.

‘Should I have made an appointment?’ Natalia enquired spikily. ‘You may be a very important man, but you might want to remember that you’re running the company because I persuaded your father to retire.’

It had actually been his father’s heart attack that had persuaded him and his equally reluctant brother to put their careers on hold and divide their father’s responsibilities. The injection of fresh blood and new ideas had produced results that had seen the O’Hagan family’s fortunes grow rapidly.

Unfortunately the success had increased, not lessened, the tension between father and sons.

‘I’ll pass on the fact that two minutes ago you were telling me my time was too important to spend it doing anything as frivolous as rushing to my mother’s side.’

‘Don’t change the subject, Roman.’

‘I wouldn’t dare if I knew what it was. Are you going to tell me any time soon what exactly I’ve done?’ Roman drawled. ‘I know all the signs,’ he added grimly. ‘I’ve searched my conscience and nothing immediately springs to mind. I must admit I’m curious.’

Natalia’s eyes flashed as her son gave a smile that was both cynical and charming in equal measure. She didn’t smile back, but instead snatched from his fingers the pen he was idly doodling with and banged it down on the blotter.

‘Don’t do that.’ Her sons had inherited their father’s Irish charm, her own dark Italian looks and, sadly, neither had very many scruples when it came to using either to get what they wanted. Roman had been getting pretty much what he wanted all his life, with one notable exception.

A frown formed between his dark, strongly delineated brows as Roman studied his mother’s face. ‘Has something happened? Dad…?’

Natalia heard the anxiety enter his deep voice, roughening the velvet-smooth tone, and immediately shook her head reassuringly. Eyes trained on his face, she took a deep, shuddering sigh. ‘Scarlet Smith.’ She flung the name like an accusation.

‘The woman with the smart tongue and the bad attitude who is not a blonde. If you want to know anything else you’re going to have to go elsewhere because that about exhausts my knowledge of the woman.’

Natalia searched her son’s face for a moment before her body sagged in relief. ‘You didn’t know, then.’ She sighed. ‘I didn’t think you could have,’ she revealed.

‘Didn’t know and still don’t,’ he inserted drily.

‘She must have changed her name, or maybe she gave you a false name?’

‘Are we back on the not-blonde?’

‘I don’t approve of everything you do, Roman.’

Roman’s expression became stoical as he prepared to endure one of his mother’s lectures on his lifestyle with a modicum of patience—patience he would not have extended to anyone else who chose to criticise him.

‘But I simply couldn’t imagine you abandoning your responsibilities and letting your own son grow up not even knowing who you are.’

CHAPTER THREE

ROMAN, whose hard features had begun to relax into a rueful half-smile at his mother’s initial comments, stiffened as she delivered her killer punchline.

‘Son!’ Pallor crept up under his even olive-toned Latin complexion. ‘If that’s your idea of a joke?’ he grated.

‘I’m hardly likely to joke about such a thing,’ Natalia said. ‘Look, I can see this must have come as a shock to you.’

‘That’s very understanding of you.’ Roman’s irony was wasted on his mother. ‘I don’t have a son and I’ve never met a…’ his forehead creased as he tried to recall the non-blonde’s name ‘…Scarlet Smith?’

‘Yes, lovely girl.’ She glanced across at her son and shook her head.

She watched with some sympathy as her son ground his teeth and stalked stiff-backed across the room, his whole manner screaming anger and frustration. She came up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. Though she was five eleven in her heels, she had to tilt her head to look him in the face.

‘Be honest, is this so impossible to believe?’

‘Don’t you think I’d know about it if I had a son?’ he suggested, his tone deceptively mild.

Natalia gave a very Latin shrug. ‘Only if the mother chose to tell you, Roman.’

‘And always supposing I did actually make a habit—as you obviously believe—of going around impregnating women. Why the hell wouldn’t she have told me? Why struggle to bring up a child as a single parent?’ A flicker of suspicion crossed his face. ‘Or is she married?’

‘You sleep with married women?’

Roman’s head went back as he looked heavenwards, sending the dark hair he wore a little longer than was conventional against the collar of his pale shirt. ‘No, I do not sleep with married women,’ he replied between clenched white teeth.

‘Never?’

A hissing sound of seething frustration escaped through Roman’s teeth as his mother continued to look at him with an expression of disappointment.

‘Not knowingly.’

‘Ignorance is no defence in law, or so I’ve always understood. I accept you didn’t know you had a child. Now you do. What are you going to do about it?’ she challenged.

‘For the last time, I do not have a child!’

Natalia gave an inflammatory sigh. ‘Denial isn’t going to get us anywhere.’

‘I’m not in denial,’ Roman thundered.

‘Yes, you are, and there’s no need to raise your voice, Roman, I’m not deaf.’

The bitterness died from his face as he saw the unexpected sparkle of tears in his mother’s eyes. ‘Sit down,’ he insisted, his concern coming across as impatience.

‘It must have been some story this woman spun you.’ Roman’s facial muscles tightened. ‘You can normally spot a phoney a mile off. Didn’t it strike you as odd that she told you, not me?’

‘She didn’t tell me anything at all. I gave her every opportunity, but in fact Scarlet pretended not to know you.’

A flicker of incomprehension crossed Roman’s face. ‘Then what the hell is this about?’

‘I’ve seen the child, Roman, and he is you at the same age.’

Roman looked at her for a moment, his dark brows raised, before releasing an incredulous laugh.

‘This isn’t funny, Roman,’ she reproached.

‘No, it’s not funny to see you so upset,’ he agreed sombrely as he hunkered down beside his mother’s chair. ‘All right, this kid looks like I did,’ he acceded lightly. ‘But I don’t know any Scarlet Smith, the only time I’ve spoken to her was on the phone, I promise you, and I never forget a name.’

His mother nodded. ‘People change in four years. You have,’ she added, a tinge of sadness in her eyes.

‘Scarlet must have changed her name so that you couldn’t find her, that would explain you not recognising her name.’

‘That would seem a tad excessive, considering I wasn’t looking for her.’

‘Don’t be flippant,’ Natalia snapped.

‘I know you’d like to be a grandmother, but I’m not going to pretend I’ve fathered a kid to oblige you.’

‘You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen the boy, Roman.’

‘Do you think I wouldn’t remember the name of a woman I slept with?’ he demanded.

‘If it was four years ago I’d say you could have some problem. There were a lot of women. I know I shouldn’t have brought it up…but…’

‘You’re going to anyway.’ Roman’s expression was resigned.

‘It’s not a subject I enjoy discussing.’

‘That makes two of us.’

Being deserted by your childhood sweetheart after the invitations for the wedding had been sent out was not an experience he particularly cared to relive on a regular basis, and that was what his mother was trying to remind him of now.

Making a total fool of himself was something a man was allowed to do once in his life. When he made marriage plans the next time his decision would not be based on a blind infatuation and starry-eyed fantasies of a happy-ever-after existence.

A marriage based on a mutual respect where neither partner would feel wounded or outraged if the other sought excitement outside the marriage bed was one that would stand a much better chance of survival in the long run.

Natalia determinedly ignored the dry rejoinder. ‘What I’m saying is it’s not as if you’ve never had a one-night stand.’

‘Can we leave my sex life out of this? I can hardly be surprised strangers believe what they read about me in the tabloids when my own mother does. You’re accusing me of indiscriminately fathering children! Do you really think I’m that stupid?’ he demanded.

‘Just go and see the boy, then you’ll understand, Roman. That’s all I’m asking you to do. Are you trying to tell me that it wouldn’t bother you never to know your own son?’

‘I don’t have a son.’

‘One hundred per cent sure?’

Roman’s broad shoulders lifted; playing along was clearly the only way he was going to put an end to this once and for all. He gave a sigh. ‘So where will I find the mother of my child?’

‘Can’t you see him?’

‘Mr O’Hagan asked expressly to see you.’

‘I really didn’t do much.’

‘Just what I said…’ Dragging his attention from the text message he was reading David added smoothly, ‘I told him that we work as a team here, but it seems your name must have stuck in his mother’s mind and of course you spoke to him on the phone.’

‘That must be it,’ Scarlet agreed drily. Oh, God, it would be just her luck if the man had decided to follow up his complaint officially, but if he had there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t have mentioned it to David straight off.

‘It’s a very nice gesture.’

‘Men like Roman O’Hagan don’t make nice gestures unless there’s something in it for them,’ she responded cynically.

‘And you number how many multimillionaires amongst your circle?’

‘I don’t, but Abby knew a few.’ At least Abby’s circle of friends had aspired to the millionaire lifestyle, though, as her sister had explained, not all had had the means to support it.

She saw the flicker of sympathy her bitter remark brought to David’s face and added quickly, ‘The problem is we’re so short-staffed with this flu epidemic. I could do without gestures, kind or otherwise.’

‘The longer you spend arguing with me…God, Scarlet, what are you wearing?’

David had been her honorary uncle since she was tiny. Scarlet was always scrupulous about not trading on the family friend thing, but unfortunately David didn’t feel similarly inhibited when it came to passing the sort of personal comments he wouldn’t get away with with other staff members.

‘Borrowed. A baby threw up all over me.’

‘Goes with the territory, I would imagine,’ came the bracing observation. ‘And you were the one who insisted on leaving an indecently well-paid job in the City to work with children,’ he reminded her.

‘Days like this make me wonder why.’

‘No, you don’t, you love every minute of it. I don’t know why, but you do.’

Scarlet conceded his point with a grin. ‘I suppose asking him to come back another day is out of the question?’ David looked at her over his metal-rimmed half moon spectacles as though she’d lost her mind.

‘Come back another day?’

Scarlet shrugged. ‘I thought I’d ask.’ She caught sight of her reflection in the full-length window. ‘God,’ she cried, wincing, ‘I can’t see him looking like a bag lady.’

‘I’ve seen you looking better, but he’s not here to ask you for a date, Scarlet, so I really don’t see the problem here.’

‘I’m representing the university,’ she said weakly.

‘If you’d been a member of the academic staff I could see your point,’ David responded, treating her suggestion seriously.

‘How lucky that I’m only a nursery nurse,’ she said deadpan.

‘Exactly, and look on the bright side, he’s not going to think you made any special efforts for him which should suit your egalitarian principles down to the ground.’

‘Very funny,’ Scarlet muttered.

‘Now, the sooner you go get your shoulder patted, the sooner you get back to help the troops out.’

With a shrug she admitted defeat.

‘Mr O’Hagan is in my office.’ David turned in the opposite direction.

‘Aren’t you coming too?’ Scarlet protested with a frown.

‘I have an important meeting. Has it occurred to you you might actually like the man?’