Chapter Eight #3
‘I’m not likely to be here long and I didn’t think anyone would care.’
A noise sounded behind her. Like a huff. A sharp exhalation. ‘We were …concerned.’
It was like a little firework burst in her chest. We …
or he? Whatever. Didn’t matter anyhow. She opened her water bottle as they reached the stone pine and took a welcome seat under it.
Having a swig of water then removing her hat in the blissful shade.
She leaned back. Maybe she’d overexerted herself?
Rocco loomed over her, a slight frown back again.
Looking broody and a bit forbidding with all that dark, angsty handsomeness of his.
Her heart kicked up a few thrilled beats.
A familiar ache hinting deep inside of her.
Warm and a bit sweaty as she was, Lily fleetingly suspected she wouldn’t mind getting even warmer and sweatier with him.
Who’d have thought that a look of frustration tinged with mild disapproval could be so hot?
Masochist that she was.
‘Are you well?’ he asked.
‘Perfectly. Just a touch warm.’
He nodded, hesitated, nodded again.
‘I thought you’d like to know. The doctor called.’
Everything inside Lily stilled. Well, that was that. No need to stay anymore. She nodded back at him, a tightness growing in her chest. Fished her phone out of her bag and brought up the internet.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
The breeze blew through the trees, cooling her skin. She looked up at him. Frown still present. It didn’t diminish his beauty at all. He remained a devastatingly handsome man in spite of it.
‘You know the baby’s yours. That was the agreement, wasn’t it? I’d stay here till that was confirmed. I can go now. I’m checking for flights.’
Everything in him seemed to still, like he’d been turned to stone.
‘There’s no need to hurry, and there’s no time frame for you to go.
You’ve been in Rome under difficult circumstances, and you’ve never been in the city before.
Since you seem to be feeling better and have started exploring, perhaps you’d like to see a little more of it. Why don’t I take you out to dinner?’
Lily hesitated. That was …kind. But she didn’t much trust anyone’s motivations right now, particularly after her parents had seen fit to suggest still marrying the man who’d said she was boring and had planned affairs to keep himself entertained.
‘Why?’
‘There are things we have to talk about. We’re going to be parents.’
That made sense. Whilst negotiations could take place between lawyers, perhaps it would be good to meet on neutral ground and talk about their baby’s future, like the two adults they were. But there needed to be ground rules.
‘Are you going to play nicely, Rocco?’
His eyes seemed to darken. The corner of his mouth tilted in a wicked-looking smirk that had those butterflies in her belly taking wing again. What would this baby of theirs be thinking about, with all the fluttering and flapping? Would he or she develop a strong desire to study lepidopterology?
‘Gioca pulito, e io giocherò pulito.’
‘What does that mean?’
She almost didn’t care. Lily loved the sound of his voice, the deep, midnight lilt to it. Even if she couldn’t understand a word.
‘You play nice, I play nice.’
Something about the air seemed to crackle between them, a kind of static electricity that had the hair standing up deliciously on her arms. This had to stop. They were about to enter a negotiation about the future of their baby, not their future in the bedroom.
Which seemed kind of a waste with all this erotic energy zipping between them, but that would just cloud everything and she wasn’t intent on getting into another mess. She cleared her throat. Moved right along, and back to business.
‘Where do you want to go to dinner? I don’t really have anything to wear.’
He accepted the change of subject as if the past supercharged moments hadn’t happened. And for him, they probably hadn’t meant a thing.
‘Somewhere with a nice outlook. I know a place. The owner will be able to set aside a table for us. There’s no real need to dress up, but if you are worried, Carmella can assist. She has daughters your age.’
Lily chewed on her bottom lip. She really didn’t have anything for a nice dinner out, and she wanted to present herself at her best for whatever negotiation might come, rather than look like the woman who threw up on his shoe.
Her budget was tight, but if they were talking about the future then maybe things wouldn’t be as bleak as she’d feared when she first arrived here?
If she could get something on sale … Plus, a new dress would be nice.
It didn’t have anything to do with how he might look at her in something pretty and stylish, at all.
‘That sounds like a great idea. What time?’
‘Will eight suit you?’
Lily nodded. ‘I’ll be ready.’
Rocco smiled again, and this one was devastating. Warm, genuine, like the sun breaking through storm clouds and a shaft of it hitting her square in the chest.
‘And I’ll be looking forward to it.’