LITMIR.BIZ

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I’ve had to deal with title hunters, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

      He didn’t think it was possible she could grow any paler, but she did.

      “You are vile,” she said. “So full of yourself and your inflated sense of self-importance. I don’t know why I wanted to tell you about the baby, but I thought you had a right to know. And I certainly don’t want anything from you. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to just sit here quietly. I’d show you out, but I’m certain you can find the door.”

      Nico stared down at her for several heartbeats. She seemed distressed, and his natural instinct was to stay and help her. But he couldn’t forgive what she was trying to do to him.

      “You’ve forgotten one very important detail about that night, cara. Perhaps your informant failed to mention it, or perhaps she did and you were hoping I’d forgotten, but we used protection. I may enjoy a variety of bed partners, but I am not stupid or careless.”

      “I’m well aware of it, but the box does say ninety-nine percent effective, does it not? We seem to be the one percent for whom it was not.”

      His jaw clenched together so hard he thought his teeth might crack. “Nice try, bella, but it’s not working. Tell Renzo to think up something else.”

      And then he walked out the door and shut it firmly behind him.

      Tina wanted to throw something, but the effort wouldn’t be worth the slim satisfaction she would feel, so she continued to sit on the couch, sip tea and nibble biscuits until her stomach calmed down.

      She should feel satisfied that she’d done the right thing and told him, but all she felt was anger and frustration. Whatever had happened between her brother and Nico, it had certainly created a lingering animosity.

      She had come to a realization, though. She would not tell Renzo who had fathered her baby. He would demand to know, but it wasn’t his right to know. She was twenty-four and capable of making her own decisions. She’d gotten herself into this, and she would deal with the consequences. Perhaps it was for the best that Nico refused to believe her. Now it wasn’t necessary that she tell anyone.

      Her mother, at least, would support her decision. How could she not, when she’d spent years denying Tina the right to know who her own father was?

      Tina frowned. Poor Mama. Her mother had been in and out of love dozens of times that Tina could recall. Even now, she was off to Bora-Bora with her current lover, a man who Tina hoped was finally the right one. If anyone deserved love, it was Mama. She’d worked hard and sacrificed a lot until Renzo had started building his motorcycles and making money at it.

      Tina sighed. At least she had a reprieve for a while. Mama was away, and Renzo, Faith and their baby were on their private yacht somewhere in the Caribbean, enjoying their first vacation in months. Not only that, but Renzo was also recuperating from surgery to repair his damaged leg. The last thing she wanted was to disrupt his recovery with her news.

      No, as much as she might like to talk to her sister-in-law about being pregnant, Tina knew it was best if she was alone for now. By the time everyone returned, she would be further along and more confident in her ability to deal with them all.

      As the afternoon wore on, she started to feel immensely better. She decided to leave Rome early the next morning and head for the family vacation home on Capri. She felt jittery after her meeting with Nico and she wanted to get far away from the city. From him. Not that she expected him to come back, but knowing he was in the same city—sleeping, eating, having sex with other women—was too much just now.

      A few days in the lemon-scented breezes of Capri would do her good. But first she would call Lucia and see if her friend wanted to get together for dinner. She hadn’t yet told anyone she was pregnant; she would start with Lucia, see how that went. If nothing else, it would be good practice for that moment when she had to tell her family.

      Tina had not told Lucia who her mystery lover had been, though she’d admitted to spending the night with a man when Lucia had pressed her about it. Her friend had been so happy to hear it, as if she’d never quite believed that Tina would go through with it.

      Tina wasn’t sure Lucia would be happy about the consequences, however.

      She left a message on Lucia’s mobile phone and then decided to go to the Via dei Condotti for some shopping. But first she would walk from the Piazza Navona to the Pantheon in order to clear her head a bit. The walk wasn’t long, but it wound through some of the most picturesque of Rome’s neighborhoods. She changed into jeans and sandals and added a scarf around her neck.

      When she was done, she left the hotel and headed for the Pantheon. She passed gelato shops, antiques shops with paintings and elegant inlaid furniture in the windows, trattorias with chairs and tables lining the pedestrian way, and finally came out on the square where the Pantheon sat, ancient and silent against a bright blue sky.

      It was her favorite monument in Rome. She passed inside, beneath the forest of tall columns and into the cavernous chamber with the huge circle cut out in the center of the ceiling high above. Ignoring the tourists with their cameras, she skirted the roped off area in the center and took a seat on one of the benches facing the altar that had been added much later when the structure had been turned into a church.

      And then she tilted her head back and watched a wisp of a cloud float over the opening above. For some reason, this building made her feel peaceful. It always had. Once, when she had been home on break from school and didn’t want to go back again, she’d snuck out of Renzo’s apartment and come here. She’d sat for hours just like this until one of her brother’s security team had found her and made her return home and, ultimately, back to the private school that had terrified her until she’d met Lucia and made a friend.

      “She had a scar.” The voice in her ear was startling. The noise in the Pantheon was always a dull murmur, but this voice pierced her solitude and made her gasp.

      Tina whipped around to look at the dark, brooding male now sitting beside her on the bench. Her heart flipped, as it always did, whenever she looked at him. It was very annoying.

      “An appendix scar,” he continued. “Just here.” He made a slashing motion over his abdomen, to the right of his belly button and above his hip bone.

      “I had my appendix out four years ago,” she said coolly.

      His silver eyes looked troubled. “I don’t suppose you would show me this scar?”

      “I would, in fact. But not at this very moment, if you don’t mind. And even if you do,” she added irritably. She would not jump to his tune just because he wished it.

      The intensity of his gaze did not relent. “Assuming you have this scar, and you are the woman from that night, how did you know it was me?”

      She looked up at the perfectly round slice of sky overhead. A bird sailed high over the opening, wings outstretched as it rode the currents. “I slid your mask off. And when I realized who you were, I ran away.”

      “How do I know that’s the truth? That you didn’t wait for me that night and set the whole thing up?”

      She turned her head to meet his hot gaze, and her belly clenched. It was a different sensation than the one where the baby played havoc with her body. This tightening was a feeling that happened whenever she looked at this man. Only at this man. It was startling and disturbing all at once.

      “Don’t you suppose that if I’d been waiting for you, I’d have gone about the whole thing differently? I’m pretty sure that hiding on the dock like a frightened, nearly sick child isn’t exactly the way to attract a man.”

      “And yet it worked,” he said coldly.

      Tina sat up straight, fury vibrating through her. “Look, if you want to believe this is all a ruse, that I’m lying or that I set you up, then fine, believe it. But don’t sit here and bother me with your theories, okay? I told you what I thought you should know, and now I’m done.

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