Melanie Milburne Bestseller Collection 201209The Marcolini Blackmail MarriageBound by the Marcolini Diamonds by MELANIE MILBURNE

Author:MELANIE MILBURNE [Milburne, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460884744
Publisher: Mills & Boon By Request
Published: 2012-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOU DO not need to look so worried, Sabrina,’ Mario said as he gently handed Molly over. ‘I don’t think we will hear from Mrs Knowles again once we are officially married.’

Sabrina busied herself with seeing to the baby’s needs rather than meet his eyes. Oh, dear God, what had she committed herself to? There was no way she could wriggle out of this without compromising Molly. Mario had hinted at something untoward in Stanley Knowles’s business dealings. And, knowing what Laura had felt about her stepmother and what Sabrina had seen for herself, how could she step aside now to let such people be the guardians of her little god-daughter?

The tiny baby girl cooed at her as if to confirm it, her tiny arms reaching towards Sabrina’s face, the little starfish hands touching her on the cheeks, a gurgling chuckle of delight coming out of her rosebud mouth.

‘I will arrange for a special license,’ Mario said, watching as she leaned forward to press a soft kiss to the middle of each of Molly’s tiny palms.

Sabrina continued to dress Molly with hands that were not quite steady. ‘How soon do you expect it will be before we …?’ She faltered over the word. ‘Er, marry?’

‘As soon as it can be arranged,’ he answered. ‘No longer than a week, maybe even less.’

Sabrina felt her stomach lurch sideways. A week? She picked up the baby and laid her against her right shoulder as she faced him again. ‘That seems … rather rushed.’

‘Do you have a current passport?’ he asked.

‘Yes, but—’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I will need that and your birth certificate to make all the arrangements.’

‘Mario, I—’

‘It is imperative we get going on this, Sabrina,’ he said with an indomitable look. ‘Besides, I want to get back home to where my business commitments await me.’

No doubt your mistress awaits you too, Sabrina thought resentfully as she took out Molly’s bottle, which was encased in the Thermos container, and settled down to feed the restless baby. Once Molly was sucking contentedly, Sabrina looked up at Mario who was standing a short distance away, watching her like a predator with its targeted prey.

‘You said it wasn’t to be a real marriage,’ she said, feeling her cheeks bloom with colour, and her whole body shiver in reaction as she thought of what a real marriage to him would involve if he put his mind to it. ‘You also intimated it was temporary. What sort of time limit are you thinking of?’

‘Molly is a tiny infant,’ he said. ‘She needs a full-time mother at least until she is of nursery-school age.’

Sabrina felt suspicion crawl up her spine, making her sit more upright in her chair. ‘So what happens then?’ she asked.

‘I will engage the services of a nanny and then you can have your freedom.’

Sabrina frowned at his arrogance. ‘So I am to be expelled from Molly’s life just like that?’ she asked.

‘Not necessarily from Molly’s life,’ he said. ‘But from mine. We can have a quiet dissolution of the marriage and then both get on with our lives.

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