AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Maybe.’ He reached his arm out and pulled her close to him, absently and tenderly kissing the top of her head. ‘Shall I make dinner now?’ he murmured.
‘Oh, if only your mother could hear you say that!’ she giggled. ‘She once told me that you had never set foot inside the kitchen in your life!’
‘Ah, but that was before I married my independent Kate who taught me everything I know. Well, nearly everything!’ His blue eyes glittered as he planted another kiss on top of her fragrant red hair.
‘Two years ago tomorrow we’ve been married,’ she said wonderingly. ‘Can you believe it?’
Two years? They might as well have been two minutes, they had swept by with such sweet, glorious abandon. A wife, and now a son. Giovanni closed his eyes. Contentment and passion—an unbeatable combination, and one which seemed just as easy as breathing, such was his life with Kate.
Their time together had not been completely without some tensions—but then life was never like that. During the early stages of her pregnancy, he had treated her as he would have a delicate piece of porcelain, and Kate had not objected, not once. As each week had passed, they had breathed sighs of relief that the baby was growing safely, and as her body had burgeoned with the new life, so had their love for each other. Deeper and deeper, so that some mornings she had felt she really ought to pinch herself.
The wedding had been in London and afterwards there had been a big post-wedding party in Sicily for all Giovanni’s family and friends. Kate had met Anna for the first time, then already pregnant by Guido. She and Giovanni’s brother had been married the previous summer, and their happiness was evident for all to see.
Anna had sought Kate out in what had proved initially to be a rather nervous meeting on both sides, but all bitterness had been forgotten when her new sister-in-law had admired Kate’s wedding band.
‘It’s very beautiful,’ she had said. ‘I understand that Giovanni designed it?’
‘Yes.’ Kate’s smile had faltered, knowing that she must say something about the past. ‘Anna, listen, I’m sorry—’
‘No!’ The dark-haired beauty had shaken her smooth head firmly. ‘It is all in the past and the only memories I have of Giovanni are good ones. I am happier now than I could have ever been with him; I realise that now. Guido,’ she had added, with a slow, luminous smile, ‘he is the right man for me—and I am the right woman for him.’
Guido and Anna were installed in their home in the hills outside Palermo, Guido having taken over the running of the factory, whilst Giovanni now masterminded the international side of the business from his brand-new offices in central London.
He and Kate had decided not to settle in Sicily—the dramatic change in culture would not have suited his wife, he had decided. Nor him. His aunt had been right—his trip to America had made him truly cosmopolitan—although in his heart he would always be a Sicilian.
Instead, he and Kate would spend as many holidays as possible in his homeland, and especially in springtime, which held such tender memories for them both.
‘Kate?’
She turned her head up to look at him lazily, basking as always in the glow of love from his eyes. ‘Mmm?’
‘Do you want your anniversary present now?’
‘Shouldn’t I wait?’
‘Have one today, and something else tomorrow,’ he said, smiling as he remembered the glittering diamond cross which lay in a small box in his sock drawer. ‘Look over there.’
She followed the direction of his gaze to a low table that stood in the window of their airy town-house and saw a small box standing next to the fruit bowl. Why hadn’t she noticed it before?
She walked over and picked it up, and turned to face him, a soft smile curving her lips. ‘You buy me too many presents,’ she protested, but only halfheartedly.
He shook his head, admiring the way her silk skirt clung to the slim swell of her bottom. His beautiful Kate! ‘Never enough,’ he murmured indulgently.
She flipped the box open, and inside was a ring—a circlet of bright, glittering diamonds—and she stared at him. ‘Oh, darling,’ she whispered. ‘It’s exquisite.’
‘Come over here,’ he instructed throatily. ‘And let me put it on.’
She walked towards him, almost dazzled by the blaze of love from his eyes, perching next to him on the sofa, aware of the warm male scent of him, and of how much swanted him. Always wanted him.
He slipped the ring onto her finger above the plain wedding band she wore and it fitted perfectly, as she had known it would.
There had been no engagement ring—they had both quietly decided that to have one would be disrespectful to Anna.
‘It’s an eternity ring,’ he told her softly. ‘It means that you are mine for all eternity, cara—as I am yours.’
She sighed with pleasure. ‘Oh, Giovanni, you say the most beautiful things—
promise me you’ll never stop saying them!’
