added. As if that pigheaded stubbornness was something to be proud of.”

He smiled as Alex pulled him close and kissed him. “You both need time to heal, V. And it’s a damn big villa. We can even have your mother and her nurses live with us. In fact, I insist on it.”

Vincenzo swallowed the tears that clogged his throat and looked into the eyes of the woman who’d given him everything. “It’s not always easy to have her around.”

She shrugged. “But family is never easy, right? I have always wanted a big family, and you and me and Charlie and this baby and Greta and your mother…this is our big family, V. This is everything I always wanted.”

“You’re my heart and soul, Princess, and my happiness lies wherever you are. With this baby. With Charlie. So, yes to everything, bella. To a life full of laughter and joy.”

“Yes, please,” she whispered against his mouth, and he felt as if his heart would burst out of his chest. For there was a strange giddy quality to it he had never known before. Love.

EPILOGUE

Eight months later

ALEX PRESSED HERSELF back with a deep moan as strong hands descended on her hips. As rock-hard thighs cradled hers. As the hardness she ached for nestled enticingly into her buttocks.

Vincenzo nuzzled into her neck, and she happily threw her head back, more than greedy for her husband’s caresses after a busy three months.

“I’ve missed you, Princess,” he murmured, his lips and teeth and tongue wreaking havoc on the sensitive spot on her neck, sending live wires of sensation straight to her sex.

“I’ve missed you too,” Alex whispered, pressing her fingers onto his. And then pulling them up until his hands cradled her breasts. He immediately obliged, rolling her already tightening nipples into harder peaks with his clever fingers.

“Think we have a few minutes before we have to rescue Greta from down there?”

Alex looked down at the front lawn, where Charlie was running around in circles, Vincenzo’s mother kept darting looks at the little baby boy in the stroller, calling him Vincenzo, and Greta was very efficiently keeping an eye on the whole lot of them. “Greta doesn’t need to be rescued at all. She soothes your fractious son, Luca, and your mother all at the same time with one magic word uttered in that commanding voice of hers. They both respond to her so well, V. It’s really something to watch.”

He didn’t say it, but Alex felt the slight tension in his body when his mother ventured closer to their son’s stroller. And his exhale of relief when she simply bent to pick up the pacifier their son had spat out and plonked it back into his mouth with a tenderness that made Alex’s throat ache.

She turned around, determined to distract him. The kiss she took from him—a heated tangle of teeth and tongues—was nowhere near enough. The last eight months had been laughter and joy and pain and sometimes plain awkwardness as her reticent husband learned to embrace all the things that came with being part of a large family.

But not a day went by when he didn’t let her know how much he loved her. Not a day went by when he didn’t show how much their sons, Luca and Charlie, and Leo and Massimo meant to him.

How wrong she’d been to think him a frog. No, her husband was indeed a prince among men. For he had learned how to love when he’d never really known it for most of his life.

Keeping her arms around his neck, she kissed his jaw. “You don’t have to worry about her, V. Greta and I took alternating turns watching her, not forgetting her nurse is always there too.”

He nodded, his brow relaxing. “I just…it’s a habit, that’s all, bella.”

“I know,” Alex said, rubbing her nose against his. “How did your lunch with Antonio go? Is he coming around yet?”

Vincenzo shrugged. “I don’t know. But I will not just abandon him, in spite of what he did.”

“Of course you won’t. Maybe you should invite him to lunch here next time. Don’t you think he should meet the little monster that is your son?”

“Ah…so he’s my son when he’s a monster and yours when he sleeps like an angel?” Amazement spiraled through Vincenzo. He knew that Antonio’s intensity still made Alex a bit wary. But she was willing to try again for his sake. “You won’t mind?”

“He’s a part of your life, V. He was there for you before me. And like you said, he’s an old man, settled in his bitterness. We can’t expect him to come around just like that.”

Vincenzo took her mouth in a hard kiss that still left him hungry. “Ti amo, bella. More and more every day.” When he reached for the zipper on her dress, she slipped out of his embrace.

“I need you, Princess. Desperately,” he said, unbuttoning his shirt.

“But we have only a few minutes before Leo and Neha and the babies and Massimo and Natalie descend upon us.”

He caught her and stole another kiss. “I’m sure I can satisfy you in a few minutes, bella.”

Alex shook her head, all the while running her greedy palms over his hard, lean chest. “Ah…but I don’t want quick satisfaction. I want a whole night of indulgence, V. I want…everything tonight.”

Vincenzo groaned but nodded, anticipation building inside of him already. When she’d have run away, he caught her, lifted her in his arms and brought her to the chaise that looked over the window and settled on it with her in her arms.

“Then let me just hold you, bella. Before the boys or my mother or your stepmother or someone else demands your attention. Just let me have you for myself, si?”

She nodded and burrowed into him and only then did his heartbeat settle into a steady pace.

And Vincenzo sat there like that, with the woman he adored more and more each day, in his arms, his life sweeter and richer than anything he

Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату