How lucky was she? She’d have her smart, gorgeous husband and three dogs under the same roof as her.
Hurrying into Marcelo’s room to share the good news, she found him fastening his ball and chain cufflinks. Inordinately pleased at this, she beamed before explaining everything.
‘I’m getting my babies back!’ she finished.
He raised an arched brow. ‘Your babies?’
She hugged herself. ‘That’s how I think of them. I’ve known since I was a teenager that I won’t have babies of my own, so my dogs take that baby space in my heart... Why are you looking at me like that?’ There was the strangest expression on his face but she couldn’t quite decipher it. ‘Do you think I’m mad or something? I mean, it’s fine if you do, but you already know I’m bats about my—’
‘You’re not mad, bella,’ he interrupted softly. ‘I was just thinking you will make a wonderful mother and wondering why you’ve never wanted any of your own.’
‘Oh. Well, it’s not that I don’t want them but rather... Sorry, do you really think I’d be a good mum?’
He smiled but there was still a lingering of that strangeness. ‘You’d be loving and protective. What more would a child need?’
‘A father? I mean, that’s why I never thought I’d have them. You need sperm to make a baby and as I never thought I’d have sex and the thought of using a turkey baster doesn’t appeal...’ Her words tailed off at the starkness of Marcelo’s stare.
She swallowed, suddenly uncertain and suddenly a lot breathless. ‘What?’ she whispered.
‘We could have children.’
Her hands flew to her chest. The thuds of her heart smashed against them. ‘What?’
‘You and me. You want children. I want children. If you agree to marry me for real then why not?’
In the week since she’d asked for time to think about his proposal, he hadn’t mentioned it again. But it hung between them.
Clara was in a genuine flux about it. Her feelings for Marcelo ran deep but were those feelings only because of the sex? How was a girl supposed to know? Her life had been happy since she’d been expelled from that horrible school and she’d left home. She and her pooches all lived for the moment taking each day as it came.
She couldn’t compare that happiness to what she had with Marcelo because it was so different.
Her happiness with Marcelo was off the charts but she couldn’t help the whispers in the back of her mind that these feelings shouldn’t be trusted.
‘Do you really want to have children with me?’
His gorgeous face was steadfast. ‘There is no one else on this earth I would rather have children with.’
Thuds battered hard against her chest.
She could be a mum, she thought dazedly.
She could have children with him.
An image flashed in her mind. A fast forward of her life. Her and Marcelo with a small boy and girl, running through the castle vineyard, Samson, Delilah and Bob racing with them. Beaming smiles on the humans’ faces. Wagging tails from the animals. Kisses. Hugs. Piggybacks.
Could that really be hers?
Could it?
Looming larger than life in the whole perfect picture was Marcelo. The man who’d brought the woman out of her.
He’d saved her life. That alone was enough for her to hold the deepest of affection for him. Marcelo would always have a piece of her heart and the whole of her gratitude.
She wanted to trust him with the rest of her heart, she realised as emotion swelled from deep inside her.
She wanted to trust the whole of herself to him.
Reaching for his hand, she threaded her fingers through his and stared into his piercing ice-blue eyes. His chest was barely moving. He was holding his breath, she realised.