Untouched Until Marriage by Chantelle Shaw Page B

knew I would pay whatever she demanded in return for her agreement to relinquish her rights to the villa. Her divorce settlement made legal history in the American courts—and I learned a very expensive lesson,’ Raul said savagely. ‘I will never fall for the illusion of love again, but I want Gino to have two parents, as I did when the Carduccis adopted me. You said yourself you longed to have a proper family when you were a child,’ he reminded Libby when she stared at him in dumbstruck silence.
    â€˜I said I wanted to believe in the fairytale of a happy ever after family, but I’m not sure it really exists.’
    â€˜We can make it exist if it’s something we both want.’
    As Raul spoke he was startled to realise that he no longer only wanted to persuade Libby to marry him so that he could claim full control of the company. Everything he had said to her was true; he wanted torepay his adoptive father for all he had done for him by adopting Pietro’s son, and he felt a fierce longing to hold his own child in his arms and finally have a blood link with another human being. Taking full control of CC until Gino was eighteen was important to him. But instead of divorcing Libby, as he had planned, he saw no reason why they should not have a successful marriage built on their mutual desire for a family—as well as their physical desire for each other.
    Libby shook her head, trying to ignore the voice of her conscience which was whispering that Raul’s suggestion made a crazy kind of sense. He was offering to be a father to Gino, and that alone demanded her serious consideration when she had spent her childhood wishing that she had a father.
    If she married Raul she would no longer live in fear of him discovering that she was not Gino’s mother and banishing her from the villa. But he had said it would be a real marriage. Her eyes were drawn to his hard body, and a quiver ran through her when she remembered how his bold caresses had taken her to such a level of excitement that she had been desperate for him to make love to her properly. Would he be able to tell that not only had she had not given birth to Gino, but that she had never even had sex? Not if she pretended to be experienced, the voice in her head pointed out. But that would be another lie to add to all the others she had spun. Wouldn’t it be better to admit the truth about Gino’s parentage now?
    She chewed on her lip, torn between her guilty conscience and her fear of losing Gino. Nothing had changed. If she revealed that she was Gino’s half-sisterand had no legal rights to him Raul would still fight her for custody of the baby—and if he won he might go ahead and adopt Gino, and send her back to England.
    â€˜It would never work,’ she said abruptly. ‘We’re too different. Once this chemistry, or attraction, or whatever it is between us died out we would have nothing in common.’
    â€˜I’m not sure we are so different,’ Raul mused. ‘Our childhood experiences have made us appreciate the value of family life. We both think it would be best for Gino to grow up with two parents. Neither of us plans to marry anyone else, and yet we would both like to have children.’
    Raul’s deep voice was so softly persuasive that Libby found she could not come up with a single argument against his list of reasons why they should marry, and instead she pictured a scene in the future where she was cradling a newborn baby in her arms while Gino, now a toddler, met his little brother or sister for the first time. She could not deny that she would love to have her own baby some day—a little companion for Gino. But marry Raul! She must be mad to actually be contemplating it—mustn’t she?
    Wrapped up in her thoughts, she was unaware that he had moved closer to her until he lifted his hand and trailed his finger down from her collarbone to the vee between her breasts