Frowning, he turned back.
“What’s so funny?” he said suspiciously.
“Nothing.” She gave him a grin. “Except you’re used to people always being ready whenever you want them to be, aren’t you?”
“I’m a busy man. Others wait for me. I don’t wait for them.”
“Not anymore.” She giggled. “Now you have a baby.”
She was right. It was, in fact, over an hour before they left the penthouse. In that time, the baby was fed, then he’d cried, and then they had to change his clothes when he spit up all over his onesie. He was burped a little more and cried some more. Then the real reason for Jack’s earlier fussiness was revealed—a blowout needing a diaper change and yet another new outfit. Hallie calmly repacked everything in her diaper bag. Finally, just as they were about to leave, the baby let out a whimper and needed to be fed again.
Through it all, Cristiano was impressed with Hallie’s infinite patience and skill. He wouldn’t have had a clue what to do. When she’d looked up at him with a gentle smile and asked if he wanted to help burp or change the baby, he had been filled with alarm. He’d shaken his head. What did he know? Better to leave it to the expert. Patient and loving, Hallie was clearly born to be a mother.
Once again Cristiano congratulated himself on securing his possession of her.
By the time they were out of the hotel and on the street, he took a big breath of fresh air. Yellow taxi cabs raced down the avenue as backpack-carrying tourists fought for space on the sidewalk with lawyers in suits and food carts selling everything from hot dogs to cupcakes to falafel. The summer morning was warm and fresh, and the sunlight spilled gold on the streets of New York.
But the brightest glow of all came from Hallie’s sparkling eyes as she snapped their baby’s carrier into his expensive new stroller.
“Thank you for this, by the way,” she said, nodding at the stroller.
He’d told Marcia to send the best one. “Does Jack like it?”
She turned it toward him. “See for yourself.”
Peeking down, he saw that his baby, who’d spent the past hour causing a fuss, was nestled in the stroller cozily, smiling.
Cristiano’s heart swelled in his chest as his son stretched up his chubby little hands, as if reaching for the towering hotel.
“All yours someday,” he told Jack softly in Italian. Then he looked at Hallie’s beautiful face as she pointed up at the top of the hotel in the clouds, talking tenderly to their son. Under his breath in the same language, he added, “All mine.”
Hallie turned to him quizzically. “Did you say something?”
“Just that our first stop this morning is to get our marriage license.” As they waited briefly outside the hotel, he took her hand. He felt it tremble at the intimacy of the gesture.
The black SUV with tinted windows pulled up. Matthews was at the wheel and Luther, the bodyguard, sat beside him in the front.
As Matthews folded the stroller into the trunk, Cristiano opened the door for Hallie. He snapped the baby carrier securely in the back seat, then followed her inside.
“Where to, sir?” Matthews said cheerfully as Hallie smiled down at the chattering baby.
“The city clerk’s office downtown.”
An hour later, they left with their marriage license. Cristiano exhaled deeply. One step closer. In twenty-four hours it would be permanent. He would give Jack his last name. And not just the baby...
His eyes lingered on Hallie as she climbed back into the waiting SUV, tucking their smiley baby into his car seat.
He could hardly wait to possess her in bed. Tonight. This afternoon. He paused. Or he could wait to make love until their wedding night, as Hallie had once wanted.
Could he give her that? Could he wait until she was legally his to bed her? Knowing that, after tomorrow, she would be his forever?
No. He couldn’t.
“Now where, sir?”
Leaning forward in the SUV, Cristiano named the most exclusive jewelry store on Fifth Avenue. He glanced at Hallie to see if it met with her approval, but she was busy playing peekaboo with the baby.
When they arrived, Hallie stared out of the window, wide-eyed at the sight of the luxury jewelry store. “Here?”