Just then he frowned with concern, visually questioning her lingering appraisal.
Cheeks reddening, Kathy shook her head to indicate that there was nothing wrong and shut her eyes tight. But the image of the guy she loved stayed with her. She loved him to bits, hated his guts for all sorts of reasons, as well, but she was still as possessed by a bone-deep longing for him as a starving woman sighting life-giving food. She knew he was bad for her, knew too big a dose of him was dangerous, but he was in her blood and in her mind and, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake free of his influence over her.
In what seemed to her a remarkably short space of time, and with impressive efficiency, she was transported to the opulent comfort of a private London hospital. There she was given an ultrasound scan.
‘I’d like to stay,’ Sergio said flatly.
An objection was brimming on her lips and a glimpse of his taut profile warned her that that was exactly the response he expected from her. She swallowed back her protest because he was doing everything within his power to help and excluding him yet again seemed unfair. As she steeled herself to have her tummy exposed another thought occurred to her and she tugged at the sleeve of his jacket to get his attention.
Sergio angled his arrogant dark head down to her.
‘We’re having a girl,’ she whispered.
Fine ebony brows drawing together, Sergio lifted his head and stared at her before comprehension sank in. Suddenly and entirely unexpectedly, a smile curved his wide sculpted mouth.
When the procedure commenced, she realised that she need not have worried about baring her swollen belly because Sergio’s fascination was wholly reserved for the images on screen. A shot of the baby’s face made him marvel out loud in Italian and reach for her hand. ‘Awesome,’ he finally murmured in roughened English. ‘She is awesome.’
Tears dampened her eyes and she blinked them back fiercely. Some tests were carried out and a foetal monitor was attached to her, before she was finally slotted into bed in a luxurious private room. The obstetrician soothed her worst fears by telling her that babies born after the thirty-fourth week of gestation had a high rate of survival and less chance of suffering long-term complications. Even so, there were no guarantees and the longer her baby stayed in the womb the healthier she was likely to be. With Kathy still at risk of going into labour, the treatment plan was bed-rest and hydration.
Minutes after leaving with the obstetrician, Sergio reappeared.
‘I thought you’d gone,’ Kathy commented.
‘Per meraviglia…I hope that’s a joke.’ Astute dark-as-night eyes rested on her. ‘But it’s not a joke, is it?’
Kathy sidestepped that issue, for she had not intended to annoy him. ‘Well, now that we’re on our own, at last you can tell me how long you’ve known where I was living.’
‘I found out today at the same time as I heard you had been hospitalised.’ Lean bronzed features bleak, Sergio studied her from the foot of the bed. ‘I was last in the chain. Nola—whoever she is—contacted Bridget Kirk, who decided to pass the news on to Renzo Catallone.’
‘Bridget told Renzo?’ Her brows pleated in surprise. ‘I didn’t even know they’d met.’
‘They’ve met all right. Evidently your friend is good at keeping secrets. When I spoke to her months ago, she swore that she had no idea where you were.’
Kathy was very much disconcerted. ‘She didn’t tell me you’d contacted her, either.’
‘Renzo kept in touch with her and finally it paid off. But he also believed that she didn’t know where you had gone.’
‘I’m surprised that Bridget chose to tell Renzo.’
‘Are you? With you on the brink of giving birth or possibly even losing my child, it was time to stop playing games.’
Kathy registered the cold core of his anger. The very fact that he was struggling to hide it, that his diamond-hard façade was no longer impregnable, warned her how deep his hostility had gone. ‘Bridget was only respecting my wishes and trying to protect me—’
‘From me?’ Sergio sent her an almost raw glance and strode over to the window, his broad shoulders radiating his ferocious tension, before he swung back to look at her. ‘Do I deserve that? Did I frighten you in any way?’
‘No,’ Kathy conceded.
‘Perhaps something I did upset you…’
The verdant green eyes resting on him veiled. ‘You’re fishing.’
‘I need to know. I don’t want you pulling another vanishing act,’ Sergio traded in a direct challenge.
Kathy contemplated the swollen mound of her tummy and opted for honesty. ‘You asked for it.’