The Mistress Wife

‘A Saracino to the backbone…he can’t stand to be ignored,’ Lucca commented in a tone of rueful recognition as he backed off a step and scooped Marco up into his arms. ‘But he’s got a lousy sense of timing.’

Vivien felt shell-shocked by the separation imposed on them by her son’s interruption. An instant later, she was hot-cheeked with shame at the abandoned way she had responded to Lucca. Writhing with embarrassment, she did her utmost to avoid Lucca’s keen gaze. He had just kissed her and she had gone up in a shower of sparks like a firework. He had to think she was sex-starved. Or desperate. Or very keen. As she had been saying the love word just two short days ago, she reckoned that the only way to behave around Lucca was to be ultra casual and friendly. For all he knew these days she went around telling every bloke she met that she loved him. Inwardly she cringed. How had she been so naïve? He had once told her that he was programmed to take advantage of naïve people and it had sounded like a warning.

‘Bath time,’ she announced breezily and marched out to the hall and up the stairs, leaving Lucca to follow.

He hovered like a third wheel while she ran the water and fetched pyjamas for Marco. ‘Bathing a child is such an ordinary event,’ he remarked. ‘But I must confess that it feels strange to be here with you both.’

‘Try doing it seven nights a week and I guarantee you’ll get over the strangeness,’ Vivien told him with a rueful laugh.

‘How often can I expect to be made welcome in the space of a week?’

Smooth brow furrowing, Vivien glanced up and was hurt by the sardonic cast of his lean, darkly handsome features. ‘Every night of the week if you like. I’m not going to keep you and Marco apart…I know you feel that you’ve missed a lot with him and I want to make up for that.’

‘You’re being very generous.’ Lucca wondered if it was a clever ploy meant to persuade him to again consider reinstating their marriage.

‘When I was awkward about arrangements before, it wasn’t part of a deliberate policy. I swear it wasn’t…I just found it very, very hard to let go of Marco even for a few hours,’ Vivien confessed in a rush. ‘But I didn’t appreciate what I was doing to you or see how unfair I was being until you made me think about it this week.’

‘What do I have to do or not do in return for this new way forward to continue?’

‘Nothing…nothing!’ she emphasised, hurt by the cynical look of suspicion in his steady scrutiny.

His wariness subsiding, Lucca dropped down into an athletic crouch to help her keep Marco still for long enough to undress his wriggling, restless little body. ‘Let me take care of all this.’

Surprised that he wanted to get that involved, Vivien warned, ‘He’ll get you all wet…’

Lucca shed his jacket, loosened his silk tie and removed his gold cuff-links. ‘No problem…’

Watching Lucca test the temperature of the water before lowering Marco with care and confidence into the bath, Vivien bit back the warning that Marco was as slippery as an eel. ‘I can see you’ve done this at least once before.’

‘Sì. With my cousin Paola’s children…maybe a couple of times,’ he admitted.

Vivien was really surprised. ‘I never would’ve dreamt that you had that much interest in kids.’

‘I didn’t have until Marco was born.’ He sent her a wry look from below his glorious ebony lashes and her heart rocked inside her. ‘Sometimes when I couldn’t see him, I went to see my cousin’s family instead.’

Her throat thickened. It was the perfect moment for Marco to pounce with glee on his fleet of miniature plastic boats and fish and create a diversion.

‘Do you want me to go?’ Vivien prompted uncomfortably, thinking that her own presence was scarcely necessary and might even be a source of annoyance.

‘Perché…what for?’ Lucca countered levelly. ‘Right now, Marco is happier being shared than fought over. Let’s not inflict too many changes on him at once, cara.’

Unlike Vivien, Lucca understood how much fun it was to have the fish noisily attack the boats by air and by sea and watch the boats fill up and sink. Marco was overjoyed by his father’s infinitely more energetic approach to bath time. Vivien was helplessly fascinated by what she was seeing: Lucca happily playing games that would have not shamed a five-year-old and getting splashed and soaked without complaint. The smiles and the laughter that broke out with such frequency only underlined the self-evident fact that Marco and his father got on like a house on fire.

A raw smile of appreciation slashed Lucca’s extravagantly handsome features as his son stretched up trusting arms to be lifted out of the water. ‘He’s fantastic…’

The bold charisma of that smile and the warm, unashamed emotion in Lucca’s stunning eyes made Vivien’s heart lurch. ‘I think so too.’

Between them, Marco’s wriggles were subdued for long enough to get him wrapped into a fleecy towel. Brilliant dark golden eyes assailed hers over the top of the little boy’s damp curly head. ‘Dio mio. You’d have been pregnant at the altar if I’d known how much I was likely to enjoy being a father!’

‘Really?’ She went pink. It crossed her mind that had he made that leap in comprehension while she was pregnant they might never have parted. But she didn’t say that because his unashamed love for Marco touched her deep. She was seeing a gentler side to Lucca’s tough temperament than he had ever allowed her, or, she imagined, most people, to see.

‘You’ve done a fabulous job with him too,’ Lucca breathed with blunt appreciation.

She was caught unprepared by that praise from a male to whom criticism came more readily, and Vivien’s fair skin turned a deeper pink. Staring up at Lucca, she felt breathless and on a high and it was a second or two before she registered that that irritating repetitive noise in the background was actually the front doorbell ringing.

‘Gosh, I’d better answer that…’ With pronounced reluctance, she backed away and bumped her hip on the doorframe on her way out. ‘I’ll only be a minute.’

As she hurried down the stairs her thoughts were centred entirely on Lucca. Already his cool detachment and bitterness were taking a backseat. Didn’t that prove that she had been right to agree the move to London? Her generosity was being rewarded. Lucca was smiling at her, complimenting her. They didn’t have anything to fight about any more either! Wasn’t that truly wonderful? A big sunny smile on her face, Vivien opened the front door.