* * *
Hawk gazed down at the tiny woman he held in his arms, knowing he had more reasons than most never to take their love for granted. He had lost Amy, and he had almost lost Leonie; Leonie would never ever doubt his love for her, he would make sure of that.
‘I love you, Mrs Sinclair-to-be,’ he told her gruffly.
‘Please,’ she said in mock disdain. ‘The name will be Mrs Henry Hawker Sinclair the Second. And I love you too,’ she added mischievously.
He barely had time to respond to her kiss before she got lightly to her feet to check on the steak he knew he didn’t want—even if it was perfectly cooked. He just wanted to be with Leonie.
He watched her moving gracefully around the room, his woman-child who also happened to be a witch; she had certainly bewitched him. She was the most lovely creature he had ever seen, almost not quite real; it was like being in the presence of a beautiful sprite. He was going to spend the rest of his life besotted with this witchchild!
He frowned a little as she took a plate of chicken from the fridge and began to cut it up into small pieces. ‘I thought I was having steak?’ And from the burning smell coming from the grill it was going to be far from perfectly cooked!
Leonie looked up to give him a pert smile. ‘Oh, this isn’t for you,’ she shook her head. ‘Whenever Laura and I have reason to celebrate—and we certainly have tonight!—then the cats always get a dinner of boiled chicken.’
The cats. He should have known! Leonie would have been burned as a witch a couple of centuries ago!
He stood up to switch off the cooker, picking up Holly’s carrycot to pause at the doorway. ‘While you’re taking the cats their supper I’ll be waiting for you upstairs, contemplating a way we can celebrate,’ he told her huskily.
Her delight with the suggestion glowed in her eyes. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have dinner first?’ she teased.
‘Nectar and honey will do me just fine,’ drawled Hawk, chuckling softly as she began to blush. ‘And hurry up, woman,’ he growled. ‘I am famished!’
* * *
And when Leonie joined him a few minutes later they shared a banquet, celebrating in life, their love, in all the years they had ahead of them.
EPILOGUE
‘WELL, my darling,’ Leonie looked up at her husband with glowing eyes, ‘it’s our first wedding anniversary; have you been bored so far?’
Hawk gazed back at her across the candlelit table. ‘I believe I was supposed to ask you that?’ he drawled.
She gave a happy laugh. ‘How could I possibly be bored with a man who drags me and our daughter around half the world with him on business trips? How could I be bored with the man who has made such a success of the Winnie Cooper series that the public is crying out for more? How could I be bored with the man our daughter calls “Hunk"?’ She chuckled softly at the embarrassment Holly had caused her father on several occasions when she had called out to him across a crowded room. They all knew it was Holly’s version of Hawk, but no one else did! ‘Last of all,’ she lowered her voice seductively, ‘how could I possibly be bored with a man who’s so inventive in bed?’ She batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously.
‘I believe you were the one who came up with the idea that we should—’
‘Hawk!’ Damn, he still had the power to make her blush like a schoolgirl!
He laughed throatily. ‘I loved your idea, Leonie!’
The last year had been such a happy one, so filled with love and laughter. And they had so many more years yet to come, all of them as good, she was sure.
She stood up to move seductively around the table. ‘Maybe you should refresh my—’ She broke off as a cry from upstairs interrupted the silence of the evening. ‘Maybe later,’ she ran her fingertips lightly down his rugged jaw.
‘The story of my life,’ groaned Hawk as he too stood up.
Leonie turned to him with glowing green eyes. ‘Don’t I always remember?’
He gave a sensual smile. ‘Always.’
They went up the stairs together. The cry was a little louder now, so Leonie quickly moved to pick up her baby son before he woke up his brother.
Twins. Boys. Born exactly ten months after Holly had been born.
She gave Mark Daniel to Hawk while she prepared herself for feeding him. ‘Now aren’t you glad,’ she drew in a little gasp as Mark latched eagerly on to her breast, sucking enthusiastically, ‘that I talked you out of having that vasectomy until we were sure I wasn’t already pregnant again?’ she said warmly.
Hawk sat on the bed to watch her, as he always did if he was at home when his sons needed feeding.
There had been no complications with this pregnancy, or the birth, although Hawk had been more than a little shaken when the doctor told him after Mark Daniel’s birth that there was another baby on the way. David John had been born a few minutes later.
Both boys had silky baby blond curls, and at two months old their eyes were already turning the grey of their father and much older brother, Holly’s eyes having fooled all of them and turned the green of her mother.
Leonie’s greatest joy had been in being able to feed her sons herself, finally able to share that closeness with her child.
‘It would have been a waste, yes,’ Hawk drawled.
‘And the doctor says we can have more children if we want them,’ she reminded him. Mark had almost finished his supper, which was perhaps as well because David was starting to stir as he began to feel hungry. They were very tactful, her sons, rarely waking up at the same time for their food.
Hawk’s eyes widened. ‘Isn’t three enough?’
Leonie gave him a slow smile. ‘Nectar and honey?’ she taunted, laughing softly as his cheeks were the ones to colour this time.
‘Hmm,’ he murmured, lightly touching his tongue to his lips. ‘Wouldn’t they be perfect names for twin daughters?’
As usual when he turned the tables on her, her cheeks were burning. ‘Laura telephoned today,’ she firmly changed the subject, the intimacy of their conversation making her shift uncomfortably. ‘She doesn’t want to go to Paris, she likes it in Florida.’ Laura and Hal had travelled extensively the last year, and as Laura had promised, she and Hawk had had several arguments about where he sent them.
‘Doesn’t everyone?’ he returned unsympathetically. ‘Wait until she’s had a few moonlit walks in Paris and she won’t want to leave there either.’
‘She’s threatening to make you a grandfather if you move them again,’ Leonie warned.
He grinned. ‘All the more reason for them to go to Paris.’
She returned his smile. ‘That’s what Hal said!’
His smile deepened. ‘Hal’s getting more and more like me as he gets older, isn’t he?’
And wasn’t he proud of the fact! But why shouldn’t he be? As far as Leonie was concerned there wasn’t a finer man in the world than the man who was her husband.
‘Maybe they’ll have the twin girls,’ she suggested lightly, knowing how much her sister and Hal wanted a child of their own. It seemed she and Hawk only had to make love once and she became pregnant, but Laura and Hal were having a little more difficulty. But Laura had confided in her today that she was very hopeful at the moment, was pretty confident that the test she had had would prove positive. Leonie had a feeling it would too.
‘As long as they don’t give them the names of flowers I don’t care,’ Hawk said dryly.
‘You were the one who gave me a kitten wearing a diamond bracelet for our anniversary,’ she reminded him as she placed David at her breast, gently smoothing his silky hair as he indulged a little more slowly than his brother.
‘I didn’t name it Sunflower!’ he scorned.
‘It looks just like a sunflower with that lovely orangy fur,’ she defended.
‘It looks like a ginger tabby to me,’ jeered Hawk.
‘That’s because you have no imagination, no poetry in your soul—’
‘I don’t?’ he sa
id softly, his silver gaze holding hers.
‘You—you—You!’ Leonie groaned with feeling,
the ache between her thighs becoming a burning torrent. ‘Oh, Hawk, I want you,’ she told him raggedly.
He moved to kneel in front of her, lightly cupping the breast his son wasn’t latched on to. ‘Believe me,’ he rasped, his hand caressing, ‘you’re going to have me!’
* * *
He hadn’t known life could be, this wonderful. This last year with Leonie had been the best he had ever known, and each day he seemed to fall a little more in love with her, until he was sure he couldn’t love her any more than he already did. And then he would know that he did.
Watching her now as she tended their sons he was glad she had become pregnant again so soon after Holly. He knew that if she hadn’t he would have insisted on denying them both the wonderful experience of knowing she once again carried his child, of watching those children being born. It was something he knew both of them would have deeply regretted missing.
The day that Sarah had tried to take Leonie from him now seemed a lifetime away, and he knew that his life had been different then, completely empty without Leonie and the children they shared. Rather than pushing the trauma of that day to the back of their minds they occasionally talked about it, both accepting that Sarah had been ill, that she still was. The doctors were not sure how long it would be before—or if—she would ever get over this obsessive love she had for him. But she couldn’t hurt them now, and she was receiving treatment for her own safety.
‘June and Jake also phoned today to wish us well.’
Hawk came back from the past to the present, to his wonderful witchchild.
‘I invited them over for dinner tomorrow.’ Leonie added huskily, ‘I hope that’s all right.’
He nodded. ‘How’s Stephen doing?’
Jake and June had been married six months ago, and when Stephen had decided to go back to law school the three of them had moved to London so that Jake and June could give him the support he needed. So far it seemed to be working out for all of them.
‘Fine,’ Leonie answered without hesitation. ‘He’s bringing a girl-friend along with him tomorrow.’
Hawk pulled a face. ‘Holly will be upset!’
Their tiny daughter idolised Stephen, had done from the time he began to visit them again nine months ago. Somehow Holly had seemed to know that he needed her childlike innocence to help heal him.
His wife smiled. ‘I’m sure Stephen will still find time for her; he loves her as much as she loves him. It’s as well you aren’t a jealous father,’ she teased, settling David back in his cot.
‘Just a jealous husband, hm?’ laughed Hawk, his arm about her waist as they gazed down at their now sleeping sons.
Completely identical to look at, the boys were already beginning to show signs of a different temperament. Mark was obviously the leader of the two, already displaying signs of a temper, whereas David was more placid, quite happy to wait in line behind his brother. They were sons for any man to be proud of. And Hawk was very proud.
Holly had grown into a lovely little girl the last year, fiery-red curls surrounding her angelically beautiful face as she slept in her cot with her bottom sticking up in the air, a slight smile on her lips, completely confident of her rôle as big sister to the boys she called ‘bubbas’. It was going to be a great shock to her when she got older and realised there was only ten months in age between her and those ‘babies’!
Hawk still trembled when he thought of all he had almost lost because of one very sick woman!
* * *
Leonie felt him tremble against her, and knew that the memories still haunted him as they haunted her. But today was the first of the many anniversaries they would share, and she wasn’t going to let anything spoil it.
‘Hawk, let’s go to the bedroom and…’ She stood on tiptoe to describe the delicious variation she had been anticipating on the theme they both loved so much.
Hawk drew back to look down at her with widened eyes. ‘Is that possible?’
‘According to Laura it is,’ she nodded. ‘But if you’d rather not—’
‘Laura?’ he gasped—as Leonie had known he would, ushering her out of their daughter’s bedroom to close the door softly behind them. ‘Laura told you about that?’ he said disbelievingly. ‘Your demure sister?’
She nodded again, her eyes glowing. ‘Apparently she isn’t demure with Hal,’ she giggled.
‘Obviously,’ drawled Hawk. ‘Okay, Mrs Henry Hawker Sinclair the Second, let’s go and try out this interesting proposition.
‘Don’t you mean position?’ she teased.
‘Probably,’ he said dryly. ‘I was just trying to approach the subject delicately.’
‘That should be a first,’ she laughed, opening their bedroom door, bathing the room in a warm glow. ‘To bed, Hawk Sinclair,’ she told him firmly. ‘And now! I’ve been waiting hours for you to make love to me!’
She felt feverish with wanting him, knowing it had always been, and always would be, this way between them.
‘I love you, Henry Hawker Sinclair the Second,’ she told him with feeling.
‘And I love you, Mrs Henry Hawker Sinclair the Second,’ he returned intensely. ‘I always will!’
‘Love me, Hawk,’ she gasped her need. ‘Love me!’
‘I intend to,’ he assured her huskily. ‘And while I do you can explain to me how Laura says we manage to…’ The bedroom door closed softly behind them, followed by a giggle, and then silence.
* * * * *
Now, read on for a tantalizing excerpt of Michelle Smart’s next book,
THE SICILIAN’S BOUGHT CINDERELLA
Posing as Dante’s fiancée at a society wedding is a far cry from Aislin’s modest life, but she’ll do anything to secure money for her sick nephew. Yet soon their explosive passion rips through the terms of their arrangement, leaving them both hungry for more…
Read on for a glimpse of
THE SICILIAN’S BOUGHT CINDERELLA
CHAPTER ONE
DANTE MONCADA JUMPED INTO THE CAR BESIDE HIS DRIVER, TWO OF HIS MEN CLAMBERING IN BEHIND HIM. THIS WAS ALL HE NEEDED, SOMEONE BREAKING INTO THE OLD COTTAGE THAT HAD BEEN IN THE MONCADA FAMILY’S POSSESSION FOR GENERATIONS.
AS HIS DRIVER navigated Palermo’s narrow streets and headed into the rolling countryside, Dante thought back to his earlier conversation with Riccardo D’Amore. The head of the D’Amore family had put the brakes on a deal Dante had been negotiating for the past six months. Riccardo ran a clean, wholesome business and was concerned Dante’s reputation would tarnish it.
He muttered a curse under his breath and resisted the urge to punch the dashboard.
What reputation? So he liked the ladies. That was no crime. His business empire was built on legitimate money. He did not play the games many Sicilian men liked to play. He kept his nose clean literally and figuratively. He liked to drink and party, but so what? He didn’t touch drugs, never gambled and avoided the circles where arms, drug dealing and people trafficking were considered profitable business enterprises. He worked hard. Building a multi-billion-euro technology empire from a modest million-euro inheritance, and with an accountancy trail even the most hardened auditor would fail to find fault with, took dedication. For sure, he cut the odd corner here and there, and his Sicilian heritage meant he did not suffer fools, but every cent he’d earned he’d earned legitimately.
But the legitimacy of his business was not the factor behind Riccardo’s foot coming down on the deal that Dante and Alessio, Riccardo’s eldest son, had spent months working on. The D’Amores had developed the next-generation safety system for smart phones that had proven itself hack-proof, out-performing all rivals. Alessio and Dante were all set to sign an exclusivity agreement for Dante to install the system in the smart phones and tablets his company was Europe’s leader in. This system would give him the tools to penetrate America, the only continent Dante was still to get
a decent foothold in.
Riccardo’s talk about reputations boiled down to one thing. Dante’s parentage. His recently deceased father Salvatore had been a heavy gambler and the ultimate playboy. His mother Immacolata was known unaffectionately as the Black Widow, a moniker Dante had always thought unfair, as she had never actually killed any of her husbands, merely leeched them for money when she divorced them. His father had been her first husband. She was currently on number five. His mother lived like a queen.
Riccardo, on the other hand, had had one wife, eleven children, thought gambling the work of the devil and sex outside the confines of marriage a sin. Riccardo was concerned Dante was the apple that hadn’t fallen far from the tree. Riccardo wanted proof that Dante was not the mere sum of his parents’ parts and would not bring Amore Systems and by extension Riccardo himself into disrepute. Riccardo was now in advanced talks with Dante’s biggest rival about contracting the system to them instead.
Damn him. The old fool was supposed to have retired.
He had one chance to prove his respectability before the deal was lost for good, Alessio’s forthcoming wedding.
Dante’s angry ruminations on his business problems were put to one side when his driver pulled the car to a stop in a small opening amidst the dense woodland that ran along the driveway to the cottage. A few metres away, also cunningly hidden in the woodland, was a much smaller city car…
Dante reached into the footwell for the baseball bat he hoped he wouldn’t have to use.
Flanked by his bodyguards, he neared the run-down farmer’s cottage through the thick trees that hid their approach from watching eyes and rubbed his arms against the bracing chill under the cloudless night sky. The remnants of what had been an unusually cold winter still lingered in the air.
The small cottage with its peeling whitewashed exterior walls came into view. All the shutters were closed but smoke curled out of the chimney that hadn’t been used in two decades, wisping upwards into the still darkness of this early spring Sicilian evening. Marcello, who managed the land, had been correct that someone was there.
Just One Night (Presents Plus) Page 25