Sweet Temptation by Cora Reilly

hysterical when she wakes, we might have to restrain her. I can’t keep giving her
sedatives in her state.”
“Can we get the baby now?”
Sal shook his head. “Theoretically. But we should give it another two to three
weeks at least.”
How could I make sure the baby was safe? I’d have to keep an eye on Gaia
24/7 and hope she got over Andrea’s death. I knew I was foolish for hoping she
could. And really, what could I hope for at this point? That we’d live under a
roof, hating each other? Gaia would spend every waking moment wishing for my
cruel death, and I’d spend every breath I took resenting her for what she’d done.
This marriage was dead. It had been from the very start.
“Stay with her,” I said. I walked out and into the master bedroom where I
showered quickly and dressed before I headed to Daniele’s room.
He’d fallen asleep, curled up on his side in bed. Slowly, I walked over to him
and sank down on the floor. I stroked his unruly hair. He looked like Gaia. It’s
what everyone had been saying from the very start. Her brown eyes and darkblond
hair, even her facial features. He had nothing of me. My sisters and mother
had similar dark-blond hair color, so I’d assumed he’d inherited it from them. I
closed my eyes. Andrea and Gaia shared very similar looks. If Andrea was
Daniele’s father, that explained why he had nothing of me.
Acute pain sliced through my chest. I looked at the little boy I loved more
than anything in the world. I’d never loved Gaia, not for herself. I’d respected
and cared for her because she’d given me the purest gift in the world: a child.
I stood abruptly. Voices sounded in the corridor, one of them belonging to
Father. I stepped outside, finding Faro and my father talking in urgent whispers.
The moment Father looked at me, I wished I could have kept this from him. He
limped toward me, looking pale and weak. He gripped my shoulder, his eyes
searching mine. “If you want to make Gaia disappear after the baby is born,
nobody would blame you, least of all me, my son.”
I nodded. It wouldn’t be the first time a Made Man killed his wife for
cheating. Would things have been different if Gaia hadn’t been pregnant? Would
I have killed her like I had Andrea? I’d killed women before. The whores the
bikers kept around to suck their dicks—but they’d been armed and trying to kill
me and my men.
Gaia was still a woman, still my wife, still the mother of Simona and
Daniele. I wouldn’t kill her unless it was her life against that of my children or
mine.
“I don’t want her to disappear.”
Father looked puzzled. “Faro told me everything. How do you want to keep
her around? She’s a danger to you.”
“I’m not worried about my life but those of my children.”
Father glanced at Faro then back at me. “You don’t know if they even are
your children. You need to have a test as soon as possible.”
“And then?” I growled.