He kissed her cheek, catching the next tear. ‘I love you, Kaliana. So very much. Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?’
She laughed as another tear tumbled down her cheek. ‘I will, but you don’t have to do it here, in Ardu Safra, or so soon.’
‘I’m not waiting any longer than I need to wait to make you my wife.’ He gave her that suggestive flick of his brows, sending heat spiralling through her. She pressed herself closer to him, sliding her hands around his neck. She loved him so much and if she could marry him right now, right this minute, she would.
‘The wedding preparations are all made. Everything is in place for us to marry. Is two weeks too long?’ she teased as her fingers slid into the thickness of his hair.
‘Far too long.’ He kissed her gently, holding her closer still to him, so that she could feel every contour of his body. Feel the need he had for her right now. ‘But waiting two weeks to spend the rest of my life with you will be worth it.’
‘I love you, Rafe.’ She breathed the words she’d longed to say since the night in Rome when their baby had been conceived.
‘And I love you, Kaliana, and I intend to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much. Each and every single day.’ He kissed her, deeper and harder than he’d ever kissed her, and Kaliana knew they had both broken down the barriers which had entrapped them since their first unlucky encounters with love. They’d both left the shadows of darkness, coming out into the brightness of love.
EPILOGUE
THE EARLY SUMMER sunshine bathed the gardens of Villa Casella in a golden glow as the sun began to set. The garden was filled with friends and family who’d come to welcome the arrival of the next Casella generation. Rafe’s father took every opportunity to spend time with his ever-expanding family. Even Kaliana’s mother and father had travelled from Ardu Safra for the party and from the smile on her mother’s face Kaliana was certain she enjoyed being a grandmother. Her father, of course, tried very hard to remain serious, but to no avail. Little Paulo had quite literally got him dancing to his tune.
‘Paulo is utterly gorgeous,’ Kaliana said as she sat watching the toddler Emma and Enzo had adopted, their adoration and love for each other and the little boy obvious for all to see. Their happiness at finally being a family filled Kaliana with joy whenever she thought of where they’d all been this time last year.
Rafe leant forwards, kissing her cheek softly. ‘It’s hard to believe that a year ago there were no future Casella heirs. Now there’s a whole new generation.’
Kaliana glanced at the baby monitor on the table next to her iced lemonade, still unable to believe she was a mother. The mother of a beautiful baby girl and a handsome baby boy. ‘I’m looking forward to Lorenzo and Layla being able to toddle around the garden like Paulo.’
Rafe laughed softly, love shining from his eyes as he looked at her. ‘Be prepared for them to be a real handful.’ He sat back next to her, his long legs stretching out before him, unfurling that ever-constant need she had for him. ‘My mother always said that’s exactly what Enzo and I were. A handful.’
Kaliana laughed. ‘You still are, both of you.’
‘That is not fair.’ His voice was mockingly stern, the sparkle of love brighter than ever in his eyes.
‘Maybe a boy and a girl will be different.’ The love she felt for Rafe, for her babies, filled every word as she looked at him, always ready to tease him a little.
Baby snuffling noises sounded on the monitor and they both looked at it, smiling. ‘If Layla is anything like her mother, then it will be because poor little Lorenzo will be continually bossed and teased by his big sister.’
‘Are you saying I boss you around?’ She sat forwards, leaning into him and brushing her lips over his. ‘Tease maybe, but not boss.’
‘I like a strong woman,’ he said, pulling her onto his lap and kissing her, oblivious and uncaring of their guests. ‘But, more than anything else, I love you. My strong woman. The mother of my beautiful twins.’
‘And I love the man I married, the father of my babies. I love you to the point of distraction.’
She closed her eyes and he kissed her, hard and passionately. When he ceased the torment, pulling back from her, she could see the love in his eyes and smiled. She was happy, loved and in love—far more than she’d ever dared to hope for that night she’d walked into the hotel bar in London.
‘I love you, Kaliana. With all my heart and every day I love you a little deeper. You are my world.’
* * *
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The Italian’s Unexpected Baby
by Kate Hewitt
CHAPTER ONE
‘HE’S COMING!’
Mia James’s stomach clenched unpleasantly as she hurried to stand behind her desk, shoulders back, chin up, heart pounding.
‘He’s in the lift now...’
The numbers above the silver doors glowed, one after another. Two...three...
Mia watched out of the corner of her eye as her fellow colleagues at Dillard Investments did the same as she had, scurrying to desks, standing up straight. They were like schoolchildren awaiting an inspection by the head teacher. A particularly strict and perhaps even cruel head teacher...the notoriously ruthless Alessandro Costa, self-made billionaire and, as of yesterday, the new CEO of Dillard Investments.
Yesterday the company had been taken over by Alessandro Costa in a calculated and clever manoeuvre that had shocked everyone involved in the company right down to their toes, including Mia’s boss and the CEO, Henry Dillard. Poor Henry had looked terribly shaken, aging ten years in a matter of minutes as he realised there was nothing he could do to stop Costa International from gaining controlling shares; it had all happened before he’d even had a chance to realise, Costa stalking the company the way a ruthless predator would a prey.
Four...five... The lift doors pinged open and Mia drew her breath sharply as the new CEO of Dillard Investments stepped through them. She’d seen photos of him online, having done an exhaustive internet search last night when the news had been confirmed that Dillard’s had been taken over. What she’d learned had far from reassured her.
Alessandro Costa specialised in hostile takeovers and then stripping the companies of their assets and employees, to be absorbed into his behemoth of a corporation, Costa International.
A few months ago, he’d taken over a company similar to Dillard’s—small, family-owned, a bit antiquated. Now it was virtually gone, swallowed up by the man who was striding onto the top floor of the building Dillard’s owned in Mayfair.
Mia tried not to make eye contact with Alessandro Costa, but she found she couldn’t stop looking at him. The photos on the internet didn’t do him justic
e, she realised with an uneasy pang of physical awareness. They didn’t communicate his intense energy, as if a force field surrounded him, as if he crackled.
Cropped dark hair, as black as midnight, framed a face that was all angles and hard lines, from his jaw to his nose to the dark slashes of brows over cold, steel-grey eyes. His body, tall and lethally powerful, was encased in a hand-tailored suit of dark grey silk, the silver tie at his throat matching the colour of his eyes. He made Mia think of a laser, or a sword...something powerful and lethal. A weapon.
He came onto the floor with its open-plan desks with quick, purposeful strides, his narrowed, hawk-like gaze moving in quick yet thorough assessment around the room, pinning people in place. It felt as if the very air trembled. Mia was afraid she did. Alessandro Costa was incredibly intimidating.
She knew everyone’s job was up for grabs, and most likely down the drain as well. In his last takeover, it had been rumoured that Costa had kept three employees out of forty. As personal assistant to the CEO, Mia knew her position would almost certainly be cut. Costa undoubtedly had his own executive assistant already in place, and as he didn’t seem likely to keep Dillard’s going as a separate entity, her job had most likely become obsolete last night, with the takeover.
Still, she was determined to try to do something to keep it. She’d been working for Dillard Investments since she was nineteen, fresh from a B Tech business course, bright-eyed and determined to make something of herself and, most importantly, to finally be independent.
All her childhood she’d been under the controlling thumb of her unbearably autocratic father, having to do as he said and dance to his tune, however discordant its notes. Her mother had been the same, cringing and hopeful in dispiriting turns, and Mia had vowed to gain her freedom as soon as she could—and never make the same kind of mistake her mother had, by marrying a charming yet controlling man...or any man at all.
So now, while Mia knew she could find another job, she resisted the prospect of being fired from this one for no good reason. She’d been here a long time, had worked hard, and had made a few friends along the way.
She might be likely to lose her job anyway, but she’d go down fighting. She had to, as points of both pride and principle.
Alessandro Costa had stopped in the centre of the room, his feet spread wide, his hands on his hips. He looked like the king of an empire, surveying his domain. Like something out of a fairy tale, except in a three-piece suit.
‘Who is Mia James?’ he asked, his voice slightly accented, the words crisp and precise as they echoed through the open space.
Mia felt every eye on the floor turn instinctively towards her. Like a child in school being called on by a teacher, she raised her hand, hoping her voice would come out strong.
‘I am.’ She might have overshot it, she realised; she sounded strident. Aggressive, even, to hide her nervousness.
Alessandro Costa’s eyes narrowed even further in appraisal, and his lips flattened into a hard line.
‘Come with me,’ he said, and walked into Henry Dillard’s office, the only private space on the floor, an elegant room with wood panelled walls and leather club chairs, tasteful oil paintings and heavy curtains. It felt like a gentleman’s club, or the study of an elegant townhouse, which it very well might once have been. Dillard’s offices were in a former home, although much of it had been gutted for desk space.
Costa strode towards the big, mahogany desk, inlaid with leather, that Henry had always sat behind while Mia had taken notes or dictation. Henry had been eccentrically old school; he’d only bought a laptop a few years ago, and he’d still depended on Mia to manage emails and spreadsheets, finding both quite beyond him, and not seeming to mind.
It gave her a pang now to think that was all over; Henry had retreated to his estate in Surrey, and Mia half wondered if she’d ever see him again. Last night, as he’d shuffled out of the office, his business in ruins around him, he’d seemed like an old, broken man, and it had wrung her heart right out. And it was this man’s fault.
Alessandro Costa stood behind Henry’s old desk, his hands placed flat on its surface, fingers spread wide, as he stared at her, his eyes magnetic, his body radiating barely suppressed energy. Although his expression was focused, it wasn’t unfriendly. He looked like a man intent on action, and it made Mia tense, something in her kicking up a notch, ready to respond.
‘I need you.’ Costa spoke the words matter-of-factly, but stupidly they made Mia’s heart skip a silly beat. He didn’t mean in that way, of course he didn’t. But perhaps he meant she might keep her job...
‘You...do?’
‘Yes, for the moment, at least.’ Costa straightened, his gaze surveying her with cool appraisal. ‘You’ve been Dillard’s PA for how long?’
‘Seven years.’
He nodded slowly. ‘And, as far as I can see, you were the plug on his life support.’
Mia blinked, absorbing the cruel bluntness of that statement. ‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ she said quietly, although admittedly there was some truth in it. In reality, Henry Dillard would have been happy playing golf and letting the company his father had founded dwindle away to nothing. The company had been ripe for a takeover, even if he hadn’t seen it himself, and Mia had never let herself consider such a possibility.
‘Perhaps that’s a bit harsh,’ Costa allowed, ‘but Dillard himself admitted he was behind the times. Of course, many of his clients are, as well.’
‘Which begs the question why you took it over,’ Mia returned. Costa’s eyebrows rose as he kept her gaze, and something sparked to life in Mia, something she most certainly wasn’t going to acknowledge.
‘Yes, it does, doesn’t it?’ he remarked. ‘Fortunately that is not something you need to concern yourself with.’
And that was her, put firmly in her place. ‘Very well.’ She met his narrowed, steely gaze unflinchingly, although it cost her. Every time she looked at him she felt something in her spark and tingle in a way she definitely didn’t like. The man was intense and a little scary, but there was something that drew her to him as well—something in his fierce energy, his incredible focus. ‘So why do you need me?’ she asked, deciding that keeping things on track was her best bet.
‘I need you because I require your knowledge of Henry’s clients so I can deal with them appropriately. So as long as you prove useful...’
Which sounded like a barely veiled threat, or perhaps just a statement of fact. Mia couldn’t imagine Alessandro Costa putting up with anyone who wasn’t useful.
‘And when I don’t prove useful?’ she asked, although she had a feeling she didn’t want to know the answer.
‘Then you’ll be let go,’ Costa said bluntly. ‘I don’t keep useless employees. It’s bad business practice.’
‘What about the rest of the staff?’
‘Again, none of your concern.’
Wow. The man had no hesitation in being blunt, yet Mia didn’t sense any cruel relish in his words, just simple bare statements of fact, which she could appreciate, even if she didn’t like them.
In any case, needlessly sparring with Alessandro Costa was a fast track to being fired, and she wanted to keep her job. She needed to keep her job. It felt like the only thing she had.
‘All right.’ She straightened, tipping her chin up, determined to stay professional and match his focus. ‘What would you like me to do?’
Something silver flashed in Alessandro’s grey eyes; it almost looked like approval, and it made a ripple of pleased awareness race through her, treacherous and molten, racing through her fingers and down to her toes. ‘I want files on all of Dillard’s major clients, with notes about any potential quirks, habits, tendencies, or any other pertinent information within the hour. We’ll talk through it all then.’
‘All right.’ Mia thought she could manage that, if only just.
‘Good.’ Without another word, Alessandro Costa strode out of the office, closing the door firmly behind him.
Mia let out a gusty breath and then, on watery legs, she sank into a chair in front of the desk. Now that he was gone, she realised afresh how much energy Costa drew from her, how much adrenalin he stirred up so her heart still pounded and her head felt light. Talking with him had felt like a full mental and physical workout. Ten minutes of it and she was, strangely, both exhausted and energised.
She was also...affected. The man’s forceful personality was only part of his intense charisma; she’d felt as if she couldn’t look away from him—the eyes that almost glowed, the barely leashed energy that radiated from him, the power that was evident in every taut line of his body. Even now she breathed in the faint scent of his aftershave, something with sandalwood in it, and she felt the urge to tremble. Thankfully, she didn’t.
On still shaky legs Mia rose from her chair. She needed to show Alessandro Costa she was oh-so-useful, and more than that, she was necessary. Essential, even. Because she wasn’t ready to contemplate the alternative.
Quickly Mia left Henry’s old office and went to her desk immediately outside of it. The crowds that had been waiting for Alessandro Costa’s arrival had dispersed, and people were back at their desks, attempting to at least seem as if they were working.
Alessandro was nowhere to be seen, and Mia wondered what he was doing. Inspecting the ranks? Firing someone? If the rumours were true, he’d fire most of Dillard’s staff, just as he had countless other times, something she couldn’t bear to think about. She had to focus. She had a job to do.
* * *
Dillard Investments was even more of a sorry mess than he’d realised. After a morning of meeting employees and assessing the company’s condition, Alessandro Costa felt nothing but a scathing derision for Henry Dillard, a man whose affable exterior hid a terrible weakness—a weakness that had caused the inevitable loss of his company, his clients’ assets, and the well-being of his employees. The man had the appearance of a lovable teddy bear, but Alessandro was glad he’d put an end to his benevolent ineptitude.
A Shocking Proposal In Sicily (HQR Presents) Page 16