She kept his child hidden...

Now he’ll claim them both!

Cristiano Moretti is furious that Hallie hid the consequences of their hot night together! He will not inflict his own childhood abandonment on his son, so he demands that Hallie marry him. Soon they realize the passion between them is as powerful as ever...but when all Hallie wants is a real family, will Cristiano’s seduction be enough to secure his legacy?

USA TODAY bestselling author JENNIE LUCAS’S parents owned a bookstore, and she grew up surrounded by books, dreaming about faraway lands. A fourth-generation Westerner, she went east at sixteen to boarding school on scholarship, wandered the world, got married, then finally worked her way through college before happily returning to her hometown. A 2010 RITA® Award finalist and 2005 Golden Heart® Award winner, she lives in Idaho with her husband and children.

Also by Jennie Lucas

The Consequences of That Night

The Sheikh’s Last Seduction

Uncovering Her Nine Month Secret

Nine Months to Redeem Him

A Ring for Vincenzo’s Heir

Baby of His Revenge

The Consequence of His Vengeance

Carrying the Spaniard’s Child

Claiming His Nine-Month Consequence

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

The Secret the Italian Claims

Jennie Lucas

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07225-0

THE SECRET THE ITALIAN CLAIMS

© 2018 Jennie Lucas

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Dedication

To Julie Henke, who flew all the way from St. Louis to Orlando to meet me at a book signing.

Wonderful readers like you are why I do what I do.

Dear Reader,

What would you do if you had a one-night stand with the man you secretly loved and then found yourself unexpectedly pregnant? You’d tell him, right? But what if, afterwards, that man was so cold and cruel you vowed to raise the baby alone—even though he was a billionaire?

For a year, hotel maid Hallie Hatfield has secretly loved her boss, Cristiano Moretti. When he seduces her it’s like a blissful dream—until he tosses her out at midnight and has her fired!

Desperate and pregnant, Hallie is lucky enough to meet two friends at a New York City single moms’ group. The three women are very different. Hallie cares most about family. Tess cares about love. Lola cares about money. But they all have one thing in common: they’ve never told any of the powerful billionaire fathers about their babies.

The Secret the Italian Claims is Hallie’s story. Tess’s story follows in The Heir the Prince Secures. The trilogy will finish with Lola’s story, The Baby the Billionaire Demands.

I loved writing these stories about three vibrant women and the untameable men who finally meet their match. I hope you love them too.

With warmest wishes,

Jennie

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Dear Reader

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

FAMILY MEANT EVERYTHING to Hallie Hatfield.

Family meant home. It meant being safe and protected even when times were bad. Even when the money ran out at the end of the month. Even when the kitchen cupboards were bare. Family meant always having someone to watch your back, as you watched theirs.

As Hallie had grown up, in an old wooden house built by her great-grandfather, playing in the woods with her brother, learning songs from her mother, tinkering in the garage with her father, she’d known, even as a child, exactly how she wanted her life to be.

Someday she’d get married. She’d raise children, just as her own parents had, without much money but with lots of love. She and her future husband would grow old together, living close to her family, in a cottage with a view of the soft, green Appalachian hills where she’d been born. Their lives would be full of music and comfort. Because family meant everything.

Then, at nineteen, without warning, Hallie lost everything. Her family. Her home. All the meaning and security in her world.

Now, at twenty-four, the only family she had was the tiny newborn baby in her arms. Living in New York City, she had no job, no money and, as of today, nowhere to go.

But this as a solution?

No.

Hallie took a deep, furious breath. “No. Absolutely not.”

“But Hallie—”

“Tell my ex-boss about his baby?” Keeping her voice low, not to waken the newborn baby sleeping in her arms, Hallie glared at her friends. “After the way he treated me? Never!”

The other two women looked at each other. The three friends had been introduced months earlier at a single-moms support group, when a mutual acquaintance had realized that all three were pregnant with their first child, and, shockingly, none of them had yet told the fathers.

In Hallie’s case, it was for good reason.

Her whole life, she’d tried to see the best in people. To be sympathetic and kind and good.

But she hated Cristiano Moretti. After what he’d done, he didn’t deserve to know their three-month-old baby existed.

“But he’s the father,” Tess Foster said gently. A plump, kindly redhead who worked at her uncle’s bakery, she cuddled her own tiny baby. “Hallie, you need help. It only makes sense to ask him.”

“You’re an idiot if you don’t get child support,” said Lola Price, who was blonde and fiery, and extra-irritable lately—which was saying something—as, unlike the others, she was still heavily pregnant. “Are you an idiot?”

Hallie ground her teeth. That question had already been asked and answered in her own heart. Yes, she’d been an idiot, letting her boss, a billionaire hotel tycoon, seduce her so easily into giving up her long-held dreams of a forever family, a forever home, for one night of passion.

One night? Ha! Half a night, since Cristiano had tossed her out of his bed at midnight and then had her fired from her housekeeping job the very next morning!

Who did that?

A selfish bastard with no heart, that was who. A man who’d ruthlessly thrown her into poverty and homelessness—since she’d also lost her company-paid housing—just because he’d wanted to avoid feeling awkward if he ran into her in the hallway of his hotel.

Hallie looked down at the sweet sleeping baby in her arms. Jack had been over nine pounds at birth, and he’d only gotten chubbier. She loved him with all the ferocious love in her heart. She’d always dreamed of having children. Now Jack was her only dream. Keeping him happy. Keeping him safe.

“You don’t even have a place to stay tonight,” Tess pointed out. “Unless you’re going to call the police on your landlord.”

“And you can’t stay with me,” Lola said, putting her hands over her huge belly. She didn’t explain, but then Lola never explained anything.

“I wish you could stay with us, but my aunt and uncle would never allow it,” Tess said mournfully. “They’re already threatening to kick me out.” She sighed. “If only you hadn’t ripped up the check your boss stuck in the envelope with your severance pay.”

Hallie lifted her chin. “I have my pride.”

“But it was for a hundred thousand dollars,” Tess said.

“And is pride going to feed your baby?” Lola said tartly.

Hallie’s shoulders sagged. Lola wasn’t sweet and comforting like Tess, but she sure had a way of forcing people to see hard truths.

After her supervisor had fired her, Hallie had stumbled out of the hotel in shock, then opened the severance envelope to discover a check signed by Cristiano personally. As if he thought paying her for taking her virginity would make it all right to toss her out like trash the next morning. Furious and heartbroken, she’d torn it into a million pieces.

Now Hallie realized painfully how that money would have changed her whole life—and Jack’s. Because a year later, she had nothing.

But she hadn’t known she would end up pregnant. She ran an unsteady hand over her forehead. So much for pride. She would have given anything to have that check back now.

“Come on.” Lola stood up abruptly in the middle of the community-hall basement, surrounded by the folding chairs and a crowd of other single moms standing by a punch bowl and cookies that Tess complained constantly were stale. “We’re going.”

“Where?”

“To see your baby’s father. Right now. It’s your only option.”

Hallie feared her friend was right. But thinking of facing Cristiano, her courage failed her. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I told you. I was just a notch on the bedpost. He was cruel—”

“Cruel?” Lola’s eyes became fiercely protective. “You never said that. What did he do? Hit you? Threaten you?”

“Of course not,” Hallie replied, taken aback.

“Then what?”

A lump rose in Hallie’s throat. “He ignored me.”

The blonde’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “He’s a jerk. But you’re sure he’s the father?”

“Yes, but I wish he wasn’t!”

Lola’s eyes were merciless. “Then make him pay. Child support, if nothing else.”

Hallie thought of how desperately she needed money. The lump in her throat became a razor blade. “I can’t.”

“You don’t have any choice. You have no family to help you. Are you seriously going to check into a homeless shelter while your ex lives at a luxury hotel, swilling champagne?”

Hallie sucked in her breath at her friend’s frank words.

“And, you never know, he might be happy about the baby when you tell him,” argued Tess, who was very tenderhearted. “There might be some perfectly good explanation why he kicked you out that night, then had you fired, then never returned your messages...”

Her voice trailed off. Even Tess couldn’t quite overcome how ludicrous it sounded.

If only. Hallie gave her a wistful smile, then the smile slid away.

Tell Cristiano she’d had his baby?

Go back to the luxury hotel where she’d once worked as a housekeeper, to beg for the help of a selfish, ruthless tycoon, and this time give him the opportunity to reject both her and the baby in person? No way.

But looking down at her peacefully slumbering baby, his sweet little mouth pursing in his sleep, she knew Lola was right. Hallie had tried her best to survive on pride. But, after this latest disaster with her landlord today, she had nowhere else to go.

“All right,” Hallie said in a small voice.

“You’ll do it?” Lola’s voice was tinged with relief. For all of the blonde’s hard edges, Lola’s protectiveness of her friends made Hallie suspect that on the inside she was every bit as kind as Tess but, for some reason, tried desperately to hide it.

“You’re right,” Hallie said glumly. “I have no choice.”

The three of them, plus the two babies and Jack’s folding stroller, all piled into a ride-share taxi. But by the time it dropped them off in front of the towering luxury hotel in Midtown, Hallie was already regretting her choice. Just half a night in Cristiano’s arms had nearly destroyed her. How could she face him again?

Tess, with her own baby in a comfy sling against her chest, tilted her head back to look at the skyscraper that was the Campania Hotel. “He manages all this?”

“He owns it.”

Both women turned to her sharply in the warm July night.

Lola wasn’t easily impressed, but her eyes were wide as saucers. “Your ex is Cristiano Moretti?”

Hallie felt a little sick as she nodded.

“I thought it was the hotel manager,” Tess said in awe.

“It doesn’t matter who he is,” Lola said fiercely. “Demand what is yours by right. For Jack.”

Pushing the stroller, Hallie walked slowly past the neon sign of the Blue Hour glowing in the darkness. The hotel’s jazz club had live music, and she’d once dreamed of performing there. Now, as she walked past the club, her failed singing career was the last thing on her mind.

What if Cristiano refused to see her? Or—worse—what if, when he found out about the baby, he demanded parental rights over Jack?

If only she could talk him into just blindly giving her that same big check she’d ripped up the year before!

She stopped, glancing back nervously when she saw her friends following her. “You’re coming with me?”

“So you don’t back out,” Lola said.

“So you don’t feel alone,” Tess said.

With a deep breath, Hallie squared her shoulders and went through the enormous revolving door into the lobby.

The Campania’s lobby was thirty feet high, gleaming with white marble floors and midcentury-modern furniture scattered around multiple fireplaces. One side held the long oak check-in desk, and at the very center of the lobby there was an elegant bar.

After going inside, Hallie stopped as well-dressed, wealthy guests passed them by on the busy summer evening.

“What’s the problem?” Lola said.

“Can’t you just go to his room?” Tess said.

“No,” Hallie said. “There’s security. You need a fingerprint on the elevator.”

“Call him, then.”

“I don’t have his direct number. We never really talked before...” She hesitated.

Lola scowled. “You were just the hired help, huh?”

Hallie looked down, her cheeks hot. Even when she’d worked for him, there were about fifty levels of supervisors between a maid and the billionaire owner of an international hotel conglomerate. She said weakly, “I can try to leave a message with his secretary, or—”

Her voice cut off with a gasp.

Cristiano had just come out of the elevator on the second floor, open above the lobby.

The reaction was immediate, as if he were a movie star on the red carpet. Heads turned, people whispered and gasped. His entourage followed in his wake as he made his way down the stairs to the ground floor—a gorgeous, pouting model at his side, with two assistants and a bodyguard trailing behind.

But, for Hallie, everything else became a blur. Even her friends were forgotten.

All she could see was...him.

Cristiano Moretti was broad shouldered, dark and powerful, outwardly civilized in a perfectly cut tuxedo, but with a five-o’clock shadow on his hard jaw and glittering black eyes that hinted at a ruthless, brutal soul. Looking at him, Hallie shivered, caught between longing and fear, overwhelmed by memory of the night he’d seduced her. The night her whole world had changed.

As a trusted maid at the Campania Hotel New York, she’d occasionally been assigned the enviable task of cleaning and tidying the Italian tycoon’s exclusive penthouse, used only when he was in town. Dusting pictures of Cristiano’s gorgeous face as he stood beside famous politicians and celebrities, Hallie had developed a serious crush. She’d actually imagined that Cristiano wasn’t just insanely handsome, he was also honorable and good.

Wrong.

She blinked now, looking at him. The way he smiled. So casual. As if he had not a care in the world. He was so arrogantly handsome, king of the world in his tuxedo, apparently off for a night on the town with a beautiful model. While she’d spent the last year struggling, looking for a new job when she was pregnant and trying to find a cheap place to stay in New York City.

For the last year, he’d been enjoying himself—swilling champagne, as Lola had said. He really had forgotten Hallie even existed.

As Cristiano turned to speak to the woman pouting beside him in a gold lamé minidress, Hallie breathlessly handed the stroller’s handle to Lola.

“Keep an eye on Jack.”

The blonde frowned. “The man will want to meet his own son.”

Hallie set her jaw. “I will tell Cristiano in my own way.”

“You’re being irrational,” Lola began, but Tess put her hand gently on Lola’s arm.

“Let Hallie do it.”

Hallie flashed the redhead a grateful look.

“Fine,” Lola said, drawing back stiffly.

Swallowing hard, Hallie went toward Cristiano, planting herself in the middle of his path through the lobby. Her heart was pounding wildly.

It was funny, really. If she’d known when getting ready for the single-moms group that afternoon that she’d end up facing her old lover, she might have put on lipstick and worn something nicer than an old faded sundress that fit her post-pregnancy body. He’d probably take one look at her and wonder how she’d ever ended up in his bed in the first place. Well, there was no help for it now. And it wasn’t like she would ever, ever, ever want to sleep with him again. Ever.

Putting her hands on her hips, she tried to hide her nervousness as she waited.

His bodyguard tried to smooth his way, holding out his arm. “Excuse us, miss.”

Then, from behind him, Cristiano’s eyes caught hers.

For a split second, he went completely still. Then his jaw tightened. “It’s all right, Luther.” He came forward. “What are you doing here, Hallie?”

He remembered her name. She was almost surprised. She hated the shiver that went through her at having him so close, towering over her in his tuxedo, nearly touching her. His dark gaze seared through her. She found herself wanting to blurt out everything, to tell him not just that she’d had his baby but that he’d broken her heart.

She forced herself to say, “I need to talk to you. In private.”

His expression became distant. “That’s not a good idea.”

“I have something important to tell you.”

“Tell me now.”

“In the middle of the lobby?” Hallie’s cheeks went hot. She could feel people watching them. Even the model, standing nearby in her high heels, was looking down at Hallie with scorn. They were all probably wondering why such a frumpy girl would dare talk to Cristiano Moretti. For a moment, Hallie’s nerve faltered. She wanted to run away, to forget the whole thing.

Then she saw her friends watching from the other side of the lobby. Saw her sleeping baby cuddled in the stroller. That gave her courage. “It’s important.”

“Not interested.” But as he turned to go, she stepped in front of him.

“Either you speak with me privately right now,” she said, determined, “or I’ll make a scene in this lobby you can’t possibly imagine.”

Cristiano stared at her for a long moment, as if assessing her. Then he held up his hand, halting the bodyguard’s intervention.

“Go ahead to the gala, Natalia,” he told his date. “My driver will take you. I’ll see you later.”

The woman’s pout intensified. She glared at Hallie, then said, “All right, darling,” and sashayed out of the lobby hips first, as if she were on a catwalk at New York Fashion Week. She was so obviously a model that even the sophisticated patrons of this luxurious hotel turned to watch her go. So did Hallie, a little wistfully. What would it be like to get that much attention wherever you went? She would be able to get an audition at the Blue Hour, for one.

“Follow me,” Cristiano said, turning on his heel without waiting to see if Hallie followed.

She glanced nervously back at her baby and friends. Then, biting her lip, she went up the sweeping staircase, following the man she hated most on earth, to face him alone in his lair.

* * *

Cristiano Moretti’s jaw was tight as he went to the wet bar in his private office on the second floor.

Lifting the lid off the crystal decanter, he glanced back at Hallie as she followed him hesitantly into the high-ceilinged room with its dark oak panels. “Scotch?”

Hallie shook her head, her beautiful brown eyes wide.

Turning back to the bar, he poured himself a short glass over ice. He could almost feel her vibrating with anxiety behind him. He put the lid back on the decanter, then drank the Scotch in one long, slow gulp. He realized he was playing for time.

But then, Hallie Hatfield had been Cristiano’s biggest mistake. And at thirty-five years old, with his scandalous past, that was saying something.

He turned to face her. “Va bene,” he said shortly. “We are alone. What do you want?”

Hallie swallowed, blushed, hesitated. He could see her trying to formulate her words, but she didn’t have to say anything. Cristiano already knew why she was here.

She’d come to demand money.

Silently he cursed himself. How could he have been so stupid?

He’d known this would happen. He was just surprised it had taken a year.

Hallie must have spoken with a lawyer who would have pointed out her excellent case for suing him for wrongful termination. His emotions had gotten the better of him the day he’d had her fired, because he’d never done anything so foolish, before or since.

Looking at her, he could almost understand why. Hallie had big, soulful eyes a man could drown in. And her curves! In a loose cotton sundress, her body was even more lush than he remembered. Her dark hair fell in waves over her full breasts, almost down to her tiny waist.

Cristiano could still remember how it had felt to have her in his arms, the sensation of her soft body sliding beneath his as their naked limbs tangled in the very bedsheets she’d made just an hour before.

He’d seduced her. There could be no doubt of that. Coming back to New York a day early, he’d heard her sweet, husky voice singing from the bedroom of his penthouse. Her wistful, heartbreaking melody had filled him with longing for things lost. Things he’d never had. Things he’d never dared even dream of.

Then he’d seen her, waving fresh sheets in the air with her arms spread wide. An incredibly beautiful, sensual brunette with an hourglass figure, leaning over to make his bed. Even that black housekeeping uniform had looked indescribably erotic on her.

A shocked sound had come from the back of his throat. She’d turned and looked at him. A tumble of emotions had cascaded across her beautiful face. Surprise, fear, delight. For a moment their eyes had locked, and he’d forgotten his own name.

Then he’d forced himself to give a casual smile. “You’re not my usual housekeeper.”

“Camille had to go home early today to be with her grandson, but she warned me not to let you catch me,” she stammered. “I’m supposed to be invisible.”

Coming forward, his eyes devouring every inch of her, he’d murmured, “You’re anything but invisible. What were you singing?”

“Just an Appalachian folk song.”

“It’s beautiful.” Coming close enough to touch her, he’d whispered, “So are you.”

Her cheeks had gone rosy, her lips parting in unconscious invitation as she stood beside his enormous bed.

He’d reached for her.

Cristiano knew who was at fault. He’d wanted her. So he’d taken her. Without thinking of the consequences. If he had, he would have stopped himself. It was one of his rules: never sleep with employees.

But that wasn’t the worst rule he’d broken. Hallie wasn’t just an employee. She’d also been a virgin. Virgins were off-limits. He didn’t toy with women who might mistake sex for love and become a problem later.

He’d known she was a virgin from the first time he’d kissed her, when he’d felt the tremble of her sweet lips. He’d felt her hesitation, her shyness, her inexperience. And he’d known. Somehow, this incredible woman was untouched.

It hadn’t made him stop. He was a man who put few limits on his own behavior. But he had a code of honor. In Hallie Hatfield’s case, he’d recklessly blown through his own rules like dynamite through a brick wall.

So it was no wonder he’d broken a third rule, afterward, and fired her for sleeping with him.

That wasn’t the reason he’d given her supervisor, the head housekeeper, of course. But it had been obvious to Hallie. And clearly her lawyer, too.

But now, as Hallie stood across from him in his private office, biting her full, delectable lower lip, it was hard for him to think about lawyers when all he wanted to do was pull her back into his arms.

For a year, he’d done his best to forget her. He’d told himself he had. Now he knew that was a lie.

“Why are you here?” Cristiano demanded in a low voice.

“I came to...came to tell you...”

Her husky voice trembled, stopped. She looked at him.

Turning away, Cristiano set down the crystal lowball glass heavily on the dark wood bar. He clenched his hands at his sides to keep himself from the temptation of pulling her into his arms and kissing her to see if her lips were still as delicious as he remembered. He was drawn by the sweet sin of her mouth. Of her body. Of her deep brown eyes, luring him into their depths.

Possessing her once had not been enough. After he’d had her that night, he’d just wanted more. It didn’t help that, naked and soft in his arms, she’d looked up at him in bed as if she were half in love with him already. She’d lured him like a siren to give him more than just his body. More than just his money.

But sex and money were all he could give any woman.

So he’d sent her away, tossing her from the warmth of his bed when his body was still aching for more. After she’d gone, he’d still longed for her, like a sweet, forbidden poison. First thing the next morning, he’d contacted her supervisor and arranged to have her fired. For her own good. And his.

But he had never stopped wanting her. And now, as he stepped toward her, his breathing was hard. And not just his breathing.

“Tell me what you want.”

“I need to tell you something. Important.”

“So you said.” Cristiano’s voice was low as he looked down at her. He came closer, almost close enough to touch her. His mind was scrambling for rationalizations as to why he should.

Perhaps if he slept with her just one more time...

Got her out of his system...

Stop, he told himself furiously.

Hesitating, Hallie licked her full, pink lips. He nearly groaned. Was she purposely taunting him?

“This...isn’t easy to say,” she whispered.

Gritting his teeth, he glared at her. “Let me say it for you, then. I already know why you’re here.”

Her caramel-brown eyes went wide.

“You know?”

He set his jaw. “You never cashed the check.”

Hallie blinked, furrowing her forehead. “The check?”

“The morning after.”

Her cheeks colored and she looked away.

“No,” she said in a low voice. “I ripped it into a million pieces and threw it in the trash.”

“Because you knew, even then, you could demand far more.”

Hallie looked at him sharply.

“I can?” she whispered. “You’d give me money, just for asking? Why?”

“You want me to admit it aloud?” He pulled her roughly against him. She gasped as his hands suddenly moved over her waist, her hips.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking for a microphone.” But even through the thin cotton of her sundress, touching her waist and hips without crushing her lips with his own felt like torture.

“Let me go,” she breathed, not moving.

He released her. Stepping back, he leaned against the marble fireplace, folding his arms and keeping his voice very cold. “Who is your lawyer?”

“My lawyer?”

“Don’t try to pretend you don’t have one. You knew I’d want to keep this quiet. I’m not proud of it.”

Her eyes widened. “Of—of what?”

“It would hardly improve the public image of my company if the CEO is sued for sexual harassment.”

“Oh.” Biting her lip, she looked away, staring for a long moment at the wall of leather-bound books he never read, and the leather reading chair he never sat in, both brought in by an interior designer to make his office look like a nineteenth-century gentleman’s study. And all Cristiano could think right now was that he wanted to bend her back against the enormous dark wood desk, kiss her senseless, pull off her clothes and...

He had to get rid of her before he did something else he’d regret.

“Just tell me the amount,” he said tightly.

“The amount?”

“How much?”

Licking her lips, Hallie said, “I want...the same amount as before.”

“A hundred thousand dollars?” he said incredulously.

“I’ll never bother you again. I give you my word.”

Cristiano could hardly believe she’d ask for so little. Far less than he’d pay if they went to trial. Less than he paid his lawyers for a month. Was it some kind of trick? Or had she been given bad advice by the worst lawyer in the world?

Searching her face, he warned, “You’d have to sign a nondisclosure form.”

“I’ll sign anything you want,” she said meekly, folding her hands in front of her like a nun at prayer.

Now Cristiano was really suspicious. “And a statement admitting that you were fired for cause.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’d say it was your own fault you were fired.” He gave a careless shrug, even as he watched her closely. “The reason can be anything you want. Tardiness. Stealing.”

“Stealing!” Hallie repeated indignantly. Then her expression deliberately smoothed over and became meek again. “I will admit to being late. Yes. I was very, very late.”

Something in Hallie’s tone when she said I was very, very late rang true. And yet he knew it was not.

The morning Cristiano had decided to fire her, he’d asked the HR department to review her file, hoping to hear a legitimate reason she deserved to be let go. “Oh, no, sir,” the HR head had chirped. “Miss Hatfield is one of our hardest-working employees. She works late and volunteers to work holidays instead of employees with kids. And she’s never late!”

So he’d given the task of firing her to her supervisor, instead. Handing the head housekeeper a sealed envelope with a big check, he’d explained to the woman that he’d found Hallie intrusive and her singing annoying. The head housekeeper, whom Cristiano had never spoken to directly before, hadn’t asked the same questions HR would have. She’d just followed his order.

So why would Hallie accept a hundred thousand dollars now, in lieu of a settlement that could have brought her millions? And want it so badly she was actually willing to defame her own character for it?

What kind of incompetent, useless lawyer would ever advise her to do such a thing?

Cristiano could barely restrain himself from telling her what a bad deal she was making. But his goal was to be rid of her before she caused him any more damage—personally or professionally.

“Fine.” He turned to his enormous desk. Pulling out a standard nondisclosure agreement usually given to high-level executives, he pushed it across the desk toward her and scribbled something on a separate piece of paper.

“Might as well keep the lawyers out of it, and save us both time and trouble,” he said carelessly. “Sign these and I’ll write you a check.”

Hallie looked at him sharply. “Give me the check first.”

“What?” He gave a low laugh. “You don’t trust me?”

“No.” She looked at him with quiet determination. “Because I know what kind of man you really are.”

His back snapped straight. “What kind is that?”

“You seduced me—” her dark eyes glittered in the shadows “—then had me fired. You took my job away, just to avoid the inconvenience of seeing me.”

She was right. And he hated her for it.

“And now we both know what kind of woman you are,” he said coldly. “The kind of woman who is willing to lie about herself for a hundred thousand dollars.”

Her deep brown eyes held his, then dropped.

“Yes,” she said in a low voice. “I suppose I am.” She squared her shoulders. “But I’ll still need the check before I sign.”

“Fine.” Turning away, he got his checkbook out of the safe. Scribbling the amount and signing it, he handed it to her.

Her hand trembled as she took the check. For a moment, she just looked down at it. Then she pressed it against her chest, looking almost near tears.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “You don’t know what this will mean to us.”

“Us?”

“Me,” she said quickly.

Obviously, she’d already found another lover. The thought bothered him. He pushed it aside. He had no claim on her, and she would have none on him once the deal was finished.

Setting his jaw, he held out the pen. “Now your side of the bargain.”

“Of course.” Taking the pen, she leaned over his desk to read the two documents—the nondisclosure agreement and an admission of fault. As she read, Cristiano’s gaze traced unwillingly down her long throat to the dark hair tumbling down her back to the sweet fullness of her backside. Her breasts seemed fuller than he remembered.

He forced himself to look away.

Signing both papers with a flourish, she put the lid back on his pen, then handed it to him along with the signed papers. “Here.”

She seemed strangely joyful, as if the weight of the world had just been lifted off her shoulders.

Cristiano barely restrained a scowl. His hand brushed hers as he took the papers and pen. Her cheeks went bright red, and she dropped her hand. “Thanks. Goodbye.”

He watched incredulously as, without another word, she headed for the door.

“That’s it?”

Hallie glanced back with a smile. “You wanted to be rid of me.”

He couldn’t believe it could be so easy for her to leave him when it was so hard for him to let her go. When it took all his self-control not to ask her to—

“Stay for a drink,” he heard himself say. “Just one drink. To toast the future.”

The corners of her lips curved into a humorless smile. “Isn’t Natalia waiting for you?”

“Who?”

“Who?” She snorted. “The gorgeous supermodel you were taking out tonight.”

“She’s just a friend,” he said impatiently. He knew the Russian girl wanted more. But what did he care about her? Seeing Hallie today had brought back everything he’d tried to forget over the past year, everything he knew was forbidden but that he still wanted. “Share a drink with me.”

For a second, Hallie hesitated. Then she straightened, glaring at him. “After the way you treated me, do you really think I would ever choose to spend more time with you?” She lifted her chin. “I never, ever want to see you again. Goodbye, Cristiano.”

She turned away, clutching the check against her heart. She left him without looking back.

Cristiano stood in his private office, stunned.

Hallie would cause no legal trouble. The cost of his night with her had been minimal, one he’d been more than willing to pay. And now she was gone. For good.

His jaw tightened. It was what he’d wanted, wasn’t it? He’d wanted to permanently rid himself of the temptation she offered. He’d never felt so attracted to anyone.

He’d slept with beautiful women before. The danger—the difference—was in Hallie’s voice, so rich with heartbreak and longing. And in her deep brown eyes, which had looked at him with such frank joy. In her low, husky laugh that had melted him with her warmth and delight.

She’d made him feel things against his will.

Not with his body.

His soul.

So after he’d fired her he’d ordered his secretary to block Hallie’s calls if she ever tried to contact him again.

Yet, tonight, he’d been the one who had asked her to stay. And Hallie, without any apparent difficulty or regret, had gotten what she’d wanted and easily walked away.

His pride was in shock.

As a matter of course, Cristiano always put his own selfish desires first. You had to look out for number one.

He’d just never imagined a kindhearted country girl like Hallie could do the same.

Rubbing the back of his head, he put his checkbook back in the safe. He told himself he’d go meet Natalia and spend the evening at yet another bland charity gala, but the thought seemed ridiculous.

Hallie had looked delicious, her body even more curvaceous than he remembered. She had a new maturity about her. Her dark eyes had become guarded, he realized. Not as honest and clear as he remembered. She’d held something back. Some mystery. Some secret.

Cristiano closed the safe, then stopped.

Something didn’t make sense.

When Hallie had first met him in the lobby, she’d been nervous and tense. I have something important to tell you, she’d said. But what was it? Simply that she’d hired a lawyer?

Except she’d never actually said that. Cristiano had. She’d been slow to talk and so he’d filled in all the blanks. When he’d offered her money, she’d been surprised, even shocked. Surely that was why she’d asked to speak to him privately. Because her lawyer had told her to.

Unless she didn’t actually have a lawyer.

Unless she’d come to him for some other reason. A reason she’d decided to forget once he’d offered her a check.

Cristiano’s eyes widened.

He strode out of his private office and down the sweeping stairs that overlooked the huge, gleaming lobby with enormous chandeliers hanging from thirty-foot ceilings. His eyes scanned over the crowd of wealthy tycoons and beautiful starlets that filled the lobby and main bar of the Campania on a typical Thursday night.

He saw Hallie on the other side of the lobby, near the door, talking to two young women, a plump redhead and a pregnant blonde. Hallie smiled, her joy obvious even from this distance, as she reached out to take something from the blonde.

A baby stroller. Looking down at it, she smiled and cooed.

Cristiano’s blood went cold.

A baby stroller.

A baby.

Later, he wouldn’t even remember how he had reached her. His brain was blank, his body like ice as he walked through the faceless crowd toward Hallie Hatfield and the baby stroller she gripped by the handle. When he drew close, he heard her soft laughter as she turned to her friends. The other women’s eyes went wide as Cristiano put his hand on her shoulder.

Hallie’s face was still smiling as she turned. Then the blood drained from her face.

Cristiano looked from her guilt-stricken face down to the small, dark-haired, fat-cheeked baby drowsing in the stroller. He slowly lifted his eyes back to hers.

“Is this your baby, Hallie?”

The fear in her eyes told him everything he needed to know.

The other two women stared between them, wide-eyed.

“You didn’t tell him?” the blonde said.

“Oh, Hallie,” the redhead whispered.

“Please, just go,” Hallie choked out to them. “I’ll call you later.”

The blonde looked like she intended to argue, until the redhead tugged on her arm and drew her away.

Standing alone with Cristiano in the crowded lobby of his flagship hotel, Hallie took a deep breath. “I can explain.”

Cristiano looked back down at the baby. A baby with dark eyes exactly like his own. Suddenly he knew exactly why Hallie had come here today. And exactly why she’d changed her mind.

He controlled his voice with effort. “You have a baby.”

She bit her lip. “Yes.”

He lifted his cold gaze to hers. “Who is the father?”

Hallie said pleadingly, “Please, Cristiano, don’t...”

“Who, damn you.”

She flinched. When she spoke, her voice could barely be heard over the noise of the lobby. “You.”

That single word exploded through him like a grenade.

He had a child?

Heart pounding, Cristiano looked at the tiny, yawning baby. Emotions rose, choking him. Savagely repressing his feelings, he looked at her.

“You are sure?” he said flatly.

“Yes,” Hallie replied in the same tone. “You know I was a virgin when—”

“I know,” he bit out. “But perhaps after...”

“You think I rushed into bed with someone else after that?” Her expression tightened. “You are the only man I’ve ever been with. Jack is your son.”

He had a child? A son?

His name was Jack?

Cristiano’s throat tightened. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

“I tried.” Hallie’s beautiful caramel-brown eyes narrowed. “I left two messages with your secretary.”

Cristiano hadn’t gotten those messages because he’d told his secretary never to tell him if Hallie called.

But he didn’t want to hear reasons he might be at fault. He wanted to blame only her. “We used protection,” he said accusingly. “How did this happen?”

She raised her eyebrows. “You are the one with all the experience. You tell me.”

He ground his teeth. “You should have tried harder to contact me.”

“After the way you treated me,” she said, “I shouldn’t have tried at all. Why give you the chance to reject our baby like you rejected me?”

His shoulders tightened as her shot hit home.

“So you were just going to walk out of here tonight.” His voice had a hard edge. His throat felt raw. “Once you had my check, you had no reason to tell me about my child. You were going to keep him a secret from me for the rest of my life, weren’t you?”

Not meeting his eyes, Hallie gave an unsteady nod.

His hands clenched at his sides. “Why?”

“I’ve never known what it was to hate someone, Cristiano,” she whispered. She lifted her gaze to his. “Not until you.”

He was shocked by the fury and hurt he saw in her eyes. “I could not have hurt you that badly,” he ground out. “We barely knew each other.”

“You were so seductive. So tender. You made me think you cared, just a little.” She ran an unsteady hand over her forehead. “But as soon as you got what you wanted, you showed me it was all a lie. You left me jobless, homeless. Pregnant and alone. I gave birth alone. I took care of him alone. Do you know how hard it is to look for a job when you have a newborn? I struggled to put a roof over Jack’s head while you pretended we didn’t exist.” She looked around the luxurious lobby. “While you drank champagne and went to parties.”

Her words made him feel oddly guilty. He didn’t like it. “You never told me—”

“I came here to beg you for money, Cristiano.” Her beautiful brown eyes were suddenly luminous. “To beg, so I wouldn’t have to stay at a homeless shelter tonight. Can you imagine how that feels, asking someone you hate for help?”

No. Cristiano couldn’t imagine lowering his pride to such an extent. Even when he’d been orphaned in Italy, desperately poor, he would have starved before he’d have done it.

But women were different, he told himself firmly. They didn’t have the same fierce pride as a man.

“Then I offered you the check,” he said, “and you decided to take the money and run.”

“I’m doing you a favor,” she said vehemently. “It’s not like you’d want to be a father. So just forget I came here. Forget he was ever born.”

Turning, Hallie started pushing the stroller away.

As he watched them go, the hotel’s marble floor became suddenly unsteady beneath Cristiano’s feet.

A flash went through him, memories of when he was six, when he was ten, of being dragged from one sagging apartment to the next, based on the preference of whichever useless new man his drunken mother had taken as her latest lover. He’d felt helpless as a child, lonely, never staying in one school long enough to make friends.

Most of the household’s scant money had gone to alcohol. There had been very little for food and none for Cristiano’s clothes, which the local priest quietly donated.

He’d never had a father, unless you counted Luigi Bennato, whom Cristiano assuredly did not. He’d never had a father to look out for him or protect him, even as a baby.

Without thinking, Cristiano stepped forward and grabbed Hallie’s shoulder.

“I won’t let you do this,” he said hoarsely. “I won’t let you take our baby away.”

“Why?” she said scornfully. “Because you want to be a father?” Her eyes glittered. “Don’t make me laugh. You’re a selfish playboy, Cristiano. An indecent excuse for a man. You couldn’t love someone if you tried, not even your own child. And now that I have enough money to support my baby, I don’t want any part of you.”

CHAPTER TWO

STANDING IN THE hotel’s glamorous lobby with her arms folded, Hallie glared up at Cristiano as if she weren’t in the least afraid. But the truth was her whole body was trembling with the effort it took to defy him.

She wished she’d followed her initial impulse when Cristiano had first come into the lobby, and turned and run.

But he’d have caught up with her before she’d even made it out the hotel’s revolving door. A single glance at his supremely masculine, muscular body and the cold ruthlessness in his hard gaze was enough to tell her that.

Everything about Cristiano was dark, Hallie thought with a shiver. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Dark tuxedo. A five-o’clock shadow that stroked his hard cheekbones to the slash of his jawline and, most of all, his dark fury as he came closer to her, his hand still on her shoulder, his hulking body almost threatening.

“So this is what you think of me.” His black eyes narrowed to slits. “That I’d coldly write you a check and abandon my child to your care.”

She was quivering but refused to be cowed. “Money is all you could ever offer as a father. Why don’t you just admit it?”

His grip on her shoulder tightened. “You lie to me, you take my money. Then you insult me to my face?”

He had a point, which made her want to throw the check back in that face. Her hand was already rising to do it when she remembered Lola’s harsh words. “Is pride going to feed your baby?”

With an intake of breath, Hallie clutched the check more tightly. This money would be her baby’s security and hope for the future. It would also give Hallie a chance to finally give up her stupid dream of becoming a singer and let her train for a real job, like an accountant or a nurse.

She wasn’t going to let pride ruin her life. Not anymore.

Or Cristiano Moretti.

“You should thank me,” she said.

He grew very still. “Thank you?”

“We both know, whatever you might say now, that you couldn’t truly commit to anyone, even a child.”

“How do you know?” he ground out.

“You, commit? For a lifetime?” She gave a choked laugh. “You couldn’t even commit for a night.” She tilted her head. “Were you that quickly bored, the night we were together? Or did you have another date afterward?”

His expression changed infinitesimally. “You think I sent you away because I was bored with you?”

Hallie thought of the glamorous supermodel she’d just seen on his arm. “What else?”

She couldn’t let him see how badly that hurt her. When he’d first taken her in his arms that romantic night, she’d been so naive. She’d thought it was fate, an irresistible force drawing them together. She’d thought it was magic.

Hallie had been startled when he’d walked into his penthouse early that afternoon. She’d been warned to be invisible and that her cleaning must be spotless. After spending so much time dusting pictures of his handsome face, seeing Cristiano in the flesh had shocked her.

Cristiano Moretti was a dream come to life. A famous playboy, the self-made Italian hotel billionaire who dated princesses and heiresses.

And inexplicably, he’d wanted her.

One moment she and Cristiano had been talking by the bed; the next she’d been in his arms. After so many bleak years of anguish after losing her family and her home, when her handsome billionaire boss had lowered his lips to hers, Hallie had imagined all the pain was behind her. She’d thought her life had just changed for the better.

And it had, in one way: her baby. Jack was all that mattered now.

“I’m leaving,” Hallie said defiantly. “Once I cash your check, I promise you, we’ll be gone for good.”

Cristiano lowered his head until it was inches from hers. “And I promise you. You’ll do nothing of the kind.”

Her mouth went dry. As their eyes locked, her heart pounded in her throat as she realized her stupid, idiotic mistake.

She never should have openly defied Cristiano. Because he’d taken her words not just as a challenge but as an insult to his masculinity. To his honor, even.

All this time she’d been thinking about her pride. She hadn’t considered his. And now he would make her pay for it.

“You don’t want me,” she whispered, her voice almost pleading. “You know you don’t.”

His dark eyes seemed like deep, fathomless pools as his gaze ripped into her soul. Then he straightened.

“You’re wrong about that. I’ve wanted you for a year. And now I will have you.”

“What are you talking about?”

His gaze fell to the stroller and his expression grew cold. “He’s my child, Hallie. I’m not going to let him go.” He focused on her. “Or you.”

“I won’t be your mistress, if that’s what you mean,” she said, struggling to keep her voice calm, not to show her rising fear.

“I know.” Cristiano’s black eyes suddenly glittered, and he smiled. “Because you’re going to be my wife.”

* * *

His wife.

Cristiano watched Hallie’s eyes widen in shock.

It was strange, he thought. He hadn’t known he was going to demand marriage until the words came out of his mouth. His whole life, he’d never once been tempted to marry. Of course he’d never imagined he’d be a father, either. And as he spoke the words, he suddenly realized he did want to marry her.

Call him an indecent excuse for a man?

Say he was incapable of committing for longer than a night?

Tell him he couldn’t even love his child if he tried?

No.

Cristiano wouldn’t abandon his newborn son to endure the same helpless childhood he’d known. Not when he himself had spent most of his adult life seeking vengeance on the father who’d abandoned him before he was born.

But he couldn’t wrench his son away from Hallie, either. Mother and child were obviously bonded. Still, he needed to take control of the situation.

Marriage was the brutally simple solution.

“Marry you?” Hallie choked out, searching his gaze as if waiting for the punchline. “Are you crazy? I told you—I hate you!”

“And I’m none too fond of you.” But as he put both hands on her shoulders and looked down at her, his nerve endings sizzled from the contact. He might be angry, but he’d told her the truth. He hadn’t stopped wanting her for a year.

Her gaze fell unwillingly on his lips before she glared up defiantly. “Why would I marry you?”

Looking down at the baby, who was now awake and trying to grab his own feet in the stroller, he said quietly, “For our child.”

“But...you can’t seriously want to be a real father.” There was a new nervousness in her voice. “If you want to see Jack, maybe we could talk about visitation—”

“No,” he said coldly. Her expression looked relieved until he continued grimly, “I will have full-time, permanent custody.”

Hallie’s beautiful face blanched. She whispered, “You’d try to take him from me?”

“No.” He gave her a cold smile. “I want him to have two parents. Even though you didn’t care about that.”

Patrons and staff in the lobby had been staring at them for a while, but now they were coming closer, obviously trying to listen.

“I’m not having this conversation here,” he said abruptly. “Come with me now.”

She glanced around wildly, and he wondered if she was actually considering trying to flee. To help her avoid the temptation, he gently lifted the baby from the stroller.

“What are you doing?” she gasped.

“Holding my son,” he said, and started walking. She immediately followed him to the elevator, as he’d known she would.

“Want me to come up with you, Mr. Moretti?” his bodyguard asked.

Cristiano shook his head. “Tell Natalia I won’t be able to attend the gala after all. Give her my apologies.”

“Sure, boss.”

Cristiano continued into the elevator, with Hallie’s stroller dogging his heels. Once inside, he pressed his fingerprint against the hidden button for the penthouse.

As they rode the elevator to the top floor, she watched him anxiously. He tried to act casual, as if he’d held a baby before, but he felt awkward. Even three-month-old Jack seemed to be looking up at him in disbelief, as if trying to decide whether to cry or not.

“You’re doing it wrong. Hold his head like this,” Hallie blurted out, positioning the baby differently in his arms. She shook her head impatiently. “Just give him to me.”

“Forget it,” he said crisply. Jack was his son and, in some respects, until he secured her loyalty as his wife, Hallie was his enemy. There was no way he’d admit he didn’t know what he was doing or give the baby back to her care in a sign of weakness and surrender.

The elevator door slid open onto a small hallway with a grand door and a smaller, inconspicuous one farther down. The top floor of the Campania Hotel was devoted exclusively to Cristiano’s penthouse and terraces, with a small separate apartment for his bodyguard. He had a similar penthouse in his flagship hotel in Rome and smaller private suites in his hotels in Tokyo, Sydney, Rio, London and Berlin. He could have rented out the space to paying guests when he was away for an exorbitant amount, but he kept them to himself. Life was about little indulgences, or what was the point of being rich? A man, particularly a wealthy playboy, needed privacy.

Hallie followed him anxiously into the penthouse, as if she feared he might drop the baby. It was insulting. Especially as Jack gave a soft whimper in Cristiano’s arms.

“Give him to me—now!” Hallie said.

Keeping his expression inscrutable and moving with deliberate slowness to show her that he was doing it as his own decision, not hers, he carefully handed her their son. Leaving the stroller in the foyer, she clung to the newborn as if they’d been separated for days.

“You bastard,” she choked out. “Dragging us up here. It’s practically kidnapping.”

“Kidnapping?” He looked down at her coldly. “How about trying to steal my son from me for the rest of my life?”

Some of the anger in her gaze faded. “If you cared so much, you should have taken my calls when I was pregnant!”

He hated that she was right. With a low, bitter laugh, he turned away. “You remember your way around, I presume?”

She followed him into the enormous room with its starkly modern furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a magnificent view of the city’s sparkling lights. To the left, an open-concept kitchen had all the latest appliances, none of which he’d ever used. There was a reason he chose to live in his own hotels.

He looked back at her. Hallie’s cheeks were pink. He wondered if she was remembering when she’d cleaned here, as the maid. Or if she was remembering, instead, the night she’d helped him mess everything up again, tangling the bedsheets in a night of passion so hot it had burned past all barriers to create a child. A night he could never forget.

“Have a seat,” he said coolly even as he fought the flash of heat at the memory. He indicated the white sofa that overlooked the spectacular view.

She tossed her head. “No, thanks. I don’t intend to be here long enough to—”

“Sit down,” he said more forcefully, and glaring at him, she obeyed, cradling the fussing baby in her arms.

Cristiano sat down in the white chair beside the sofa. He didn’t need to see the city view; he knew it so well by now it bored him. He looked only at her.

“If Jack is truly my son, he belongs with me.”

She set her jaw. “You’re only saying that because I insulted your pride. You don’t really care about him.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, you know that, do you? Because I’m an indecent excuse for a man? Because I couldn’t love someone if I tried?”

She had the decency to blush. “I’m sorry if that was rude. But it’s true.”

He restrained himself from tossing a few insults back in her face, insults she richly deserved. “You don’t trust me? Fine. I don’t trust you, either.” He looked down at the baby in her arms. “So from now on, my son is staying here.”

“No.”

“I will not allow him to disappear from my life just on your word that you’ll take good care of him.”

“And I won’t let you turn our lives upside down, just because I injured your masculine pride!”

That was all she thought it was? Controlling his temper, he took a deep breath.

“I know from experience what it is like to grow up with no father and no name,” he said slowly. “To live in poverty, with a mother too distracted by her own concerns to worry about mine. She moved us to a new town every time she took a new lover. Men who inevitably despised me as a burden, who thought I deserved to be screamed at, punched, starved.”

The color drained from Hallie’s face.

“What?” she whispered. “She didn’t protect you?”

Cristiano shook his head. “She couldn’t even protect herself. When I was eighteen, her last lover beat her almost to death. When I tried to intervene, she kicked me out.” He gave a hard smile. “I learned my lesson. You can only look out for yourself.”

Her soft eyes looked horrified, as if she’d never imagined any family could go so wrong. “I’m so sorry.”

Cristiano hated the pity in her eyes. He regretted saying so much. He’d never spoken about his past to anyone. “I just wanted you to understand.” He leaned forward in his chair. “I can’t let you leave with him, then spend my life wondering if you’re taking good care of my son, if you’ve taken lovers into your house who might hate him for crying, who might pick him up out of the crib and shake him hard until the crying stops—”

“I would never let that happen!”

“I know,” he said grimly. “Because he’s staying with me.”

“But—”

“Did you give him my last name?” he interrupted.

“His last name is Hatfield, like mine.”

“Something else that our marriage will rectify,” he said.

Hallie looked down at her baby softly whimpering in her arms. Her voice was small as she said with visible reluctance, “I might be willing to talk about...about shared custody.”

Why was she continuing to argue? Repressing his rising anger, he shook his head. “Marriage.”

“But why?”

“I’ve given you the reasons.” Suddenly he was finished trying to reason with her, trying to explain. He’d been far more patient and open with her than she deserved. For all the good it had done. He narrowed his eyes. “The discussion is over. We will wed. The decision is made.”

“Made by you. But you’re not my boss. Not anymore.”

Cristiano tilted his head. He said in a deceptively casual voice, “You can refuse my proposal, of course.”

“Then I refuse.”

“Then our son stays with me.”

Wide-eyed, she breathed, “Just because you’re his biological father you think you have the right to take him from me? I’m his mother!”

“And I have an entire team of lawyers at my disposal. What do you have? Nothing. You’ve already indicated you’re a liar and a flight risk. I’d request an immediate injunction from a judge to prevent you from ever leaving New York.”

“Liar? When did I ever lie?”

“Just now. When you took a hundred thousand dollars from me under false pretenses, then tried to run away with my son without telling me he existed.”

Hallie’s face was deathly pale. The baby’s whimpers rose to soft wails.

“I am a liar,” she said suddenly. “You’re not Jack’s father, Cristiano. You never were. It was all a...a plot. To get money from you.”

“You’re the worst liar I’ve ever seen.”

“I slept with five men right after you!” Her voice rose desperately. “Any of them could be his father. Here—take your money back!”

Pulling the folded check from the pocket of her sundress, she held it out to him.

Cristiano’s lips curved.

“Why, Hallie,” he said, without moving to take it, “are you trying to bribe me to give up my parental rights?”

Stuffing the check back in her pocket, she rose trembling to her feet. “I wish I’d never come here!”

His voice turned hard. “Sit down.”

“And I don’t care what you say.” She lifted her chin. “Our justice system wouldn’t take a baby from his mother!”

“So dramatic.” He added with dark amusement, “You have a lot of faith in something you clearly know nothing about. How do you think judges and juries decide the truth? They believe the best lawyers with the best arguments. And what kind of lawyer would you find to represent you? An inexperienced pro bono attorney fresh out of law school? Some tired hack working on contingency? You’ll have no chance. You will lose.”

Cristiano watched the emotions struggle on Hallie’s beautiful face. Remembering how she’d almost walked out with his child, he didn’t feel sorry for her. At all.

He looked down at Jack, now loudly complaining in Hallie’s arms. It had been so close. It scared him to think about it. If he hadn’t been suspicious and followed her into the lobby, he never would have known. His son would have grown up believing his father had abandoned him. Rejected him.

Exactly as Cristiano’s father had.

Hallie looked down at her wailing baby. “He’s hungry,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “Where can I go?”

“Right here.”

“I’m not nursing him in front of you.”

“I don’t trust you not to run off.”

“Fine,” she bit out as the baby’s wails increased. “At least turn around.”

“Of course.” He turned toward the wall of windows overlooking the city. The baby’s crying ceased almost immediately, changing to soft, contented murmurs.

Cristiano’s shoulders relaxed, and he realized that he’d been tense, feeling his son’s unhappiness. He felt more sure than ever that his impulsive decision, demanding marriage, was right. It was the only way to ensure the baby’s comfort and security.

His son’s childhood would be completely different from his own. Jack wouldn’t be abandoned by a father who cared only about his business empire, or left to the devices of a mother who cared only about her own selfish needs. He would never worry about getting beaten or having enough to eat. Jack would always have a stable home. And two loving parents.

Cristiano would do whatever it took, make any sacrifice, to make it so. And so would Hallie.

He would leave her no other choice.

Rising from the white chair, still with his back to her, he pulled out his phone, pressed a button and lifted it to his ear.

“Contact Dr. Garcia,” he told his executive assistant, Marcia Lattimer, when she answered. “Tell him I’m bringing a woman and baby in twenty minutes for a checkup and paternity test.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What?” Hallie said in alarm behind him.

“Ask Matthews to pull the limo around,” he continued. He remembered the baby. “On second thought, the SUV. Have the concierge arrange a new baby seat to be sent down. Whatever is required for a three-month-old. I want it installed and ready by the time we’re downstairs.”

“Of course, Mr. Moretti,” Marcia murmured. She was well paid to be on call around the clock. “Anything else?”

“I’ll let you know,” he said, and hung up.

“Paternity test?” Hallie’s voice was low but enraged. “You don’t even believe he’s yours?”

“Can I turn around?”

“Yes.”

He looked at her calmly. He was pleased to see the baby now sleeping contentedly in her arms. “You said he was mine. Then you said he wasn’t.”

She looked furious. “You know!”

“I believe he is mine, but I want proof.”

She tossed her head. “What kind of quack doctor will do a paternity test in the middle of the night? It’s after nine!”

Cristiano was amused that she thought of nine o’clock as the middle of the night. His own nights out often didn’t start until eleven. “Dr. Garcia is my personal physician, one of the best in the city. He also appreciates that I fully fund his medical research.”

She ground her teeth. “Is everyone in this city on your payroll? Do you always get what you want?”

“Yes,” he said simply, to both.

Ten minutes later, they were seated in the back of a huge black SUV with tinted windows and a brand-new baby seat installed between them.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” called Matthews from the driver’s seat. “Cute little guy you’ve got there.” He looked at Cristiano in the rearview mirror. “I understand congratulations are in order, sir?”

“Thank you,” Cristiano said. He tenderly lifted a soft blue blanket against his sleeping baby’s plump cheek. Feeling Hallie’s gaze, Cristiano looked up. A current of electricity passed between them.

Biting her full, pink lower lip, she abruptly looked away. But his body was still aware of her. A new thought went through Cristiano.

He’d intended to marry her as a matter of honor and duty, but there would be compensations.

A year ago, he’d sent her away for her own good—and his. But fate had changed their lives. Now, through their child, they would always be connected.

Married.

And marriage would have other benefits. A wedding night. Endless sensual delights.

He wanted to kiss her. His gaze traced over the curve of her cheek, over the visible tremble of her pink lips as she stubbornly stared out the window into the dark city streets. He wondered how long it would take him to seduce her.

Would it be tomorrow?

Tonight?

Either way, Cristiano knew that nothing could now deny him the pleasure of taking Hallie to his bed. He would possess every inch of her. Every night. For as long as he desired.

Once they were wed, she would be his.

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