Page 50 of Dangerous Intent

“I think I stood too fast.” She smiled. “Maybe it was that kiss. It knocked me for a loop.”

“Are you sure?” I studied her face, not liking the uneasiness in her expression. “You look a little pale.”

“Can we make a stop before we get home?” she asked.

“Where do you want to go?” I held her close as we walked to the door.

“The drugstore.”

“I’m sure whatever you need we’ll have at the house.”

“I don’t think we’re going to have what I want.”

“What do you want?”

“A pregnancy test.”

The words hit me like a freight train—a collision of panic, wonder, and fear so visceral it rooted me to the spot where I stood.

A pregnancy test.

My mind raced through possibilities, each one more chaotic than the last. I wasn’t ready for this—not now. But as I looked at her, fragile and yet utterly adamant, a part of me wondered if I ever would be.

TWELVE

Lissia

I setthe pregnancy test on the bathroom counter, avoiding the result screen by not looking. I didn’t want to know. But I wasn’t sure what I didn’t want to know.

Was I afraid there was a baby, or was I afraid there wasn’t a baby?

If the test was positive, were we ready for a baby? Marchello’s business was so turbulent.

But what if the results were negative?

My stomach heaved with worry.

If there was no baby, would I be disappointed?

What the hell am I doing to myself? How have I gotten into this situation?

I slid down the bathroom wall until my backside hit the cool tile floor. The ruthless mafia capo getting me pregnant was not on my bingo card this month. But I guess I didn’t have being kidnapped by him, falling in love with him, and marrying him all within months of our explosive meeting on that card either.

A baby though? That brought the complexity to a whole new level.

What if I wasn’t enough? Not for Marchello, and not for a baby. I’d spent so long building walls, only to let him tear them down. But being vulnerable—being someone’s mother—was an entirely different kind of risk. One that could cause me to lose myself.

I didn’t know the woman I could be until I fell in love with Marchello. It was as if my life started when he noticed me, and I was no longer the same person I was a few months ago.

We had been through so much in such a short time. It all seemed like a blur. A beautifully disordered and frenzied love story. So why should tonight’s realization be any different? A surprise pregnancy fit into this messy tale of us.

Marchello didn’t seem to think so.

At the drugstore, he grabbed the first test on the shelf and hurried to the counter to pay. He ushered me in and out of the store, then ordered Dom to get us home as soon as possible.

He took the strong, silent type to a whole new level. I couldn’t tell if he was in shock or if he just wanted to get this whole thing over with, but when he followed me into the bathroom, I had to draw the line. I wasn’t peeing in front of him.

I tried not to let his reaction bother me. We didn’t even know if there was a baby, so there was no sense in getting into our future until we knew what we were dealing with.