Heir To His Legacy: His Unexpected Legacy / His Instant Heir / One Night Heir. Chantelle Shaw

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      How could their relationship have gone so spectacularly wrong that they were now enemies fighting over their son? she thought emotionally. The simple answer was that Sergio had not loved her, while she had loved him too much. She had left him before he could break her heart, but she had been too late.

      The taxi drew up in front of the villa and Kristen dismissed her memories of the past as she focused on the battle she knew she faced to reclaim her little boy. Her heart slammed against her ribs as she ran up the stone steps. Someone must have watched her arrive because the front door opened and an elderly man wearing a butler’s uniform ushered her inside. A lightning glance around the large entrance hall revealed that it had not changed since she had last been there. The white walls reflected the sunlight streaming through the mullioned windows and sunbeams danced across the black marble floor.

      Kristen’s eyes flew to the two men standing in the hall. Sergio and his twin brother were strikingly similar in appearance, but she noted with a flare of shock that Salvatore Castellano had changed dramatically since she had last seen him. His once-handsome face was thinner, almost haggard, and his mouth was set in a stern line as if he had not smiled for a long time. His black hair fell to his shoulders and was as unkempt as the stubble that shaded his jaw, and his eyes were dull and hard as lava spewed from Etna that had solidified into black rock.

      Salvatore walked towards her with a pronounced limp, and Kristen wondered what had happened to him. ‘Kristen, it’s good to see you again,’ he murmured. Like Sergio, his hard features rarely showed any emotion and she had no idea if he was surprised by her visit. He headed out of the front door, but Kristen was barely aware of him leaving as she stared at Sergio.

      Dressed in beige chinos and a cream shirt that contrasted with his olive skin, he looked gorgeous and so relaxed that Kristen’s tenuous hold on her composure snapped. How dared he appear as if he did not have a care in the world when she had just spent the worst few hours of her life? Anger swept through her. She resented his powerful physical presence and resented even more her fierce sexual awareness of him.

      ‘Where is Nico? I was so worried when I woke up and found you had gone. When your lawyer said you had taken him...’ Her voice cracked as she relived the sheer terror she had felt when she’d feared she might never see Nico again.

      Suddenly she was crying, great tearing sobs that wracked her slender frame. ‘You bastard!’ she choked. Tears streamed down her face, and the need to hurt him as much as he had hurt her made her lift her hand and connect it sharply with his cheek. The sound of the slap echoed around the vast hall and the moment she had done it she felt sick. Physical violence was completely alien to her, yet twice in two days she had lashed out at Sergio. How could she blame him for believing that she was responsible for the terrible bruises on Nico’s legs after the way she had behaved?

      Sergio had not reacted to the slap, even though he could easily have grabbed her wrist and prevented her from striking him. His expression was unreadable, but for an instant some indefinable emotion flared in his eyes as he watched her fall apart.

      Kristen could not stop crying. It was as if a dam had burst inside her, and as she dashed her tears away more came in an unstoppable river. ‘I didn’t hurt Nico, I swear. I would never lay a finger on him. He fell from the top of the climbing frame at the park. I had told him not to climb too high, but he’s such a daredevil and sometimes he can be quite naughty and disobedient. When he slipped I was scared he would hit the ground and break every bone in his body.’ She shuddered at the memory of Nico’s scream as he had plummeted from the climbing frame. ‘Thankfully, I managed to catch him, but during the fall he slammed against the metal bars and was bruised all over his body and legs.’

      Recalling the terrifying incident, Kristen couldn’t regain control of her emotions. Her chest heaved and she searched desperately in her handbag for a tissue. ‘How could you think I would have inflicted those bruises on him? I’m not a bad mother. I love Nico with all my heart and I would never harm him.’

      Sergio studied Kristen dispassionately. Her face was blotchy and tear-stained and her eyes were red-rimmed. She had obviously dressed in a hurry and not checked her appearance in a mirror, because if she had she would have seen that her orange T-shirt and pink cardigan clashed horribly. Continuing his inspection, he glanced down and saw that she was wearing mismatched shoes—on one foot a navy blue trainer and on the other a white plimsoll.

      Following his gaze, she flushed. ‘I left the house in a rush. Which is understandable when you had snatched my son,’ she added defensively.

      She must have been frantic about Nico not to have noticed that she had put on odd shoes!

      As Sergio watched Kristen scrub her hand over her wet face the tight knot of tension in his gut slowly unravelled. The doctor who he had called to the villa to check over Nico had said that the bruises on his legs were probably the result of an accident, and in his opinion were not signs that he had been mistreated. Kristen’s explanation about Nico falling from the climbing frame was believable. Her distress was real and painful to witness, he acknowledged uncomfortably. Was it possible he had misjudged her? Doubt crept into Sergio’s mind. When he had seen the bruises on Nico his emotions had taken over from his usual cool logic and he had been tormented by memories of how his mother had treated him when he had been a child. His only thought had been to rescue Nico and bring him to Sicily. But perhaps he had overreacted?

      ‘Kristen, you have to stop crying,’ he said roughly. ‘Nico is ill and he needs you.’

      Her eyes widened. ‘What’s wrong with him?’

      ‘He’s running a high temperature and he’s been sick. The doctor thinks he has picked up a gastric virus.’

      ‘There’s been a vomiting bug going around at nursery.’ Kristen drew a ragged breath and finally managed to stop crying. She knew she did not cry prettily and she probably looked a mess, she thought ruefully. But the news that Nico was unwell drove all other considerations from her mind. ‘Where is he? Why aren’t you with him?’

      ‘The nanny who looks after Salvatore’s daughter has been helping to care for him. I’ll take you straight to him. Did you ask the taxi driver to bring in your luggage?’

      ‘I don’t have any luggage. I’m not planning on staying. I’m here to collect Nico and take him home.’

      Sergio’s eyes narrowed on her determined face and he seemed about to argue, but thought better of it. ‘We will discuss what is best for him later. You certainly won’t be taking him anywhere while he’s throwing up.’

      Kristen hurried after Sergio up the sweeping staircase. On the first-floor landing they walked past the master bedroom. The door was open and she could not resist peeping in. The wallpaper and soft furnishings had been updated and were a soft blue rather than gold as she remembered, but the huge four-poster bed still dominated the room and the sight of it evoked memories she wished she could forget. Now was not a good time to recall in vivid detail Sergio’s naked, muscular body, or to remember the firestorm passion they had once shared and his unexpected tenderness when he made love to her.

      There was no hint of tenderness about him now, she noted as she caught up with him. He was waiting outside the door next to his room. His unreadable expression became speculative when his glance travelled from her flushed face to his bedroom but he made no comment other than to say, ‘Nico has been asking for you.’

      ‘I’m not surprised. He was probably frightened when you whisked him away from everything that is familiar to him and brought him to a place he has never seen before. What were you thinking of?’ Kristen asked him curtly. ‘You told me that when you were a young child your СКАЧАТЬ