Read Valentino's Pregnancy Bombshell for Free Online Page B

McKenzie in hospital on a drip.
    She knew people thought she was a control freak but she could live with that.
    â€˜Coming,’ she called as she quickly washed her hands under the tap in the kitchen. It was probably somebody trying to sell her something and with the operationtomorrow weighing heavily on her mind she really didn’t have the patience for it.
    She yanked open the door, mentally drawing herself up to give the person on the other side the thanks-but-no-thanks-now-go-away spiel and shut the door on them as quickly as possible.
    Except Valentino Lombardi smiled down at her, dimples a-dazzling, and Paige felt her chest deflate. He was wearing faded blue jeans, a white T-shirt and wicked aftershave. His hair was damp, curls clinging to the back of his neck, as if he’d not long been out of the shower.
    It made her excruciatingly aware of her own rumpled state. Baggy trackpants and a tatty oversized T-shirt falling off her shoulders and streaked with paint. ‘Oh.’
    Valentino quirked an eyebrow. She had a smudge of dried red paint on her cheek. He liked it. ‘You were expecting somebody else, yes?’
    Yes. Anybody but you. She frowned. ‘How do you know where I live?’ Had he been following her?
    Valentino grinned. ‘Alessandro.’
    Of course…Paige made a mental note to call Nat and ask her not to give out her address to Italian Lotharios.
    Valentino noticed the tightening of her lips. ‘Don’t be cross with them. I told them I wanted to meet McKenzie before the surgery tomorrow.’
    McKenzie chose that moment to appear, grabbing hold of Paige’s leg with her paint-smeared fingers and shyly looking up, all the way up, at Valentino. Paige shifted slightly to accommodate her daughter, her hand automatically going to cup the back of McKenzie’s head.
    â€˜Ah.’ Valentino smiled. He crouched down so he wasat eye level with the diminutive little girl. As her chart had indicated, she was thin but her eyes were bright and intelligent. ‘Here she is.’ He signed as he spoke. ‘Hello.’
    McKenzie’s eyes, so like her mother’s but framed by blonde ringlets, widened for a moment before she shyly signed her greeting back.
    â€˜I’m Valentino.’
    Watching McKenzie’s tiny fingers form all the letters that made up her name always clawed at Paige’s heart and today was no different. Had she known her daughter would be deaf, she would have chosen a much shorter name.
    â€˜Hello, McKenzie,’ Valentino signed back, speaking the words also. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you. You have paint on your nose.’
    Paige watched as McKenzie, shy by nature, actually grinned at Valentino as he gently swiped at it with his finger. She could see the same sort of recognition in her daughter’s gaze that she’d seen in other females whenever he was near. An awareness of him as a man, a purely feminine response to his charisma.
    For goodness’ sake, she was three years old! Did the man have to charm every female he came into contact with?
    Paige drew her daughter closer, her hand firm on McKenzie’s shoulder. ‘Do you usually make house calls?’
    Valentino grinned one last time at McKenzie and rose to his full height. Paige was annoyed. But, then, when wasn’t she?
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Then why are you here? You could meet my daughter tomorrow morning on the ward.’
    Because Harry had asked him to speak with her. And he had agreed, even though he knew Paige was big trouble. Her appeal to him the last time they had been together, her pride, as tears had shone in her eyes, had captivated him. He should run a mile. He didn’t do this. He didn’t get involved. Yet he’d thought of little else except her all weekend. And then there was Harry.
    But not yet.
    â€˜I wanted to see you were okay. After Friday.’ He held up a bottle of wine and a brown paper bag. ‘I brought a