tall figure standing before her was even more arresting in the flesh than the grainy newspaper photo had portrayed. He was taller than average, well over six feet, his shoulders broad and his overall stance nothing short of commanding. The hard angle of his lean clean-shaven jaw hinted at a streak of intractability in his personality, and his eyes held no trace of friendliness. His perfectly tailored business suit superbly highlighted his strong lean body, suggesting he was a man used to a great deal of punishing physical activity.
‘I am assuming you know who I am.’ His voice was deep and had a hard edge to it as if he wasn’t the type to block his punches.
‘I…er…yes.’
What else could she say? The weekend paper was still open at his photo on the coffee table behind her. Every time she’d walked past she’d told herself to screw it up and throw it out, but somehow she hadn’t. She wasn’t entirely sure why.
‘I understand you have my brother’s child,’ he said into the stiff silence.
‘I…yes, that’s correct.’ A vision of Georgia’s dark bruises flashed into Nina’s mind and her rising panic increased her heart rate to an almost intolerable level. She had to keep him away from her niece!
‘I would like to see her.’
‘I’m afraid she’s sleeping just now, so…’ She let the sentence trail away, hoping he’d take the hint.
He didn’t.
He held her gaze for a lengthy moment and just when she began to close the door he put his foot out to block it.
‘Perhaps you did not hear me, Miss Selbourne.’ His tone hardened even further as his diamond-hard eyes lasered hers. ‘I am here to see my brother’s child and I will not be leaving until I do so.’
Nina knew he meant every hard-bitten word and, stepping back from the door, sent him a chilling glance. ‘If you wake her I’ll be extremely angry.’ Please stay asleep, Georgia, she silently pleaded as he moved through the doorway, coming to stand right in front of her as the door clicked shut behind him.
He gave her a sweeping up and down look and when his eyes met hers they were full of contempt. ‘Andre told me all about you.’
Nina frowned in confusion. She’d never once met her sister’s lover. Nadia’s affair with him had been brief but explosive, just like all her others.
Surely he didn’t think…
‘He told me you were trouble, but little did I realise how much,’ he continued when she didn’t respond.
She stared at him for a moment, wondering if she should disabuse him of his error in thinking she was her sister, but in the end decided to let him go on, to see what his intentions were with regard to Georgia. After all, what harm could it do? All she needed to do was pretend to be Nadia for a few minutes to tell him that she had changed her mind about the letter that had been sent to his father. Once she had convinced him she had no intention of giving up ‘her’ daughter, hopefully he would go away.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t done this type of thing before. So many times in the past Nina had stepped into Nadia’s place to take the brunt of whatever punishment their dysfunctional mother had dished out. Surely if she’d been able to hoodwink her own mother, Marc Marcello would be an absolute pushover.
‘Your brother’s criticism is ironic considering his own behaviour,’ she put in crisply.
A menacing glare came into his dark-as-night eyes. ‘You dare to malign my dead brother?’
She lifted her chin. ‘He was a cheat. While he was fathering Georgia, he was committed elsewhere.’
‘He was formally engaged to Daniela Verdacci,’ he said bitterly. ‘They had been together since they were teenagers. You set your sights on him, no doubt lured by the prospect of his money, but he only ever had eyes for Daniela. Did you really think he would stoop so low as to tie himself permanently to an unprincipled opportunistic little tramp who has slept her way around most of Sydney?’
Nina tensed in anger. She knew her sister had been a little promiscuous at times, but the way Marc Marcello phrased it made it sound as if she had been a call girl instead of the insecure and emotionally unstable person she really was.
‘How absolutely typical!’ she spat back. ‘Why is it men such as yourself and your brother can sow several continents with wild oats but women must not? Get in the real world, Mr Marcello. Women own their sexuality these days and have the same right to express it as you.’
His dark unreadable eyes raked her from head to foot again. ‘While we are speaking of rights, the little matter of Andre’s child needs to be addressed. As much as I lament and abhor the fact that the child is a Marcello, the fact remains that she is entitled to see her paternal relatives.’
‘Surely that decision is up to me?’
‘No, I am afraid not, Miss Selbourne.’ His voice lowered threateningly. ‘Perhaps you do not realise quite who you are dealing with here. The Marcello family will not stand back and watch a street whore raise a blood relative. Unless you do as I say I will do everything in my power to remove her from you so you cannot taint her with your lack of morality.’
Nina’s eyes widened in alarm. She was in no doubt of his ability to do as he threatened. There could be few people in Australia who weren’t aware of the monumental wealth of the Marcello family. Their influence and control stretched far and wide across the world. With the best legal defence and with a total lack of scruples, she knew it wouldn’t be long before Marc Marcello did exactly as he had promised.
Oh, what had Nadia done?
Nina did her best not to appear intimidated, but never had she been more terrified. If he were to find out that she wasn’t actually the child’s mother, he could remove Georgia right here and now and there would be nothing she could do to stop him.
But he was not going to find out. Not if she could help it.
Garnering what courage she could, she stood rigidly before him, her grey eyes issuing a challenge.
‘I might appear to be a woman of few morals, but let me assure you I love that child and will not stand back while some overrated playboy sweeps her away. She’s a baby and babies need their mothers.’
Marc’s gaze swept over her rigid form, noting the tightened line of her full mouth and the stubborn set of her chin. Her startling eyes flashed with venom and, for the first time, he realised just how severely tempted his brother must have been. That pint-sized frame was incredibly alluring, so too the lustrous blonde hair that perfectly offset the creamy quality of her skin. Her figure had snapped back into place rather quickly, he thought, considering she’d not long been delivered of a child. Her air of innocence, however, he knew was the façade of a money-hungry whore who had already demonstrated her intentions by trying to trap his brother with the oldest trick in the book—pregnancy.
‘Under normal circumstances I would agree with you,’ he said in an even tone. ‘Having had the benefit of a wonderful mother, I would be the last person to suggest a child should be raised by anyone else. However, your track record does not inspire the greatest confidence in me that you will be able to support and nurture Andre’s child. After all, who was it that sent a missive to my family in Italy stating
