Flora's Defiance

‘I did finally have further enquiries made,’ Angelo confided with gravity. ‘It may be a consolation for you to learn that eighteen months after your departure from that company where you worked, Marvin Henshall was sacked for gross misconduct. There were fresh allegations of sexual harassment laid against him by a new employee.’

Flora was disgusted to hear that her former boss had found yet another victim but relieved that allegations against him had finally been made to stick and that he had paid the price for his behaviour. ‘I’m glad that no other woman will have to go through what I went through again,’ she murmured with heartfelt sincerity.

‘I’m sorry that you had to suffer that way and that I took so long to admit what I believed I knew about you. You were right,’ Angelo declared, his lean, strong face serious as he made the admission. ‘It was unfair of me not to give you the chance to speak up in your own defence. My only excuse is that our relationship was already tense and I was afraid to put it under more strain.’

‘You mean, I was pregnant,’ Flora translated heavily.

‘That only influenced me after I realised you were pregnant and unwell,’ Angelo countered levelly. ‘Prior to that point my only interest was in you and, right from the start, I didn’t want to accept that our stolen afternoon on the houseboat was the most we would ever share.’

Her lashes lifted, her interest ensnared by that declaration, and she studied him with questioning cool. ‘You wanted more?’

’Dios mio! Didn’t I immediately ask you to spend the weekend with me here? Of course I wanted more. I lived my whole life through and I never once felt as alive as I did with you on that boat!’ Angelo delivered in an undertone raw with the strength of his conviction. ‘It was different; together we were different, even when we were arguing, and I’d never experienced a connection like that with a w

oman before.’

For the first time, Flora appreciated that she might have allowed the very fact that she was pregnant to get in the way of a closer understanding between them. In fact she too had been guilty of making far-reaching assumptions. ‘I thought you were only interested because I fell pregnant.’

‘How could I fake being interested and why would I do that anyway?’ Angelo dealt her a bewildered look as Skipper dropped his ball at his feet.

‘Because you felt it was the right thing to do when I was carrying your children.’

‘I would never have invited you to share my life if I hadn’t wanted you for yourself. To do otherwise would have involved us both in a relationship that could only have come to a painful conclusion.’

Pushing her hands down on the arms of the lounger, Flora got up and slid her feet back into her shoes to walk away a few steps. She had found it hard to believe that he truly wanted her and her pride had not allowed her to accept support from a man only offering it out of a sense of duty.

‘When I first fell pregnant I wouldn’t let you help me. I honestly thought that you only wanted to help because you felt you had to,’ Flora told him in a troubled admission.

‘I needed and wanted to help you but you made it so difficult. Sometimes it annoys me that you’re so proud and so determined to be independent,’ Angelo confided levelly.

‘I’m a freeloader who’s been living off you for months! ‘ Flora proclaimed with spirit. ‘Where’s the independence in that?’

‘You’re no freeloader. You may live in my home but when have you ever even gone shopping at my expense?’ Angelo prompted in frank exasperation as Skipper nudged his shoe with the ball. ‘You won’t spend my money—what am I going to do with you? ‘

Flora studied him warily from below her feathery lashes. ‘Why have you asked me to marry you, Angelo? ‘

His jaw line squared. ‘Believe me when I say that it is for all the right reasons.’

‘Because we’re going to have four children between us in another few weeks?’ Flora shot at him.

Angelo laughed out loud, his irreverent grin chasing the serious aspect from his bronzed features. ‘No, oddly enough that hasn’t once entered my thoughts.’

Her brow pleated because she was baffled by that claim. ‘It. hasn’t?’

‘Should I be ashamed to admit that the only two people in my thoughts are you and I?’

‘No, not ashamed, but you’re still not answering my question.’

Angelo bent down and lifted Skipper’s ball to throw it. The little terrier went racing madly across the lawn and bounced across a box-edged border. Angelo studied Flora with narrowed blue eyes and a rueful expression that tugged at her heartstrings. ‘I’m asking you to marry me today because I panicked when you went off to meet Peter. I was planning to wait until after our children were born before I proposed—’

‘You panicked about Peter?’ Flora cut in blankly. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘The obvious. I was afraid that you still had feelings for your former fiancé and I didn’t want you meeting up with him again.’ Angelo compressed his handsome mouth. ‘I was jealous. Okay?’

‘Of … Peter?’ Flora gasped incredulously, barely able to compute the concept that he could be jealous when she was so heavily pregnant. ‘You were jealous of Peter … even with me looking as I do now?’

‘You still light my fire, tesora mia,’ Angelo intoned huskily, reaching for her hands and tugging her towards him. ‘Why not his?’

‘Because, for one thing.’ Flora hesitated before continuing ‘Peter and I never managed to light a fire in the first place and that was why we broke up. Are you serious? You still find me attractive looking like this?’