AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Paloma gripped her phone tightly. Tears slid silently down her face. Was this goodbye? Would she ever see Daniele again? ‘The things you said at the meeting...’
‘Every word came from my heart,cara.’
After Daniele had cut the call, he’d switched off his phone. Paloma’s silence had told him that he’d lost her, and he would not put himself through the additional torture of hoping she would call back. When he had watched her drive away from the palazzo, he’d felt like the five-year-old boy who had wept when his mother had left.
Being at the palazzo had been unbearable without Paloma, and he had jumped onto the motorbike immediately after she had gone. But it was no better at the farmhouse, where memories of her were everywhere. He lost track of time while he was wrapped up in his thoughts of what a fool he had been to realise too late what she meant to him. He stepped out of the kitchen into the courtyard. The sun was fiercely bright. He should have worn sunglasses. His eyes were streaming. He pinched the bridge of his nose and swallowed the lump that had lodged in his throat. He was a grown man, a tough soldier, and he should not be crying, but he could not stop the tears that seeped from beneath his eyelashes.
Dio, he was in hell. He thought he heard a car, but no one ever came here. The farmhouse had been his sanctuary, but he would sell it. Move on. Get over her.
Sure he would.
He roared like a beast in pain.‘Paloma!’
‘Daniele.’
He turned slowly and knew he had lost it completely. Paloma could not be standing in the courtyard, a vision of beauty in a buttercup-yellow dress, with her hair falling in a silky curtain around her shoulders. ‘You...you came back.’
‘You sounded...’ She stared at his wet face. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘I’m in agony.’ He strode towards her, and his heart kicked because she was real, not a vision in his imagination. ‘I stood in front of a room full of people and laid my heart on the line. And you left me,’ he said rawly.
A tear slipped down her cheek. ‘I thought you said...those things...to convince the trustees. It was part of the game we have been playing.’
He shook his head. ‘It was never a game, although I tried telling myself I was doing you a favour by marrying you so that you could claim your place at the company.’ Daniele lifted his hand and touched her hair to make sure she was real. ‘I was in the ambulance with your grandfather when he died. He gave me your grandmother’s engagement ring and told me to keep it with me and give it to the woman who captured my heart. You did that a long time ago,cara, but I was too afraid to admit that I loved you. I was afraid that love wouldn’t last, and you would leave.’ He swallowed. ‘And you did.’
‘I came back.’ Paloma stepped closer to Daniele and stared at his face ravaged by pain. He had said he was in agony, and it was there in the bleakness of his eyes, the trails of moisture on his cheeks. ‘You really love me,’ she whispered in awe. He had said he was afraid, and she understood that fear. Love was scary. It took courage to risk your heart and soul, but she knew she was brave enough and strong enough to love this strong, brave man.
‘I love you, and you love me, so why are we both crying, my darling?’
Light flared in his eyes, hope and adoration that made Paloma tremble.
‘Tesoro.’Daniele’s voice cracked as he wrapped his arms around her and hauled her against his big chest, where his heart was thundering.‘Ti amo, ti adoro, mio cuore.’
He rested his brow against hers and simply held her, and their two hearts beat as one. And then he kissed her reverently and with so much love that more tears slipped down Paloma’s cheeks.
‘Tears of joy,’ she told him softly. ‘My heart belongs to you, and I will never take it away. It is yours for ever, my love.’
‘Show me,’ Daniele murmured when he carried her into the farmhouse and up to the bedroom. They showed each other with tender kisses that became fiercer and more urgent as passion caught light and became an inferno.
Love that they both knew would last a lifetime.
EPILOGUE
‘OURFIRSTWEDDINGANNIVERSARY.’ Paloma smiled at her husband, and her heart missed a beat when Daniele’s handsome face broke into a broad smile.
He smiled a lot these days. Gone was the enigmatic man who had kept her at a distance. He shared his thoughts and hopes and fears with her as she did with him. But most of all they shared a love that grew stronger every day.
‘Next year I’m going to take you away for a private anniversary celebration,’ Daniele told her. ‘Just the three of us.’ He looked down at the baby boy Paloma was cradling in her arms and his smile became so tender that tears pricked her eyes. They both adored little Luigi, who had arrived a month ago with minimal fuss. Paloma was grateful that she had everything she wanted most in the world—love and a family of her own. Luigi’s birth had brought their extended family together.
She looked across the airy sitting room to where the baby’s two grandmothers were sitting and chatting. Her mother had descended on the palazzo with enough luggage to stay for a year, although she was only visiting for a week, and a new husband, the Spanish duke she had met at Paloma and Daniele’s wedding.
Claudia Farnesi was now a regular visitor at the palazzo, as was Daniele’s half-brother, Stefano, who had recently married his pretty chalet maid. Daniele’s relationship with his mother was a gradual process, but baby Luigi had helped break the ice. Paloma had decided to work part-time so that she could be with her baby son as much as possible, and she had made Franco joint head of Morante Group. He had been deeply upset that she’d believed he could have been behind her kidnap ordeal, and now he was her firm ally and business advisor, which allowed Daniele to concentrate on his own hugely successful business.
Luigi was asleep, and she laid him in his crib. Daniele caught hold of her hand and led her out onto the balcony, where they were alone.
‘Happy anniversary,tesoro mio,’ he said softly as he opened a small velvet box. Inside was an exquisite sapphire-and-diamond eternity ring that perfectly matched her engagement ring. ‘I will love you for eternity.’
