Delucca's Marriage Contract

by Abby Green

  He looked pained. ‘Do you really mean that?’

  Keelin shook her head and nodded at the same time, anger draining away. ‘No. Yes. No.’

  And then Gianni shocked her by moving onto his knees before her, right there in the lobby of the hostel. Keelin darted a look around, aware of the avid interest. ‘What are you doing?’

  He ignored her question and asked again, ‘What did you mean?’

  Keelin felt shaky. The way Gianni was looking at her, she’d never seen him like this before, stripped of all artifice and arrogance. He looked younger, vulnerable. And she thought about his father, and grandfather, and how important it was to him to fix the past, and her heart swelled.

  She finally admitted huskily, ‘When I stopped fighting you and fighting being married to you, I discovered that I liked it. And that I didn’t want to keep thinking about ways to get out of it. Losing O’Connor’s wasn’t the worst thing because losing you was far worse. My whole life was spent seeking a way into my father’s affections, or gaining his approval. Then when I knew that would never happen, I transferred it to gaining a place in O’Connor’s, but deep down I wanted a soul-deep connection with someone, and when I felt it for you I pushed it away because I was afraid that I was just blindly seeking approval or acceptance all over again.’

  Keelin forced herself to be strong. ‘So if you’ve just come here to—’

  ‘I love you.’

  Keelin’s mouth was still open. ‘You what?’

  The pained look was leaving Gianni’s face. ‘I love you, Keelin O’Connor. I fell in love with you the day I saw the photo of you in your father’s office.’

  He went on. ‘What you described in Umbria, it was exactly the same for me. So when I heard the news that your father’s business had been falling apart for months, I used blaming you as an excuse to avoid admitting that I was falling for you.’

  He shook his head. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Keelin was in shock. Her brain wasn’t processing properly. ‘Did you just say that you love me?’

  He nodded. ‘You’ve shown me how blinkered I’d become. I was so obsessed with ridding my family of the Delucca Mafia heritage and restoring my grandfather’s good name, and then you left and I realised that it’s all for nothing without you. I couldn’t care less what happens to me or what people say as long as you’re with me. I always used my grandfather as inspiration when I needed to be spurred on to succeed, but he loved the simple things, and appreciated love and family above everything, in spite of his son.

  ‘He was so in love with my grandmother that when she died young, he had to leave Sicily because he couldn’t bear to be where she wasn’t. That’s why they moved to Rome, not because he was so ambitious. And I’d forgotten about that. I’d blocked that out, because after seeing my father and mother, I didn’t think it existed.’

  Keelin’s throat was tight with repressed emotion.

  ‘There’s something else you should know. As of today my company has a new name.’

  ‘It does?’ She almost couldn’t get the words past the lump in her throat and chest.

  Gianni nodded. ‘It’s called Delucca & O’Connor Limited. I hope you approve, because you’re on the board of directors and we took the vote without you.’

  Tears filled Keelin’s eyes and she blinked them back furiously. ‘Are you sure that—’

  He put a finger to her mouth, stopping her words, and said softly, ‘I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. But there’s something else I need to do.’

  He pulled a velvet box out of the inside pocket of his jacket and opened it. In the white satin folds nestled the emerald ring from the shop in Montefalco. Keelin had forgotten about it and her eyes widened to see it now, glittering brilliantly.

  Gianni took it out of the box and said with a touch of nervousness that made her melt inside, ‘I know we’re doing this all wrong, but I’d like to ask you something.’

  Euphoria was starting to snake through Keelin’s blood and hitting her heart, making it pound unevenly. ‘What?’

  His gaze was intense, burning. ‘Keelin O’Connor, would you please consider not going through with the divorce and continuing to be my wife?’

  Time felt as if it was suspended. She looked at him for a long moment and saw only the purest form of love in his dark gaze. And even better, love that was requited. With no conditions attached.

  She nodded. ‘Yes.’

  He smiled and took her hand, sliding the ring onto her finger, and then he reached into his pocket again and took out another ring, her wedding band, and tears stung her eyes.

  He looked at her as he put it on to join her new engagement ring, saying huskily, ‘With this ring I thee re-wed, Keelin O’Connor Delucca.’

  She took her hand from his and leaned forward, lacing them behind his neck. She half laughed and smiled, feeling giddy. ‘I now pronounce us man and wife. You may kiss the bride.’

  Gianni spread her legs with his hands and came between them as much as her skirt would allow and then, pressing her back into the seat, he wrapped both arms around his wife and kissed her so thoroughly that only a persistent clearing of a throat finally brought them up for air.

  Keelin was dizzy. Heart pounding. Euphoric.

  ‘Em, excuse me? If you wouldn’t mind, this is a public place and you’re making the other guests uncomfortable.’

  Gianni drew back and Keelin blushed to the roots of her hair when she saw the array of faces staring at them. They looked anything but embarrassed. One couple had even started kissing passionately in another corner and Keelin had to fight back a giggle, feeling truly light for the first time in her life.

  Gianni stood up and took her hands, pulling her up. He looked at her mock sternly. ‘I am not taking you to bed in a hostel.’

  Keelin shook her head and just said with emotion high in her voice, ‘Take me home, Gianni.’

  And hand in hand, he did.

  EPILOGUE

  ‘PAPA!’

  Gianni smiled at the ecstatic screech that came from a blur of sturdy legs and chubby arms and dark red hair as his two-year-old son launched himself into his outstretched arms and gave him a loud lip-smacking kiss.

  ‘Ciao, piccolino, come stai?’

  Piero, named after Gianni’s grandfather, proceeded to fill him in on everything in a babble of English and Italian and other incomprehensible words, his dark eyes wide with the urgency to tell his beloved papa everything.

  Gianni smiled a greeting at the staff in the créche that had been installed in the ground floor area of his office building in Rome, and he walked out with Piero held high in his arms.

  He’d only been in Dublin for the day but even that felt like too long away from his family.

  He got into his private lift and said when he could get a word in edgeways, ‘Let’s find Mamma, hmm?’

  Piero clapped his hands together. ‘Mamma e bambino!’

  ‘Sì.’ Gianni kissed his son again, his heart swelling with love and contentment to be back near his family. His mother had finally agreed to sell the family home and now she divided her time between the apartment in Rome and the villa in Umbria and had become a new woman, unburdened by the past, with a new family to take care of. She and Keelin were firm allies and friends.

  Gianni and Piero got out on the level that housed his and Keelin’s offices. People were packing up to leave for the end of the day and everyone cooed predictably as soon as they saw Piero, who lapped up the attention with a grin, but then he wriggled out of Gianni’s arms so that he could go and play with one of his favourite security guards.

  Gianni said warningly as Piero climbed up onto the man’s lap and dug something out of a pocket, ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Alfredo. If he breaks your phone again, on your head be it!’

 
Gianni was on his fifth phone in the space of as many months. Alfredo didn’t look remotely concerned though as chubby, sticky hands commandeered his phone with dextrous ease.

  Gianni just shook his head ruefully and made his way to his wife’s office which was beside his own, his heart rate increasing as it always did just before he saw her. Her assistant, who had been the wedding planner, was leaving and said with a smile, ‘The conference call is just about finished—go on in.’

  He almost scowled at the implication that anyone could keep him out.

  He went into the room silently and closed the door, resting back against it with arms folded, and drank in the sight of Keelin pacing back and forth, gesticulating passionately. His blood surged and his hungry gaze devoured her, from the top of her head where her hair was pulled back into a loose knot, over the ripe curves of her breasts and eight-months-pregnant belly, evident in the stretchy dress, and down to her bare legs and feet.

  She saw him and faltered, her eyes widening, cheeks going a little pink. Her words became a bit breathier. ‘Okay, guys, I think that’s it for now. I’ll have Allessandra send you the results from the survey on Monday.’

  There was a chorus of goodbyes from the phone on the desk and then she turned to face her husband with a slow sexy smile, hands resting over her belly.

  Gianni yanked his tie off as he prowled towards her, everything in him reacting with a primal beat to the sight of her and her big belly. Filled with his seed, their child. A girl. Who Gianni was already head over heels in love with.

  He got to Keelin and pulled her close, growling softly, ‘You shouldn’t be working so hard.’

  She lifted her arms to wind them possessively around his neck and groaned softly when his hands dropped down her back and caressed her buttocks. She said with mock petulance, ‘I’m hardly working too hard—you’re supervising my every move and only allowing me to work four hours a day, and what else do you expect me to do in Rome while we wait for the baby? Shop?’

  Gianni pulled back and looked at her with a wry gleam in his eye. ‘And to think that once upon a time I thought that’s all you would ever do.’

  Keelin smiled cheekily. ‘Ah, but I got you good, Giancarlo Delucca.’

  He agreed happily. ‘You certainly did.’

  She frowned, then asked, ‘Where’s Piero?’

  Gianni indicated with his head. ‘Outside with Alfredo.’

  She winced. ‘I’d better get Allessandra to order a new phone on Monday.’

  Gianni smiled and manoeuvered his wife over towards the sofa, sitting down and pulling her with him so she sat across his lap. She laughed. ‘I’ll crush you!’

  But he was too busy pulling her mouth down to his and sealing their reunion with a passionate kiss. He figured that they had about a minute before a ball of electric energy came looking for them and Gianni didn’t intend wasting a second of that time.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this book, look out for the next instalment of THE CHATSFIELD:

  PRINCESS'S SECRET BABY by Carol Marinelli

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  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘WHO IS THAT?’ Andy exclaimed as she glanced towards the doorway of the exclusive restaurant and bar, Midas, in which she was currently celebrating with her sister and brother-in-law.

  Her glass of champagne raised halfway to her lips, Andy openly stared across the elegant restaurant at the man standing just inside the doorway. Tall and grimly unsmiling, he removed his dark outer coat, before handing it off to the waiting maître d’.

  Andy estimated him to be in his early to mid-thirties, and he was so dark and arrestingly handsome that Andy couldn’t have looked away if her life had depended on it.

  Everything about the man was dark, she noted as she continued to watch him.

  The elegant black suit and the shirt and tie he wore under it, the perfect tailoring emphasising rather than hiding the muscled perfection of his well over six feet height.

  His tousled hair gleamed the colour of dark mahogany under the light of the overhead crystal chandeliers.

  His complexion was olive.

  As for his expression...

  The longer she stared at him, the more Andy realised that grim didn’t even begin to describe the look on that hard and chiselled face. He had a high, intelligent forehead, glowering dark brows over narrowed eyes, blades for cheekbones, a sculptured and firmly unsmiling mouth, his jaw square and arrogant.

  Overall the combined effect was best described as electrifying.

  There really was no other word that quite described the man as he now glanced disinterestedly about the elegant restaurant, while at the same time continuing his conversation with the man accompanying him. A piercing glance, which now moved over and past Andy, and then slowly moved back again, before stopping.

  Andy’s breath caught in her throat, her mind going completely blank as she found herself the focus of that piercing gaze.

  For some reason Andy had expected that the man’s eyes would be as darkly arresting as the rest of him, but instead they were a clear and beautiful topaz in colour, with darker striations fanning out from the pitch-black pupils.

  They were mesmerising eyes, which continued to hold Andy’s gaze captive even as he raised one questioningly dark brow at her obvious interest.

  ‘Aha!’ her sister murmured beside her as she saw the direction of Andy’s gaze and realised the reason for her earlier comment. ‘Absolutely gorgeous, isn’t he?’

  ‘Sorry?’ Andy was still held captive by that compelling gaze as she answered Kim distractedly, her heart pounding in her chest, her pulse racing.

  ‘The man you’re currently ogling, darling,’ her sister teased dryly. ‘Don’t you just want to rip his clothes off and—?’

  ‘Hello? Husband sitting right next to you,’ Colin reminded Kim ruefully.

  ‘That doesn’t stop me from window-shopping, my love,’ his wife replied pertly.

  ‘There’s window-shopping, and then there’s just completely out of your price range!’ Colin muttered teasingly.

  ‘That’s the whole point of window-shopping, silly!’ Kim chuckled affectionately.

  Andy was barely aware of the bantering between her sister and brother-in-law, the stranger’s gaze continuing to hold hers captive for several more, heart-stoppingly long seconds, before he gave a curl of his top lip in the semblance of a smile. Then he turned away, as he and his dining companion now followed the maître d’ to their table.

  Andy drew in a ragged breath, although her heart was still pounding, her pulse racing.

  A small shiver waved over her body, a reminder of her unexpected physical reaction to that darkly delicious man.

  And she was far from the only one watching the two men as they made their way through the restaurant, nodding acknowledgement to several acquaintances as they passed, before stopping at a table for four near the window. They greeted an older couple already seated there, before the maître d’ himsel
f pulled back the two empty chairs so that the two men could join them.

  In fact, now that Andy was no longer completely under his spell she realised that the other diners weren’t just surreptitiously watching those two men, but that conversation in the room had become a hushed whisper; the very air seemed to be filled with tense expectation.

  Which, considering this fashionable restaurant, was frequented only by the rich and the famous, who were usually too full of their own self-importance to be aware of anyone else’s, she found distinctly intriguing.

  In fact, Andy had been slightly overwhelmed by the clientele when she’d first arrived.

  The only reason that Andy and her sister and brother-in-law were able to dine in such exalted company at all was because Colin worked in the London office of Midas Enterprises. As an employee of Midas he was allowed to book a table at one of the Midas restaurants for himself and three guests once a year, and given an employee discount; none of them would ever have been able to afford to eat here otherwise!

  The same didn’t apply to the Midas nightclub on the floor above; that was reserved for members only. And to become a member, you had to be approved by both the Sterne brothers, the billionaire owners of Midas Enterprises.

  As well as most of the known universe, it seemed to Andy.

  Social hermit that she usually was, even she had heard of Darius and Xander Sterne’s success. Her brother-in-law had told her that the brothers had burst onto the business scene twelve years ago, when they had launched an Internet social media company, which had rapidly grown and grown, until they’d sold it just three years later for several billion pounds. After that there had been no stopping them, as they’d bought up several electronic companies, an airline, media and film-production companies, hotel chains, and opened up exclusive restaurants and clubs just like this one, all around the world.