‘I am desperate, but not for the reasons you think. You’re more to me than you could ever know, more than Max could even comprehend.’
She shook her head. ‘You had to be sure of me, didn’t you, Luca? That’s why you made the announcement of our engagement tonight in front of so many witnesses.’
‘You’re not listening, Callie. I love you. And you’re right. I should have told you long before now, but I didn’t realise it myself. I didn’t recognise the symptoms,’ he admitted ruefully, raking h
is hair with frustration. ‘I’m not exactly familiar with love in all its guises.’
‘Your father didn’t love you?’ she challenged with an angry gesture.
‘The Prince loved me, but it wasn’t easy for me to trust him enough to return his love, not as soon as he wanted, anyway.’
‘He must have been a patient man.’
‘He was.’
‘Know this, Luca. Nothing will change my mind. I don’t want a work in progress, while you discover your feelings. I want the boy who made his home in the Coliseum and dreamed of what he would one day become. I want the man who made that happen. Don’t you dare make your past an excuse. I haven’t.’
That was true. She shamed him. ‘How can I prove that I love you?’
‘By letting me go,’ she said with her usual frankness.
* * *
Back home at the Browns’, the ache in Callie’s heart at the absence of Luca was like a big, gaping wound that refused to heal. Even the Browns’ famously over-the-top Christmas preparations couldn’t do anything to mend it. Seeing Anita again had helped, Callie conceded as she smiled across the room at her friend from the lemon groves. Anita had become a most welcome fixture at the Browns’. On her return, Callie had persuaded Anita, who lived alone in a rented room, to take a job close by, and the Browns had offered to rent her a room. They always welcomed help with the younger children and Anita would never be alone again, Ma Brown had promised. Anita had a proper family now—if she could stand the noise and chaos. Anita could certainly do that, and had fitted right in.
‘Come on, our Callie,’ Ma Brown insisted as she bustled into the room they called the front parlour. ‘Anita, I need you to help me in the kitchen, and, Rosie, you and Callie still have the rest of those crêpe paper streamers to hang.’
‘And make,’ Rosie pointed out as she glanced at the uncut reams of crinkled paper and then at Callie’s preoccupied face. ‘Come on, I’ll help you.’ Kneeling down at Callie’s side, Rosie waited until her mother had left the room before putting an arm around Callie’s shoulders. ‘I know you haven’t said anything in front of the family, but you can’t keep bottling this up. And you can’t keep refusing to speak to him,’ Rosie added. ‘If Prince Luca comes to England to see you—’
‘Do you know something?’ Callie asked. Her heart soared at the thought of seeing Luca again, even as her rational mind told her she could never be a princess, so it was better not to see him at all.
‘Not exactly,’ Rosie admitted uncomfortably. ‘I’m just saying that if Luca did turn up, you should see him.’
‘I don’t have to see anyone,’ Callie argued stubbornly, but her heart was beating so fast just at the thought of seeing Luca again that she could hardly breathe. Was he in the country, maybe somewhere close by? There was no smoke without fire, she concluded, glancing at Rosie, who refused to meet her eyes.
‘We’d better get these streamers made,’ Rosie said, acting as if the lack of paper decorations was the only crisis looming, ‘or there’ll be hell to pay.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
CALLIE FROZE. THEY had just sat down to the most mouth-watering Christmas feast when an imperative knock sounded at the door.
‘I’ll answer it,’ Pa Brown insisted when Callie moved to get out of her chair.
‘Let him go,’ Ma Brown said to everyone with a calming gesture. ‘Whoever’s there, we can’t leave a stranger on the doorstep today.’
That was no stranger, Callie thought, shivering inwardly with excitement as the distinctive sound of Luca’s dark, husky voice made everyone sit up and take notice. The air changed, stilled, and was suddenly charged with electricity as, quite improbably, His Serene Highness, Prince Luca of Fabrizio, stood framed in the narrow doorway. Radiating glamour, presence, and an irrational amount of heat, Luca was a starry visitor to the homey Christmas at the Browns’. His stare locked briefly with Callie’s. That short look carried more heat, more passion and determination than she could stand. It was almost a relief when he turned to greet everyone else in the room.
‘This is wonderful,’ Luca exclaimed, sucking in a deep, appreciative breath as Pa Brown relieved him of his rugged jacket. ‘I didn’t realise how hungry I was, until I smelled this delicious food.’ His gaze swept over Callie before he smiled at Ma Brown. ‘Do you have room for one more?’
‘Most certainly,’ Ma Brown exclaimed, leaping up from the table.
In a midnight-blue fine-knit sweater that clung lovingly to his magnificent frame, and beat-up jeans moulding his muscular thighs, Luca was an improbable giant in their midst. Callie couldn’t help but remember having those thighs locked around her as they made love, and her longing for Luca surged as his stare found hers and this time lingered. Her heart was gunned into action. She hadn’t realised how much she’d missed him. Snow dusted his ink-black hair, making it twinkle and gleam. If she’d never met him before and didn’t know his history, if someone had told her that Luca was a cage fighter she’d have believed them. He certainly wasn’t her childhood idea of Prince Charming. But fairy tales were a long way behind them now. Sex radiated from him like sparks from a Catherine wheel, though his eyes were full of warmth for the Browns, and for Anita. ‘Don’t I know you from Italy?’ he asked Anita.
‘You do, Your Serene Highness,’ Anita admitted, blushing.
‘Call me Luca,’ he said. ‘You know the rules.’
As Anita and Luca laughed together, Callie thought him so infectiously warm, so vital and compelling. ‘I hope I’m not intruding,’ he said, noticing that the Browns were all staring at him open-mouthed.