Alessandro and the Cheery Nanny
Page 18
‘It must have been hard.’
Yes, it had. But, then, a lot of it had been his doing.
‘So you see,’ he said, looking down at her, ‘I don’t deserve to have love, to find love. That’s why I fought these feelings for you for so long. Because this isn’t supposed to be my lot. And then I saw Juliano in bed with you yesterday. You were asleep and he was stroking your head and telling you he wanted you to be his mummy and he loved you and you murmured, “I love you too,” and I realised that right in front of me was my whole world. You and him.’
Nat didn’t remember Juliano being in bed with her but smiled at the picture Alessandro painted. Her heart started to beat crazily as his words sank in. She wanted to believe him. But she was burned and wary.
She looked up and captured his gaze. ‘I just can’t get her picture out of my head.’
‘I know. I should have told you earlier but I honestly didn’t notice the resemblance after being in your company for just a few seconds. You were obviously like chalk and cheese.’
He lifted a finger and stroked it down her face. ‘It’s you I want. And not because you look like Camilla. Because you’re Nat. Nathalie. Our Nat. Funny and down to earth and kind and generous and sexy, and you gave me back my son, you gave me back Juliano, and you opened my heart enough to see that maybe I do deserve a chance at love. Real love for the first time in my life.’
Nat’s chest bloomed with an outpouring of the love that she’d kept firmly in check since she’d blurted it out. ‘Of course you do, Alessandro. We all do.’
Alessandro saw the compassion in her gaze and dared to hope. ‘Does this mean I haven’t destroyed everything you felt for me?’ he asked.
She smiled up at him, her heart skipping in her chest. She slipped her palm up to cradle his cheek. ‘Of course not. I love you, Alessandro. I can’t turn that off and on. It’s a fact of life. It’s who I am.’
She raised herself up on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his. ‘I will always love you.’
Alessandro grinned for the first time since he’d started talking. Then he picked her up, ignoring her squeal, and threw her in the centre of the mattress. ‘So you’ll stay,’ he said, climbing on the bed and lying beside her on his stomach, propped up on his elbows. ‘For ever and ever. And you’ll marry me and have brothers and sisters for Juliano?’
She put her arms around his neck. ‘Yes, I’ll stay. Yes, I’ll marry you. And, yes, I’ll have brothers and sisters for Juliano.’ She pulled him down to seal it with a kiss. ‘You want to start now?’
Alessandro grinned. ‘I thought we did that already.’
A noise at the door had them both breaking apart as Juliano eyed them. ‘Is Nat better now?’
Alessandro grinned at his son. ‘She sure is. And guess what?’ he said, gesturing Juliano over. He grabbed his son’s hand and pulled him onto the bed with them. ‘Nat’s staying. For ever.’
Juliano’s eyes grew large in his head as he looked from his father to Nat and back to his father. ‘Really? Are you going to be my mummy?’
Nat beamed at him. ‘Would you like that?’
‘Oh, yeah! That’d be the best thing ever,’ he said enthusiastically, bouncing up and down on his haunches.
Alessandro couldn’t have agreed more. ‘Well said, matey.’ He grinned as he grabbed Juliano and lifted him in the air above his head, tickling him with his fingers, boyish laughter filling the room.
Nat laughed too as Juliano giggled and begged his father to stop. She pinched herself. She was really a part of all this. She couldn’t remember every being this deliriously happy.
It couldn’t get any better than this.
But it did.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6934-1
ALESSANDRO AND THE CHEERY NANNY
First North American Publication 2010
Copyright © 2010 by Amy Andrews
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