The Sicilian's Unexpected Duty by Michelle Smart Read Free Book Online Page A

goodbyes. Everyone knew where they stood, no one got hurt, and everyone was happy.
    ‘Well, that’s good to know,’ Cara said sarcastically. ‘Let me guess—now that you don’t need anything from me, there’s no need to pretend any more.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘You never desired me before you needed to get hold of my phone.’
    ‘On the contrary, cucciola mia , I’ve always found you incredibly attractive.’
    ‘I’m pretty sure you find any woman with a pulse attractive. I’m saying you never desired me in particular.’
    ‘I did, but I’m terrified of my sister-in-law. She would have tied me naked to a tree if I’d tried anything on with you.’
    Despite herself, Cara snickered. Pepe was the cause of all her stress yet somehow he was able to soothe much of it away. The git. ‘I would have loved to have seen that.’
    ‘Don’t worry—if the baby does turn out to be mine then I’m sure you’ll get your chance when Grace finds out.’
    ‘There’s no if about it. This baby is yours.’
    ‘Time will tell.’ A black eyebrow shot up, a quizzical groove appearing in his forehead. ‘If it is my child, will I also have to worry about your angry father beating at my door?’
    ‘Seeing as he’s not around, that’s the last thing you’ll have to worry about.’
    He straightened in his seat, consternation replacing his amusement. ‘Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you’d lost your father too.’
    It occurred to her that this was the closest Pepe had come to showing genuine contrition all day.
    ‘My father isn’t dead,’ she quickly clarified, recalling being told his own father had died over a decade ago.
    He looked confused. ‘Then surely he will want to rip my head off and play football with it?’
    She couldn’t help the wry smile that formed on her lips, although she experienced the usual sickening churn in her belly she felt whenever she thought of her father. ‘I’m sure there’s a lot of fathers out there who would love nothing more than to cause you actual bodily harm, but I can assure you my dad’s not one of them.’
    ‘Why not? A father’s job is to look out for his child.’
    ‘My dad never bothered to read the job description.’ Only years of faux nonchalance on the subject kept the bitterness from her voice, yet the churning increased, a situation not helped by the roils in her belly from the motion of the jet. Talking about her father always made her feel so raw . ‘Believe me, if he were to meet you, the closest he would come to touching you is putting a hand on your shoulder and insisting on buying you a beer.’
    For all of Pepe’s antics and reputation, he knew damn well that if he had a daughter and some man lied to her and impregnated her, then he would certainly want to rip that man’s head off.
    Not that he was admitting to having impregnated Cara. Not yet. Not until the DNA test proved it beyond any doubt. And until that DNA test proved it, he would not allow himself to think of that child as being anything but a foetus. After what Luisa had put him through, this was an essential act of self-preservation.
    He thought back to a time over a decade before when he had been looking at a scan of a foetus, trying to discern a head and tiny limbs from what was little more than a kidney bean. The emotions provoked by looking at that scan were the strongest he had ever experienced. Totally overwhelming. He had felt fit to burst. He could only imagine the strength of his feelings if that little life had been allowed to develop and allowed to be born.
    But that little life had not been allowed to develop and be born, a fact that resided inside his guts like a vat of poison...
    All the same, he could not imagine having a child and being so disassociated from their feelings that he didn’t care if they were used and hurt. He might only be the ‘spare’ of the family, but he had never doubted his parents’ love for him.
    It was their respect he’d always failed to