‘To hell with my father. He isn’t what matters right now. Neither is he what I’m talking about, and you know it.’
‘No, I don’t.’
She was almost stammering now, her heart hammering as she wondered wildly just how much Rocco might have overheard.
Rocco counted inwardly to ten. They could play this game all day long, but right now it was the end result he needed and wanted, not the playing of it. He turned his back on Julie, busying himself with opening the bottle of champagne and pouring two glasses, handing her one as he sought an eloquent way to seek an answer to the question that burned in his heart.
Finally he asked baldly, ‘You told my father that you love me, but you told me that you still love James. Which is the truth?’
Dared she tell him? Dared she not? Julie took a quick gulp of her champagne, half gasping under the influence of the bubbles. Rocco was looking at her in the most extraordinary way, with the most wonderful expression in his eyes. As though…as though his gaze was somehow caressing and reassuring her—or was that simply the effect of the champagne? If so… Recklessly Julie took another deep gulp. Now she felt positively light-headed, free of all her doubts and her inhibitions, suddenly overwhelmingly proud of her love for him.
‘The truth is…’
‘The truth is…?’ Rocco prompted.
Julie looked wildly towards the nursery door. This was one occasion on which she would actually be grateful if Josh did wake up without finishing his nap. But her nephew seemed to be more inclined to support his new father than her, because he remained soundly asleep.
‘The truth?’ Rocco repeated.
‘I love you,’ Julie told him shakily. ‘I didn’t mean to, and I certainly didn’t want to, but I do.’
The champagne glass was removed from her hand with such speed that she barely had time to blink before she was in Rocco’s arms and he was demanding against her lips, ‘Tell me that again.’
She tried to frame the words, but how could she when Rocco was licking and nibbling at her lips? He was teasing them with the stroke of his tongue, tormenting her to the point where the only sound she was capable of making was a long moan of hungry need followed by a soft sound of pleasure when Rocco answered the need and kissed her with all the passion and love she had so longed for.
* * *
Later, lying together naked in bed, their bodies sated and the air around them soft with the echo of their mutually given pledges of love for one anther, Julie traced the arrogant line of Rocco’s jaw, laughing when he took hold of her hand and pressed a fiercely possessive kiss into her palm.
‘There’s still some champagne left,’ he told her.
Julie laughed and went slightly pink. She had protested at first when he had poured some of the champagne onto her skin, kissing her and tasting her through it, but she hadn’t protested for very long.
‘If we have a daughter we are not going to call her Cristal,’ Julie warned him.
Rocco grinned, the sensuality of the way he was looking at her making her heart turn over with joy and love.
‘If we have a daughter I shall no doubt feel compelled to lock any man who offers her champagne in my father’s dungeons.’
‘I thought we might name her after your mother.’
They looked at one another.
‘You really think…just now…we…?’ Rocco asked tenderly.
Julie nodded her head. ‘Yes,’ she told him simply. ‘After the way you loved me, it just isn’t possible that we haven’t created a new life. It was so magical, Rocco, so powerful and wonderful, and I love you so very much.’
‘You tugged on my heartstrings the first time I saw you, do you know that?’
‘What? Looking like a drowned rat?’
‘A drowned rat with the heart of a lioness and the spirit of a dove. My one and only love, my heart,’ Rocco told her softly, and he took her in his arms and kissed her.