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The Purest of Diamonds(48)

By:Susan Stephens


                ‘I would. But how does that help our situation?’

                ‘I don’t know. Maybe it won’t,’ he admitted. ‘But I think we should tell her you’re expecting her first great-grandchild, don’t you?’





                                      CHAPTER EIGHT

                RAFFA WANTED TO introduce her to the matriarch of his family? Maybe he was right and she was blinkered. Seeing herself as the small-town girl and Raffa as somehow inhabiting a different world was blown to smithereens when he had exactly the same concerns she had: family, and the people who depended on him.

                ‘But what can I tell your grandmother?’ The last thing she wanted was to upset an old lady who had been sick recently. ‘I’m pregnant with your child, but I’m going home to Skavanga, so she may never see her great-grandchild. Perhaps it’s better if we don’t meet.’

                ‘I won’t force you to meet her.’

                ‘Your grandmother has been ill and I can’t imagine that meeting me is going to make her feel better.’

                ‘You’d be surprised.’ A glint of amusement brightened his eyes. ‘You’d give her hope.’

                ‘I don’t see how.’

                ‘She’s given up on me becoming any type of family man.’

                ‘So you parade me in front of her? How’s that going to work? I don’t doubt your grandmother longs for you to settle down and give her a great-grandchild, but please leave me out of it.’

                ‘I would never attempt to mislead my grandmother. I would tell her the truth as I always do.’

                ‘That’s sure to cheer her up.’

                ‘It’s better than nothing.’

                A flicker of humour crept into Leila’s gaze. ‘I don’t think you know the first thing about women, Raffa.’

                Raffa drew back his head in surprise. No doubt he considered himself an expert on women.

                ‘Introducing the mother of my child to my grandmother is the right thing to do,’ he said stiffly.

                ‘And I’d love to meet her,’ Leila confirmed, ‘but I refuse to suggest that our relationship is anything more than it is.’ That was a platonic working relationship between two people who just happened to be expecting a child.

                As Raffa inclined his head in agreement she knew she’d have to watch him. Raffa Leon was used to having everything his own way, and for once in his life he would have to accept that that wasn’t going to happen this time.

                * * *

                Raffa’s grandmother’s house wasn’t close to the castle, as Leila had imagined, but about an hour’s drive away, up in the hills where it was cooler. Raffa drove them up the switchback road in an open-topped bright red Maserati, and, apart from the thrill of riding in a sports car with a man who knew what he was doing, the view over a vine-crammed valley on one side, and a neon-bright sea on the other, went a long way to soothing her tension at the thought of finally meeting his grandmother.

                It was a lovely day, with a breeze laden with the scent of blossom, and would have been a perfect day had it not been for the man at her side making her jittery. Raffa was wound up like a spring. This visit clearly meant a lot to him. The excess energy he was burning was as potent as any aphrodisiac, which was inconvenient on a day when her aim was to appear strait-laced and sensible, the type of girl who might make a mistake once in the heat of the moment, but who would never make the same mistake twice.