The Secret The Italian Claims

She wasn’t going to let pride ruin her life. Not anymore.

Or Cristiano Moretti.

“You should thank me,” she said.

He grew very still. “Thank you?”

“We both know, whatever you might say now, that you couldn’t truly commit to anyone, even a child.”

“How do you know?” he ground out.

“You, commit? For a lifetime?” She gave a choked laugh. “You couldn’t even commit for a night.” She tilted her head. “Were you that quickly bored, the night we were together? Or did you have another date afterward?”

His expression changed infinitesimally. “You think I sent you away because I was bored with you?”

Hallie thought of the glamorous supermodel she’d just seen on his arm. “What else?”

She couldn’t let him see how badly that hurt her. When he’d first taken her in his arms that romantic night, she’d been so naive. She’d thought it was fate, an irresistible force drawing them together. She’d thought it was magic.

Hallie had been startled when he’d walked into his penthouse early that afternoon. She’d been warned to be invisible and that her cleaning must be spotless. After spending so much time dusting pictures of his handsome face, seeing Cristiano in the flesh had shocked her.

Cristiano Moretti was a dream come to life. A famous playboy, the self-made Italian hotel billionaire who dated princesses and heiresses.

And inexplicably, he’d wanted her.

One moment she and Cristiano had been talking by the bed; the next she’d been in his arms. After so many bleak years of anguish after losing her family and her home, when her handsome billionaire boss had lowered his lips to hers, Hallie had imagined all the pain was behind her. She’d thought her life had just changed for the better.

And it had, in one way: her baby. Jack was all that mattered now.

“I’m leaving,” Hallie said defiantly. “Once I cash your check, I promise you, we’ll be gone for good.”

Cristiano lowered his head until it was inches from hers. “And I promise you. You’ll do nothing of the kind.”

Her mouth went dry. As their eyes locked, her heart pounded in her throat as she realized her stupid, idiotic mistake.

She never should have openly defied Cristiano. Because he’d taken her words not just as a challenge but as an insult to his masculinity. To his honor, even.

All this time she’d been thinking about her pride. She hadn’t considered his. And now he would make her pay for it.

“You don’t want me,” she whispered, her voice almost pleading. “You know you don’t.”

His dark eyes seemed like deep, fathomless pools as his gaze ripped into her soul. Then he straightened.

“You’re wrong about that. I’ve wanted you for a year. And now I will have you.”

“What are you talking about?”

His gaze fell to the stroller and his expression grew cold. “He’s my child, Hallie. I’m not going to let him go.” He focused on her. “Or you.”

“I won’t be your mistress, if that’s what you mean,” she said, struggling to keep her voice calm, not to show her rising fear.

“I know.” Cristiano’s black eyes suddenly glittered, and he smiled. “Because you’re going to be my wife.”

* * *

His wife.

Cristiano watched Hallie’s eyes widen in shock.

It was strange, he thought. He hadn’t known he was going to demand marriage until the words came out of his mouth. His whole life, he’d never once been tempted to marry. Of course he’d never imagined he’d be a father, either. And as he spoke the words, he suddenly realized he did want to marry her.

Call him an indecent excuse for a man?

Say he was incapable of committing for longer than a night?

Tell him he couldn’t even love his child if he tried?

No.

Cristiano wouldn’t abandon his newborn son to endure the same helpless childhood he’d known. Not when he himself had spent most of his adult life seeking vengeance on the father who’d abandoned him before he was born.

But he couldn’t wrench his son away from Hallie, either. Mother and child were obviously bonded. Still, he needed to take control of the situation.

Marriage was the brutally simple solution.

“Marry you?” Hallie choked out, searching his gaze as if waiting for the punchline. “Are you crazy? I told you—I hate you!”

“And I’m none too fond of you.” But as he put both hands on her shoulders and looked down at her, his nerve endings sizzled from the contact. He might be angry, but he’d told her the truth. He hadn’t stopped wanting her for a year.

Her gaze fell unwillingly on his lips before she glared up defiantly. “Why would I marry you?”

Looking down at the baby, who was now awake and trying to grab his own feet in the stroller, he said quietly, “For our child.”

“But...you can’t seriously want to be a real father.” There was a new nervousness in her voice. “If you want to see Jack, maybe we could talk about visitation—”

“No,” he said coldly. Her expression looked relieved until he continued grimly, “I will have full-time, permanent custody.”

Hallie’s beautiful face blanched. She whispered, “You’d try to take him from me?”

“No.” He gave her a cold smile. “I want him to have two parents. Even though you didn’t care about that.”

Patrons and staff in the lobby had been staring at them for a while, but now they were coming closer, obviously trying to listen.

“I’m not having this conversation here,” he said abruptly. “Come with me now.”

She glanced around wildly, and he wondered if she was actually considering trying to flee. To help her avoid the temptation, he gently lifted the baby from the stroller.

“What are you doing?” she gasped.

“Holding my son,” he said, and started walking. She immediately followed him to the elevator, as he’d known she would.

“Want me to come up with you, Mr. Moretti?” his bodyguard asked.

Cristiano shook his head. “Tell Natalia I won’t be able to attend the gala after all. Give her my apologies.”

“Sure, boss.”

Cristiano continued into the elevator, with Hallie’s stroller dogging his heels. Once inside, he pressed his fingerprint against the hidden button for the penthouse.

As they rode the elevator to the top floor, she watched him anxiously. He tried to act casual, as if he’d held a baby before, but he felt awkward. Even three-month-old Jack seemed to be looking up at him in disbelief, as if trying to decide whether to cry or not.

“You’re doing it wrong. Hold his head like this,” Hallie blurted out, positioning the baby differently in his arms. She shook her head impatiently. “Just give him to me.”

“Forget it,” he said crisply. Jack was his son and, in some respects, until he secured her loyalty as his wife, Hallie was his enemy. There was no way he’d admit he didn’t know what he was doing or give the baby back to her care in a sign of weakness and surrender.

The elevator door slid open onto a small hallway with a grand door and a smaller, inconspicuous one farther down. The top floor of the Campania Hotel was devoted exclusively to Cristiano’s penthouse and terraces, with a small separate apartment for his bodyguard. He had a similar penthouse in his flagship hotel in Rome and smaller private suites in his hotels in Tokyo, Sydney, Rio, London and Berlin. He could have rented out the space to paying guests when he was away for an exorbitant amount, but he kept them to himself. Life was about little indulgences, or what was the point of being rich? A man, particularly a wealthy playboy, needed privacy.

Hallie followed him anxiously into the penthouse, as if she feared he might drop the baby. It was insulting. Especially as Jack gave a soft whimper in Cristiano’s arms.

“Give him to me—now!” Hallie said.

Keeping his expression inscrutable and moving with deliberate slowness to show her that he was doing it as his own decision, not hers, he carefully handed her their son. Leaving the stroller in the foyer, she clung to the newborn as if they’d been separated for days.

“You bastard,” she choked out. “Dragging us up here. It’s practically kidnapping.”

“Kidnapping?” He looked down at her coldly. “How about trying to steal my son from me for the rest of my life?”

Some of the anger in her gaze faded. “If you cared so much, you should have taken my calls when I was pregnant!”

He hated that she was right. With a low, bitter laugh, he turned away. “You remember your way around, I presume?”

She followed him into the enormous room with its starkly modern furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a magnificent view of the city’s sparkling lights. To the left, an open-concept kitchen had all the latest appliances, none of which he’d ever used. There was a reason he chose to live in his own hotels.

He looked back at her. Hallie’s cheeks were pink. He wondered if she was remembering when she’d cleaned here, as the maid. Or if she was remembering, instead, the night she’d helped him mess everything up again, tangling the bedsheets in a night of passion so hot it had burned past all barriers to create a child. A night he could never forget.

“Have a seat,” he said coolly even as he fought the flash of heat at the memory. He indicated the white sofa that overlooked the spectacular view.

She tossed her head. “No, thanks. I don’t intend to be here long enough to—”

“Sit down,” he said more forcefully, and glaring at him, she obeyed, cradling the fussing baby in her arms.

Cristiano sat down in the white chair beside the sofa. He didn’t need to see the city view; he knew it so well by now it bored him. He looked only at her.

“If Jack is truly my son, he belongs with me.”

She set her jaw. “You’re only saying that because I insulted your pride. You don’t really care about him.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, you know that, do you? Because I’m an indecent excuse for a man? Because I couldn’t love someone if I tried?”

She had the decency to blush. “I’m sorry if that was rude. But it’s true.”

He restrained himself from tossing a few insults back in her face, insults she richly deserved. “You don’t trust me? Fine. I don’t trust you, either.” He looked down at the baby in her arms. “So from now on, my son is staying here.”

“No.”

“I will not allow him to disappear from my life just on your word that you’ll take good care of him.”

“And I won’t let you turn our lives upside down, just because I injured your masculine pride!”

That was all she thought it was? Controlling his temper, he took a deep breath.

“I know from experience what it is like to grow up with no father and no name,” he said slowly. “To live in poverty, with a mother too distracted by her own concerns to worry about mine. She moved us to a new town every time she took a new lover. Men who inevitably despised me as a burden, who thought I deserved to be screamed at, punched, starved.”

The color drained from Hallie’s face.

“What?” she whispered. “She didn’t protect you?”

Cristiano shook his head. “She couldn’t even protect herself. When I was eighteen, her last lover beat her almost to death. When I tried to intervene, she kicked me out.” He gave a hard smile. “I learned my lesson. You can only look out for yourself.”

Her soft eyes looked horrified, as if she’d never imagined any family could go so wrong. “I’m so sorry.”

Cristiano hated the pity in her eyes. He regretted saying so much. He’d never spoken about his past to anyone. “I just wanted you to understand.” He leaned forward in his chair. “I can’t let you leave with him, then spend my life wondering if you’re taking good care of my son, if you’ve taken lovers into your house who might hate him for crying, who might pick him up out of the crib and shake him hard until the crying stops—”

“I would never let that happen!”

“I know,” he said grimly. “Because he’s staying with me.”

“But—”

“Did you give him my last name?” he interrupted.

“His last name is Hatfield, like mine.”

“Something else that our marriage will rectify,” he said.

Hallie looked down at her baby softly whimpering in her arms. Her voice was small as she said with visible reluctance, “I might be willing to talk about...about shared custody.”

Why was she continuing to argue? Repressing his rising anger, he shook his head. “Marriage.”

“But why?”

“I’ve given you the reasons.” Suddenly he was finished trying to reason with her, trying to explain. He’d been far more patient and open with her than she deserved. For all the good it had done. He narrowed his eyes. “The discussion is over. We will wed. The decision is made.”

“Made by you. But you’re not my boss. Not anymore.”

Cristiano tilted his head. He said in a deceptively casual voice, “You can refuse my proposal, of course.”

“Then I refuse.”

“Then our son stays with me.”

Wide-eyed, she breathed, “Just because you’re his biological father you think you have the right to take him from me? I’m his mother!”

“And I have an entire team of lawyers at my disposal. What do you have? Nothing. You’ve already indicated you’re a liar and a flight risk. I’d request an immediate injunction from a judge to prevent you from ever leaving New York.”

“Liar? When did I ever lie?”

“Just now. When you took a hundred thousand dollars from me under false pretenses, then tried to run away with my son without telling me he existed.”

Hallie’s face was deathly pale. The baby’s whimpers rose to soft wails.

“I am a liar,” she said suddenly. “You’re not Jack’s father, Cristiano. You never were. It was all a...a plot. To get money from you.”

“You’re the worst liar I’ve ever seen.”

“I slept with five men right after you!” Her voice rose desperately. “Any of them could be his father. Here—take your money back!”

Pulling the folded check from the pocket of her sundress, she held it out to him.

Cristiano’s lips curved.

“Why, Hallie,” he said, without moving to take it, “are you trying to bribe me to give up my parental rights?”

Stuffing the check back in her pocket, she rose trembling to her feet. “I wish I’d never come here!”

His voice turned hard. “Sit down.”

“And I don’t care what you say.” She lifted her chin. “Our justice system wouldn’t take a baby from his mother!”

“So dramatic.” He added with dark amusement, “You have a lot of faith in something you clearly know nothing about. How do you think judges and juries decide the truth? They believe the best lawyers with the best arguments. And what kind of lawyer would you find to represent you? An inexperienced pro bono attorney fresh out of law school? Some tired hack working on contingency? You’ll have no chance. You will lose.”

Cristiano watched the emotions struggle on Hallie’s beautiful face. Remembering how she’d almost walked out with his child, he didn’t feel sorry for her. At all.

He looked down at Jack, now loudly complaining in Hallie’s arms. It had been so close. It scared him to think about it. If he hadn’t been suspicious and followed her into the lobby, he never would have known. His son would have grown up believing his father had abandoned him. Rejected him.

Exactly as Cristiano’s father had.

Hallie looked down at her wailing baby. “He’s hungry,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “Where can I go?”

“Right here.”

“I’m not nursing him in front of you.”

“I don’t trust you not to run off.”

“Fine,” she bit out as the baby’s wails increased. “At least turn around.”

“Of course.” He turned toward the wall of windows overlooking the city. The baby’s crying ceased almost immediately, changing to soft, contented murmurs.

Cristiano’s shoulders relaxed, and he realized that he’d been tense, feeling his son’s unhappiness. He felt more sure than ever that his impulsive decision, demanding marriage, was right. It was the only way to ensure the baby’s comfort and security.

His son’s childhood would be completely different from his own. Jack wouldn’t be abandoned by a father who cared only about his business empire, or left to the devices of a mother who cared only about her own selfish needs. He would never worry about getting beaten or having enough to eat. Jack would always have a stable home. And two loving parents.

Cristiano would do whatever it took, make any sacrifice, to make it so. And so would Hallie.

He would leave her no other choice.

Rising from the white chair, still with his back to her, he pulled out his phone, pressed a button and lifted it to his ear.

“Contact Dr. Garcia,” he told his executive assistant, Marcia Lattimer, when she answered. “Tell him I’m bringing a woman and baby in twenty minutes for a checkup and paternity test.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What?” Hallie said in alarm behind him.

“Ask Matthews to pull the limo around,” he continued. He remembered the baby. “On second thought, the SUV. Have the concierge arrange a new baby seat to be sent down. Whatever is required for a three-month-old. I want it installed and ready by the time we’re downstairs.”

“Of course, Mr. Moretti,” Marcia murmured. She was well paid to be on call around the clock. “Anything else?”

“I’ll let you know,” he said, and hung up.

“Paternity test?” Hallie’s voice was low but enraged. “You don’t even believe he’s yours?”

“Can I turn around?”

“Yes.”

He looked at her calmly. He was pleased to see the baby now sleeping contentedly in her arms. “You said he was mine. Then you said he wasn’t.”

She looked furious. “You know!”

“I believe he is mine, but I want proof.”

She tossed her head. “What kind of quack doctor will do a paternity test in the middle of the night? It’s after nine!”

Cristiano was amused that she thought of nine o’clock as the middle of the night. His own nights out often didn’t start until eleven. “Dr. Garcia is my personal physician, one of the best in the city. He also appreciates that I fully fund his medical research.”

She ground her teeth. “Is everyone in this city on your payroll? Do you always get what you want?”

“Yes,” he said simply, to both.

Ten minutes later, they were seated in the back of a huge black SUV with tinted windows and a brand-new baby seat installed between them.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” called Matthews from the driver’s seat. “Cute little guy you’ve got there.” He looked at Cristiano in the rearview mirror. “I understand congratulations are in order, sir?”

“Thank you,” Cristiano said. He tenderly lifted a soft blue blanket against his sleeping baby’s plump cheek. Feeling Hallie’s gaze, Cristiano looked up. A current of electricity passed between them.

Biting her full, pink lower lip, she abruptly looked away. But his body was still aware of her. A new thought went through Cristiano.

He’d intended to marry her as a matter of honor and duty, but there would be compensations.

A year ago, he’d sent her away for her own good—and his. But fate had changed their lives. Now, through their child, they would always be connected.

Married.

And marriage would have other benefits. A wedding night. Endless sensual delights.

He wanted to kiss her. His gaze traced over the curve of her cheek, over the visible tremble of her pink lips as she stubbornly stared out the window into the dark city streets. He wondered how long it would take him to seduce her.

Would it be tomorrow?

Tonight?

Either way, Cristiano knew that nothing could now deny him the pleasure of taking Hallie to his bed. He would possess every inch of her. Every night. For as long as he desired.

Once they were wed, she would be his.

CHAPTER THREE

AS THEY LEFT the doctor’s private office downtown later that night, Hallie was in despair.

She couldn’t marry him. She couldn’t.

But how could she not?

Closing her eyes, she leaned back in the seat of the SUV and tried to picture herself as Cristiano’s wife. She imagined Cristiano in a tuxedo, striding through his luxury skyscraper while she trailed after him in a dumpy maid’s uniform.

How could the two of them ever marry? What did they even have in common?

Just one thing. Her gaze fell upon the baby in the car seat beside her.

What would it be like for Jack to be raised as a tycoon’s son, wealthy beyond belief? To go to all the best schools, with the best tutors? To be proficient at all the sports of the wealthy, like skiing, tennis, lacrosse? Every door in the world would be open to Jack.

A lump rose in her throat. But would her son be happy? Would he grow up to be a good, honorable man?

“Would you like me to take you home?” Cristiano said in a low voice.

Hallie looked at him over the baby seat in the back seat of the SUV. He’d taken off his tuxedo jacket and loosened his tie. His dark good looks and smoldering gaze burned through her.

“Home?” she whispered.

Cristiano lifted an eyebrow. “Whatever you might think of me, I’m not a total bastard. Now that I have proof of paternity I want you to be comfortable.”

He was willing to take Hallie home? He’d given up his ridiculous plan of forcing her to marry him?

A rush of relief flooded through Hallie; it was so great she almost cried.

“Thank you,” she choked out.

“Give Matthews your address.”

Her address. Remembering what had happened with her landlord that morning, she gulped. She didn’t want to face that horrible man again. Plus, if Cristiano saw where she’d been living, he might change his mind and refuse to let the baby live there. Hallie barely wanted to go back herself.

“Um...in the East Village,” she said vaguely.

Cristiano looked at her expectantly, dark eyebrows raised. Reluctantly she gave Matthews the address.

I just won’t let Cristiano go in, she told herself. The apartment building looked respectable enough on the outside. Plus, maybe her landlord was very sorry for what he’d done. Maybe.

She looked down at her baby, who’d been fed and changed at the clinic and was now happily babbling. She stroked his downy dark hair, looking into the eyes that were exactly like his father’s.

Then she suddenly remembered. Reaching into her diaper bag, she grabbed her phone. Just as she’d expected, she saw multiple messages from her friends.

Are you all right? Is he being nice?

From Tess.

Did he agree to pay child support? How much?

From Lola.

Why aren’t you answering?

Are you being held hostage?

Should we call the police?

Quickly Hallie typed out a response to them both.

All well. Just got a paternity test. He says he wants to be a father to Jack. More later.

She tucked her phone away. Rolling down her car window, Hallie took a deep breath, looking out into the warm, humid July night as their SUV drove into the Lower East Side. She felt sick at the thought of seeing her landlord, who wasn’t a proper landlord at all, just a guy who’d been willing to rent her a room in his apartment at a cut-rate price.

But the man had made it clear to her that morning that he expected her to pay in other, less tangible ways. She gulped. She never would have wanted to come back here, except she’d left behind all her most precious possessions. Her old family photos from West Virginia. Her grandmother’s homemade quilt. Her father’s watch. It was everything she had left of her family now.

Hallie took a deep breath. She’d just pay the landlord off, take all her stuff and then she and the baby could check into a hotel.

“Um...” Hallie bit her lip. “Do you think we could stop somewhere so I could cash my check?”

“You waste no time.” The corners of Cristiano’s lips twitched. “You think some check-cashing store is going to count you out a hundred thousand dollars in twenty-dollar bills?”