Latin Lovers: Italian Playboys: Bought for the Marriage Bed / The Italian GP's Bride / The Italian's Defiant Mistress. Kate Hardy
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… just.’
Robert Highgate tut-tutted sympathetically, ‘A terrible blow, and so soon after your mother.’
‘Yes.’
Nina privately thought Marc’s one word response spoke volumes. While he showed little emotion on his face, something in his voice suggested to her he was a man who felt deeply for all that. It made her see him in a new light. Not so much a hard-driven businessman who wanted to conquer the world, riding over people obstructing his way, but a man with a need to protect those he loved and felt responsible for.
He would make a wonderful father for Georgia.
The thought slipped into her mind and once in there took hold until she could think of nothing else. Visions of him with Georgia during her first Christmas, her first tooth, her first steps, her first day at school … her first boyfriend.
‘What do you think, Nina?’ Marc directed his gaze towards her.
Nina stared at him in blank confusion. ‘Sorry?’
‘Robert suggested we draw up a separate trust file on Georgia. Andre’s estate now belongs to her, but until she comes of age—’
She got to her feet in sudden agitation, holding Georgia close to her chest to avoid disturbing her. ‘I told you I’m not interested in Andre’s estate.’
Marc sent her a quick warning glance but it was too late. Robert Highgate had seen the exchange and was at liberty to make his own conclusions.
‘I’ll have the necessary papers drawn up,’ he informed Marc diplomatically as he reached for the door. ‘Again, I wish you both well.’
‘Thank you,’ Marc said and, turning to Nina with an arch of one brow, prompted, ‘Nina?’
She gave the lawyer a wan smile. ‘Thank you, Mr Highgate, for explaining everything to me.’
‘No problem.’ Robert held out his hand and grasped hers firmly. ‘You know you’re nothing like I thought you’d be, if you don’t mind me saying.’
‘I—I’m not?’ Nina’s stomach rolled over. God, had Nadia met him too at some stage?
‘No,’ Robert said. ‘But then you know what those gossip columns are like; they make that stuff up to sell the next magazine.’
Nina’s heart instantly sank. She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot as she tortured herself with images of her scantily clad sister cavorting at God knew which of Sydney’s nightclubs in order to have her photo plastered over some seedy gossip page.
She lowered her gaze to the child in her arms and affected a demure pose. ‘That’s all behind me now. I’m a changed person.’
‘I congratulate you for it,’ Robert Highgate said. ‘Bringing up a child is a very maturing experience. Do you have any family—parents and so on?’
She shook her head, carefully avoiding his eyes. ‘No, no family. My father died when I was a baby and my mother died three years ago.’
Marc frowned as he listened to the exchange between his lawyer and his soon-to-be wife. He suddenly realised how little he knew of Nina and her background. He knew she was known to be an unprincipled whore who had made it her life’s goal to hunt down a rich husband to set her up for life, but he hadn’t known she had grown up without a father and had so recently lost her mother. His own grief reminded him of how devastating losing a parent could be and something inside him shifted a little ground. Yes, she was undoubtedly an opportunist and she sure as hell had driven his brother to his untimely end … but she clearly loved Georgia, which still somehow surprised him.
The door closed behind the lawyer and Georgia began to grizzle. Nina extracted her from the baby-carrier and, reaching for the nappy bag, looked across at Marc who was standing in a brooding silence behind his desk.
‘I think she needs her nappy changed,’ she said.
‘Would you like me to do it?’ he offered.
Nina stared at him in silent horror for a moment. How could she let him change Georgia’s nappy with the faint smudge of bruises still on her tiny chest?
‘No,’ she said flatly.
Something came and went in his eyes and she knew she had offended him. He wanted to be a father to Georgia, a real and involved father who would feed and change a baby without rearing away in distaste as some men would do. But until those bruises were gone she had no choice but to keep him well away from Georgia without the shield of her clothes.
‘There is a bathroom two doors down,’ he said, moving from behind the desk. ‘Do you have what you need with you?’
Nina gave him an imperious look as she held up the well-stocked nappy bag. ‘I have done this before, you know.’
Marc didn’t answer but he held the door open for her as she stalked past him with her head held high. He watched as she made her way down the corridor to where the bathroom was situated, Georgia snuggled on one of her slim hips, the baby’s tiny hands buried in the length of her shiny blonde hair.
His own fingers itched to do the same, to see if it was really as silky as it looked, but with a silent curse he thrust his hands deep into his trouser pockets and let the office door click shut as he went back his desk.
He ignored his chair and instead turned to look out of the window as he had done thousands of times before, but this time he saw nothing of the harbour.
All he could see was a pair of smoky grey eyes.
CHAPTER FIVE
NINA took as long as she could in the bathroom seeing to Georgia’s needs. She needed time to think. So much was happening and happening so fast she hadn’t had time to get her head into gear.
She felt a fool for not anticipating people such as Marc’s receptionist having met her sister previously. And no doubt there would be other people she’d have to pretend she knew. And that little slip about the allowance— Oh, God! Her stomach clenched with tight fingers of fear as she thought of her charade coming unstuck in such a way.
She daredn’t even think about Marc’s reaction.
He turned from the window when she returned to his office and, in spite of her determination to keep cool and calm under pressure, she couldn’t help a tiny flip-flop in her belly at the sheer height and presence of him as he came towards her.
‘It has occurred to me that there are quite probably things Georgia needs, such as new clothing or toys,’ he said, taking the baby from her with gentle hands. ‘I have some time available now, so we could go shopping if you like.’
Nina stared up at him, uncertain of how to answer.
Georgia was in desperate need of clothes as she was growing so fast, but shopping with Marc as if they were any normal couple …?
She lowered her gaze and pretended to be re-sorting the changing bag to avoid looking directly at him as she hunted her brain for some sort of excuse.
‘Since your own clothes are designer labels, surely your child is entitled to the same?’ A hard edge had crept into his voice.
Nina tensed as she pushed the lid back down on the baby wipes container. She’d picked up one of Nadia’s cast-offs thinking it was one of the more conservative of the collection she’d left behind, never dreaming it was actually haute couture.
‘This old thing?’ she quipped with a disdainful glance down at the cashmere she was wearing.
Marc’s mouth curled. ‘I suppose you only wear an outfit once before it is thrown to the back of the wardrobe?’
Nina almost laughed at how close he was to describing her sister’s attitude to clothes. She could have afforded designer wear herself if she’d been given a dollar for every time she’d picked some discarded article up off the floor after