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‘We’ve got to start somewhere.’
She let out a little laugh. ‘Green.’
‘Favourite food?’
‘Raspberries.’
‘Favourite season?’
‘Spring.’ She laughed again and shook her head. ‘I suppose I have to ask you all the same questions.’
‘Only if you want to.’
Her mouth curved, her eyes lightening. Alessandro liked her that way. ‘I do.’
‘Then it’s blue, steak, and autumn.’
‘We’re practically opposites.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Is blue the opposite of green?’
‘Maybe not. But the others…’ Her laugh turned into a sigh as she glanced down at Ella, stroking her downy head. ‘I don’t know. Do such preferences matter, really? Shouldn’t we be asking each other more important things?’
Alessandro caught his breath as he stared at her intently, trying to decipher her mood. He liked what she’d said, but she’d sounded sad. ‘Such as?’ he asked after a moment.
‘I don’t even know. Such as what you want out of life. What you value. What you believe.’
‘What do you want out of life, Mia?’ He spoke quietly, knowing the question was important, the answer even more so.
She looked up, her expression serious, her eyes bright. ‘First, I want to keep Ella safe and healthy and happy.’
‘Of course. I want that, as well. Utterly.’
‘After that, I want to be independent. With my own money, my own choices. That’s…very important to me.’ Alessandro sensed a wealth of memory and meaning behind her words, and he nodded.
‘Understandable.’ He’d seen that all along, how she chafed against any autocratic commands…which, he acknowledged wryly, he had a tendency to give. But they could work on all that.
‘What do you want out of life, Alessandro?’ She glanced around the spacious kitchen, the sunny garden visible through the French windows. ‘It seems like you have everything already.’
‘I am thankful for what I have,’ Alessandro allowed. ‘But what I’ve wanted…what has driven me, as you’ve said…’ He hesitated, feeling his way through the words. ‘First, I want to protect and care for my family.’
‘Yes.’ The word was a soft assent.
‘And second…it is similar to what you want, in a way, I suppose. I want to be in control. I don’t want to have my life dictated by other people’s whims or poor choices, as it was for all my childhood.’
‘I can understand that.’
‘Yes, it seems you can. So once again we are in accord, Mia. I think you will find we are far more compatible than you once feared.’
‘Perhaps.’ She didn’t sound convinced, but Alessandro knew he could convince her. He had to.
‘I mean it, Mia. I want this to work.’
‘That’s something, then,’ Mia said with a small smile, and as their gazes met and tangled Alessandro found himself remembering a whole host of pleasurable things. The feel of Mia in his arms. The taste of her lips. How sleepy and warm she’d been that morning, snuggled up against him. And he thought how much he wanted to experience all of those things again, over and over.
Yet as his own blood heated, Mia’s seemed to cool, for she looked away, her hair sliding in front of her face. Alessandro felt her emotional withdrawal like a physical thing.
‘I should unpack,’ she said as she brought Ella to her shoulder, pulling her robe closed with her other hand. ‘And get dressed…’
