One Last Night (6 page)

Maya had from the moment she had fallen pregnant been planning each child's graduation and wedding while he had said nothing. No wonder she thought him a heartless unfeeling bastard.

'You need to get it properly confirmed for a start,' he said. 'We will have to trust the doctor's confidentiality on that but I am sure that won't be a problem. You will need to rest as much as possible. Are you feeling well in yourself?'

She bit into her bottom lip again, reminding him once more of a small child abandoned by what it held most secure. 'I'm a bit nauseous but not overly so. I am tired on and off, and I have a bit of a backache, but I think that is more to do with overdoing it, as I said, at yoga.'

'I think you should stop all formal exercise until you have clearance from the doctor,' he said.

'You have to take it easy, Maya. This is the most important event in your life. We've been given a second chance. Don't do anything to compromise it.'

Her grey eyes moved out of the range of his. 'Don't fuss over me, Giorgio. It won't change anything. If I lose this baby…' she gulped as if the words had hurt as she said them '…I don't want to get my hopes up too soon…'

Giorgio came over and enveloped her in his arms. It felt so good to hold her close. She fitted into his frame like a key going into a complicated lock. He buried his head into the blond silk of her hair, breathing in the scent of gardenia and the delicate feminine fragrance that was hers alone.

He could never forget it. It had lived on his skin for months.

Six months.

'Try not to worry, cara,' he said, already doing the worrying for her. 'What will be will be. We have no control over this. All we can do is take the necessary precautions to ensure this pregnancy gets the best chance possible to survive.'

She raised her pain-filled eyes to his. 'And if it doesn't?'

How could he answer? He wanted what she wanted. He wanted an heir, a child of his own, with his blood flowing through its veins. He had never doubted he would get what he wanted until they had encountered all those hurdles. Like so many people, he had readily, naively assumed he would do the deed and get the results he wanted.

Life, with its twists and turns, had a way of making you re-evaluate that assumption. He took very little for granted these days. He lived from moment to moment, wondering if he would achieve the things he most wanted in life. His work fulfilled him, it challenged him enough to satisfy him, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough. He wanted what Luca had. Luca hadn't had it easy; there was no way Giorgio could say any different. Luca had suffered, but he had come through. He had a beautiful loving wife and a gorgeous little daughter and another child on the way. What more could any man want?

It was what Giorgio wanted but, if he couldn't have it, surely that was in the lap of the gods, out of his control. That didn't sit well with him, however. He liked control. He was used to control.

He controlled everything that needed controlling. He did the numbers, he aligned the figures, he knew what had to be done and he did it.

But sometimes it just wasn't enough.

'Maya,' he said, struggling to find the right words, 'if this doesn't work out, if you still want a divorce at the end, we will discuss it then and only then. We are only together now for my grandfather. The pregnancy is a bonus, a surprise package that we can only hope will eventuate into a…' again he hunted awkwardly for the right words '…a live child.'

Giorgio saw the flicker of pain pass over her features. She was measuring herself in terms of whether she could deliver the goods. He wished then that he had thought of a better way to put it.

'I need to go to bed,' she said, as if that was the end of the discussion-for her. Her chin had gone up defensively, her slim shoulders were aligned tightly and there was a fiery light in her grey eyes that warned him not to push any further.

He reached down to anchor Gonzo's collar. 'I will take this boy out for a block or two while you settle into bed. If you need me during the night, just call me.'

She gave him a very determined look. 'I don't need you, Giorgio,' she said crisply. 'I can do this alone if I have to.'

In spite of the dog's leaping excitement at the prospect of a late night walk, Giorgio still fixed his gaze on Maya's with intractability. Hearing her say she didn't need him any more triggered something deep and primal in his blood. He would not let her leave him for a second time without a fight, baby or no baby. 'You have said this is my child, Maya,' he said. 'I am not going to walk away from my own flesh and blood. I have changed my mind. Our marriage will continue indefinitely.'

OR UNTIL I lose this child, just like I lost all the others , Maya thought as Giorgio strode out of the flat with the dog at his side. She couldn't see him sticking out the long years of a fruitless marriage, not unless something other than duty and obligation bound him to it.

Something like love.

She chided herself for regressing into that fairyland of hope. She had long ago given up on him feeling anything for her. Why torture herself any more when it was even more unlikely he would ever change?

She left the small salone and took the opportunity while Giorgio was out to prepare for bed. She quickly removed her make-up and did her usual skincare routine. She looked at the expensive lotions and potions a little ruefully. She had been tempted to toss them out with all the other things she had been entitled to as a Sabbatini wife over the years, but she hated waste, or that was the reasoning she had used when she had packed her things the day she had left.

She didn't like thinking of that awful day. She had been cowardly about it by leaving when Giorgio was in Switzerland with his team of accountants at a huge financial conference in Zurich. She hadn't thought she would have the strength to go through with it with him there in person, even though over those last few months things had become rather tense and difficult between them. They had argued a lot, bickering over the silliest things just like a live-in couple or flatmates who were thoroughly sick of each other's irritating little habits.

Maya had found it so distressing to think he was starting to hate her. She often saw him looking at her with a brooding sort of expression, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with her.

They hadn't made love in weeks…well, it had been more like three months. The hormone injections Maya had been given as part of the IVF plan had made her moody and irritable. And then Giorgio had had to provide a sample of sperm, which she knew he found undignified, even though the doctors and staff were totally professional about it.

Sex was a chore, a duty and it had killed any feeling he might have had for her once. Not that he had ever said he loved her. It wasn't part of their relationship. She had known that and married him anyway, hoping he would gradually develop feelings for her. But Giorgio wasn't a feeling type of man. She couldn't imagine him allowing himself to be vulnerable. He held everyone at a distance.

Maya had enough friends in her life to know not all relationships worked out. Even the most secure and settled couples could be torn apart by what life dished up. She had always prided herself that she would never give up on her man. She would be the loyal, loving wife, doing everything she could to make their relationship keep its zing and passion. But in the end she had failed. She had failed because it was not just about her role in the marriage, but Giorgio's too. He had slowly but surely drifted away from her. She had felt it subtly at first and she had been gracious about it, putting it down to the tragic loss of his father and how he had so much extra responsibility as a result.

Those three weeks with Giancarlo lying in a semiconscious state had been one of the most heartbreaking things to witness. It had been cruel to see such a strong and fit man become so weak.

Maya had tried to support her mother-in-law as best she could during that horrific and tragic time, but Giovanna had pointedly clung to her sons and Maya had felt increasingly shut out. How could a new daughter-in-law offer comfort to that depth of grief? In the end she had stayed in the background, doing what she could when she could, hoping she wasn't inadvertently making things worse.

Maya's failure to maintain a pregnancy past six weeks had at one point the following year prompted Giovanna to mention how she had delivered three healthy sons and a daughter at regular intervals, the subtext being: what the hell was wrong with Maya for not being able to do the same? Maya had put it down to her mother-in-law's ongoing grief. Giovanna rarely left the family villa and the doctor had even prescribed some antidepressant medication to see if that would help.

No one in the Sabbatini family, apart from Salvatore, had ever spoken about the death of baby Chiara all those years ago.

Maya had learned from Salvatore how Giorgio had been the one to find his sister lying cold and lifeless in her crib. He had been only six years old.

Not much more than a baby himself, certainly far too young to cope with such a loss.

When she had tried to talk to Giorgio about it after that distressing episode with his mother, as usual, he'd refused to discuss it, other than this time to say it belonged in the past and his mother was still grieving and Maya should have more sensitivity and patience.

Maya had been stung by his blocking attitude to more intimate communication. She saw it as a sign of what was essentially wrong with their relationship. He did not confide in her. He had never confided in her. He kept things to himself; he never showed any sign of vulnerability.

Not even when he came home from Switzerland to find her note propped up on the desk in his study had he reacted as she had secretly hoped he would. He had tracked her down within a day or two and informed her he would get the paperwork regarding the separation of assets in order.

He'd spoken coldly and impersonally, as if he was discussing a legal issue with a business opponent. He'd shown no anger, no emotion at all, in fact. He had left within five minutes, barely even stopping long enough to pat Gonzo.

Maya had realised then how hopeless it all was; she had been right from the beginning. They were too different, their worlds too disparate. Just like Gonzo, she was a penniless, abandoned orphan with indiscriminate breeding. Giorgio belonged to a large extended blue-blooded family where money and wealth and privilege were never questioned.

The door opened downstairs and Maya quickly slipped into her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. She snapped off the lamp, even though she would have loved to continue reading the book she had by the bedside. She found it almost impossible to sleep without reading for a few minutes. She closed her eyes, barely able to breathe, waiting to hear those firm foot treads on the stairs.

But there was nothing.

She didn't know whether to feel angry or grateful. But then she started to think of Giorgio trying to get comfortable on that wretched little sofa. She could picture him crunched up like a banana folded in half; his back was probably aching by now, his long legs having gone numb from hanging over the end of the sofa arms.

She turned over and faced the wall, her eyes opening to see the silvery eye of the moon staring back at her. She lay like that for endless minutes, listening for any sound of movement downstairs.

After a while there were footsteps on the stairs but they weren't Giorgio's. There was a distinctive scratching at the door and a little doggy please-let-me-in whine.

Maya rolled on her back and groaned. She had been trying to train Gonzo to sleep on his own cushion in the laundry, but he had apparently conveniently forgotten all about his humble beginnings and now, like all the other Sabbatinis, she knew, expected to sleep on one thousand threads of Egyptian cotton every night.

She threw off the covers and padded over to the door and opened it. 'No, Gonzo,' she said sternly. 'You have to sleep downstairs.' She pointed her finger in that direction. 'Go back down.

Now.'

More footsteps sounded on the stairs and Maya's finger went limp, along with her legs, as Giorgio appeared in nothing but his tight-fitting underwear. Her eyes feasted on him like a starved animal presented with an all-you-can-eat banquet. Tightly ridged muscle carved the contours of his abdomen, his chest was sprinkled with masculine hair, the hair that used to tickle the sensitive skin of her breasts. It narrowed down over his stomach to disappear in a tantalising trail beneath the waistband of his underwear. Strictly speaking, he wasn't fully aroused but he wasn't far off it. The bulge of his manhood was stirring even as she could feel her body responding.

How she finally dragged her eyes back up to his was nothing short of a miracle. 'I can handle this,' she said in her best teacher-like voice. 'It's not the first time he's pulled this kind of stunt on me.'

Giorgio leaned one of his broad shoulders against the door jamb, which meant Maya had to move backwards and of course Gonzo, seizing the opportunity, rapidly squeezed past and leapt up on the bed, circling a couple of times before dropping and closing his eyes with a blissful sigh.

'Now look what you've done,' Maya said hotly. 'I've been working on him for weeks and you've undone it just like that.' She snapped her fingers for effect.

Giorgio captured her hand in mid-air and brought it to his mouth, his lips playing with her fingers in a nibble-like caress, his dark glinting eyes tethering hers. 'It seems every male you know wants to share your bed, cara,' he said. 'I don't blame Gonzo. The sofa is singularly the most uncomfortable piece of furniture I have ever laid eyes on, let alone my body.'

Maya wrenched her hand away. 'Gonzo is supposed to be sleeping on his dog bed in the laundry which, I might tell you, I spent a lot of money on.'

He lifted one shoulder as if in full agreement with the hound. 'Your bed looks much more inviting.'

She folded her arms and did her best to stare him down. 'If you think I am going to share it with both of you then you can think again.'

He closed the door with his foot, the clicking of the latch sounding like a pistol firing in the silence

'Wh…what are you doing?' Maya asked, backing away.

His slow-moving sexy eyes ran over her satin nightgown, relishing the way the fabric clung to her breasts in all the right places. She felt the heat of her skin go up several degrees and her heart rate escalated, making her speech breathless and jerky. 'S…stop it, Giorgio. Stop it right this instant. You know sleeping together right now is out of the question. It's too dangerous.'

He cupped the back of her head with one large controlling hand, his body moving just that little bit closer, close enough for her to feel the effect she was having on him. 'Who said anything about sleeping?' he said. 'Besides, we can do other things to relieve this sexual tension.'

Maya knew exactly what sort of thing he was suggesting and it made her blood sing and thrum through her veins. Pleasuring each other without penetrative sex had been something they had done in the past, in the early exciting days of their marriage when nothing had been off limits.

She had not realised her body could scale the heights of pleasure it had without his body doing all the work. He had introduced her to sensual delights that had shocked her at the time, but now they were like a delicious memory she wanted to revisit.

But wait…

How dared he stir her senses up like that? She was supposed to be demonstrating how immune she was to him, even if she wasn't. It would give him too much power to know she would be his again at the sexy stroke of his tongue or one of his fingers, that he could make her convulse uncontrollably with just a few clever caresses that would leave her body tingling for hours afterwards.

'Forget it, Giorgio,' she said, affecting a bored disinterested tone. 'I'm tired. I have no interest in your bedroom games.'

He captured her hands, pulling her up against him, rubbing his aroused length against her quivering belly. 'Go on, tesore mio,' he said in a smouldering spine-loosening tone, 'just like you used to do in the past.'

Maya's heart fluttered like a deck of rapidly shuffled cards. She was so tempted, so very dangerously tempted. She could almost taste his salty muskiness, she could almost feel the satin-covered steely length of him filling her mouth, and she could almost feel the shuddering quake of his body as he finally tipped over the edge…

He moved his body against her again. He was powerfully erect. She had felt that hardened length sliding back and forth inside her so many delicious times in the past, the way it caught on the most sensitive part of her if she tilted her hips just that little bit higher, how he could smash her into a million pieces of ecstasy with a soft but sure flickering caress of his fingers against her swollen need.

All she had to do was drop to her knees in front of him, peel back his underwear and swirl her tongue over him, once, twice, waiting for him to suck in his breath.

But she wasn't going to do it.

Not now.

Not like this.

Not because he had an itch he wanted scratching. That was an itch any other woman could scratch. And plenty of other women had probably done so in the time they had been apart.

Maya steeled her resolve, which took some effort considering she had none in reserve. She was running on almost empty but it was enough to put some distance between them. 'You and Gonzo can have the bed,' she said, scooping up her wrap off the end of the bedpost. 'I will take the sofa.'

'You don't have to do that, Maya,' Giorgio said, pushing a hand through the lock of his hair that kept insisting on falling over his forehead. 'The paparazzi will have given up by now. I will go back to the hotel for the rest of the night. I will see you in the morning. Have your essential things packed. I will organise for the rest to be transported over later.'

Maya watched in frozen silence as he left the bedroom. She counted each and every one of his footsteps as he went down the stairs.

After a few minutes she heard a car arrive-she assumed it was a Sabbatini staff member summoned to pick him up-and then the sound of it pulling away from the kerb and disappearing into the night.