‘All that really matters is that you’re the mother of my son. Connor deserves a proper family life and he’s not going to get that if I’m just the guy who flies in to visit every week,’ Gianni pointed out levelly. ‘I want to be a real father. I don’t want him turning round and asking me as a teenager why I never thought enough of him to marry his mother and be a genuine part of his life.’
Milly nodded in slow motion.
‘Then there’s us,’ Gianni added in an obvious afterthought. ‘Let’s be frank, cara. You wouldn’t kick me out of bed.’
Hot, humiliated colour drenching her former pallor, Milly discovered that she wanted to kick him to kingdom come.
‘I don’t see any reason why things shouldn’t go right back to the way they were,’ Gianni told her with complete conviction. ‘I still find it a real challenge to keep my hands off you.”
‘That’s a…a compliment?’ Milly prompted unevenly.
Gianni slanted an ebony brow. ‘I’m asking you to marry me. I can understand that you’re pretty surprised by this development, but you should be really pleased.’
‘Why?’
‘Why?’ Gianni repeated with unconcealed incredulity. ‘It’s what you always secretly wanted. Do you think I didn’t realise that?’
Kicking him to kingdom come wouldn’t be enough. It would be too quick, too clean. Milly wanted him stretched on a rack and tortured. How could a male so very clever make a marriage proposal sound so deeply offensive? It had to be deliberate. He had decided he had to marry her for Connor’s sake, but he was making it brutally clear that his sole use for her would be sexual. Connor deserved a relationship; she didn’t.
Gianni surveyed Milly’s frozen little face with mounting tension. He could feel his temper rising again, no matter how hard he tried to ram it down. Wasn’t she capable of a logical reaction? First she had wrecked everything by actually daring to refer to that disgusting episode with Stefano. Next she had told stupid lies. And now she was reacting to his extraordinarily generous proposal as if he had insulted her beyond belief!
Here he was, striving in the only way he could to make amends for his own errors of judgement over the past few days! He was giving her what she must always have wanted when she least deserved it, but not one ounce of appreciation was he receiving for his impressive ability to rise above her unforgivable act of betrayal three years ago! And, finally, he had been honest with her, Gianni reflected with smouldering resentment. Right from the instant he had first met her, she had stressed how important it was that he should always be honest with her. So he had been honest. Only somehow honesty wasn’t working like any magic charm!
‘You said that to all intents and purposes this is my home,’ Milly reminded him tightly.
‘What’s that got to do with anything?’ Gianni demanded with stark impatience, brilliant eyes glittering like ice shards.
‘If this is my home, I can ask you to get out of it,’ Milly informed him, her breath catching audibly in her throat. ‘So I’m asking…’
Gianni frowned at her. ‘Run that by me again.’
Milly thrust up her chin. ‘In fact, I’m not asking. I’m telling you to get out!’
Wrathful incredulity emanated from Gianni in powerful waves. His eyes flashed shimmering gold. ‘How dare you talk to me like that?’
Milly’s temper rose hot enough to equal his own. She took a step forward. ‘You’re complaining about how I’m talking to you? You dragged me back into bed at the hotel just so that you could satisfy yourself that you could still pull me like a Christmas cracker!’
‘Dio…how can you be so vulgar?’ Gianni shot at her thunderously.
‘Vulgar? Me?’ Milly gasped in disbelief. ‘Would you listen to yourself? You’re the cockroach who had to boast about the fact that I didn’t have the wit to kick you out of bed! Well, now that I’ve got my memory back, I know I’d sooner be dead than let you touch me again!’
‘Is that a fact?’ Before she could even guess his intention, Gianni reached out and simply lifted her up into his powerful arms as if she were a doll.
‘Put me down this minute!’ Milly shrieked at him furiously.
His mouth slammed down on hers like a silencer. Rage hurtled up inside her, only to be
transformed into a blaze of white-hot hunger so intense it literally hurt. It physically hurt to want, to need, to crave to such an extent, for nothing he could do could ever be enough. She always wanted more. The drugging heat of his mouth, the provocative stab of his tongue driving her wild only made her ache unbearably for the fulfilment that he alone could give. Heartbeat pounding, pulses racing, she dug her fingers into his luxuriant hair and kissed him back so frantically she couldn’t even stop to breathe.
Gianni dragged his mouth off hers. He was breathing heavily, but his dark golden eyes shimmered with unashamed satisfaction. ‘Somehow I don’t think death before dishonour is likely to figure in this reconciliation, cara mia.’
The raging fire within Milly shrank to a tiny mortified flicker and was doused entirely by an all-consuming ache of regret. Her cheeks a hectic pink, she removed her fingers shakily from his hair, tormented by her own weakness.
Gianni lowered her to the carpet again with exaggerated care.
Immediately she spun away in a jerky movement. ‘Go, Gianni,’ she urged in desperation.
‘Call me when you’ve thought things over,’ he murmured silkily, all cool now restored.