Jo’s bright smile illuminated her flushed features. ‘Truly?’
‘Yes. I am truly hooked on you,’ Gianni told her without hesitation.
‘I like the sound of that.’ Jo slid off her wrap and lay down on the bed.
‘Sadly, I only realised what was amiss with me this morning. I’d just been ignoring my feelings. I’ve always done that and then those feelings just knocked me flat when I looked at you,’ Gianni confessed ruefully. ‘I don’t know when I started loving you. I only know it happened and I can’t picture my life without you now. You crept up on me. It started with desire and ended with me wanting to keep you for life. For ever and ever and all that jazz...’
‘Done,’ Jo murmured. ‘It’s a new deal. You don’t ever get to look at another woman again. You only get to look at me. You only get to love me. And it’ll be the exact same for me because I’m very possessive of you and I will not share you with anyone except our children. And this is where I have news to share with you.’
‘You love me too?’ Gianni cast his jacket and tie aside and came up on the bed to join her, ignoring the reference to her news. ‘How did that happen when I put my feet in it every chance I got?’
‘Well, it started with a crush when you were a teenager.’
‘Are you serious?’ Raw amusement danced in Gianni’s dark eyes.
‘Do you remember sending me a signed photo of you playing polo?’
He nodded slowly.
‘I stuck it on the inside of the door on my school locker and never shared it with anyone, which was really mean of me because you had a lot of admirers when I was in sixth form,’ Jo confided.
‘I was such a flirt,’ Gianni admitted.
Jo nodded agreement. ‘But you’ll practise not being flirtatious now that you’re married,’ she pointed out.
‘So there will be rules. I expected that,’ Gianni volunteered with a grin, gazing down at her with a new tenderness in his gaze.‘Madonna mia...I love you so much. I couldn’t wait to get here tonight,cara.’
‘That five-year clause in our agreement. What was that all about?’ Jo asked. ‘Just you wanting to get value for money?’
‘No, even at the beginning I wanted to be sure that I kept you that long. A year down the road, otherwise, you could have decided to ditch me,’ Gianni pointed out.
Her smooth brow furrowed as she struggled to accept that explanation. ‘I was never going to ditch you...well, not unless you did something dreadful like murdering someone!’ she extended. ‘And even then, it would depend on the circumstances... Gosh, I’ve got it bad for you.’
‘I feel so lucky.’ Gianni had a huge smile on his lean dark features and a rare look of relaxation.
‘That news I mentioned a few minutes ago,’ Jo said abruptly. ‘I’m pregnant.’
‘Pregnant?’Gianni sat up to exclaim in shock.
‘I hate to be the one to be telling you this,’ Jo teased in a whisper, ‘but what we’ve been doing tends to lead to conception.’
‘I know that!’ Gianni laughed, his eyes glinting with pleasure, and then he stretched out a hand to rest his fingers gently across her stomach. ‘You feel the same.’
‘You’ll have to wait a while for anything to show.’
‘It’s magical. Everything I want all at once. A wife, a family, a child. You’re amazing,’ Gianni told her with fierce conviction. ‘You love me and you’re pregnant.’
‘A child is likely to mean a lot of changes in our lives,’ she warned.
‘I’m good with change now,’ Gianni declared.
Jo began to unbutton his shirt, revealing his glorious muscular chest inch by inch. She felt so happy that she was vaguely surprised that she wasn’t floating.
‘Do you think you’ll stay in love?’ she heard herself ask and almost winced at that need for reassurance grabbing her.
‘I do. I’m a lot older and wiser than I was the first time around. But I was hurt after my mother passed and then Fliss...as well,’ he framed wryly. ‘I honestly believed that I could protect myself from falling in love again but then the right woman appears, the one who keeps on catching your eye and surprising you, and, all of a sudden, falling in love is the most wonderful thing in the world.’
‘Fliss couldn’t have been similar to Fiona,’ Jo guessed.