AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You can’t be serious?’ Jessie frowned, adorably. ‘But I literally fed her like half an hour ago,’ she said, starting to sound a little perturbed.
I tried not to laugh. I knew she was tired. We both were. Our daughter, it seemed, was not one to observe schedules. And she was almost as attached to her mother’s breasts as I was.
‘It is just that she has very good taste,’ I said, lifting my eyebrows lasciviously. ‘Like her papa.’
‘Oh god, stop it.’ Jessie chuckled, then winced before giving me a playful slap. ‘Don’t make me laugh, you know I’m still sore.’
‘Scusa, cara...’I apologised then leant forward, and gave her a kiss on the nose. Feeling repentant, but also not, because I loved her laugh, almost as much as her breasts. ‘Have I told you recently that I adore you,Principessa?’ I murmured, as I pulled back, no longer able to keep the love brimming in my heart from spilling out of my mouth.Again.
How could I ever have lived without this woman in my life? When she was everything to me now. My lover, my friend, my partner, my wife and also my mistress—I grinned as I thought of how much that word had distressed her once—and now the mother of my daughter. And I hoped, many more babies to come. Although I intended to keep that suggestion to myself for at least a year, to give us both time to recover from the birth.
Famiglia. Family.
A word that had always frightened me—in both Italian and English—before Jessie. Because it had made me think of the mother I had lost. But it meant everything to me now.
‘I think you may have mentioned it,’ Jessie said, the beaming smile she sent me making me want to say it again. And again. And again.
Giorgia began to wriggle and protest. I looked down at her screwed-up little face and wondered how someone so tiny could be so prefect.
‘I can change her and take her for a walk in the grounds if you like,’ I said. ‘There is some of your milk in the fridge to warm up, yes?’
‘It’s the middle of the night, Renzo,’ Jessie said, as if this was relevant. Her gaze skated down my bare chest, to the boxer shorts I had put on hastily as soon as Gio had begun to snuffle in her basinet. ‘And you’re virtually naked.’
‘It is okay, it is warm out, and you are tired. And Gio and I love our midnight walks,’ I said, because it wasn’t the first time I’d taken my daughter out in the middle of the night to give her mother a chance to sleep. And the grounds of our home were beautiful this time of year. I liked to tell her all the things we would do in them together when she got a little bigger.
Jessie smile became pensive, as she stared back at me, her gaze so full of love and pride and approval I wanted to bask in it forever. ‘You know,’ she said softly. ‘My mum once told me I should never trust a good-looking guy, especially if he was rich. Just shows how much she knew.’
I frowned. She rarely mentioned her mother. But it always made me sad, and a little angry when she did, because although she had forgiven the woman long ago, I knew I never would.
I placed my hand on her nape, drew her towards me and pressed my forehead to hers with our daughter snuggled between us. ‘Your mother was a fool, Jessie,’ I whispered, the emotion making my throat close, ‘who did not deserve you. But we do.’
She nodded as we drew apart, our daughter’s cries becoming louder. ‘I’m so glad you know that now,’ she said.
Then she lifted the baby out of my arms, and settled her on her breast.
I stretched out on the bed beside her, threw my arm around her shoulder, to tuck them both against my side where they belonged. As I marvelled at the sight of our baby latching on to one plump rosy nipple and sucking voraciously—seriously, it was as if she hadn’t been fed in a week—I felt the truth of what I had said spread all the way through my heart.
Jessie was right. Ididdeserve her and my daughter now. And the family we had made together. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to keep earning her love. Because the truth was, there was nothing I enjoyed more.
Nine Months to Save Their Marriage
Annie West
Bess couldn’t handle this, couldn’t trust herself. Even though she knew he could never be the man she wanted, he was the man her body craved.
Fear propelled her. She straightened, pushing away from the tree behind her. But she miscalculated, for instead of obligingly stepping backward, Jack stayed where he was.
Her momentum made her breasts graze his torso, and as she stepped forward, her leg slid between his.
Bess froze, stunned. The reality of his iron-hard chest and thighs, burning with that familiar male heat, tore free something she’d tried to keep bound tight inside. She gasped, shocked at the too-familiar sensations rocketing through her, undermining every good intention.
“I have a better idea.” He inclined his head, his voice dropping to a note that turned her willpower to water. “We sort this out now.”
“This? The divorce?”
Jack shook his head. “No, my darling wife.This.” He wrapped one arm around her back, his other hand supporting her head as he leaned in and kissed her.
This one is dedicated to my lovely friend Anna Campbell with fond memories of our retreat.
