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Di CESARE PREGNANT MISTRESS - Chapter 37
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‘I’m not sure papa would be so pleased if he knew I actually share Alexander’s bed on my regular visits to Florence, so we keep that a secret,’ she said in a mock whisper, placing one long, scarlet-painted finger nail across her lips.
Stephanie’s stomach twisted, and she shook her head disgustedly. ‘It sounds like a marriage made in heaven,’ she said tightly. ‘But what about love?’
Donata looked at her incredulously, and then threw back her head and laughed. ‘What about love, Miss Stewart? As far as I’m concerned it’s not a vital commodity to a successful marriage, and Alexander shares my view.’
She stepped closer and stared intently into Stephanie’s face ‘Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for him? You fool,’ she said spitefully. ‘Alexander isn’t interested in love; he saw how it destroyed his father and he vowed when he was a young man that he would never repeat Stefano’s mistakes, we’re ideally suited, he and I,’ she stated confidently. ‘We both have something to gain from marrying—for me, money and power, and for Alexander, the strengthening of the Di Cesare bloodline, because I am a direct descendant of Antonio Di Cesare. Much as I loathe the idea of pregnancy, I’m prepared to give Alexander a child. You don’t think he’d sacrifice all that for you, do you?’
She saw the confusion in Stephanie’s eyes and gave another cold smile. ‘Until we formalise our relationship, Alexander is free to indulge his predilection for attractive blondes, you’re not the first,Miss Stewart, and I doubt you’ll be the last. But ultimately Alexander is mine, and I’m prepared to wait for him for as long as it takes.’
Stephanie was saved from having to try and formulate a reply when the butler appeared, bearing a tray. ‘Your tea, Signorina,’
he murmured, his bland features not flickering as he glanced from Stephanie to Donata.
‘That won’t be necessary, Salvatore. Miss Stewart is just leaving,’ Donata said coolly. ‘I’ll let you show her out.’
She pushed past Stephanie, into the lounge, and Stephanie followed Salvatore dazedly down the hall, feeling as though her legs would give way at any second. When the butler opened the front door, she managed a faint, ironic smile.
‘Thanks for the tea, Salvatore.’
He nodded gravely, and his stern expression softened imperceptibly. ‘Sometimes situations are not always as they seem, Signorina. I will inform Signor Di Cesare of your visit.’
‘No!’ Stephanie shook her head wildly. She had a feeling that Donata would not mention her visit to Alexander, and it would be the ultimate humiliation if he should ever find out that she had rushed to the apartment after only one night apart and come face to face with his lover and future wife. ‘Please, Salvatore don’t say a word,’ she begged, and after several moments’ hesitation he slowly nodded and closed the door.
London in early November was unremittingly grey and wet, The leaden skies were as heavy as Stephanie’s spirits, and she shivered when she emerged from the underground station and was hit by a blast of icy wind.
Christmas was over a month a month away, but the shop windows had been festooned with festive decorations for weeks, and Oxford Street was teeming with frantic shoppers.
It was a far cry from the hot, still days of summer in Tuscany. The two months she had spent at the Villa Rosala belonged to another time, another world, she thought bleakly. It had been a time of fleeting happiness that she had always known could not last, and it had ended abruptly when she had fled from Alexander’s apartment in Florence with his cousin Donata’s mocking laughter ringing in her ears.
Back at the Villa Rosala, she had written him a brief note, explaining that she had decided to return to England to continue with her career, and then she’d left and caught the next flight back to London, where she had spent the weeks since in a state of numb misery that had caused her flatmate Jess serious concern.
Alexander hadn’t contacted her, and she hadn’t expected him to. For him, their relationship had been a brief interlude of amazing sex with a woman he mistrusted. She suspected that he had resented the sizzling sexual chemistry that held them both in its thrall, and although he had asked her to remain at the Villa with him for an unspecified time, he had known all along that he was going to marry Donata.
If nothing else, it proved that she had diabolical taste in men, Stephanie conceded with a grim smile. The only difference was that she had been married to Fabian, and he must have known that his infidelity would break her heart. Alexander had never made any promises, but the image of him making love to his beautiful, sultry-eyed cousin hurt a hundred times more than when she had read a text message on her ex-husband’s phone and realised that his work colleague Jacqueline was also his mistress.
She had returned to England determined to pick up the threads of her life, but as the weeks had passed a new concern had supplanted her misery and caused her to study the calendar with a growing feeling of dread. A home pregnancy test had confirmed her fears, and she had been even more shocked when her Gp had sent her for an ultrasound scan to determine her dates, and she’d learned that she was eleven weeks pregnant.
‘I can’t believe it,’ Jess had said, when Stephanie had confided in her. ‘I thought pregnancy was supposed to make you put on weight, not lose it. You’re been fading away since you came back from Italy. I assume it is Alexander’s baby?’ She’d added darkly. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know.’ Stephanie had laid her hand on her flat stomach and tried to assimilate the range of emotions swirling inside her. Elation, joy—fear.
She still could not get her head around the fact that she was expecting Alexander’s child. He had always been scrupulous about using protection, apart from one time—the night of the storm.