‘But you haven’t been there since—’
‘Last year,’ Gianni admitted, bracing himself.
‘But you hadn’t even found me then!’ Milly gasped, instantly leaping up to envelop him in frantic hugs and kisses.
As desire flashed between them to instantaneous heat, Milly jerked back a step. ‘Sometimes I love you so much it just hurts, but we still have a sooty bootprint to make on the hearth, so that Connor can see which chimney Santa Claus used as an entrance,’ she explained apologetically.
‘Maybe with the number of chimneys we’ve got we should put a flag on the roof so that the old guy doesn’t get confused,’ Gianni suggested deadpan as he curved her smoothly back into the possessive circle of his arms, knowing that bootprints could be faked after midnight as well as before it.
‘Magic, doesn’t need flags, Gianni!’
Against the backdrop of the flickering firelight and the glittering tree, Gianni scanned her wide, loving smile with softened dark eyes and pulled her close. ‘You’re the magic in my life, cara mia. I love you.’