‘We shall make right all that was wrong,’ he said. ‘It will be a second chance for us. And I promise, Ariana of my heart, with all my being, that I will never, ever bring hurt to you again—only all the love in my heart, for ever.’
She smiled at him mistily, tears brimming yet again. Her heart was overflowing with all that he had said. With all the wrongs that had been made right. It sang inside her, a paean to him.
‘I ask only one promise of you,’ she said. ‘That you will never leave me.’
‘Never,’ he agreed.
He turned his head, looking about him. His gaze swept around from the beach, where the sea was pooling with the setting sun, turning to bronze, and the white sand was darkening to gold, back to the little wooden cottage. Dusk was gathering towards coming night.
‘Could we start my never leaving you right now?’ he asked, and there was something different in his voice which made her catch her breath, quickened the pulse at her throat.
She felt the wash of his eyes over her, a heat beating up in her as he brushed his mouth against hers and lifted her hand in his.
She straightened, getting to her feet, keeping hold of his hand as he got to his feet too, their eyes never leaving each other, her hand tightening in his.
‘Oh, Luca, man of my heart—yes...yes!’
His arms came instantly around her, folding her to him, and it was bliss, oh, such bliss, to be in his arms again. Bliss to lift her face to his and be kissed by him. Softly, tenderly, sweetly... And then with more than tenderness. So much more...
She led him indoors. Into the rest of her life. And his.
‘I don’t want to hurt you...’ Ariana’s voice was anxious.
‘You can never hurt me. Not now that I know I am yours, and that you have forgiven me for what I did to you.’
Luca’s voice in the dusk, in the dimness of the bedroom, as he lay beside her on the bed, was husky.
‘But it could be that you make the moves,’ he went on, smoothing the waterfall of her hair from her brow as she lifted her mouth from his, and she could hear the wry and rueful note in his low voice.
‘Every one,’ she promised him, her voice warm, and so, so loving.
And so she did make the moves, with gentle hands and fingertips that explored in glory the wonder of his body, that smoothed with a little cry of grief for the scars scored into his stricken legs. But he would not let her weep again for him. He would only let her move her body over his, carefully, slowly, to ensure that all she brought to him was pleasure and not pain.
Slowly, sensually, as the night darkened around them, she made love to him, took his body into hers. Bestowed herself upon him. Wound her arms around him, felt his arms around her, holding her close, so close...
The moment when they came together, with a soft, breaking cry from her, a low, helpless groan from him, their bodies were meshed and fused and melded together, so that parting was impossible. For they were made one flesh. One body. One being. One heart beating...
She wept again, knowing how long and terrible a journey it had been to this moment, knowing all that it had cost them both. Including the little life they had created, so pitifully lost to them...
Surely another little life would come? She hoped so with all her being, even as Luca, careless of his scars, his still wasted muscles, his bones knitted together with steel and the patient skill of surgeons, swept his body over hers so that it sheltered her, stroking her hair, cradling her to him, murmuring to her of all that was and always would be.
One love between them.
For all time.
EPILOGUE
CAREFULLY,ARIANALOWEREDherself into the padded chair on the semi-circular terrace outside the villa’s drawing room. Beyond the gardens sunlight glittered on the lake’s dark surface.
It was good to be out of the maternity hospital.
Good to be home again.
Home.
Though Luca still had his ferociously modernistic apartment in Milan, it was the lakeside villa that was home—and it was glorious. Spring was ripening into summer, and the gardens were lush with flowers and greenery. She felt emotion pluck at her. Had she really once thought she would never live here? That it was nothing to do with her?
Her eyes went to Luca, stepping through the open French windows, a precious bundle in his arms. The two people she loved most in all the world. Her heart turned over, and she felt love and happiness and thankfulness drenching through her.