Modern Romance September Books 1-4. Julia James

until tomorrow evening to think over my proposal,’ Dante breathed tautly. ‘I have a funeral to attend in Brittany tomorrow. I’ll be leaving in the morning.’

      ‘The employee who died?’

      ‘Such a waste of a good man.’ Dante sighed. ‘There were other positions he could have gone for. He didn’t need to work at heights.’

      And that was why she loved Dante. He genuinely cared about his employees. Even though that workforce ran into quadruple digits, he sincerely regretted the loss of one. He had a heart even though he didn’t acknowledge it. That was why she had to withstand his innate desire to do ‘the right thing’. He felt he had to marry her because she was pregnant and that was an outdated idea, and unnecessary. She would manage fine on her own. It would make her much unhappier to marry him and then lose him again.

      * * *

      Krystal and Eddie departed early the next morning and Dante left not long after them, a new distance in his attitude to her. He was annoyed with her for refusing to marry him, she conceded ruefully, because he had decided that that was the magical solution to the baby he saw as a problem. But a marriage wouldn’t solve the baby complication, it would only create more problems.

      Belle went to visit Cristiano’s dogs that afternoon and arrived back at the palazzo to be informed that she had a visitor waiting for her.

      Consternation gripped her when she walked into the elegant drawing room and saw Tracy comfortably ensconced in an armchair, flicking through a fashion magazine over a cup of tea.

      ‘Well, you’ve certainly landed on your feet here,’ her mother mocked as she cast down the magazine and stood up, a tall slim blonde in her fifties, who looked a good decade younger than her years.