The Italian Billionaire's Pregnant Bride(45)
‘That can change, dolcezza mia.’ Sergio snapped long brown fingers round her narrow wrists before she could back away again.
Uncertainly, Kathy looked up at him. She was being torn in two by the pull of his white-hot sexual attraction and the need to protect herself from further hurt and disappointment. ‘You know you think you’re great just the way you are—’
‘Until you came along and somehow I consistently manage to live down to your lowest expectations,’ Sergio traded.
‘Your aversion to weddings…how do you think that made me feel today?’ Kathy fenced, jerking her hands free, walking away and turning back with an agitation that betrayed her tension.
‘I was a selfish bastard. But, believe me, it wasn’t intentional. Grazia jilted me at the altar. It made an indelible impression.’
Shell-shocked by the sheer unexpectedness of that flat admission, Kathy stared up at him.
‘Only my closest friends know about that. My father had recently passed away and the wedding was to be a small quiet affair in London. She didn’t turn up.’ His stunning eyes were dark and reflective. A saturnine smile slashed his hard, handsome mouth. ‘Don’t look so surprised. Grazia was a luxury I couldn’t afford.’
Her lashes veiled her gaze. Her nails carved little crescents into her palms as she recalled Grazia’s smiling air of complacency, for the other woman was very much aware of her pulling power. Sergio had wanted her once, loved her enough to want to marry her and lost her again. It could only have added salt to the wound when she decided to marry his brother instead. But it troubled Kathy that both brothers seemed to accept without comment that Grazia put money first.
‘Surely she didn’t believe that claptrap about you and your stepmother?’
‘Naturally not.’ Sergio reached out and pulled her up against him with the bold self-assurance that was so much a part of his nature. ‘Are you still bent on leaving me?’
Disconcerted by that sudden change of subject, Kathy tipped her coppery head back and he meshed his fingers into the luxuriant fall of her hair to hold her there. Hot golden eyes struck hers and desire pierced her as sharply as a knife. Her tummy flipped and her knees went weak. That fast her physical awareness rose to a level of almost painful sensitivity. His high-voltage male potency got to her every time. She wondered if there had ever been any real chance that she would walk out on him. She wondered if that was a little fantasy she used to console her pride, for at that instant it would have taken brute force to tear her away from him.
‘Is it too late to strike a deal?’ Sergio husked, tracing the full pout of her lower lip with a caressing fingertip. ‘Grant me a trial run until the end of the honeymoon?’
‘How flexible are you when it comes to change?’ Kathy asked half under her breath. ‘Will I need to set objectives? Award points for performance? Come up with rewards for inspirational outcomes?’
‘All of the above, dolcezza mia.’ Brilliant eyes alight with appreciation, Sergio curved her slim body to his. ‘Rewards work with me.’
The brisk staccato knock that sounded on the door provoked a groan of frustration from him. ‘I said we were leaving immediately.’
CHAPTER NINE
‘SO WHAT do you think?’ Sergio demanded before Kathy had got more than fifty feet from the helicopter that had delivered them to the Palazzo Azzarini.
Even from the air, the architectural magnificence and size of the building that crowned the hill had disconcerted Kathy. Sergio closed a hand over hers to walk her up the steps to the terrace. ‘This house has been in my family for centuries. For the best part of a decade it belonged to Cecilia and Abramo but I bought it back last year. Right now, it’s a work of art in progress because the restoration is ongoing. This will be where we base our lives—our home with Ella.’
Kathy cleared her throat gently. ‘Objective one, Sergio. Major decisions should be discussed.’
An unholy grin slashed his handsome mouth. ‘Of course I’m not going to make you stay here if you hate it. But you’re a country girl; you know you are—’
‘And when did you reach that conclusion?’
‘Maybe I know more about you than you think. You’ll love the estate and the people here, bella mia.’
Kathy wondered whether to mention that his second objective should be not making assumptions about her feelings. But that reference to Ella had tugged at her heartstrings and acted as a distraction. ‘I miss Ella already.’
‘I’m sure she will be fine without us for a week,’ Sergio interposed. ‘Maribel is terrific with children.’