‘CONGRATULATIONS,’ THE URBANE private obstetrician told Raffaele and Maya the next morning, when the nurse reappeared with the result and a smile of confirmation.
Maya shivered, suddenly chilled, as Raffaele’s hand on her shoulder urged her down into the seat awaiting her. As she had performed a test for herself before leaving the apartment, they had already known that she had conceived again. It had taken all of Raffaele’s considerable argumentative skill to persuade her that she also needed to speak to a consultant to deal with the secret fears she had not shared with anyone. Only her fears were apparently not as secret as she had assumed when Raffaele was so readily aware of their existence. It was true, sadly, this time around she was not as innocent, and she couldn’t feel joy as yet and couldn’t luxuriate in the result as she had before because she was far too afraid that something might go wrong again.
Dr Carruthers spoke at length with ease, determined to allay her very real concerns. A very early miscarriage, such as she had experienced, was extremely common. Indeed, he told her, it often happened before women even realised that they had conceived, so any statistics he quoted her were almost certainly inaccurate. She had no grounds to suspect that there was anything else amiss with her and should approach this new pregnancy without undue concern or stress. At present, he saw no reason for her to take any additional precautions. He was very reassuring and Maya left his smart consulting rooms on Harley Street with a renewed sense of confidence.
‘Are you planning to tell your twin?’ Raffaele pressed.
‘Yes. Not about before but about this, yes.’ Maya’s glorious smile lit her beautiful face to radiance. ‘I can share this.’
Raffaele slotted her back into the limousine and, without even thinking about the intimacy of the gesture, she reached for his hand. ‘We’re pregnant!’ she said foolishly and then flushed with embarrassment.
‘Guess that means I’m unlikely to get lucky tonight,’ Raffaele teased, dark golden eyes gleaming with amusement.
‘Oh, don’t you believe that you get off that easily.’ Maya laughed. ‘My hormones are going crazy right now!’
‘I bet you anything that tonight you’ll sit up gossiping with Izzy until the early hours of tomorrow morning and forget that I exist. You have so much to catch up on and once your parents and grandparents get together with you tomorrow, you won’t have much privacy,’ he pointed out.
And that was when she tugged her fingers hurriedly free of his. What on earth was she doing? Clinging to him? Behaving as though they were still a normal couple? Why was she behaving that way when the instant that pregnancy test had shown a positive result their marriage, as such, had become redundant? How had she managed to forget that reality even for a few minutes?
She scanned his teasing, charismatic smile. He was pleased, undeniably he was pleased that she was pregnant again. Naturally, he was because that put his freedom back within view again. Now he was more concerned with getting her settled into a house he had no intention of sharing with her and ensuring that she was once again fully integrated into her family circle. That was to be her solace for his absence, his departure from her life. All of a sudden, Maya felt hollow, the temporary lift of joy in being pregnant again draining away when she was forced to face the prospect of losing the man she loved.
Raffaele was buying Grey Gables for her and he had offered a premium if the owners were willing to vacate the premises quickly. Earlier she had been over the moon that he was as impressed as she was with the property, or, at least, sufficiently impressed to overlook the disadvantages he had outlined. She had nourished foolish dreams about them sharing the house as a new family, dreams utterly removed from reality for that had never been on the cards for them, had it been? And in truth, once Raffaele left the picture, she wasn’t so sure that she wanted to move out of London and be at a less convenient distance from her family.
‘Where are we going?’ Maya asked as she realised the limo had pulled up on a busy street.
‘I wanted to mark the occasion. I ordered it weeks ago,’ Raffaele admitted confusingly. ‘I want you to be wearing it when your sister arrives.’
Her brow furrowed as she glanced up at the logo of the world-famous jeweller’s showroom before she was ushered inside, across a quiet shop floor into a private room where she sank down on a chair.
‘The occasion,’ she prompted, registering that he was giving her another surprise and reflecting on just how much Raffaele enjoyed surprising her, treating her, spoiling her with spontaneous unexpected presents. It occurred to her that she would soon be surprising him with the purchase she had already made on his behalf in honour of his twenty-ninth birthday in just over two weeks’ time. A little chill tickled at her spine as she recalled the gift that had seemed like such an absolutely brilliant idea at the time she had come up with it, but now she found herself wondering if she had got it right for him or if, in fact, she had actually got it very, very wrong. Maybe her gift would be too personal and unwelcome? An unhappy reminder of an experience he preferred to forget? Or a new beginning? Well, there was no point agonising over her decision, she conceded ruefully, because she had already booked and paid for the two puppies, which were being kept until the big day.
The jeweller attending them with the utmost discretion produced an emerald ring for their perusal, waxing with enthusiasm about its perfection, its cut, the simple design of the platinum and diamond setting. It was a magnificent ring. She watched numbly while Raffaele threaded the jewel onto the same finger as her wedding band. ‘What do you think?’ he asked.
‘It’s breathtaking...’ It was also utterly enormous and she listened intently while Raffaele told her how he had tracked down the stone in a private collection where it had resided for a couple of centuries and how, after persuading the collector to sell it, he had designed the setting. ‘It matches your eyes.’
‘If I truly had eyes that colour, they’d be in somebody’s collection too,’ she mumbled in a daze, flexing her finger under that new weight, wondering if she would ever, ever understand Raffaele Manzini because he gave her so many mixed messages.
A ring was such a particular gift, literally laden with meaning to most people, and she stared down at the ring, which he had been so careful to place next to her wedding band. ‘It...it looks like an engagement ring,’ she framed hoarsely when she could finally unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth.
‘It’s pretty. It suits you,’ Raffaele informed her almost brusquely. ‘And since you went with the love-at-first-sight story when you told your sister about our marriage, it will be more normal for you to have a ring.’
‘So, this is like a prop to make us look more like a convincing couple?’ Maya questioned, her delight in her gorgeous ring ebbing a little.
Raffaele frowned. ‘Madonna mia...of course not. We’re way beyond that stage now, aren’t we?’
Were they? Here she was waiting to hear when he was planning to leave her now that she was pregnant again and he was busy buying her a truly spectacular ring and putting it on her engagement finger and telling her that it matched her eyes. Raffaele definitely moved to the beat of a different drummer and, while she loved that impulsive, unconventional ability he had to utterly confound and fascinate her, sometimes that exotic individuality was just a little exhausting and unnerving.
‘Could we go and...er...look at baby stuff now?’ Maya asked in a discomfited, apologetic undertone only loud enough for him to hear as they returned to the car, her emerald ring glittering on her finger.
‘Baby stuff?’ Raffaele repeated in seeming consternation.
Maya cringed inwardly and outwardly and went pink. ‘I just sort of...er...wanted to look—’
‘Of course we can go and buy stuff if that’s what you want,’ Raffaele told her smoothly.
‘No...no, we’re not going to buy anything,’ Maya contradicted with an edge of urgency. ‘That would be unlucky. No, we’re only going to window-shop.’
‘I’m not much of a fan and don’t have much practice of window-shopping,’ Raffaele confided gently.
‘Well, then, you can just drop me off to browse. That’s all I want to do...it’s my treat for me,’ she admitted tautly.
‘I wouldn’t dream of allowing you to treat yourself alone, bellezza mia,’ Raffaele retorted.
In an opulent department store, Maya almost touched an admiring finger to a tiny pair of cobweb-fine bootees and her eyes stung, excitement flaring through her.
‘Come on...let’s buy stuff,’ Raffaele urged with enthusiasm even while he fully understood her reluctance.
Maya swallowed the thickness in her throat. ‘No, not yet...we’re just looking,’ she repeated, examining a delicate lace shawl with brimming eyes of wonder.
‘It’s going to be OK this time,’ Raffaele told her confidently.
‘Why do you think that?’ she whispered, closing a hand over his to pull him away from the display.
‘Gut instinct and the reality that lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place,’ he murmured bracingly, disturbed by the anxiety she couldn’t hide. ‘We’re going to be parents.’
Ridiculously cheered by that confidence that came so naturally to him, Maya laced her fingers into his and they returned to the penthouse. Maya had a dozen things to do. Raffaele might have organised preparations for her family’s arrival behind her back but there were all sorts of little touches she could add to make her relatives feel welcome, like Izzy’s favourite magazines in the bedroom, flowers for her grandmother, who adored white roses, and tissues everywhere for her mother because Lucia would probably be crying a lot at being reunited with her parents. Although the two women and her grandfather had been talking on the phone in recent weeks, there had been a certain constraint and nothing could take the place of a face-to-face meeting and a frank conversation.
Raffaele strolled into the bedroom and watched Maya get dressed. She was no longer self-conscious around him, which he enjoyed. The vision of her willowy figure as she donned fine lingerie held him fast. She was still wearing the ring and he supposed that was something to be grateful for. He couldn’t concentrate, he acknowledged. He had put everything into place just as they had planned, just as they had agreed, and yet nothing felt right. How could it when he was accustomed to having Maya in his life? Accustomed for the first time ever to sharing everything with another person? That was a huge change in outlook for him. Familiarity did not always breed contempt, as he had once thought it unerringly did with him and women. Disturbingly aware of the teeming turmoil he had been suppressing deep in his mind for weeks, Raffaele turned his brain to a more current topic.
‘Has it occurred to you that Izzy’s husband could have settled your family’s financial problems for you?’
Much struck by the concept, Maya rested wide eyes on him. ‘Seriously?’
‘Oil-rich, future King of Zenara?’ Raffaele prompted gently. ‘If you had turned to Izzy for assistance you would never have met me and never have married me.’
‘But I didn’t know about Rafiq then, who he was, how rich he was or that they were getting married,’ Maya pointed out prosaically, but she was involuntarily shocked at the picture he had drawn. ‘I had no idea that she might ever be in a position to help. That possibility never even crossed my mind.’
At the same time the very suggestion that she might never have married Raffaele shook her rigid. He had shaken up her and her life, but she couldn’t have unwished him, couldn’t bear the possibility that she might never have known him. She tugged another pair of cropped jeans from a drawer and teamed them with a casual sleeveless top, sliding her feet into comfortable mules.
Before Izzy arrived, Maya questioned whether she should admit to being pregnant, lest something go wrong again. And then she scolded herself for that pessimistic thought and reminded herself that she could not live her life that way, always expecting the very worst things to happen to her. After all, Raffaele had happened and, while losing him would be bad, she could not regret learning to love him, could not regret anything they had shared and, least of all, the child they had conceived.
Izzy arrived in a welter of buzzing chatter. Maya barely got time to meet her brother-in-law, Rafiq, before Raffaele bore him off into his home office to give Maya and her twin some privacy. Izzy hugged her and bounced around the room, full of energy, the proud curve of her pregnant stomach already obvious.
‘Twins,’ Maya remarked in awe.
‘I know. I still can’t believe it!’ Izzy exclaimed with a grin. ‘Rafiq thinks I’m a living miracle, which is rather nice.’
‘I’m pregnant too,’ Maya whispered before she could lose her nerve again.
Izzy’s eyes rounded in surprise and delight and then she closed her arms around her taller sibling with unashamed affection. ‘Wow...that’s clever timing. I wasn’t expecting that news! My goodness, now we’ll be able to share stories every step of the way.’
‘I’m only just pregnant,’ Maya confided.
‘Rafiq told me that you and Raffaele had been having problems,’ Izzy murmured very quietly, her gaze troubled.
‘Oh, that’s in the past. Teething troubles,’ Maya hastened to assure her twin. ‘We probably rushed into getting married too quickly.’
‘It was very sudden but, let’s face it, when the connection is special, you know pretty soon,’ Izzy burbled, her obvious anxiety ebbing at Maya’s light tone and smile. ‘I thought something was wrong and I was losing you.’
‘You’re never going to lose me,’ Maya assured her fondly. ‘I was thoughtless, trying to put up a front, that’s all.’
And the evening ebbed away, almost without Maya noticing as she and her sister caught up on all the news. Rafiq and Raffaele joined them for dinner but had to make their own conversation. It was indeed the early hours before Maya finally crept into bed, sliding in beside Raffaele and hooking an arm round him, although there was really no need for her to move that close in the huge bed.
‘Feeling happier?’ Raffaele asked, startling her because she had assumed he was already asleep and wouldn’t have slung that statement possessive arm round him had she known he was still awake.
‘Yes,’ Maya admitted freely. ‘Much happier.’
Her parents arrived early. Her mother, Lucia, was very nervous, and Maya tried to calm the older woman down about her approaching reunion with her once-disapproving parents. Her grandparents arrived an hour later and the surprise they brought with them was her grandfather’s niece, Aurora, a stunning blonde model, who had hitched a ride in their private jet because she had an assignment later that day in London.
‘I’m so sorry for intruding but I’ll only be staying for an hour or so. I did so want to take the opportunity to get to know your side of the family,’ Aurora told Maya, easing past her rather as if she weren’t there to concentrate her full attention on Raffaele. ‘Hi... I’m the marriageable Parisi female possibility whom, sadly, you never even got the chance to meet.’
Stunned to overhear that low-voiced, teasing self-introduction, Maya turned her head to catch Raffaele’s flashing smile of amusement. He liked bold, he liked brazen, he liked confident. A shaft of fierce jealousy pierced Maya and it was an effort to concentrate on her grandmother’s sobbing reconciliation with her daughter and step in with the occasional soothing sentence and reassuring hugs.
While that was taking place, Raffaele stood across the room chatting to Aurora, a tall, leggy figure clad in a white dress that was the perfect frame for her even more perfect figure.
‘She’s flirting with him,’ Izzy remarked in disbelief. ‘What’s she even doing here?’
‘Apparently she’s here to get to know us,’ Maya said drily, relieved that her sibling hadn’t overheard Aurora’s opening sally to Raffaele because Izzy would’ve sought an explanation and the carefully drawn story of Maya’s marriage would have fallen apart.
‘Not making much effort, then, is she?’ Izzy commented. ‘Go over there and act like a wife. Warn her off.’
‘I trust Raffaele,’ Maya fielded stiffly.
But she didn’t and the polite lie roused colour in her cheeks. How could she trust a man who wasn’t in love with her? How could she trust a man whose right to freedom after she became pregnant had been written into their pre-nup? And there Aurora was, exactly the kind of glossy, self-assured woman whom Raffaele had specialised in before he married Maya. Maya watched Aurora toss her long, unnaturally pale blonde hair while treating Raffaele to flirtatious, covetous looks from her sultry brown eyes and she wanted to slap her and lock Raffaele in a cupboard where no other woman could get near him. Her mood swan-dived while her temper bubbled.
Maya’s parents and grandparents decided to move their reconciliation to the Campbells’ house. Lucia and Rory had to be home in time for Matt returning from school and the older couple were eager to meet their youngest grandchild. Izzy and Rafiq accompanied them and then planned to return to the hotel they had organised, Izzy explaining apologetically that she wanted to lie down and nap for a while. After a great deal more hair-tossing and giggling, Aurora departed as well, still as much a stranger to Maya and her immediate family as she had been on her arrival.
‘It went well,’ Raffaele remarked with satisfaction when their last visitor had departed. ‘Fences all mended...and you and Izzy enjoyed yourself.’
‘We did.’ The silence smouldered. ‘Would you have preferred to have married someone like Aurora?’ That question just bounced off Maya’s tongue before she even knew it was there.
Raffaele dealt her a surprised appraisal and strolled back into the lounge. ‘Why are you asking me that?’
Maya compressed her lips and gave a jerky shrug. ‘She’s definitely more your style than I ever was.’
‘Realistically, I don’t think it could ever have been a legal option because a niece isn’t as close a relative as a granddaughter,’ Raffaele fielded. ‘When she made that remark, she was only trying to get a rise out of you. I think she’s jealous that she missed out on what she would have seen as an opportunity to enrich herself.’
‘No, she was jealous because I’m with you.’
‘Then, she doesn’t know what I put you through,’ Raffaele parried. ‘Your twin was watching me like a hawk while I was with Aurora. It’s pretty obvious that she thinks I’m not to be trusted around other women. I hope that doesn’t last.’
‘It won’t matter if it does, will it?’ Maya cut in curtly. ‘We’ll be separated and you won’t be my business any more and I doubt if there’ll be any reason for you to meet my sister again.’
Frowning, Raffaele studied her. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I get pregnant and then we split up,’ Maya reminded him doggedly, choosing to voice her biggest, deepest fear as if throwing it into the open would magically dispel it. She shifted restively as her phone vibrated in her pocket. ‘We agreed.’
Raffaele breathed in deep and slow, dark eyes flaring like fireworks. ‘I’m not ready to let you go.’
‘I thought you played by the rules. That was our business deal.’
‘That deal ended in Sicily and we renegotiated,’ Raffaele informed her.
‘I don’t remember renegotiating anything!’ Maya slung back at him tartly.
‘You came to my club and told me that I was yours,’ he reminded her.
Maya coloured hotly at having that reminder tossed at her. Her phone vibrated afresh against her hip and with a muttered apology she dug it out and listened to the voicemail, waving her hand at him in a frustrated silencing motion as she tried to listen to the lengthy harassed message left for her. The breeder who had sold her the puppies had been taken into hospital for emergency surgery. The caller was the breeder’s daughter and she was ringing to tell Maya that she would be dropping off the pups early because she was unable to look after them while her mother was in hospital. Dismay and disappointment filled Maya and she wondered how much earlier the puppies would arrive because she really had wanted them kept until the day of Raffaele’s birthday.
‘Why did you tell me that I was yours?’ Raffaele asked with icy precision.
‘I should think that would be obvious to a man of your intelligence.’
‘Oddly enough, it’s not,’ Raffaele contradicted.
In a storm of turbulent emotions and growing mortification, Maya turned back to him. ‘I’m not having this conversation with you right now... I can’t think straight!’
As she stalked off towards the bedroom, Raffaele followed her. ‘We’re having this conversation now.’
‘This is not the right moment to be dominant,’ Maya told him shakily.
‘I need an honest answer.’
‘All right, I would have told you anything that night to keep you away from other women and get you home,’ she admitted between clenched teeth. ‘Happy now?’
‘You mean...you were lying when you said that all you wanted from me was another baby?’ Raffaele pressed hoarsely.
‘Yes, I was lying. I was desperate. I was jealous and scared that you were going to go off and do something really stupid that there would be no coming back from,’ she muttered in a bitter surge.
‘If the “doing something really stupid” involves me going off with other women, that was never a risk. I don’t cheat and I haven’t wanted anyone but you since I first laid eyes on you at that hen party and you pretty much told me to go to hell,’ Raffaele advanced rawly. ‘I’m disappointed that you felt the need to lie to me about anything though. But why were you feeling desperate that night?’
The bell buzzed and she heard Sal’s voice mingling with their housekeeper’s, a strange low whining sound, the noise of something heavy being shifted over the tiled floor and a lot of exclamation from at least two male voices. And then the animal whines penetrated and she realised that the puppies must have been delivered and she shut her eyes tight, wondering what else could possibly go wrong in the space of one short day.
‘I was desperate because I love you,’ she told Raffaele flatly, assuming that that would end the humiliating dialogue. ‘Having another baby was only an excuse to hang onto you. It was the only excuse I could come up with in the time I had. And you went for it. You went for the sex, which is OK...you are a man and you do like things simple. Excuse me...could you stay in here for a while? I have something to sort out.’
What on earth was she going to do with the puppies? This, the very day their marriage disintegrated, was not the moment to gift Raffaele a pair of dogs. But she couldn’t ask the breeder’s daughter or whoever was delivering them to take them away again because they were now Maya’s responsibility.
She loved him.
She had lied to him only because she loved him, Raffaele reflected, thunderstruck by that admission. Even after all he had done, she had somehow contrived to fall in love with him? Rafiq had compared the conception of Izzy’s twins to the eighth wonder of the world but Maya had pulled off an even bigger wonder in Raffaele’s opinion. She loved him. He couldn’t believe it, he just couldn’t believe it and, intent on seeking further explanation, he followed her back out of the bedroom and down the corridor to where Sal and two of his security team were standing over a giant pet carrier, Sal’s face pale and rigid.
‘What’s going on?’ Raffaele prompted.
The strange woman beside the carrier broke into a flood of explanation that ranged from her mother’s broken hip to her mother’s current incarceration in hospital. ‘I couldn’t possibly keep them for you the way my mother promised,’ she said apologetically to Maya. ‘There’s no room in my home for two lively puppies.’
‘I understand. It’s fine, thank you for bringing them,’ Maya broke in gently.
‘I’m afraid I’ll have to take the carrier with me but I’ve brought a bag of immediate supplies, their vaccination records and current feeding schedule and their other documentation,’ the woman told Maya, indicating the large sack one of the men carried as she bent down to release the catch on the carrier. ‘Any problems you have, my phone number is in the bag.’
Maya caught a glimpse of Sal’s anxious face as she bent down and guessed instantly that he knew the same tragic tale of Raffaele’s brief pet ownership as she did and was concerned about Raffaele’s possible reaction to the animals. A little black nose poked curiously out of the carrier, swiftly followed by a little squirming golden puppy body, and then a second explorer appeared.
‘They were a gift for your birthday,’ Maya whispered weakly to Raffaele as the carrier was withdrawn. Somehow, she got through the departure of the breeder’s daughter and said all that was polite before she even dared to glance in Raffaele’s direction again.
Raffaele was down on the floor engulfed in puppies. At least he wasn’t backing away or fighting them off, she told herself in consolation. He lifted glinting dark golden eyes to hers and smiled. ‘Thank you,’ he said in a husky undertone.
Maya recognised the tears in his eyes, and she was stunned. Grinning, Sal was already hustling the rest of his team out of the penthouse and their housekeeper was lifting the sack of supplies.
‘Puppies,’ she said in barely hidden consternation. ‘Here.’
‘But not for long, Mrs Abram. We’re moving out to the country as soon as possible,’ Raffaele informed her, a puppy gathered under each arm as he walked back to their bedroom, clumsily hit the button that opened the patio doors onto the balcony and set both little animals down outside. Puddles quickly appeared and he laughed. ‘Yes, these two are going to keep us busy.’
‘You’re not upset?’ Maya whispered worriedly. ‘It seemed such a great idea but after I thought about what I had done, I started getting second thoughts, but it was too late because I’d already booked and picked and paid for them.’
‘It was a great idea...and now I believe that you love me,’ Raffaele admitted almost buoyantly. ‘Because you understand me too. You knew I was afraid to love anything or anyone again.’
‘Yes,’ she muttered limply. ‘You don’t mind me loving you?’
‘Why would I mind such an honour?’ Raffaele demanded. ‘If it means you’ll consider staying with me for ever? I presume it does mean that? I’ve got you for good?’
Her smooth brow furrowed because she was confused by his attitude. ‘For good?’
‘We’re not a business deal any longer, we’re a couple in a normal marriage. That’s all I want and I can promise you now that I will not do anything to make you regret staying with me,’ Raffaele swore feverishly. ‘I’ll probably annoy you and frustrate you at times, but I will never deliberately hurt you.’
Maya nodded slowly as if she was afraid to break the spell. ‘For good,’ she agreed. ‘But what’s changed?’
‘I had the stupid idea that all you did want from me was a baby, that you didn’t actually want me for me...which was perfectly understandable after the way I’d behaved. But it wasn’t something I felt that I could live with long-term,’ he explained ruefully. ‘You could have had a baby with any man, even had a baby without a man and gone for artificial insemination, so you wanting a baby fathered by me didn’t really mean much, just that you knew it was achievable with me because you already knew that I was fertile.’
Maya had paled. ‘I never thought of it from that angle.’
‘Nobody has ever wanted me for me but you,’ Raffaele breathed grimly. ‘I’ve been wanted a hundred times over for my wealth, my looks, my body, for the publicity I attract. I’ve never been wanted just for me.’
‘Oh, I’m sure you have, you probably didn’t notice,’ Maya opined, dismayed to register once again that she had wounded him by telling him that she only wanted him because he could give her another baby. ‘And maybe you haven’t always been the most lovable person around other women, but you’ve been honest and wonderful with me since quite early on, always surprising me with how kind and thoughtful you could be, and tender.’
Raffaele winced. ‘I’m really not the tender type.’
She wanted to tell him how amazingly affectionate and demonstrative he could be, but thought that possibly it was wiser for him to slowly recognise that about himself. He needed to accept that his ready affection did not in any way detract from his masculinity, that indeed it only enhanced it.
He had picked her a dream of a wedding gown, had guided her around Egyptian antiquities purely to surprise and please her, had in every way pandered unerringly to her likes and dislikes rather than his own. He had reunited her family, had introduced her to her long-lost grandparents and had searched out and designed a beautiful ring for her pleasure. He had even lied and declared that their marriage was rocky to his brother-in-law to cover up any damage she might have inflicted by avoiding her sister for so long.
And after they had been engulfed by their first crisis when she suffered a miscarriage, he had ignored her attempts to push him away even though that would have offered him an easier path. He had not been detached and even when she had lashed out at him, he had stayed supportive and caring. The more she thought about everything Raffaele had done for her since their first intimidating meeting, the less she marvelled at the love she had for him because he had changed just as much as she had changed and within that change they had grown very close.
‘In fact... I may not be tender or sensitive or any of that stuff that’s important to women,’ Raffaele admitted gruffly, ‘but I do really love you. I couldn’t face the idea of life without you. When we viewed Grey Gables, I said, “when we’re no longer together” to try and get a reaction out of you...something, anything that would give me hope, but instead you succumbed to the pregnancy sickness and afterwards, well, you were a bit quiet but you certainly didn’t seem upset to me.’
‘You said that deliberately?’ Maya gasped. ‘I was upset and hiding it. Where were your eyes?’
‘Well, you’re pretty good at hiding being upset. You burbled about the house all the way back here.’
Belatedly she blinked. ‘You said that you loved me?’
‘You’re the only person I’ve ever loved. I like my father, my little sisters, but I don’t think I love them. I don’t think I’ve let myself love them, but I didn’t get a choice with you. From the start I was flooded by these feelings about you and I was always burying them and then we lost our baby and...’ Raffaele turned in an almost clumsy half-circle. ‘Suddenly it was all there in front of me, how much I cared about you, how much it hurt to see you hurting and not be able to fix it for you. I felt helpless. I hated it at first. I was flailing around trying to work out what would be best for you, what would make you happy even if it made me unhappy and that’s why I took you to see your family.’
‘And that’s why you stayed out of bed with me too,’ Maya guessed. ‘Because you thought letting me go was the kindest thing you could do for me...you idiot!’
‘So, you stormed into the club that night and that was so incredibly sexy, such a turn-on.’
‘You’re easily impressed, Mr Manzini,’ Maya teased, looking up at him with her heart in her eyes. ‘And such a sweetie behind the nasty front. What did you really think of cousin Aurora?’
‘Pushy, fake, not my type but she made you jealous and I liked that, which is why I stayed talking to her. I could see your annoyance,’ Raffaele confessed ruefully.
‘You can be so sneaky sometimes,’ Maya sighed, wrapping both arms round him and resting her cheek against his shirtfront, loving the familiar warmth and scent of him.
He tilted back her head and kissed her passionately. ‘I want you so much at this moment.’
‘You can’t have me. We have puppies to take care of,’ Maya reminded him ruefully, watching the puppies gambol about the floor.
‘All right, we feed them, we play with them, we come up with some names for them and then, we go to bed and they get an early night as well,’ Raffaele proposed.
‘We’ll see. You’re happy with them? They weren’t a stupid gift?’ she checked.
‘This is my fresh start in life alongside you. There’s nothing stupid about that,’ Raffaele assured her fondly, running a fingertip along her cheekbone and leaning down to claim another, longer kiss. ‘I love you, I’ll love our child and I’ll love our dogs.’
It was late when the puppies got fed and several shoes got chewed up in the intervening time, but Raffaele and Maya got to make love and celebrate their newfound happiness and both pets and owners remained delighted with each other.