‘Aren’t you going to look?’ His voice bordered on the impatient and he stretched out a lean, bronzed hand and flipped the box open. ‘Do you like it?’
He sounded nervous and she’d never known Alessandro to be nervous of anything before. He never questioned himself but tackled life with an enviable degree of self-confidence. But today that confidence appeared to be lacking.
She glanced down at the box in her hand and felt the floor shift. Nestled in a bed of rich, deep blue silk lay a huge, sparkling diamond. It twinkled and sparkled under the kitchen lights and she stared at it stupidly.
Finally she found her voice. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s the ring I should have given you twelve years ago,’ Alessandro said gruffly. ‘But I’m giving it to you now. If you’ll wear it.’
‘But—’
‘I’m not great at speeches, so let me just say what I have to say.’ He jabbed long fingers through his glossy hair and took a deep breath. ‘I fell in love with you the day I saw you. Impossible, I know, but that’s how it was. You were so beautiful, so warm and kind and yet so fiery and passionate. I’d never met a woman like you before and after I saw you I never looked again. And I’ve never stopped loving you. And if you love someone you’re supposed to be able to set them free—let them go. I told myself that I’d let you go if that was what you wanted—’
‘Alessandro—’
‘I promised not to order or command so I can’t force you to stay,’ Alessandro said hoarsely, ‘but I’m willing to beg. Will you stay, Christy? Will you stay if I beg?’
Beg?
She stared at him. None of it made sense. ‘But you don’t love me—’
‘How can you say that?’ He stared at her a look of stunned incredulity in his dark eyes. ‘When have I ever led you to believe that I don’t love you?’
She chewed her lip. ‘Loads of reasons,’ she said finally. ‘You didn’t follow me to London, you put me in the spare room and we’ve been lying in the same bed and you haven’t made love to me—’
‘Because when I did make love to you,’ he exploded, the natural volatility of his Mediterranean temperament bubbling to the surface, ‘you slapped me!’
‘It was sex.’
‘It was love, querida,’ he said hoarsely, and she shook her head slowly.
‘You never once said you loved me.’
‘I did.’
‘No,’ she said patiently. ‘You didn’t.’
‘So…’ He spread his hands in a supremely Latin gesture. ‘I had other things on my mind at the time, like the fact that you looked so incredibly sexy and we hadn’t been together for weeks and—’ He broke off and gave an apologetic smile. ‘And I am a man and verbal communication isn’t my forte. I’m working on it.’
‘I thought you’d stopped loving me.’
He stared at her in shocked silence. ‘I’ve never stopped loving you.’
Hope flared and she squashed it down ruthlessly. ‘You’ve never stopped loving me?’
‘Of course not. I know I’m not perfect.’ He frowned slightly as he said the words, as if admitting such a fact was difficult, ‘and I realise that I’ve done many things wrong. Seeing you in A and E and in the mountain rescue team made me realise how many skills you have that you’re not using. You have made so many sacrifices for the family.’
‘They weren’t sacrifices,’ Christy murmured, but he shook his head.
‘You made this family work. You made it possible for me to live the life I wanted to lead. And I neglected you as a woman. I can see that now.’
She sucked in a breath. ‘Alessandro—’
‘You have to let me finish,’ he breathed, taking the box and removing the ring. ‘Over the past two weeks I have tried so hard not to be controlling and bossy and I promise to work on that but even so, I can’t let you leave again. I know I drive you crazy but you love me, Christy. Over the last two weeks I’ve become more and more sure about that.’
She swallowed hard. ‘Of course I love you. And I didn’t mean to leave—at least, not in the way that you mean. You weren’t listening to me and I thought it was the only way to get through to you. I thought you’d come after me—’
‘You didn’t mean to leave? What do you mean, you didn’t mean to leave?’