‘You always think you can fix things.’ Ava comfort ate a couple of chocolates and offered them to him before reaching for the final box. It was very light and she peeled off the wrapping and extracted a bubble-wrapped bauble. ‘My goodness, it’s a tree ornament,’ she said, astonished at him having purchased such a festive item.
The hand-decorated bauble twinkled in the light. It was marked with the year. ‘Is the date significant?’ she asked.
‘Dio mio, of course it is. It’s the year you brought Christmas back to life at Bolderwood. The castle looks fantastic,’ Vito informed her, sliding lithely into bed beside her. ‘Do you like it?’
‘I love it,’ she confessed, ensnared by smouldering dark golden eyes and registering that comfort sex was as much on offer as comfort eating.
He removed the tree ornament from her hand and set the chocolates down. But Ava evaded him by scrambling out of bed with the roses. ‘I’m just going to soak these in the basin!’ she told him, hurrying into the bathroom.
‘They’re half dead!’ Vito growled. ‘I’ll buy you more tomorrow.’
Ava ran water into the washbasin and caressed a silky petal with an appreciative finger. They were still the very first flowers he’d ever given her and in her opinion, worthy of conservation.
‘Thanks for the pressies,’ she told him, climbing back into bed. ‘I wish I’d got something for you.’
‘You’re my present,’ Vito proclaimed, circling her soft mouth and then ravishing her generous lips with his own with a hunger that made her every sense sizzle with reaction and joy. ‘But there’s one more I’d like to give you first. It’s downstairs below the tree.’
‘Oh … downstairs,’ Ava responded without enthusiasm, her attention locked to his wide sensual mouth and only slowly skimming up to meet his smouldering dark golden gaze.
‘I want you to open it.’
‘Now?’ Ava pressed in disbelief. ‘It’s two o’clock in the morning and it’s the party tomorrow!’
Vito vaulted off the bed and extended the silk wrap he had bought for her. ‘It’s important, bella mia,’ he urged.
With a sigh, Ava got up and slid her arms into the sleeves. ‘You can be very demanding.’
‘It’s not a deal-breaker, is it?’ Vito studied her with his shrewd gaze, his innate cunning never more obvious to her and she flushed, wondering how much he had guessed about how she felt about him.
‘You let Harvey into your bedroom,’ she registered, hearing the dog whining behind the door at the sound of their voices and letting him out.
Vito seized the opportunity to grab a shirt and put it on. ‘He cried at the door.’
They descended the stairs, where the dying fire in the grate was flickering enormous eerie shadows over the walls and the decorations. Ava bent down and switched on the sparkling tree lights before spying the large gift-wrapped box below the huge tree. ‘What on earth is it?’
‘Your Christmas present.’
‘But I wasn’t going to be here at Christmas!’ Ava protested.
‘I wouldn’t have let you go,’ Vito countered stubbornly.
‘I was planning to leave the morning after the party,’ she reminded him.
His handsome mouth quirked. ‘The best-laid plans …’ he said.
Ava hauled out the box and began to rip the shimmering golden wrapping paper off it, only to expose another differently wrapped box inside. ‘What is this? Pass the parcel?’ she teased in surprise.
The pile of discarded wrapping grew larger as the boxes got smaller until finally Ava emerged with one tiny box and paled. ‘What is it?’
Vito dropped down on one knee in front of her and asked levelly, ‘Will you marry me?’
Ava sucked in air like a drowning swimmer and stared at him with bright blue eyes filled with astonishment. Shock was snaking through her in dizzy waves. ‘Where did this idea come from? Are you insane?’
‘That’s not how you’re supposed to respond to a proposal!’ Vito pronounced, springing back upright again to gaze down at her with a frown.
Ava opened the box and stared at the gorgeous diamond ring inside, the jewels of which shone with blinding brilliance when the flickering tree lights caught them. She blinked, her throat closing over all tight. ‘You don’t mean this … you’re not thinking about what you’re doing. You know you don’t want a wife. You know you think that if you get married your wife will divorce you and take your castle and your kids and at least half your money—’
‘It’s a risk I’m prepared to take to have you in my life,’ Vito admitted tautly.