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He let out a husky laugh then pressed his lips to mine and murmured, ‘Te lo prometto, Eva.’

And I knew that although there would still be battles ahead, finally, they were battles we could win.

Epilogue

Two years later

Evie

‘Papa, Zio… Prendermi! Prendermi-mi-mi!’

I laughed, lying on a lounger next to my heavily pregnant sister Mia while I watched my intrepid nephew Luca toddle over towards his father and his uncle, who stood beside the pool discussing a business deal.

The sunshine gleamed on the water and warmed my wet skin but as Luca clasped his uncle’s leg and stared up at him, begging to be lifted into his arms again in his baby Italian, the interplay that followed made my heart lift.

Dante should have intimidated the small child. He was so tall and muscular and even wearing nothing more than wet swimming trunks, he looked every inch the Mafia boss. The tattoos and scars on his dark skin gleamed, marking out the hard life he’d led, but when he placed a large hand on the little boy’s head, I saw the gentleness in him that I had witnessed so many times now in our marriage. A gentleness he reserved for me, our faithful and very naughty mutt Romeo and his nephew on Isla Donna.

‘You should say please, Luca,’ my husband replied in English, giving the determined toddler a stern glance that didn’t fool any of us.

‘Peese!’ the little boy replied, one of the few words he had learned in English. Along with ‘no’ and ‘more’.

I could see the smile in Dante’s eyes when he hefted the squirming boy into his arms—who proceeded to giggle outrageously as both his uncle and his father finally broke off their business conversation to play with him in Isla Donna’s pool.

Mia and I watched with big grins on our faces as the two bosses of Italy’s most feared crime syndicate began to throw the delighted little boy between the two of them as he splashed and chortled, loving every minute of the boisterous game.

‘I never thought I’d say this,’ Mia murmured beside me, stroking her belly in the stretchy one-piece suit, ‘but I think Dante will make an amazing father one day, just like his brother.’

My heart pounded hard in my chest, the heat hitting my cheeks at the secret I’d kept to myself for two days now, ever since I’d taken the pregnancy test in our home in Manhattan. I hadn’t told Dante, not yet. Because however good our relationship was now, however secure and safe I felt about my love for him and his for me, he had never discussed children. Not since that one dictatorial comment he’d made in the early days of our marriage about me ‘bearing his heirs’. This baby wasn’t planned, it was a huge accident, brought about, I suspected, by a bout of food poisoning I’d had six weeks ago.

I hadn’t been able to keep anything down for two days and Dante had been so solicitous, but as soon as I had started to feel better… Well, I’d basically jumped him. It hadn’t even occurred to me that one of the things I’d been puking up was my contraceptive pills—until a week ago, when my breasts had become unbearably tender and I’d wondered what on earth had happened to my period.

‘Evie, what’s wrong?’ Mia asked, alert as always to my moods. I saw the familiar motherly concern and reached out to give her fingers a reassuring squeeze.

‘Nothing… I hope,’ I said, swallowing down my own apprehension.

Swinging her legs round so she could sit up properly—not easy with her pregnancy belly in the way—she clung to my fingers. ‘If he’s done something, you need to tell me.’

I choked out a laugh, stupidly touched by Mia’s determination to protect me even now. ‘Mia, you’re about to pop! What exactly would you do to him if he had done something?’

She grinned back at me, her stance relaxing—because, despite her old fears kicking in, she knew as well as I did that my marriage to Dante was strong and happy.

‘I don’t know, maybe I could sit on him—I do currently weigh several tons!’

We both laughed, but then she tightened her grip on my hand.

‘I know he wouldn’t hurt you, Evie. It’s obvious how much he adores you, how much you’ve changed him,’ she said. ‘But I just want you to know, I’m here if you need to chat about anything…’

I hadn’t changed him, we’d changed each other, I thought.

I no longer felt needy and alone and insecure, because he was there with me. And he knew he could trust me to love him, no matter what.

I adored our life in Manhattan. We weren’t just a couple but the partnership I’d always hoped for. And in private, I saw sides of Dante that no one else knew existed, because he trusted me in a way he had never trusted anyone else.

But while I was excited about my pregnancy, I was also afraid it might change our relationship. He was still a ludicrously dominating alpha guy, his irrational fears for my safety something he often struggled not to let get out of hand. And I was scared my pregnancy would only exacerbate those fears.

Mia’s gaze narrowed again. ‘Seriously, what is it, Evie, because you look worried, and you know how that freaks me out?’

I frowned. ‘I’m not worried… Really, I’m not… It’s just… Well…’ I babbled to a stop, my secret caught in my throat. Should I tell my sister about the baby before I told Dante? Would he be upset? Hurt? Was that one of those unbreakable rules of marriage I was still trying to learn?