In the Italian's Sights by Helen Brooks

She isn’t the first girl to be in this situation and she won’t be the last. If you give her and Santo your blessing they can be married immediately and everyone will think the baby is early—and even if they don’t, so what? You don’t strike me as the type of man who thinks he has to answer to anyone.’
    ‘How dare you speak to me like this?’ His voice was cold steel. ‘This is no concern of yours.’
    ‘Sophia made it my concern when she asked me to speak to you.’ Cherry forced her tone to remain quiet, although her face burned with heat. How did you getthrough to a man like Vittorio—a man who thought he was right about everything? ‘I didn’t want to, I can assure you. I knew exactly how you would react.’ Actually, he’d been more calm than she’d expected.
    ‘Is this so?’ His glittering eyes locked with hers. ‘You think I should be glad that my sixteen-year-old sister has thrown her life away? That she is going to be a mother?’
    Swamped by the feeling she was making matters worse and not better, Cherry took a deep breath. ‘I know this is not ideal, but it’s happened and Sophia wants the baby. She wouldn’t agree to an abortion,’ she added on a warning note.
    ‘You think I would suggest such a thing?’ If he had been angry before he was now livid. ‘What kind of man do you think I am? A monster? Is that it?’
    If she answered that honestly it would do nothing to defuse the situation. ‘I don’t know,’ she said neutrally. ‘As you pointed out earlier, before today I hadn’t met you or Sophia. And, believe me, I wish I’d spent the night in the car rather than be in the middle of all this.’
    He stared at her, and as he did so she watched him make a huge effort to control his temper. It was clear her words had reminded him she was a guest in his house when he said, ‘I must apologise, Cherry. Sophia was wrong to ask of you what she did, but this does not excuse my behaviour.’
    His mastery of his emotions was impressive. Taken aback, she murmured awkwardly, ‘That’s all right. It—it was a shock. And I wanted to help. I still do. If you want me to stay until Sophia and Santo come—’
    ‘That will not be necessary.’ It was polite, but rage still simmered under the surface. ‘This is not your problem.’
    She stood up and he rose too, his manners once againimpeccable. ‘Don’t push her away,’ Cherry said from the heart, without stopping to consider her words—because if she did she wouldn’t dare speak them. ‘She knows you’ll be disappointed and angry, but give her and Santo a chance to talk to you. She loves you very much and this is a time when she needs your help, not rejection. And Santo—he really has been led by her in this.’
    ‘You are asking me to keep my hands off Santo’s throat?’ he said with a spark of dark humour. ‘Is that it?’
    ‘Not just that. The person who said “sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you” didn’t know what they were on about. Words can do deeper harm than any physical blow.’ She knew. She had lived with her mother and Angela for many years before she’d been able to make her escape. ‘And once said, you can’t take them back.’
    His eyes narrowed, and he reached out a hand and lifted her chin so she was forced to meet his gaze. ‘Why do you care so much about Sophia?’ he asked softly. ‘You barely know her.’
    Her heart was thudding as she felt his strength and warmth flow into her through his fingers, and the delicious smell of him invaded her senses. It was in that moment that she realised it wasn’t so much the sister but the brother she was concerned about. Sophia would be fine. She had her Santo and the baby. But Vittorio… And then she told herself not to be so monumentally stupid. If anyone could stand on their own two feet and take what life dished out it was Vittorio Carella.
    She shrugged. Vittorio seemed quite unaffected by her closeness, but his nearness was