Interview with a Playboy (21 page)

Without another word he turned and left the room. She watched as Claudia tried to waylay him, without much success, and the next moment her editor was back in the room.

‘Wow—what did he say to you, Isobel? Is he going to allow us to send photographers over to his house in France?’

‘I’m not quite sure.’ Isobel picked up her bag and her coat. ‘He said he’d think about it.’

‘And did you get a chance to ask about this premiere and his ex-wife?’

‘No, not yet. Look Claudia, I have to go. I’ll ring you tomorrow.’

It was an effort to get out of the building, and when she did, and saw Marco’s stretch limousine waiting for her directly outside, her temperature soared.

‘You could have waited around the corner, or something,’ she told him in agitation as she got in and sat opposite.

‘Nice to see you too,’ he said with a smile. ‘What took you so long?’

For a moment his gaze moved over her, from the tip of her high heels to the smart black business suit. The look made her go hot inside. ‘I…I wasn’t long. I was less than ten minutes.’

‘Ten minutes and one week.’ He fixed her with that steady look that so unnerved her. ‘Why are you avoiding me?’

‘I’m not avoiding you. I’ve spoken to you on the phone. I told you that the doctor has confirmed my pregnancy, and I’ve just told you about my scan. You’re up to date. And I really don’t appreciate being hauled out of work like this—my job is important to me. I need it.’

‘Actually, you don’t,’ he corrected her softly. ‘I told you I’d support you.’

‘And I told
you
I don’t want that. I want my independence, Marco—I need that too.’ She looked away from him as the limousine pulled out into traffic. ‘Can’t you see that I’m doing us both a favour here?’ she whispered the words unsteadily.

‘No, I can’t see that, Izzy.’ He frowned and leaned forward. ‘How do you work that out?’

‘We don’t love each other.’ She whispered the words huskily. ‘We had a fling and…and this wasn’t supposed to happen.’

‘No, it wasn’t supposed to happen—but it has, and now we need to deal with it.’

The cool, pragmatic words just made the hurt inside of her escalate. ‘And I am dealing with it. I’m facing facts. I want
this baby, Marco, but you really don’t. You’re just trying to do the decent thing. And to be honest I’d rather you didn’t. Because I know what it’s like to have a father who pretends to want you when really he can’t wait to get away—’

‘Hold on a moment—you think I don’t want this child?’ He cut across her forcibly.

‘I know you don’t, Marco. I know you’re not over losing your first child and I know how devastated you were—’

‘Yes, I was devastated when my son died…and, yes, it’s taken me a long time to come to terms with that.’ He stared at her. ‘But I
want
this baby, Izzy…I want it more than you can ever know.’

The honesty in those words made her eyes start to sting with tears. Furiously she blinked them away before he could see them.

‘If you really genuinely feel like that, then I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have tried to close you out.’

‘Apology accepted—’

‘But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you set me up in a flat or anything,’ she added hastily. ‘I still want to be independent.’

‘Well, maybe I was a bit hasty with that suggestion…’ He shrugged. ‘How about we take it a day at a time from here?’

She nodded. ‘But we should be honest with each other. If you’re going to get back with your ex-wife then I want you to tell me up-front—’

‘Izzy, I’m not going to get back with Lucy.’ He reached forward and took hold of her hand. ‘Yes, I loved her once—but we’ve both moved on.’

She wasn’t sure how much she believed that. But for now it would have to do, she told herself firmly.

I
SOBEL
turned over the page on her desk calendar and smiled to herself. She was going for her first ultrasound scan today. And she was so excited that she felt like shouting it from the rooftops—she probably would have done too, except that she and Marco had agreed to keep the pregnancy a secret.

For one thing she felt as if it was tempting fate, telling everyone about it too early. And for another she didn’t want her photo splashed across every magazine in the land, with all the speculation that would entail. She’d already been snapped by the paparazzi as she’d got out of his limousine that day he’d picked her up from the office, and then again the following week, having dinner with him. But she’d covered it by telling everyone that she was just interviewing him for the follow-up article. And everyone seemed to believe it.

Probably because she was nowhere near as glamorous as his usual girlfriends.

For a moment the notion made her frown, but she pushed it away fiercely. The important thing for now was that their secret was safe—and she didn’t have to answer any awkward questions about the future because the truth was she didn’t know where her relationship with Marco was going.

They hadn’t slept together since the night before she’d discovered she was pregnant, and there was a swirling tension between them all the time. Sometimes Isobel ached for him to take her into his arms… And other times she told herself
sensibly that it was best that he didn’t. Because she knew that in reality he was only around because she was expecting his baby.

And she suspected that despite his protestations to the contrary he
did
still love Lucinda.

The actress was now in London, for the premiere of her latest film, and she and Marco had been caught on camera having coffee together in Covent Garden yesterday. The press had gone wild with speculation, saying that they were probably going to get back together.

Just thinking about it now filled her with pain. Annoyed with herself, she pushed her chair back from her desk. There was no point sitting here brooding—she needed to get herself ready for her hospital appointment. She’d said she would meet Marco there fifteen minutes before the appointed time.

Isobel had just changed out of her jeans and into a skirt and blouse when the front doorbell rang. For a moment she considered not answering it. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and she was busy applying her make-up, but when she didn’t go down immediately the bell rang again—loud and insistently.

‘All right, all right—keep you hair on,’ she muttered as she hurried downstairs and opened the door.

Marco was outside, and just the sight of him in his dark suit made her senses instantly spin into chaos. ‘I hope you didn’t just run down those stairs?’ he enquired lazily, one dark eyebrow raised.

‘Well, as you just rang the bell in a very insistent way, what did you expect?’ she replied snappily, and he smiled.

‘I expect you to think about that child you are carrying and resist rushing around,’ he replied, and his gaze moved over her lazily. She looked lovely. Her long dark hair was loose around her face and her skin was radiant, her eyes bright. ‘You look really well today, Izzy… No morning sickness?’

‘No, it seems to have passed. What are you doing here, Marco?’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I thought we were meeting
at the hospital?’ For a moment she wondered if he was here to tell her he wasn’t coming—that he had a business meeting to attend or a flight to catch.

She didn’t like the cold feeling that thought stirred up inside her, so she raised her head defiantly. ‘If you can’t come that’s perfectly OK,’ she added hastily. ‘I will be fine on my own.’

Marco noticed the way she held her head, the spark in her eyes. ‘Of course I can come,’ he said gently. ‘I’m here to pick you up.’

‘Oh, right…’ She shrugged. ‘I thought we’d agreed that it was best to meet there because the press might catch us going into the hospital together?’

‘No—as you know, Izzy,
you
said that, not me.’

‘Did I?’ She tried to feign ignorance, knowing full well that he was right—she
had
said that. ‘You’d better come in, then. I just need to drink another couple of glasses of water, so that the sonographer can get a good look at Junior.’

‘OK.’ He smiled at her. There was a part of him that wanted to pull her into his arms, break down that standoffish independent streak of hers… But he held back—just as he had been holding back since he’d discovered she was pregnant. He needed to tread warily, he told himself fiercely as he followed her upstairs and into the kitchen. She was so vulnerable right now. ‘You’ve got ten minutes and then we need to leave.’

He noticed her hand wasn’t quite steady as she reached to pick up her glass.

‘Nervous?’

‘No, not really.’ She tried to lie, and then as she caught his eye had to smile and admit, ‘Maybe just a bit.’

‘It will be OK.’

‘Yes, I know that.’ She tried to keep her tone blasé. But something about his reassuring tone made her heart twist. ‘Let’s just get out of here, shall we?’

They didn’t talk much on the way to the hospital, and as they walked into the antenatal clinic Isobel felt acutely
conscious of the space between them. She wished so much that things were different, that they were a real couple—but that was weak and stupid, she told herself.

She needed to keep strong, and as independent as possible. Because this was obviously how things were going to be from now on—they’d be together for their child but that was it.

The knowledge made the ache inside her grow deeper.

She gave her name at Reception, and couldn’t help noticing how the staff smiled at Marco. They all recognised him, of course, and all looked at her with curious eyes.

‘Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for you to come here,’ she said as they sat down to wait. ‘It will probably be all over the papers tomorrow.’

‘Do you care?’ Marco’s eyes held with hers.

‘Yes, in some ways I do—because we are going to be bombarded with questions.’

He shrugged. ‘Tell everyone to mind their own business.’ He smiled at her. ‘Like I did with you when we first met.’

She found herself smiling back.

‘Ms Keyes?’ A door opened and someone called her name, and a few minutes later she was lying on a couch.

This was it, she thought anxiously. Why was she so frightened?

Was it because she’d realised how much this baby meant to her?

She’d always wanted a family—even as a teenager she’d found herself dreaming about the kind of family she wanted. And her dream had always been the same: two girls and a boy, and a husband who adored her…and loved the children so much that he just lived for his family.

She must have watched too many Walt Disney films as a child, she chastised herself angrily. The adoring husband bit wasn’t going to happen. She glanced over at Marco’s face as he watched the sonographer put jelly on her stomach. He looked stern.

‘So, is this your first child?’ the woman was asking conversationally.

‘Yes…’ She looked over at Marco and wondered if he was thinking about his son. She wanted to reach over and take his hand. But she forced herself not to.

‘Right—let’s have a look.’ The woman started to run the probe over her skin. It was a strange, slippery feeling, and the gel was cold. ‘You can see your baby now, if you want to look at the screen,’ the woman said in soothing tones.

There was silence for a moment, and suddenly the woman was frowning.

‘Is everything OK?’ Isobel was aware that her voice was strained.

‘There’s something irregular about the heartbeat.’ The woman moved the dials and ran the probe over her stomach again. ‘Try not to worry…’

Isobel’s eyes met Marco’s. Suddenly he reached and took her hand.

‘I think I’ll just nip out and get a second opinion.’ The woman took the probe away. ‘I won’t be a minute.’

Isobel felt as if her heart was beating so hard in her chest it was going to implode. ‘Marco, do you think something is wrong?’

‘I think you should try not to get agitated—it’s not good for you.’ He moved closer.

‘You mean it’s not good for the baby!’

The minutes ticked by, and they felt like hours…weeks… years.

‘I bet you wish you weren’t here with me now!’

‘Hey, of course I don’t.’ His eyes met hers again.

‘Marco, if I wasn’t pregnant you would probably be with your ex-wife right now, making up with her—you wouldn’t be with me.’

‘Isobel, I want to be with you.’

She shook her head. ‘No, you don’t. You’re still in love with Lucinda…your photo was all over the papers today.’

‘Hey, I told you we are still friends. I wanted to tell her about you…she deserved to hear it from me first. You’re not starting to believe what you read in the papers, are you?’

‘No…’ She glared at him. ‘Well, maybe!’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘I’m scared, Marco.’ The words were squeezed out of her, her pride deserting her totally. ‘I want this baby so much…’

‘I know…and it’s going to be OK.’

‘I’m not so sure! But if the worst does happen at least you won’t feel you have to stick around for me any more.’ A tear rolled down the pallor of her cheek.

Marco felt the sharp pain of loss as she said those words. He wanted to ‘stick around’, as she put it. He wanted her so much—wanted to make everything right for her. Dear God, this couldn’t happen… They couldn’t lose this baby!

He said something in Italian under his breath, then, ‘
Cara
… you’re not going to lose this baby! But if the worst happens I will still be here for you. We will work through this!’

She shook her head, all pretence at being strong gone now.

‘
Cara
, I love you…’ The words were wrenched from him, and there was an anguished look in the darkness of his eyes. ‘I never wanted to feel like this again. I wanted to close myself off from emotions, bury myself in work—and then I met you, and little by little you made your way into my heart, into my soul… Now I feel like you are a part of me. I don’t know how it happened.
I didn’t want it to happen.
But it has.’

Silence swirled between them, and she wondered if she had imagined those words because she wanted to hear them so much.

‘I’ve been fooling myself where you are concerned,’ he continued huskily, ‘right from the very beginning…’