Edmund was startled by her outburst, but the sound that caught her attention was the snort of laughter from the man beside him. It was the first noise Luca had made since he demanded his coffee. When she turned to look at him, she noticed a sparkle of interest in his eyes and a hint of amusement curling a corner of his full lips. He was no longer just studying her, he actually seemed...intrigued by her.
“I can assure you that my client is no criminal, Mrs. Douglas. He is the CEO of the nation’s largest family-owned Italian restaurant chain, Moretti’s Italian Kitchen.”
Claire turned away from Luca’s intense stare. It was unnerving her, and this was no time for her to be compromised. So, he was a hotshot restaurateur. Good for him. But what difference did that make when it came to his character? Success didn’t make him a saint. “So you’re presuming that rich businessmen can’t be murderers or child molesters? I counter that they just have better lawyers.”
“My client is willing to cooperate to soothe your concerns, Mrs. Douglas. We’re not the bad guys here. We’re just trying to ensure that Eva is in Mr. Moretti’s life. We welcome you to have a background check conducted. You won’t find anything questionable. But when you don’t find the skeletons you’re looking for, you’re going to have to let him see Eva.”
“And if Mrs. Douglas doesn’t cooperate?”
Claire held her breath, waiting to see what they would say. Would they push her or back down until their court date?
“Then,” Edmund explained, “we stop playing nice. I’ll file an emergency visitation motion to compel access to Eva and let the courts decide. You can be certain the judge will give my client even more time with his daughter than we’re requesting. It’s your choice, Mrs. Douglas.”
* * *
So this was Claire Douglas.
Luca had to admit he was surprised. Her name had been on his mind and crossed his desk a hundred times since the mix-up came to light. He didn’t know what he was expecting the widowed Mrs. Douglas to look like, but young, slender and blonde had not been on the list. It had taken everything he had to hold his composure when he turned from the window and saw her standing there.
Her practical gray suit clung to every delicious curve and almost exactly matched the shade of her eyes. Her honey-colored hair was twisted back into a professional bun at her nape. He wanted to pull out the hair pins and let the blond waves tumble over her shoulders.
The longer he sat watching Claire, the more curious he became about her. How had a woman so young become a widow? Was she always this uptight, or was it just because she didn’t like him? He wanted to run his thumb between her eyebrows to smooth the crease her serious frown had worn there.
It made him wonder if their daughter looked more like him or her. Did she have Claire’s porcelain skin and pert nose? Did her ears turn red when she got angry the way her mother’s did? The furious shift in Claire had immediately caught his attention. There was more fire in her than the bland gray suit would indicate.
“Can they do that?” Claire asked, turning to her lawyer. She looked completely panicked by the thought of Luca having access to their child.
Their child.
It seemed so wrong for him to have a child with a woman he’d never met. Luca hadn’t even given any serious thought to having a family. He’d only stored his sperm to make the doctors and his mother feel better. He hadn’t actually expected to use it.
But now that he had a living, breathing child, he wasn’t about to sit back and pretend it didn’t happen. Eva was probably the only child he would ever have, and he’d already missed months of her life. That would not continue.
“We can and we will.” Luca spoke up at last. “This whole thing is a mess that neither of us anticipated, but it doesn’t change the facts. Eva is my daughter, and I’ve got the paternity test results to prove it. There’s not a judge in the county of New York who won’t grant me emergency visitation while we await our court date. They will say when and where and how often you have to give her to me.”
Claire sat, her mouth agape at his words. “She’s just a baby. She’s only six months old. Why fight me for her just so you can hand her over to a nanny?”
Luca laughed at her presumptuous tone. “What makes you so certain I’ll have a nanny for her?”
“Because...” she began. “You’re a rich, powerful, unmarried businessman. You’re better suited to run a corporation than to change a diaper. I’m willing to bet you don’t have the first clue of how to care for an infant, much less the time.”