Page 25 of Pregnant in the Italian's Palazzo

‘One more?’ He quirked one dark brow in her direction.

She nodded, feeling the tension in her shoulders ease. And she kept talking, realising that she didn’t feel self-conscious at all. Nysio was a great listener, asking questions and letting her interrupt him in her usual way. It was always strangely effortless to talk to him, so much so that she found it hard not to overshare. When he asked again about the reason why she had sworn off relationships so adamantly...she paused for a split second, then decided to tell him the whole story.

She explained about meeting a wealthy older guy named Theo in her first year of uni and the shadowy nature of their relationship. How he’d taken her away on holidays and breaks but never actually been happy to go public about their relationship. How he’d claimed to love her curvy body so much that his occasional sharp comments and criticisms about her size had felt like love. It wasn’t until the end that she’d realised how many parts of herself she had bent and broken to try to fit into his expectations both inside the bedroom and out.

She told him about Theo’s wild ideas and impulsive traits, how he’d used her and discarded her at will. How she’d always gone back when he apologised...every time. By the time she got to the part where Theo had proposed and booked a wedding in Greece before abandoning her there...she felt that soft wounded part within begin to shake with memory.

She reached down to busy herself with clearing the pieces, accidentally brushing Nysio’s hands as he moved to do the same. She had felt the tension in him, but when she looked up, his eyes were stark with anger.

‘I’m not a violent man...but if I met this Theo in the street, I’m pretty sure I’d struggle not to dislocate his jaw.’

‘A kind gesture, but he got his comeuppance when his trust fund ran out and all of his so-called friends deserted him. Priya was such a great support.’ Aria smiled. ‘Strange to think my runaway-bride best friend is the only reason you and I met one another. She actually went and married the groom’s brother. Can you believe that?’

A strange look crossed Nysio’s features, and she realised she hadn’t really mentioned Priya or that scandalous wedding since the first night they’d met. She’d got far too swept up in all of the magnificent sex they’d been having, to be fair. Was he uncomfortable at the reminder of his panic attack in the street?

She hadn’t spoken to her friend again since the last call they’d had in London, the one where she’d dropped the bomb that she was in fact married. Her husband was a wealthy Greek tycoon named Eros Theodorou, their marriage initially brought on by a ridiculous term in a will and a race to the altar between Eros and Priya’s former groom, Xander. A thought occurred to her, one she was amazed she hadn’t questioned until now.

‘You know that day on the street, I heard Xander send his men in pursuit of his brother.’ She waited a moment, noticing the flare of Nysio’s nostrils and the slight widening of his eyes. Feeling her gut tighten with foreboding. ‘When I saw you first...I wondered if that brother was you. But you said you were only there on business, so I presumed you didn’t even know Xander. Was that the truth?’

‘No.’ Nysio spoke carefully. ‘It was not the truth. But I think you’ve figured that out already. The truth is that Xander and Eros are my half-brothers. We’re all Zeus Mytikas’s illegitimate sons.’

She gasped. ‘You lied to me?’ Aria whispered, shaking her head. ‘Is that why you offered me a flight home? To ensure that I hadn’t uncovered your secret?’

‘That wasn’t the reason, but it was a consideration that occurred to me only briefly. It soon became pretty clear you didn’t know and then...things developed between us. It’s not something I’ve spoken about with anyone, it’s not just you.’ Nysio felt his chest turn cold, his mind warring with him to walk away from this conversation he didn’t want to have. But still, seeing the hurt clearly evident in her eyes made him feel like the worst kind of scumbag.

‘Did you know that Priya had married your brother?’

Nysio winced at the word. He’d largely avoided thinking about Eros or Xander at all since leaving New York. Even when he’d received an invitation to attend a meeting with them both to discuss alternative options for that damned will, he’d ignored it. He’d been in the dark about their existence for over three decades; he had no need to play happy families now.

‘Yes, I’ve been made aware that both of my half-siblings have recently got married in a bid to win an inheritance from Zeus.’

A pained expression passed over Aria’s face, marring her soft brow. ‘Is that why you want to get married to me? To compete with them for the terms of the will?’

‘No,’ Nysio growled. ‘And I can’t believe you even have to ask that.’

‘I don’t know what to believe.’ She let out a low curse under her breath and covered her face with her hands. ‘My best friend’s husband is yourbrother. Our child’s future aunt and uncle. God, I haven’t even told Priya that I’m pregnant yet. I...I need to go and lie down for a bit.’

Nysio was silent, allowing her to walk away. Silence was easier than explaining to her the fact that he himself hadn’t known about Zeus or his brothers until just before he’d met her on that rainy Manhattan street. He’d been in shock these past weeks, he realised. He’d been like the man in his poem, drunk and grasping around in the dark, determined to make the night sky change back to day. It wasn’t going to change the facts, and he’d been foolish to ignore the truth for as long as he had, but everyone processed things in their own way. His way had apparently been furiously clutching to his old reality and completely refusing to acknowledge the fact that so much of his life had been a lie.

Aria had been like a brightly shining star, keeping him from falling further into the darkness. But that was not a burden he could continue to put on her. She was about to have his child, and he had asked her to trust him...and yet he had not shown her that same trust.

The day he had found out the secret behind his birth, he’d lost a part of himself he hadn’t even realised he’d treasured. As a young man the burden of being Arturo Bacchetti’s only heir had made him restless, but he’d poured his all into reaching his father’s incredibly high standards and doing their family proud. Now it felt as if he was just a hair’s breadth away from bringing scandal upon the Bacchetti name.

He had barely left this palace in years, and the first time he’d given in to the impulsive temper that always bubbled below the surface of his control it had brought him to Aria. The first woman to tempt him in years. The first woman who had ever come close to making him want to break his own carefully laid-down rules.

Now look where he was.

He had refused to offer her more than a casual affair, then, once he knew she was carrying his child, he had essentially taken her prisoner in his palace so that he could convince her to marry him. He growled under his breath, moving to slam the door closed only to find Gianluca staring back at him from across the threshold.

‘Someone is in great spirits, I see.’

Nysio ignored the other man, stalking across the room and sitting down heavily behind his great black desk.

‘Your mother called.’

‘I don’t care,’ Nysio growled.

Gianluca grimaced, standing up to place his hands on the desk, forcing Nysio to look up at him. ‘Cora knows about the will, Nysio. She knows that you know about Zeus.’

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