things?’ she came back tartly, her body tense. ‘I was twenty-one years old at the time, Gabriel. Only twenty-one!’ she emphasised. ‘Having a baby wasn’t in my immediate plans back then, let alone one whose father wasn’t even living in the same country as me when that baby was born!’
‘It does no good to get angry, Isabella—’
‘It does me good, Gabriel!’ she contradicted him vehemently. ‘You have made it clear you disapprove of my actions five years ago, so I’m just trying to explain to you that I did what I thought was best—’
‘For whom?’ Gabriel sat back in his chair to look at her intently.
‘For everyone!’
Gabriel’s jaw clenched. ‘In what way was it best for Toby that he was not even aware of his father or his father’s family? In what way was it best for him that he did not have the comforts that being a Danti could have given him—?’
‘Toby hasn’t gone without a single thing—’
‘He has gone without a father!’ Gabriel’s voice was icy cold, his accusation indisputable.
Bella drew in a controlling breath, very aware that letting this conversation dissolve into another slanging match would settle none of the things that stood between herself and Gabriel. The main one, of course, being Toby…
She shook her head. ‘I assure you that my own parents have been wonderful,’ she told him huskily. ‘Claudia and Liam, too. And once I was able to work I made sure that Toby wanted for nothing.’
‘At what did you work?’ Gabriel asked.
Bella gave a grimace. ‘I was completely at a loss as to what job I could do once I discovered I was pregnant. But I had written my thesis at university on the life of Leonardo da Vinci. My tutor thought it might be good enough for publishing, so during the months of my pregnancy I approached a publishing company to see if they were interested. With a lot more hard work, and another fifty thousand words, they accepted it. I was fortunate in that its publication coincided with a fiction book on a similar theme that was very popular at the time.’ She gave a rueful shrug. ‘I’ve had two books at the top of the non-fiction bestseller list in the last three years,’ she added quietly.
Gabriel realised now where Bella’s self-assurance and that air of quiet self-containment came from. In spite of her unexpected pregnancy, and the difficulty involved with being a single mother, Bella had still managed to achieve success in her chosen career.
‘That is—commendable.’
Bella gave a tight smile. ‘But unexpected?’
Gabriel couldn’t deny that Bella’s obvious financial independence was something he hadn’t taken into consideration when contemplating a solution to their present problem.
Although perhaps he should have done?
Her suite at the hotel would have been costly, and Bella’s clothes were obviously designer-label, as were the T-shirt and shorts Toby was wearing today.
‘Perhaps,’ he allowed after a pause. ‘But ultimately it changes nothing,’ he pointed out.
Bella gave a puzzled frown. ‘I’m sorry…I don’t understand?’
‘Toby is my son—’
‘I believe I’ve already acknowledged that fact,’ she snapped.
Gabriel eyed her mockingly. ‘Undeniable, is it not?’ he murmured with satisfaction, Toby’s likeness to both himself and his father so obvious it had caused his father to collapse with the shock of it. Gabriel’s mouth tightened. ‘The only solution open to us is that we will be married as soon as I am able to make the arrangements—’
‘No!’ Bella protested forcefully, her expression one of horror. ‘No, Gabriel,’she repeated determinedly, her chin once again raised in the familiar air of challenge. ‘I have no intention of marrying you, either now or in the future.’
Bella was absolutely astounded that Gabriel should have suggested marriage to her. Suggested it? Gabriel hadn’t suggested anything—he had stated it as a foregone conclusion!
Five years ago Bella had considered all of the options, despite the complication of Gabriel’s feelings for Janine Childe, if she were to go to Gabriel and tell him of her pregnancy.
The offer of his financial help was obviously one of them, and Bella had rejected that on principle; no matter how hard a struggle it might be for her to manage on her own, she did not want to be beholden to Gabriel Danti in that way.
That he might want to marry her, for the sake of the baby, had been a less likely option considering they had only had a one-night stand, and one that Bella had rejected even more vehemently than she had the idea of Gabriel’s financial help.
She didn’t want to marry anyone just because they had made a child together.
‘Do you not want to marry me because you lied when you said you are not repulsed by my scars?’ Gabriel rasped harshly, his eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw.
Bella shook her head. ‘I’m not in the least repulsed by them,’ she insisted quietly.
His gaze was glacial. ‘Most women would be.’
‘Well I’m not “most women”,’ Bella said, furiously. ‘Gabriel, acknowledge Toby as your son, by all means, but please leave me out of the equation,’ she pleaded.
Gabriel’s mouth twisted. ‘That might be a little difficult when you are Toby’s mother.’
She shook her head. ‘I’m sure we can work out some sort of visiting—’ She broke off as Gabriel stood up abruptly.
‘Is that what you want for Toby?’ he asked harshly, the scar on his cheek seeming to stand out more severely. ‘You want him to become nothing more than a human parcel that passes between the two of us?’
‘It doesn’t have to be like that,’ she protested emotionally.
‘If the two of us do not marry that is exactly what it will be like,’ Gabriel insisted impatiently.
Bella swallowed hard, her expression pained. ‘You think Toby will fare any better as the only lynchpin between two people who don’t love each other but are married to each other?’
‘You have said you do not find my more obvious scars—unacceptable.’ Gabriel moved close enough now to see the slight flush that slowly crept into her cheeks, and the rapid rise and fall of her breasts beneath the cream blouse.
‘I don’t.’ She frowned. ‘But that doesn’t mean I like the idea of marrying you!’
Bella couldn’t think straight when Gabriel was standing so close to her. Couldn’t concentrate on anything with the heat of his dark gaze moving slowly over her body to linger on the firm thrust of her breasts, breasts that responded in tingling awareness, the nipples suddenly hard against the soft material of her bra and blouse. A warm, aching surge between her thighs made her shift
