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  ‘Art, my head is spinning.’

  ‘There’s no concise way to explain all of this. I just need you to understand that my dilemma was finding a place where I could develop a centre for José and for other kids like him. A handful. He is soothed by horses and enjoys being outdoors. He has a way with them. The farm would be something of a therapeutic centre. Some arts and crafts could be incorporated. You’d be surprised at how talented some of these kids are.’

  ‘But why on earth didn’t you say anything about this?’

  ‘To the council?’ His eyebrows shot up. ‘People can be strange when it comes to having anyone different as their neighbours. It took a long time to find a suitable location, somewhere commutable for me, a convenient middle ground for other occupants. I wasn’t going to risk jeopardising the project by introducing it from the beginning. I thought that by the time the community got accustomed to the notion of the land being developed they would be more open to my future plans for the place.’

  ‘I love you,’ Rose said simply, because all of this showed her a side to him that she’d known was there, a caring, thoughtful side lurking underneath the ruthless billionaire exterior.

  It was the side that had sucked her in and, even when he’d confessed to his deception, had kept her sucked in because deep down she had known him for the good guy he was. She’d seen the moral integrity underneath the tough love is for the birds exterior.

  ‘You’re not upset that I lied to you yet again?’ Art looked as though his heart was soaring.

  ‘I’d like to meet your stepbrother one day.’

  Art reached out but he didn’t tug her towards him. Instead, he held her hands in his. It was a chaste gesture that made her smile.

  ‘You will,’ he said gruffly. ‘But first you have to promise me one thing.’

  ‘What?’ She nudged closer to him and played with his fingers. She couldn’t help herself. She reached out and stroked the side of his face with the back of her hand, then she traced the contours of his mouth.

  She leaned into him and kissed him, a slow, tender, melting kiss and it felt good to have her love out in the open, to be as vulnerable as he was.

  ‘Promise me that you’ll marry me,’ Art said in a muffled voice. ‘Because I can’t imagine a life without you in it. I want to go to sleep with you and wake up to you. I don’t want to ever let you go.’

  ‘Yes.’ Rose smiled. ‘A thousand times yes.’

  * * *

  They were married just as the finishing touches were being put to the local library.

  It had been planned as a quiet wedding but it turned out to be rather larger than either of them had expected. Once one person had been invited others had to be included, and Rose discovered that she had done a lot more for the residents of her quiet community than she had ever dreamed.

  Everyone wanted to come.

  Everyone knew her story and the wedding was almost as much of a fairy tale for them as for her.

  She wore a simple cream dress and little silk buds were woven into her long hair, and the look on Art’s face when he turned to look at her as she walked up the aisle of the little country church was something she would take with her for as long as she lived.

  * * *

  And now...

  Six months later, life couldn’t be better and so much had changed. For starters, the house had no more leaks in need of fixing. It had been renovated to its original splendour but, with all the right planning permission in place, was now a fully functioning office catering for several start-up companies as well as the legal practice which Phil, Rose’s partner, had taken over in its entirety.

  Rose no longer lived there but whenever she returned she marvelled at its wonderful transformation.

  ‘I don’t think,’ she confided to Art a few weeks after she had moved out and shortly before their wedding, ‘that I ever really saw it as my house. Even though, technically, it was. And even though I always, always knew it to be a real blessing. I guess I always somehow associated it with a time in my life that brought back bad memories so, whilst I’m happy it’s renovated, I’m pleased I no longer live in it.’

  Where she lived now could not have been more wonderful. Not the sprawling modernist vision in London which Art had occupied but, he also admitted, never actually viewed as anything other than a handy space in a useful location, but a country cottage that was the perfect blend of ancient and modern.

  It was just outside London, convenient for commuting both back to London by train and to the centre in the Cotswolds where José would be eventually located.

  Rose had fallen in love with the cottage at first sight.

  With the husband of her dreams and the house to match, she hadn’t thought that life could get any better but it had.

  She started as she heard the front door open and her heart quickened, as it always did at the arrival of her husband.

  She rose to greet him and smiled at the naked love and desire etched on his lean face.

  He was so beautiful and he was hers. She smiled at the thrill of possession that swelled inside her.

  Art smiled back, moving smoothly towards her while undoing the top couple of buttons of his shirt.

  ‘You don’t get to look like that without accepting that there’ll be consequences.’ He pulled her towards him, cupped her rounded bottom and crushed her against him so that she could feel the tell-tale stirring of his desire.

  ‘Look like what?’ Rose burst out laughing, drawing back and capturing his face between her hands.

  ‘Oh, you know...pair of jeans, tee shirt, flip-flops...’

  ‘Oh, you mean my fancy outfit.’

  ‘You’ve gone all out on the dinner, I see.’ Art peered around her to see the kitchen table, which was candlelit and set in some style. ‘What have I forgotten? It’s not a birthday and it’s definitely not our anniversary, unless it’s the anniversary of the first time you decided that I was the best thing that ever happened to you, which would have been, hmm, about five minutes after we met?’

  ‘Time’s done nothing to dim that ego of yours, Arturo da Costa, has it?’

  Art burst out laughing. ‘Don’t keep me in suspense. With any other woman, I’d be inclined to think that you’re bracing me for some wildly extravagant purchase, but then, my darling, you’re not any other woman and I thank my lucky stars for that every day.’

  Rose tugged him into the huge open-plan kitchen with its granite countertops and its wonderful state-of-the-art built-in appliances.

  ‘Champagne,’ Art murmured, glancing at the counter. ‘Now I’m really beginning to get worried.’

  ‘Then don’t. I actually would have dressed up for the occasion but I opted for comfortable over glamorous.’

  ‘Don’t distract me.’

  ‘The champagne is for you. I’ll be sticking to mineral water for the moment and for the next, oh, let’s say...nine months or so...’

  ‘Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?’

  ‘I’m pregnant.’

  Art wrapped his arms around her and held her tight to him for several long minutes. ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better end to my day, my darling. I love you so very much.’

  ‘And I love you too. Now and for ever.’

  * * * * *

  Coming next month

  THE ITALIAN’S CHRISTMAS HOUSEKEEPER

  Sharon Kendrick

  ‘The only thing which will stop me, is you,’ he continued, his voice a deep silken purr. ‘So stop me, Molly. Turn away and walk out right now and do us both a favour, because something tells me this is a bad idea.’

  He was giving her the opportunity to leave but Molly knew she wasn’t going to take it - because when did things like this ever happen to people like her? She wasn’t like most women her age. She’d never had sex. Never come even close, despite her few forays onto a dating website which had all ended in disaster. Yet now a man she barely knew was proposing seduction and suddenly she was up for it, and she didn�
�t care if it was bad. Hadn’t she spent her whole life trying to be good? And where had it got her?

  Her heart was crashing against her rib-cage as she stared up into his rugged features and greedily drank them in. ‘I don’t care if it’s a bad idea,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe I want it as much as you do.’

  Continue reading

  THE ITALIAN’S CHRISTMAS HOUSEKEEPER

  Sharon Kendrick

  Available next month

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  Copyright ©2018 by Sharon Kendrick

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