Baby Mine (9 page)

Renzo caught her looking and
reached across to stroke her cheek before smoothing her hair from her
face. Rather than put it up in a tight chignon as she usually did,
she had let it hang down around her shoulders. Over the last couple
of months, it had grown at least three inches and now hung just past
her shoulders. This aspect of pregnancy agreed with her.

“
You are more beautiful
than the last time I saw you,
cara
.”

She turned away from his touch.
“Don’t flatter me. I’m beginning to swell in places
that make me want to cry. I remind myself it’s temporary and
all for the baby.”

“
Are you showing yet?”

She clenched her jaw. “A
little.”

His gaze brightened and dropped
to her breasts and then to her belly. Although he turned back to the
road, she knew he imagined her naked, and the knowledge both
horrified and turned her on at the same time.

“
Hm,” was his only
comment, and Renzo proceeded to stay by her side for the entire
appointment. He even asked the doctor questions she hadn’t
considered. When they were done, he dropped her at work with a
promise to pick her up at the end of the day. She ducked out from
Leena and the lawyers five minutes early so she wouldn’t have
to offer explanations about Renzo and headed down to the lobby. As
promised, her baby’s daddy stood waiting for her and escorted
her to his car. They picked up dinner on the way to her apartment,
and Jada gave in to a moment of weakness to invite him inside.

“
I know this isn’t
what you’re used to,” she told him when he paused to look
around, “but it’s home, and I like it. I have a second
bedroom I plan to redecorate for the baby.”

Renzo made no comment.

“
We can eat at the dining
room table or in the living room if there’s something on TV you
want to watch.” She hated how quiet he remained. “Are you
going to say anything or what?”

“
Ti amo
,
Jada.”

The bottle of ranch salad
dressing slipped from her fingers and splattered on the carpet. She
knew what those words meant.

He walked over and pulled her
from trying to clean up the mess, then began to do it himself.
Kneeling regardless of his suit pants, he scrubbed at the spot with a
napkin. Jada saw that he made it worse, but the mere fact of him
trying kept her where she stood. Well, not just that. His uttered, “I
love you,” had robbed her of the ability to think. Even
breathing normally took a bit of effort.

“
W-why did you say that?”
she stuttered.

He glanced up from his task,
piercing her with those almost black eyes, which sent chills down her
spine. “You know why.”

She raised a hand to her forehead
and shut her eyes. A deep breath restored some of her equilibrium,
but not all. “I’m not down on myself by any means. I’m
cute in my way, and even pregnant, I’m okay. You can have any
woman you want.
Any
one probably in the world. Me having your baby doesn’t force
you to pretend you love me, so…why?”

He stood up and tossed the napkin
on the table. When he approached her, she had a sudden urge to run
but stood her ground. Renzo took her hand and led her over to the
couch. They sat side by side, but he didn’t relinquish his
hold. The touch of his skin burned, igniting a fire inside her belly
she’d worked hard to put out over the last few months of being
apart from him. In just a few short hours, here he was to undo all
she had worked for. Aside from that, he had upped the stakes,
claiming to love her.

“
Cara
,
when I first saw you in Venice, so carefree and eager to take in all
the wonders that my homeland offered, your beauty stunned me. I admit
at first it was raw attraction. That thin yellow dress you wore, how
it accentuated your small waist and luscious breasts, even your
smooth sweet cocoa skin drew me in. Then you spoke to me, and we had
dinner together. I swear by the end of the night, I was in love. I
couldn’t let you go.”

“
Oh.” Words rattled
around in her head, chief of which were, “I love you too,”
but she held back and turned away from him. “Renzo, I believe
you, but there are so many complications—”

“
There are none.” He
drew her to face him again with an insistent hand on her chin. Chills
raced each other over her skin, up her arms and down her spine. The
period where he bided his time seemed to be long over. “I’m
here, and I will continue to be here. We will work all things out as
they happen.”

She shoved his hand away and
stood up. “What about school?”

“
School?”

She put her hands on her hips.
“Someone told me you were going to send my baby away to some
boarding school in Europe when he turns ten or eleven. I’m
gonna tell you right now that’s not happening, even if I have
to fight you with everything inside me. You’re not going to use
your money and connections against me, Renzo. I mean it.”

The amusement in his gaze pissed
her off.

“
I’m serious.”

“
And I believe you.”
He stood and pulled her into his arms. The man played dirty. “No
boarding school. What else?”

She was thrown for a loop. “Um…no
nanny. I’m raising my child.”

“
Done, but if you change
your mind, or you need a little break now and then, I will get you
help without question.”

She nodded and pulled away again
to sit down. Having his hands on her waist was too distracting.
“Okay, what are your demands?”

“
Voglio amare per
sempre,”
he said
without hesitation.

She gasped. “That was the
phrase on one of the cards you sent me. What does it mean?”

“
I want to love you
forever.”

Her heart skipped a few beats.

“
I want to cherish you,
cara mia
.
I want to make you mine, my wife, with the rights that come with it.”

Sex
,
she thought.

“
Not just your body but
your mind, your smile, your point of view, and even your cutting
tongue when you’re angry with me.”

She couldn’t help the smile
that parted her lips now.

“
I am a businessman. I love
my work, and I admit it consumes much of my time, but I spent the
last few weeks rearranging things, delegating many of the
responsibilities that take me away from home more than I am there.
Ettore isn’t so happy with me right now, but the agreement I
came to with Uncle Gianni should ensure he will not stand against you
ever again. I am free to love you and our baby, Jada. If you will
have me.”

She already knew what would
happen if she rejected him. He would bury her in gifts for as long as
it took to change her mind, and by his own admission, he had freed up
a lot of his time. Something told her he would dog her every step and
might even get the lawyers and Leena involved. “I won’t
say no, but I won’t say yes just yet either. Woo me, Renzo.
Show me how much you love me. Not with your money, but with yourself.
I’m still hesitant because we come from two different worlds,
but… I do love you. More than any man I’ve loved before,
and I’ve never been married. This is not just about us but
about our child. I need to know we are doing the right thing being
together. Can you understand how I feel?”

“
I can, my love. I am
confident you will be mine in name as you already are in body and
soul.”

Jada had no wish to deny his
assertion. She did her best to prepare for what was to come.

Chapter
Eight

Renzo reminded himself as he
scrubbed a particularly stubborn pot that staying in Charlotte at
Jada’s small apartment was the right choice. He had removed his
suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves to cook for her. The problem
was he had never been in the kitchen in that capacity, nor had he
ever washed a dish. The spaghetti turned out to be overcooked and
rubbery, and the sauce might come out of his shirt but probably not
his pants. He’d thought he was being clever when he looked up
the recipe on his cell phone. How hard could it be, he’d
thought. Jada had almost made herself sick laughing at the disaster.

The pot slipped from his soapy
fingers and clanged to the floor for the fourth time. “
Mannaggia!
”
he swore.

Jada’s slender fingers
curled around his bicep. “Enough. Let me do it.”

He shook off her hold. “I
promised you dinner and that I would clean up afterward. We had to
order in. The least I can do is handle the mess I made.”

She grinned, and, for the
millionth time, his chest constricted just looking at her. This
humiliation was more than worth it to win her.

“
Well, okay, you can stay
in here fighting with the dishes, or you can come into the bedroom
and play with me. It’s completely up to you.”

She hadn’t done anything
other than utter the words. No suggestive movements, not even a
raised eyebrow. Yet, he dropped his gaze to her breasts. Incredibly,
they were heavier than the last time he’d seen her, and he
imagined they’d begun to leak with milk. An image of the
swollen nipples popped into his head, and his cock went rock solid.
She turned away and strode out of the kitchen. He watched her go, his
attention locked on her ass.

Like a man hypnotized, Renzo let
go of the pot, not sure where it landed. He followed after Jada more
slowly, allowing anticipation to build. He hungered for her, every
part of her—to touch her, to smell her, to listen to her tiny
mewls when he pleasured her. By the time he reached the bedroom, she
stood before a full-length mirror completely naked. He paused in the
doorway, unable for a moment to coordinate his own body. All he could
do was stare. Her previously flat belly rounded somewhat now near the
base. Her breasts hung as low as he’d imagined. They were
heavier, he knew, and his palms itched to weigh them. Already her
hips had widened a little, and her thick thighs were more for a man
to squeeze between.

Renzo almost salivated at the
sight of his sweet Jada. His pulse raged, and his blood boiled. The
hard-on he’d grown from her earlier words strained in his pants
for release. “Do you realize how beautiful you are?” he
asked in a ragged breath that was thick with his desire. If he’d
been thinking to hold off from taking her until she was sure of him,
that vow would have flown out the window at this moment.

He took his time approaching her
and stopped just to stare at her reflection.

She frowned and then pouted. “I’m
getting fatter.”

“
You are more of a woman
than you’ve ever been before, and it’s driving me
insane,” he corrected. “Do you understand what a pregnant
woman means to a man?”

She dragged her gaze from
critically examining her body to meet his, and her soft brown eyes
widened. “Wow, you look like you could eat me.”

“
Oh, I will eat you and
more.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and felt the shiver
that passed through her. When he turned her to face him, he gave
closer inspection to those wonderful breasts, and his mouth watered.
With one fingertip, he traced a small bud and watched it tighten
under his touch. “Do they leak yet?”

Again the frustrated frown. “Yes,
and I’m already having to wear pads in my bra. It’s
annoying. They ache too.”

He tsked with his tongue against
the roof of his mouth. “
Povera
bimba.
Poor baby, let
me make it better.” He caught one swollen mound in his hand and
raised it slightly while bending down to lick the tip. Jada let out a
small gasp and then moaned when he took her nipple between his lips
to give it a suck. Right away a few drops of sweet liquid coated his
tongue, and he echoed her moan. He wrapped an arm around her waist to
draw her tighter then sucked a little harder. His precious beauty
cried out his name, almost bringing Renzo to release in his pants.

“
Renzo,” she said
again, bringing him to dizzying heights. “Your clothes are wet.
Let me help you take them off.”

With reluctance he drew back,
allowing the nipple to pop from his lips. He watched the heavy breast
bounce once and was hard-pressed not to make it happen again. “By
all means,
cara
,
undress me.”

Her hands shook as she unbuttoned
his shirt, a telltale sign of how he affected her. He never took his
eyes off her beautiful face as she worked and was gratified to see
her full lips part and her breath quicken when she bared his chest.
Despite how much he worked, he’d made it a point of staying in
shape. Jada obviously approved of his conditioning. She ran her hands
over his chest, lingering at his small, flat nipples, which had gone
hard at her touch.

“
My pants are wet too,”
he prompted.

Her gaze dropped to the front of
his pants, and he grinned at seeing her reaction to the tent she
found there. She didn’t pause for a second, undoing his belt
and lowering his zipper. When she freed his cock, it sprang out,
stretching to its mate. He ached to feel her tight, hot pussy wrapped
around his dick and to push himself as far as he could go. He wanted
to lose track of time and space, buried in the most perfect woman in
existence. With that in mind, he pushed her hands away and caught her
up around the waist. Just before he dropped her on the bed, he
remembered her condition and placed her there gently. After he had
removed the rest of his clothing, he followed her down, a thigh
braced between hers and most of his weight on his elbow at her side.