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Instead, she’d had to beg Emilio to drive her to a pharmacy at least twenty kilometers fronancy test And then she’d performed the test in secret, because she was terrified of a servant finding out and telling Gio before she’d had a chance to process it and told Raphael

Fortunately, the test had been negative

Yet Pia had sat in the restrooe to cry

What she’d wanted then was the solid, co presence of the man she loved Thefor her

On his return fro down at work, and had received thestare leveled at her He hadn’t shut her down as he usually did but he hadn’t responded to her suggestion either Even Gio had backed her, saying he could delegate more

“My father delegated, he trusted people he shouldn’t have and his business sank within two years,” had been his reply

Since she didn’t want to hurt him, and his father had always been a touchy subject with Raphael, Pia had left it at that

She had let a lot of things slide, she realized now, but weren’t those the growing pains of a new relationship? Pia had learned that Raphael, even after being hts with anybody He was used to going it alone, used to that role of problem solver so much

But the more they saw of each other and the e froht, brooding and unapproachable, except for the fact that she was allowed to sleep with him now

Like clockwork, he either brought her to his apartment, kept her up until dawn—not that Pia wasn’t just as voracious for his touch, for his possession—or he caone to bed Usually, he found Pia studying or working on her toys

When she was, he shed his shirt and shoes and waited for her to finish—as if she could le line when his mere presence fried her brain And then he took her to bed