Their Meant-to-Be Baby
Page 17
‘I love you, too.’ He kissed her back, slowly and thoroughly, then lifted his head and gazed down into her eyes. ‘Do you think you can manage to walk upstairs to bed?’ he murmured with a mischievous smile, and she laughed and took his hand and went with him up to the attic.
He turned on the lamps, revealing their beautiful bed strewn with rose petals, and emotion choked her.
‘You old romantic,’ she said unevenly, touched almost to tears, and he drew her into his arms and kissed her again.
‘I thought you’d like it. I wanted to make you happy, today of all days.’
‘You did. You do. Every day of my life. Now stop stalling and make love to me, Mr Ryder.’
He chuckled softly. ‘It’ll be a pleasure.’
EPILOGUE
‘I CAN’T BELIEVE you’ve sold her.’
Sam stood at the top of the veranda steps, and watched as the boat, carefully loaded onto a trailer, was towed slowly away, and he realised that all he felt was pride in the restoration work he’d done over the summer, and relief that it was over.
‘She’s served her purpose,’ he said softly, moving to sit beside her in the glorious October sunshine. ‘If it hadn’t been for her, I wouldn’t have met you that night, and we wouldn’t be sitting here now.’
‘Are you sure?’
He took his eyes off the boat and turned to face her. ‘Yeah. Why would we?’
‘Because James and Connie asked you to come, as a favour?’
He smiled thoughtfully. ‘I’ve wondered about that. I think I probably would have come, so I would have met you.’
‘But James warned us both off, so maybe it wouldn’t have gone any further.’
Sam chuckled. ‘Seriously? I struggled to keep my hands off you while we were trying to make some fundamental and life-changing decisions, so I’m pretty sure we would have had an affair, at least.’
‘But I wouldn’t have got pregnant. It was the perfect storm—if you hadn’t broken your golden rule, and I hadn’t had the bug, it wouldn’t have happened, and there would have been nothing tying us together, nothing to hold you here in Yoxburgh.’
‘Nothing except love,’ he said softly, wrapping his arm around her and resting his head against hers. ‘And that might have happened anyway, but we did have the perfect storm, and we have a beautiful, perfect little baby who we really need to find a name for.’
Kate’s eyes went back to the boat. ‘How about Isadora?’
‘Isadora?’ His eyes traced the name he’d lovingly repainted on her stern. ‘Why?’
She smiled fondly, her eyes misting. ‘We owe her everything,’ she said, ‘and anyway, it’s a beautiful name.’
‘Isadora,’ he said, tasting it, and then he nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, it is. I like it. How about a middle name?’
Kate hesitated. ‘I thought—maybe Rose? For my mother? I don’t know why she left me or what happened to her, and I probably never will, but I know that she loved me, I remember that, and now that I’m a mother, I know it must have been the hardest thing in the world to do, to let me go into school that day knowing she’d never see me again.’
‘Maybe you would have been in danger? Maybe she was in some kind of trouble.’
‘I think she must have been, and it’s only now, when I realise just what love is, that I can forgive her because I know what a sacrifice she made for me.’
Sam hugged her closer and pressed a kiss to her hair. ‘I think it would be lovely to call the baby Rose.’
‘Not for her first name, but just there, so I remember her.’
He felt his eyes fill, and blinked.
‘Isadora Rose. It’s beautiful.’
He looked down at her, lying asleep in her mother’s arms, her mouth a perfect rosebud, and he leant over and feathered his lips against her downy head, then settled back, his arm around his wife, and watched as the boat disappeared from their lives, her job done.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Secret royal prince Dr Elias Santini is stunned when he rushes to an emergency delivery. The patient is Beth Foster…and she’s having his baby!
Read on for a sneak preview of
THEIR SECRET ROYAL BABY
by Carol Marinelli
‘How pregnant is she?’ Elias asked.
‘Twenty-nine weeks. Her waters broke as we got her onto the gurney. Elias, this baby is coming and very rapidly.’
They had reached the cubicle and Elias took a steadying breath.
‘What’s her name?’
Before Mandy could tell Elias he was already stepping into the cubicle.
And before Mandy said the name, he knew it.
‘Beth.’
She was sitting up, wearing a hospital gown, and there was a blanket over her. Her stunning red hair was worn up tonight but it was starting to uncoil and was dark with sweat. Her gorgeous almond-shaped eyes were for now screwed closed and she wore drop earrings in rose gold and the stones were rubies.
They were the same earrings she had worn the night they had met.
He could remember vividly stepping into her villa and turning the light on and watching the woman he had seen only in moonlight come into delicious colour—the deep red of her hair, the pale pink of her lips and eyes that were a pure ocean blue.
Now Valerie had her arm around Beth’s shoulders and was telling her to try not to push.
For Elias there was a moment of uncertainty.
Could Mandy find someone else perhaps? Could he swap with Roger?
Almost immediately he realised there was no choice. From what Mandy had told him this baby was close to being born.
His baby?
Don’t miss THEIR SECRET ROYAL BABY by Carol Marinelli
Available March 2017
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Copyright ©2017 by Carol Marinelli
Also available in March from Mills & Boon Modern Romance is Carol Marinelli’s 100th book, THE INNOCENT’S SECRET BABY
ISBN: 978-1-474-05128-6
THEIR MEANT-TO-BE BABY
© 2017 Caroline Anderson
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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Caroline Anderson, Their Meant-to-Be Baby