What she deserved.
Beth Morgan was the most stubborn, maddening, frustrating, beautiful woman—inside as well as out—that Nick had ever met.
Or was ever likely to meet.
Janet had been more beautiful. Exceptionally so. That beauty had allowed her to be one of the highest paid models in the world, making Nick the envy of all his friends when she’d agreed to marry him. That envy had continued after they’d become the ‘perfect couple’. The arrival of Bekka only a year after they were married had completed the perfect family picture.
Unfortunately that outward perfection had hidden deep flaws in their private relationship. The main one being that they hadn’t been in love with each other. They had looked good together, and Janet had been the perfect social hostess for Nick the successful businessman, but once the two of them were alone they’d had nothing in common—nothing to talk about except their glamorous and artificial life.
There had certainly been none of those deep and emotionally searching conversations between himself and Janet that he’d had with Beth Morgan in just the week he’d known her!
Bekka had asked him how he could think of letting Beth spend Christmas Day on her own, but despite being with Bekka Nick also felt alone.
Everything in his life was exactly as it had been before he’d met Beth. He had Bekka. His business. This house and its menagerie of pets—even the dopey dog had reverted back to type, growling at Nick this morning as soon as he came out of his bedroom!
Yes, everything was the same. And yet inside, where it mattered, Nick knew that he wasn’t. That he had never felt so alone.
Because he wanted Beth.
‘I wanted her here with us as much as you did, pumpkin,’ he assured Bekka huskily.
‘And?’
Nick frowned. ‘And what?’
‘If you really wanted Mrs Morgan here then she would be here,’ Bekka reasoned.
Nice to know that one of the women in his life thought he was omnipotent!
One of the women in his life…?
Beth wasn’t in his life.
And she should be!
What was he doing, sitting here playing board games, when he could be with Beth? When she could be here with the two of them? When he and Bekka could be the family Beth had said she wanted…?
He stood up abruptly. ‘I have to go out, Bekka.’
His daughter’s eyes widened expectantly. ‘To see Mrs Morgan?’
Nick gave a grimace as he ruffled Bekka’s hair playfully. ‘We’ll see. Didn’t Mrs Bennett mention something earlier about feeling well enough to supervise you making gingerbread angels to put on the tree?’
‘We… Yes…’ Bekka gave a frown. ‘Will you be back in time for dinner?’
‘Let’s hope so,’ Nick answered.
There was always the possibility, after the mess he had made of things the previous evening, that Nick might have to camp outside Beth’s apartment door until she agreed to let him in. Whatever the outcome, Nick knew that he couldn’t sit here any longer thinking what if…?
‘WHAT ON EARTH—?’ BETH FROZE in the doorway of her apartment as the largest bouquet of red roses she had ever seen in her life was slowly lowered to reveal Nick as the person carrying the beautiful blooms.
It was almost six o’clock on Christmas Eve—a time when Beth had imagined Nick as being at home with Bekka—and yet here he was, standing on her doorstep.
And carrying that enormous bouquet of red roses…
Her heart began to pound loudly in her chest. To hope. ‘You’re a little early for First Footing, and I believe the traditional gift is coal,’ she said with a wry smile.
The expression in Nick’s eyes was guarded. ‘I’ve decided it’s time to start some traditions of my own.’
What sort of traditions…?
Beth swallowed hard as she stepped aside. ‘Would you like to come in?’
‘Yes.’ His eyes gleamed a pale, intense silver. ‘But first I would like you to take these flowers from me so that I can give you your other presents.’
Beth gathered the roses into her arms, their heady perfume adding to her light-headedness. To the hope steadily building inside her…
‘My other presents?’ she prompted shyly as Nick strode past her into her apartment, carrying a large gold foil carrier bag.
It hadn’t even occurred to her to buy anything to give Nick for Christmas; how could it, when Beth hadn’t thought she would ever see Nick again except as the parent of one of her students?
‘It isn’t Christmas yet, you know,’ she added teasingly as she followed him through to the sitting room.
As usual he looked wonderful, in a black long-sleeved polo-shirt over faded denims. Although the darkness of his hair was slightly windblown, and his jawline was shadowed—as if he were in need of a shave. As if he had left home in a hurry…?
‘New traditions, remember?’ Nick said huskily, his gaze hungry as he took in Beth’s appearance in a seasonal figure-hugging red sweater and jeans. ‘I’ve tried to remember everything.’ He placed the bag down on the coffee table. ‘The flowers you have. This was the best I could do as the “heart.”’ He produced a heart-shaped box of chocolates from inside the bag and held it out to her.
Beth slowly put the flowers down on the table so that she could take the box of chocolates. ‘Nick, what’s going on…?’
Good question, Nick acknowledged.
He was risking everything—that was what was going on. Discarding everything that he had been. Everything that he now was. In the hope of replacing it with everything that he could be. Everything that he wanted to be!
He winced. ‘Could you just let me do this first, Beth, and then we can talk afterwards?’
She looked slightly bewildered. ‘If that’s what you would prefer…’
‘It is,’ he assured her with a self-conscious smile. ‘Next on the list, I believe, were declarations of undying love—’
Beth gasped. ‘Nick…?’
‘Beth, please!’ A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw as he glowered at her. ‘You can throw all my gifts back in my face afterwards, okay? At least let me give you the satisfaction of making a complete idiot of myself first!’
She gave a sharp shake of her head. ‘But I don’t want—’
‘This isn’t just about what you want any more, Beth,’ Nick rasped forcefully. ‘I have some wants of my own now too. The first one being that you allow me to finish telling you how I feel—okay?’
Her throat was dry as she swallowed. ‘Okay…’
Nick drew in a ragged breath. ‘My first marriage wasn’t as happy as yours obviously was. How could it be when Janet and I weren’t in love with each other? I think we respected each other at first, appreciated what each of us could bring to a marriage. Janet had the self-confidence and beauty to be a businessman’s perfect wife, and I had the successful business that brought in the money to keep us both in the life we enjoyed.’ He frowned darkly. ‘Not, I realise now, ideal reasons for marrying each other.’
‘You had Bekka together, and both obviously loved her, which is why she’s such an adorable little girl. That has to count for something,’ Beth put in softly.
‘For something, yes,’ Nick said gruffly. ‘But it obviously wasn’t enough to keep the marriage together. What I’m really trying to tell you, Beth, is that I’ve never been in love. That I didn’t know how to love.’
‘Nick, you really don’t have to tell me these things if it’s painful for you,’ Beth assured him quickly.
‘Oh, I really do, Beth. Now, this next present you don’t have to accept right now.’ He hesitated before taking the gift from inside the bag. ‘Obviously I have no idea what sort of engagement ring Ben bought for you…’
‘We were students, Nick; a small—very small—diamond was the most we could afford!’ Beth recalled affectionately.
He nodded. ‘And I’m sure that to you it was the most beautiful ring in the world.’
‘Yes.�
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‘As I said, you don’t have to accept this now.’ He took a small, expensive-looking jeweller’s bag from inside the larger one. ‘Or you could accept it and just wear it on your right hand.’ He held the little bag out to her by the strings. ‘Of course the declaration of undying love goes along with it, but—’
Beth made no effort to take the bag. ‘Nick…?’
He quirked dark brows. ‘Beth?’
Beth had been stunned when she’d found Nick standing outside her apartment carrying that huge bouquet of roses. Her heart had ached for Nick and Janet as he’d talked of a marriage based on mutual needs rather than love. But surely this—giving Beth a ring—had to mean—
She took the jeweller’s bag and put it down on the coffee table without so much as looking inside it. ‘Nick, are you saying—? Are all these things your way of telling me that you’re in love with me…?’ she said slowly.
His mouth twisted. ‘I was hoping you could tell me that!’ He grimaced. ‘I think about you every minute of the day and night. I can’t eat because my stomach is churned up in knots all the time. I can’t sleep because every time I close my eyes I see your face.’ He drew in a harsh breath. ‘Worst of all, I feel so damned cold and lonely inside when I’m not with you. Deep down inside. Like I’m never going to feel warm again. Is that love?’
Beth’s breath caught on a choked laugh at the self-disgust she could clearly see in Nick’s expression. ‘Those things are part of it, yes—’
‘The worst part I hope.’ He sighed heavily as he ran a distracted hand through the dark thickness of his hair. ‘I’ve never felt so miserable in my life!’
Beth’s eyes misted over with tears as she slowly walked towards him. ‘That’s because you don’t know yet whether you’re loved in return. Once you do—oh, Nick, it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world!’ she told him happily as she came to a halt in front of him.
Nick looked down at her intensely. ‘I so much want to be all those things you said you want for your future, Beth. The things I know you deserve,’ he said fiercely. ‘I want that so badly, Beth!’
‘You already are those things, Nick,’ Beth assured him as she gazed lovingly into his ruggedly handsome face. ‘I’m in love with you too, Nick. I love you! So very much,’ she breathed softly, and she reached up a tentative hand to touch his rigidly clenched jaw.
‘You love me…?’ Nick looked stunned. ‘But last night you said—you told me I couldn’t be a part of your life—’
‘Because I already knew I had fallen in love with you,’ she explained. ‘Because I couldn’t be with you, have any sort of relationship with you, knowing you didn’t feel that same love for me. Nick, I love you in a way I’ve never loved anyone before!’
He looked down at her uncertainly. ‘Never…?’
‘Never.’ She nodded emotionally. ‘The way I loved Ben was so completely different to what I feel for you, Nick. I realise now that we were friends who grew to love each other and then got married. You—’ She drew in a shuddering breath. ‘You I love with every beat of my heart, every breath I take, with every single part of me!’
Nick felt it then. Felt the wonder that Beth had described. Felt that loneliness inside him evaporate as if it had never been. And that hole in his heart, that he hadn’t even realised was there until Beth walked out of his life, became filled to bursting with the love he felt for this woman. Every last vestige of unhappiness, uncertainty, fled in the face of the love he could see shining in Beth’s beautiful blue eyes. For him. Only for him.
‘How could I have been so stupid?’ he groaned achingly. ‘How could I have dismissed love as a myth all these years? Why didn’t I realise before how much I love you?’
He finally took her into his arms, crushing her against him as he buried his face in the glorious auburn of her hair. Holding her to him as if to make her a part of him. As if to take her deep inside him where he would never have to let her go again.
‘Oh, God, Beth—I don’t think I could have stood another day, an hour, even another minute, without telling you how very much I love you!’ he admitted shakily.
Beth laughed huskily, happily, as she gave herself up to the absolute pleasure of loving Nick and knowing herself loved as deeply in return.
Nick held Beth securely in his arms as he reached over and took the ring box from inside the jeweller’s bag. ‘Will you marry me, Beth?’ He flicked the box open to reveal the ring inside—a huge sapphire that was the exact colour of Beth’s eyes, surrounded by half a dozen smaller diamonds.
‘Oh, yes, Nick, I’ll marry you,’ she accepted wholeheartedly, without even glancing at the ring.
He took the ring out of the box, but didn’t put in on her finger. ‘You realise by saying yes that you’ll not only be marrying me, but Bekka too? Along with three spoilt cats, a schizophrenic dog, a hamster and, believe it or not, a rat?’
‘Oh, I think I’ll cope.’ Beth grinned. ‘As long as I can be with you, Nick, loving you, knowing you love me, everything else will fall into place.’
Nick took her left hand in his. ‘I promise that I will love you for ever, Beth. That I will do my very best to make you happy for the rest of our lives together,’ he vowed as he slipped the sapphire and diamond ring onto her finger.
‘I’d like more children, Nick,’ she said uncertainly, not sure how he felt about adding to his already considerable household.
He gave a teasing glance at his wristwatch. ‘This minute? Or can it wait a while?’ His arms tightened about her. ‘Beth, I want nothing more than to make love to and with you,’ he assured her gruffly. ‘In fact, I’ve fantasised about it many times! But when it happens I would like us to have time—a lot of time!—to fully explore and enjoy each other.’
‘Bekka?’ Beth guessed softly.
Nick nodded. ‘I promised her I would be back this evening.’
‘Then let’s go home, Nick.’ Beth glowed up at him. ‘Let’s go home and spend Christmas with Bekka!’
AND WHAT A CHRISTMAS IT WAS, as the three of them celebrated not only Christmas but Bekka’s birthday too, with the little girl declaring that knowing Beth was soon going to be her mother was the best birthday present she had ever had.
Which in no way lessened her enthusiasm for opening her Christmas and birthday presents the following morning!
Beth’s eyes glowed as she and Nick stood together, watching the little girl open her gifts.
Nick’s arms circled about her waist from behind as he pulled her back against him, his breath a warm caress against her neck. ‘I love you so much, Beth!’
She turned her head slightly to receive his lingering kiss. ‘I love you too, Nick,’ she replied, her hands resting lightly on his arms as she hugged him to her, the diamond and sapphire ring glittering on her left hand. ‘So very, very much.’
She was part of a family again, Beth realised emotionally as she turned back in time to laugh as Paddy and the three cats vied for Bekka’s attention amongst the rising mound of Christmas wrapping paper.
Her family.
And most of all she had Nick.
The man she loved with all her heart.
ONE CHRISTMAS NIGHT IN VENICE
Jane Porter
Dear Reader,
There are few spots more magical in my mind than Venice, and no place more perfect for a Christmas story than this mythical city built over water and lagoons. Most people know the summer Venice, when it’s overrun by tourists, heat and noise. However, my favourite Venice is the one that’s periodically flooded in winter, and even more spectacularly, powdered by snow.
One Christmas Night in Venice came to me after I saw photos of a Carnival masquerade ball held at one of Venice’s great palazzos. I was enthralled by the glamour, beauty and mystery of the costumes, the masks and the palazzo’s grand architecture. Almost immediately the story came to me—a young couple torn apart by a tragic accident and then miraculously brought together one Christmas night in a city as magical as love
itself.
I hope you’ll enjoy Diane Mayer and Count Domenico Coducci’s story. It’s a tale about Christmas, the magic of Venice and the miracle of love.
Yours,
Jane
CHAPTER ONE
WHAT was she doing here? How could she possibly have thought this was a good idea? Getting resolution was one thing, but this was madness.
Diane Mayer hovered inside the opulent ballroom of fifteenth century Ca’ Coducci, one of Venice’s beloved jewels on the Grand Canal, realizing she’d made a huge mistake coming to the masquerade ball hosted by the noble Coducci family in their palazzo tonight. Tickets were costly for the gala fundraiser, but a friend had passed his on to her and, since she was already in Italy for business, she had impulsively decided to come.
Fool that she was. Closure? How did she expect to get closure coming here? What kind of resolution did she think she’d have?
For God’s sake, she’d honeymooned here in Venice. Ca’ Coducci had been her husband’s home. The noble Coduccis were her husband’s family. But five years ago she’d lost it all in the blink of an eye.
That was all it had been. The blink of an eye. Domenico had taken his eyes off the road for a moment, just long enough to turn, look at her, smile, and then they’d been blinded by light before that horrific bone-shattering impact that had crushed their car to bits.
Sucking in a nervous breath, wishing she was back at her hotel instead of at the party, Diane adjusted her white shepherdess mask as costumed guests swirled past.
Goddesses and nymphs, satyrs and maidens, unicorns, angels, and even fairytale characters laughed and danced through the doorway into the vast ballroom, a room lit entirely by candlelight. Fat ivory candles glowed in sconces, with smaller candles in glass votives on the floor, while the ballroom’s gold ceiling, distinguished by three enormous glass chandeliers, glittered and shone, casting golden light on the fantastical masks and costumes below.
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