Doris O'Connor (12 page)

The man had no rights; that’s what her
solicitor had said. Not without a long drawn-out legal battle. Not
that she had the finances for that at all. Already the crippling
fees had eaten hugely into her
meagre
savings.

She was not going to cry again. What a blasted
watering pot she had become. Everything made her cry. It was
ridiculous! And why the hell did she still dream of Alex and happy
ever after most nights? She couldn’t stand the man!
Get a grip,
Kitty. It was just sex, that’s all.
Why else would he have
dismissed her so easily and believed her capable of such deceit?
Kitty ruthlessly tamped down the little voice in her ear muttering
that she ought to have tried harder. But she had been shocked
enough to find out she was pregnant. Having to deal with the
reality of that had taken up all of her emotional energy. She had
told herself she was doing the right thing. The playboy she’d met
in the bar wouldn’t have wanted a baby, let alone a relationship,
and she was perfectly capable of bringing a baby up on her own. She
didn’t need a man to muddy the waters.

The knock on her door made her dry her eyes
and straighten her spine. If that was another Jehovah’s Witness
offering her eternal salvation, well, they just might find their
blasted pamphlet shoved where the sun doesn’t shine.

She opened the door and froze. Alex Giovanni
was standing on her doorstep, looking like he hadn’t slept in three
days and with an uncertain smile on his unshaven face.

“
Kitty, we need to
talk.”

Chapter
Thirteen

Alex sucked in a breath. He hadn’t seen Kitty
in over a month, and the sight of her hit him like a sucker punch
to his gut. He moved his foot swiftly in the way of the shutting
door, grateful for his steel capped work boots, which meant that he
would be able to walk tomorrow.

“
Get lost, Alex Giovanni. Whatever
you have to say to me, you can tell me through your solicitors.
Haven’t had any problems with that so far, after all!”

“
Yes, about that—” Damn, she was
beautiful when she was all fired up, but she had been crying. He
could tell by the red-rimmed eyes, and she had lost weight, too.
Damn it. Richard had said she was a mess.

“
Take your foot out of my door,
Giovanni, before I call the police and have you
arrested.”

“
To reach your phone, you’d have to
abandon the door, and by the time you reach it I’ll be in
anyway.”

Alex had to smile when Kitty closed her eyes,
screwing up her little freckled nose, to all intents and purposes
praying for patience. It was a gesture he remembered well, and bang
there went another punch to his gut.

“
Damn it, Alex, I have nothing to
say to you. And you can’t possibly have anything else left to
accuse me of… so … leave, will you?”

Her voice broke on the last few words, and one
hand went up to wipe furiously at her wet eyes.

And those punches kept on coming.

“
Kitty, I’m not here to fight;
truly I’m not. Please let me in” He reached out to put a hand on
the white knuckled one on her door, making Kitty gasp. She snatched
her hand away, and Alex wasted no time stepping through the door.
The vase Kitty threw at his head missed and hit the door instead.
Thank the heavens for fast reflexes.

****

Kitty stamped her foot in frustration. She
wanted to scream and shout and throw more things. What the hell was
he doing here? And why did her treacherous body still react to him
in just the same way? The shock she’d felt at his touch on her hand
had been almost painful. He watched her warily now from his
position by the front door, surrounded by shards of
glass.

“
I can appreciate that you may want
to throw things at me right now, and I probably deserve that; but
it makes one hell of a mess.”

Noah’s lopsided smile was on his face, and
Kitty had to sit down. She couldn’t do this.

“
What the hell do you want,
Alex?”

“
To mend bridges, to see my son, to
see you—”

“
Your son is he now? Noah is mine,
damn it, and I have no intention of sharing him with anyone, least
of all you. The last conversation we had face to face you said what
exactly? Oh yes, how could he be mine? After all, I’m just a whore
who can’t keep the fathers of her baby straight.” Her voice dripped
with all the contempt and hurt she felt right now, and she
resolutely blinked the tears away. “Now you have a piece of paper
saying he’s yours, suddenly you want him. If you think that I will
ever let you take him away from me, you really don’t know me at
all. I am all he knows, Alex. How dare you think you can just sweep
in and take him away from me!”

“
I have no intention of taking him
away from you, Kitty, but hell, he’s my son. He‘s
my
son!”

Alex sat down with a thump, his head in his
hands before he looked up. His blue eyes were so full of pain that
it hurt to look at them, and there was a shimmer of unshed tears.
The sharp stab of regret had her almost reaching out to him.
He
wants to take away your son. Remember that, girl, and don’t fall
for the act again.

She thought of the conversation she’d had with
her solicitor earlier on today to help her find her backbone, and
her voice was satisfyingly cold when she retorted. ”So you didn’t
want to know four years ago when I rang you and—” She blinked at
Alex’s furious growl and took a step away from him.

“
Kitty, so help me, I don’t know
what happened. So you rang me, once. Say I believe you, why in the
all that’s holy didn’t you try harder? Didn’t I deserve that much?
Did you think so little of me, that you thought I wouldn’t want to
know my own flesh and blood?”

His blue eyes bored into her, and Kitty
flinched, that little voice screaming at her that he was
right.

“
I’m sorry. I couldn’t, I just
couldn’t.”

Silence settled between them, and Kitty’s
heart clenched painfully. Alex looked devastated. He ran one hand
through his hair and swore. A long furious string of Italian swear
words, and Kitty panicked at the reminder of his heritage. He had a
huge Italian family behind him and the means to take Noah away
forever. She could never let that happen. What was she
doing?

She pushed her own guilt at what had happened
firmly back into the box she’d kept it in and slammed the lid on.
She had to make him leave.

“
Who's to say you’d have believed
me then? You didn’t believe me now until you had your piece of
paper, but suddenly you want him? Pleaaaase. Why? And in case you
don‘t know, you have absolutely no rights to him. None, do you hear
me?”

She jumped when Alex stood up so quickly his
chair went flying. Before she could blink he was in front of her,
his face furious as he pulled her roughly to her feet. He had an
iron grip on her upper arms, his thighs touching hers, his face
inches away from hers.

“
Damn you, Kitty. He. Is. My. Son!
I have a right to know him, and he has a right to know his father.
You can’t take this away from us. What did I ever do to you to make
you hate me so much?”

The despair in his voice seeped into Kitty,
even as her teeth were chattering. Alex shook her like a rag doll
in his frustration. “I need to see him, Kitty. I made a promise,
and thanks to you
Pappa
never met him, when he could have
done. “

“
A-Alex, you’re hurting me,” Kitty
managed to groan out through clenched teeth.

Alex swore a long furious string of Italian
and let go of her so abruptly she would have stumbled, had it not
been for Alex steadying her with trembling hands.

“
Hell, I’m sorry Kitty, I didn’t
mean… Fuck!” He stepped away from her, a horrified expression on
his face. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just—”

“
Lummy, lummy… I … sclared… lummy…
nompsters.”

Kitty turned away from Alex, not before giving
him a shove. “Stay here!” She ran towards Noah’s room, where the
little boy was now crying in earnest.

****

Hell, what have I done?
Bile rose in
Alex throat. He had never, ever laid a hand on a woman before. What
the hell was it about Kitty? She pushed all his buttons, and he
just had to make her see sense. Noah had stopped crying. Alex could
hear Kitty’s soft voice singing Noah a lullaby, and his feet moved
toward that sound of their own volition. He couldn’t have stayed
away if his life depended on it.

What he saw when he rounded the corner to
Noah’s room brought him to his knees. Kitty sat on Noah’s bed, his
tearstained face resting against Kitty’s bosom, one small hand
fisted in her top, his eyes slowly closing again. She rocked him
gently, singing an old lullaby that his own mother had used to sing
to him when he was little. She looked up with tender eyes, before
they narrowed to glare at him, and he turned around and walked back
to the living room
. What the hell am I going to
do?

He wanted his son, and his mother certainly
wanted her grandchild. Noah was a Giovanni, and she would never
rest until she got what she wanted. And he couldn’t just be a
part-time father. That was not the way he was raised. But no way in
hell could he separate Kitty from their son. He picked up one of
the many pictures of Noah scattered all around Kitty’s small living
room. Noah as a baby, blowing out his first birthday cake with the
help of a smiling Kitty, his first steps. He had missed so much of
his son’s life.

How was he going to resolve this? He had to
keep his promise, and he had a decision to make; and Mamma, she
would never get off his case, or, heaven help him, off Kitty’s.
What was he going to do? And then it came to him; it was so simple
he almost laughed out loud. He had been going to stay with Irene
for the baby, wasn’t he? And even when he had thought himself in
love with his ex-fiancée he’d never felt as alive as he did
whenever he was with Kitty.

He looked up as Kitty walked back into the
room, her face weary.

“
You’re still here
then.”

“
Where else would I be,
baby?”

Kitty grimaced, and he smiled to himself when
she threw him a scathing glance.

“
Don’t baby me, Giovanni. Save your
bullshit for someone else who is more easily impressed then
me.”

“
Has he gone back to
sleep?”

****

Kitty nodded. She walked across and took the
baby picture Alex was holding out of his hand. Her fingers traced
the delicate features of a six week old Noah, taken when he had
first come out of hospital. He had been so small and helpless, and
she had felt so overwhelmed, yet determined to do right by her
beautiful son. She could have done with Alex then. Why the hell had
he dismissed them back then, and why could he not just leave them
alone now?

She closed her eyes, one tear falling on the
picture frame, and Alex pulled her into his hard body His tense
arms comforted her, and he murmured something in Italian into her
hair. She let herself relax into his embrace for just a second,
before she straightened her spine, cursing herself for being all
kinds of a fool.
He doesn’t care about you; all he wants is
Noah.
Stepping away, she heard him sigh and turned
around.

“
I think you should leave, Alex.
There is nothing else to say, is there?”

But Alex just stood there, his blue eyes
intense.

“
I’m not going anywhere, Kitty. We
have to sort this.”

Kitty snorted. “How exactly are we going to do
that? I will never give up my son, Alex, even if you’re going to
drag us through the courts for the next year!”

Oh hell, why did I say that?
Her funds
weren’t going to last two months, let alone a year. Her solicitor’s
words rang in her ears.
The Giovanni are extremely well-to-do
and connected. Alex chose to become a fire fighter and lives on his
income, but Stella Giovanni has a fearsome reputation and the means
to see this through to the bitter end. Unless you can find an
amicable solution with Alex Giovanni, this will be a long drawn-out
battle, and it will be costly.

She looked up at Alex, who was standing in
front of her with a small smile on his face.

“
I have found the perfect solution,
Kitty. It will keep everyone happy, get my mother of your back and
will mean I can be a dad to Noah.”

Kitty eyed him suspiciously. What was he up
to?

“
It’s simple really. Marry
me.”

C
hapter
Fourteen

Kitty had to smile at the expression on Emy’s
face. It was rare to see her friend lost for words, but right now
she was doing gold fish impressions.
This was a good start,
not
!

Richard’s face was unreadable as he handed his
wife her chamomile tea.

“
I think what Emy is trying to say
is why on earth he would think that you would agree, though, I must
say, it does make perfect logical sense.”