The Surprise Conti Child by Tara Pammi Page B

heart pumping hard.
    â€œ Grazie , Alexis.” Mockery laced with politeness. “Hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t introduce my fiancée to you. It might prove a little tacky after the shock she received on the eve of her engagement.”
    Her cup rattled on the saucer loudly in the peaceful courtyard, his sickly sweet tone jarring her. “I didn’t know or I would’ve never—”
    â€œI know.”
    His instant accord took the sails away from under her. “Neither did I come here hoping for some fat payoff.”
    â€œSo you will refuse if I set up a trust fund for Isabella then?”
    She quickly swallowed her shock. And the oily, uncomfortable feeling in her throat. “No. I...manage okay but I won’t refuse something that’ll surely help Izzie’s future.” It galled her to admit defeat in so many words, to recount her failure to a man who made everything he touched into gold. But for Izzie, she had to. “The accident, on top of some bad business decisions I made last year...everything’s been tight. College tuition when she’s ready is going to be astronomical.”
    His protracted look stung as she realized how he must view her ready answer. Defensive on top of feeling like a failure made her spine rigid and her tone caustic. “I have a six-year-old, a health store that’s afloat for now and aging parents. I’m practical, not a piranha.”
    â€œDid I imply otherwise?”
    â€œWhatever you decide, you can lock it up. I won’t touch it.”
    Their gazes held, his inscrutable and hers confused.
    If he believed that she hadn’t known about his engagement, and that she wasn’t looking for a retirement package in the name of Izzie, then why was there was a storm of fury beneath his smooth tone?
    Why such a distant, adversarial glint in his eyes when he looked at her?
    But asking meant getting personal. Asking meant allowing herself to examine why the news of his engagement sat like a jagged boulder on her chest. Asking meant learning how little of an impression she had left that night.
    For as long as she could remember, her mom and her own failures at everything remotely related to academia and a career had made Alex clearly aware of all her shortcomings. She’d been measured, again and again, first against Adrian and then against his ghost and had come up short every time.
    She didn’t want to hear it from the man who had been an escape and a gift she’d given herself, too.
    â€œI should be leaving,” she said into the silence.
    He flicked her a quick glance and nodded. “We’ll leave in ten minutes.”
    Alex whirled toward him so fast that she lost her balance. A corded forearm pressed into her belly holding her up.
    She closed her eyes, the heat of him stroking every suppressed desire.
    Heart rapping a staccato beat, muscles quivering, she struggled to remember what had sent her into panic.
    â€œ We ...you said we .”
    His arm rigid around her, his warm breath brushing her cheek, he studied her with an infuriating calm. “ Si. ”
    Panic fluttered in her belly. “Why?”
    â€œI’m coming with you.”
    â€œTo Milan?”
    â€œTo New York.”
    Her gut flopped to her feet, leaving her hollow.
    But his gaze remained serious.
    Alex shook her head as if the action could bring her teetering world back to balance. “I don’t understand.”
    Tapered fingers tightened over her slender wrist. Even in the sensual fog her senses waded through, Alex wondered if that was the true marker of his mood. “I wish to avoid the bother of calling you later, making an appointment, intruding on your busy life, dragging us all through the whole process again. With my forthcoming wedding and an irate fiancée to appease, it is better to get this out of the way.”
    â€œGet what out of the way?” she whispered.
    Hardness edged in with the casual