Rising Stars & It Started With… Collections. Кейт Хьюит
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his jaw, press her lips there the way she had that night … which seemed a lifetime ago.
“You didn’t ask me up here to have tea,” he said darkly. “Tell me what your brother wants and be done with it.”
Tina blinked, the warm feelings floating through her dissipating in an instant. “Renzo has no idea I’m here.” God, no. He’d be furious. Livid. He would probably disown her if he knew.
And he would know, eventually. But that was why she had to tell Nico first. If Renzo found out she were pregnant, he would demand to know the father. There would be hell to pay once he knew who that man was.
Tina set the tea down and pressed a hand to her forehead. It was a mess. A huge, huge mess. Somehow, she had to make it all come out right.
Nico’s smile was anything but friendly. “So this is how we are to play it then?” His gaze slid over her again. “You have grown into a lovely woman, Valentina. A great asset for your brother.”
Tina wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t show that much vulnerability to him. No, Renzo did not consider her an asset. More like a duty. He took care of her, loved her, but refused to consider she might have more to offer than simply being a decorative fixture in his life. She wanted to work for him, but he would not allow it.
“You are a D’Angeli,” he said. “You don’t have to work.”
No, she didn’t have to work. She wanted to work—and if her brother wouldn’t hire her, she was going to work for someone else. She’d gone along with Renzo for the past year, but only in the hopes she could convince him that D’Angeli Motors was where she belonged.
Though she’d graduated with honors in accounting and finance, the only thing she could do with her degree right now, aside from dabble in a few investments with the payouts from her trust fund, was balance her own checkbook.
It made her waspish. “You can hardly claim to know what is in Renzo’s mind these days, can you?”
He stared at her for a heartbeat, his expression hardening. She’d surprised herself by being so snappish. Apparently, she’d surprised him, too.
“Enough of the games. Tell me why you requested this meeting, or we’re through here.”
His tone stung. “You did not used to be so abrupt.”
“And you did not used to play games.”
Tina carried her tea to the couch. She sat gracefully as she’d been taught, and then took a tiny sip, hoping it would calm her suddenly roiling stomach. Perhaps she’d erred in not eating breakfast this morning. But she’d taken one look at the meats, cheeses and eggs arrayed before her on the table and felt she would be violently ill if she ate a bite.
“I’m not playing a game, signore. I’m just unsure how to begin this.” It was the truth.
“You used to call me Nico,” he said. “When you managed to speak to me at all.”
She felt herself flushing with embarrassment at the memory of how she used to be so tongue-tied around him. His face was stern and foreboding, his body tense as he loomed over her in his expensive suit and studied her as if she were something he’d stepped in.
If only he knew …
Tina had to suppress a wild giggle. It wasn’t amusement so much as hysteria, but nevertheless she could hardly give in to it. Besides, he would know soon enough, wouldn’t he? Just as soon as she could manage to say the words.
“That was a long time ago,” she said. “Life was simpler then.”
She thought a flash of emotion crossed his features, but it was gone as suddenly as it had appeared. “Life is never simple, cara. It only seems so in retrospect.”
“What happened between you and Renzo?” The words fell from her lips, though she did not intend for them to. Any softening she might have seen on his face was gone again.
“We ceased to be friends. That is enough.”
Tina sighed. She’d always wanted to know why he’d stopped coming around, but Renzo remained tight-lipped about the whole thing. She’d been too young to really understand back then, but she’d thought it was probably temporary. A disagreement between friends.
She’d been wrong.
Her stomach clenched again and she splayed her hand over her belly, as if she could stop the churning simply by doing so.
Nico was on one knee in front of her suddenly. His eyes were the color of a leaden sky, she thought wildly. Any minute the storm would break. Any minute.
But for now he looked concerned, and her heart squeezed. “What is the matter, Valentina? You look … green.”
She swallowed the bile that threatened and tried to sip the tea again. “I’m pregnant,” she said, her heart beating in her ears, her throat.
“Congratulations.” It was said sincerely. And it was all she could do to hold in the nervous laughter pressing at the back of her throat.
“Thank you.” She felt hot, so hot. She could feel the sweat beading on her forehead, her upper lip. She set the tea down and peeled the jacket from her shoulders. Nico reached up to help her. He stood and laid the jacket over the back of the couch.
His expression was gentler now, but he was still like a caged lion roaming the quiet space of the suite. Any second, and his fangs would be bared, his claws extended.
Tina closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. Focus.
“Can I get you anything?” he asked.
“One of those biscuits would be nice,” she said.
He retrieved a vanilla biscuit from the tea table and handed it to her. Tina broke off a piece and chewed slowly.
Nico shoved his hands in his pockets. “If you could state your business, we can solve whatever this is and go our separate ways.”
“Yes, I suppose we can.” Would he want to be involved? Or would he wash his hands of her the moment she told him? It didn’t really matter, she decided. She was strong enough to have this baby on her own. No one was going to stop her from doing so, either.
She finished the biscuit and leaned back on the couch. It seemed the food would stay down this time, but she knew she needed to eat more.
“I had not realized you’d married,” Nico said.
Her gaze snapped to his, her pulse thrumming. “I’m not married.”
His pause was significant. “Ah.”
Tina fumed at the unspoken implications. “I did not plan this, but I won’t be ashamed of my baby, either.”
“I did not say you should be.” And yet she did not believe him. People like him—people who came from families like his—had very stringent views on proper behavior. She’d learned that in boarding school when the other girls had treated her like scum for not having a father. For having a mother who had once been a waitress, and who had never married even though she’d had children.
Those girls had made her life hell at St. Katherine’s. They hated her because she hadn’t been from old money, because she’d been shy and an easy target for their venom. Rotten snobs, all of them. Except Lucia, of course.
Tina clenched her fingers into the cushion. Nico was one of those people, from old money and lineage. And he was judging her, finding her lacking. It should make her want to hide.
Instead, it made her angry. “No, you did not say anything. But you’re thinking it.”
He looked cool and gorgeous standing there. Remote. “I’m not thinking anything. Except for what any of this possibly has to do with me.”
She stared at him for several heartbeats, as her breath