A Cinderella To Secure His Heir. Michelle Smart

Чтение книги онлайн.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      ‘BETH...’ ALESSIO’S FACE contorted briefly before he took five long strides to her.

      She shrank back, her bottom wedged against the cot.

      He gazed down at her but made no attempt to remove the fractious baby from her arms. His voice was surprisingly gentle as he said, ‘Listen to me, no one is taking Domenico from you, but we need to talk and it will be better if we can do that with privacy. My suite adjoins yours. Let Miranda take care of him and, when we’re done talking, you can come back to him.’

      Alessio watched Beth’s face scrunch and her chest rise and fall rapidly, all the while rocking the baby in her arms.

      He could curse.

      He’d been prepared for screams, shouts and curses. He had not expected or been prepared for such anguish.

      ‘Give Domenico to Miranda. You have my word that you can return to him when we’re done talking.’

      She turned her pleading gaze to Miranda, who came to her side and carefully lifted Domenico from her arms.

      ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ the nanny murmured.

      Beth nodded bravely before placing a tender kiss on the baby’s forehead. ‘Have you given him any of his infant painkiller?’

      ‘He can have some more in half an hour. Don’t worry. I’ll look after him, I promise.’

      She stepped away from them and rubbed her hands on her arms.

      Knowing Beth would follow, Alessio walked to the door that adjoined their suites and unlocked it. Once in his own suite, he headed straight to the bar in the main lounge area and poured them both a hefty measure of single malt.

      He held one out to her. ‘Take it. You’ve had a shock. It will help.’

      Chocolate eyes, red and puffy from crying, held his briefly before she took the glass from him and carried it to one of the sofas. Only when she had sat down did she take a large drink from it.

      He watched her carefully as she fixed her gaze to the ceiling and held tightly to her glass.

      Lowering himself onto an armchair, he said, ‘I am sorry you had to find out the way you did. I was going to come clean in the morning.’

      She turned her head and cast eyes swimming with anguish on him. ‘You’re really Alessio Palvetti?’

      ‘Yes.’

      Her head dropped forward. The silky hair that had been wound so elegantly was in disarray, brunette locks spilling out in all directions. ‘This ball... How...? How did you do it?’

      ‘Giannis and I have been friends since our school days. I asked him to host the ball in his palace and employ your company to run it. He owed me a favour and agreed.’

      She rubbed the back of her neck and muttered, ‘Must have been some favour.’

      Beth thought of the astronomical sum of money that had been spent on the ball, not a cent of which had been recouped from the tickets. All the money raised through the four hundred guests who had each paid forty thousand euros to attend was going to charity. ‘All this...just so you could get Dom?’

      And, now he had Dom in his clutches, she had little doubt he’d taken the necessary precautions needed to stop Dom and her leaving the palace without him. He’d even put them into adjoining suites!

      The lengths he’d gone to get them here proved him a master tactician who always thought a dozen moves ahead.

      The rich were in a league of their own when it came to getting what they wanted. When money was no object, then any scruples or morality be damned. Alessio had been born without either.

      ‘Do not misunderstand me. Getting custody of Domenico is my primary motivation. He is a Palvetti and he deserves to take his place with us, his family. In my care he can have everything but, if custody were all I wanted, he would already be with me.’

      She took another sip of her drink. Normally she hated whisky in any of its forms but right then the burn it made in her throat was welcome. It was the fire she needed to cut through her despair. ‘Then what do you want? I think of all the work we’ve done, all the hours spent, all the money spent—’

      ‘I wanted to get to know you.’

      She finally allowed herself to look at him. СКАЧАТЬ