Emily raised her brows. “Have you now, sir?”
“It’s been a month.” He breathed out slowly.
“A month,” she agreed, lifting a hand to his chest. Sabato, we need to speak. She’d rehearsed a small speech on the private jet he’d had her flown to Florence on. She had it all worked out. But standing so close to him now, the words were blurring in her memory.
The party was enormous. Perhaps she was better to wait? After all, it was his mother’s birthday, and the last thing Sabato needed was to be distracted by the news she had to break to him.
“Are you settling in well to the apartment?”
She nodded. Her mouth was dry. The enormity of the secret she held was making her body sag. She nodded, unable to put into words how ill at ease she felt in such a plush residence.
“And Andrew?”
His interest in her brother made her heart swell. “He thinks he’s living in a dream,” she admitted. “He uses the spare bedroom upstairs as his studio. He’s quite the musician.”
“Two creative souls then,” Sabato said with a smile. His hands were warm on her body. “Dance with me?”
“I can hardly hear the music.”
“Can’t you?” He murmured, stroking her gently.
She bit her lip and then nodded; she had no idea what she was agreeing to. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to his frame. She fit perfectly against him. Her arms lifted to curve behind his neck, and her fingers sought the hair at the base of his neck. The very distant strains of a slow jazz song filtered through the blooming vines and reached their ears. They moved in time to it, and the pulsing beat that drummed between them.
“I have to be in London next week,” he said casually. As though it weren’t music to her ears.
“Oh?” Her heart was hammering quickly against her ribs.
“I’m meeting with the architects of the Docklands project.”
“I see.”
He cleared his throat. “I’d like to see you. To take you for dinner.”
Emily’s eyes lifted to his. The emotional dance they were engaged in was fraught with dangerous drops at every turn. She wanted nothing more than to agree to what he was suggesting.
But it was no longer so simple. Had it ever been simple? She shook her head sadly. The disparity in their situations had caused her doubts initially. Him, a billionaire raised by a wealthy and aristocratic family, and she an orphaned artist who had barely been able to make rent before meeting him.
And now?
Now, there was another life to consider. They couldn’t afford to make mistakes. And what if they were? What if she told him she loved him, and he didn’t return those feelings? What if he resented her for being stupid enough to fall pregnant after all their conversations and precautions? She wanted to see him for dinner. She wanted the world from him. But she was too smart to ask for it. Not when she knew what was at stake. Their baby was the size of a tiny little pea, and yet she put its needs ahead of her own with an instinctive ease. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
His expression showed exasperation. “Are you kidding me?”
Emily’s sense of disappointment was a physical pain in her chest. “It’s just better to avoid that complication. Believe me.”
“Why do I feel like I am forever convincing you, Emily?”
Her cheeks drained of colour. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing is ever easy with you.” His words were clipped. He pulled himself away from her, dropping his hands to his side. He was used to women throwing themselves at him, and yet the one woman he wanted with a desperate passion seemed resolute on keeping him at arm’s length. Pride strengthened his resolve. “Nothing is easy.” He slashed an angry hand through the air, slicing it with his frustration. “I like you.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “I think you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever known. I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m not saying I love you. I’m not asking you for anything more than a casual dinner. And yes, maybe we sleep together every now and again. What is so wrong with that? Why can’t you just have some fun, Emily? Why must you always think about every single, tiny detail of your life?”
He was cutting through her being. His words were an agony of proportions he couldn’t imagine. They were acid pouring over he
r soft soul.
“Casual?” She repeated quietly, gripping her hands behind her back so that he wouldn’t see the way they were shaking.
Sabato nodded, and his lopsided smile made her heart stammer. “Look at the fun we had that first weekend. Why can we not explore that side further? You act as though I am asking you to tether yourself to me for the rest of your life.”