Dominique tried for a smile as Consuela dandled Matilde on her knee and made the baby laugh, but she knew it was a half-hearted effort at best.
‘You have a nice lie-down?’ the older woman asked in her halting English.
‘Lovely…thank you. I feel revived.’
Her gaze fell upon the small overnight case that was at Consuela’s feet. Recognising it as her own, Dominique frowned.
Observing her quizzical glance, Consuela lifted it by its leather handle and held it out to her. ‘You go with Cristiano,’ she said, smiling.
‘Cristiano?’
‘I have been waiting for you, querida,’ a familiar voice said from behind her.
Standing in the doorway, with a bone-melting smile, dressed in dark trousers, white shirt and a stylish chocolate-brown suede jacket, he was the most devastatingly handsome man on earth, and Dominique’s heart all but leapt into her throat at the sight of him.
‘I don’t understand…’
‘I am taking you to Madrid for a little trip. I own a small hotel there. We will stay the night and drive back tomorrow.’
‘I sneaked into your room and packed your bag while you slept. I hope you do not mind?’ Rising to her feet from her armchair, Elena went to Dominique and gave her a brief but affectionate hug.
‘But—but what about Matilde?’
‘Need you ask?’
Cristiano grinned, and Dominique looked round at the three women, whose love for her child was shining in each pair of twinkling dark eyes…
‘This is all a bit sudden, isn’t it?’ Her legs were shaking as she realised she was the unsuspecting target of a somewhat tender conspiracy.
Cristiano released a heavy sigh and scraped a hand through his gleaming dark hair. ‘Are you going to stand there looking bemused for the rest of the day? Or are you going to come with me and find out what this is all about when we get to Madrid?’
Dominique swallowed hard. ‘I think I’m going to go with you,’ she replied, her voice a little husky with emotion.
‘Bien!’
As he held out his hand, Cristiano’s dazzling smile was like sunshine after a prolonged period of rain, and he enfolded her small, slim palm protectively in his own…
‘A small hotel, you said?’ With her head on one side as she surveyed the sumptuously appointed bedroom in their suite, Dominique glanced wryly at her good-looking companion as he dropped his bag and her overnight case on a chair. ‘Define “small”, Cristiano?’
‘Okay.’ He shrugged. ‘So I am prone to being a little modest. It is hardly my worst fault!’
‘Now that you’ve mentioned it, what is your worst fault?’
Walking slowly towards him, Dominique knew the expression on her face was deliberately provocative. The answering gleam in Cristiano’s black eyes made her heart race.
He put his arms out as she reached him and caught her in a possessive embrace. ‘Perhaps it is that when I fall in love I fall too hard and too fast?’ he said, smoothing the pad of his thumb across her cheek.
Dominique thought she glimpsed a momentary flash of pain cross his sculpted features. ‘Has it happened often?’ she asked softly.
‘No…only twice in my life.’ He was staring at her as though she were some kind of priceless treasure just unveiled to him. ‘And you?’ he enquired, his expression suddenly more intense. ‘Were you in love with Ramón?’
‘It’s like I told you when we first met. I thought I was for a time…’ She grimaced at the bittersweet memory. ‘But really I just—I just needed someone, and for a while he was there for me.’
‘So you have never really been in love?’
‘Not until now. No.’
Silence was the answer to her nervously voiced statement, and inside her chest Dominique’s heart squeezed with love and longing for the man who was holding her so tenderly and yet at the same time with a grip like steel that promised not to let her easily escape…
‘Something inside me died when I lost my wife,’ Cristiano told her, and for a long moment she held her breath. ‘I truly believed I would never find another woman to replace her…let alone lose my heart again. But you have proved me wrong, Dominique…so wrong! I find myself as foolish and as hopeful as a schoolboy when you are around, and all I can think of is taking you somewhere we can be alone together so that I can make love to you!’
‘I feel the same! Oh, Cristiano, I love you so much!’ Thrilling at his words, yet impatient for him to stop talking so that she could feel that heavenly mouth of his against hers, Dominique put her hand up to his gleaming black hair and gently smoothed a lock of it away from his temple. ‘You have become the most important thing to me and Matilde. I don’t even want to imagine living the rest of our lives without you!’
‘Then do not!’ Cristiano growled passionately against her ear.
Sensing his hands move down to her hips and drag her hard against his pelvis, Dominique felt the steely hardness of his desire brush urgently against her and her limbs flooded with glorious liquid velvet. ‘Take me to bed…please,’ she whispered back to him.
They undressed urgently, but Cristiano’s movements deliberately slowed as he undid Dominique’s coiled hair as though unwrapping the most precious of gifts. This was not a task to hurry or take lightly. It was one of the erotic privileges he had so often dreamed of since Dominique had come into his life.
A wave of fierce masculine pride assailed him as he sensed her quiver hard with excitement at his touch. He was quivering too. All his senses were wild with joy, and with the hot, restless need to unite his body with hers once again.
The only covering Dominique had when he was finished was her glorious mane of rippling spun gold hair, its dark honey brushing temptingly against the aroused tips of her beautiful breasts as it cascaded down to her slender but nicely rounded hips. Unable to resist touching her a moment longer, Cristiano put his mouth to those delectable rigid points and sucked hard. The sensation caused even more heat to flood straight to his loins, and his erection was so tight with arousal that the line between pleasure and pain was only separated by the slimmest of threads.
Sliding his hand through her hair, he pushed Dominique’s head gently down to the plumped-up pillows behind her. When she was lying supine, he moved back down her body, parted her long smooth thighs and slid his fingers across the hot, silky nub at her centre. She immediately jerked, and panted out his name. Caught up in the fast-flowing river of his growing desire, Cristiano delved deep inside her with hungry fingers, and then, when he was drenched in her honeyed heat, he put his mouth to the place where his fingers had caressed her.
Her thighs moved helplessly wider apart, and Dominique’s hands gripped the satin eiderdown beneath her with a groan as Cristiano’s tongue moved rhythmically back and forth across the core of her femininity. Just when she thought she would break like an overstretched harp-string if she didn’t have the release she ached for Cristiano used that wicked instrument of seductive torment upon her with deliberate erotic slowness, and drenching waves of glorious heat swept over her in tingling succession, endowing her body with the most profoundly wondrous delight it had ever known…
When he glanced up at her with the most toe-curling satisfied grin Dominique had ever seen, desire consumed her again almost in an instant. Fastening her hands on the iron-hard slopes of his broad muscular shoulders, she urged him urgently towards her.
‘Now you,’ she breathed. ‘I want you to have the same pleasure you have just given to me!’
‘Mi amor…You will not find me arguing with that!’
He slid into her body in one smooth but sure thrust, and Dominique felt her muscles grip him tightly and quiver hard with delight. Her hunger and arousal reached barely imagined peaks of joy as Cristiano drove into her like a man intent on making her remember this amazing connection always. She ran her hands over his back and felt her nails dig into his slick, taut muscles as the feelings inside her grew close to the point of explosion.
&nbs
p; When they had both cried out at the same time, their gazes meeting in shared wonder, they slowly returned to earth together, holding on to each other fast.
‘I want you to be my wife.’
Without preamble, Cristiano spoke his thoughts aloud.
‘Was it your intention to ask me that when you brought me here?’ Dominique inquired, her pulse accelerating with the wildest joy.
‘Yes, it was.’
‘And does your family know you were going to ask me this?’
He shook his head and smiled. ‘No. I would not tell them what was in my mind until I spoke to you, mi ángel.’
‘Are you sure, Cristiano? You’d be taking on a lot, you know. Me and Matilde.’
‘I love your daughter as if she were my own…I want to be her father, Dominique, but that does not mean I will not tell her anything she wants to know about Ramón when she gets older. Of course I also want us to have children together too…maybe three or four…’
‘Three or four?’ Dominique gasped.
‘At least!’
‘You plan to keep me busy, then?’
‘Very!’
With a wicked smile, Cristiano claimed her lips for long, satisfying seconds, and for a while Dominique simply let herself bask in the luxury and delight of his amazing kisses. Then he lifted his head, glancing down at her with a frown.
‘You have not said whether you will accept my offer of marriage yet. I beg you not to keep me waiting any longer!’
‘Didn’t I just give you my answer with my eyes, Cristiano?’ Her voice soft with emotion, Dominique slid her palm across his slightly roughened cheek and caressed it. ‘Of course I will be your wife! I want the chance to show you that life can be good again…for us both. We won’t forget the past, but for now we will put it behind us. Our memories will be like a library we visit from time to time, but they will not be where we live!’
‘Sí… I like that.’
And to show her how much he concurred with her statement, Cristiano once again showered his wife-to-be with the kind of kisses that meant they would be most fervently occupied for a considerably long time indeed…
Christmas Eve…
Standing outside Cristiano’s study door, Dominique glanced down at her green satin dress with a little spurt of pleasure. Her fiancé had bought it for her only yesterday, insisting that she had to have something special to wear on one of the most celebrated of nights in the Spanish calendar.
In the kitchen, the housekeeper and the rest of the Cordova women were busily engaged in putting the finishing touches to the splendid feast that was in store—a menu that had been planned with a precision and attention to detail that wouldn’t have shamed an army campaign. The house looked absolutely stunning, and it was as if everything around Dominique were holding its breath in anticipation of what was to come. It was indeed turning out to be the kind of Christmas that Dominique had longed for, and one she would remember for ever…
Knocking lightly on the heavy oak door, she felt butterflies immediately assail her insides at Cristiano’s almost curt, ‘Adelante!’
‘It’s only me,’ she announced shyly as she stepped over the threshold into the impressive high-ceilinged room.
Seated behind a huge desk, Cristiano glanced up and gave the smile that never failed to turn her legs to jelly. His hungry gaze made no bones about the fact that he very much liked what he saw, and he pushed to his feet and moved across the room to join her.
‘Hola…“it’s only me”!’ he teased. ‘I like what you are wearing, by the way. Whoever bought it has impeccable taste!’
‘I wanted to give you your Christmas present.’ Her closed palm opened to reveal the small package it had been concealing, and Dominique gave the small silver-wrapped box to Cristiano.
She twisted her hands together a little nervously as she watched him peel off the glittery paper and then open the lid of the cardboard container that was inside. As he withdrew the perfectly oval silver frame, he studied the photograph it contained with an almost grave expression on his face. Then he looked up, and Dominique saw that his eyes had a sheen that hadn’t been there before.
‘Do you like it?’ she asked anxiously. ‘I couldn’t think what else to give you.’
‘I love it, mi ángel! You could not have given me anything more precious. I will put it on my desk at work, and whenever I need some inspiration I will look at this picture of my two beautiful girls and know that I can accomplish anything if they are by my side…anything!’
‘I’m so glad you feel that way.’
‘Never doubt what I say…I mean every word. And now I have something to give to you.’
Walking back to his desk, Cristiano put down the photograph with its wrapping and opened a drawer. Removing something, he walked slowly back to where Dominique stood. Opening what she now saw was a tiny black velvet heart-shaped box, he took out the most dazzling ruby and sapphire ring and, taking Dominique’s left hand in his, he placed the glittering jewel on her wedding finger.
‘Now you are officially my fiancée!’ He beamed and, pulling her close, kissed her with lingering thoroughness. When he had freed her lips once more, he cupped her face in his hands. ‘And soon that ring will be joined by another one…a wedding band. Happy Christmas, Dominique. Know that I love you more than I can say. You and Matilde have given my life a meaning I thought never to have again.’
‘When we first met, your words drew the most captivating picture of what Christmas was like in your country, and I so longed to experience some of the magic you conveyed! But nothing could have prepared me for the miracle of you, Cristiano…nothing! Happy Christmas, my love!’
CLAIMED FOR THE ITALIAN’S REVENGE
NATALIE RIVERS
~ MARRIED BY CHRISTMAS ~
TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON
AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG
STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID
PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
PROLOGUE
MARCO DE LUCA stood at the open window of the cottage, looking out into the clear, calm night. A full moon hung in the black sky and the sea stretched away into the darkness, lit only by the occasional silvery ripple of reflected moonlight.
For too many years he’d lived and worked in big cities, where the night sky was a hazy amber glow and the stars were virtually invisible. He’d driven himself so hard, building his business from scratch into the global enterprise that it was today, that he’d almost forgotten what it was like to slow down for a moment, to celebrate what he had achieved, or to appreciate the simple pleasures in his life.
There were no street-lamps here on this remote stretch of the Welsh coastline, filling the sky with their artificial light. And around the rugged bay where the cottage was nestled there were no other houses in sight.
It felt good to gaze out at the unblemished beauty of twinkling starlight in the inky black heavens, and at that moment the peaceful isolation seemed as far from the intensity of his business life as it was possible to be.
He was glad Claudia had brought him here.
It had meant a lot to him when she’d asked him to come with her to the beautiful part of the world where her mother had grown up. Marco knew that her mother had died when she was just five years old—and that this place, with all its treasured memories, held a special place in Claudia’s heart.
He turned away from the window to look down at her lying sleeping on the bed. Her long naked limbs were tangled in the sheets after hours of passionate lovemaking, and her hair was spread out in beautiful waves acro
ss the pillow. The gorgeous copper colour didn’t show in the dark, but even in the moonlight her hair had a rich lustre and her perfect skin had a pearly luminescence.
As he gazed at Claudia, an unaccustomed feeling of warmth spread through him. They’d had a good day. It was an amazing place and Marco was touched that she’d wanted to share it with him—and that she’d already opened up her heart to him about something so personal and precious to her. And, although she was sad to have lost her mother when she was so young, it was wonderful to see the joy she was able to take from her memories.
Marco had not seen his mother for eight years—and his heart was full of anger and bitterness whenever he thought about her. She was a treacherous Jezebel who had allowed herself to be used against her own family, by a man called Primo Vasile—a corrupt and despicable con man of the very worst kind.
Then, after her treachery was complete—when the family had been utterly destroyed and Marco’s father and grandfather were both dead—she had chosen to disappear. She had totally abandoned her eleven-year-old daughter, Marco’s sister Bianca.
A band of tension tightened across Marco’s chest, but he shook his head sharply to clear his mind. He would not think about his mother and about what she had done eight years ago.
He would not let her ruin his perfect day with Claudia.
Married By Christmas Bundle: Anthology Page 27