Happy Mother's Day! - By Sharon Kendrick Page 0,46

in a much more leisurely appraisal—as if her words had just given him permission to do so.

It was astonishing how all the weight she had carried along with Claudio seemed to have melted away. Her breasts were heavier, true—but that was no bad thing—and there was a new and irresistible softness about her. Like an ice cream which was beginning to melt, making you want to lick it all up. A nerve flickered at his temple and his voice grew husky.

‘I think you know which kind of marriage would work best—especially as the sex between us is so good. We can thrash out the details later—the important thing is that we agree the contract in principle.’

Especially as the sex is so good?

Thrash out the details later?

Aisling was glad that she was sitting down. He could not have found a more insultingly cold-blooded way of putting it if he had tried. Yet wasn’t he only doing what she had attempted to do for most of her life until she’d met him? To keep messy emotion at bay?

The trouble was that her heart had somehow become involved along the way. It still was. And now that they shared a child—there would never be any real peace, nor escape from him and this terrible aching deep inside her. She might bear his name as she had borne his child, but his love would never be hers. ‘And what if I won’t marry you?’

Gianluca’s eyes narrowed, for he did not underestimate her—though surely she must recognise that she was in no position to bargain with him? She was an intelligent woman, sì—but she did not have his resources. And neither did she have this terrible fear that if his son was taken from his life, then his heart might as well be ripped from his chest. For a man the world perceived as having everything, Gianluca realised that unless he had Claudio, he had nothing.

‘Then I will fight you in the courts,’ he vowed softly. ‘However long and however much it takes—I will fight you for custody, cara. And I will win, Aisling—because I always do.’

‘Then there is nothing left to say, is there?’ she asked him quietly. ‘Yes, I will marry you. There. You have your victory, Gianluca.’

His eyes narrowed as she bit her lip and turned her head away and a brief but unexpected thought flew into his mind.

That if victory it was—it suddenly seemed a rather hollow one.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE marriage took place in a small, hillside church in Umbria—not far from Gianluca’s vineyard home.

It was an odd kind of wedding, attended only by a handful of guests—Gianluca’s old nanny, his lawyer and the town mayor. Aisling had wanted to treat the occasion as a mere formality and wear something smart from her existing wardrobe—as if not making a fuss might protect her from the emotional fallout of marrying a man who did not love her.

But Suzy had persuaded her otherwise, in spite of her own disappointment at not being invited because Aisling had told her fiercely that it was only a marriage of convenience. A legal formality and nothing more—done for Claudio and no other reason.

‘Even if it is all that—it’s a celebration,’ Suzy insisted. ‘You can’t just treat it like any other day.’

‘He doesn’t love me.’

‘But you love him, don’t you?’

Aisling’s eyes filled with tears. Oh, yes. More than she had thought possible. ‘Of course I love him,’ she whispered. ‘It’s crazy, but I do. And it’s a million times stronger since I gave birth to his son.’ Furiously, she dabbed at her eyes with a small fist. ‘He thinks I got pregnant to trap him.’ ‘You didn’t, did you?’

‘Of course I didn’t!’ Aisling wailed. ‘But if you can think it—no wonder he does!’

Suzy shook her head. ‘None of this is relevant, Aisling,’ she said softly. ‘All that matters is that you have a baby between you and the marriage is going ahead. You’ve got to make the best of it—for Claudio’s sake, if nothing else. Look on it as a celebration of him, of this brand-new life you’ve created. Make him be proud of his mother when he looks back at the wedding photos!’

And it was those words which struck a chord and stirred Aisling into action. Didn’t she owe it to Claudio to make the most of what circumstances had thrown at her?

So she bought a simple ivory-coloured silk dress—even though she had been tempted to go for something in a colour she usually wore, so that she