The Petrelli Heir (15 page)

He nodded and swallowed.

‘I didn’t say …’

‘I got your message.’ Lauren had taken some delight in relaying it word for word—not that Lauren had the power to hurt him. ‘But when I saw you looking so …’

‘Needy and pathetic?’ she charged acidly.

‘Broken, I jumped to the conclusion.’

Izzy had paled at the description that was so close to how she did feel. She felt as though she had been shattered into a thousand pieces.

‘Well, you were wrong so you can go.’ She stuck out her chin and added, ‘We don’t need you!’ Then proceeded to spoil the effect by bursting into tears.

In a heartbeat he was at her side, drawing her into the protective circle of his arms. She stood there sobbing, her head against his heart, knowing all the time she felt warm and protected in his arms that it was a lie.

He stroked her hair. ‘I know what you think but you’re wrong.’

Izzy lifted her tear-stained face and tried to pull away.

‘No, you will listen. You will not continue to torture yourself and me with your imaginings. Lauren and I were seated at the same table at the charity auction.’

‘Just a coincidence, I suppose.’

‘I would hardly plan to meet another woman and then invite you to the same event, would I? Think about it.’

Izzy did and the first chink of doubt appeared in her betrayal scenario.

‘She had your phone …’

He grimaced as he recalled the sequence of events that had led to this. ‘I left my phone on the table. You know how I am with my phone.’

She nodded warily. For an organised man Roman managed to lose his phone more times a day than she
could count. She had teased him about it, especially as often it was right under his nose.

‘I was not at the table when it rang. I was with Lauren’s husband, being fleeced for raffle tickets. I think it is likely I have won a balloon flight over the Masai Mara. How do you feel about balloon flights,
cara
?’

How do you feel about me?

‘Lauren is married?’

He nodded.

Was it possible? A slow flush ran up under her skin until her face was burning.

‘I blame myself. I knew you thought that I still had feelings for Lauren and I let you think it, because while you thought I was in love with her I wouldn’t have to admit even to myself …
especially
to myself, that I had fallen in love with you.’ He gave an uncomfortable shrug. ‘I was so determined not to have my pride trampled over again that I refused to acknowledge what I was feeling. I was scared to admit that my fate, my happiness, depended on another human being—you. I let you think it was all about Lily, but it was always all about love.’ He took her hand and raised it to his lips. ‘You hold me in your hand,
cara
. I hope you will allow me into your heart.’

She stared at him in utter amazement, his smoky voice sending shivers down her spine.

‘Roman, you’ve always been there. I think there was always an emptiness inside me that only you could fill.’

He kissed her then with a tenderness and passion that brought tears of emotion to her eyes.

He drew back a little and framed her face with one big hand. ‘When I think of you all alone trying to cope with this … But of course you did cope alone—you are
a remarkable woman and a perfect mother. I know you don’t need me,
cara
, but will you have me? I know I have proposed before but this time is different.’

‘I know,’ she said, looking at him with eyes that were bright as stars. ‘And I do need you. I have loved you so much and not being able to say it has been … hell!’

They kissed until the sound of a phone ringing in the main ward brought them back to earth.

Roman took her hand and pushed her into a chair, then dropped down into a squat at her side. Holding her hands between his, he said, ‘Now tell me what happened and how our baby is. I wish so much that I had been there for you both. In the future I will always be there for you—you do know that.’

The anxiety and sincerity in his face brought a lump to her throat. ‘Of course, you couldn’t have known.’

‘So tell me.’

She did and the sharing had a cleansing effect. She was finishing relating the tale and Roman was mopping her tears when the door opened and a cot was wheeled in.

‘Here she is,’ said the pretty nurse. ‘Now, don’t you worry about the drip—that’s just until she starts taking fluids. Doctor will be along shortly but there are no problems. Everything is going to be fine.’

Izzy looked from her baby to her future husband and nodded. ‘Yes, I do believe it is,’ she said.

And even if it wasn’t, she would always have Roman there to support her through the bad times and, of course, laugh with her through the good times.

‘I wish I’d been here,’ Roman said for the umpteenth time as he gazed into the cot.

Izzy went and took his hand. ‘You’re here now. That’s what matters.’

She couldn’t ask for anything more.

‘A
ND
it all began here,’ Emma said with a sigh as she dropped to her knees to straighten the hem of Izzy’s dress.

Izzy smiled and thought,
Actually, it all began in a crowded bar
, but she didn’t correct her sister.

‘It’s so romantic and so quick too—three months.’

‘No so quick,’ Izzy murmured, glancing at her daughter, who looked as pretty as a picture in pink and was clutching a satin cushion in her chubby fingers.

‘Watch your veil …’ Michelle moved in to twitch the gauzy short antique lace that had belonged to her own grandmother. ‘So pretty, darling,’ Michelle said with a misty smile. ‘You look truly glowing, and don’t worry—I’ll give Lily the ring at the very last minute.’

‘Wing!’ Lily said, her face wreathing in an expectant smile.

‘Yes, darling … rings.’ Izzy smiled. It had been decided that their daughter would deliver the wedding rings and the toddler had been given ample training in her role, though taking into account her tendency to try and eat the rings it had also been decided that she would be given the rings by Michelle at the crucial moment.

‘Emma, remember—do not stoop when you go up the aisle.’

‘Yes, Mum,’ her willowy daughter responded to this maternal directive with a long-suffering sigh, adding as her mother vanished into the church with Lily, ‘Do you know how many times a day she says that to me?’

She encountered Izzy’s dreamy stare and grinned.

‘You’re not listening to a word I’m saying, are you?’

‘No,’ Izzy admitted. She wasn’t nervous, she was just happy; she doubted people ever got to feel this happy.

Emma laughed. ‘You look so soppy and I don’t blame you. If I was going to get married to a hunk like Roman I would be on another planet too, but for goodness’ sake don’t cry,’ she instructed firmly. ‘Rachel looked terrible when her mascara ran. On half the photos she looks like a panda,’ she continued with her usual exuberance. ‘But you look much prettier than Rachel did,’ she added loyally. ‘A pity you didn’t choose that big dress with the proper long train. Not,’ she added quickly, ‘that that doesn’t look nice.’

‘Thank you.’ Izzy gave a serene smile and smoothed down the dress she had picked in preference to the elaborate creation her sister had considered the ultimate in romance. A simple strapless, ankle-length cream silk, it clung to her curves, revealing a suggestion of cleavage, emphasising her pert bottom and making her waist look tiny, managing to be both sexy and demure.

Izzy had fallen in love with it the moment she had seen it.

The same way she had fallen in love with her gorgeous husband the moment she had seen him.

And he had fallen in love with her. It still didn’t seem real sometimes, but it was, and Izzy had contractual evidence.
No one else knew they had already married at a civil ceremony a week after Lily had been discharged from hospital. It had just been the three of them with a cleaner and a passer-by as witnesses. Roman had said they had wasted long enough and he wasn’t prepared to waste another second.

It had not been romantic like today, in a traditional way with the pretty village church decked in clouds of white gypsophila and red roses and the beautiful dress and the speeches to come, but for Izzy it had been the most perfect day of her life when Roman had stood there, this strong, proud man with the glint of tears in his beautiful eyes, and said he would love her for ever.

She didn’t need the window dressing; she just needed the man she loved and their baby girl. Not that she didn’t intend to enjoy every second of this day. There was no way she was going to rob her family, Michael in particular, of the wedding they craved, and his chance to walk his daughter up the aisle.

‘Ready, darling?’

Izzy smiled at her father, who had been striding nervously up and down the path outside the church, and took the arm he proffered. ‘I am.’

The only thing she remembered about the service afterwards was the laugh that had rippled through the church when Lily had stolen the show when she delivered the rings, and Roman’s face when he had turned and looked at her.

The incandescent love and pride in his face had brought the tears she had vowed not to shed; thank heaven for waterproof mascara!

Falling into the wedding car later in a cloud of confetti, she sank back into the seat and waved through the
window at the crowds of well-wishers. When the car drew off, she turned and found Roman watching her. Her tummy did the crazy flip lurch it always did when she saw him; he was so handsome, and especially today in his beautifully tailored morning suit.

‘What are you looking at?’

‘The most beautiful woman in the world … and you’re mine …’ He took her hand and raised it to his lips, still holding her eyes with his. ‘My woman.’

His smoky voice sent delicious shivers down Izzy’s spine.

‘You know,’ he mused, stroking her cheek with one brown finger, ‘I will never get tired of saying that.’

She caught his wrist and pressed a kiss to his palm. ‘And I won’t get tired of hearing it,’ she promised, looking at him through the dark screen of her lashes.

Roman’s free hand came up to cup her face. ‘Your skin is so soft. You must remember to put on plenty of sun screen—apparently we are promised a very hot September.’

Izzy smiled. They were spending their honeymoon at Roman’s villa at Lake Como.

‘What is that secretive little cat’s-got-the-cream smile for?’ he wanted to know.

‘I got you.’

Izzy broke away, breathless from the passionate kiss, some time later as the car arrived at the hotel where the reception was being held.

‘Ready?’ he asked, watching with a smile as she desperately tried to straighten her veil.

Ready for the rest of my life with you
, Izzy thought, and nodded. At the last moment before they emerged
into the September sunshine and their waiting guests, she caught his wrist.

‘Is something wrong,
cara
?’ Roman asked, picking up on her tension.

‘Not wrong,’ she admitted. ‘Pretty right, actually. I didn’t mean to tell you now, but …’

‘The tension is killing me here,
cara
.’

‘You know that appointment you planned to make to check that Lily was not a one-off—that you can … Well, don’t bother, because it looks like you can.’

‘You mean …?’ Roman swallowed, his eyes going to her trim middle. ‘You are …’

She nodded. ‘I did the test last night.’ The night Michelle had insisted she didn’t spend with the groom. ‘It’s been killing me not telling you. I wanted to blurt it out right there in the church. You’re happy?’

‘Happy!’ he exclaimed, pulling her into his arms. ‘I am the luckiest man in the world!’

The ripple of applause and laughter given by the waiting guests caused Izzy to draw back, pressing her hand against his breastbone to lever herself off his lean body.

‘Roman, people are watching.’

‘Shall I tell them to go away?’

‘Roman, you can’t tell guests to go away.’

His wicked grin flashed. ‘Watch me,’ he said.

Izzy did.

All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

First published in Great Britain 2013
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

© Kim Lawrence 2013

eISBN: 978-1-472-00150-4