you, Mummy,’ he said.
‘I love you too,’ Gemma said, giving him a hug.
‘Will you watch how high I can go on the swings?’ His dark eyes were filled with an impish excitement.
‘I will, darling.’
She watched as he ran off into the playground again, her heart heavy with pride and with love.
Although it was a sunny Saturday afternoon there weren’t many people in the park. If it wasn’t for the distant roar of the London traffic they could have pretended they were in the midst of the countryside.
Gemma wondered what Marcus was doing today. He usually picked Liam up in the morning and spent the weekend with him, but there had been a last-minute change of plan. He’d had the boy last night instead, dropping him off early this morning, because he said he had something to do today and that he would pick him up again around four-thirty.
Maybe he was seeing Sophia…maybe he was taking her out today to buy an engagement ring?
Gemma put the box of sandwiches away into the basket and settled back on the blanket to watch her son. Marcus could set up a harem for all she cared, she told herself briskly. It was none of her business.
The drone of bees plundering the foxgloves in the flowerbed next to her filled the air. For a second the heat and the tranquillity conjured up the memory of an afternoon when she had lain entwined in Marcus’s arms by the banks of a river. His hands had been running possessively and confidently over her body, finding the buttons of her blouse and stealing beneath the material to find the heat of her naked flesh. ‘I want to make love to you, Gemma…I want you right now…’
The heat and the urgency of that memory made her go hot inside now, with a renewed surge of longing. And she hated herself for it. It was years since she had slept with Marcus and those feelings were dead, she told herself fiercely. Dead and buried, with a full grieving process very firmly behind her.
‘Hi, Gemma.’ Marcus’s voice coming so coolly and so quickly on top of the steamy memory made her sit bolt upright and turn around.
It was almost as if she had conjured him up, as if he had stepped out from her daydreams and into reality.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked in stunned surprise.
‘I’ve come to see you.’ He sat down beside her on the rug, his manner relaxed and confident, as if they always met like this on a Saturday afternoon in the park. ‘Liam told me you were coming here today for a picnic.’
‘Did he…?’ Gemma could hardly concentrate for thinking how attractive he looked. Marcus was half Italian and he had dark Latin smouldering good looks, olive skin and jet-black hair that gleamed almost blue in the sunlight. Blue chinos and a faded blue shirt sat well on the tall broad-shouldered frame.
Every time Gemma saw him she was struck afresh by how gorgeous he was, and she could remember forcibly what it was that had drawn her so firmly under his spell in the first place. There was something very powerful about Marcus Rossini and it wasn’t just that his body was well-toned and muscular. It was everything about him; the set of his jaw, the chiselled, strong profile and the gleam of his velvet dark eyes. As those eyes held hers now, Gemma felt a shiver of apprehension.
‘You look well,’ he said politely.
‘Thanks.’
‘Seems ages since I saw you.’
She felt his eyes running in a quick assessment over her long blonde hair and slender figure; felt them as acutely as if he were touching her and it stirred up a renewed feeling of heat inside her. And suddenly she knew why she was so careful to avoid contact with this man. There was something about him that could stir her senses with just a glance.
‘So what do you want, Marcus?’ Her voice was sharper than she intended but he didn’t appear to notice.
‘There is something I need to discuss with you,’ he said calmly.
Gemma remained silent; she knew what was coming. He was going to tell her he was getting married. She was surprised he had bothered to come and tell her in person. She supposed it was decent of him…supposed it was the civilized way to proceed. After all, they had a duty to their son to handle this in an adult way. Trouble was, she suddenly wasn’t feeling at all civilized.
Gemma took a deep breath and tried to prepare herself to react appropriately. She would wish him well and sound as if she meant it.
As their eyes met she felt her heart slam against her chest. Suddenly from nowhere she was remembering the night she had told him she was pregnant, and her feelings when he had proposed. She had felt the same heavy weight of emotion pressing against her chest then. The need to cry, to wail against the unfairness of the fact that this man just didn’t love her and would never love her. She had been left with no option but to turn him down. A marriage without love was no marriage at all.
Now he was about to tell her he was marrying someone else. There was a bitter taste at the back of her throat.
She looked away from him over towards Liam. He was swinging higher and higher, a look of intense concentration on his face, and he hadn’t even noticed that his dad was here yet.
‘I’m leaving London, Gemma,’ Marcus said quietly beside her. ‘I’m going back to live in Italy and I want to take Liam with me.’
Gemma stared at him blankly, shock waves pounding through her. This wasn’t at all what she had expected.
‘I know this is a shock, but when you calm down and think about it rationally you’ll realize this is a sensible move. This is the best thing for Liam. He is part Italian, he has a heritage and a way of life to learn about. He has the security of a large family waiting for him—cousins, uncles, aunts, not to mention a grandfather who loves him deeply.’
Gemma didn’t know why she was allowing Marcus to continue with this conversation. It was quite frankly crazy, but she was so shocked she couldn’t find her voice to stop him.
‘Liam belongs back home in Italy.’
‘Liam’s home is here with me.’ When she finally managed to speak, her voice was so full of anger that it didn’t even sound like her.
‘I understand this is going to be a wrench for you Gemma.’
With a fierce stab of panic Gemma noticed that he spoke as if this was already a fait accompli.
‘And I know how much you love Liam. That’s why I think you and I should get together on this and sort out a compromise that will suit us all.’
‘It’s not going to be a wrench because it will never happen.’ She cut across his calm words with a fierce determination and started to pack away the bottle of lemonade and the cups, needing to get away from this situation as quickly as she could.
He watched her frantic, angry movements with a cool detachment.
‘Look, I suggest that we put our own feelings aside and concentrate on what’s best for Liam now.’
The sheer arrogance of those words made Gemma look sharply up at him. ‘I have always concentrated on what is best for Liam,’ she said furiously, her blue eyes blazing with emotion. ‘How dare you suggest otherwise?’
‘Gemma, all I’m saying—’
‘I hear what you’re saying and you are talking rubbish. You waltz in at weekends and high days and holidays and think you are God’s gift to fatherhood. Well, let me tell you that you’re not. You have no idea of the day-to-day reality of being a parent. This idea is just a passing fancy…like everything else in your life.’
She couldn’t resist the sarcastic dig. ‘And you wouldn’t last two minutes if you had Liam full time.’
‘Well, that’s where I think you are wrong. I would be more than capable of having Liam full time.’
She noticed that