The Italian's Pregnancy Proposal (Bought For Her Baby Series Book 3) Read online

  ’Buona mattina.’

  He took her by surprise, coming up behind her and sliding his hands down her bare arms in her white sleeveless blouse. Inevitably, Bliss’s heartbeat went wild at the sensation of his warm, tantalising flesh against hers. He smelt so good, too, fresh and clean and as sexy and promising as a Mediterranean summer.

  ‘Good morning.’

  ‘I think this is my favourite spot.’

  ‘I don’t blame you, the view is amazing.’

  ‘I meant this spot.’ To Bliss’s shock, Dante pressed his lips against the curve where her shoulder joined her neck and his heat and touch combined were like a firebrand. How was she expected to withstand such pleasure almost beyond imagining?

  ‘I missed not having you in my bed last night.’ His mouth moved up with maddening slowness to her ear and kissed that too. Inside her blouse, Bliss’s breasts grew heavy and achy with desire and she yearned to experience his touch again there too.

  ‘Dante…your parents might see.’ She twisted round so that she was facing him, and her breath was all but stolen from her lungs at the sight of the sexy, slumberous smile playing about his taunting lips.

  ‘What will they see?’ he asked carelessly. ‘Their son showing his appreciation for the beautiful woman he is going to marry?’

  ‘You don’t have to marry me, Dante.’ Unable to prevent her fears from stealing her joy of the moment, Bliss tried to avoid his searching gaze. She might be going to have his child, but she still could not understand why he seemed so eager…happy almost, at the idea of marrying her. How could she possibly compare to all the truly beautiful girls that must gaze at Dante and sigh for his attention? She was a veritable nobody…an ex-shop assistant who hadn’t had a clue what she wanted to do with the rest of her life until Dante had inadvertently walked into it. While, in contrast, he was everything. And didn’t he deserve to be in love with the woman he married? Not be forced to wed her just because she was expecting his child?

  ‘What do you mean, I don’t have to marry you?’ He stepped back a little, his expression wary.

  ‘I know things seem pretty imperative…because of the baby and everything. But surely people should marry because they love each other. Not just out of necessity.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth Bliss regretted her unguarded moment. It was almost like bearing her soul to confess such a loaded opinion—as if she secretly did believe in falling in love and happy ever after, when she knew the opposite to be true. Her skin prickling with discomfort because Dante appeared in no hurry to comment one way or the other, Bliss was about to turn away when his words stopped her in her tracks.

  ‘I think I will come to care for you a great deal, Bliss, if that is what you are worrying about. But we have to give our marriage time. I will be a good husband, I think. You and our child will not want for anything. And you will not lack passion in your life, I promise you. I will be a faithful and attentive lover.’

  His eyes visibly darkened like a Connemara sky when the sun set in the west, and Bliss didn’t doubt he meant every word. The very air between them when they were together was ignitable. But still a small part of her heart seemed to curl up and die at the absence of the word ‘love’ in his reply.

  ‘And you will not feel that something is…that something is missing, Dante?’ she asked quietly, her violet eyes glistening in her small heart-shaped face.

  ’Buongiorno, Bliss! I have waited a long time for this moment and I will not wait a moment longer!’

  Swallowing down her hurt, Bliss nevertheless found a smile for the tall, imposing man in his rolled-up shirtsleeves walking slowly but determinedly towards her with the use of a cane. Feeling herself enveloped in what she could only describe as a huge bear hug, she glanced at Dante past his father’s shoulder and was gratified at least to find that he was smiling too.

  ‘You must be Antonio? Dante’s father. I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you too.’

  Antonio grinned from ear to ear at her polite but warm greeting. As he turned towards his son it would have been hard to find a more happy man on earth right then by the delight on his face.

  ‘She is charming, Dante, just charming! My Ana told me I would like her and she was right.’ Returning his attention to Bliss, Antonio sagely nodded his silver-grey head, something poignant and deeply stirring in his dark brown eyes as his gaze surveyed her. ‘I make up my mind very quickly about people, Bliss Maguire—and already I know that you are going to make my beloved son the best wife. Yes…I know that.’

  ‘Papà is happier than I have seen him for a long time, my son.’ Arranging some fruit in a bowl on the raffia table, Isabella di Andrea paused for a long moment to rest her gaze on Dante’s tall, restless figure as he paced slowly from one end of the long wraparound veranda to the other. With a mother’s concern, she knew he had a lot on his mind right then, and most of it was no doubt concerning the young woman that was soon to be his wife.

  ‘You know that your happiness means everything to him?’

  ‘Does it?’ Wishing he could push away the inevitable onrush of hurt that arose inside his chest at the familiar doubts that beset him, Dante glanced at his mother, then quickly glanced away again.

  Isabella looked stunned. ‘You have to ask me that question, son? You must know your father worships the ground you walk upon. He always has!’

  ‘You don’t think that I am a disappointment to him? A reminder of the fact that his parents rejected him because of my birth?’

  Isabella’s hands dropped to her sides. Behind the brilliant sapphire hue of her eyes, Dante could see that she was shocked.

  ‘Where has this nonsense come from, Dante di Andrea? You know that you could not possibly be a disappointment to Antonio! And it was your papà who rejected his parents because they refused to countenance his relationship with Katherine, even when she was expecting his child. It is sad that they are gone, but Antonio does not regret breaking ties with them. They were bitter with him about Katherine to the end—they would not even acknowledge your existence. Your papà had to struggle to support you. Can you blame your father for doing what he did?’

  ‘I do not blame Papà. Of course I don’t!’ Feeling emotion well up inside him and almost threaten to unbalance him, Dante gripped the white balustrade of the veranda and stared unseeingly out at the vista of chestnut trees that made up the forest in the distance. ‘It was not his fault that I was different.’

  ‘Different?’ Now Isabella pulled out a chair and sat in it, her hands no longer busy with arranging fruit.

  ‘I felt different,’ Dante repeated, glancing only briefly across at the woman in the chair. ‘Illegitimate. Not a member of the family. I was jealous of Stefano and Tatiana. I was on my own for a long time until Papà married you, and Papà was always working and did not have a lot of time for me. Then when you had my brother and sister your love for them was guaranteed because they were your natural children. Any falling out between the three of us, I blamed on myself because I was not of the same blood. An outsider. Every day I grew more and more aware that I was not the same as them. It made me work harder and harder to impress my father—to have his approval so that he would never regret having me.’ His green eyes narrowing, Dante turned to face his mother. ‘I wanted your unconditional love too, Isabella. I wanted you to be as proud of me as you are of Stefano and Tatiana.’

  Without regard that she was not as young and as lithe as she used to be, Isabella fairly flew across the space separating them to pull Dante into her arms. Murmuring endearments over and over again as she stroked his hair and kissed his face, she did not once feel ashamed for crying. The mere existence of Dante’s belief that he had never thought himself truly her son, or that she did not love him with the same passionate devotion as her other two children, almost had the ability to stop her heart from beating. ‘You were my first bambino, Dante, and I loved you from the very first moment I saw you. So serious you were with your sad green eyes and wary looks! A mother’s fi
rst child always holds a special place in her heart. My son, I would give up my life for you and would feel privileged to do so.’

  ’Sì.’ His throat convulsing and unable to prevent the hot well of tears that filled his eyes, Dante clasped Isabella hard into his chest and held her. ‘I would do the same for you, Mamma.’

  Dozing in the sunshine, Bliss heard a movement behind her. When a large hand pressed comfortingly down upon her shoulder, she removed her sunglasses and sat up, startled to find Antonio di Andrea beaming down at her. He lowered himself into the white raffia chair next to her sun lounger, his smiling brown eyes not leaving her for a moment.

  ‘You know what you have done for me, Bliss?’

  Not knowing either what to say or what to expect next, Bliss stayed silent.

  ‘You must forgive the cliché, but you have made an old man very, very happy. Of all my children, I have always worried about Dante the most. He is not like Stefano or Tatiana. When he has a problem he takes it inside himself; he does not share it with his family. With you as his wife, he will learn to share his worries and you will be a comfort and a support to him.’

  Slipping her sunglasses back onto her nose, Bliss was inundated with an ache so strong, she had to take a minute to compose herself. What would Dante say if he knew that she had fallen in love with him and would gladly be his comfort and support in times of stress if he so wished it? Would he think twice about marrying her because he wouldn’t want to disappoint her in that department himself? He’d told her that he would be a good husband, and that she wouldn’t lack passion in her life, but what was passion without love in a relationship? It would be like a beautiful bloom left to die without being tended. Denied water and sustenance, it would eventually wither and turn to dust.

  ‘Your son is a good man, Mr di Andrea.’ What could she say to Dante’s father but state the obvious? Another man would have run a mile at the knowledge that a woman he’d known only briefly was pregnant with his child, but Dante had not tried to escape his responsibilities.

  ‘Please, call me Antonio. Do me this honour, piccola. I have just lost a precious son-in-law, but God is good because now I am to gain another beautiful daughter.’

  ‘That’s kind of you to say.’

  Antonio’s bushy eyebrows shot up to his hairline. ‘You will learn this about me, Bliss. I never say things I do not mean. And I do not forget that you also helped my beloved daughter in her hour of need. And now you are to give my son a child…that makes my heart glad too. I am not surprised that Dante should see you and immediately fall in love.’

  She was glad of the dark shield of her sunglasses at that moment, as it took every ounce of courage she had in her for Bliss to hold back her tears. Dante hadn’t fallen in love with her, as Antonio surmised, but right now she would not want to disappoint an already ill man with such a confession. He clearly thought the world of his son and if it brought him ease to believe that theirs was a love match, then who was Bliss to deny him that joy?

  ’Papà.’ The subject of both their thoughts appeared through the patio doors, looking suntanned and gorgeous in a white shirt and tan trousers, his bronzed feet intriguingly bare. ‘I am to inform you that your nurse says it is time for you to take your medication.’

  Antonio’s eyes twinkled with merriment as he glanced first at Bliss, then his son. ‘She is a tyrant, that one. Your mamma must have hired her from the military, make no mistake!’

  Bliss automatically left her lounger to help him get back onto his feet as he briefly struggled to right himself and get hold of his walking cane. But Dante was just as swift, his hand glancing against hers as his arm came around his father’s ample waist and helped him get his bearings.

  ‘Military or not, she is here for your benefit, Papà, and you must heed her advice, sì?’

  ‘Okay, okay! You don’t have to fuss around me like I am a two-year-old, eh? Stay here with your lovely young woman and enjoy your free time together before Mamma descends on you both again with talk of your wedding! And I hope that you have told Bliss that we have friends and relatives coming over this afternoon to meet her? Do not be alarmed, Bliss, they are all good people and only want to share in our joy that our son is getting married.’

  But Bliss did feel alarmed. Suddenly this coming marriage of theirs was becoming too real and too close for comfort. How could she possibly back out of it when everyone was being told that it was going to happen? More to the point—how could she disappoint Isabella and Antonio when they had opened their arms to her unquestioningly and been so kind?

  Catching the fleeting panic in her eyes, Dante dipped his head in a brief nod, as if to say, We will talk.

  When he had seen her sitting there out on the veranda conversing with his father, Dante had been unable to deny the sense of pleasure the sight had given him. She was looking exquisitely beautiful in a white sun-top with thin shoestring straps and a white antique-lace skirt, her pretty feet bare and her dark hair softly caressing the back of her neck, and he had let the inevitable heat the sight of her stirred roll over him. Combined with the already fierce heat of the nearly noonday sun beating down on the veranda, it had made him think of—and more urgently, want—only one thing. Seeing his father safely inside into the care of his nurse, Dante did not linger in his return to the veranda.

  ‘Perhaps you should come inside? It is very hot sitting out here and I do not want you to burn.’

  Reaching for her sunscreen, Bliss twisted off the cap and threw him a brief smile behind her glasses. ‘I’m okay. I’ve got my protection. You can’t deny me the enjoyment of some sun after the weather we usually have to endure at home.’

  Her words transfixed him. Right now he did not want to deny her a single thing. If she were to ask him for the largest, most precious, most desired jewel in the world, he would do his best to get it for her. Once again the realisation that she carried his child inside her womb stirred deeply powerful feelings of possession and protection inside him, making him wish their wedding were today and not in nearly two weeks’ time. ‘If you’re going to insist on staying out here a little while longer then at least let me make sure you will not burn.’

  Before Bliss realised what he intended, he pulled up the raffia chair his father had just vacated and sat in it, then took the tube of sunscreen out of her hand. ‘Pull down your straps,’ he ordered, his voice barely able to maintain its equilibrium at the sight of her unblemished, silky skin.

  Her hand trembled as she undertook what should have been a perfectly easy, straightforward request and she just thanked her lucky stars that she hadn’t been foolish enough to sit out here in her swimsuit, which was what she had originally considered when she had realised how warm it was. At least there was not too much bare skin on show for her to worry about. But as Dante’s beautiful hands began to rub cream into first one shoulder, then the other, Bliss had to shut her eyes to absorb the tiny explosions of exquisitely sensual sensation that he triggered all over her body. She squirmed with the need to let him touch her all over. She even had to squeeze her thighs together to prevent them from naturally relaxing and inviting his attention to that secret place at their apex. There was no doubt about it, Dante di Andrea had a touch that was intoxicating. Just one brief glance of his flesh against hers could make Bliss come undone. He might be just rubbing sunscreen into a perfectly respectable area of skin, but, as far as Bliss was concerned, he could just as well be making love to her out here in the open. The thought sent a fresh throb of need flooding through her bloodstream because suddenly the very idea of doing just that was so powerful that she almost told him out loud what was in her mind and to hell with the consequences. At the last moment, she bit down hard on her lip to prevent herself from saying anything.

  All the moisture in Dante’s mouth seemed to evaporate when he saw her nipples clearly harden inside the thin material of her sun-top. Then, before Bliss could protest, he started to sensuously rub cream into the exposed area just above her breasts, his fingers ever
y so often dipping below the square neckline of her top to reach underneath and get closer and closer to that part of her body that he longed to caress. Not just with his fingers, but with his lips and his tongue and his teeth. Santo cielo! If there was an exercise in sheer, sensual torture, then this must surely be it. Did the woman want to drive him out of his mind, letting him do something as provocative as massage sun cream into her skin? He swore. Out loud. Even though the curse had been in his native Italian, he knew that Bliss could not fail to recognise that it was no line of poetry.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Perturbed, she hastily pushed back the shoestring straps of her top into place and twisted round to look at Dante.

  ‘I want to take you somewhere.’

  If the fierce noonday heat was making her skin sizzle, then Dante’s hot, hungry gaze was all but making her burst into flames.

  ‘Where?’ Her voice was a mere husk of its former self in response.

  ‘Somewhere that we can be alone.’

  He spread out the blanket beneath the grove of trees and, sheltered by the thick leafy foliage they provided, he urged Bliss to the ground with him, holding her gaze as intently as only a man pushed to the limits of his desire could.

  ‘You may not feel comfortable with us sharing a room in my parents’ house, but out here we can be free, no?’

  Making no protest when he urged her urgently into his arms, Bliss knew her will was already banished to some far-off country when it came to resisting Dante. She had no will around him—at least not one that would help her stay this side of sensible.