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“No one is ever completely safe.”
“Now look who’s talking!”
“I just know the dangers, Sam.”
She shook her head, unable to believe how he’d changed his tune. When he was behind the wheel taking risks, it was fine. But when it was her, it wasn’t? “You don’t trust me.”
“It’s not a matter of trust.”
“Yes, it is. You think you can take crazy risks and survive them. And I can’t even take small risks—”
“I don’t want you to take risks.”
“Life is full of risks, Cristiano! You and I both know that, but weren’t you also the one that taught me to seize life. Live it. Charge the battle?”
He looked at her, carefully, expression intense, agonized, revealing a depth of emotion he let few see. “You hate cars, bella.”
“I know.” She swallowed, and bit her lip, suddenly shy. “But I love you more than I hate cars, so I decided I’d try to face my fears and take some risks.”
He caught her chin in his hand, and leaning into the car, kissed her. “These were some significant fears, bella. Ones that made you leave me.”
“I don’t want to lose you, Cristiano. I don’t want to let you go…not without a fight.” Tears filled her eyes and she reached up, touched his face lightly, lovingly, wonderingly. For three months she’d missed him and missed him and the missing would never have gone away. “Please give me a chance to fight for you.” Her fingers brushed his cheekbone and then down to his mouth. “Please give me a chance—”
“Bella, I think you’ve got it.”
“You have to know I love you. I love you and Gabby and the two of you are my family. And I’d do anything for my family, anything to keep my family together. Please—”
“Done.”
“Done?”
He hauled her out of the car, pulled her against him, his arms wrapping securely around her. “We’re yours. I’m yours.”
“You don’t believe in love—”
“I lied. I need yours.”
That settled it. Sealed the deal. She’d loved him ever since he’d trudged through the snow, building a snowman without gloves with Gabriela in Cheshire, but this, this is what she needed to hear. Selfish as it was, she needed to know he loved her for her. That he wanted her, Samantha Anne Hill, for no other reason than he loved her.
“You have it,” she said, leaning against him, wrapping her arms around his lean torso and kissing him. “For the next fifty years. At home, in your corporate office, on the jet, at the track, in the pit—”
“Ahem.” He coughed, cleared his throat. “Maybe home and the jet’s enough. I don’t think I could concentrate enough to win a race if you’re down on the track, or in the pit.”
“What about the corporate office?”
“What about the nursery at home?” He teased, hazel-green eyes glinting. “Maybe you need a baby to keep you busy since Gabby is getting so independent.”
She blushed, smiled, cheeks hot. “I could get used to the idea of a baby.”
“And maybe in a year or so with a baby in the house, I won’t need to travel so much.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“But I do. I’m having a great year—I’ve never done better—but at the end of the season I’m going to take some time off, concentrate on my driving schools for a while.”
“Why?”
He caressed her warm cheek with his thumb. “I’m thinking about retiring.”
Sam pushed away from his chest, looked up at him. “Retire? Now? Just when I’m getting into the racing scene?”
Cristiano laughed and pulled her close again, his lips covering hers, taking her breath in a long, slow head-spinning kiss. “Exactly what I was afraid of.” He kissed her once more. “Before I know it you’ll be camping out at the track trying to get all the drivers’ autographs.”
She grinned. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Not if I’ve got you at home.” She leaned toward him and kissed him, and as she kissed him the laughter faded, replaced by fierce determination, the kind of determination that comes from knowing what matters most in the world. “Just come home and make us a real family again. That’s all I want—all I’ll ever want. Not things. Not fame. Not fortune. Just family.”
“Our family.”
“Exactly.”
