The prestigious London hospital was a maze of corridors as he passed by door after door, finally finding the one he was looking for. The one he’d been inside every day for the past week. He came to a stop inside the brightly lit room—only to see an empty bed, perfectly made up with white linen. Fear closed off his air supply for a long, panic-ridden moment, before a woman entered the room behind him, wearing bright blue scrubs and a white mask.
‘Mr Marchesi, you’re just in time. Your wife is in Theatre.’
He was rushed down to the emergency operating theatre and handed a bundle of scrubs to change into. His hands shook as he pushed open the door to the bright surgical space and saw Dani’s beautiful face, white with fear, as she lay surrounded by doctors and nurses and the rhythmic beeping of medical equipment.
‘Valerio!’ Her shout of relief was palpable as she reached out to clutch at his sleeve and pull him close to her face. ‘I can’t believe this is happening. It’s too early!’
Valerio steeled himself at the anguish in her voice and murmured words of encouragement in her ear, his hand gripping hers tightly as the surgeons performed their work on the other side of a blue screen.
It seemed as if hours passed before the doctors announced that the baby was out, then spent a while bending over Dani with furrowed brows. Moments later a loud, healthy infant’s cry erupted in the room and he felt his shoulders sag with relief as he pressed his forehead to Dani’s and let emotion take over.
After a flurry of movement and various checks, the doctor assured them that their daughter was perfectly healthy and didn’t need any care other than her mother’s skin.
A nurse placed the tiny form on Dani’s chest and Valerio felt his heart swell with love and gratitude as they both cradled and stroked their child’s glorious head of jet-black curls.
‘What do you think Leandro will say when he finds out he got a baby sister instead of a brother?’ Dani asked softly, her eyes filled with laughter.
Valerio winced, thinking of the serious-faced three-year-old at home in their town house, being spoiled by Nonna and Nonno Marchesi. Leandro had been quite clear that a baby brother was the only thing he would tolerate.
‘I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to bring him around,’ he said, and smiled, leaning in to brush a kiss on his wife’s forehead.
Once the surgical team had finished the aftercare for her emergency caesarean procedure, Dani was returned to her comfortable private room, where she promptly fell asleep. She awoke a short while later, to the sight of her husband cradling their infant daughter in his strong arms.
She was quiet for a while as she watched them, her heart threatening to burst with joy and relief that they had been blessed with a healthy child for the second time.
Their firstborn son had been born exactly on his due date almost two years previously, on the day of their second wedding anniversary. Valerio had joked that he was just like his mother: shockingly efficient and punctual.
The comment had turned out to be quite accurate. Leandro was just like her and Duarte had been as children, in spirit and in looks—apart from the brilliant Marchesi blue eyes that accompanied his rather serious gaze. She thought of her twin brother, feeling an echo of that old sadness mixed with relief. Her relationship with her twin had been strained for a time once they’d found him and discovered the depths of his ordeal and the web of deception behind it. But now...now she could hardly believe her luck at having so much family around her.
‘I’ll have to tell Duarte he won our bet,’ Valerio murmured, looking at their daughter. ‘I thought we’d have all boys. This girl is definitely going to steal my heart.’
Dani laughed. ‘What are we going to call her?’
‘I was thinking...Lucia.’ He turned brilliant cobalt eyes on her.
Instantly Dani’s thoughts travelled back to the island where they had fallen in love, said their vows, and where they’d returned every single year since, to the villa they’d now bought together.
‘Valerio...’ She felt her throat close with emotion. ‘That’s perfect.’
‘She’s perfect. Just like her mother.’
He placed their daughter in her small crib, his movements careful and confident. She had almost forgotten how natural he was with babies. He had been the one to show her tricks to get Leandro to sleep for longer and to bring his wind up, while she had been a shivering mess of nerves for months.
She sighed and leaned back on the pillows. He moved to sit alongside her, being careful of her tender abdomen and the tubes still attached to her arms.
‘I have never been more afraid than when I walked into that room today and saw an empty bed.’ A frown marred his handsome brow as he looked down at her, stroking one hand across her cheek.
‘I was terrified too, once I realised something was wrong and they wanted to get her out so suddenly. I was so worried that you wouldn’t get here in time. But I swear I could hear my mother’s voice in my head, telling me to breathe. And I knew that we would all get through it okay.’
‘You were amazing. You are a goddess of a woman—have I told you that?’ He leaned forward, his lips brushing across hers softly, one hand cradling her neck. ‘Your strength never ceases to amaze me. How on earth did I get so lucky?’
‘I love you so much,’ she whispered against his lips. ‘But all this sweet talk isn’t going to make me want more babies.’
‘You said the same after the first one.’ He smiled, nuzzling her ear. ‘But two is perfect for me. I think your staff will kill me if I keep getting you pregnant—that company of yours is skyrocketing and they need their fearless leader.’
‘Motherhood only adds to my superpowers.’
Dani smiled, thinking of the perfect top-floor London offices of Avelar Inc.
She had done it all—her own company, her perfect home in the English countryside and her wonderful family. Valerio had promised he would give her everything and he’d stood by her every step of the way, giving her his full support as they juggled their work and home lives together as a team.
‘Lucia Marchesi...’ Dani smiled down at her sleeping daughter. ‘I don’t think the world could handle another Riviera pirate—especially if she looks anything like you.’
‘If she’s like me she’ll need to find the right person to balance out her wild spirit.’ He leaned back, draping an arm carefully over her shoulders and dropping a kiss on her collarbone.
Dani leaned back into the power of his embrace, letting out a soul-deep sigh of contentment and happiness. ‘This is quite an adventure you’ve taken me on.’
‘We’ve only just started, tesoro.’
Coming next month
AN HEIR CLAIMED BY CHRISTMAS
Clare Connelly
‘I will never understand how you could choose to keep me out of his life.’
Annie’s eyes swept shut. ‘It wasn’t an easy decision.’
‘Yet you made it, every day. Even when you were struggling, and I could have made your life so much easier.’
That drew her attention. ‘You think this is going to make my life easier?’ A furrow developed between her brows. ‘Moving to another country, marrying you?’
His eyes roamed her face, as though he could read things in her expression that she didn’t know were there. As though her words had a secret meaning.
‘Yes.’
For some reason, the confidence of his reply gave her courage. One of them, at least, seemed certain they were doing the right thing.
‘What if we can’t make this work, Dimitrios?’
His eyes narrowed a little. ‘We will.’
It was so blithely self-assured, coming from a man who had always achieved anything he set out to, that Annie’s lips curled upwards in a small smile. ‘Marriage is difficult and Max is young—only six. Presuming you intend for our marriage to last until he’s eighteen, that’s twelve years of living
together, pretending we’re something we’re not. I don’t know about you, but the strain of that feels unbearable.’
‘You’re wrong on several counts, Annabelle.” He leaned forward, the noise of his movement drawing her attention, the proximity of his body making her pulse spark to life with renewed fervour. “I intend for our marriage to be real in every way—meaning for as long as we both shall live. As for pretending we’re something we’re not, we don’t need to do that.’
Her heart had started to beat faster. Her breath was thin. “What exactly does a ‘real’ marriage mean?”
‘That we become a family. We live together. we share a bedroom, a bed, we raise our son as parents. It means you have my full support in every way.’
It was too much. Too much kindness and too much expectation. She’d thought he would be angry with her when he learned the truth, and that she could have handled. If he’d wanted to fight, she could have fought, but this was impossible to combat. The idea of sharing his bed…
‘Sharing a home is one thing, but as for the rest—
‘You object to being a family?’
He was being deliberately obtuse.
She forced herself to be brave and say what was on her mind. ‘You think I’m going to fall back into bed with you after this many years, just because we have a son together?’
His smile was mocking, his eyes teasing. ‘No, Annabelle. I think you’re going to fall back into bed with me because you still want me as much as you did then. You don’t need to pretend sleeping with me will be a hardship.’
Her jaw dropped and she sucked in a harsh gulp of air. ‘You are so arrogant.’
His laugh was soft, his shoulders lifting in a broad shrug. ‘Yes.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But am I wrong?’
Continue reading
AN HEIR CLAIMED BY CHRISTMAS
Clare Connelly
Available next month
Copyright ©2020 by Clare Connelly
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The Vows He Must Keep (Mills & Boon Modern) (The Avelar Family Scandals, Book 1) Page 17
