From one night…
When Sergio Burzi’s table at an exclusive London restaurant is invaded by a stunning woman fleeing a blind date, he’s intrigued. Candid, innocent artist Susie Sadler is nothing like the women he normally dates. The urge to sweep her into his gilded realm—if only for the night—is overwhelming.
…to nine months!
But there are repercussions to taking what you want, and Sergio’s rigidly controlled world is soon shattered—Susie’s pregnant! Now they’ll have to find a way to face their uncertain future together and resist the craving for each other that impulsive night ignited…
When one night...leads to pregnancy!
“I’m pregnant.”
It was the last thing Sergio had expected to hear and so it took him a few seconds to digest the revelation.
“You have got to be kidding.”
“Do I look like someone performing a comic routine, Sergio? I’m pregnant. I only found out yesterday. I did the test. In fact, I did two tests and there’s no mistake. I’m having a baby. I’m having your baby.”
He vaulted upright, stared at Susie and raked his fingers through his hair. “You can’t be.” He stood in front of her, feet apart, challenging her to defy that simple statement.
In his heart, he recognized the ring of sincerity and fought against it.
Pregnant? How had that happened? He was going to be a father? Even when he had loosely contemplated the idea of eventually settling down with a suitable woman, his thoughts had not stretched into the realms of fatherhood.
His eyes flew to her stomach and just as quickly looked away.
“Don’t tell me that I can’t be,” Susie snapped. She glared at him. Did he think she was lying? No, of course not! He was desperately clinging to denial because the alternative was so hideous that he couldn’t bring himself to give it credence. He was a man who liked to control every aspect of his life and just like that, he’d lost it.
CHAPTER ONE
FROM THE VERY second Susie walked into the restaurant she knew she had made a big mistake. It joined the other three big mistakes she had made in the past fortnight. Making mistakes was beginning to feel like a full-time occupation.
What had possessed her to wear high heels? Why was she clutching a silly little bag with sequins, borrowed from one of her friends? And how on earth had she found herself in a ridiculous small red dress which had screamed sexy and glamorous when she had tried it on earlier in the week but now shrieked...sad and desperate?
Utterly grateful that she had wisely shunned the flamboyant checked coat which she had been tempted to buy with the dress, and had instead chosen something slightly more sober, she wrapped her black cape tightly round her, making sure to conceal every single square inch of the stupid red dress.
So what the heck should she do now? she wondered.
Date number four was there and seated at the bar. In a couple of seconds he would look round and he would spot her. She had told him that she would be wearing red. The red might be concealed under the cape but how many other lonesome single girls were there here? None.
His picture on the online dating agency she used had seemed so promising, but one glance at him showed her that it had been a cruel lie.
He wasn’t tall. Even though he was sitting she could see that. His feet dangled. Nor was he surfer blond...more wet sand than surf, to be perfectly honest...and he looked at least twenty years older than in his photograph. Furthermore he was wearing a bright yellow jumper and trousers that were vaguely mustard in colour.
She should have actually chatted with him on the phone instead of rushing headlong into a date. She should have relied on more than a couple of flirty messages and one email. She would have known then that he might be the sort of guy who wore yellow jumpers and mustard-coloured trousers. But instead she had jumped right in at the deep end and now here she was...
She felt faint.
This was an expensive bar/restaurant. It was the latest in hip and cool. People had to wait for months to get a booking. The only reason she had been able to get one was because her parents had had to cancel at the last minute and had told her that she could go along in their place. They had asked her to report back on the food—they wanted details.