And hand in hand, he did.
EPILOGUE
‘PAPA!’
Gianni smiled at the ecstatic screech that came from a blur of sturdy legs and chubby arms and dark red hair as his two-year-old son launched himself into his outstretched arms and gave him a loud lip-smacking kiss.
‘Ciao, piccolino, come stai?’
Piero, named after Gianni’s grandfather, proceeded to fill him in on everything in a babble of English and Italian and other incomprehensible words, his dark eyes wide with the urgency to tell his beloved papa everything.
Gianni smiled a greeting at the staff in the créche that had been installed in the ground floor area of his office building in Rome, and he walked out with Piero held high in his arms.
He’d only been in Dublin for the day but even that felt like too long away from his family.
He got into his private lift and said when he could get a word in edgeways, ‘Let’s find Mamma, hmm?’
Piero clapped his hands together. ‘Mamma e bambino!’
‘Sì.’ Gianni kissed his son again, his heart swelling with love and contentment to be back near his family. His mother had finally agreed to sell the family home and now she divided her time between the apartment in Rome and the villa in Umbria and had become a new woman, unburdened by the past, with a new family to take care of. She and Keelin were firm allies and friends.
Gianni and Piero got out on the level that housed his and Keelin’s offices. People were packing up to leave for the end of the day and everyone cooed predictably as soon as they saw Piero, who lapped up the attention with a grin, but then he wriggled out of Gianni’s arms so that he could go and play with one of his favourite security guards.
Gianni said warningly as Piero climbed up onto the man’s lap and dug something out of a pocket, ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Alfredo. If he breaks your phone again, on your head be it!’
Gianni was on his fifth phone in the space of as many months. Alfredo didn’t look remotely concerned though as chubby, sticky hands commandeered his phone with dextrous ease.
Gianni just shook his head ruefully and made his way to his wife’s office which was beside his own, his heart rate increasing as it always did just before he saw her. Her assistant, who had been the wedding planner, was leaving and said with a smile, ‘The conference call is just about finished—go on in.’
He almost scowled at the implication that anyone could keep him out.
He went into the room silently and closed the door, resting back against it with arms folded, and drank in the sight of Keelin pacing back and forth, gesticulating passionately. His blood surged and his hungry gaze devoured her, from the top of her head where her hair was pulled back into a loose knot, over the ripe curves of her breasts and eight-months-pregnant belly, evident in the stretchy dress, and down to her bare legs and feet.
She saw him and faltered, her eyes widening, cheeks going a little pink. Her words became a bit breathier. ‘Okay, guys, I think that’s it for now. I’ll have Allessandra send you the results from the survey on Monday.’
There was a chorus of goodbyes from the phone on the desk and then she turned to face her husband with a slow sexy smile, hands resting over her belly.
Gianni yanked his tie off as he prowled towards her, everything in him reacting with a primal beat to the sight of her and her big belly. Filled with his seed, their child. A girl. Who Gianni was already head over heels in love with.
He got to Keelin and pulled her close, growling softly, ‘You shouldn’t be working so hard.’
She lifted her arms to wind them possessively around his neck and groaned softly when his hands dropped down her back and caressed her buttocks. She said with mock petulance, ‘I’m hardly working too hard—you’re supervising my every move and only allowing me to work four hours a day, and what else do you expect me to do in Rome while we wait for the baby? Shop?’
Gianni pulled back and looked at her with a wry gleam in his eye. ‘And to think that once upon a time I thought that’s all you would ever do.’
Keelin smiled cheekily. ‘Ah, but I got you good, Giancarlo Delucca.’
He agreed happily. ‘You certainly did.’
She frowned, then asked, ‘Where’s Piero?’
Gianni indicated with his head. ‘Outside with Alfredo.’
She winced. ‘I’d better get Allessandra to order a new phone on Monday.’
Gianni smiled and manoeuvered his wife over towards the sofa, sitting down and pulling her with him so she sat across his lap. She laughed. ‘I’ll crush you!’
But he was too busy pulling her mouth down to his and sealing their reunion with a passionate kiss. He figured that they had about a minute before a ball of electric energy came looking for them and Gianni didn’t intend wasting a second of that time.