‘You say you are your mother’s son—but, oh, Salvatore, I feared I, too, would be like your mother! Feared it for myself! Feared loving you so much and you never loving me—never wanting my love, never giving me yours, only staying with me for the sake of our child. I could not bear it! I knew I’d rather live out my life alone than that!’
He seized her hands, closing the distance between them. Clasping her fingers so tightly it was as if he would fuse flesh with flesh.
‘And I knew,’ he said, and there was something in his voice she had never heard there before, something that pierced her to the core, ‘that loving you so much, as I do, I would rather have you in my life with another man’s baby than not have you in it at all.’
She gave a little cry, unbearably moved, and lifted his hand to her cheek. ‘If ever I wanted proof of your love, that declaration would be it! Oh, my darling, my dearest love—’
Tears were welling in her eyes, misting her face. He bent his face to hers, to kiss away the tears, and lowered his hand so that he could embrace her, hold her close against him.
For ever.
Then suddenly she gave a little cry, pulling back from him.
Consternation immediately filled Salvatore’s face. ‘Lana—no, don’t pull away. Please—don’t pull away from me! Not when I love you so much!’
She heard those words, so very dear to her, from this man who had once only wanted her for a year, no more than that, but who would now be hers, as she was his, for ever! Her hand had gone to the swell of her body, splaying over it. She lifted her face lifted to Salvatore’s, amazement and wonder in her eyes, joy coursing through every atom of her being after his declaration of love for her.
‘He moved! Salvatore, he moved! I felt him just now! Like a butterfly inside me!’ She gave another cry, a gasp. ‘And again! He moved again. Oh, Salvatore...’
She reached for his hand, placed it next to hers, radiant joy in her face. And not just for the baby quickening within her—but for all the joy that was pouring through her now. And for ever and ever.
She saw his expression change, saw the same look of wonder in his eyes as in hers, heard him give the same gasp of breath.
‘Si—il muovo!’
For a moment longer they just stood there, as the child they had created between them made its presence felt. Then Salvatore’s free hand cupped her face. His eyes poured into hers, telling her, without words, of his love for her. Telling her that her joy was his as well.
‘It’s a wise child that knows his own father,’ he told her, and there was a catch in his voice that turned her heart over.
She gave a cry of laughter, but there were tears in her voice as well. Laughter, and tears, and a joy that could light up the world.
For both of them.
‘And it’s an even wiser father,’ Salvatore went on, catching Lana back into his arms, ‘who knows with every atom of his being that he is in love with the woman who is the beloved mother of his most precious baby.’
He kissed her then, and in his lips and hers was all she could ever have desired and dreamt of.
He held her in the cradle of his arms as he released her. His eyes held hers, glinting gold in the noonday light.
‘I have a new business proposition to put to you, Signora Luchesi,’ he said. ‘I don’t think a year of marriage is anything like enough. So I’m revising the end date of our contract.’ His mouth skimmed hers, taking sweet possession, just to remind her, as her hands wound around his waist, of her possession of him too. ‘I am setting it for a hundred years from now. ‘That should be sufficient, I think,’ he told her, kissing the tip of her nose, and then her forehead.
She shook her head. ‘Let’s go for broke,’ she said, lifting her mouth to claim his again. ‘Let’s go for eternity.’
His arms tightened around her. ‘Eternity it is, then,’ he said. ‘Sounds good to me.’
‘And to me,’ she whispered.
Their kiss deepened, and then, with an effortless swing of his arms, Salvatore was sweeping her up.
‘This is a delightful cottage,’ he informed her, with purpose in his voice, ‘but right now there is only one room I want to find.’
She laughed, carefree in her whole being, as she would always be now. ‘Upstairs, first on the right. And you’ll be glad to know,’ she said, eyes gleaming, ‘that it’s a king-size bed.’
She was right. Salvatore was very glad.
And so, she found, to her satisfaction, delight and incandescent joy, was she, as with all their passion and desire they proved their newly declared love for each other.