deserted them a week before her birth. She’d had to work constantly just to survive, since she’d foolishly given up her hard-won college scholarship to be with him. And he’d left Lucy with nothing but his baby in her belly and the memory of his whispered promises.
For the past year, she’d held their heads above water by such a thin margin. One mistake like this could suck them under. She couldn’t let them drown!
“Please,” she whispered, though she knew it was hopeless. “You don’t know what will happen if I lose this job.”
He looked down at her. Reaching out a broad, strong-fingered hand, he gently lifted her chin.
“You have nothing to fear ever again. You are mine now, Lucia. And I protect what is mine.”
She was his? What was he talking about?
Then she realized what he’d called her: Lucia.
“How—how did you know my name?” Lucy stammered.
“I know more about you than you can imagine.” He watched her beneath heavy-lidded eyes. “And I’m here to make your dreams come true.”
Her dreams.
A snug, warm little house surrounded by sunshine and flowers. Her daughter growing up happy and secure. Having someone to love, instead of always being alone, fighting just to survive—
Pulling away from his touch, she angrily shook the images from her mind.
“My only dream is for you to call Darryl and beg for forgiveness.”
His dark eyebrows rose. “That is indeed a fantasy.”
“What did you think I would say? That my dream was to spend a night in your bed, having you make love to me for hours on end?”
She’d meant to be sarcastic, but he gave her a hot glance that made her shiver, and wonder if her words were truer than she’d thought.
“I offer you revenge,” he said. “Against the man who hurt you.”
“I told you. Darryl didn’t do anything. You came before—”
“Alexander Wentworth,” he bit out.
At the name, she felt the blood drain from her face. “What?”
“I will make him regret the day he abandoned you and your child to starve.” His blue eyes burned through her. “You are going to come with me to Italy, and live in luxury for the rest of your life.”
CHAPTER TWO
HE WANTED to take her to Italy?
Italy. The warm, beautiful land Lucy had dreamed of since she was twelve years old, watching A Room with a View on TV during her mother’s last night in the hospital. Even her mom’s final words to her had been, “Go to Italy, Lucy… Go…”
But Lucy had never left Illinois. She’d lived in foster homes until she was eighteen, then worked and scrimped her way into college. Her sophomore year, working at a department store, she’d met a handsome, smooth-talking man who spoke Italian—the vice president of a fashion house based out of New York. He delighted her with stories of Rome, promising to someday take her to visit.
Lucy had never met a man like Alex Wentworth. A man so magical…so glamorous…so exotic. She’d dropped out of college, giving up all her hard work, simply because he’d complained that school took too much of her time. She’d fallen like a brick.
She was still falling. The dream had become a nightmare. He’d fled to Rome, beyond the reach of Chicago’s child support laws. For the last year, he’d returned all her letters and photographs unopened. He’d sent her one curt note, telling her he was in love with someone else. He’d suggested Chloe was not his child and that Lucy was either a delusional stalker or a gold-digging whore.
It had nearly killed her. But she was fine now. Really. She could live with a broken heart.
What she couldn’t understand was how he could deny their child. How he could live in luxury, drinking wine, taking lovers, enjoying a warm, beautiful city—when he’d left his innocent baby behind to suffer?
If Lucy went to Italy, she could ask him.
Looking up at the dark stranger, she licked her dry lips. “Let me get this straight. You…you want to take me to Italy?”
He gave her a sensual smile. “Sì. And you will never worry about money again.”
She almost couldn’t breathe. The man hadn’t been lying—it really was an offer straight out of her wildest dreams. To never have to scrimp again, wake up in a terrified panic in the middle of the night, wondering how she’d pay her bills. To know Chloe was safe and warm and secure forever.
And she could see Alex. He’d been able to ignore her letters, but he couldn’t ignore her if she showed up at his office, could he? Once she showed him a picture of Chloe, he would come to his senses. He would love their beautiful baby. Once he saw their daughter, once she was real to him, how could he do anything but love her?
Lucy accepted that he’d moved on to another woman. But she couldn’t bear for Chloe to grow up without a father, as she herself had. Without a father, Lucy’d had no one to love or protect her when her mother had died…
“So you agree?” the dark stranger said coolly.
Lucy clasped her hands behind her back to hide their trembling. “I don’t understand. Why do you want to take me to Italy? How would that hurt Alex?”
The man gave a cold smile. “He will realize how great a fool he was to let you go.”
A laugh rose in her throat, so bitter it nearly choked her. “How so?”
“He will lose something he wants. Something that rightfully belongs to me.” The man reached forward, touching her shoulder. His latent power and sensuality burned through her blue cashier’s smock, sending a current of heat pouring through her veins like lava. “We will make him pay, Lucia.” His intense eyes mesmerized her. “All you have to do is say yes.”
Yes, she thought, dazed at her own sudden change of fortune. Yes, yes, yes.
But as her lips parted to speak the words, a realization made her freeze.
She’d been through this before.
Attracted to a devastatingly handsome man who made her blood race. Who’d promised her the world. She’d naively given him her heart, her future, her faith.
And it had cost her everything.
She wrenched her shoulder away.
“Sorry,” she forced herself to say. “I’m not interested.”
He blinked.
“You’re—not interested?”
She got the impression that no woman had ever turned him down for
