Becca frowned at him. ‘I saw a photo of their wedding in the newspapers. Bronte’s another blonde isn’t she?’
‘I met her after she married Nico. Be nice.’
‘Okay. I’d love to meet your friends. Twins?
‘
Si
, a boy and a girl.’
She nuzzled into his neck, loving the freedom to indulge herself.
‘Your Papa sounds just like you.’
The big laugh rumbled under her cheek as Lucas stroked her hair.
‘You made him a very happy man.
Gracias
,
querida
.’
Rubbing her cheek against his T-shirt, Becca sighed in sheer bliss.
‘We’re going to be okay, aren’t we, Lucas?’
She didn’t see the frown that marred his forehead or the teeth running along his top lip, so she accepted his words for what they were.
‘
Si,
Becca. We are going to be absolutely fine.’
‘When is the big day?’
With a decided twinkle in his dark eyes Nico Ferranti poured sparkling water into Becca’s glass and topped up Bronte and Lucas’s glasses with a full bodied red from his own vineyard in the Tuscan hills.
‘Four weeks,’ Becca said with a smile for the incredibly handsome big Italian.
They were in the dining kitchen of The Dower House. The space was fabulous, constructed of heavy oak beams and glass and consisted of an ultra modern kitchen, eating area and vast living space which brought the garden into the house.
Lucas gave Becca a hot kiss on the mouth. ‘We will be married at the
Castilla
. It is not as big an affair as my father would like, but we do not want a fuss.’
‘We married on the beach with just our immediate family and friends,’ Bronte told them and sent a wicked look to Nico.
Becca watched the byplay between husband and wife and hoped she and Lucas would be as blissfully happy a couple as Nico and Bronte appeared to be.
She spoke in a wistful voice without thinking, ‘Oh, I would love to do something so simple and romantic without the circus that’s surrounding ours. My mother’s on the phone about eight times a day and Don Norberto haunts Lucas’s phone.’
A long plaintiff wail came from a baby monitor and Bronte rose.
‘Can I come too?’ Becca asked.
Bronte grinned. ‘Sure, I can always do with an extra pair of hands.’
The women left and Nico watched his wife leave with a hungry look in his eye that had Lucas snap his fingers in front of his face.
‘We will get out of your hair and let you get your beauty sleep.’
‘You can talk. I never thought I would see the day you were on your knees. Becca is a lovely lady, Lucas. She was worth the wait.’
She was indeed.
He wished she’d said that she didn’t want a big wedding. He’d naturally assumed every woman wanted one. But listening to Bronte and Becca’s response Lucas wondered now if he shouldn’t have dug deeper before giving his father and her mother carte blanche.
It was true that things were getting out of hand. He would talk to her about it when they were back at the annexe. Her personal happiness was the most important thing. She was looking more beautiful and happy with every passing day and he did not want anything to jeopardize the strong roots they were developing in their relationship.
‘Bronte has your number,’ he told his old friend.
Nico’s big grin broke through his usually severe expression.
‘I know how lucky I am. I never take her or the life I have now for granted. It could all have been so different.’
Lucas knew all about Nico’s difficult upbringing and his poverty stricken childhood. He was a tough street fighter with hard edges. Their backgrounds may be polar opposites, but Lucas couldn’t think of another man he would want to have in his corner if he was in a tough spot.
Speaking of which,
‘Everything organised in the States?’ Lucas asked keeping his voice low.
Nico’s dark eyes went serious now. ‘He has chosen one of the resorts in the Bahamas where he can go with his family once the news breaks. Justin Cope is a scumbag, Lucas.’
Lucas checked that their partners were not returning before he answered, ‘The man is terrified this will kill his career.’
‘Do you think it will? For good I mean?’
Lucas shook his head. ‘We will do everything we can to limit the damage. You never know with these things how the public will react. Tobin has his finger on the pulse.’
‘When do you think the news will hit?’
‘We have no idea. Could be next week or next month. They’ve got to catch him in the act.’
The sound of female voices had them sit back and enjoy their wine.
The women returned each carrying a beautiful baby.
Little Luca’s flushed face was buried in his mummy’s neck but when he spotted Nico his arms reached out to the big Italian who grinned at his son.
‘Daddy’s boy,’ murmured Bronte as she passed him to her husband.
‘Hey, pal. What’s up?’ Nico hugged him and Luca settled with his dark head tucked under his daddy’s chin. Big dark eyes blinked sleepily at everyone.
Becca handed a bright-eyed Sophia to a Lucas who looked as if he’d been handed a stick of TNT.
The baby girl stared hard at him for a moment before giving him a toothy grin that had Lucas take a huge breath of relief. She nuzzled into his chest and he patted her back as if she was made of glass.
‘I think she likes me,’ he told them looking pretty pleased with himself.
‘She’s a female. What do you expect?’ Becca said as her eyes stung and a tsunami of emotions washed over her. She waved her hands in front of her eyes. ‘Whoa, pregnancy hormones, they’re a killer.’
Lucas caught her hand and nuzzled her fingers. ‘Everything is going to be fine, I know it.’
Becca didn’t miss Bronte’s puzzled look and the words tripped off her tongue, ‘I lost a baby girl at thirty-two weeks.’
Bronte’s fingers squeezed her knee. ‘I heard of the death of your husband, but I had no idea you’d been pregnant. God, Becca.’
‘My traitorous body has been playing up during this pregnancy too.’
‘I had to rest quite a bit with these two near the end. Make sure you look after yourself.’
‘She will,’ Lucas said in a tone that made Becca smile and shake her head.
‘I don’t have a great deal of choice.’
As Lucas drove them back to the annexe, Becca turned to him.
‘They’re a lovely couple and very much in love.’
Lucas grinned. ‘
Si
, they were not sorry to see us leave. And I know the feeling,
querida
,’ he said in a throaty growl that made her narrow her eyes.
‘You have a one track mind. They’re beautiful children. One blonde and one dark and their personalities are so different too.’
‘I think Nico is going to have his hands full with Sophia.’
‘Don’t look so smug, Del Garda, you might end up with two Sophias.’
He frowned as he parked the car and turned to capture her mouth with his before staring into her eyes.
‘I will lock them in their rooms until they are thirty,’ he said quite seriously.
Becca kissed him back, patted his lean cheek.
‘It would be Karma wouldn’t it, if you ended up with two daughters?’
He lifted a brow, nudged her nose with his. ‘You could have two boys, just like their papa.’
‘Not a problem. I know exactly how to turn their papa’s knees to a quivering jelly.’
He gave her a look that turned her own knees to jelly as he opened the car door and moved around the car to open hers. Taking her hand, he pulled her through the door of the annexe before backing her up against it.
His hips gently rocked against her as Becca twined her arms around his neck.
‘You are never going to let me forget that night, are you?’ he said.
She pressed her breasts against his chest and took a bite out of his strong jaw.
‘I’ve lots more surprises for you. They involve the use of ice cubes and a hot drink.’
His hungry mouth tasted hers and again that kick of power had her moan.
She found herself lifted in his strong arms and Lucas strode through to their luxurious bedroom to set her on her feet at the bottom of a huge bed.
‘I like you in a dress,’ he said and turned her round to glide down the zip. He pulled the straps from her shoulders and let the navy silk pool at her feet.
‘I won’t be able to fit into it soon. What are you doing?’
He’d unclipped her bra, sliding it down her arms and tossed it. Now he fastened her hands around his neck and her back was pressed into his rock hard erection.
‘I am going to play. Are you too tired? The doctor said we can make love, but I don’t want to hurt you,
querida
.’
‘Stop worrying. I’ll tell you if something is too much. What kind of play?’ Her heart kicked as his thumbs tugged her tiny panties to her knees and she kicked them off along with her shoes.
He turned her towards a massive mirror leaning on the wall and she saw them both reflected there.
‘There’s something wrong with that picture. One of us is overdressed,’ she teased.
His hands slid over her breasts, down the smooth skin of her torso to rest on the gentle swell of her belly and the babies sleeping within. The contrast of his tanned skin against the cream of hers was beautiful to Becca. He held his big hands there and simply stared for such a long tender moment that Becca could feel the emotion swell in him as he pressed his lips under her ear hiding his eyes from her. He’d done this a number of times before and she wondered now what it meant.
‘Look at me, Lucas.’
He lifted his head and she was stunned to see moisture reflected there.
Becca whirled round in his arms, reached up on tip-toe and took his face in her hands.
Seriously alarmed, her eyes searched his. ‘What is it?’
‘There is nothing the matter,
querida
. Why is it only women who are permitted to feel emotional during pregnancy?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with being emotional. But why do you hide from me when you are?’
Surprise flashed in his eyes but he kept them on hers.
‘It makes me feel weak. My love for you, for our babies, makes me feel vulnerable.’
If she’d ever doubted the depth of his love for her, those doubts were swept away by that single statement. He was bearing his heart and soul to her she realised. Moira was right. She did hold his heart in her hands.
He sank to the edge of the bed and pulled her onto his knees.
Becca kissed him with everything she had in her heart for him. She raised her head and stroked gentle fingers down his cheek, over his strong jaw.
‘I love you so much, Lucas, that it scares me too. Every day we spend together that love seems to grow stronger. I will never leave you or hurt you, my darling.’
‘Becca,’ her name was a breath. ‘I want you to be happy.’
Okay. Something else was happening here and she didn’t have a clue what it was but she was determined to find out. She’d learned much about the human mind from her long talks with Sinead and the days of burying difficult feelings and thoughts were gone. These days she tackled an issue head on.
‘What makes you think I’m not happy?’
Those dark eyes never left hers. ‘You put other people’s wants and needs before your own. Admit it. You have agreed to have this wedding in the
Castilla
to please my father and your mother.’
Her brow creased as she tried to figure out where this was going.
‘It’s not exactly a huge wedding. There wasn’t the time for one thing.’
‘Yes, but is it what
you
want,
querida
?’
Her eyes narrowed now. ‘If you don’t tell me what’s going on in that complicated head of yours, I’m going to slap you.’
‘You told Bronte you would love to have a beach wedding.’
She blinked and spoke carefully. ‘That is true and I would love for the two of us to be barefoot on the sand with flowers in our hair. But it’s not about me. It’s about you too. And about your heritage, your family and your father. I respect and honour those traditions.
We
are getting married, Lucas. Not just me.’
He shook his head. ‘I do not care if we get married in a car park as long as we promise ourselves to each other.’
She rose, moved to the bathroom and shrugged on a robe tying it around her waist as she returned and then knelt before him to stare up into his fabulous face.
‘I hear what you’re saying. But I can’t see the future Don Lucas Ortiz Conde Del Garda getting married in a Tesco car-park – not that I would want that either but you know what I mean. Or on a beach with his closest family and best friends as witnesses. I’m under no illusions about your responsibilities, Lucas.’
He took her hands in his and leaned his elbows on his knees.
‘My title, that part of the deal is worrying you is it not? Why,
querida
?’
She squeezed his hands and knew she needed to be nothing but truthful with him.
‘I’m not a Society Princess, Lucas. I’m no good at playing the Lady of the Manor. It’s just not me. I do wonder at times if I’m the right woman for you in the long term.’
He looked as if she’d started speaking in Mandarin.
‘
Querida
. Believe me when I say this, you must never change who you are. We can hope to God that it will be many years before I need to take my father’s place. But we will live where
you
decide our home will be with our children. My father does not live all the time in the Castilla. He spends a few short weeks there a year and most of the rooms are open to the public. Did you think you would end up rattling around a castle?’
She had the grace to blush. ‘An old and spooky castle with turrets, howling winds and moaning ghosts with clunking armour and dungeons and a torture chamber.’
Lucas threw himself back on the bed and roared with laughter as she watched him with a big grin.
Wiping his eyes he sat and shook his head.
‘God, Becca, you kill me. The castle was re-built after a fire in the nineteenth century. It even has flushing toilets.’ He couldn’t stop laughing. ‘Wait until I tell Jacob. He has always been disgusted that the building is so modern. There is nothing my brother would love more than to have cobwebs, dungeons and especially,’ he gasped out a breath, ‘a torture chamber.’