Page 17 of Captive in His Castle
“Suit yourself.”
By the time they reached the car, her face was etched with pain, and individual tears were still forcing their way out of her stubborn eyes, but she didn’t give in and ask for the help she’d already refused and nor did she take the hand Dante extended to help her onto the passenger seat.
“I’ve called ahead to Bernard,” he told her as they set off. “The last family he worked for had small children, so he knows how to deal with burst blisters and will instruct Geppa what to do.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Callie’s damp stare land on him. “Are you comparing me to a child?”
There was a wryness in her husky, musical voice that made him smile. “You have the bloody-mindedness of a toddler.”
“Charming.” She dabbed at her eyes with the corner of her sleeve and, after a brief pause, said, “Do you have children?”
Well, this was something. Callie making conversation. Probably just to distract her from the pain of her burst blisters, but even so.
“No,” he answered. He wanted them, though. The problem was the woman he wanted to have children with didn’t seem to exist in his world. When Dante settled down, he wanted a marriage like his parents had and wanted it to be with a woman who loved him for him, not for his money. Since he’d hit the financial big time, he’d been very much aware that his wealth was the main attraction. Not that he was complaining – if beautiful women wanted to throw themselves at him, then providing there were no expectations, he was delighted to oblige. His life was busy: restoring the castle to its former glory and running his business left little time for romance, but in recent years, he’d found himself occasionally wondering if it was time to get off the conveyor belt of casual sex and settle down and enjoy the fruits of all his hard work. To settle down, though, he needed to find a woman he loved, trusted, lusted for, and could see himself growing old with. So far, that woman didn’t exist. “My sister does. Three boys, all under the age of six.”
“I don’t know if that sounds like fun or like hell.”
“The answer to that always depends on the kind of day she’s had with them.”
After a longer pause of silence, she said, “Do you have any other siblings?”
“No, just Tullia.” He steered them offthe field and onto the single track. “She’s a year older than me. Who’s the oldest out of you and Georgia?”
“I am. By seven whole minutes.”
“You’re twins?”
“I thought you knew that.”
“No.” That was one pertinent fact Niccolo had failed to tell him. Not that it was relevant to the situation, he supposed. “You are identical?”
“No, our parents had us through IVF, but we do look very similar. When we were younger, people often got us mixed up.”
“Do you have that telepathy twins are famed for? Or is that just identical twins?”
“Just identical twins, but we do have our own version of it. We call it our twin-sense.” Her voice quietened. “Or used to call it that.”
“Usedto?”
“We haven’t been getting on so well recently.”
He turned the car onto the smooth main driveway. “Why’s that?”
But the conversation they’d struck had come to a halt, Callie lapsing into a silence that lasted until he pulled up outside the East Wing entrance.
When he faced her, her large eyes were already fixed on him, a wary thoughtfulness in them as if she were weighing up whether to confide something in him,
His instincts about her expression proved correct a moment later when, with heaviness in her voice, she said, “Georgia’s pregnant with Niccolo’s child.”
Chapter Five
Callie held her breath while she waited for Dante to respond. To react.
What choice did she have but to betray Georgia’s confidence and tell him? She was out of options. She’d managed to steal a mobile phone, but that had come to nothing as she’d been caught red-handed with it, and if there was a landline phone around, it was being kept extremely well hidden. She had to accept that she wasn’t going to escape from this prison, would be stuck here until Sunday by which time it would be too late. Niccolo needed to know he was going to be a fatherbeforehe exchanged vows with another woman. As painful as it was to admit, Georgia didn’t need Callie, she needed Niccolo.
“You know that this changes nothing, don’t you?” Dante finally said, a gravity in his voice she’d never heard from him before.
“It changeseverything. You have to tell him.”
