Preview

“…‘there’s a woman here who insists on seeing you urgently.’

‘Who is it?’ Emilio couldn’t think of a single person who would urgently need to see him right now. He could barely think about anything when his mother’s will was still clutched in his hand. The door opened further, unveiling the last person he expected to see.

‘Jasmine,’ the woman said, walking in with confident strides.

Emilio hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, about their night when they’d met at Boulevard. He still remembered his utter disappointment when he’d woken up and found that she had left. Gone without so much as a, ‘That was fun.’ He didn’t usually feel that way about his casual hook-ups, and part of him had wanted to look for her. New York was a big city, but it wouldn’t have been hard for Emilio De Luca to pull some strings…

Except, she had left. Snuck away while he slept. He’d taken it as a sign that she’d truly wanted the passion they’d shared to last for one night only. He could understand that. It was what he’d wanted too. But he’d been less sure ever since.

Something about Jasmine had messed with his sensibilities. Memories of her had haunted him. The feel of her skin. Her taste. It was all imprinted in his mind. He remembered every little thing about her. The softness of her curls. The touch of gold in her eyes.

The document in Emilio’s hand slipped to the desk as he stood and went round the desk. The woman in front of him now looked the same, and yet completely different from the one he’d known so intimately.

The night they’d met, Jasmine’s golden curls had hung low on her back; now they were pulled back, mercilessly pinned. Not a strand out of place. Then she had worn a daring dress he couldn’t take his eyes off; now she was in a charcoal power suit, ruthlessly tailored to fit her body perfectly. The strappy heels that had made her long legs even more tempting had been replaced with shiny pumps, the leg of her trousers falling at the perfect height for her shoe.

The Jasmine he had met had been fun. A free spirit. This woman was tightly controlled. She’d paid attention to every minute detail. If it weren’t for the blood rushing to his groin, or the way his heart sped at the very sight of her, Emilio would have sworn this must be a twin.

‘I have asked her to make an appointment.’

‘It’s alright, Rachel,’ Emilio replied, not looking at his PA at all. Despite the maelstrom of hope, grief, longing and fierce determination brought on by the arrival of the will, Emilio was still glad to see Jasmine. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t suspicious of her sudden appearance. Even as the sight of her took his breath away, unease crept in his belly. For two months he’d heard nothing from her, so why now?

‘Have a seat,’ he said, pointing to the chair in front of him.

‘Thank you,’ she replied, every bit as elegant as he remembered.

Emilio didn’t say anything in response. He simply watched her, his head cocked to the side, studying every movement of her body. The way she crossed her legs and set her clasped hands on her knee. There was a twitch in her arms that told him she would have preferred to cross them against her chest.

‘I don’t know how to say this,’ she said at last, ‘So I’m just going to come out with it. I’m pregnant and you’re the father.’

That unease in his stomach turned into a stone. He watched, nearly paralysed, as Jasmine placed a sonogram picture on his desk. He looked at it as if it were a venomous snake poised to attack. There was no way this was happening. Not today.

‘Mine?’ he heard himself say. ‘I hardly think so.’

‘It’s yours, Emilio.’

‘Am I just to take your word for it? A woman I knew for a few brief hours? You’ll have to do better than that.’ The shock was making him antagonistic, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t control it, which only further frustrated him.

‘I’m not the type to sleep around,’ Jasmine said. The huskiness in her voice turned into a near growl. Anger flared in her eyes.

‘And yet is that not exactly how we met?’

‘Look, I don’t care what you think of me, but I hadn’t been with anyone other than you in nearly five months. ’

Idiota.

Emilio had white-hot anger pouring through his veins—anger at himself, for yet again failing to control his impulsiveness. This was exactly like him. He had been impulsive with Gia and he had been impulsive with Jasmine. He hadn’t even gone out seeking company that night, but he’d seen her and lost all sense.

Enzo’s voice rang in Emilio’s head, the anger in it barely contained. ‘I fixed this mess, but know that, you and I? We’re done. You never think, Emilio. Not about anyone, and I’m sure not even about yourself. You can’t ever see further than the nose on your face. And one day your impetuousness is going to cost you, and it’s going to cost this family.’

Yes, he was guilty of messing things up, but not this time. He wouldn’t let that happen again. He took one look at the will still sitting on his desk and realised he needed to compartmentalise. This truly couldn’t have happened at a worse time. The first thing he needed to do was protect the legacy.

What if Jasmine was attempting to run some sort of scam on him? He didn’t know her. She could have faked the sonogram picture. He picked it up regardless, remembering his PA putting up her sonogram picture next to her computer. After years of trying, she’d been so excited and anxious about it that he had told her to take two days off. She hadn’t realised he hadn’t counted them as leave until she’d seen her pay slip. He remembered a lot from Rachel’s journey, and a quick mental calculation in his head gave him a rough idea of how far along Jasmine must be…if she wasn’t lying.

‘So you’re telling me that you’re about ten weeks’ pregnant with my child,’ Emilio said emotionlessly. He was going to come at this as he did with all his business dealings—with cold logic. ‘That means we should be able to do a paternity test immediately.’

Jasmine exploded. ‘I’m sorry, what?’

‘You didn’t think I would just take your word for it, did you? I don’t know you and, more importantly, I don’t trust you.’

‘You seemed to know me, to trust me, enough to take me to a hotel room.’ A vein had begun to throb in Jasmine’s temple. That was fine. She could be angry if she wanted to be. Emilio had too much to protect to worry about manners right now.

‘Yes, and as I recall we both took great pleasure from that.’

‘I didn’t say otherwise. I’m merely pointing out that you claim you can know and trust me perfectly fine to have sex with me, but not enough to believe me when I come to you bearing the consequences.’

‘Good. You understand.’

Jasmine’s face flamed red. Her eyes looked more green than usual in her anger. Emilio didn’t take pleasure in this, but he never went into a negotiation blind or emotional. That was why he always came out on top.

Yes, the possibility existed that the baby was his. If it was, he would take care of it then. Step one was to determine whether Jasmine was lying. He lifted the receiver of his office phone and hit the direct extension for his PA. ‘Rachel, I want Dr Silver in my office asap.’

‘Yes, Emilio.’

‘You would task your PA with something as sensitive as this?’ Jasmine questioned with a cocked brow.

‘My employees are fairly compensated to ensure their compliance and discretion, I assure you. You will wait here for Dr Silver to arrive. He will draw blood for the paternity test.’ It was an instruction, and Emilio wouldn’t budge.

‘Who the hell do you think you are to order me around? I don’t work for you, Emilio. You can’t instruct someone to perform invasive tests on me without first securing my consent.’

‘True. And if you fight this,’ he said calmly, ‘I will know you’re lying and this supposed child is either not mine or non-existent.’.

‘How dare you?’ Jasmine demanded, enraged.

‘I dare because I don’t know you. I haven’t seen you or heard from you in two months and now here you are with this grand announcement, no doubt after finding out my name.’

‘I don’t want anything from you,’ Jasmine said through gritted teeth.

‘Then why are you here?’

Jasmine dropped her head, letting out a humourless huff. ‘Why am I here?’ she said softly, as if to herself. Then she looked him in the eye. Her expression was defiant; she was utterly unfazed by who he was. ‘I don’t know. I guess because I thought it was the right thing to do. I don’t need anyone, or trust anyone. Certainly not a man. I’m fine doing this on my own.’

Certainly not a man? What was that about?

‘I came here to inform you,’ Jasmine said, slinging her handbag over her shoulder. ‘And now I have.’”