“Yes, I can see how busy you’ve been.” The blonde’s heavily made-up eyes focused with laser-like focus on Rosalie’s baby bump. With a sweet smile, she asked him, “The baby is yours?”
“Of course he is,” Rosalie said indignantly.
Giulia gave Alex a pointed smile. “Ah, you’re a sly one. All this time, everyone criticized Chiara, and thought you were so noble and long-suffering, but you didn’t mind her affair at all, did you?” She looked at Rosalie’s belly. “All that time you were buried in the country, you weren’t just squeezing grapes.”
Rosalie’s jaw dropped. She’d never once imagined that anyone could think that she and Alex had conceived the baby the old-fashioned way—that they’d had some kind of adulterous affair while he was still married!
“You’ve got it wrong,” she said indignantly. “Alex and I only met last week. I’m a surrogate. This baby was conceived in a fertility clinic in California. Chiara hired me.”
“She hired you?” The other woman was incredulous. “Are you telling me that Chiara is the actual mother of your baby? That you’re only the oven, as it were?”
“No,” Rosalie was forced to admit. “The bun—I mean the baby—is mine, but it was Chiara’s idea—”
The woman gave a low laugh. “It’s the most ridiculous story I’ve ever heard. How delicious.” Looking up at Alex, she purred, “You will still come tomorrow, won’t you? You won’t be too busy to attend an event in honor of your dead wife?” She glanced at Rosalie’s belly, then gave a wicked smile. “If you don’t show up, people will think you’re hiding something.”
“I have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said coldly.
“Good. Oh, and bring her, won’t you?” Giulia waved her red-tipped hand toward Rosalie. “Everyone will be dying to meet her.”
Going to the door, he opened it. “Ciao, Giulia.”
“Ciao.”
After he closed the door, Rosalie ventured, “What was that?”
Alex gave a grim smile. “That was Giulia Zanella. Chiara’s best friend.” He rolled his eyes. “Though that didn’t stop her from throwing herself at me multiple times throughout my marriage. Even on the night of Chiara’s funeral.”
“What? What kind of horrible friend—?”
“She is holding a charity ball tomorrow night in honor of her dear dead friend, to raise money for a local musicians’ fund. Really just in honor of herself, if you ask me...”
“So why would you go?” she cried.
“If I don’t, they’ll say I was afraid. That I was ashamed.” He glanced at Rosalie’s belly ruefully. “Especially now.”
“Why wouldn’t she believe me about the surrogacy?” she said, frustrated.
He shrugged. “Because it’s more amusing for her not to believe it.” He gave her an unwilling smile. “Besides. Even you have to admit the truth is hard to believe. It seems far more likely that I seduced you, than that Chiara created a baby I didn’t know about on the other side of the world.”
“Seriously? There’s no way it’s more likely you’d seduce me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look at you.” Rosalie motioned vaguely toward his Greek-godlike beauty and sleek suit. Then she looked down at herself, with her still-wet hair leaving damp marks on the cotton bodice of her white sundress. She mumbled, “And look at me.”
For a moment, silence fell in the foyer.
“I am looking at you, Rosalie,” he said softly.
Electricity filled the air as she glanced up. Their eyes met. He came closer.
Suddenly, her mouth went dry. She licked her lips. Saw his gaze fall to the motion of her tongue.
“Why won’t you believe you’re beautiful?” He brushed back some tendrils of hair from her face. “All the more beautiful because you’re not even trying to be. You just are.”
Her lips parted and her heart was pounding as she looked at his sensual mouth. He was going to kiss her again. She knew it...
His hands tightened on her upper arms, then he dropped back. “I’m sorry Giulia was rude. I will not, of course, bring you with me to her charity ball to be gawked at and gossiped about.” His black gaze was ferocious. “I would never wish you to endure such a thing. Come. Dinner is waiting.”