Di Marcello's Secret Son (Di Marcello?s Secret Son) Read online

  She took a breath from her passionate appeal and looked at him, his silence telling her all she needed to know. He hadn’t thought about those kind of things—all he’d wanted was to claim something he considered his.

  ‘I want my son, Sadie, and I will do all it takes.’ He lowered his voice, the deep tones full of control and determination.

  ‘He is not a possession. A thing to be coveted. He is a child. My child.’ She turned and walked away from him, exasperated by the circles they were talking in. All it came back to each time was that he wanted Leo. How she wished she could paint over that weekend as easily as she could cover the blank canvas on her easel. ‘And I will never allow you to take him from me.’

  She turned and looked down onto the street from the small window, her back to Antonio as if that would make him disappear, make all this go away. She’d once foolishly dreamt of him turning up to claim his son and declare his love for her, tell her that he couldn’t live without her, but now she knew that was never going to happen. The man who stood arrogantly in her small apartment was as cold as ice. He was as unfeeling and uncaring as his parents. Did she really want Leo to grow up like that?

  ‘He is my child too.’ Antonio’s voice reached her through the fog of hurt and disappointment. ‘And you leave me no alternative.’

  ‘What?’ She whirled round. What did he intend to do now?

  ‘I have appealed to you as a mother, but it seems that is not your real reason for dragging this out. So I will ensure that it is not only Leo who has a secure future. That is something I will do whatever deal we strike. But your parents—they are about to relocate back to England, no?’

  What did her parents have to do with this? ‘Yes, and that is why I cannot even think of moving to Rome, much less marrying you. I need to go back to England with them.’

  ‘If you returned to Rome and became my wife, your parents would have a considerably more comfortable retirement.’ His calculated words burned a furious red before her eyes. ‘And you can be with Leo.’

  ‘Are you threatening me? Using my parents and my son?’ How dare he? Had he managed to find out that much about her and her family that he knew of the financial struggle her parents were facing in moving back to England?

  ‘The choice is yours, Sadie. Marry me and become a family or go back to England—alone.’

  ‘I can’t do that.’ She looked at him and knew, without a shadow of doubt, he was serious.

  ‘Then marry me.’

  ‘I don’t want to marry you, 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 to her amazement he slipped from her lap and ran across the terrace to take Antonio’s hand.

  The arrogant rise of Antonio’s brows told her he knew exactly what she’d thought Leo would do and she couldn’t help but feel that somehow he was scoring points over her. Was he challenging her to be as welcoming?

  As Leo clattered excitedly through the luxury of the antiques-furnished apartment, Sadie braced herself for Antonio’s displeasure. An apartment like this was not a place for a three-year-old boy, which was why she’d spent so much time on the terrace, giving him the freedom he craved. It had seemed safer than chancing any of the furnishings, which looked exactly as if they’d been lifted from his ancestral home.

  To her utter amazement, Antonio laughed and the sound did something to her, as if in that unguarded moment he was truly himself. It chipped away at a little bit more of the wall she’d erected around her heart after he’d turned his back on her.

  ‘Leo, take it easy!’ Sadie called after him, getting up, needing to do something.

  ‘Don’t,’ Antonio said and reached for her as she moved towards the door into the apartment. She stopped instantly, his touch scorching through her blouse. ‘He is young and I just want him to enjoy himself.’

  ‘But all your furniture, all those lovely antiques.’ She wanted to pull her arm away from his touch, to stop him holding her, however gently. It made her remember that he was dangerous, but remembering would only open the door to her heart again.

  ‘I know what it is like to be a boy running through the grown-ups’ world where nobody notices you. It’s not much fun. Let him be a boy,’ Antonio said and thankfully let her arm go, but he smiled at her in a way which melted her heart and reminded her of Leo. ‘We will go out now if it makes you more comfortable.’

  * * *

  Antonio’s memories of his childhood had been thrown wide open as he’d watched Leo career around his apartment and he wondered why the hell he’d chosen such furnishings. Was it because that was all he knew, because anything else would be as good as admitting he wanted something he’d never thought possible—a warm and loving home? Images of Leo at the centre of such a home filtered into his mind. It thrashed home the point that he was incapable of being a loving father; Leo was alone, just as Antonio had been unless he’d sought the company of Mario, the friendly gardener who’d given him more attention than his father had ever done.

  The sight of his son as he’d tumbled around the room with excitement was a sharp contrast to what he’d known as a boy; by replicating that cold environment he’d avoided considering that there were other ways of doing things.

  Now, as they walked inside the ancient walls of the Colosseum, Leo’s attention darting everywhere, he knew what he was experiencing right now was exactly what he wanted—time with his son, to be a father. Sadie had already made it clear, even if she’d told Toni and not him, that she wanted to be married, wanted a father figure for her son, and that was exactly what he intended to be. A proper father. He would give his son all he’d been deprived of by a cold and unfeeling father. He’d had all the luxuries money could buy, but he’d never had that all-important and much-wanted father’s love.

  All his life he’d known his duty was to his family, to keeping the good name which had been passed from generation to generation, but now none of that mattered. It was very clear to him where his duty really lay and that was in the little boy who was taking in his surroundings with great interest, and the woman he’d confided in Sebastien about after the avalanche who would have been the one for him had his family not pushed him down an alternative route.

  ‘I have arranged for our banns to be read for the first time this Sunday,’ he said calmly as Sadie stopped to look out across the remains of walls built long ago. She didn’t look at him, but he noticed the tension in her shoulders as she stiffened beside him.

  ‘I don’t want any fuss. All we need to do is sign a register.’ She still didn’t look at him, but behind her sunglasses he knew her green eyes would be full of determination. It flowed from her now like the power of the incoming tide and he admired her all the more for it. ‘There is no need for family or friends.’

  ‘It will be a civil ceremony, with the required witnesses, of course.’ He knew exactly who he wanted to be witness to his marriage, but as yet he hadn’t put in motion the plans to make that happen.

  He’d waited to see if Sadie wanted her parents to be there, but she appeared as keen as he was to do this quietly and quickly, without any family. Sebastien and Monika would be perfect witnesses.

  ‘When?’

  ‘We shall be married two weeks from today.’ He wasn’t sure if he was disappointed that she didn’t seem to be putting up much of a fight any more. It certainly wasn’t because the desire and passion they had once shared had taken over.

  ‘So I have two weeks to change my mind.’ She turned and looked at him and he tried hard to read the expression on her face behind her sunglasses. Was she considering changing her mind? Could it be that she was holding out for more than her parents’ financial security or a father figure for Leo? Annoyance filtered through him. They would be married as planned. He would be a proper father to his son, create the family home he’d never had and do whatever was necessary to achieve that.

  There was no way he’d let Sadie back out of it now; that wasn’t an option as far as he was concerned. Sadie would become his wife. Leo was already his heir, whatever name was on his birth certificate. That was another subject which needed to be dealt with—once they were married.

  ‘The time for that has long since passed, Sadie. You accepted my terms and we will be married.’ He tempered his voice, aware of Leo’s presence, although he was preoccupied with everything around him at the moment. Even so, he’d been witness to far too many stern conversations between his parents as a child and he wasn’t about to expose his son to the same.

  ‘Can I see the Romans now?’ Leo stood between them, looking up at him, those large dark eyes constricting his heart. He wanted to love his son, wanted to let his emotions have free rein, but he’d been brought up to believe that displays of emotion were a weakness and he wasn’t sure if he could change that.

  ‘Sì, sì, then we shall get some delicious gelato.’ Antonio couldn’t help being thankful for Leo’s intervention in his and Sadie’s discussion—and for making his first day out as a father memorable.

  * * *

  Sadie knew it
wasn’t the end of the conversation, but she was thankful that Antonio hadn’t wanted to pursue it in front of Leo. It showed he at least thought of Leo, considered his feelings in all this. Could she be wrong about him?

  ‘I think that sounds like a fantastic idea, don’t you, Leo?’ She took her son’s hand and tried to ignore the sizzle of tension which rippled between her and Antonio. ‘Let’s go.’

  As they neared the Roman soldiers Sadie pulled out her phone, an automatic reaction whenever there was an opportunity to capture a moment of Leo’s life. She took several photos of Leo grinning happily beside a Roman soldier and smiled to herself. She had so many of those precious memories captured, not just for herself but in the hope that one day she could show his father.

  A stab of guilt hit her. Antonio had never seen any of those moments, never heard Leo as he’d tried to say his first word or watched as he’d taken his first steps. But he was the one who’d chosen to ignore that final letter. She shouldn’t feel guilty; it wasn’t her fault. It had been his choice.

  ‘I have lots of photographs of Leo,’ she said as she became aware of Antonio watching her. Whatever choices they’d made, he was still Leo’s father and she owed it to her son to bring Antonio into his life. She just needed to guard her heart, hang on to her emotions and not fall in love with him all over again.

  ‘I would like to see them.’ He stepped closer to her, instantly making her pulse leap in the way only he’d ever done. ‘But it is time for a family photograph, no?’

  He took out his own phone and asked a nearby tourist to take their photo and, before she knew what was happening, Sadie was standing very close to Antonio, who held Leo in one arm and pulled her against him with the other. She forced a smile to her face as the tourist took several shots, trying to ignore the intense heat of Antonio’s touch, his body against hers stirring up all the desire and longing from four years ago. Time hadn’t dulled the heady passion.