Italian Doctor, Sleigh-Bell Bride (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 6)

Stefano exhaled slowly and squatted down next to the little boy. ‘Did she tell you that?’

‘Yes. She said it the morning the tickets arrived in the post.’ Max shrugged. ‘She sort of looked at them in a funny way, said that she’d never won anything in her life before, and then put them back in the envelope. Then she said something like “I’m not Cinderella and I’m not going to a ball.” But she hasn’t given them away. They’re in her handbag. I saw them when she gave me my pocket money.’

Stefano digested that information and then straightened, ‘I don’t know about you, Max,’ he said idly, ‘but it seems a terrible waste not to use those tickets.’

‘She doesn’t want to go because she thinks her bottom is too big and she doesn’t have anything to wear. Girls really care about things like that,’ Max said sagely and Stefano smiled.

‘Then we’d better fix that, hadn’t we? Are you any good at keeping secrets?’

* * *

Hearing laughter and Max’s excited chatter, Liv emerged from the bathroom self-consciously, wrapped in a large soft robe that Stefano had given her.

‘Mum, Mum come and see this tree!’ Max was almost exploding with excitement and he darted across Stefano’s apartment as if it had been his home all his life. ‘We’re going to decorate it together.’

‘You bought decorations?’ Eyeing the size of the tree and then the number of parcels and bags that now littered the floor of the room, Liv felt a flutter of panic.

Max immediately hurled himself across the room and hugged her. ‘You’re not to worry. Stefano needed a tree anyway and he needed decorations.’ He lowered his voice. ‘He didn’t have any. Can you believe that?’

Liv glanced towards Stefano and he gave a wicked little smile.

‘Nice bath?’

Suddenly conscious that she was naked under the robe, she blushed. ‘Lovely. Thank you.’

‘I bought you some clothes. Just some basic stuff to tide you over until you can go shopping yourself.’ He handed her several bags, as if it were nothing. ‘I hope they fit.’

Liv’s stomach lurched as she stared at the label on the bags. ‘You didn’t—’

‘You can’t spend the next few weeks dressed in a bathrobe.’ Stefano’s eyes gleamed dangerously and then he turned back to Max and took the box of lights from him. ‘Where do you want these?’

How could she argue when she needed something to wear? Resolving to find some way of paying him back, Liv picked up the bags. ‘Thank you.’

She retreated to the beautiful bedroom and delved into the bags. Jeans? Her heart sank and she dropped them onto the bed. Why did it have to be jeans? This was going to be so unbelievably embarrassing. She could never find jeans to fit so there was no way he was going to have succeeded. The thought of confessing that she was actually three sizes larger than his estimate, made her shrink with embarrassment.

Postponing the moment when she had to try and pull them over her thighs, she delved into the bag again and hot colour flooded into her cheeks as she pulled out the pretty silk and lace bra. This was getting worse by the minute. How could she wear that? She needed something far more robust. Stefano had never seen her in anything that wasn’t baggy, so obviously he wasn’t going to have a clue what size—

Her thoughts tangled as she looked at the label. The bra was exactly the right size and she dropped it as if it were scalding hot.

How had he known what size to buy?

Horribly self-conscious, she turned and stared at the closed door, half expecting him to be watching her with that sexy smile on his face.

She couldn’t even tell herself that it was because he was very, very experienced with women, because she didn’t think for a moment that he would have had any experience with women of her size.

Pulling on the silk panties, she was momentarily sidetracked by the fact they felt so decadently luxurious against her skin. Then she tried the bra and was amazed to find that it not only felt secure, it looked fabulous.

He had excellent taste in underwear, she thought weakly, reaching for the jeans.

Braced for humiliation she pulled them up, but instead of becoming stuck on her thighs as she’d expected, they slid over her legs, moulded to her bottom and fastened easily.

Unable to believe he’d bought her a perfect pair of jeans when she’d never succeeded in doing that, Liv glanced at the label and then wished she hadn’t because she knew instantly that they’d cost him a fortune.

She knew she ought to tell him to take them back. But then she glanced at herself in the mirror and they looked so impossibly good that she almost giggled with delight.

Her legs looked long and slender, her bottom curvy and—

Eyeing her cleavage, she sighed.