They couldn’t kiss, given his swollen mouth, and so she just held on to his shoulders and moved on him at whim and then bent her head and bit him on the shoulder and wished, how she wished, she’d seen it in Dubai.
His fingers now dug into her buttocks and he said words that were going to really hurt her later, because he told her that he loved her.
‘And I want to be with you for ever,’ Matteo said.
He was a liar, Abby knew. He would say anything to win, and of course he did, as he pu
lled her down harder and faster. She was coming, and as he came he told her he loved her again.
‘You don’t play fair,’ Abby said, her head on his shoulder, feeling the last flickers of them, and then she pulled back and looked at the most complex man she could meet.
‘Can I show you something, Abby?’ Matteo said in his lovely, normal voice.
‘Yes.’
‘You have to get off,’ he said and, as she did, he added, ‘While you’re up...’
He made her, dripping wet, get out of the bath and into his jacket.
‘I was going to show you this before you so rudely interrupted me,’ Matteo said as she took out a small wooden box that was different, yet somehow the same, as the one she knew.
‘What this?’ Abby asked, opening the catch, and what she saw had her body tingle with goose bumps.
‘What does it look like?’
‘My necklace,’ Abby said. ‘Except it’s a ring.’
It was the most beautiful emerald that she had ever seen, and the setting was the same as the necklace that they had fought over.
The necklace that had brought them together, even if it had torn them apart for a while.
‘You had this made for me.’
‘No,’ Matteo said. ‘I was walking past a shop... Yes.’ He stopped teasing her. ‘I had it made for you when I got back from Monte Carlo. I was going to tell you about the necklace and your father, tonight, in fact, and then I was going to give you this...’
How badly she had judged him.
She went to slip it on to her middle finger but it was too small.
‘It’s not a dress ring, Abby...’ Matteo said and there was no tease in his voice. ‘It’s an engagement ring.’ All joking was aside. He was as nervous as he’d expected to be, not because of what he was asking her—Matteo knew what he wanted. He was nervous that his past, that his father, that the doubts his own grandfather had about him, that he had had about himself, might have crept into her.
‘You want to marry me?’ She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
‘More than want to marry you,’ Matteo said. ‘I have to have you in my life. I was going to ask you tonight.’
‘I thought it was just dinner.’
‘Just dinner?’ Matteo checked. ‘Or did you want sex too?’ he said and Abby smiled as he pulled her back into the bath.
‘I wanted sex too,’ Abby said.
‘And?’ Matteo pushed.
‘Some more time,’ Abby said but then she looked at Matteo and days, weeks or months could never have been enough. ‘I hoped for more but I never dreamt of this.’
‘Dream bigger, then,’ Matteo said. ‘And when you can’t, then I’ll do it for you.’
He always had.