His Unexpected Legacy(50)
He looked angelic with his dark curls spread on the white pillow, and his cheeks had lost their feverish flush and were a healthy pink. He was cuddling Hippo. Thank goodness Sergio had remembered to bring his favourite toy.
He would be a good father. The thought slid into her head, and she bit her lip as she remembered how gentle he had been with Nico when he had been ill. Sergio had stated that their son deserved to grow up with both his parents and she was finding it hard to disagree, but her life was in London and he based himself in Sicily and travelled around the world for his job.
How could they share custody of Nico and give him the stable and secure upbringing that every child needed? She certainly wouldn’t allow him to be passed between them like a parcel, Kristen thought fiercely. The future suddenly seemed frighteningly uncertain. Maybe things would be clearer after a few hours’ sleep. It was four o’clock in the morning and after the tension of the last few days she was bone-weary, she acknowledged as she curled up on the bed.
When Sergio walked into the room fifteen minutes later he found Kristen fast asleep, one arm draped protectively across Nico. The sight of mother and child snuggled up together brought a lump to his throat. He couldn’t remember Patti ever showing him affection, and he was fiercely glad that his son had a mother who clearly adored him.
But he loved Nico too. His son had captured his heart instantly. How could he not love his own flesh and blood, the gorgeous little boy whose angelic looks were enhanced by his impish smile? How could his own mother not have loved him? Sergio wondered bleakly. Had there been something about him that had made him unlovable? Was that the reason his father had not tried harder to regain custody of him?
Nico would never have reason to doubt that his parents loved him, Sergio vowed. He accepted that Kristen had believed she’d had good reasons for choosing to bring up Nico on her own, but he was determined to convince her that cooperation between them would be far better for their son than a custody battle. When they had met at the Hotel Royale he had known he wanted to resume their affair, but now the stakes were higher.
Four years ago he had guessed that she had been in love with him and, although he had no expectation that she still was, he was convinced that she had not slept with him the other night simply because the sex was good. More than good, he amended. She was the only woman who had ever made him lose control. During their affair he had fought the feelings she stirred in him, but now the only battle he planned to fight with Kristen was to persuade her to allow him to have a presence in her life as well as Nico’s. And, for Sergio, losing was not an option.
* * *
Kristen rolled over on the mattress and came into contact with something warm and solid. Her brain fuzzily realised that the object was too hard to be a pillow and too large to be Nico, and when she opened her eyes her first thought was that she was not in the room where she had fallen asleep. She turned her head and her heart practically leapt out of her chest.
‘What are you doing in my bed?’ she demanded, uncaring that Sergio appeared to be asleep.
He opened his eyes and gave her a lazy, sexy smile that did nothing to help slow her racing pulse. ‘Actually, you are in my bed.’
‘Not from choice,’ she assured him grittily. His amused expression fuelled her temper and she welcomed her anger as a much-needed distraction from her awareness of his virile body. The disturbing thought struck her that he could very well be naked beneath the sheet draped across his hips. And not only naked! Her gaze slid down his body and the sight of his obvious arousal straining against the silk sheet made her catch her breath.
She needed to take control of the situation. Folding her arms across her chest made her feel more authoritative and hid her pebble-hard nipples. ‘How did I get here?’