The Innocent's Secret Baby(24)

Lydia turned him on.

And, titled or not, he turned her on too.

Raul could feel it.

This day might end not in bed but on the floor, two minutes from now.

But sex had got them into this hot mess and it was time for him to get out.

'Lawyer up!' he said, and turned and left.

He was leaving, Lydia knew.

Leaving their baby in the hands of lawyers.

She ran out and grabbed his arm.

'I'll talk to you.'

He looked down at her hand and shook it off, because even minimal contact he could not keep to for long.

'Then go and pack,' Raul told her. 'If you're not ready in five minutes we leave it to the professionals to sort out.'

She packed-though five minutes didn't give her much time. Especially  when she wasted two of them by sitting on her bed and wondering what she  should do.

She could not bear to go back to Venice.

Yet Lydia knew she had to.

Somehow she had to get past the raw hurt and sort out the future of their child.

He had hurt her so deeply, though.

And he didn't even know.

Just like the jagged wound that ran down Raul's back, just like the savage scar on Bastiano's cheek, her pain ran deep.

She had been used for revenge.

It was a wound that could never properly heal.

And yet Lydia knew she had to be adult and somehow work out terms with this difficult and complex man.

There was the baby to focus on, and she would not be weakened by his  undeniably seductive charms. The sexual energy between them had unnerved  her-Lydia was still aware of her palm where she had grabbed his arm.

But she dusted her hands together and brushed it off.

No way!

Worried that her mother might return and sell the statue, Lydia wrapped  it in a thick jumper and packed it. Trying as she did so to not remember  the night when it had been the two of them melded and heated. She swore  she would not allow herself to lose her head to him again.

No, she would not weaken.

Lydia walked down the steps and he didn't rush to relieve her of her case. Instead he stood impatient at the door.

'Hold on,' she said, and bent down. 'I forgot to lock it.'

'For God's sake!' he said, and went over and took it. 'Come on.'

'Raul...' Lydia stalled. She wanted to make things very clear. 'I'm going to Venice only to discuss the baby.'

'What else would I be bringing you there for?' he asked. 'Lydia, you've had what you wanted from me in the bedroom department.'

'I just want to make it perfectly clear. I don't want-'

'Lydia, let me stop you there,' Raul interrupted her. 'This isn't about your wants-we're going to be discussing our child.'

'Well, let's keep things civil.'

'Civil?' Raul checked. 'I thought you didn't consider me capable.'         

     



 

'I meant businesslike.'

'That,' Raul responded as they walked to the waiting helicopter, 'I can clearly be.'

'Good.'

He might just as well have painted her gold and handed her a spade as he stalked ahead with her case.

And the last word was his.

'But then, you knew that right from the start.'





CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THERE WAS NO worse place to be lonely than Venice.

And for Lydia that theory was proved again.

Loretta, his housekeeper, walked her along the lovely mirrored hallway,  but instead of going straight ahead, Lydia was shown to the right.

She walked along another hallway and through to an apartment within his  home. Loretta brought her dinner, and it was served at a polished table  on beautiful china, but though her surroundings were gorgeous Lydia ate  alone.

Raul, of course, ate out.

Naturally she didn't sleep, and in the morning she spent ages trying to work out what to wear.

It wasn't just that she had no idea what she should wear to a meeting to  discuss their child's future. Nothing was a comfortable fit.

Lydia had no choice but to settle for the taupe dress-the one with the buttons. Only now it strained across her breasts.

Instead of undoing a couple of buttons she put on a little cardigan.

It would have to do.

She loathed it that she had been pencilled in as some sixty-minute item on his to-do list.

And she certainly hadn't expected an audience to be in attendance!

But as she walked into the drawing room Raul sat relaxed and chatting with a very beautiful woman.

'This is Allegra,' Raul told her. 'My assistant.'

Lydia, with her hackles already up and perhaps a little too used to her  mother's handling of staff, gave Allegra a cursory nod and then ignored  her.

Raul could see that Lydia was uncomfortable and he didn't blame her for that.

He had resisted discussing this at her home and was aware that he had the advantage, so he moved to the first point on his list.

'Would you be more comfortable in a hotel?'

'I don't intend to be staying very long,' Lydia replied coolly. 'The apartment is sufficient.'

Sufficient?

She had a six-room apartment within his home.

But Raul said nothing-just moved to the next point.

'There is a property less than a mile from here that has come onto the  market. Allegra has arranged a viewing for you at two today.'

'Why would I need to see a property here?' Lydia asked. 'The baby will be raised in England.'

'But I shall be seeing my baby regularly. I assume you will want to be close when I do? Especially at first.'

'You assume correctly. However...'

But Raul had moved on.

'Allegra is going to look into the hiring of a nanny. It would appear good ones need to be secured early.'

That was an easy one, and Lydia dismissed it with a shake of her head. 'I shan't be hiring a nanny.'

It really annoyed her when Allegra wrote something down, and then she asked Lydia a question in a rich Italian purr.

'Will you want to sit in on the preliminary interviews, or would you prefer I do that and then we discuss the shortlist?'

'I just said...' Lydia was responding to Allegra as if she was speaking  to a three-year-old with a hearing problem '...that I don't require a  nanny.'

'We heard you the first time,' Raul said. 'But I need a nanny for the times when the baby is to be with me.'

Lydia, who had been glaring at Allegra, snapped her gaze back to Raul. 'Could we speak alone, please?'

'Of course.'

Allegra stood and walked out. Lydia sat with her back ramrod-straight and said nothing until the door behind her had closed.

Oh, but when it closed!

'You've been busy.'

'Yes,' Raul agreed.

And as she sat there she gleaned the fact that while she'd been eating  alone last night Raul had been out to dinner, with Allegra, discussing  her baby's future.

Of course he had.

Raul's time was heavily in demand, and a lot of his day-to-day stuff was delegated.

'Do you really think I have time to be wandering around looking at  apartments for someone I spent a weekend with three months ago?'

Lydia opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it.

'You wanted businesslike, and you have made it clear you don't want to  be in Venice for long, so I discussed things with my assistant...'

'Over dinner,' Lydia sneered. 'Have you slept with her?'

Oh, she hated it that she'd asked that-she really did.

'What the hell does that have to do with anything?'

And she hated his exasperated inevitable answer.         

     



 

'Yes, but that was ages ago.'

And then he asked Lydia again.

'What the hell does that have to do with this?'

And she still couldn't answer, because really it should have nothing to do with this-yet it did.

'Lydia, I have a past-quite a colourful one. You really should choose your one-night stands more carefully.'

'I just don't like the fact...'

'Go on,' Raul said when she faltered, and he leant back in his chair to hear what she had to say.

'I don't like the fact that someone you've been intimate with is discussing my future and my baby.'

'Our baby.'

'Yes, but...' She tried to get back to the nanny point, because she was starting to sound jealous.

Which she was.

And irrational.

Which she wasn't.

Was she?

'Lydia, Allegra is very happily married.' He was annoyingly patient in  his explanation. 'In fact I've already told you that. If you really  think she's making bedroom eyes at me and we're still at it, then that's  your issue. But we're not. I don't like cheats. Now, can we bring it  back to business?'

'It is a baby.'

'Che cazzo!' he cursed.

'Don't swear.'

'The baby can't hear me!' Raul said.

'You discuss it so clinically.'

'You told me yourself to keep it businesslike. Come on, Lydia, tell me  what you want. You've had three months to get used to the idea. I've had  less than twenty-four hours. Tell me what you've decided and we can  work from there.'

And she tried to tell him just that.

'There's no need for me to have an apartment here. Of course we'll visit often...'

A smile-a black smile-played on his lips, and she sat back as Raul chose his words.

'And where would you stay?' Raul asked. 'The guest wing?'

As she nodded that dark smile faded.

'Lydia, I don't want my ex, or rather one of my one-night stands, as a  regular guest in my home. I don't want someone who has already said that  she disapproves of me dictating the relationship I have with my child.'

'And I don't want my baby to be raised by a nanny.'

'Tough.' Raul shrugged. 'Do you really see me getting up at night to feed it and...' He pulled a face.

And, no, she could not see it.

'Raul, I haven't made any plans...'

'Oh, I would say you set your plans in motion a long time ago,' Raul  said. 'And I would suggest that when you "forgot" to take your Pill you  thought you'd chosen carefully indeed.'