New Arrivals: His Expectant Mistress: Accidentally Pregnant! / One-Night Pregnancy / One Tiny Miracle...

“Vincenzo?” She caught at his arm. He lifted his dark head.

“Sì, Signora Valsecchi? I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of it. Very much in fact.” The smoldering look he gave her melted her bones.

“That woman just called me Duchess.”

He had to sign another form. “Pay no attention,” he muttered. “It’s a defunct title now and has been for years, but some will still insist on using it to feel important.”

She refused to be put off. “You’re a duke?”

“It’s meaningless, tesora.”

Irena turned to Dino. “Do you know who your father is?”

“Sì. He is Papa!”

“No—I mean—Oh—” she moaned in frustration. Vincenzo’s low chuckle only added to it.

He finally stood up and handed the papers to Dino. “Will you run these inside to Father Rinaldo? We’ll wait for you.”

Dino nodded and dashed off. After he’d disappeared, Vincenzo pulled her into his arms. “All right. I’ll tell you this once, and then we don’t ever have to discuss it again. My father is the most recent Duke of La Spezia.”

She blinked. “So the Valsecchis were once an important family.”

“Once!” he emphasized. “At the time of my marriage to Mila, Papa was going through a cancer scare and had the title transferred to me. I couldn’t have cared less about it. Unfortunately, the news made the papers. But then he recovered. After I divorced Mila he disowned me and the title was rescinded. That’s all there is.”

Irena shook her head. “That couldn’t be all. Who was your mother?”

He studied her for a moment. “The Antonellos were a former royal family from the Ligurian region.”

“And Mila?”

“Her family came from Florence and were of lesser importance. It means absolutely nothing, Irena.”

“Except that in divorcing her, you were royally ostracized.”

He gave an elegant shrug of his shoulders. “That’s one way of putting it I suppose, but it’s history now.”

“Except that I’m a nobody.”

“That’s the beauty of it.” His eyes blazed hotter. “I’ve finally gotten my heart’s desire.”

Before she could ask him what he meant by that comment, Dino came running back. Vincenzo picked him up and gave him a hug. The two of them had a major conversation in Italian. Whatever his father told him, Dino ended up shouting for joy.

As they went out the doors of the church, Vincenzo translated for her. “I asked him if he was ready to go on our honeymoon. He said yes and wanted to know if it was a long, long way. I told him we needed to fly to get there.”

“Has he been on a plane before?”

“No. When I told him we’d be taking the Valsecchi company jet in order to reach Disneyland, you heard his answer.” “Irena? Are you sad we have to go home today?” Dino looked so cute in his Indiana Jones hat. Vincenzo had gone down to the desk to take care of the bill, leaving the two of them alone for a minute.

“Sì, but I know your mama can’t wait to see you. She’ll love the presents you bought her.”

Throughout their trip they’d made arrangements for him to call Mila every late afternoon when she’d be up and available. Their conversations weren’t long, but hearing his mother’s voice every day probably cut down on any homesickness he might be feeling.

Irena couldn’t believe that in the last two weeks she could actually understand some of his Italian and say a few phrases back, with lots of mistakes and plenty of laughs, of course. Still, they’d made a pact to speak it as much as possible and it was working. Vincenzo had told her she would learn Italian faster around his son than anyone else. It was true.

“Look!” she said to him. “We’ve had to buy two suitcases to hold all your new clothes and souvenirs!”

Her comment made him giggle as he ran around in his Indiana Jones costume. They’d bought him Indiana Jones LEGO to take home and build. Adventureland had been the biggest hit for him and they had gone there eight times, but he still couldn’t find the courage to go on the jungle cruise.

Irena let him know she was nervous on boats, too, but would go on it if he would. She thought she was making progress when he got as far as the entrance to it, but then he had backed away.

Vincenzo kissed the side of her neck. “Thanks for trying to help him.”

“Maybe I need to start with something simpler, like helping him get in a swimming pool. What if I took lessons with him? Do you think that would work?”

“Possibly. You have a special way about you.”

“It’s because I love him.”

“He can feel it. That’s why you almost talked him into it.” Almost being the operative word. In the short time they’d been together, she felt like the three of them had become a little family. “Did I tell you you’re going to be the most perfect mother? That little life inside you doesn’t know how lucky he or she is.”

She kissed the back of his hand. “He or she will adore you, too, Vincenzo.”

They’d made the Disneyland Hotel their base. Dino had slept in his father’s room containing two queen beds. Irena stayed in the adjoining room on another queen. Both she and Vincenzo had made that decision on the flight over. After their speedy wedding they felt it was important for Dino that she be eased into his father’s life in increments.

In a few minutes, Vincenzo came back with a luggage cart and they left the hotel for the airport. Later on during the flight back to Italy, Vincenzo insisted she sleep in the bedroom while he and Dino bedded down on the fold-out bed in the club section.

It was Thursday when they landed in Milan. Two weeks had been but a minute. Irena found it difficult to let Dino go. Ahead of time they’d decided she would stay on board the jet. As soon as Vincenzo delivered him to his mother, he’d come back and they’d fly on to Genoa.

Vincenzo stood at the door of the plane. Irena walked Dino toward his father and hunkered down in front of him.

“We’ll see you next Wednesday after school for your overnight with us.” Vincenzo had worked out the new parenting arrangement: every Wednesday night, three weekends a month, eight weeks in summer, every holiday shared and nightly phone calls just before his son’s bedtime.

Dino nodded. Tears filled those brown eyes, but he didn’t let them fall. “I’ll bring my new Indiana Jones game.”

“Good. And this time I’m not going to fall in the snake pit.”

He giggled, causing one tear to dribble down his cheek.

“I’ll miss you, Dino,” Irena said, “While we’re apart I’ll study my Italian and you can test me. Is that a deal?”

Vincenzo helped with that word because he didn’t know it. “We have to go now, son.”

“Ciao, Irena.” He followed his father out the door and down the steps to the tarmac. The steward joined them with all his luggage.

Irena walked back to the club section. Before she could even sit down, she dissolved into tears for Vincenzo and Dino, for Mila, for herself.

Years down the road she might have to face partings like this with her own child. Vincenzo had to do it all the time, already. How would he feel if the baby she carried was Andreas’s? Would he feel the pull as much? Irena didn’t know how he coped so well with the separation. He made a magnificent role model who was a superhero to his son. The baby just had to be Vincenzo’s!