of their physical longing for each other. “What if I told you the camouflage is hiding a compelling problem that has caused me to veer off course and fly alone?”
“I’m listening.” He knew she was referring to the analogy about the geese.
Her heart thudded at the thought of her own daring. “Were you serious when you said you thought we should get married?”
“Perfectly.”
She moaned. “That wasn’t a fair question to ask you since the circumstances aren’t the same as they were two months ago. I didn’t know you already had a son and a troubled marital history.”
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“I—I’m sorry your first marriage didn’t work out—” her voice faltered “—but it’s not just that. There is something else I need to tell you, something…”
“What is it, Irena? What is it that has changed since our last meeting?” Vincenzo was again silent for a moment, clearly in deep thought, before his gaze shifted to Irena once more. “Irena, are you pregnant…with my baby?”
Shocked at his insight, Irena lowered her head, hating what she had to tell him. “I’m pregnant, Vincenzo, but I don’t know if the baby is yours. I’ve been to two OBs for opinions. Both worked out the timetable with me and came to the conclusion that we can’t be sure either way who the father is.”
“Simonides doesn’t know?” Vincenzo was a proud man. She’d been expecting that question and was prepared for it.
“I only came from the second doctor yesterday afternoon before I flew here.”
“And he’s on his honeymoon…” Vincenzo’s eyes narrowed on her face. “How soon do you plan to tell him?”
“I don’t.”
“As in never?”
“If you think that makes me an evil woman, I’ll understand.”
“Since I know you’re not, why in heaven’s name wouldn’t you tell him? He has the right to know.”
“It’s a long, complicated story.”
“I doubt it rivals my own.” There he went again alluding to a life that she knew next to nothing about. “Go on.”
“Look, Vincenzo. I’ve wasted enough of your time. I shouldn’t have come here. Please just drive me to the airport.”
“Not until you explain.”
Irena threw her head back, causing her hair to resettle around her shoulders, and closed her eyes. Then she took a deep, cleansing breath before she began to speak. “It all started over a year ago when Leon, Andreas’s brother, and Deline, Leon’s wife, had a very serious quarrel. He was working long hours as Andreas’s assistant, was hardly ever at home and it hurt Deline a lot. She accused Leon of neglecting their marriage and her. She wanted to start a family, but hadn’t been able to get pregnant and things were bad between them.
“They separated for a couple months. When Deline told him she was thinking of making the separation permanent, Leon was so hurt he got his friends together and took out the Simonides yacht. His friends invited some women on board and everyone got drunk. Then a terrible thing happened.”
For the next little while Irena relived the nightmare that had come close to destroying so many families. “I still don’t know how Deline is handling it. Besides being pregnant with Leon’s baby, she’s taking care of the twins he fathered on board the yacht with Thea Turner that night.”
“She must love him very much.”
“She does. I believe their marriage has a good chance of making it. But if I were to tell Andreas about our baby, it could destroy not only him, but his marriage, too. Gabi’s an innocent in all this and went through hell when her half sister died in childbirth. Until Gabi contacted Andreas, she was the one who took care of the twins for the first four months of their lives. If this baby is Andreas’s, how would this news affect her?”
Vincenzo moved his hand to play with the ends of her hair. “The more the plot unravels, the more it sounds like my own complicated family saga.” This was the second time she’d heard him mention anything about them.
“All the families have been in crisis, including mine. My parents had been counting on my marriage to Andreas. They’ve been grief stricken since he married Gabi. They think I’m heartbroken over it! If they knew it was his baby, they’d insist he take responsibility.
“And Andreas would insist on taking control, because that’s the way he’s made. But then everyone would get in on the act to make things right with me. Nothing would ever be the same again.”
Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. “It would ruin so many lives—that’s the reason why I have to keep this a secret from Andreas.”
Vincenzo cocked his dark head. “Does anyone else know you’re pregnant?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“If we’re going to get married, I insist that everyone believe the baby is mine.”
Irena gasped. “Vincenzo, what I said earlier…You don’t want to marry me! Especially not now.”
“Irena, the baby you carry has as much chance of being mine as Andreas’s. As you have explained, he already has a wife, therefore I insist on taking responsibility. You need a husband, the baby needs a father and I need a wife.”
“Vincenzo…”
“I’ll ask you the question again. Does anyone else know you’re pregnant besides me and your doctors?”
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
She bit her lip. “It’s Deline.”
Vincenzo rubbed the side of his jaw. “Under the circumstances she’s probably the only person you know who could be trusted. Do you think she’d be able to take our secret to the grave?”
Our secret. Irena couldn’t fathom that he was really considering the idea of marriage to her, especially after what she had just told him.
“If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t have told her in the first place.”
“Does she support you in keeping this from Andreas?”
“No. She’s afraid that if I don’t tell him, it’ll come out one day anyway. But she would never betray me.”
“Can you trust the doctors not to contact Simonides? He’s too well-known for them not to make the connection.”
“I did what you did when you told Dino my last name was Spiros. How did you know that by the way?”
“When you came before, I saw the name on
