Page 26 of Back to Claim His Italian Heir

Yes, he’d set those parameters as he always did, to guard his heart. Too bad it hadn’t worked. ‘Well.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I suppose itwassomething of an impulse decision.’

‘Yes, clearly, but why?’

Why not be honest about this, as he had been before? Clearly there had been too many secrets in their short-lived relationship, and truth was needed for trust. ‘I asked you right after I found out that I wasn’t my father’s son,’ he confessed. ‘It was a shock, even though in retrospect it shouldn’t have been. And I suppose I wanted to feel...connected...with someone. To be part of a family again, in some way.’

Her eyes widened and her mouth parted softly in surprise. Nico looked away. Why had he said so much? It made him sound completely pathetic, as if he’d been begging for affection wherever he could find it.

‘That phone call...before you came out on the balcony, when you asked me...that was your father? Telling you—’

‘Yes, he was giving me the results of the paternity test.’ His chest felt tight, and his head was aching abominably now, a thundering in his temples he longed to assuage. He needed to lie down in a dark room, preferably with a cold cloth over his eyes, but first he needed to finish this conversation. He knew how important it was. ‘He said it wasn’t a surprise, that he’d always been sure, deep down, that I wasn’t his, and it didn’t change anything for him—meaning, unfortunately, that he had no interest in having a relationship with me.’

‘And that was why...’ she whispered, shaking her head.

‘The next day, before we married, I went to see him. I told him I’d resign, and that was when he refused. We were married that afternoon.’ Put like that, it sounded strangely stark, and Emma seemed to think so too, judging by her bleak expression.

She let out a soft laugh, but the sound only held sadness as she looked down at her lap. ‘None of it was about me at all, was it?’ she surmised quietly. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised, of course, and I’m not, not really, but...you were right, Nico, when you said this was about you more than it was about me. I just didn’t realise quite how much.’

And even though he’d meant that as a reassurance, he saw it wasn’t now. She only looked hurt, that his marriage proposal hadn’t been because she’d bowled him over, but because he’d been lashing out in his pain. And yet she had affected him more than any other woman...

‘Emma...’ He pressed his hands to his temples, trying to relieve the pressure that was building there. His stomach churned and his vision was starting to tunnel.

‘It’s okay, Nico. At least now we know where we were, as well as where we are now. Or,’ she corrected with a crooked smile, ‘you will when you get the results of the paternity test tomorrow.’

Nico swore softly as he dropped his hands from his head. ‘I don’t need the results. Not any more.’

‘Don’t you?’

Yes, damn it, he did, but forhissake. Couldn’t she see that? Why did it feel as if he was damned one way, condemned another? There was no winning.

‘This can be a fresh start,’ he insisted, gritting his teeth against the pain in his head. ‘For both of us.’

‘A fresh start?’ She laughed again, once more without humour, but at least it had more life in it, more spirit. ‘And what will that look like, exactly?’

‘We can decide together.’ That was important to him. ‘But as to how it will look...’ Hell if he knew, he realised. They were still virtual strangers. How were they supposed to figure this out? And hishead...

He sat back, letting out a breath as his temples continued to throb. He’d been hoping to stave off the migraine, but it was galloping towards him now, pulling him under. He had a few minutes, maybe only a few seconds, before it engulfed him completely. ‘We’ll figure it out,’ he managed, ‘and I promise you, I will always promise you, I will provide for you. I will keep you safe—’ He stopped as the pain took over and he felt himself sagging forward onto the floor. He tried to hold himself upright, but the pain was too much, his vision going black, and the last thing he heard was Emma’s startled cry.

CHAPTER NINE

‘NICO.’

Emma dropped to her knees in front of Nico’s prone body as his eyelids fluttered closed. Why hadn’t she realised he was in pain? She could see it now, in the greyness of his skin, the beads of sweat on his forehead, the way he was clenching his jaw. She’d been reeling from everything he’d told her, all the implications tumbling through her mind, and so she hadn’t seen what was right in front of her face. There was a lesson in that, surely, but right now she didn’t have time to ponder it.

‘Are you hurt?’ she demanded, smoothing his hair back from his damp forehead. He forced his eyes open to gaze at her blearily. ‘Can you tell me what’s wrong?’

‘Migraine,’ he forced out through pale lips. He grimaced as his eyes closed again. ‘I’m sorry, but I think... I think I might be sick.’

Emma scrambled up and ran to the kitchen that was along one wall of the open space. Flinging open cupboards, she found a bowl and brought it back just in time for Nico to retch helplessly into it.

‘This is bonding, isn’t it?’ she told him on a shaky laugh, determined to see the bright side of things. ‘First, I was the one who was sick, and now you are. I suppose it will be my turn again next. Where’s your handkerchief when you need it?’

‘In...my right-hand pocket,’ he managed in a croaky whisper.

She laughed again, softly, and reached for the small square of cotton, dabbing his lips with it. He smiled faintly and her heart twisted, a sharp pain beneath her breastbone.

Don’t start now, Emma, she cautioned herself.Don’t start falling for him again, just because he smiles at you.

After the emotional whirlwind of the last twenty-four hours, that was the last thing she needed. She had to keep a cool head. Her heart, too.