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The bathroom door was shoved open and Cecily, their three-year-old daughter, came flying in followed in quick succession by her four-year-old brother and their slower, sappy King Charles spaniel, Alfie.
Cecily threw her arms around Anna’s legs. ‘Mario hit me,’ she wailed.
‘She threw my ice cream on the floor!’ he hollered indignantly.
‘Behave, the pair of you,’ Stefano scolded, amusement lurking in his eyes. ‘And no hitting.’
‘But...!’
‘If you can’t play nicely together we won’t go to the beach,’ Anna cut in. With Mario due to start school in England that September, they’d decided to spend the summer in their Santa Cruz beach house, the unanimous family favourite of all their homes.
Two months before Mario had been born, they’d left their London apartment and moved into a rambling manor house in Ox
fordshire surrounded by acres of land for their football team of children to play in. It was an idyllic existence. Picture perfect. Apart from having two children who liked nothing more than fighting furiously, of course.
‘No fair!’ they both shouted together. Still bickering, the pair of them toddled off to their playroom, no doubt leaving a trail of chaos and destruction in their wake. She found it remarkable that their mess didn’t bother her at all.
‘Are you sure you want another one?’ Stefano asked, laughing.
She grinned. Their football team hadn’t quite materialised. After having two children with a gap of less than a year between them, they’d decided to wait and enjoy them before having any more.
She’d come off the pill a month ago.
‘I think we can cope.’
‘That’s a relief.’ He passed the stick to her, his grin now as wide as his face. ‘Because according to this, we’re having another one.’
Anna read the blue plus sign, her own grin widening to match her husband’s.
With a whoop of delight, Stefano picked her up and planted kisses all over her face.
Wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, Anna returned the kisses. Even with two children and another on the way, their desire and love for each other remained undiminished. There wasn’t a single aspect of her life she would change. Together they’d created a family filled with love and laughter, arguments and lots of making up.
‘Daddy! What are you doing to my mummy?’ Cecily was standing in the bathroom doorway, her arms folded and the same expression on her face that Stefano always used when he wasn’t amused by something. ‘Put her down at once!’
Stefano put Anna down, gave her one last kiss for luck, then scooped his daughter up and carried her, screaming with laughter, upside down to the playroom.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Persuading plain Jane to marry him was easy enough – but Shiekh Zayed Al Zawba hadn’t bargained on the irresistible curves hidden under her clothes, or that she is deliciously untouched. When Jane begins to tempt him beyond his wildest dreams, leaving their marriage unconsummated becomes impossible…
Read on for a sneak preview of
THE SHEIKH’S BOUGHT WIFE
It was difficult to be distant when your body seemed to have developed a stubborn will of its own. When she found herself wanting to push her aching breasts against Zayed’s powerful chest as he caught her in his arms for the traditional first dance between bride and groom. As it was, she could barely think straight and wasn’t it the most infuriating thing in the world that he immediately seemed to pick up on that?
‘You seem to be having trouble breathing, dear wife,’ he murmured as he moved her to the center of the marble dance floor.
‘The dress is very tight.’
‘I’d noticed.’ He twirled her around, holding her back a little. ‘It looks very well on you.’
She forced a tight smile but she didn’t relax. ‘Thank you.’
‘Or maybe it is the excitement of having me this close to you which is making you pant like a little kitten?’
