The Marriage Ultimatum (Contemporary Romance) Read online

  Eyes that stopped him cold.

  Eyes that he’d always recognize.

  Eyes that mirrored his own.

  “Give Matthew to me,” Roxy demanded, moving toward Stefano.

  His mind racing with a thousand thoughts, he brought Matthew’s struggling body into his chest to hold him close and examine the child’s features that so matched his own. A myriad of emotions played through his mind. Doubt, astonishment, frustration. Tenderness. “Not before you explain,” he said though he couldn’t possibly be this boy’s father. Hell, he’d successfully dodged half a dozen paternity suits because he always used precautions. But there was no denying his uncanny resemblance to Matthew or the timeline Stefano had mentally drawn from the last night he’d slept with Roxy.

  “Momma,” Matthew cried, twisting to escape Stefano’s arms.

  She raised her chin, disdain colored her eyes gunmetal gray as her gaze traveled from the top of his bruised forehead all the way down to the torn fabric of his once pristine white T-shirt. She continued looking all the way down to the legs where his designer jeans had been slashed open to access the wound still requiring stitches, and then back again to lock with his eyes.

  “You said it yourself, Stefano. The time for explanations ran out three years ago. Though I sure as hell tried to contact you only to have your cousin block all my calls and emails.” She shot Gian a look of pure hatred. “You’re why Stefano didn’t know about Matthew. But I doubt he’d have believed me, either, given that dang background check you ran.”

  “Gian?” Stefano asked. “You knew about this child?”

  “I knew a liar called and said she was pregnant. I chalked it up to another lie. Or she’d gotten knocked up with another man’s baby.” His cousin didn’t flinch at Stefano’s harsh tone. “I spared you the trouble of dealing with it.”

  Roxy’s gray eyes traveled between Stefano and Gian. Confusion and a hint of fear clouded her gaze while lines furrowed her brow. “I’ll spare you the trouble of dealing with it today.” She reached for Matthew and he tumbled into her arms. “Get your stitches and leave Mountain Brook, Stefano. The time for you to be here for us has long passed.”

  With that last parting shot, she turned on her brown Converse sneakered heel and walked out of the door and away from him, while maybe carrying the one thing that might save Stefano’s daredevil ass from his grandfather’s ultimatum. A moot point if Phillip Anderson took his ingenious ideas and technology somewhere else. There’d be no way to save Durante Enterprises from a massive corporate takeover if that happened. And the threat had become ominous once rumors about his Nonno’s inability to continue as the CEO began swirling.

  Even more, now that he’d discovered he might have a son, Stefano had a bigger reason to make the merger work. If Roxy wasn’t lying, she’d handed him a solution to placate his grandfather and guarantee Durante Enterprises’ future.

  * * *

  Roxy’s heart pounded in her ears. In sixty seconds flat her road through life almost transformed from a Highway to Heaven to a Drive to Disaster. Clutching Matthew to her chest, she willed her racing pulse to slow. Then she checked the bump on Matthew’s head one more time. “He’ll be fine,” she told the nurse at the front desk, eager to escape the clinic and Stefano Durante. For now. “Big mistake coming here.” Especially since she’d already missed one too many shifts at Burt’s BBQ and Sandwich Subs. Minimum wage wasn’t great, but the tips were usually good and supplemented her daily living expenses along with boosting her cache of art supplies.

  “Wait,” Stefano called, chasing after her. “We need to talk.”

  She’d made many mistakes during her twenty-six years, and had paid a huge price for a few of them. But Roxy had given up on bridging the gap between her and Stefano when she couldn’t break through his communication wall. Now he wanted to talk? Here?

  “I can’t.” Still, the look of awe that had flashed in Stefano’s brilliant blue eyes when he recognized Matthew’s matching gaze stirred something deep inside her. Something she’d buried and had never dared to feel again.

  Until today.

  Unexpectedly meeting the father of her child here in Mountain Brook in the good old U S of A did more than freak her out. It resurrected old wishes and dreams that had gone tumbling down the proverbial cliff the minute she’d realized that she’d never be good enough for a man like Stefano. Not when she had a drug addict-slash-con artist for a brother, and the pedigree of roadkill possum.

  It also resurrected old fears. Fears that might expose her to her brother’s twisted schemes again. She didn’t dare let Doug discover that she’d had a child, especially one that had a billionaire for a father.

  She turned to face Stefano. “You need to finish getting stitched up first. Plus, I can’t afford to dawdle around and chat,” Roxy said calmly though her blood roared in her ears. “I’ve got to get to my job for the night shift.” She also needed time to think and plan and figure out what to do.

  “But the boy—you can’t go away now that I know he might be mine.”

  Heat flashed through her body. That Stefano questioned the truth that had stared him in the eyes only moments ago angered her, and cut her to the core. “Still have your doubts about me? Well, too bad,” she said. “You’re no longer relevant to my life.”

  “That’s unacceptable.”

  “Deal with it,” she said. “My life might not matter to you, but I won’t risk everything I’ve done to rebuild it after you derailed it.” Granted, she had no doubt that Stefano was Matthew’s biological father, but that’s where the Daddy train stopped. She refused to let Stefano get involved in her life when the repercussions could be dangerous.

  “I thought you’d have one after you sold the jewelry I gave you… pawned my watch.” Stefano inched closer to her. “What happened to all the money?”

  “Ask your wingman, Gian,” she said, suddenly tired with the weight of more than just her son.

  Nearly every dime had gone to pay off her brother’s dealer. Doug, unrepentant, had vamoosed into thin air shortly afterward, and some very scary men had tracked her down afterward to demand even more money. Knowing they meant business, she’d scraped together the cash by pawning Stefano’s watch. She’d thought they acted alone, but she quickly discovered that Doug was in charge, and had scammed her with his threats. Six weeks later she’d discovered her pregnancy. That’s when she’d decided to take off and start over in the small tourist town.

  “We have to talk,” he said again.

  “There’s nothing to discuss.”

  Roxy opened the clinic’s main door with her hip and stepped into the afternoon sunshine. No way was she dealing with Stefano now, or ever. And she had to get to work, or she might lose her job.

  She heard him order Gian to stay inside the hospital, and the sound of his steps following her out. Dang it, the man was persistent. Of course that was how he’d suckered her into bed in the first place.

  Roxy walked briskly to her small, compact ten-year-old blue car, and pretended not to hear him call for her to stop. Though a part of her did want to listen—the part that had been irrationally drawn to Stefano the night she’d entered the casino and looked for her older brother to convince him to get rehab. Man, had she learned a hard lesson as a result. One she’d use today to hold her ground.

  “I’m as surprised as you are by this sudden meeting,” he said, catching up with her and matching her stride for stride, his slashed jeans flapping in the wind which exposed his long, muscular legs. “But you will hear me out.”

  She inhaled his clean, masculine scent and could feel the heat emanating from his muscular body. Even now her long dormant hormones raised a hallelujah chorus at the mere sight of him. Down girl. This is not about you, it’s about Matthew’s future. “I won’t,” she said.

  Her cell phone vibrated in her pants back pocket. Roxy shifted Matthew to her other hip, hauled out the phone and read the text. Her boss Burt demanding to know when she planned on getting he
r skinny behind to work.

  Quickly, she responded with one hand, then looked at Stefano’s profile. Regret etched lines in his handsome brow, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. What she would have given to have him make things better way back when she’d been desperate for him to reply to her frenzied emails and texts. But then he’d never received them. Oh, she’d like to punch Gian in the nose for blocking her attempts to reach Stefano.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

  Heat flashed through her body. Now she’d like to punch Stefano and throw in a kick for good measure. He had no right to interfere in her life, especially when she had no desire to jeopardize Matthew’s safety. “No. But I am.” Roxy squared her shoulders and continued to march along the sidewalk. Pretend this nightmare hasn’t happened. Keep moving until he goes away. Far, far away where he can’t do anything to hurt us.

  “I won’t let you near my son,” she said, then looked into Matthew’s eyes, the blue-green color matching Stefano’s, his chubby toddler boy face sporting the same full lips that would one day do more than pout for ice cream and grin mischievously before he raced into his little boy brand of trouble. Trouble that quite clearly was genetically derived based on the roguish, cut up, and bruised playboy walking next to her.

  “I can see that he’s most likely mine. And I can do the math.” He gentled his tone. “Though it’s a shock considering we used protection. I’ll run a test to confirm that I’m his father.”

  Roxy stopped in her tracks next to her vehicle and looked at him. Again, she wanted to punch him in his attractive, sexy face. She’d given up on him and now he wanted to confirm what she’d tried so desperately to tell him years ago? Too little. And way too late. She mentally shook her fist at the sky. Why did this reunion have to occur while she was at her absolute worst and he, no matter how many scrapes and bruises he’d incurred, looked like a gorgeous renegade?

  Suddenly her uniform’s collar felt like it was constricting the life out of her throat. She stuffed her hormones into a mental never-go-there-again vault. “Run the test. It’ll only confirm that your Italian Alpha sperm managed to bust through that so-called protection,” she said. “But the results won’t change a thing. You’ve got to do more than contribute sperm to be a considered father material.”

  A muscle twitched in his jaw, much to her satisfaction. “I’m sure a court will cut me some slack given that I didn’t know about the child.”

  Her pulse kicked into overdrive. “You threatening me?” she asked through icy lips.

  “Only if it’s warranted.” Stefano crossed his arms. “How far I’ll take it depends on your willingness to cooperate should it become necessary.”

  Roxy swallowed hard and willed her racing heart to settle down to a normal clip. “Cooperate?” she asked, her blood boiling. “There’s nothing to cooperate about.”

  Matthew squirmed in her arms and she tightened her grip as she dug out her key fob to unlock the car, opened the backdoor, and carefully situated Matthew into his car seat. Once he was safely strapped in, she kissed the top of his head and ruffled his little boy dark curls. “I’ve got sole custody. Your name isn’t even on the birth certificate. And I plan to keep it that way.”

  At a little over two years old, Matthew wouldn’t understand the conversation, but she desperately wanted to get him away from Stefano and return to the world she’d created after Stefano had broken off all contact with her.

  She’d been alone and pregnant. Though she’d tried to find a way to tell Stefano about Matthew afterward via emails to the corporate offices, his staff—more like Gian the jerk—had made it abundantly impossible to relay the information. She’d never known why until today. And even that, the fact that Stefano had believed a background check over and above trusting her, drove a shaft of pain behind her sternum.

  “If the test proves I’m his father, I’ll pursue custody.”

  The world tilted beneath her feet, and air whooshed through her ears. “Custody? You’ll get custody over my dead body. You haven’t been in the picture since before I found out I was pregnant. No way will I ever give up my child to you,” she said, standing and shielding the still-open passenger door with her body. “You’re incapable of caring for Matthew.” Just as he’d been incapable of really loving her.

  “I care.” A muscle jumped in his handsome stubbled jaw. “About fulfilling my family obligations.”

  Her pulse rate picked up a notch and anger bubbled through her veins. “I highly doubt that Italy’s most notorious playboy wants to be shackled with a child. Unless you have an ulterior motive, which is another reason I won’t let you near Matthew.” What kind of idiot did he think she was anyway? He’d fooled her once years ago, but now her eyes were wide open.

  Long ago she’d spun ridiculous fairy tales about happily-ever-afters when he’d murmured Italian words of love and affection during their steamy encounters. Two weeks into their affair, during a romantic dinner, he’d discussed the possibility of bringing Roxy to Italy. That had been followed by the most passionate sexual encounter Roxy had ever experienced.

  She’d never forget the following morning when she’d rolled over to embrace Stefano, happy and excited about their future. All she had discovered was a cold, empty space.

  A stomach hollowing moment that still made her insides churn today.

  “He’ll want for nothing if he’s mine.”

  “He wants for nothing now.”

  Yes, she barely had two dollars to rub together after she paid for her sculpting supplies, Matthew’s babysitting costs, and her apartment loft’s household bills. But she had no regrets. While there wasn’t a whole lot of money, there was always love and laughter. Now she’d make doubly sure that her rights were secured, and no way would she give Stefano any reason to believe her capable of using him for his blasted money. But still, a tiny part of her—the part that recognized the wonder in Stefano’s eyes before his need for proof kicked in—wished she could rewind the clock and have a do-over.

  But the Momma Bear in her refused to budge an inch for the bastard.

  She held the door, turned to look inside the little car and tugged Matthew’s car seat strap to double check the locking mechanism. “Okay little buddy, Momma’s got to get you to Maura, and then she’s going to work.”

  “This isn’t over,” Stefano said. “I’ll have my lawyers rush everything that’s necessary to prove I’m his father and guarantee full custody.”

  Her breath bottled in her chest. That Stefano questioned his paternity while faced with the reality staring him in his face only made her more certain that she’d never give him a chance to get near Matthew. “He’ll never be yours,” she said, raising her chin.

  Kissing Matthew’s little eggshell bump on the right side of his forehead, she cast a glance over her shoulder, taking in Stefano’s half-stitched leg. He’d chased her down because of Matthew, not because he had any regrets about leaving her. And that cemented her resolve to fight Stefano every step of the way.

  “I won’t be cut out of his life if he’s mine.”

  “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of legalese to fling at me regarding this situation if you prove paternity.” Not that he wouldn’t. Adrenaline zipped through her veins and pinpricked in the tips of her fingers, making her hear pound. She didn’t know how she’d stop Stefano once he confirmed what she’d known all along, but she had to remain strong for Matthew.

  Roxy held Stefano’s gleaming blue eyes. “I’m the only parent Matthew’s ever known because of your advisors and your idiotic decisions three years ago. That gives me the upper hand in a custody battle. Period.”

  Chapter 2

  Stefano watched as Roxy stood, slammed the car door shut with her hip, and pushed a button on her key fob to lock the doors. Cristo. “I won’t steal the child,” he said. Despite what he’d said to Roxy, he didn’t want to separate Matthew from his mother, not when he knew all too well the pain of losing his parents. But when his mother, Viviana, r
eentered his life she hadn’t done so out of love. And Stefano had paid a hefty price to get her out of it on more than one occasion.

  “You’ll do everything in your power to take him away from me once you confirm he’s yours,” she said. “Then you’ll come after me with all guns firing. But that doesn’t mean you’ll win.”

  “You forget who you’re dealing with,” Stefano said. “Once I prove Matthew is mine, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure I’m a part of his life.” And, though it pained him to think about it, he’d nab a wife in the bargain. But he didn’t reveal that tidbit—he’d save information until he settled the paternity issue.

  The air crackled between them. “Oh, I know exactly what and who I’m dealing with now. Wish I’d been wise to that three years ago, but motherhood has made me a smarter woman.” She moved around him and walked to the driver’s side of the car, quickly unlocked the door, spearing him with a look above the roof. “You won’t get custody, nor will I share him with you. No American court will force me to let you anywhere near Matthew.”

  Roxy slipped inside. Stefano heard the door locks snap into place again, shutting him out. He moved to the front of the car as she switched on the engine, gunned it, and swerved around him.

  Shock reverberated through Stefano. Unlike Viviana, who’d bartered him away, Roxy fought him and refused to budge an inch when it came to her son. Maybe he’d have gotten further with her if he’d simply accepted what he’d recognized immediately without question. But his grandfather, and the family members who sucked up to Nonno, would demand proof.

  His leg burned and his temples throbbed. “Merda,” he said. “She’s impossible.” But he couldn’t blame her for squealing away in her rickety, dump bound car. Not when he’d threatened her, but perhaps her resistance was a ploy to get more than he was willing to offer.

  After all, Gian’s report had convinced him that Roxy hadn’t been any different than his ex-fiancée and the countless other schemers who had drifted in and out of his bed. She’d withheld important information about her brother’s drug addiction, sleazy scams, and the dangerous complications that accompanied it.