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Chapter Two

IRENA LAY AWAKE FOR a good part of the night. Her demons wouldn’t leave her alone.

Though she’d been a career woman since college, in the back of her mind she’d always imagined that one day she’d get married and have children. Somewhere along the way Andreas had become part of that fantasy.

Over the years their families had been good friends and had often remarked that the two of them possessed the qualities for the kind of match that would last. Irena had thought so, too, but once they had begun seeing each other seriously, Andreas had waited a long time before making love to her. Their intimacy had been satisfying but not explosive. This had caused her to lose some confidence.

She recognized early that he was a cautious man. His reputation for not making mistakes put him, rather than his twin brother, Leon, at the head of the Simonides corporation once his father had to step down.

Though he’d assured her she was the only woman in his life, it hurt that he hadn’t wanted to get engaged. He’d said he didn’t believe in engagements. They’d know when the time was right to marry. She’d mistakenly assumed that the heavy responsibility placed on him as the CEO had dictated the amount of time they spent together.

If she were honest, she had to admit that between the hours he put in, combined with the travel she did for the newspaper, their relationship had suffered. When Vincenzo had pursued her so ardently, she’d been flattered and hungry for the attention.

But their ten days together and their one night of passion had turned into something more intense than a mere holiday fling. She knew then that her feelings for Vincenzo ran deep and now, seeing him again with his small son, those feelings were magnified. There was no question that Irena wanted this baby. She wanted it with all her heart and soul. And after witnessing Vincenzo’s love for Dino, a part of Irena also longed for her baby to be Vincenzo’s, too. But by the time she’d awakened at the hotel in Riomaggiore this morning, she’d changed her mind about following through with her agenda.

What she’d been planning since leaving the doctor’s office was the act of a desperate woman. A pregnant one, she amended as she took the prenatal vitamins and antinausea pills he’d prescribed.

It was no use lying to herself. How could she think for one second that Vincenzo would feel the same way about her once she told him she was expecting a baby who might or might not be his child? He already had a darling six-year-old son of his own.

After brushing her teeth, she looked at herself in the mirror. Who did she think she was kidding?

What she needed to do was fly to someplace off the radar like Toronto, Canada. Her parents would understand she was trying to get over her heartache and wouldn’t pressure her while she determined to make a new life for herself.

Toronto had a large Greek community. She could fit in using her mother’s maiden name and have her baby. When it was a year old, she would go back to Athens, pretending to be a divorced woman. At that point she would be able to raise her child with no one the wiser and her secret forever safe.

Having made that decision, she dressed in white cotton pants and a silky, light blue blouse that tied at the side of her waist. The outfit would be comfortable to wear on the plane.

Before doing anything else, she wrote a note to Vincenzo explaining that it had been nice to see him and his little boy, but her plans had changed unexpectedly and she needed to make a flight.

Once she’d brushed her hair and slipped on her sandals, she was ready to check out of the hotel. It was only a short drive to the airport to return her rental car. If Vincenzo hadn’t come to the hotel by then, she’d leave the note with the concierge.

At quarter to nine she arrived at the front desk and looked around. No sign of him. She paid the bill and left the note before walking out to the parking lot with her suitcase.

To her shock she discovered black-haired Vincenzo lounging against the driver’s side of her car, causing a tumult of emotions inside her. How had he known which rental car was hers?

Tan cargo pants outlined powerful legs. In a claretcolored polo shirt with the kind of short sleeves that emphasized his hard-muscled arms, he could sell millions of magazines to any female who saw him on the cover.

He flashed her a stunning white smile. “Good morning, Irena.”

“G-good morning,” she stammered. “Where’s Dino?”

“Buongiorno!” his son cried. When she turned, she saw him hanging out the window of the Fiat parked in the next row. She’d been concentrating so hard on getting away, she hadn’t noticed his smiling face. He wore a cute white shirt with a big green dragon on the front. “How are you this morning, signorina?” He had that question down pat.

“I’m fine, Dino. How are you?”

“Wonderful!”

Vincenzo had probably taught him that word this morning. He said it with such an endearing accent. Her gaze swerved to blue eyes studying her beneath a sun growing hotter by the minute. He stood straight and moved toward her.

“Follow us to Genoa so you can return your car before we head for Milan.”

She took a quick breath. “Vincenzo—something’s come up and I can’t go with you after all. I left a note for you at the desk when I checked out…I have to leave, Vincenzo.”

His jaw hardened. “I have no intention of reading your note, and you can’t leave…not yet. You made Dino a promise to come with us. He wants to show you Rapallo’s castle in the sea, built to repel pirates. He hasn’t stopped speaking of it—you can’t disappoint him.”

One more look at Dino’s expectant expression and Irena agreed. The only thing to do was drive to Milan with them. After Dino had been dropped off, she would ask Vincenzo to drive her to the Milan airport. She could leave for Canada from there.

“All right. A few more hours won’t matter in the scheme of things.” She reached for the key with the built-in remote and unlocked the door. He opened it and helped her inside, submitting her to another intimate appraisal before closing it. With an increased pulse rate, she started the car and waited to follow him.

During the short trip to Rapallo on the Italian Riviera, Dino turned in his junior seat and waved to her from time to time, making her smile. She waved back. When they reached the town, they parked in the historic center and ate gelato while they walked around the harbor.

She told Vincenzo to tell Dino that the tiny, picturesque castle out in the water looked like a toy castle. His son laughed and pulled her hand as they walked across the short causeway to explore it. Soon after, he begged her to ride the cable car up to Montallegro. Who could say no to him?

Along with other passengers they were treated to a panoramic view of the Golfo del Tigullio. After a lovely lunch at the restaurant on top, they took the funicular back down to their cars and drove on to Genoa where she returned hers to the rental company.

Vincenzo put her suitcase in the trunk of the Fiat where he’d stowed Dino’s cases.

The sight of them and a bag of toys brought a pang to her heart. In a little while the two of them would have to part company.

Clearly Vincenzo adored his son. As for Dino, he was crazy about his papa. How hard for them to have to be separated, yet Dino had a mother who must be missing him horribly.

More than ever Irena realized that in a few short months she, too, could be faced with a similar situation. If Andreas was the baby’s father and he discovered the truth, then Irena would be forced to share visitation and the raising of her baby with him. But if Vincenzo turned out to be the father, then what would the future hold for them? Vincenzo already knew the pain of having to say goodbye to his child because of visitation; would he want to go through that again with this baby?

En route to Milan, Dino kept her entertained by teaching her a couple of simple children’s songs in Italian. Vincenzo translated. She knew her accent was terrible, but she tried hard to memorize them and sing along. He corrected her here and there. By the time they reached the outskirts of the city, she could sing them without help.

“Bravo, signorina.”

She shifted in her seat to smile at Dino. “Grazie. You’re an excellent teacher.”

He said something to his father in rapid Italian. Vincenzo answered back. Irena couldn’t resist looking at him. “What did your son say?”

“He wishes you were his English tutor. Mr. Fallow was born in England, and moved here ten years ago. According to my son, he’s strict and grumpy because of a sore hip. You’re a much better teacher and you’re very nice. He wants to know if you would you like him to teach you Italian.”

Laughter escaped her lips. “I can’t imagine loving anything more. How much does he charge?”

A smile lit up Vincenzo’s blue eyes before he translated for his son. His boy giggled, then whispered something to his father.

Filled with curiosity she looked at him. “What was that all about?”

“He wouldn’t say no to a chocolate bocci ball.”

“Ah. A chocolate lover. I’ll remember that, but what will his dentist say?”

This time Vincenzo chuckled hard. After he told Dino, all three of them were laughing, but it slowly faded as they were allowed through a security gate. Soon they pulled up in the courtyard of a luxury villa hidden from the road by foliage.

“I’ll be right back.” Vincenzo slid from the seat to get his son’s bags.

Irena stayed in the car while Dino scrambled out of the back to come around to her door. She opened the window and shook his hand. “Thank you for a wonderful day, Dino.”

“Thank you, too. You like Papa?” He looked worried. Of course he was wondering what was going on between her and his father. Did he want her to like his parent, or did he wish she’d go away and never come back? What would Dino make of a new baby brother or sister? A trickle of unease settled over Irena. Her baby could affect so many people’s lives. She shook the feeling off and turned to Dino again.

“Yes, and I like you.” She poked his stomach with her index finger.

He reacted with a grin. “Ciao, signorina.”

“Ciao, Dino.”

She watched the two of them carry all his stuff to the front door of the villa. A maid answered and let them inside. Assuming Vincenzo would be a while, she rested her head against the back of the seat and closed her eyes.

Though she knew what she was going to say to him when he came back out, she was full of trepidation. They hadn’t been alone since she’d walked up to his apartment yesterday. Without Dino as a buffer, she didn’t know what to expect from Vincenzo, and she had no idea how he was going to react to her news.

Vincenzo hunkered down in front of his son. “We had a good time, didn’t we?”

“Yes. I loved it! Will Irena be with you the next time I see you?”

“I hope so.”

“I do, too. She makes you happy, huh.”

Vincenzo smiled at his son’s insight. “Yes.”

“Did you know she’s afraid of the water, too? She told me while we were looking out of the castle window.”

So…his son had an ally. “But she doesn’t seem to mind heights because she liked the cable car ride.”

“I know. So did I. She’s fun!”

“I agree.”

Lowering his voice to a whisper Dino said, “She’s beautiful, too, but don’t tell you know who I said so.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. Now before you know who comes downstairs, give me a hug.” He felt Dino’s arms wrap around him and squeeze him hard. “I’ll see you at the end of the month.”

“I wish we could do stuff more often.”

“But this is working, right?”

As Dino nodded and wiped his eyes, Mila appeared in shorts and a top, looking immaculate as always. His son broke away and ran toward her, giving her a big hug. She kissed his head before flicking her glance to Vincenzo.

“You’re later than I expected.”

In a gush of excitement, Dino told her all about their outing to Rapallo with Signorina Spiros. Vincenzo was perfectly happy for his son to take over and explain.

Mila’s expression hardened. “Take your things upstairs, Dino. I want to talk to your father alone.”

“Okay.” He turned to Vincenzo. “I love you, Papa.”

“I love you, too.”

He grabbed his sack of toys and started up the steps. When he’d disappeared from sight, Mila turned to him. “You’ve never introduced Dino to another woman before. How important is she to you?”

“Very.” Last evening he’d come close to cardiac arrest when he’d seen Irena at his front door. If he wasn’t mistaken, Mila lost color.

“And she’s Greek?”

“Dino’s already said as much. Now I have to go, Mila. Irena is waiting for me.”

“She’s here?”

“Sì. She is in the courtyard in my car.”

“How dare you bring her here, Vincenzo! And how dare you sleep with a woman in the apartment while Dino’s there on visitation!”

“Save your anger, Mila. She stayed at a hotel.”

“I forbid it, Vincenzo.”

Vincenzo felt his own anger toward his ex-wife bubbling to the surface. “Forbid what? I’ve obeyed every edict of the visitation stipulation to the letter. There’s nothing in it that states I can’t be with a woman in my car or my own apartment in Dino’s presence. My life has nothing to do with you anymore, Mila.”

“We’ll see about that!”

“If you and your father want to throw more money away talking to your attorney, I can’t stop you, but I promise you’ll be wasting your time.”

“You won’t be so smug when I tell your father and he gets the judge to alter the stipulation.”

“That’s not going to happen. Ciao, Mila.” With Irena’s arrival, Vincenzo now held the trump card and he would use it.

“Don’t you walk out on me yet!” Her strident voice had risen higher. “I’m not finished!”

“If you aren’t, you should be. Dino has missed you. Don’t keep him waiting.”

He left the villa, knowing he’d put the handcuffs on Mila for now. It was always a wrench to walk away from his son, but for once someone was waiting for him. He found himself somewhat breathless as he got back in the car and turned to Irena. Elation filled him that they were finally alone.

The richness of her black hair held his gaze, but it hid part of her features. He leaned closer to smooth it behind her ear, unable to resist touching her before starting the car. He studied her beautiful Grecian profile for a prolonged moment before pulling beyond the gate and out onto the main road.

“I took this week off from work to be with Dino and don’t have to report until tomorrow morning. Let’s make the most of the time.”

She stirred restlessly. “Vincenzo—I think we need to talk. You need to know the reason why I came…I didn’t want to say anything in front of Dino.”

“It’s enough that you’re here.”

“I’m being serious.”

“I never thought you weren’t.”

“Please listen to me. I won’t be staying in Riomaggiore. I’m on my way to Toronto. If you’d be kind enough to drive me to the airport, I’ll be grateful.”

She was running away again. This time he wouldn’t let her. “I thought you quit your job at the newspaper.”

“I did.”

“Then what’s in Canada?”

“Another job away from Greece.”

“If that’s what you’re looking for, I could offer you a public relations position at the plant in La Spezia.”

He watched her hands clench together. “I don’t speak Italian.”

“I would teach you.”

“Vincenzo—” she cried in frustration. “I stopped to visit you because I knew you would see the headlines about Andreas’s marriage to Gabi. It was important to me that you didn’t think I was a total liar.

“When I left Riomaggiore, I went back to break it off with Andreas. After I met you, I knew that my relationship with Andreas was doomed—you were right about that. Andreas figured it out for himself, too.”

Vincenzo was silent for a moment before speaking. “Be thankful Simonides acted on his instincts.”

“Whether he did or didn’t, I acted on mine and slept with you. That was the turning point for me.” The attraction between them had been too powerful. They’d just gone with the moment.

He turned onto a road leading into a park. As soon as he could, he pulled to the side and shut off the engine before giving her his full attention. “Now tell me why you showed up at my door. The truth.” Vincenzo was no one’s fool.

“You’re so sure I had an agenda?”

His penetrating blue eyes searched hers. “Let’s just say you and I have a strong chemistry. Whatever the camouflage, I believe it brought you back.”

He was right about the intensity of their physical longing for each other. “What if I told you the camouflage is hiding a compelling problem that has caused me to veer off course and fly alone?”

“I’m listening.” He knew she was referring to the analogy about the geese.

Her heart thudded at the thought of her own daring. “Were you serious when you said you thought we should get married?”

“Perfectly.”

She moaned. “That wasn’t a fair question to ask you since the circumstances aren’t the same as they were two months ago. I didn’t know you already had a son and a troubled marital history.”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“I—I’m sorry your first marriage didn’t work out—” her voice faltered “—but it’s not just that. There is something else I need to tell you, something…”

“What is it, Irena? What is it that has changed since our last meeting?” Vincenzo was again silent for a moment, clearly in deep thought, before his gaze shifted to Irena once more. “Irena, are you pregnant…with my baby?”

Shocked at his insight, Irena lowered her head, hating what she had to tell him. “I’m pregnant, Vincenzo, but I don’t know if the baby is yours. I’ve been to two OBs for opinions. Both worked out the timetable with me and came to the conclusion that we can’t be sure either way who the father is.”

“Simonides doesn’t know?” Vincenzo was a proud man. She’d been expecting that question and was prepared for it.

“I only came from the second doctor yesterday afternoon before I flew here.”

“And he’s on his honeymoon…” Vincenzo’s eyes narrowed on her face. “How soon do you plan to tell him?”

“I don’t.”

“As in never?”

“If you think that makes me an evil woman, I’ll understand.”

“Since I know you’re not, why in heaven’s name wouldn’t you tell him? He has the right to know.”

“It’s a long, complicated story.”

“I doubt it rivals my own.” There he went again alluding to a life that she knew next to nothing about. “Go on.”

“Look, Vincenzo. I’ve wasted enough of your time. I shouldn’t have come here. Please just drive me to the airport.”

“Not until you explain.”

Irena threw her head back, causing her hair to resettle around her shoulders, and closed her eyes. Then she took a deep, cleansing breath before she began to speak. “It all started over a year ago when Leon, Andreas’s brother, and Deline, Leon’s wife, had a very serious quarrel. He was working long hours as Andreas’s assistant, was hardly ever at home and it hurt Deline a lot. She accused Leon of neglecting their marriage and her. She wanted to start a family, but hadn’t been able to get pregnant and things were bad between them.

“They separated for a couple months. When Deline told him she was thinking of making the separation permanent, Leon was so hurt he got his friends together and took out the Simonides yacht. His friends invited some women on board and everyone got drunk. Then a terrible thing happened.”

For the next little while Irena relived the nightmare that had come close to destroying so many families. “I still don’t know how Deline is handling it. Besides being pregnant with Leon’s baby, she’s taking care of the twins he fathered on board the yacht with Thea Turner that night.”

“She must love him very much.”

“She does. I believe their marriage has a good chance of making it. But if I were to tell Andreas about our baby, it could destroy not only him, but his marriage, too. Gabi’s an innocent in all this and went through hell when her half sister died in childbirth. Until Gabi contacted Andreas, she was the one who took care of the twins for the first four months of their lives. If this baby is Andreas’s, how would this news affect her?”

Vincenzo moved his hand to play with the ends of her hair. “The more the plot unravels, the more it sounds like my own complicated family saga.” This was the second time she’d heard him mention anything about them.

“All the families have been in crisis, including mine. My parents had been counting on my marriage to Andreas. They’ve been grief stricken since he married Gabi. They think I’m heartbroken over it! If they knew it was his baby, they’d insist he take responsibility.

“And Andreas would insist on taking control, because that’s the way he’s made. But then everyone would get in on the act to make things right with me. Nothing would ever be the same again.”

Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. “It would ruin so many lives—that’s the reason why I have to keep this a secret from Andreas.”

Vincenzo cocked his dark head. “Does anyone else know you’re pregnant?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“If we’re going to get married, I insist that everyone believe the baby is mine.”

Irena gasped. “Vincenzo, what I said earlier…You don’t want to marry me! Especially not now.”

“Irena, the baby you carry has as much chance of being mine as Andreas’s. As you have explained, he already has a wife, therefore I insist on taking responsibility. You need a husband, the baby needs a father and I need a wife.”

“Vincenzo…”

“I’ll ask you the question again. Does anyone else know you’re pregnant besides me and your doctors?”

“Yes.”

“Who is it?”

She bit her lip. “It’s Deline.”

Vincenzo rubbed the side of his jaw. “Under the circumstances she’s probably the only person you know who could be trusted. Do you think she’d be able to take our secret to the grave?”

Our secret. Irena couldn’t fathom that he was really considering the idea of marriage to her, especially after what she had just told him.

“If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t have told her in the first place.”

“Does she support you in keeping this from Andreas?”

“No. She’s afraid that if I don’t tell him, it’ll come out one day anyway. But she would never betray me.”

“Can you trust the doctors not to contact Simonides? He’s too well-known for them not to make the connection.”

“I did what you did when you told Dino my last name was Spiros. How did you know that by the way?”

“When you came before, I saw the name on your passport. Irena Spiros Liapis.”

She blinked. “I’m surprised you would remember.”

“I’ve forgotten nothing about you, Irena.” His velvety words melted through to her insides.

“When I went to the E.R., I told them my name was Irena Spiros. I was referred to the OB under the same name. Including the doctor I saw yesterday, none of them has any idea I was the other woman mentioned in the headlines about Andreas.”

“Then it’s settled. We’ll be married as soon as I can arrange it. Since you don’t subscribe to any religion, we’ll say our vows in a civil ceremony.”

“Stop, Vincenzo!” She shook her head. “You’re going way too fast for me…and yourself.”

“Don’t presume to tell me my own feelings, Irena. If it had been possible, I would have married you when you were here before.”

She took a shaky breath. “Without my having met your son first?”

“I would have introduced you. The three of us would have spent the day together before I asked him if he wanted to watch us get married.”