A Savage Betrayal

‘I thought you didn’t mean it,’ he confessed.

‘You want it written in blood and framed?’

‘How can you love me after everything I’ve done?’ he breathed raggedly. ‘I thought Clayton——’

‘Will you please shut up about Steve?’ Mina interrupted in despair. ‘I never loved Steve. I didn’t even fancy him. That was why we broke up.’

Cesare moved closer. ‘He’s a very handsome man…if you go for the local yokel type in wellies,’ he could not resist extending, and she tried not to smile. ‘You didn’t fancy him? I thought that I had come between the two of you. That’s why I asked you to marry me, why I came back the same day for your answer because I couldn’t stand the suspense! Then you said yes, but only for Susie,’ he recalled, his English losing its clarity with stress.

‘Isn’t that the same excuse you employed to propose?’

‘I thought I was only getting you because I was rich.’

‘Nope…you got me because I loved you.’

He closed his arms round her so tightly and so suddenly that she feared for her ribcage. ‘I love you too,’ he said with fierce unsteadiness and an audible overload of relief. ‘I couldn’t bear to lose you again.’

‘I’m not going anywhere.’ Mina framed his hard cheekbones with her hands and stared up at him with possessive eyes, a wild, glorious happiness flooding through her in waves.

‘You picked a bedroom three doors away…’

‘Next to Susie in case she wakes up in the night…she doesn’t know this house. I’ll have to leave the door ajar and the light on out on the landing.’

‘What does she do when she wakes up?’

‘Climbs into bed with me. Welcome to the joys of parenthood.’ Mina’s voice shook at his look of consternation. ‘You have a lot to learn. Susie generally wakes up at dawn. She bounces onto my bed and talks nonstop. If you look like you’re not listening, she gets on top of you and tickles you.’

‘We need a nanny,’ Cesare decided.

‘My, but you’re changing your tune…’

Cesare looked down at her with hungry golden eyes that grabbed at her heart. He kissed her with soulshattering tenderness and her knees gave way. He trembled against her and held her close for long, timeless minutes in silence. ‘Te amo…te amo,’ he whispered then with raw emotion and kissed her again, sending all her senses flying off on a sensual voyage of rediscovery.

A long while later, Mina shifted languorously in his arms and grinned. ‘I think Freddy needs a mate——’

‘A what?’

‘We could call her Florence, set them side by side for company…in a dark corner somewhere,’ Mina proffered.

‘They might breed…’ Abruptly, Cesare surged upright and stared down at her in horror.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I didn’t take any precautions this afternoon.’

‘So?’ Mina was unconcerned.

‘Dio…what happens if you’re——?’

‘You stay in the waiting-room,’ she told him gently. ‘You’d be safer there.’

‘I will be with you,’ he informed her loftily.

And he was, a little shaky on his feet but his nerves of steel carrying him through. Mina was very relieved when their son arrived quickly and naturally. Cesare was even more relieved. And Freddy Fish? Freddy got an entire family to keep him company in his not so dark corner…