He howled and Becca decided it wasn’t
that
funny.
So she deliberately glowered and pouted at him. It had the desired effect as he scooped her up and laid her on the bed before he stripped down to his skin.
He switched off the light and rolled next to her. Peeling off her robe he tucked her in his arms and pulled the duvet over them.
‘So, your dream is to marry me on a beach?’ he insisted as his arms came around her and his knee snuggled between her thighs.
Honestly, the man was like a dog with a bone.
‘Yes, but I’m a big girl and perfectly understand that I can’t have everything I want. Marriage is about compromise.’
Her sudden gasp of shock had him jolt up in bed and switch on the light.
‘What?’
‘Hush!’ Her eyes went wide as the palms of her hands covered her belly. Then she smiled even as her eyes swam. ‘Lucas,’ she whispered in awe. She took his hand and lay it on her belly and covered it with hers praying that the little flutter would come again and he’d experience this miracle with her. Sure enough right under his hand the flutter came again, stronger this time. And his huge grin made her laugh.
‘
Querida
, is that ...?’
‘Yes,’ she whispered as he wiped then kissed away the tears from her hairline, his big hand caressing her belly.
The muscles contracted under his hand and he lifted it away as if he’d been electrocuted.
‘What is the matter? They do not want me to touch them?’
Now it was her turn to laugh. ‘No. It’s just my tummy practising for the big day.’
‘Does it hurt?’
‘No.’ She grinned up into his face. ‘Put the light out,
Senor
, and make love to me.’
Their kisses didn’t stay soft and sweet for long. The passion that ruled them could not be denied and soon overtook any thought but to bring their bodies to the pinnacle of a singing ecstasy.
The next day found Becca and Bronte at the Spa in Ludlow Hall.
‘Mmm. That feels wonderful.’
Becca opened an eye to watch Bronte being oiled and massaged by a woman who looked as if she could give a sumo wrestler a run for his money.
A screen was pulled between them and across the bottom to give Becca complete privacy for the next step of her treatment.
The beautician gave her an encouraging smile and asked her to bend her knees and spread them wide. Becca did as she was told. She took a breath and waited for hot wax to touch the most sensitive part of her. It was hot but not burning, thank God. It would be worth it to see Lucas’s face. She’d never had a Brazilian wax, even though plenty of the girls she knew had one regularly. And Lucas had certainly never complained. The thought that maybe he preferred her au natural had her wonder if she was doing the right thing. But it was too late now. She gritted her teeth as the beautician went to work quickly and efficiently.
Later, the girls had their hair washed and blow-dried before they treated themselves to a long, leisurely lunch.
And Becca realised she’d made a good friend.
Bronte sipped her coffee, her vivid green eyes met Becca’s.
‘I suppose you’ve organised the cake?’
Becca’s eyes went wide.
She hadn’t even given it a thought. ‘I’ve left everything to my mother. I expect we’ll just need to take what we can get.’
‘Tell you what - I’ll do one for you. What do you fancy?’
‘Oh my God, are you serious? A Sweet Sensations cake? But surely you’re booked up months ahead.’
Bronte gave her a cheeky grin. ‘On the way home we’ll drop in and see my partner, Rosie Gordon, and check out the stock in the freezers. Have a think of what you and Lucas’s favourite tastes are.’
‘Chocolate. White chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate.’
‘You’re easy.’
‘With a dance theme for me and something to reflect Lucas, what do you think?’
‘A camera on a tripod sort of thing since he’s Mr Communication?’
Feeling overwhelmed, Becca caught Bronte’s hand across the table.
‘I don’t know how to thank you for making me feel so welcome. I know Nico is pretty special to Lucas.’
‘You don’t need to thank me. I’ll be keeping in touch to see how you’re getting on. And phone me anytime. I come up to town from time to time for the dreaded shopping, so we can meet up.’
‘You don’t like shopping?’
‘Hate it.’
Becca laughed, at last she’d found a kindred spirit. ‘Me too. Nothing fits when you’ve no boobs.’
Bronte wrinkled her nose in disgust. ‘I know the feeling. Thank goodness Nico doesn’t mind, but my ex was always harping on about implants.’
‘You were engaged before?’
A dark shadow crossed Bronte’s emerald eyes.
She gave Becca a smile that was a trifle forced.
‘I went through pretty dark times before Nico and I finally got it together. It makes me thankful for what I have today.’
Becca wasn’t going to force a confidence. She could see that something had deeply affected her friend.
‘Do you think the men will be okay with the babies? They’ve been left alone with them for hours.’
Bronte gave her a cheeky grin. ‘Nico’s an old hand. Worry not.’
Three hours later Bronte parked her SUV in the driveway of The Dower House.
They’d stopped to have a tasting session at Sweet Sensation where they’d narrowed down her choices and Becca had laughed harder than she’d done for years in no small part due to Bronte’s best friend and partner Rosie Gordon who was totally insane and great fun.
Bronte opened the door to the kitchen living space and stopped dead.
Becca gasped as her eyes scanned the detritus on the floor.
Toys were scattered everywhere.
Trucks, dozens of wooden cars all lay on their sides and hundreds of pieces of chunky Lego had been constructed into what looked like a fortification of some kind.
Dolls’ bodies lay face down obviously casualties in a battle of some kind. It looked like a war zone.
And someone had spilt talcum powder. A thin layer of white dust had settled on the black granite work surfaces and stainless steel appliances, not to mention the plate glass dining table.
Two baby high chairs were splattered in what Becca’s speeding heart initially thought was blood then realised it was tomato sauce.
Nico lay on his back, sprawled on the floor, sound asleep, with little Luca tucked under his arm. The child was plastered in tomato sauce and what looked like chocolate. Lucas was lying on his back with Sophia draped across his chest. Her blonde hair was stuck in clumps of congealed tomato sauce and her sweet little rosebud of a mouth was rimmed with chocolate.
The thing that made Becca snort with laughter was the fact that both men’s mouths were covered in chocolate too and Lucas’s hair was matted with what looked like bits of chocolate chip cookie.
Becca got her Smartphone out of her bag to take a photo. It was the first time she’d ever been deeply thankful for the device.
Tip-toeing over, she took at least three before Nico’s eyes blinked open.
Bronte nudged her husband’s bare foot with the toe of her pointy shoe.
‘Well, well, well. And what have we here?’ she drawled.
Nico gave his wife his best sexy grin. ‘We are babysitting
, cara mia
.’
Bronte nudged his toe again and folded her arms.
‘Don’t
cara mia
me, Nico Ferranti. Look at the state of this place? And look at my good clean floor!’
Lucas blinked up into Becca’s laughing face. ‘
Querida
? You look very beautiful.’
‘Do I? You look as if you’ve had death by chocolate.’
‘The cookies are organic and we gave the babies one each.’
Becca lifted up two large empty packets, gave them a little wiggle.
‘Really? And who ate the rest?’
‘You would not believe what hard work it is to look after two children,’ he said quite sincerely from the floor.
With care Bronte lifted a drowsy Luca and held him at arms length. Becca lifted Sophia and held her out too. They were both filthy and fractious and needed their nappies changing.
Bronte wrinkled her nose. ‘Phew. Time for a bath, milk and bed.’
She moved to the door and looked at the men over her shoulder. ‘And you two can clean my kitchen.’
Becca just grinned and followed her up the stairs to the nursery.
Lucas stood feeling dazed and stared at the debris.
He didn’t have a clue where to start.
‘Did we do all this with just two little babies?’ He ran a hand through his hair and peered at the chocolate chip he’d found there. He tasted it. Very nice.
Nico stood, stretched and scratched his flat belly under a T-shirt that had been white a few short hours ago. ‘We will begin with the toys first. No problem. I have a system.’
‘You do?’ Lucas wondered what the hell it was as he started to gather up Lego into a huge plastic container and groaned as his lower back ached.
Who’d believe how exhausting parenthood was? But he had to admit he’d had the best fun. He and his best pal Sophia had bombed Luca and Nico. The kids had had a blast and that was the main thing. What were a few crumbs of chocolate? And it had been years since he’d had spaghetti bolognese for lunch. He must get Moira to make it. And the rice pudding had been tasty too.
Since his feet were bare when Lucas stood on a small piece of Lego he howled, hopping on the spot, since it burned like the fires of hell.
‘Those little fuckers are the worst for that,’ Nico observed, hoovering up soft toys and wooden cars into a large expanding toy box. He hunted around in a spacious cupboard and emerged with a vacuum cleaner, pan and brush. Then he surfed over to another cupboard and brought out a yellow bucket with cleaning sprays and cloths.
Half an hour later the room looked pretty good to Lucas’s untrained eye and he sucked on a bottle of beer with his best buddy.
Life felt pretty damn good too.
‘Nico, Bronte wants you up stairs to say goodnight to the kids.’
Nico leapt up, smacking a big kiss on Becca’s cheek as he passed.
She grinned at Lucas’s narrow eyed stare.
‘I have a thing for Latin men,’ she told him with a cheeky grin.
‘Come here and sit on my knee and have a thing for me. I am Spanish.’
She ignored him and spun in a slow circle.
‘Wow, I’m impressed. You have hidden talents.’
‘Come here, woman,’ he growled.
Giving in to the command in his deep voice, Becca perched on his knee and snagged his beer to take a tiny sip. Handing him the bottle she plucked a tissue out of the box on the coffee table and wiped his mouth.
‘I’m not putting my mouth on that mouth until it’s clean,’ she told him in a motherly tone.
Lucas placed the bottle on the table and pounced.
Becca found herself under him on the couch as he showed her exactly what he could do with a dirty mouth.
‘Hey, Bronte! Our guests are making out on our couch!’ Nico yelled to his wife.
Laughing Becca smacked Lucas upside his head. ‘Let me up you big gorilla. We’re guests. Behave yourself.’
But Lucas simply kissed her even harder using his tongue as a weapon.
‘Oh, my,’ Bronte said from the door, her arm around her husband’s waist and a big grin on her face.
After an undignified tussle, Lucas released a very flushed Becca and pulled her down on his knees.
‘I’m so sorry about this, but there are times when he’s unmanageable,’ she told her hosts as she slapped at his hands.
‘Please, don’t worry. It’s usually us who embarrass guests. Nico’s always been very touchy feely.’ And he proved it by running his hand down her hip and over her bottom. Bronte stepped smartly away and cocked a brow at the pristine state of her kitchen. ‘Well done. I think you deserve at least a pizza for all that hard work.’
Becca stood, feeling terribly guilty that they were intruding on their host’s precious time together. ‘We don’t want to keep you guys.’
Nico stepped forward. ‘It is no trouble,
cara
. Please stay. It has been a long time since I spent quality time with Lucas.’
Lucas simply shrugged. ‘I am happy to stay for a couple of hours and share a pizza,
querida
.’
Becca looked to Bronte who simply grinned. ‘We’re more than happy to have you.’
With everyone staring at her, Becca shrugged. ‘Okay, but let me help. I’m hopeless in the kitchen but I can lift and carry.’
‘Sit,’ said Bronte. ‘Nico will set the table and my finger will dial The Hall for pizza. Easy.’
Nico switched on the large flat screen television and turned the volume down. The men settled down with a beer to watch the sport headlines while Bronte rolled her eyes at Becca.
‘Come on up and I’ll show you my wedding dress.’
‘This is gorgeous.’
Holding up a strapless concoction in ivory silk Becca swayed in front of the huge modern mirror framed in thick dark mahogany that leaned against wall.
Bronte lounged on a wide couch with a soft smile of reminiscence on her dreamy face.
‘It’s Elie Saab. I wore that when I was about sixteen weeks pregnant. Have a look at his dresses they’re fabulous. Especially for women like us who are long and lean and boobless.’
Becca handed the dress over to Bronte who zipped it up into its protective bag and hung it in her huge closet.
Settling into an ivory linen couch, Becca kicked off her pumps before tucking her legs under her.
‘I’ve done nothing about a dress. The whole thing feels surreal to be honest.’
‘Oh, I know how that feels. Lucas has swept you off your feet. Our men don’t hang around when they find the woman they want.’
‘More like steamrolled right over me.’
Bronte’s vivid green eyes went watchful. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I’m not complaining at all. I love him with all my heart. He’s been wonderful to me, Bronte.’
‘But it’s hard to find your feet especially with everything that’s been going on with dear Willow.’
Becca shook her head. ‘None of that stuff got to me. I’ve met her twice and I know of her because of what I do. The theatre world is a small one. Everyone knows everyone else and we have our fair share of gossip.’