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Beg?
She stared at him. None of it made sense. ‘But you don’t love me—’
‘How can you say that?’ He stared at her a look of stunned incredulity in his dark eyes. ‘When have I ever led you to believe that I don’t love you?’
She chewed her lip. ‘Loads of reasons,’ she said finally. ‘You didn’t follow me to London, you put me in the spare room and we’ve been lying in the same bed and you haven’t made love to me—’
‘Because when I did make love to you,’ he exploded, the natural volatility of his Mediterranean temperament bubbling to the surface, ‘you slapped me!’
‘It was sex.’
‘It was love, querida,’ he said hoarsely, and she shook her head slowly.
‘You never once said you loved me.’
‘I did.’
‘No,’ she said patiently. ‘You didn’t.’
‘So…’ He spread his hands in a supremely Latin gesture. ‘I had other things on my mind at the time, like the fact that you looked so incredibly sexy and we hadn’t been together for weeks and—’ He broke off and gave an apologetic smile. ‘And I am a man and verbal communication isn’t my forte. I’m working on it.’
‘I thought you’d stopped loving me.’
He stared at her in shocked silence. ‘I’ve never stopped loving you.’
Hope flared and she squashed it down ruthlessly. ‘You’ve never stopped loving me?’
‘Of course not. I know I’m not perfect.’ He frowned slightly as he said the words, as if admitting such a fact was difficult, ‘and I realise that I’ve done many things wrong. Seeing you in A and E and in the mountain rescue team made me realise how many skills you have that you’re not using. You have made so many sacrifices for the family.’
‘They weren’t sacrifices,’ Christy murmured, but he shook his head.
‘You made this family work. You made it possible for me to live the life I wanted to lead. And I neglected you as a woman. I can see that now.’
She sucked in a breath. ‘Alessandro—’
‘You have to let me finish,’ he breathed, taking the box and removing the ring. ‘Over the past two weeks I have tried so hard not to be controlling and bossy and I promise to work on that but even so, I can’t let you leave again. I know I drive you crazy but you love me, Christy. Over the last two weeks I’ve become more and more sure about that.’
She swallowed hard. ‘Of course I love you. And I didn’t mean to leave—at least, not in the way that you mean. You weren’t listening to me and I thought it was the only way to get through to you. I thought you’d come after me—’
‘You didn’t mean to leave? What do you mean, you didn’t mean to leave?’
‘It was only ever supposed to be for the weekend,’ she confessed, pushing aside the last vestiges of her pride in an effort to save their relationship. ‘I thought you’d come after me and drag me back.’
He ran a hand over his roughened jaw. ‘Am I really that controlling?’
‘Yes. But not on that occasion, obviously. Ironic, really. The one time I wanted you to come and drag me back, you didn’t do it.’
‘It seems that I’m not the only one who is hopeless at communicating. When I realised you’d left I was totally and utterly devastated,’ he groaned, sliding a hand into her hair and tilting her head so that he could look into her eyes. ‘I thought you didn’t love me any more and I could hardly blame you, because I missed our anniversary—’
‘It wasn’t about our anniversary,’ she interrupted him in a soft voice, needing to explain. ‘We just didn’t feel like a couple any more.’
‘I suppose I was suffering from that old cliché of taking you for granted.’ He gave a shrug and a self-deprecating smile. ‘I came home and you were always here. And then one day you weren’t and I had the shock of my life.’
‘So why didn’t you come after me?’
‘I genuinely didn’t realise that was what you wanted, although I should have done, of course. I’ve lived with you long enough to understand your temper.’ His voice was soft and he dragged his thumb over her cheek in a gentle caress. ‘For once in my life I was trying to think of you. I wanted you back but you were obviously so fed up with me that I thought you needed time and space so I left you alone.’
‘And I thought you didn’t want me.’
