Читать книгу: «A Deal To Carry The Italian's Heir / Christmas Contract For His Cinderella», страница 2

CHAPTER TWO

IF ALL HER hopes and dreams hadn’t been hanging on his response, Neha would have laughed at the astonishment on Leonardo’s face. Like a typical man, he looked baffled by the concept of pregnancy. Or was it the forthrightness of her strange request?

Unlike any other man, however, he recovered fast and pinned her with his penetrating gaze.

“You’re not pregnant already?”

“What? No!” She looked away, refusing to let her imagination conjure a quality to his question that wasn’t there. “Of course I’m not pregnant. I haven’t been with a man since...” She flushed at the sudden gleam of male interest in his eyes.

Clearing her throat, she slowly unlaced her fingers, forced herself to look up at him. “I’m not pregnant. But I want to be. That’s why I’m asking you to... Be the father. To my child. So that I can be a mum. I want to build the family that I’ve always wanted. So that I can be...happy,” she finished softly.

She grabbed her clutch and pulled a tissue out of it. Just to have something to do. He kept looking down at her, unblinking. Not betraying his thoughts. A stranger for all that she’d known him for so long.

Lord, she’d appeared on network shows, giving speeches at conferences with CEOs and entrepreneurs, and this, the most important thing of her life... She was making a total mess of this.

Even the practice sessions she’d done in front of the mirror in her bedroom didn’t help. Because she couldn’t recreate the most important facet of their relationship by herself in front of the mirror.

This pent-up, unwise attraction of hers that had taken root years ago. Leonardo was the one man who teased and taunted her dreams for so long, who made her want to break down hard-won defenses she’d built, for one taste of that carved, sinful mouth.

It didn’t matter...it didn’t seem to matter to her body how many times she told herself that Leonardo was out of reach.

For one thing, even if she could come out and ask him outright if he was attracted to her—and he amazingly said yes, Neha couldn’t take him on because he was too...important to her.

For another, she knew what Leonardo thought of women in general and how far down his priorities romantic relationships were. He didn’t believe in love and marriage any more than she believed that another man like her papa had been—loving, warm, unconditional in his love for her—existed.

In short, Leonardo was the last man on earth for a woman to build her future around. Not that he wasn’t a good man. He was the alpha in any situation—a protector at heart—and he extended that protection and care to maybe two other people in the world.

She desperately wanted to be counted among them.

That first day when they’d met she’d still been grieving over her papa, and he’d been...ragingly angry about how his father had emotionally abused Massimo for so long. That regret and pain in his eyes that he hadn’t protected Massimo... Neha had never forgotten that.

For a gorgeously striking young man with the world at his feet, there had been such dissolution in his eyes when he had to face the stark reality that his father was a brute who crushed weaker people. That he’d worshipped a man who was so far from being a hero that he’d have to question everything he knew of himself.

Wondering how many lies the foundation of his life had been built on.

It was the only time Neha had seen that vulnerability in him. The only time she’d seen beneath the ruthlessness, the arrogance, the aura of power that surrounded Leonardo Brunetti.

Once their careers had taken off, they had met a few times each year. In the beginning it had been accidental—bumping into each other at some conference, traveling at the same time. She’d started using him as a sounding board for her own business ideas. As the years went by, he’d started asking her to dinner every time he was in London. She’d begun stopping in Milan whenever she had the chance.

She had obsessively followed his relationships from that first day on social media, and in glossy magazines, feeding her addiction about his life, wondering if between all the women he seemed to sleep with and dump eventually, he remembered her existence. But whoever the current woman in his life, Leonardo Brunetti, CEO of BFI, would meet his close friend Neha Fernandez, CEO of So Sweet Inc., on his every trip to London.

For a confirmed bachelor, who couldn’t be pinned down by even the most beautiful woman on earth, Neha had become a permanent fixture in his life.

Their friendship had deepened while morphing into a legend with the media. Their relationship had been analyzed and criticized and praised and “shipped” by some of Neha’s fans.

And she was putting all that on the line. But her resolve didn’t falter.

“You want me to...make you pregnant, so that you can have a baby, which in turn will make you...happy?” Leo finally said, every word enunciated in a biting tone.

She held her composure, barely.

“That is the request you want me to consider before I reject it outright, sì?”

“Yes,” she replied, squaring her shoulders.

A violent energy imbued his movements as he raked a hand through his hair and stepped away from her. “An innocent life is not a thing you go looking for because you’re bored, or because you’re unhappy, or because it’s the latest celebrity bandwagon to jump on—”

“You’ve got every right to question the sanity of my decision. Every right to be shocked,” Neha cut in, determined to make her point. His concern for a hypothetical child told her how right she was in her choice.

When it came to protecting an innocent life, Leonardo would always be a protector at heart.

“But don’t think I came to this decision lightly. Or that it’s some biological-clock-induced crisis I’m acting on without thought. And you know me better than to think it’s for a publicity stunt.” Her voice rose on the last and she took a deep breath to calm down. “I’ve always wanted a family. A man I’d respect and love, children, a house with a backyard and a huge kitchen while I do my best to be a good mum and run a bakery.” A lump sat in her throat.

“Sometimes I wonder if I fell so fast and hard for John because he came with a ready-made family. His daughters, so young, needed a mum and I bought into the fantasy without knowing what kind of a man he was. The dream of fitting into that family blinded me to what I should’ve seen from that first day.” She took a deep breath. “My dream has become impossible to achieve. One—” a bitter laugh fell from her mouth “—I can’t afford for all the millions I’ve made.” She’d morphed from a young girl, full of dreams, to a cautious, burned-out shadow of herself.

The anxiety attack had come out of nowhere but had been years in the making. Once she’d gotten over the shock and fear, she’d seen it for what it could be—a much needed wake-up call to fix her life.

It had given her the kick she’d needed to do something about getting the life she wanted.

“You never told me why you called off the wedding,” inserted Leo, pulling her away from the whirlpool of her troubled thoughts.

Everything in her protested at having to share the shame of her naiveté, of her desperation.

But telling him why she’d called off her wedding was important now. For the most important decision she’d ever taken in her life. She had to strip her armor and bare herself. To a man who’d never be vulnerable in front of her, or anyone else, for anything in the world.

“John told me the night before the wedding that Mario had been pulling his strings all along.”

Leonardo’s pithy curse did nothing to salvage the pain of that meeting. The wound it had left in her. “What did the bastard tell you?”

His anger on her behalf sent heat prickling behind her eyes. Made her weak. And she’d promised herself that she would never be weak again. That she would never tangle herself up in fantasy so badly that she couldn’t see the truth in front of her.

“Exactly five weeks to the day before I met John, Mario and I had a huge row.

“The company’s IP hadn’t been public yet. That first chain of bakeries we opened...it had become such a success in such a small span of time that I couldn’t believe it. Mario’s investment had come at the exact time. After the third bakery I’d opened, I was stretched to the max financially. I couldn’t believe that he shared the same vision that I had had. It snowballed into a monster I couldn’t keep grasp of soon after.

“Before I knew it, we were franchising my brand. New lines of goods were launched, only half of which I had designed. I signed with an agent, who in hindsight never shared my vision. I started to appear on network shows and then we released a line of baking tools. More and more things that I hadn’t approved of. There were days when I hardly had any time out of meetings. But business was booming, and Mum was deliriously happy for me and so I let Mario steer the ship.

“I didn’t quite have the guts to face up to him when I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the source of my own frustration.

“Then I got a call from the CEO of a small American bakery goods company. He’d seen me on one of my shows and asked me to come take over his company’s European branch. Offered me carte blanche—the vision, the line of the goods, a new bakery chain, everything would be up to me. It was exactly the break I needed from...” She looked away from him, refusing to share the complex relationship she had with her mum. “Anyway, it was the perfect time for me to start it.

“I gave myself six weeks to start tying up things with So Sweet Inc. before I accepted the offer. One week in, John joined my division. I found out later that Mario had appointed him to work exclusively with me. He seemed to be the perfect man—funny, kind, a wonderful father to his girls, and he believed in love. He wanted to settle down, get married and have more kids. Tailor-made for me because Mario had designed him like that.

“He’d been coaching him, pulling his strings, playing with my dreams and fears all along. John proposed within a month and I was more than happy to say no to the American’s offer, to put everything I wanted on the line for the life we’d build. Mario got what he wanted.

“But the deceit turned too much for John. He came up to my suite the night before our wedding and came clean. Apparently, he’d been in dire need of funds since his wife had passed away and the medical bills had piled up. Mario offered him the position of chief of division if he played the part of my husband.”

Leo cursed again. “Why the hell didn’t you confront Mario? Why continue to work with him?”

“Mario and I had a nasty argument after everyone left. I told him I was walking away from So Sweet Inc. after his manipulations.”

She looked away, the pain of the blow that had come after still echoing within.

Her mum had refused to walk away from Mario. She hadn’t seen what was wrong with what Mario had done with John to keep Neha home. “It’s not easy to break those ties,” she added softly.

“I’m the last man a woman with your...dreams should proposition.”

Neha moved to stand in front of him, letting him see her conviction. “I’m not that naive to think a man and love are needed for happiness. I don’t think I can even trust a man to have my best interests at heart anymore.

“Success is a double-edged weapon, yeah? I’ve enjoyed all the perks it’s given me. But I’m ready for the next stage. I want to share my life with a child. I want to give him or her my love, nurture it, build a relationship like the one I used to have with my papa. I want more than I have now and I’m going after it the best way I know.”

The space around them reverberated with pain and hope and sincerity.

He sat down on the opposite sofa, his right ankle propped on his left knee, his face thoughtful. “Why not an anonymous donor?”

Even having been prepared for that question, the quality of his tone sidetracked her. Distrust? Suspicion?

“Why me? What do you want from me?”

Neha forgot all her resolution to present a rational, cohesive argument. “For goodness’ sake, Leo, you can’t think I’m out to trap you.

“I might not be the heir of some centuries-long aristocratic Italian family, but I’ve got a fortune of my own. You know I’ve invested wisely. I can stop working tomorrow to have the baby and live comfortably for the rest of our lives.

“Granted, I won’t be able to fly to Milan on a private jet or afford a chauffeur-driven car or live in a mansion in the middle of London, but I never needed those things.”

“So you’re not after my wealth. What do you think is the one thing that most women that I have had a relationship with hope for?”

Sheer outrage filled her. “You think I want to marry you?”

He shrugged. The man’s arrogance apparently knew no bounds.

“Your romantic relationships are designed to last no more than three months at the most. Massimo cares more for those hounds of his than you do women. You think I want a piece of that?

“And not every woman’s dying to marry you, Leo. I definitely remember the scientist, and who’s the other one...? The CEO who publicly quoted her outrage when the trashy article implied that you’d dumped her,” she finished with savage satisfaction.

His blue gaze danced with amusement. “A good thing you keep such good track of my love life, bella.”

So he knew she was obsessed with his love life. So what?

Rugged masculinity, charming smile, unlimited wealth and power and a smoldering sex appeal meant half the women on the planet were obsessed with Leonardo Brunetti.

“So we’ve crossed off my wealth and my suitability as a husband. Maybe all this is a ruse to gauge my interest in you. To lure me into bed with you.”

Lure me into bed with you...

A veritable cornucopia of images downloaded into her brain. Bare limbs all tangled up on pristine white sheets, of him bending that arrogant head to taste her lips, of him driving that rip-cord-lean body into her over and over again, of touching him intimately, of kissing that hard chest and lower, driving him crazy... Her skin prickled, her breasts swelling with an unspoken ache.

She couldn’t look away from him, from the dawning desire in his eyes, from the acknowledgment curving his sinful, arrogant mouth, from the heat radiating from his powerful body. Her chest rose and fell as she forced herself to breathe in a long gulp. “If a red-hot affair’s what I really wanted, I would’ve proposed that.”

His eyes gleamed with a fire she’d never seen before. “Would you, truly?”

“No,” Neha said, swallowing the yes that rose to her lips.

A flicker of disappointment in his eyes.

How had they arrived here, of all places? How did such a small thing that Leonardo was attracted to her send her sensible nature off running into the clouds?

For years she’d kept a lid on all her fantasies starring him, locked away all the feelings he’d evoked in her again and again, and now, when it came to the most important thing in her life, she wasn’t going to let them create an obstacle for her.

“Don’t mock this. Please.”

“Why ask me and put yourself in this vulnerable position?”

When she’d ever been anything but...with him especially.

The ugly truth of her burnout, her inability to walk away from So Sweet Inc. all these years, the shame of her complex relationship with her mum... All these were vulnerabilities she loathed baring in front of him.

But Leo would not settle for half-truths. That he was a man who’d do anything to protect the people he cared about also meant that he’d strip her bare and leave her defenseless if she wasn’t careful.

“You’re the one man that Mario’s always been wary of,” she said. “My mum...she’s the tether that keeps me tied to Mario and So Sweet Inc.

“In all these years, I haven’t been able to figure out how to save my relationship with her, and walk away from his toxic presence. Mario rules my life—my day, my social life, my vision, my work, even how I dress and what I say outside the walls of the office...”

She rubbed her fingers over her temple, even talking about it bringing on a pounding behind her eyes. That powerlessness gave birth to anxiety that could choke her breath.

Hand on her tummy, she forced herself to breathe deeply, to anchor herself on one point in the room to focus on. To fight the wave that could overwhelm her so easily.

His hands as they poured a glass of water for her...she focused on them. Large, square tipped, and yet she knew, if he touched her, they’d be gentle.

And just like that, the encroaching darkness got pushed back. Knowing that she could control it, knowing what triggered it, made it less scary than that terrifying first time.

Knowing that she was taking the right steps to wrest her life back under her control, knowing that she was building a future she wanted helped.

“This last year...it’s become imperative that I have to prioritize what’s important to me.

“The pace that Mario sets for me, I can’t continue and be sane. The entire board is in his pocket, even though I’m the CEO. Even though I own the IP to that first line of products that launched So Sweet.

“If I have a child with an anonymous donor, not only am I leaving myself more vulnerable to Mario’s passive-aggressive tactics, but my child becomes a new weapon to manipulate me.

“Because, believe me—” a hysterical laugh left her mouth as she imagined the aftermath of the bomb she was going to drop on Mario soon “—he’s going to try and come at me with everything he’s got over the next few months. I refuse to let my child become a pawn.”

“Are you sure you’re not overestimating the threat he might pose?”

“Said every man who claims he’s a friend to a woman in distress.” The bitter words rushed out of her on a wave.

Leo raised his brows and waited.

Neha flushed at the infinite patience reflected in his gaze. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”

Leo waved it away. “I shouldn’t have doubted you. You would not concoct fantastic scenarios.”

His fingers landed on her shoulder and squeezed, concern expressed in an ephemeral second and then gone. As if he couldn’t let the contact deepen. As if he couldn’t linger even for a moment.

“There is more, sì?”

She nodded, not surprised at the depth of his perception. “I plan to retire soon. I have a legal team going over a million little things so that it can be a painless process. I plan to make a public announcement in a week or two.”

“What?” He sat forward in his seat. “That soon? Don’t make an emotional decision.”

“I’m not.”

“If this is about being a good mother—” admiration glinted in his eyes “—I have no doubt you can do both, Neha. And well.”

Her entire being warmed at his words. It felt immensely good to hear another person talk about her future with a child in it as a real possibility. “Thank you for the vote of confidence. I want to be a hands-on mum. But this pace I’ve been working at for the last decade, I can’t continue like that. Not if I want to have a healthy life, be a happy, strong mum to my child.

“Not if I don’t want to end up...” She swallowed away the darkest of her fears. “If the child is yours, Mario won’t dare to cast his shadow near him or her.

“So what I need is for you to create an illusion of standing beside me while I build the life I want.

“Can you do that, Leo? For me?”

Neha’s laughter—loud, full-bodied—hit Leo like a sound specifically created to awaken every nerve ending he possessed. His hand stilled with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth. He had convinced her to stay at his family’s villa by Lake Como for the weekend because he’d wanted to keep an eye on her.

It was a familiar sound—a glimpse into the funny, witty woman beneath the elegant facade. But so out of context here, in his home, where he had never invited a woman. Silvio’s multiple affairs, paraded shamelessly in front of Massimo’s mother, had been enough drama to last a lifetime.

He hadn’t sought her out in the two days she’d been here, leaving her in Nat’s capable and kind hands.

Ignoring his nonna’s complaints about the upcoming celebrations for her eightieth birthday in two weeks, he stood up and walked across the vast balcony.

A weak November sun cast a soft, golden glow around the gardens surrounding the villa that were his pride and joy. The villa had been a stalwart presence in his life when he’d been devastated as a young boy—confused, distraught and lost. The centuries-old legacy, the Brunetti name, thousands of people who’d always depended on the finance giant BFI for their livelihood, the tens of thousands of people who’d put their hard-earned income into the Brunettis’ hands for safekeeping, an anchor that had kept him going straight.

But it was the gardens that had given him a sense of belonging.

He’d always been able to will the most reluctant, the most stubborn, flower into full bloom with his hands. For a long time, he’d believed this was his contribution to the Brunetti legacy. Well, this and the fact that BFI had flourished under his leadership for the last two decades.

Vaguely, he remembered following a fragile, delicately built woman around the same gardens with a plastic pail and spade in hand. With a sense of delight that hovered at the edge of his subconscious mind. Soft laughter, sweet words...a memory buried in the recesses of his mind.

Another laugh from Neha pulled his thoughts from murky, unreliable memories. More than relieved to leave the past behind, he studied the woman who continued to intrigue him. The same woman who’d rendered him sleepless for the two days that she’d spent under his roof. Roused protective instincts he’d never even known before.

Neha stood on the sloping path that led to Massimo’s custom-built lab. Peach-colored trousers hugged her hips and buttocks, the fitted white shirt displaying the outline of her breasts perfectly. Hair high up in a ponytail that swung playfully as she walked, her smile glorious amid the riotous colors of the gardens.

I want you to father my child.

Even now, the fierceness of her expression when she spoke of a child that hadn’t even been conceived amazed him. Then there was the very existence of another image in his head—unbidden—of a boy or a girl he’d try to guide and protect while Neha nurtured with unconditional love.

“She looks much happier just after two days of being here,” said Massimo, joining him.

“You think so?” Leo had noticed something off with her but had put it down to the strangeness of her request. It wasn’t every day she walked up to a man and asked him to father her child.

“You didn’t notice?” Massimo wasn’t being facetious for once.

“Tell me what you noticed,” Leo invited him.

Massimo cast Leo a curious look but obliged. “She has such dark circles under her eyes her makeup can’t hide it. I haven’t seen her in...eighteen months, but she’s clearly lost weight. I know these ridiculous magazines call her fat and plump—”

“Her brand is successful because, like her products, she’s authentic, real. She eats like a real person and has curves like a real woman.” Leo heard the vehemence in his voice only after the words were out.

Massimo raised a brow. “It isn’t just her physical appearance, though. She doesn’t have that glow that lights her up from the inside, that genuine quality of hers. Instead, there’s a fragility I’ve never associated with her.” Massimo’s tone became softer, gilded with worry. “I remember Mama like that, before she left. As if she were at the end of her rope.”

Success is a yoke that can stifle every other joy.

“But the two days here seem to have made a world of difference,” Massimo added.

Again, true. Each hour Neha spent here in the villa seemed to restore a little bit of sparkle to her eyes. That innate joy.

“She wants to have a child. With me.” The words came easy because somewhere in the last two days he’d come to a decision.

Massimo’s sharp inhale jarred alongside his own steady breathing. “I didn’t know you two were involved.”

“We aren’t. Until now.”

“You’re considering this,” Massimo said, astonishment ringing his tone.

Leo’s smile dimmed, his chest tightening with an ache that was years old, that he wanted to shove aside as he’d always done. But today, he couldn’t. As much as he wanted to leave it there to rot, the past had a way of shaping the future. He couldn’t make a decision without making sure no innocent, and there could be two if he agreed, got hurt.

“Go ahead, play the devil’s advocate,” he said, inviting his brother’s opinion on a matter he didn’t discuss with anyone.

Massimo turned around and leaned against the balcony. Studied Leo for long moments. “You’re considering having a child with a woman who’s the one constant in your life, a woman you respect and admire, a woman who’s the real thing. I think it’s fantastico.”

Leo tried to swallow the shock that filled his throat.

“Shades of Silvio’s ruthlessness and abusive mentality could be in both of us. That does not mean we’ll prey on innocents,” said Massimo, who preferred computers to people, perceptive when it came to this.

“You had a mother to teach you right and wrong,” Leo whispered, the words coming from a dark place he’d shoved deep inside himself. From a hurt so deep he’d tried his damnedest to bury it. “A mother who taught you that it wasn’t weak to...feel.”

What he’d had instead was a father who had filled his formative years with poison against the woman who had walked out on both of them. Greta wasn’t cruel but she hadn’t ever been comforting to her grandsons, either. At least, not until she had married her second husband, Carlo, the first person who’d tried his best to teach them what it meant to be a good man.

But Leo had already grown up by then. Had been filled to the brim with bitterness against a woman whose face he didn’t even remember.

“But I almost lost Nat with my own hang-ups, sì?” Massimo’s gaze gentled. “You reached out to me when you discovered what a brute Silvio was, even though he taught you nothing of what makes family. You made him back off, you encouraged me to follow my passion. You believed in me and brought millions in seed capital when I’d have sold those designs for peanuts. There’s a reason a smart, levelheaded woman like Neha picked you.”

Leo had no words to express the gratitude and the indefinable emotion that pressed down on his chest. He hadn’t needed Massimo’s reassurance, but it felt immensely good to have it all the same.

“The only thing I would worry about in this whole scenario is...how the both of you will make it work.” Massimo grinned. “Nat and I will watch from the sidelines, popcorn in hands. She’s going to love seeing Neha bring you down a notch.”

Leo smiled. His sister-in-law was determined to see him defeated. In something, anything. “All Neha literally wants is to put me to stud, Massimo.”

Massimo burst out laughing, then sobered up when he realized Leo was serious. “What?”

“She wants the child because if I’m the father, Mario will think twice before he comes near the child. He’s got her all twisted inside out. She doesn’t want a coparent. Much less a relationship.”

“You’re okay with that?”

Leo didn’t answer, his gaze caught on the beautiful woman who had turned his life upside down with a simple request.

He was going to be a father, yes, but he wasn’t going to do it all by her rules.

Neither was he going to be tempted into a relationship with a woman he’d share a child with, with his history of relationships. Agreeing to Neha’s request meant he could never satisfy the deep hunger she evoked in him.