by Nina Singh
Sure enough, Gianni walked in a few seconds later with a sweat towel draped over his shoulder. As she watched, flabbergasted, he began the class with a warm-up routine, then continued for forty straight minutes with a pulse raising workout that had her regulars sweating. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Herself included. She rather enjoyed watching him. He’d even thought to bring along a speaker with a pounding playlist to accompany the routine. At one point, he winked in her direction, making her blush like a schoolgirl.
At the end of the cooldown, after the attendees slowly trickled out, he made his way over to the bar where Laney still stood in mild shock. She had trouble making her mouth work. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?” she finally managed to utter.
“You haven’t seen anything yet, sweetheart,” he answered, leaning in to give her a peck on the cheek.
Heavens, she’d missed him. It had only been a few days but hardly a minute had gone by that she hadn’t thought about him and how she might make things right between them. Now, here he was, after having run a kickboxing workout for her class, no less.
“You really plan on doing this every week?” she asked, for lack of a better conversation starter.
“You bet. I’m also taking bartending classes online.”
“You are?”
He nodded. “I’ll be around as often or as little as you want me to.”
Laney rubbed her jaw, as if deep in thought. “I see. Well, I have to say, I’ve been doing some thinking since we last spoke, Mr. Martino.”
“What kind of thinking?”
“Some of the things you said, about focusing on this pregnancy and my becoming a mom in a few short months. I’ve decided a lot of it has merit.”
“What’s that mean, exactly?” he wanted to know.
“It means, I’ve rethought your offer.”
His smile slowly wilted. “Laney, you don’t have to do that. I’m sorry I ever brought it up again. You don’t have to sell. This place is your labor of love. We’ll find a way to make it work.”
She waved a hand in dismissal. “That’s not the offer I’m referring to, silly man.”
“It’s not?”
“No. I mean the offer to marry you. Does it still stand? Because I’d like to say yes.”
He blinked at her. Once, twice. In the next instant, she suddenly found herself lifted in his arms and spun around. When he finally set her down, he took her lips with his in a deep soul-shattering kiss she felt down to her toes. It took several deep breaths to get her oxygen level back to normal.
“I love you, Laney Taytum,” he whispered against her ear in a tone so genuine that she felt the sting of joyful tears behind her eyes. “I was a fool not to tell you earlier.”
She leaned in close against his chest, felt his arms tighten around her. “You did tell me. In so many ways. I just wasn’t listening.”
From now on, she would be all ears when it came to her soon-to-be husband.
“I love you,” she, said against his chest, echoing his declaration. “And I can’t wait for the three of us to be a family.”
A family in which she truly felt she belonged.
EPILOGUE
“THE PHOTOS YOU sent are breathtaking!”
Mabel’s excited voiced reached her through what sounded like an echo chamber. Laney strained to hear better over the crashing waves in the distance. It was a beautiful morning on the Amalfi Coast. The perfect day to enjoy the Marina Grande Beach.
“But please don’t send me anymore,” Mabel insisted. “I’m just about racked over with jealousy.”
Laney sat up in her lounge chair to get a better view of Gianni and their baby girl splashing around in the water. The three of them had hiked the Path of the Gods yesterday, with Gianni carrying their daughter in a back carrier.
Laney had taken more snapshots than she could count, emailing more than a few to Mabel afterward. “Well, then you have to come here, Mabel. As soon as you get the chance. You’d like Gianni’s cousin. He makes a mean limoncello.”
Mabel giggled into the phone. “Are you playing matchmaker, coz?”
“Guilty as charged,” Laney admitted. Would that be so wrong? Now that she had the family she’d dreamed about, Laney couldn’t help but want to spread such happiness around. Her cousin more than deserved it.
“There’s the small matter of a doctorate I need to finish up,” Mabel reminded her.
“Fair enough,” Laney agreed. “But after that’s done, the next time we come here on holiday, I’m going to insist you come with us.”
“It’s a plan.”
After they said their goodbyes and hung up, Laney grabbed the large plush Turkish towel sitting on the blanket next to her and approached the water where Gianni and their daughter were splashing around in the gentle waves. He held their precious child tight against his chest.
“All right, you two. You’ll both start to prune if you don’t come out right now,” she chided. This was the third time she’d tried to get them to come out.
Her baby daughter’s response was to kick her little feet in the water and send a toothless grin Laney’s way. Not for the first time, Laney felt her heart swell with the love and joy that rushed through her whenever she looked upon her child.
“What do you think, Gia?” Her husband asked their little girl. “Is your mamma right? Should we get out?”
Of course, the eight-month-old didn’t understand enough to answer. But Laney could have sworn she gave a subtle shake of her head.
“I agree,” Gianni declared. “I think instead of us getting out, she should come in!”
In a stealth-like move she hadn’t seen coming, he reached out with one hand to grab her by the arm and pulled her farther into the ocean with them. She barely managed to hold on to the towel, lifting it above her head so that it didn’t get wet.
“Not fair,” she teased, wrapping the towel safely around her shoulders to prevent it from falling. “The two of you are ganging up on me.”
“Not true,” Gianni argued. “You were simply outvoted.”
Slipping his arm along her waist, he pulled her in closer against the length of him. For several moments, they simply stood in silence, with the gentle waves crashing along their legs and their daughter gurgling happily between them. Laney felt like pinching herself to make sure it was all real. Being here was a dream come true, with the man she loved and the beautiful family they’d created together.
She’d indeed found paradise.
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Nina Singh
From Tropical Fling to Forever
Her Inconvenient Christmas Reunion
Spanish Tycoon’s Convenient Bride
Her Billionaire Protector
All available now!
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Cinderella and the Brooding Billionaire
by Michelle Douglas
CHAPTER ONE
THE BABY WOULD not stop crying.
Luca Vieri paced the floor of his motel room, dragging a hand through his hair. He’d made sure the baby wasn’t hungry, that his nappy was dry, that he wasn’t running a temperature. And yet the boy continued to cry.
Luca completed a full circuit of the room, which, given the room’s size and the length of his legs, took no time at all. The room lacked both the size and luxury he was used to. Though he suspected the spectacular view of the beach from the open front door more than made up
for it in most guests’ eyes. He cared for neither the lack of luxury nor the view. All he wanted was to be able to comfort his son.
‘Luca, are you still there?’
The voice at the other end of the line recalled him to the task at hand. Covering his other ear with his hand, he did what he could to focus on the report his assistant had just given him. ‘Sì.’
The baby continued to cry.
His son, it seemed, had a healthy set of lungs.
His son.
He closed his eyes but forced them open again a moment later. Once his phone call was finished, he could again give his full attention to the baby.
Perhaps he could step inside his bedroom, close the door, and finish his phone call in semi-quiet, before reapplying himself to the task of soothing his son.
But he didn’t have the heart to abandon seven-month-old Benito for even the few minutes that would take. He wanted his son to trust him, to realise he was going to be there for him, that just because things might be hard at the moment he had no intention of letting them scare him off.
‘There is no issue with any of that,’ he said, striding back into the main part of the motel room, his heart plunging to his feet at Benito’s red-faced misery. Soon that misery would give way to hiccups and exhausted sleep.
Luca’s hand clenched so hard around his phone it started to ache. With a force of will he loosened his grip. ‘Reschedule it all to next week.’
‘Already done.’
‘Good.’ He approached the child’s cage—playpen—but when Benito’s cries grew louder, he backed off, his heart burning. He so badly wanted to comfort his son, but they’d known each other for two days. The child didn’t know him, didn’t trust him...was still a little frightened of him.
Benito only let him feed him when he became desperately hungry and only fell asleep in his arms when he was desperately exhausted. But he’d woken from a nap earlier, had allowed Luca to give him his lunch...yet now whenever Luca tried to give him the bottle of cool boiled water, he batted it away. Whenever he tried to give him the dummy, he turned his head away. Whenever he picked him up, he struggled to be free.
He wanted to find a quick fix for his son’s distress, but there was no quick fix for grief. Benito missed his mother.
This wailing, it was grief for the woman Benito would now grow up without and would never remember. Luca’s throat thickened. He wanted to wail against the fates too.
‘Luca?’
His assistant’s voice snapped him back. ‘Sorry, Piero. As for my mother...tell her I will speak to her when I return to Rome.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Luca made a note to give his assistant a substantial Christmas bonus at the end of the year. ‘I know it is asking a lot. I will also text her the same message, but I fear she will continue to hound you.’
‘No matter. I can deal with Signora Conti.’
Very few people could, but Piero was one of them. ‘Grazie, Piero.’
‘You need time with your son.’
His lips twisted. ‘Except a business empire like The Vieri Corporation refuses to wait patiently while I do that.’ He’d only been CEO for two years. Today, though, it felt like twenty.
‘Your cousin, Signorina Rosetta Vieri, has stepped in to pick up what slack she can. She is doing an admirable job.’
Luca’s gut clenched. Rosetta was the only one of his cousins he fully trusted. They’d recently discovered that the corporation had a traitor in its midst, and he hated leaving her to deal with it on her own. ‘Have there been further financial irregularities?’
‘Sì. Nothing too significant but troubling all the same.’
Hunting down the source of those irregularities would be his top priority when he returned to Rome.
Benito’s continued crying filled Luca’s head, making it throb, making it increasingly difficult to focus on anything else. He seized the teddy bear he’d bought as a gift and danced it along the railing of the playpen, but Benito merely flung himself to the other side, almost falling against the wooden bars in his haste to avoid his father.
Luca’s throat thickened. He loved his son. From the very first moment he’d clapped eyes on Benito, a fierce protectiveness had taken up residence inside his chest. He would create a strong unbreakable bond with his son, would make sure Benito knew he was loved and cherished.
He dragged a hand down his face. It was unreasonable to expect that to happen immediately. These early days were always going to be difficult.
He just hadn’t realised they’d wring him so dry. He was used to solving problems, not feeling so...helpless.
‘There is something else,’ his assistant said. ‘Signor Romano has been calling. He demands you speak to him personally as soon as you can.’
Dio! How had the other man found out about this so quickly?
The baby’s wailing was reaching a crescendo in his head. Keeping one eye on his son, he opened the glass sliding door onto the back balcony of his room, welcomed the fresh bite of the breeze on his face. ‘You think I need to call him before I return to Rome?’
‘Sì.’
Cavolo! He would need to tread carefully, bring into play all his tact and diplomacy. And even then it might not be enough. ‘Leave it with me.’
He’d promised Bella he would find a way to break off their engagement. Discovering he had an unknown son provided them with a plausible enough excuse. Luca could claim he needed time to adapt to this new reality. Bella could claim she did not wish to become a stepmother so soon.
Except Signor Romano would argue that Benito’s existence made no difference. He would argue for the children of Bella and Luca’s marriage to become the legitimate Vieri heirs, rather than Benito, and if that could be settled Bella would become reconciled to raising Benito.
What the older man didn’t know, however, was that Bella was in love with another man.
And Luca had no desire to marry a woman who did not wish to marry him.
And while he sorely wanted the union between their families, he had no intention of treating Benito differently from any other children he might one day have.
Given time, without Luca on the scene, Bella might possibly reconcile her father to her chosen man. Still, Signor Romano had a fiery temper, and a merger between the two families was his dearest wish. Luca had to find a way to keep the older man onside, while reconciling him to the fact that Bella and Luca would not marry.
His shoulders sagged at the Herculean task Bella had set him. He would not be able to settle the issue, appease Signor Romano and restore peace in a single phone call, but he could begin to lay the groundwork.
If only Benito would stop crying. If only Luca had managed some sleep in the last three days. If only he’d known about his son seven months ago!
‘Okay, Piero—’ he ground back a sigh ‘—give me your impressions of the situation.’
He forced himself to concentrate on his assistant’s voice, but a movement inside the motel room caught his attention. The black skirt, white shirt and sensible shoes informed him it was a member of the housekeeping staff. He hadn’t heard her call out to identify herself over Benito’s cries.
He went to move into the room and ask her to come back later, but the smile that stretched across her face when she glimpsed his son halted him in his tracks.
She swooped down towards the crying child. ‘Hello, Benny boy! What’s all this fuss you’re making?’
Benito immediately stopped crying to swing around and stare at the maid. And then his little arms lifted to be picked up, his urgency evident in the way he bounced on his bottom.
Luca’s heart stuttered in his chest.
She picked him up, two tiny arms went about her neck and she cuddled him close, rocking him as he snuffled into her shoulder and neck. She crooned to his son in a low voice, but Luca caught, ‘Poor, poor b
aby,’ and ‘You miss her too,’ and ‘Beautiful Benny boy.’
This woman had known Anita?
He shook himself. Of course she had. This town was no bigger than a postage stamp. Everyone here would know everyone else.
He stared at the woman and child and an ache rose inside him.
She glanced around at him with clear amber eyes. He blinked and straightened. He hadn’t realised she’d known he was there. She gestured towards the sofa and he nodded.
Prising her caramel-coloured hair from Benito’s fingers, she started to sing a children’s song Luca knew from his own childhood. Benito stared up at her with tear-streaked eyes as if she were the answer to all his prayers, and renewed energy began to trickle into every tired atom of Luca’s body.
He longed for his son to look at him like that.
‘Aren’t you going to sing with me, beautiful boy?’ this lovely smiling woman said to the child, and Benito broke into the biggest smile that Luca had ever seen.
His son’s smile... Dio! It was like sunshine and holidays and the Mediterranean in spring.
‘Luca, are you still there?’
‘I’m sorry, Piero, I have to go. I will call you back.’ He pocketed his phone and stepped back into the room.
The maid sang, Benito made cooing noises as if he were trying to copy her and clapped both of his little hands against her larger one—so happy at that moment it made Luca’s heart ache.
Without warning, those amber eyes glanced up into his again. Though heaven only knew what he meant by warning, just...such eyes should come with a warning, surely?
Sing, she mouthed.
So he sang along with the song too. The baby jerked to stare at him, but the magician of a maid bounced her charge on her lap to make him laugh again. When the song came to an end, she clapped her hands. ‘Yay! High five!’
Benito slapped his hand to hers.
‘And yay!’ she repeated. ‘Daddy knows the song too! High five, Daddy!’