Second-Time Bride

Leaning over her, Alessio curved a possessive palm round one delicate cheekbone, his fingers lacing gently into her hair as he studied her with wondering, mesmeric intensity.

Then, disturbingly, his strong face shadowed. ‘I still feel so damned guilty about this afternoon,’ he confided heavily. ‘Dio...I was crazy with the need to make love to you but there is no excuse for that kind of carelessness. If I’ve made you pregnant again, you’re going to hate me!’

Daisy focused on him in bewilderment. ‘Hate you?’

‘You were so miserable when you were carrying Tara,’ Alessio said tensely. ‘I know that having another baby is completely out of the question and I’d never ask you to go through all that again for my benefit, but—’

‘You said you didn’t want another child because you assumed that that was what I wanted to hear...’ A breathtaking smile slowly blossomed on Daisy’s face as she made that leap in understanding. ‘But there were a whole host of things wrong between us then... Now that everything’s right... actually... I’d love another baby.’

Alessio looked stunned. For a count of ten seconds he simply stared at her. Daisy grinned, enjoying the knowledge that for once he had not been one step ahead of her. ‘I mean this time I could really enjoy the experience,’ she pointed out chattily...

Sheathed in a diaphanous neglige set, Daisy strolled in from the balcony and watched Alessio pulling on a pair of jeans. Next door to watching him take them off, it was one of her favourite pursuits. Every fluid movement of those long, bronzed, hair-roughened limbs utterly entranced her. Had it been a year, had it really been a whole year since they’d remarried?

She surveyed the elegant bedroom of their town house in Rome. After lunch, they would be driving down to the villa for the weekend. Last night they had attended a surprise party thrown by Alessio’s parents to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. The Leopardis had flown her aunt over for the festivities and Janet was staying with them for several days. Indeed even Bianca had put in a brief appearance and Daisy had ended up feeling a little sorry for her sister-in-law.

When Alessio had exposed Bianca’s malicious lies, his sister had gone home to her parents for sympathy, only to find herself the target of yet another bout of outraged recriminations. Unhappily for her, it had not occurred to her that her parents were genuinely eager to see Alessio’s marriage succeed or that they were overjoyed at the prospect of getting to know their grandchild. Finding herself and her opinions very much out in the cold, Bianca had cut herself off from her family for months.

However, last night Bianca had approached them with a small present and stilted congratulations, her discomfiture painfully apparent.

‘We made it in spite of you,’ Alessio had growled ungraciously, only accepting the present after Daisy had given him a speaking glance, but then adding, ‘And do I need to remind you what people say about Greeks bearing gifts?’

Certainly it would be a long time before Alessio trusted his sister again.

‘You look ravishing, piccola mia...’

Snatched from her reverie by that innately sexy voice, Daisy collided with Alessio’s intensely appreciative gaze and blushed like a teenager. They had made love until dawn had broken the skies but her heart still skipped an impressionable beat.

‘It’s such a beautiful morning.’ She had been out on the balcony reliving the sheer romance of the previous night when Alessio had presented her with a magnificent diamond eternity ring and informed her that this had been without doubt the very happiest year of his entire life.

Alessio closed possessive arms round her and pressed a whisper of a kiss to the sensitive skin at the nape of her neck. ‘It’s still early. How do you feel about breakfast in bed?’ he murmured wickedly.

Taut with delicious tension, Daisy leant back against his hard length, and then a trio of knocks, loud enough to wake the dead, sounded on the door. Tara peered round the barrier with exaggerated care.

‘Honestly, you two are the limit... it’s only ten in the morning!’ Emerging fully into view, Tara brandished a rather startlingly clad infant for their inspection. ‘Nanny’s doing the packing, so I got Jen dressed.’