‘You get greedy when you fall in love with your wife. Even forever doesn’t seem long enough. Let’s say forever plus added time in interest,’ he quipped, and reaching down he clasped her waist and lifted her, taking a seat with her across his lap. ‘I love you. I think I started falling in love with you when you were screaming at me. You probably don’t want to hear that but you were so passionate about your rights I was impressed and wildly turned on.’
‘You love me? But how? You said you were too cold and logical.’
‘You slid into my heart somehow. Don’t ask me how it happened. You kept me off balance. You fascinated me. I wanted you all to myself. It was amazing when it was just the three of us at the villa. I feel so comfortable with you. I’ve never had that before with a woman.’
‘Only because you wouldn’t give any other woman a chance.’
‘Trusting anyone that far was too difficult. My mother, whom I loved, disappeared between one day and the next,’ he reminded her. ‘My aunt was practically a stranger and my time with her was frightening and unstable. Then I experienced life with my grandparents, more change. They loved me and I loved them but as I matured, I understood that my late father had been a disappointment to them. He didn’t fit and I was determined that I would and that I would be the perfect grandson because I owed them that for their care of me.’
‘I don’t think that’s how they feel. They just love you, faults and all, the same way that I do. I’m not expecting perfect. I know you’re prone to being a workaholic and that you’re very, very stubborn but I still love you. After all, if you can put up with me being hot-tempered and stubborn, why would I criticise you for what you can’t help?’
‘You don’t but it doesn’t matter. I’m convinced that we’re meant to be…’ Tore lifted her left hand and threaded her wedding ring back onto her finger and then he withdrew a small box from a pocket to extract a second ring. ‘Engagement ring. To make us more of a conventional couple.’
Enchanted by the gesture, Violet squinted down at the glowing ruby ring on her finger. ‘I made the no-sex rule because I thought it would protect me from getting hurt.’
‘It was already too late by then. I was falling for you before we left thecastelloand our time at the villa sealed it into a done deal. I love Belle, too. I’m looking forward to us becoming a proper family and we’ll just go through the adoption process for her like normal peoplewithoutany fake breakups, lies or drama,’ Tore assured her firmly. ‘It’ll be fine. I will be a great papa and any time you get a yen for another child, you only have to mention it.’
‘Mention it?’ she whispered. ‘Are you serious?’
‘As a heart attack. When I had that crazy suspicion that you might have conceived, I was disappointed when I realised I’d got it wrong. So, evidently you have to fall in love or have a Belle in your life before you want to reproduce,’ Tore told her very seriously.
‘Gosh, I love you!’ Violet exclaimed, stretching up to steal a kiss. Her mouth was thoroughly ravished by his hungry urgency. ‘So what now?’
‘We go home, have dinner, see Belle and go to bed. Tomorrow we sort out that adoption application and get it updated to reflect our current circumstances,’ he told her, settling her upright between his spread thighs and smoothing her hair with tender, possessive fingers. ‘And then the week after next—you having found and purchased a suitable ball gown—we will return to the villa to host the Summer Ball.’
‘You have it all planned.’
‘Itriedto plan everything. But I didn’t plan to fall in love with you. I didn’t plan to be married and/or to want to stay married at the age of twenty-nine. I expected to marry in my forties but I couldn’t possibly pass you up and hope to find you again at a later date,’ Tore informed her cheerfully. ‘And now we can get a dog for Belle. Everything is falling beautifully into place.’
‘Yes, it is… I’m taking my flowers back with me,’ she said sunnily, plucking them back out of the vase and stuffing the stems into a plastic bag. ‘Flowers and a ring. You’re getting romantic, Tore. Who would ever have dreamt?’
And then they went home and made love far into the night, both of them bolstered by a buoyant sense of happiness and the glory of having found each other.
Epilogue
Five years later
Violet was daydreamingas she sat on the loggia at the villa. Most of her happiest memories were related to their Tuscan home. A year after their wedding, they had enjoyed a blessings ceremony staged in the villa chapel. She had worn the wedding dress of her dreams, pearl roses on her shoes and silk flowing round her. She had walked to the altar with her mother, Lucia, Tabitha acting as her maid of honour. It had been a glorious day and it had more than made up for the deficiencies of that first wedding of strangers, united only in misunderstanding.
Her mother’s illness was currently in remission. The new drug had worked. Lucia had put on a little weight and freed of the strain of her disease, she had recovered her spirits. Soon after her return home to the UK, Violet’s grandfather, Tomaso, had passed away during heart surgery. Lucia had been stunned to discover that in spite of all the years of estrangement, her father had not changed his will. She had duly inherited her childhood home and her father’s entire estate. Now she lived there comfortably with her best friend and was within easy reach of London, enabling her to freely meet up with her daughters and her grandchildren for days out.
The bakery had turned into a small chain of four scattered across London, and Violet only baked at home for her family now. Tore had persuaded her to hire more people and expand once he realised how successful the business was. She loved running the bakeries but she did not miss those dawn starts. In fact, now that they spent most of their time in Italy and the children went to school there, she was less and less a hands-on boss but she was grateful to have the ability to spend more time with the children while they were still young.
‘Mama…’a firm little voice said.
Violet looked up to see her daughter, Belle, coming up the steps towards her, a very pretty slight girl of almost six years old, who occasionally talked like a judgemental little old lady. ‘Sofia got stuck up a tree…’ she complained. ‘You can’t take her anywhere without her getting in trouble.’
Violet flew up out of her seat immediately. ‘Where is she? In the woods?’
‘Papa got her down and he hugged her because she was crying and then her and Enzo had a stupid fight. He wanted to be the one who climbed that tree and she beat him to it.’
‘Your father’s back early?’ Smiling, her concern evaporating, Violet wandered to the top of the steps to watch out for her husband because he had been out of the country for a week on business.
Their twins, Sofia and Enzo, were four now. That pregnancy had been tough for Violet and it had taken a while for her to consider a second pregnancy. A lively team, the twins ran wild at the villa. Belle had never run wild in spite of encouragement. Belle liked everything just so and she was very feminine, preferring dresses to shorts or jeans. She hated to get dirty and had never climbed a tree in her life. She was a terrific reader, though, and she adored animals.
Sofia, in comparison, was a real little tomboy, who rarely sat still and who was more likely to get into mischief than her brother. Enzo was Tore to the life, a rule follower, very clever and thoughtful and always careful. Enzo, however, had inherited his father’s silver gilt hair, which had delighted his mother.
All their kids adored Aldo and Matilde, who only lived half an hour away from them and were regular visitors. In Italy they enjoyed a large gregarious family circle and they always spent July at thecastellowhere the children could play with their cousins and enjoy the beach. The children spoke Italian like natives while Violet was still stumbling a little in conversations in spite of the lessons she’d had.
