The Claim (6 page)

He got six years mainly because he could afford to pay the money back to the company and he showed remorse.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Rocco whispered on his first visit to the prison, stale air stinging his nostrils with the sour scent of sweat.

His father shrugged. “You did good. Could have been worse. Did you sort things out with your girl?”

The last words Anna ever said to him were, “Come near me again and I will use your testicles as plant pots. Given I am the worst gardener this side of Chernobyl, you don’t want that to happen.”

“No, Dad.”

His father winced. “Never mind. Plenty more fish in the sea. How’s your nonna?”

“Nonna’s mad with you,” he said eventually, struggling to bring his emotions under control. “So she’ll come down when she says she’s not going to cave your head in with the visiting order.”

He snorted a laugh. “Your nonna’s crazy. You’ve got family around you, Rocky, don’t forget that. Family’s all you got.”

“Maybe I wanted a different family,” he said quietly. It didn’t matter. It was all gone now, dust in the wind. But it started to niggle at him. Odd moments when he thought he had made peace with what happened. Until he watched Nick fight tooth and nail to keep hold of Gina and Tony bring Lydia back from the edge of madness. He saw his friends get married, be happy, settle. God, even Massimo Da Canaveze, whom he thought would never commit to another relationship, was tamed by the all-encompassing loudness and command of Belinda Afriyie. The niggle turned into a raging, heated rash that wouldn’t go away.
What about Anna? You and Anna?
If things hadn’t gone so spectacularly wrong, maybe they’d be married. With two dogs and a baby. Fuck, no baby yet—Anna wanted to establish herself for at least four years before taking maternity leave. Dogs, definitely. She’d told him she’d never been allowed pets growing up, and she wanted a dog or three to adore her and follow her around for treats.

So the w
hat about
turned to
what if,
and
what if
became
when
.
When
simply became, g
et on with it for fuck’s sake,
and then Nonna presented him with the perfect opportunity. It occurred to him that he’d left it too long, he’d let Imogen’s poison and his own fiendish hell keep Anna away from him, but there was a reason Rocco always got what he wanted. He was good at it.

Chapter Six

“Hi, baby!” Rocco’s mother, Carmen, sounded very excited to hear from him. He spoke Arabic, which was much simpler for his mother to deal with for the type of conversation he wanted to have.

“Hi, Mama, are you all right?”

“So pleased to hear from you. Are you fine? Anything wrong? Please don’t say it’s your nonna—she can’t cause any more trouble. I can’t bear it.”

“No, no. But...” Awkward, awkward, awkward. “Remember that girl, the one that went bad when Dad—”

“Anna?” Carmen asked.

“Yeah,” Rocco said slowly. “Anna. I’m trying and failing to get her to talk to me.”

His mother sighed. “You have to understand that she’s hurt. Very badly hurt. I know you had a difficult choice to make, but you didn’t pick her. It was choose her and risk prison or lose her and save your family.”

Rocco closed his eyes. “I don’t know if that will be enough. Of a reason for her to understand why.”

“I’m sorry, baby, I don’t have any answers for you.”

“What made you forgive Dad?” There was a stark silence on the other end of the phone. “Mama?”

She cleared her throat. “It was a different situation, Rocco. It wasn’t just me I had to think about. It was you, your brothers and sisters. I had to think what I would do with myself if I left your father. It’s not like how it is now, the shame of being a single mother. You put up and you shut up. I don’t know how I would have survived or whether you children would have forgiven me if I’d just left.”

Rocco nearly banged his head into his desk. “Mama, we were the ones telling you not to put up with it.”

Of course his father was discrete at first, but he got careless, and what could his mother have done to hide evidence of her husband’s infidelity?

“You didn’t understand,” his mother protested. “And when all was said and done, I loved your father. Very much. He abused that terribly, but I loved him. And you cannot love without knowing that eventually you will have to forgive. No one is perfect.”

Christ, no, his mother just spouted forgive and forget. “So it was us and blind acceptance. That’s the way your marriage worked?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Oh, Rocco... When we were together it was good. We had good times together, didn’t you think? I was pregnant five times, we got along, he paid attention to me, he bought me nice things, put a roof over my head, gave me whatever I needed. I think after I gave birth is when he got into a habit and he couldn’t get out of it. After the first time, I wasn’t enough for him.”

“Mama, you have to be joking.”

“I know, it sounds awful, but I’m telling the truth. Your friends are getting to that age now, they’re having babies with their partners and believe me, the last thing anyone wants is to raise that baby alone. If they had a choice, they’d say no. I swear to the Almighty. It’s very bleak.”

“He was a cash machine Dad,” Rocco said, embittered by the memories of his mother’s tears.

“That’s not true. Rocco Danesh Mamione, you take that back right now this minute! He may have been an appalling husband, but he was a good father to you and your siblings.”

“Mama...”

“No, don’t you dare.” She sounded enraged. “I forgave him for a lot because he loved you and your brothers and sisters. Don’t take that away from me. Not now.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She cleared her throat several times, and when she spoke, she had a tremble in her voice that betrayed her distress. “Look, I had a reason to give your father a chance. Time and time again. What is your reason? What did you have that should be rebuilt? Does that make sense to you?”

He breathed out slowly. “It does. Thank you, Mama.”

What did he and Anna have that was worth this? They understood one another. Together, they shared a wealth of disappointments and prejudices, comforted in a touch or a look. They had times together when all Anna did was pop her hip to the side or bite her bottom lip and he’d have to get her somewhere private. And they had laughed, until tears had run down their faces and their stomachs hurt. He’d been a better man with her. Thoughtful, appreciative, patient—except when it came to getting her naked, fair enough. She hadn’t lost an iota of her fire or passion or herself when she was with him. Only she glowed more with the knowledge that she held him completely in her hands. He could talk to her and she would listen. Not wait for her turn to speak, but
listen
. She’d been his friend, his counsellor, his disciplinarian for their studies, his tattoo caretaker and his love. His very great love. Even if it had taken him five months to tell her.

They were on that skiing trip, quiet around them as Rocco sat outside, breathing in the crisp, cold air. The darkened surroundings of the mountains demanded his awe and silence. All of a sudden Anna leapt onto his back, her hair tickling his face. “I think you’re crazy,” she sang with a giggle.

“Stop adding whisky to the grappas,” he warned her.

“What, tastes better that way! PS, I think Beppe’s humping one of the chalet girls. If you’re quiet you can hear.” She ruined it by putting both hands over his ears and pressing his head to her breasts. Sort of ruined it, anyway.

“He can thank us both by staying well away.” Catching her arm, he gently pulled her onto his lap. She had on a well-padded fleece jacket and ski pants. “Thank you.”

“What for?” she breathed, pushing her hair out of her face.

“Not calling him a crazy prick and kicking him off the nearest mountain.”

She laughed. “I can be generous at times.”

“Yes, you can,” he agreed, holding her still so she could see what was clearly in his eyes. “I love you for that.”

She started and, despite his hold, nearly dislodged herself from his lap. “Pardon?”

He pointed to his mouth. “Watch. Okay? I love you, Anna Taylor.”

A laugh or squeak escaped her and to date, he didn’t know which one it was. “That’s brave of you. No guarantee you’ll hear it back and all that.”

He caught the zip of the fleece with his teeth and tugged it down slowly. “Uh huh.”

His naughty Anna was only wearing a stark white bra beneath the padded material. The contrast of the silk against her rich coffee-coloured skin sent the blood rushing to his cock. He brushed his mouth over the swell of one breast, then the other, feeling her pulse speeding beneath his lips.

“Okay, I love you too. But we can’t do it here.”

“Why not?” he asked genially, unzipping his jacket and pulling her tight against his warmth.

“Hypothermia’s a bastard to heal from.”

“That’s okay,” he assured her, lowering them both to the snow. “I’ll take the brunt.”

“You won’t thank me if you lose a testicle to the cold.”

Rocco laughed. “You’d still love me.”

She grinned, cupping warm hands to his cheeks. “I would,” she murmured between kisses. “I’d love you anyway, two balls or none.”

The memory of that night would never fail to make him hard. The snow melting around them, soaking into his hair as he pulled off what clothing he could to at once protect Anna and join them, the heat of Anna’s body writhing against his own until they were replete.

It had been work to earn Anna’s affections, and when she gave them, she gave them with everything she had. Why should Anna give them another chance? Because she’d loved him. She’d loved him completely, and until lies forced them apart, he knew she didn’t have any doubts about the way he felt about her. They had the most amazing future together, just within their grasp. There was no reason to throw that away, especially not on the say so of Imogen fucking Barnes. If she’d meant it six years ago, he was damned sure she still loved him today. So fuck it, he was going to order her a teddy bear. That was always a good start.

Chapter Seven

Anna was just putting on her coat to leave the office when Imogen came in, baby buggy in hand.
No way, man
. She knew she should have left an hour ago, but she’d been having a good giggle with counsel about a rather ridiculous case.

“Darling, please, I need a massive favour.”

“No can do, Imo,” she said, placing her phone in her bag.

“Please! Neil’s got this do tonight.”

“You have a nanny.”

“I sacked her because she was trying something with Neil!”

“She was sixty-two, what on earth would she try?”

“It’s all on the Nanny Cam.”

“I can’t, I’m meeting Mimi. We’re going to see
The Lion King
. It was my birthday present?”

Imogen made a face. “Please. This is so important.”

“Then you shouldn’t have sacked your nanny. I can’t, Imogen.”

The baby started to wail, obviously set off by the pitch of its mother’s voice. Anna touched the tips of her fingers to the baby’s chest and wiggled them. “Sweetheart, don’t get upset. Mummy’s just being a little selfish.”

The baby blinked at her and stopped crying immediately.

“See, you’re so good with him. It’s just for a few hours.”

If Anna cancelled on Mimi just once more, Mimi would start a revolution on her arse. “Imogen, no. I can’t. Bernie has the number of a great babysitter, she always uses her when she’s got last-minute hang-ups.” Anna edged Imogen to Bernie’s desk, and with Imogen and baby hovering by, Anna flicked through Bernie’s rolodex. “Here. Give this woman a call and sort yourself out. I really am late.”

“But I—” Imogen’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. What was she looking at? Anna turned around and saw Rocco heading for the lifts. “What the hell?”

“Yeah,” Anna said shortly. “Look, I’ve got to go. I’m late.”

“Are you mad? Have you lost your mind? Did you forget what he did?”

“What the
two
of you did?” Anna corrected. “No. I haven’t. But I have a job and it needs doing.”

Imogen stared at her in disbelief. “I never thought you were that stupid, but it’s obvious you want to get under him again.”

“I’m going now because I’m not going to dignify that with an answer.” She headed in the same direction as Rocco, in fact, feeding into a perverse need to see how the two of them would behave toward each other.

“Hold the lift,” she called, just as Rocco took a step inside. He held the door with one large hand, and his eyes lightened deviously on Imogen, with baby in tow.

“Imogen Barnes,” he said. “Look at you, rearing the innocent.”

Anna was shocked. Whatever she had expected, it wasn’t that.

“I’ll wait for the next one. Anna, I’ll talk to you when you get your senses back.” The lift doors closed just as the baby started to wail again. Rocco leaned against the closed elevator doors. “So you’re still friends. Really?”

Anna glanced at him edgily. “Sometimes, yes.”

“Forgive me if I find that absurd.”

“She’s made up for it. It was a mistake.”

He snorted a laugh. “It was a fabrication.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said, it was a fabrication. You tell me what on this planet would induce me to fuck
that
?”

“I don’t know, maybe simple availability!” Anna raged. “Oh, look, there’s a pussy, why don’t I stick my dick into it?”

Rocco suddenly crowded her space, and she found herself pressed to the wall of the lift, clutching the support bars. “You knew every single inch of my body. Ask her. Compare notes.”

“Why would she lie about that? Why would she completely ruin our friendship over a lie?”

He shrugged. “Why does anyone do something that makes them infamous in a person’s life? What else does she have going for her? Ask her where my tattoos are. If she slept with me like she said she did, she’ll know.”

“That’s crap, what if I’d told her?”

“Did you?”

Course not, the wonders of his body were all for her and for everyone else’s imagination. “It won’t prove anything.”