Rumours: The Secret Billionaires. Дженнифер Хейворд

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СКАЧАТЬ Antonio. Why would I want to marry someone who can use such threats?’

      He moved towards her again and this time the hardness in his face had gone, the granite spark in his eyes had softened. He looked as he had done that weekend she’d fallen in love with him. He looked far too desirable and she wondered if she was losing her head, losing her ability for rational thought.

      ‘Because we had something good and from that has come Leo.’ He touched the back of his fingers to her face. ‘And we can have something good again, Sadie.’

      ‘No,’ she snapped and moved away from him. ‘Never that. If I agree, then it will be for Leo’s sake—and my parents’, as you have brought them into this. It will not be because I want to pander to your overinflated ego.’

      ‘Tough words.’ His voice was still incredibly sexy, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. ‘But so untrue. You still want me as much as I want you.’

      ‘Never.’ She wanted to shout the denial at him, but instead the lingering warmth of his touch was her undoing and her voice became husky. ‘I hate you.’

      ‘You hate me because you want me. Accept it, mia bella. It is still there between us.’

      ‘It most certainly is not.’ This time her words were full of ferocity and she pushed past him back into the centre of the room. Leo would be brought home by her mother any time now and the last thing she wanted was to have to explain what was going on. All she wanted was to get rid of Antonio, quickly.

      ‘Live daringly, mia bella. Marry me—for Leo’s sake if not for the passion and desire we shared.’

      ‘Do you know what your mother accused me of?’

      ‘For that I apologise. But Leo is the Di Marcello heir. Wouldn’t you like to prove her wrong?’

      Too late she heard the sound of her son’s excited voice as he spoke to her mother and she knew her fate was sealed. Antonio had left her no choice. She couldn’t imagine life without Leo, who within minutes would burst into the apartment, her mother behind him. How was she going to explain Antonio’s presence and, even worse, the fact that she had no choice but to accept his so-called proposal? She couldn’t put her mother through any more worry. Whatever else happened her parents must think she was marrying Antonio for love, that they had found each other again. Only then could they stop worrying about her and Leo.

      * * *

      Antonio watched as Leo chatted to Sadie, hardly giving him a second glance. Was he that used to having strange men in his home? An uncomfortable sensation prickled over him as he thought of not only Leo looking up to another man, but Sadie too. Since when did he do jealousy where women were concerned?

      ‘I didn’t know you had company.’ A woman he could only assume was Sadie’s mother looked at him, suspicion in every line of her face.

      ‘This is Antonio Di Marcello.’ Sadie introduced him but offered no explanation for his presence in her small apartment.

      ‘I know exactly who this is,’ Sadie’s mother said and looked from him to Leo, confirming what he’d thought the first time he’d seen Leo. She too could see the unmistakable resemblance, the Di Marcello eyes which had stared out at him from many of the paintings of his ancestors all through his childhood. There was no doubting this child was his.

      ‘How very astute you are, Mrs Parker.’ Antonio filled his voice with as much charm as possible but couldn’t keep the fierce determination to get exactly what he wanted from it. He’d played his trump card, but the bitter taste of it wasn’t pleasing. ‘It is something I have only just discovered, but, now that I have, I intend to deal with things in the correct fashion. You have my word on that.’

      Leo was trying to show Sadie something, but she glanced up at him, her green eyes wide and nervous. ‘Antonio and I are trying to sort something out.’

      Was she speaking to him or her mother? He couldn’t tell, but he could hear the quiet acceptance in her voice. The fight she’d had when he’d arrived had gone, defused by her son. A sense of satisfaction slipped over him. She was going to accept his terms.

      He had what he wanted. His son.

       CHAPTER FIVE

      SADIE STILL HAD doubts over her decision to come to Rome with Antonio, just as she’d had doubts for the last two months that moving back to England was the right thing to do. She still worried about the way Antonio had emotionally blackmailed her, using all they’d once had to get her to agree to marriage, but it was his threat to take Leo from her that had made any other option impossible. She’d always wanted to give him a chance to be a father, for Leo’s sake, but she didn’t know if she could forgive him for using Leo like that.

      The idea of marriage to a man who’d turned his back on her when she’d needed him most and then blackmailed her wasn’t one which sat comfortably with her. Worse than that was the way he’d made her feel at just seeing him and that was before he’d caressed her face and looked at her with desire in his eyes, reminding her of all they’d once shared. No, she was adamant: their marriage would be in name only.

      Leo, however, didn’t show any such doubts. After a period of initial shyness as Antonio’s plane had taken them to Rome, he was now embracing the new male figure in his life, although he didn’t yet have any idea that Antonio was his father. That had been a condition of accepting his terms: being able to tell Leo herself, when she was ready, exactly who Antonio was.

      ‘Mamma, Antonio can take us to see real Romans. Can we? Please?’ Leo enthused as he climbed into her lap while she sat on the terrace, trying to take in the fact that she was in Rome—with Antonio.

      ‘Then I guess we should,’ she said, hugging Leo to her.

      ‘Bene.’ Antonio’s voice startled her and she looked up at him as he came out onto the terrace. ‘We shall go today.’

      He was dressed, not in the finest suit, as he had been when he’d called at her Milan apartment, but in jeans and a shirt. Casual suited him. And made him look very sexy. Hastily she pushed the thought aside. She wouldn’t be going down that particular path again.

      ‘Don’t you have to work today? Wasn’t that why you were rushing back?’ She regarded him suspiciously, trying hard not to read anything into the smile he gave Leo, as if they were co-conspirators.

      ‘I am the boss, remember. I want to be here with Leo. I want to get to know him’ He looked down at her as he stood next to her, his closeness sending sparks of attraction sizzling over her skin. ‘I also want to get to know you—more than I did before.’

      ‘Leo is very excited about it, aren’t you, Leo?’ She looked down at her son and hugged him, desperate to hide her desire for Antonio and prevent Leo being hurt or let down. This had to happen. Antonio had to get to know his son. It was time for her to share her son, but was Antonio man enough, able to be a father, able to love Leo as he deserved? Until she knew the answer to that she couldn’t let her emotions control her. She had to bury all that resurging desire.

      He held out his hand to Leo. ‘Shall we go now?’

      Sadie waited, expecting Leo to turn and hug her legs as he usually did when strangers wanted to interact with him, but СКАЧАТЬ