Happy Mother's Day! - By Sharon Kendrick Page 0,114

away.’

‘Can you do that?’

He gave one of his inimitable shrugs. ‘I’m the boss, cara. I can do anything I like and,’ he admitted, his lips curling into a sardonic smile, ‘I am very good at delegating. I hope you understand that during this time I was very angry with you.’

‘What did you do next, other than be angry with me?’

‘I came back here and I thought when Erin comes back our home will be finished.’

‘You thought I would come back?’

‘I could not allow myself to think anything else,’ he said simply. ‘That night in Venice, the night of the ball, your obvious distrust of me, the things you accused me of—I cannot lie, I was very, very angry. My pride was hurt … I walked … God knows where. I knew if I came back I would say things that I would regret.

‘And part of me, a not very nice part of me, took pleasure from the possibility you might think I was with another woman. It was petty and contemptible.’ He looked with pained anguish into her blue eyes. ‘But my plan backfired. When I came back to find you leaving me I was shocked. I think I was in shock.

‘I didn’t really think you would do it. My pride would not let me believe that a woman would reject Francesco Romanelli.’ He gave a snort of self-derision at his arrogance. ‘But you did. I let you go. I can’t believe how stupid I was!’ he admitted with a groan. ‘I actually sat and watched while you, my one chance of happiness, walked out of my life.’

Is he talking about me? Am I his one chance at happiness?

‘After you had gone I just sat there on the bed expecting that you would walk in any moment.

‘It was a crushing blow when you didn’t and … well, I have told you how I spent our time apart.’

‘That night in Venice, when I went back to the room I recognised even then that my jealousy was the cause of the problem. I planned to discuss it with you, but when the minutes ticked by, well … it felt that something was dying inside me.’ She gave a great gulp and covered her mouth with her hand. ‘I thought you didn’t care,’ she admitted, her voice cracking. ‘That I’d pushed you into another woman’s arms.’

With a cry, Francesco reached for her own hand resting in the hollow of her back, the other cradling the back of her head. ‘I felt the same way,’ he admitted, brushing her hair back from her brow and raining reverent kisses on the smooth skin he had exposed.

‘But if I had trusted you, if I hadn’t let my wretched imagination go wild … we would never …’

He silenced her protest with a kiss so achingly tender that it brought fresh tears to Erin’s eyes. With a sigh she sagged against him, her face pressed into his chest while he murmured soft endearments and kissed her hair. It was some time later that they moved by mutual consent towards the big metal-studded door.

‘I hope you’ll approve of what I’ve done to our home, Erin.’

Her ability to think straight blasted into oblivion by the amazing things he had just said, she nodded. Her legs felt so weak with reaction to the revelations of the last few minutes that she needed the support of the hand in the small of her back that guided her towards the massive front door.

‘You know how you said a baby grand would look good in the summer sitting room when it had a roof?’

She tilted an enquiring look up at him.

‘Well, it now has a roof and a baby grand.’

She was laughing when she walked through the door. She was laughing all the way up to the point someone screamed ‘Surprise!’ and what seemed like hundreds of people leapt out laughing and shouting and in some cases waving banners.

‘Dio mio …!’ Francesco gritted through clenched teeth as he pulled her into his side. ‘I swear to you, cara I had no idea. If I had I would have hired stunt doubles for the occasion.’

‘Don’t scowl,’ she said, sticking a warning elbow in his side and hiding her own dismay and frustration behind a smile. ‘They’re trying to be nice.’

‘Best not to mention the rough flight to my mother,’ Francesco said as a middle-aged couple approached.

Looking curiously at the distinguished-looking man with the mane of white hair, Erin knew exactly what her husband would look