The Infamous Italian's Secret Baby

Author:Carole Mortimer [Mortimer, Carole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, General, Italians, Erotica, Unmarried Mothers, Birthfathers
ISBN: 9780373128938
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

‘WILL I see you in the morning, Daddy?’

Bella’s breath caught in her throat as she waited for Gabriel to answer Toby. She was standing at the bottom of her son’s bed watching the two of them as Toby lay tucked snugly beneath the duvet, Gabriel sitting at his side.

She had absolutely no doubts that Toby had enjoyed his day with his father and grandfather. The three of them had spent most of the morning out in the garden, Gabriel keeping Toby occupied with a number of ball games while Bella sat on a lounger watching them, dark sunglasses perched on the end of her nose as she allowed her thoughts to wander. The problem was, they kept coming back to the same place—Gabriel’s insistence that she marry him…

As the day had progressed—a drive out to look at the Danti vineyard, and lunch eaten outside on the terrace at the magnificent villa there, and then dinner later that evening at a wonderful fish restaurant at Pier 39—it was impossible for Bella to deny that Gabriel was wonderful with Toby.

That he already loved Toby with the same fierceness that Bella did…

And that Toby loved Gabriel right back!

Looking at the two of them sitting together now on Toby’s bed, so alike with their dark curling hair and chocolate-brown eyes, and that cleft in the centre of their chins, Bella couldn’t help feeling that she was fighting a losing battle. That even attempting to fight this harder, more arrogant Gabriel was a waste of her time and emotions.

Gabriel glanced down at her now, the expression in his eyes unreadable. ‘I think that depends on Mummy, don’t you?’ he murmured.

‘Mummy?’ Toby prompted eagerly.

Bella drew in a ragged breath before answering. ‘We’ll see,’ she finally said non-committally.

‘That usually means yes,’ Toby confided as he looked up at Gabriel conspiratorially.

‘It does?’ The darkness of Gabriel’s gaze was mocking as he glanced across at Bella.

‘It means we’ll see,’ she insisted. ‘Now it’s time for you to go to sleep, young man,’ she told her son firmly as she moved to tuck him more comfortably beneath the covers. ‘G—Daddy and I will just be in the other room if you should need us, Toby,’ she added reassuringly before bending down to kiss him.

Toby reached up to wrap his arms about her neck as he hugged her. ‘It was a lovely day, wasn’t it, Mummy?’

Emotion caught in Bella’s throat as she looked down into her son’s happily beaming face.

Could she endanger that unclouded happiness by subjecting Toby to the trauma that a legal battle with Gabriel was sure to cause? Could she really put Toby into a position where he would almost be forced to choose between the mother he had lived with all of his young life and the father he had only just met? Could she do that to him?

Surely the answer to all of those questions was no…

‘Lovely,’ she answered Toby brightly before kissing him again.

‘I’ll see you in the morning, darling.’ She ruffled his dark curls before stepping away from the bed.

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