Second-Time Bride by Lynne Graham Page B

slight misunderstanding had occurred and he had falsely assumed that she was protected from pregnancy. Even with Alessio in hot pursuit, Daisy was childishly delighted to have finally been able to throw that important fact in his teeth.
    â€˜Watch out! You’re going to fall and break your neck!’ Alessio blazed, sounding far too close for comfort.
    In her attempt to speed up, Daisy missed her footing and lurched forward. She gasped as a powerful hand suddenly closed on the collar of her jacket to steady her and haul her back up a safe step. Whisking her round, Alessio imprisoned her between his hard, muscular length and the landing wall without noticing that her feet were no longer connected to solid ground.
    â€˜ Dio ...how dare you accuse me of being relieved when you lost our baby?’ Alessio thundered down at her, glittering golden eyes splintering with violent anger, his hands anchored to her narrow ribcage to hold her entrapped. ‘I went on a binge! I got so damned drunk, I nearly killed myself! I didn’t have the guts to come to that hospital...I was too ashamed to face you! I didn’t know what to say when it was too late to say it. “Sorry” wasn’t likely to cover it when our baby was dead!’
    As he slowly released her, she slid down the wall again and one of her shoes fell off but Daisy wasn’t up to fumbling blindly for it. Keeping herself balanced on tiptoe on one side, she gaped up at him, violet eyes wide with astonishment at what he was telling her.
    â€˜I showed up three days later and you had gone,’ Alessio added unsteadily, dense dark lashes screening his gaze from her, but not before she had seen the savage pain and guilt in the stormy depths of his darkened eyes. ‘My father told me that if I put one foot onto a flight for London he would personally kill me! He said I’d done enough damage. But I didn’t listen to him until Bianca told me about the money and convinced me that that was all you had wanted from the start—’
    â€˜I doubt you needed much persuasion.’
    â€˜You’d gone,’ Alessio said again. ‘You agreed to a divorce without even discussing it with me!’
    â€˜But that’s what you wanted,’ Daisy pointed out very shakily.
    Aggressively taut, his strong face shuttered, Alessio took a step back from her. Her throat was working, her insides churning, but all she could think about was the fierce pain and remorse he had revealed—feelings that she had never once dreamt he might be experiencing in the aftermath of their breakup.
    The noisy sound of a door swinging back on its hinges came from above them, followed by the echo of chattering female voices.
    â€˜Come back upstairs,’ Alessio demanded harshly.
    Daisy dug her foot back into her lost shoe and sidled away from him, terrified that she was about to break down in tears in front of him. Right now, she didn’t think that she could cope with any more. And she had done what she had come to do. She had told him about Tara and he needed time to think about that. Did he appreciate that himself? Was that why he had concentrated on their past rather than on the revelation that he had a daughter? Or was the reality more that he had not yet been able even to begin to absorb that news?
    â€˜I’ll phone you...t-tomorrow,’ Daisy stammered sickly, gripping the handrail with a perspiring palm as she immediately began to head downwards again.
    Alessio ground out a frustrated imprecation in his own language as the footsteps above grew louder and closer.
    Daisy took advantage of the approaching company to flee, and she didn’t glance back this time. Tears were blinding her as she reached the final flight of stairs. The heel of one of her shoes went skittering off the edge of a step and she fell heavily with a bitten-off gasp of fright. Briefly her body was numbed by the force of her fall. Then the pain came in a stomach-churning