He shrugged. “I’m used to it.”
His Italian leather shoe pressed on the gas. He looked relaxed, as if he’d had an amazing night’s sleep and plenty of fresh air and exercise.
While Honora had just had the worst night she could remember. She’d felt anxious and tense in the beautiful guest room, staring up at the ceiling, questioning the choice she’d just made. Had she been utterly selfish, holding out for love instead of marrying the father of her baby?
Nico had offered her everything. Except his heart.
And after a lifetime of trying to make herself sweet and helpful and small, to take up as little space as possible, to feel less like a burden to the people she loved, she didn’t think she could bear to live like that for the rest of her life. Was it selfish to want to be loved?
Honora finally fell asleep a few hours before dawn. When she’d woken up, it was midmorning, and the slant of warm golden light flooded the wide windows overlooking the Atlantic. Anxiety rushed through her as she glanced at the clock over the fireplace. She was going to be late!
Peeking into the hallway, she’d found her white sundress, folded with her white cotton bra and panties, clean and pressed as promised. She couldn’t stand tight clothes anymore. This dress was stretchy, and with its spaghetti straps helped her stay cool in the summer heat. After getting dressed and putting on her sandals, she paused just long enough to brush her teeth and run a comb through her hair before she hurried downstairs.
She found Nico in the breakfast room, his dark hair still wet from the shower, drinking black coffee as he perused the morning’s news. When she rushed in like a madwoman with her hair on fire, he looked up in surprise.
“Good morning.” His voice was husky, his dark eyes glowing. “I trust you slept well.”
Honora could hardly admit otherwise without revealing the emotional tumult inside her. “Yes. Thank you.” She cleared her throat. “But I overslept. I need to leave now, if I’m going to get the train on time.”
“The train?” Folding his paper, he looked bemused. “I told you I’d take you back to the city. You have an appointment?”
“At my doctor’s. In three hours.”
“Then we have plenty of time. Sit down.” His dark eyes caressed her, making her feel shivery inside. “What would you like for breakfast?”
You, she thought, then kicked herself for even thinking such a traitorous thing. “Um...buttered toast?”
“We can do better than that.”
Sitting at the farthest edge of the long table, she was soon tucking into a big plate of fruit, eggs and buttered toast, served by Sebastian the butler, who seemed to have warmed to her. Nico smiled when, blushing a little, she asked for tea with milk.
“So you like it,” he said.
“I never thought of putting milk in herbal tea.”
His smile widened to a wicked grin. “So I showed you something new.”
Honora had bitten her lip as she remembered how he’d shown her all kinds of new things on Christmas night, things that made her shiver whenever she allowed them in her memory, kisses and touches and nibbles that would forever be imprinted on her skin.
Sitting beside him in the Lamborghini as they sped toward the city, Honora caught her breath. She had to get ahold of herself!
As they crossed the Queensboro Bridge, she looked out at the Manhattan skyline. Skyscrapers reached into the blue sky in a city that hummed like the buzzing center of the world. Or was it just the rush of blood through her own heart?
They arrived at her obstetrician’s office on the West Side in record time.
“You can drop me off at the curb,” she said quickly.
“I’d like to come.”
Honora looked at him in surprise. “You want to go to my doctor’s appointment?”
“I want to hear our daughter’s heartbeat. I don’t want to miss a thing.”
“Okay. If you really want,” she said, but as Nico looked for a place to park, she could barely contain her shock. Never, in all the years she’d known him as her grandfather’s boss, had she ever seen Nico Ferraro give away his time to anyone.
He gave people money, of course. He paid his employees well and donated large sums to charities, gifts that were always splashed in the news as PR for Ferraro Developments Inc. And Nico had occasionally given her grandfather praise, or gifts arranged by one of his personal assistants. But spend an hour of his precious time on something that was not for his own direct benefit? Never.
And yet Nico was patient and attentive during the doctor’s appointment, asking lots of questions. He squeezed Honora’s hand during the ultrasound, and when he saw the outline of their baby on the screen, the small head, fingers and toes, Nico’s handsome face filled with emotion.