‘No.’ He shook his head and then winced minutely when it obviously caused him pain. He opened his eyes again and found and took Valentina’s hand in a tight grip. ‘What I want to know is did I really just hear you say you love me, and all that other stuff, or was I dreaming?’
Blood was rushing to her head and Valentina whispered, ‘How much other stuff did you … think you heard?’
‘Everything … I think …’ Gio said grimly.
Hesitant, Valentina said, ‘About Mario and the hospital?’
‘Yes, dammit. Valentina.’
Valentina gripped Gio’s hand back and closed her eyes as if that could help. Not to see Gio’s face when she said this. ‘It wasn’t a dream. You heard it, and I meant every word.’
There was silence and after long seconds Valentina opened her eyes again to see Gio with his head back on his pillow and a smile playing around his mouth. ‘You love me….’
Feeling slightly disgruntled at his easy insouciance when Valentina felt as if she’d just been pulled from a train wreck she said curtly, ‘Yes, I do.’
Gio’s smile faded then to be replaced by something more serious. His hand moved up her arm and he said, ‘Come here, I need to touch you.’
; ‘But your ribs—your head … I’ll hurt you.’
Gio shook his head, this time more gingerly. ‘You could never hurt me as much as you did when you walked away after I told you I loved you.’
Fresh tears pricked Valentina’s eyes and Gio’s hand tightened on her arm. ‘But I’ll forgive you everything if you just come here right now.’
Carefully Valentina stood up and perched on the side of the bed. Gio’s voice was husky. ‘Closer.’
Giving in, Valentina kicked off her sneakers and came down full length beside him and tried to ignore his painful intake of breath when he lifted his arm to move it around her so that she was cocooned against him, her head in his shoulder, her hand resting on his abdomen, below the strapping. She felt herself relaxing into his hard form, her curves melting into his body.
She felt him draw a breath into his chest and he said in a carefully neutral voice, ‘Why did you decide you wanted to stay at the castello after seeing the garden, where Mario died?’
Valentina lifted her head to look at Gio. She remembered the excruciating way he’d shut her out—how ready he’d been for her to flee, because he’d obviously expected her to be upset. She could see now how he might have misread her reaction.
She willed him to believe her, to understand. ‘When I saw the garden … and walked the labyrinth, I didn’t feel as if Mario was there, or I did … but in a very peaceful way. He always loved visiting you at the castello so much. He was so proud of your achievement. I just … I felt happy there, secure. That’s why I wanted to stay.’
Gio’s arm tightened around her and his eyes looked suspiciously bright for a moment. He sounded gruff. ‘I thought … I thought it meant that you’d divorced yourself so much from your emotions around me and what had happened that you just didn’t care enough to leave.’
Valentina shook her head. ‘Never … my emotions are very much intact.’
Gio touched her chin and jaw with his other hand as reverently as if she were made of china and Valentina felt a profound peace steal over her.
Gio smiled. ‘You know what this means, of course?’
‘What?’
Gio’s eyes glowed dark green with emotion. ‘Kiss me first,’ he said throatily. Carefully Valentina reached up and pressed her lips to his. Despite the delicacy of Gio’s injuries, she could feel his arm tighten around her as the inevitable spark lit between them.
Groaning softly Gio pulled back. Colour was in his cheeks now, replacing that deathly pallor, and Valentina touched his jaw with her hand, her fingers tracing his mouth. Gio kissed her fingers. ‘What it means is that you’re going to marry me and we’re going to live happily ever after….’
Valentina’s hand stilled and her eyes widened on his. Giddiness rushed through her entire body but along with it came a tendril of trepidation and she bit her lip. She whispered, ‘I’m scared, Gio … I think I’m scared to feel this happy….’
Gio pulled her closer. ‘We have love—as long as we have love, there’s no need to fear anything.’
‘Love..’ Valentina smiled tremulously. ‘We definitely have love.’
Two years later …
Valentina felt the baby kicking in her belly and automatically put her hand there. She smiled when she sensed a presence and a much larger hand came over hers and an arm snaked around her distended midriff to cup her close to his body. Gio. Even now, tremors of awareness went through her especially when she could feel him hardening against her bottom.