he answered a call on his mobile phone, and she had no opportunity to vent her feelings until they had climbed into the limousine parked outside the apartment block.
‘Don’t think I don’t realise what you are doing.’ She rounded on him the second he’d depressed a button to activate the privacy glass so that the chauffeur could not hear them. ‘You believe Sophie is your daughter, and once the test proves it you’re planning to send me away from her. That’s why you’ve employed a nanny. But I won’t leave her,’ she told him fiercely. ‘Mel appointed me as Sophie’s guardian, and I’ll fight you in court if necessary for the right to be a mother to her.’
Her emotions were raw after her conversation with the doctor had triggered painful memories of Mel, and now the tears she had tried to supress filled her eyes.
The sight of Beth’s distress made Cesario’s stomach clench. ‘You’re wrong,’ he said tautly. ‘I’ve employed Luisa because you’ve admitted you are exhausted from lack of sleep and I can see that you need help. Dio, your devotion to her has made you ill. If Sophie is mine, I promise I will involve you in her upbringing.’
What did he mean by that? Beth wondered anxiously. Would Cesario allow her to live at the Castello del Falco? Or would her involvement in Sophie’s life be confined to occasional visits? Gnawing on her lower lip, she stared out of the car window at the traffic-congested streets and the unfamiliar Rome skyline. ‘Where are we going, anyway?’
‘Shopping—we need to find you a dress to wear tonight.’
She shook her head. ‘We do not. The clothes I’m wearing might not be haute couture, but they’re adequate. I can’t afford to buy a dress that I’ll probably never have the opportunity to wear again, and I’m certainly not going to allow you to buy me anything.’
‘Mio Dio! You would try the patience of a saint—and that is something I have never professed to be,’ Cesario growled.
Something in his tone made Beth’s heart thud. When she darted him a glance and saw the feral gleam in his eyes she should have guessed his intention. Certainly she should have fought him when his arm snaked around her waist and he hauled her up against him. But the memory of his kiss was branded on her soul, and when he claimed her mouth with savage possession she lost the battle before it had even begun. For a few seconds she fought him, determined to resist his mastery, but he took without mercy, parting her lips with determined intent to explore her inner sweetness with his tongue.
Driven by a need she did not fully understand, Beth responded to him with an urgency that made him groan. Sensing her surrender, Cesario gentled the kiss so that it became deeply sensual, with an inherent tenderness that caused her tears that had been hovering perilously close since they had climbed into the car to overspill.
‘Don’t,’ he bade her roughly, brushing the trails of moisture from her cheeks with his thumb pads. ‘I know how much you love Sophie, and whatever the outcome of the test I swear you will never be parted from her.’
‘If the test proves that you are her father you said you will want her to grow up in Sardinia with you. But my home is in England. How can we both be parents to her when we live in different countries?’
It would be so much easier if Sophie wasn’t Cesario’s child, Beth thought wearily. But she knew she was being selfish. Undoubtedly it would be better for Sophie if she were the daughter of a billionaire.
‘We’ll work something out,’ Cesario reassured her.
In truth he did not know what, but Beth’s fear that she might be separated from the child she patently adored tugged on his heart. Guilt surged through him as he remembered Raffaella’s desperation to win custody of Nicolo—and his determination to keep his son. There had been no winners in their bitter battle, he thought grimly.
He stared at Beth’s tense face and drew her close so that her head rested on his shoulder. ‘I give you my word that you will always have a place in Sophie’s life.’
* * *
Like every room in the penthouse, the nursery’s décor was stark white. It was probably very stylish, but in Beth’s opinion it lacked the cosy charm of the nursery at the Castello del Falco. Sophie, however, seemed oblivious to her surroundings, and had fallen asleep soon after her evening feed.
Feeling the familiar surge of love for the baby girl, Beth leant over the cot and brushed a tender kiss on Sophie’s petal-soft cheek.
‘She took her whole bottle and settled without a murmur,’ Luisa Moretti told her in a hushed voice. ‘I’ll take good care of her while you are out, so please don’t worry about her.’ The nanny smiled. ‘What a beautiful dress, Miss Granger.’
‘Please call me Beth.’ Luisa was so friendly that Beth had quickly warmed to her, and if she was honest it was a relief to share a little of the responsibility of caring for Sophie with a highly experienced nanny.
She glanced at her reflection in the mirror and gave a rueful laugh. ‘It’s an amazing dress, isn’t it? But I’ve never worn red in my life and I’m not sure I can carry it off.’
She had voiced her doubts earlier in the day to the stylist Cesario had arranged to accompany her on a shopping trip on the Via dei Condotti—reputed to be one of the richest streets in Rome—where all the top designer boutiques could be found. The stylist had persuaded her to try on dozens of outfits but, horrified by the price tags, Beth had refused to buy anything with the credit card Cesario had given her and had only reluctantly agreed to the red dress because she had been impatient to get back to Sophie.
‘With your slim figure, the dress looks stunning on you,’ the stylist had insisted.
A trip to the hair and beauty salon had followed, and to her surprise Beth had enjoyed the novel experience of being pampered.
‘I can’t believe I look so glamorous,’ she told Luisa, as she studied her glossy hair with its new wispy layers that framed her face. The stylist had suggested she wear slightly more make-up for the evening, and had emphasised her eyes with a smoky shadow and brushed a light red gloss over her lips. Silver stiletto sandals and purse completed the outfit, and with a last glance in the mirror she went to find Cesario.
He was waiting for her in the lounge: tall, dark and devastatingly sexy in a black dinner suit and white silk shirt. Beth paused in the doorway and her heart-rate accelerated when he looked over at her and visibly tensed. His eyes narrowed, but as he walked towards her she was conscious of the feral gleam beneath his heavy lids.
‘Bellissima! You take my breath away,’ he said with a savage intensity that sent a tremor through her.
The simmering sexual tension between them was almost tangible.
Beth drew a shaky breath. ‘It’s the dress,’ she murmured.
He gave a rough laugh. ‘No, cara, it’s you. I would find you even more beautiful without the dress.’ His eyes gleamed wickedly. ‘But if you want me to prove it…’
Heat scorched her cheeks as she imagined him easing the narrow shoulder straps over her arms and then sliding the silk bodice down to reveal her naked breasts.
‘Didn’t you say we need to leave for the theatre at seven?’ she said hurriedly.
‘Before we leave
