Italian Bachelors: Unforgotten Lovers: The Change in Di Navarra's Plan / Bound by the Italian's Contract / Visconti's Forgotten Heir

His voice was heady, deep and dark, and it made her think of tangled limbs and satiny skin. Of pleasure so intense she must have surely exaggerated it in her mind. Nothing could be that good. Could it?

Holly dug her fingernails into her palms, reminding herself there was pain in his proposition. Because it hadn’t ended well the last time, and she didn’t expect it would end any better now. She could take no risks.

“I’m sorry, but it’s too late, Drago. You lost your chance to make me your sex slave. I am slave to only one man now, and he’s pint-size and ready for his bottle.”

Drago let his hands slide down her arms before he dropped them to his sides. Perversely, it stung her pride that he accepted her pronouncement so easily. As if he hadn’t really wanted her after all.

“He’s lucky to have a mother so dedicated.”

Holly’s pulse thumped. She let her gaze drop as a wave of hot shame rolled through her. “I do my best. I could probably do better.”

Drago put a finger under her chin and lifted her gaze to his. His eyes bored into hers. “What makes you say this, Holly?”

Tears sprang to life behind her eyes and she closed them briefly, forcing herself to push them down again. She would not cry. She would not show a single moment of vulnerability to this man. She had to protect herself. To do that, she had to be strong. Immovable.

She wasn’t so good at that, but she was learning. She had no room for softness anymore. Not for anyone but her son.

“I’ve worked so much,” she said, her voice hoarse. “I haven’t always been there for him. I hated leaving him with a babysitter every day. And I hated where we lived, Drago, but it was the best I could do.”

He sighed again. “Things could have been far worse, believe me. You did what you had to do.”

She didn’t like the look in his eyes just then. Bleak. Desolate. As if he knew firsthand what those worse things were.

“I did the best I could. We weren’t homeless and we had enough to eat.”

A dark look crossed his face, and her heart squeezed in her chest. She almost reached up, almost put her palm on his jaw and caressed it as she’d done once before so long ago. But he took a step backward and put distance between them again.

“And now you are doing better. Working for me will give you a fresh start, Holly. You’ll have more options.”

She let out a shaky breath. “That’s why I’m here.”

He was frowning. Holly gripped the counter behind her until her fingers ached from the effort. She suddenly wanted to go to him, slip her arms around his waist. The only thing stopping her was the stone in her hands, anchoring her.

“You should have demanded help from his father,” Drago said tightly. “He shouldn’t have let you struggle so hard.”

A shiver rolled through her then, stained her with the unmistakable brush of guilt. Oh God. “I couldn’t,” she choked out. “H-he made himself unavailable.”

Drago looked suddenly angry. “Is he married, Holly?”

She was too stunned to react. And then, before her brain had quite caught up to her reflexes, she nodded once, quickly. A voice inside her shrieked in outrage. What was she doing? Why was she lying? Why didn’t she just tell him the truth?

He would understand. He’d just said he knew she’d done her best. He would help her now, he would be a father to their child—

No. She knew none of those things. He was so intense, so powerful, and she had no idea what he would do if she told him the truth. What if he didn’t believe her? What if he threw her out again, before she could earn the first cent? She needed this money too badly to risk it. And she needed to protect her child.

Until she had the contract, that ironclad promise of money, she couldn’t risk the truth. She had to protect Nicky. He came first.

Drago’s gaze was hard and her heart turned over in her chest. It ached so much she thought she might crumple to the floor in agony.

Your fault, her inner voice said.

“I’m sorry if that disappoints you,” she told him, her voice on the edge of breaking. She shouldn’t care what he thought, but she found that she did.

His eyebrows rose. “Disappoints me?” He shook his head. “I wasn’t thinking that at all, Holly. I was thinking what a bastard this man is for leaving you so vulnerable.”

Oh, goodness. He looked fierce, angry, as if he would go to battle for her and Nicky right this moment. It made the guilt inside her that much deeper, that much thicker and harder to shake off. She could endure him better when he was arrogant and bossy. She couldn’t endure his empathy.

“I didn’t tell him,” she blurted, and Drago’s expression turned to one of surprise.

She dropped her gaze to the floor. Holy cow, she was digging herself a hole, wasn’t she? A giant hole from which she’d never escape.

“Didn’t tell him? You mean, this man has no idea he has a son?”

She nodded, her heart pounding. “I tried, b-but he wouldn’t listen. He didn’t want to know.”

Drago looked stunned, as if that thought had never occurred to him, and the quicksand under her feet shifted faster. Blindly, she turned and reached for the bottle. She couldn’t stand here another minute. Couldn’t sink deeper into the mire of lies and half-truths.

“I have to go feed Nicky.”

She started to bolt from the room, but Drago’s hand on her elbow caught her up short. “It’s not too late to make this man meet his obligations—”

“It is,” she said sharply. “It just is.”

* * *

Drago sat at his desk and thought of Holly’s face when she’d told him about the father of her baby the night before. She’d seemed so ashamed, so vulnerable. He’d wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her it was all right. Tell her she didn’t need to worry. He’d considered, briefly, finding this man and forcing him to acknowledge his child.

But Holly’s reaction told him everything he needed to know. She was scared of this man, whoever he might be. And as much as that angered him, as much as it made him want to find the bastard and thrash him for hurting her, Drago wasn’t going to press the issue.

Besides, if this man came forward, there’d be someone else in Holly’s life. Someone besides him. He wasn’t quite sure why that thought bothered him, but it did. He didn’t want to share her with another man.

Drago closed his eyes and pulled in a deep breath. No, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to share her. What an absurd thought. They’d had a hot night together, a fabulous night, but she had a baby now and he didn’t see himself getting involved with a woman who had a baby.

The idea was fraught with pitfalls. Yes, he’d certainly like to have sex with her again. He wanted to take her to his bed and see if it was as good as he remembered.

But he couldn’t. She’d shown him a vulnerability last night that had sliced into his chest and wrapped around his heart. She’d been frightened and confused—and worried. He didn’t want or need that kind of intimacy. He wanted the physical without the emotional—and Holly Craig wasn’t capable of that right now.

Drago ran both hands through his hair and turned to stare out across the city. He loved the city, loved the hustle and bustle, the sense of life that permeated the streets every hour of every day. New York City truly was the city that never slept.

But, right now, he wanted to be somewhere that slept. He wanted to be somewhere quieter, where life was more still. He wanted to take Holly and her infant to Italy.

But if he were going to get her to Italy, he had to get the passports taken care of. Drago opened an email from his secretary, who had informed him of what they would need to expedite the process. He made notes of what was required and went on to the next email.

This one contained sales figures for the quarter. Navarra Cosmetics was doing fabulously, thanks to a new skin-care line aimed at the middle-aged consumer. They had also debuted a new palette of colors for eyes, lips and cheeks that was doing quite well.

The numbers on fragrances were good. But Sky wasn’t doing quite as well as he wanted for the new signature fragrance. Other CEOs would be perfectly happy with these numbers. But he wasn’t. Because he knew they could be better.

Drago sat there a moment longer, thinking. And then he logged off his computer and informed his secretary he was leaving for the day. How could he concentrate when he was eager to revamp the Sky campaign? In order to do that, he needed passports for Holly and her child.