Innocent Wife, Baby of Shame Read online

  ‘Oh, God, I can’t believe how close we were to throwing it all away again,’ she said, burying her head into his chest. ‘I was so sad, so lonely at the thought of you leaving me all over again.’

  ‘I have never stopped loving you, cara,’ he said into the fragrant cloud of her wild hair. ‘I realised it almost as soon as you walked into my office that evening to discuss the boys’ feud. I felt such a rush of feeling for you that I mistook at first for hate but later realised it was the opposite. But I was too proud to let you see what you did to me. I was content to allow you to think it was simply a physical thing but instead it is much more and always will be.’

  He eased her away so he could look into her eyes. ‘I am so deeply ashamed of the things I said to you. How you can possibly still love me I will never know. If you were to cast me from your life right here and now it would be no more than I deserve for not trusting you. I can never forgive myself for that. It will be years before I can even think of it without pain, I am sure of it.’

  ‘I feel such a fool for not realising about Garth,’ she said as he reached for her again. ‘We were so close for so long and yet I never once guessed what he was going through. If only I had known…’

  Patrizio’s brows moved together in a frown. ‘You are ready to forgive him for what he has done to us? How can you even think of doing such a thing? He came close to ruining both of our lives.’

  ‘Yes, but he did what he could to fix it,’ she said. ‘If he hadn’t approached the boys we would be well on our way to being divorced by now. You would never have seen me again and I would have been miserable and alone for the rest of my life.’

  He brushed at his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘Do not even mention such things, cara,’ he groaned. ‘I cannot bear the thought of how close we were to losing each other. I am never letting you out of my sight ever again. Do you hear me? No more business trips unless you come with me. And as soon as you are well enough we are going to have that second honeymoon. I am going to treat you like a princess for the rest of our lives.’

  ‘Oh, Patrizio, I can barely believe this is real,’ she said, smiling up at him. ‘Even my parents have been marvellous. They want us to go around for a barbecue when I’m feeling better. A barbecue instead of one of their interminably boring formal dinner parties! Can you believe that? My dad even told me he loved me.’

  He smiled and tucked a springy curl behind her ear. ‘I am glad he has finally realised what a treasure he has in his beautiful daughter,’ he said. ‘I hope that one day very soon we will have a little girl with wild curly black hair and violet-blue eyes, a feisty temper, a little pout of a mouth and a delightfully stubborn chin.’

  A smile began to spread like bright sunshine over her face. ‘So you think we’re having a little girl, do you?’ she asked.

  He pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. ‘I am sure of it, tesoro mio,’ he said and took a coin out of his pocket and began flipping it. ‘Which do you want? Heads or tails?’

  Keira caught the coin mid-air and smiled back at him as she clutched it tightly in her palm. ‘There’s no winner or loser this time around. We both have what we want—each other.’

  ‘You are right,’ he said, kissing her again. ‘But a little girl will be a nice little bonus, yes?’

  And, just under five months later, the safe arrival of tiny Alessandra Patrice MariettaTrelini proved him absolutely right.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-1494-5

  INNOCENT WIFE, BABY OF SHAME

  First North American Publication 2008.

  Copyright © 2007 by Melanie Milburne.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Copyright

  Contents

  All about the author…

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN