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      ‘I won’t force you to the altar, and neither will I force you to my bed. You will come to it when it’s your choice, not my decree.’

      Colour touched her cheeks. ‘So the offer’s open whenever…?’ she queried a bit sardonically.

      ‘I won’t deny that I still find you attractive,’ Alessandro said, meeting her gaze boldly. Perhaps if she remembered just how explosive their chemistry had been, she would be less reluctant to go along with his ideas. ‘What we shared was brief, I admit, but it was good, Mia. It was very good.’ He held her gaze, felt his own heat, and saw that she remembered just how good it had been… just as he did.

      ‘And what happens after three months?’ Mia asked after a long, heated moment. ‘If I decide it isn’t working?’

      Everything in him resisted such a notion, but he still made himself say the words. ‘Then we will have to consider alternatives. But I hope, for Ella’s sake, such a drastic step will not be necessary.’

      ‘You call that a drastic step?’ Mia let out a huff of humourless laughter.

      ‘I do,’ Alessandro returned evenly. ‘Because it would be drastic for Ella, unable to have two loving parents in her life.’ His voice rose with the strength of his emotions. He’d only held Ella once, had barely spent any time with her, but she was his and he wanted to raise her right, give her the stability and security and yes, even the love that he’d never had growing up. ‘Why should I be content with seeing my daughter only on occasion, a deadbeat dad, and not by my own choosing? Why don’t you want Ella to have two parents fully involved in her life, loving and taking care of her? Who doesn’t want that for their child?’

      ‘Is that…is that what it would be like?’ She sounded so surprised that Alessandro felt stung.

      ‘You don’t think I would love my own child?’

      ‘I’m not saying that, it’s just…you’re so focused on work, Alessandro. As far as I can tell from the tabloids, you’ve never had a serious relationship.’

      ‘This is different.’

      ‘How?’

      ‘Because of Ella. I admit, I’ve never been interested in serious relationships before now.’

      ‘And I’m still not,’ Mia interjected, surprising him. ‘I’ve never wanted to get married, be tied down—’

      ‘Too bad you had my baby, then.’

      They stared at each other, an emotional standoff, and then Mia let out a ragged sigh and sank back onto the sofa. ‘I can’t keep arguing about this.’

      ‘Then be reasonable. Three months. That’s all I’m asking. You wouldn’t be going back to work before then anyway.’

      She stared into the distance, her expression remote and a bit weary. Then, to his immense satisfaction, she slowly nodded. ‘All right. Three months. I can give you that.’

      ‘Good. We can make this work,’ he said, with conviction. Mia did not reply. She stared out of the window, her expression so distant and despairing that Alessandro felt something in him shift, turn over. It was as if an emotion he’d long kept buried was stirring to life, and he didn’t like it. He realised he wanted to comfort her. He didn’t like seeing her sad, but he had no idea how to make her happy. Both realisations were disturbing. She’d given in to his demand and seen the sense in his plan. He should be triumphant, and instead he felt…unsettled.

      ‘You look tired,’ he said abruptly. ‘Why don’t you have a sleep?’

      She turned to him, blinking slowly. ‘A sleep…?’

      ‘Yes, have a nap. Ella is sleeping, and I can keep an eye on her.’ He gestured to the huge bed on the other side of the suite, made into its own cosy enclave with bookshelves and potted palms to give the area privacy without compromising the stunning view. ‘Have a rest. You look exhausted, Mia.’

       And we fly to Rome tonight.

      He didn’t say the words, but he had a feeling she heard them anyway.

      ‘All right,’ Mia said after a moment. ‘I am very tired.’

      ‘Good. Rest.’

      He watched as she rose stiffly from the sofa, exhaustion apparent in the slump of her shoulders, the lines on her face. Compassion stirred inside him. She needed help; she needed him. He just needed to make her realise it.

      Mia bent over Ella’s car seat, tenderly touching her daughter’s cheek before she straightened and looked straight at Alessandro.

      ‘I don’t like any of this, Alessandro, even if I recognise that our being together is best for Ella. But no matter how you spin it, I still don’t feel as if I have any choice.’

      ‘I’ve given you a choice,’ Alessandro protested, and she nodded.

      ‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘You’ve given me.’ Without waiting for his reply, she turned and walked towards the bed, everything about her seeming both proud and defeated. The unsettling combination made Alessandro ache. It also made him feel guilty, as if he were doing something wrong, but he wasn’t. He couldn’t be.

      For Ella’s sake, this was how it had to be. Mia would come to accept that in time. He would make sure of it.

       CHAPTER NINE

      MIA STARED OUT of the window of the private jet as it lifted into the sunset sky. Her stomach clenched with nerves, her insides swooping as the plane rose and then levelled out. She was doing this. She was really doing this.

      Because she had to. For Ella’s sake, for Alessandro’s sake. She’d recognised that this morning, when Alessandro had spoken oh-so-reasonably, but she still resisted. Still hated the thought that she was being backed into a corner.

      Three months. She could manage for three months. She could get to know Alessandro. She could try to get along. After that…

      Mia had no idea what happened after that.

      She glanced across the teakwood table that separated her from Alessandro in the jet’s sumptuous living area. Since waking up in Alessandro’s penthouse that afternoon, she’d felt as if she’d fallen into a fairy tale, unsure if she was with the prince or the big bad wolf. A little bit of both, perhaps. Alessandro was certainly solicitous of her every need; she couldn’t fault him even if she was still on edge.

      While she’d been sleeping, something she hadn’t even thought she’d be able to do, he’d arranged for all her things to be packed up from her apartment and put onto his private plane. He’d had bags packed for her and Ella with everything they could possibly need for the flight. They’d gone directly from the hotel to the airport, which meant Mia hadn’t been able to say goodbye to anyone.

      She hadn’t made many friends in LA yet, but she still resented his high-handed manner. She didn’t think he was even aware of it, which made it worse. Somehow, against everything she believed and hoped for her life, she was ending up with a man like her father. Maybe not in the needless cruelty or sneering manner—Alessandro was certainly better than that. Yet the result was the same—being controlled by a man.

      Alessandro, at least, was showing himself to be an attentive father. When she’d stumbled from the sumptuous bed back in the suite, she’d found him on the sofa, cradling Ella in his lap as he cooed down at her, his face softened and suffused with love. Seeing him in that unguarded moment had given Mia the hope that maybe, just maybe, she really was doing the right thing by going to Italy. That maybe it could even be a good thing.

      She glanced again at Alessandro, his profile both handsome and hard as he gazed down at his tablet, a faint frown bisecting his patrician brow. He’d shed his suit jacket and rolled

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