Blinking fast, she looked up at his face for the last time, trying to memorize his features into her memory. The aquiline silhouette of his nose. The hard angle of his jaw. His eyes like dark embers, blazing fire. “I hope your life is full of joy. I’ll never forget you.” She turned away. “Good-bye.”
Lilley started walking back towards the villa, her sandals squishing in the wet grass, her heart breaking.
His hand grabbed her shoulder, whirling her around. He looked down at her as the rain continued to pound them both. His eyes burned with fury. “You think you can tell me you’re pregnant—and just leave?”
Lilley sucked in her breath, almost frightened at the darkness in his eyes. “There is no reason for me to stay—”
“No reason?” His voice was nearly a shout. He visibly controlled himself. His jaw twitched as he loosened his grip on her upper arms. “If you truly are pregnant with my child,” he ground out, “how can you just turn and leave? How can you be so cold?”
“Cold?” she gasped, ripping away. “What do you want from me? You want me to fall to the ground and cling to your knees, begging for you to love me and this baby, begging for you never to let me go?”
“That at least I would understand!”
“I can’t change your nature!” she cried, then took a deep gulping breath. “You made
your feelings clear. You want a wife you can be proud of. You want Olivia. And you want me three thousand miles away!”
His eyes narrowed as he said in a low voice, “That was before.”
“Nothing has changed.”
“Everything has changed, if the baby is really mine.”
It took several seconds for the meaning of his words to sink in. Then her eyes went wide. “You think I would sleep with another man, then lie to you about it?”
Alessandro’s posture was so taut, he seemed like a statue. Like a stone. She could barely hear his voice as he said, “It happens.” His expression looked strange. “You might have gone back to the jewelry designer. Accidentally gotten pregnant, than decided to cash in.”
“Cash in?” she said incredulously. “Cash in how?”
He searched her gaze. “Do you swear you’re telling me the truth? The child is mine?”
“Of course the baby is yours! You’re the only man I’ve ever slept with in my whole life!”
“I want a paternity test.”
She stiffened. “What?”
“You heard me.”
The insult was almost too much to bear. “Forget it,” she whispered. “I’m not doing some stupid paternity test. If you trust me so little, if you believe I’d lie to you about something like this, then just forget it.”
Lilley’s body shook as she turned and walked away. Tears streamed down her face, blending with the rain. She was halfway across the empty lawn before he stopped her, and this time, the expression on his face had changed.
“I’m sorry, Lilley,” he said quietly. “I do know you. And you wouldn’t lie.”
Their eyes locked. She exhaled as the knots in her shoulders loosened. Then he spoke.
“Marry me.”
She heard the roar of her own heartbeat above the splatter of rain. “Is that a joke?”
His sensual lips curved upward. “I never joke, remember?”
Her head was spinning. She’d never expected him to propose, not in a million years, not in her most delusional dreams. “You … want to marry me?”
“Is that so surprising? What did you expect—that I’d kick you and our unborn child to the curb and merrily go and propose to another woman?”
Biting her lip, she looked up at the ruthless lines of his face. “Well … yes.”