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‘Gianni suggested that I get in touch with them, so I made a fresh statement the day before yesterday,’ Milly admitted with a rueful twist of her lips. ‘I’m afraid that even with my memory back I still didn’t have any useful facts to offer them.’
‘That can’t be helped. By the way, Gianni mentioned the enquiries he’s having made on our behalf. If our long-lost daughter can be traced, I’ve no doubt he’s the man to do it. Yet that awful day he made us tell you the truth I didn’t trust him an inch.’ The older woman grimaced. ‘I should’ve recognised that, having found you, he was simply terrified of losing you again!’
Milly laughed at that idea. ‘Gianni has nerves of steel!’
‘Not where you’re concerned,’ the older woman replied with quiet conviction.
After a light supper was served at seven, Connor fell asleep on Milly’s lap. Gianni lifted his slumbering son gently from her. ‘It’s time he went to bed.’
Barbara Withers was dancing, and very much preoccupied with her partner. Gianni was ready to intervene, but Milly scolded him with reproachful eyes and gave him a little lecture on the need to consider the feelings and the needs of his employees.
‘How many employees have you had?’ Gianni enquired as he carried Connor upstairs.
‘None…but I know what’s right,’ Milly retorted, not one whit deflated. ‘And sometimes you’re just a bit too bossy and demanding.’
Gianni met her look of fearless challenge and threw back his head to laugh. ‘Dio mio…how I have missed you in my life!’
At that admission, her breath caught in her throat. “Sometimes I wonder if I lost my memory because I couldn’t handle remembering the pain,’ she confided shakily.
The sudden silence that fell seemed to hang on a knife-edge. Aware that she had breached forbidden barriers, Milly scooped Connor out of Gianni’s arms and got on with putting him to bed. By the time she had finished their exhausted toddler was no longer fast asleep.
‘Play cars?’ he mumbled drowsily to Gianni.
Hoping to distract their son until he went off again, Milly picked up a toy car and ran it along the top of his duvet. ‘I can give you ten minutes.’
‘Boys play cars,’ Connor muttered dismissively.
‘I wonder where he picks up these sexist ideas,’ Gianni remarked, with sudden vibrant amusement.
‘It’s the Sicilian blood, Gianni. It’s in his genes,’ Milly teased, highly relieved that the awkward moment had been successfully bridged.
But it wasn’t to be the last awkward moment. A pretty brunette teenager hurried up to speak to Gianni when they returned to the ballroom. ‘Why’s Stefano not here?’ she asked baldly.
Gianni’s long fingers tensed on Milly’s spine. ‘He’s not well.’
‘Gosh, is it serious?’
‘I shouldn’t think so,’ Gianni countered.
‘Poor Stefano,’ the girl groaned sympathetically. ‘He never seems to have much luck these days, and yet he used to be so much fun.’
‘Maybe he just grew up,’ Gianni suggested flatly.
He whirled Milly fluidly away onto the dance floor. It was some minutes before she could breath normally again, and even longer before she felt the worst of the tension ease in Gianni’s big powerful frame. Had he invited Stefano to their wedding? Or had she just heard a social excuse to cover the absence of his one and only brother?
‘I wanted this to be a wonderful day,’ Gianni breathed harshly.
‘It has been,’ Milly argued. ‘Don’t you ever dare think otherwise! I’ve met hundreds of people, who have all been incredibly nice to me. I’ve got to be the centre of attention without anybody thinking I was a show-off! And for the first time in our entire relationship you have switched off your mobile phone!’
His dark, deep flashing eyes roamed over her animated face with an intensity that made her heart sing. Easing her closer, he complained about the frustrating difference in their heights and then, with a growl of very male impatience, he just lifted her high off her startled feet. He kissed her with such desperately hungry need she was trembling when he finally lowered her back to solid earth again.
‘I need to be alone with you. I want you all to myself, cara mia,’ Gianni growled in the circle of her arms.
‘Well, you’re just going to have to wait.’
‘If we’d been able to take a honeymoon, we could have been out of here hours ago!’ Gianni ground out in frustration.
‘Why weren’t we able?’
