The Surprise Conti Child. Tara Pammi

and yet...she had a feeling it had taken him this long to work toward the subject of Isabella, to acknowledge the ticking bomb between them.

      He pushed off the bed and Alex needed all her will power to not step back. “Did you think I would have no questions for you at all?” She remained silent and he continued. “Why didn’t you let me know immediately?”

      “By the time I realized I was...pregnant, I was almost ten weeks along.”

      “Is that why you kept...the baby?” He raised a hand to cut her off. “You were twenty. I...cannot imagine Valentina mature enough to manage herself, much less a child at that age.”

      Alex swallowed, the utter strength of her conviction that day amazing her even now. Her parents, her only close friend, everyone had advised her to give up the baby for adoption. “I just...” She shied her gaze away, her throat thick with emotion.

      “Tell me why.”

      Jerked by his sharp tone, she lifted her gaze. “That feeling...it’s inexplicable.”

      Something so raw and visceral flashed in his gaze that her skin prickled. Arrogant, heartless, cynical...she’d made her decision to come here based on the fact that Leandro was all those things. What if she was wrong?

      Fear pulsed down her spine. “I called your office a week after I found out. I... I was on hold for an hour. Finally, when your secretary came on, she cut me off, said you weren’t interested.

      “That I shouldn’t call back.” Alex tried to keep any complaint out of her voice now however anxious she’d been then. “I called you a few more times. Got the same answer again.”

      “You could have called your friend, Luca.” He spoke softly, yet it cracked through the room like a gale of wind. “You could have come back to Italy. You could have told Valentina. You could have emailed me—”

      “And what? Capitalized the subject line—I’M PREGNANT, IT’S YOURS—like some spammer!” She colored furiously. “You wanted nothing to do with me. But... I still tried.

      “I bought another ticket. I...thought you should know. The day before I was supposed to leave, my parents and I argued and my dad threw out his back at the store. I... I couldn’t go off in search of you then, especially when you were determined to forget me.

      “With taking care of the store and him, when Isabella came... I barely had the energy to go through each day.”

      “And later?”

      How dare he sound as if it was her fault? “Later,” she said, feeling suddenly tired, “it was easier to believe that Izzie was better off without your rejection.” Easier to protect herself from the hurt he had wreaked on her.

      The one time she had taken a chance to reach for something she’d wanted, she’d been rejected. Firmly pushed back into the forgettable category again.

      There had been nothing special or memorable about her or that night for him. As if she was a mere blip in the life of another person yet again.

      A disappointment, an inconvenience, a thing with no value or feelings whatsoever.

      “Why did you change your mind now?” he bit out harshly. He ran his fingers through his hair while he paced the small room like a caged animal. “Or was that your plan all along?”

      “Wouldn’t that be perfect for you if I had some ultimate agenda? If I proved your worst assumptions about me right? That way you won’t have to take any responsibility in all this...”

      “Dio, why now, Alexis?”

      It was his hoarse voice that halted Alex’s self-indulgent tirade. This was not about her feelings. This was about her baby.

      “I just... I was in an accident three months ago, a bad one.” Automatically, her fingers went to the scar down her forehead and his gaze moved there. Throat raw, she continued, “It made me realize...if something happened to me, Isabella would be alone in the world. My parents...” She swallowed the fact that they had never approved of her having Isabella. “They’re growing old. I can’t sleep wondering about her future.”

      Once again, silence descended, his stare unnerving her on a whole new level.

      “I brought her birth certificate,” she said, busying herself with the handbag. “Just tell me where and when to bring her for the DNA test, although it’ll be a huge help if it’s in New York because I can’t—”

      “There’s no situation that fazes you, is there? You set your course and you blaze through it, come what may.”

      Alex blanched. Softly delivered but his innuendo pierced just the same.

      He thought this was easy for her? To see him after all these years, to realize that he still viewed her with that loathing? To know that she’d never been anything more than a quick indulgence?

      But she swallowed her own feelings and focused on what she needed to do. “I’m prepared to do anything to prove that she’s yours, yes.”

      “And, in return?”

      “Are you so afraid of what I would demand, Leandro?” The challenge escaped her before she could catch it, her femininity rearing its head.

      An almost imperceptible widening of those stormy eyes. Something she wouldn’t have even noticed if she wasn’t so greedy about every nuance on his face.

      “Do you have many to make then, Alexis? These demands?”

      Why was she taunting him? Why this reckless, dangerous urge to provoke him? She pulled out the envelope she’d stuffed into her handbag. “Here’s some pictures. Maybe you could visit us and meet Izzie a couple of times over the next couple of years so that you aren’t a complete stranger? I could bring her here for holiday, to meet Luca and Valentina, if they’re interested.

      “All I want is a promise that if anything were to happen to me, you’d...”

      Her words trailed away as Leandro became still. The muscles in his face pulled taut over his features, a white pallor to his olive skin.

      Her outstretched hand lay between them. And his gaze on the envelope, frozen.

      “Leandro?”

      The swath of his eyelashes flickered. His rough breath rattled loud in the room.

      With gut-wrenching clarity, Alex realized that he’d rather she was lying.

      From the moment she’d spoken Isabella’s name, it wasn’t the veracity of her claim he’d doubted. What had kept him silent, even as his grandfather had shredded her, was that Leandro needed her to be lying.

      “You wish Isabella didn’t exist.” Horror filled her, turning her voice into a whiplash. “Do you despise me that much?”

      He jerked around, pain streaking through his eyes. “What I feel about her has nothing to do with you.”

      That’s good, she told herself. She couldn’t bear it if he despised Isabella like he did her. She wouldn’t allow it.

      How much do you know of that man? Her mom’s question came back to her now.

      She didn’t know that much, really.

      Her intense attraction to him seven years ago, her fascination with him, the connection she’d felt with him, had been inexplicable. She stole another greedy glance at him, unable to stop herself. Lean and tall, he wore his power effortlessly and she wondered if that had been the draw for her.

      Hands shaking, she stuffed the envelope back into her handbag. She needed to leave. Before she made this about her. Before she asked any more of those stupid questions...

      Before she forgot that this man had crushed her tender heart in such a way that it hadn’t mended again.

      * * *

      “Show me the pictures,” Leandro finally forced himself