He strode downstairs, all business now that he knew what he had to do. He checked the laptop he had given her, scrolled through her past history and smiled at the ease of discovering her travel plans. She had gone back to France. Why France instead of the UK, he had no idea, but he was enormously grateful for that stroke of luck because he believed he knew where she had gone and he could get there faster than she could to await her arrival.

  * * *

  Late afternoon the following day, Belle staggered out of her taxi outside the restaurant and paid the driver. She was worried about how she was going to eat for the next few days because Dante’s payment had not yet reached her account and the long journey had cost her more than she had expected. She released Charlie from his travel carrier and he went bonkers at having his freedom back, tearing around and then letting out a startled bark and changing direction to go pelting down to the beach. Setting the box and her case to one side, Belle stared to see who had attracted Charlie, and then she noticed the tall dark man poised below the pine trees. The terrier leapt and jumped around him in joyous greeting.

  Belle knew only one man who her dog greeted with such enthusiasm. Dante might pay Charlie very little attention, but Charlie was, inexplicably, devoted to Dante. But it couldn’t be Dante, she reasoned, her heart thumping very fast as she walked down to the beach, her shoes crunching in the sand, getting closer and closer. The man moved out of the dappled light into the sunshine and she stopped breathing altogether, disbelieving the evidence of her own eyes. His luxuriant blue-black hair blew back from his bronzed and beautiful face and her throat closed over as he moved towards her.

  ‘Standing here again takes you back two weeks, doesn’t it?’ Dante intoned. ‘We didn’t know each other then. We didn’t know what was ahead of us.’

  ‘How the heck did you know where I was?’ she gasped.

  ‘Looked at your browsing history on the laptop. You should’ve brought it with you, although I am very glad you didn’t because I would’ve wasted time trying to track you back to England. Why did you come here?’

  ‘I have to make arrangements for Charlie and I don’t have the money yet,’ Belle admitted, turning red.

  ‘So, only if I keep you as poor as a church mouse can I hang onto you?’

  ‘You don’t want to hang onto me.’

  ‘What am I doing here then?’

  ‘Making this split harder on both of us,’ Belle told him heavily.

  ‘But I don’t want to let you go. I have absolutely no intention of letting you go and would go to any extreme, no matter how ridiculous, to keep you,’ Dante intoned with fierce determination. ‘I won’t insist that you marry me but I will keep on asking... I’m being frank about my ultimate goal.’

  Belle shook her head dizzily. ‘What the heck are you talking about?’

  ‘You’re looking a touch green again,’ Dante noted, urging her over to the concrete bench below the trees. ‘Sit down. Take a deep breath, and while you’re doing that, listen to me.’

  As she sat, Dante dropped down into a crouch in front of her and reached for her hand. Stunning dark golden eyes intercepted hers. ‘I want to marry you because I love you and making that commitment is important to me, but if you can’t face the wedding ring, you can still live with me until the day you die. Nothing less is acceptable...’

  Wide-eyed, Belle stared back at him, her colour fluctuating. ‘How on earth are you in love with me?’ she mumbled.

  ‘Your guess is probably as good as mine. I don’t know how it happened, but it did happen very fast,’ Dante mused reflectively, his lean, strong face serious as he quirked a black brow in self-mockery. ‘One day I was planning to live alone for the rest of my days and the next I’d changed out of all recognition. I wanted you with me. I wanted you with me all the time. When you weren’t immediately in front of me, I had to find you and know what you were doing, which is why you never really got to enjoy that room of yours for very long on your own. You entered my life and became an incredibly precious part of it.’

  ‘P-precious?’ she stammered.

  ‘Very,’ Dante confirmed, lifting her fingers to his mouth and kissing them and then checking the nails. ‘You’ve been peeling again.’

  ‘Yes...when I’m stressed, I slip,’ she said thickly, wondering if she could dare to believe what he was telling her, if it was actually possible for a man like Dante to fall in love with someone ordinary like her. ‘But what if you’re imagining that you’re in love with me?’

  ‘Why would I do that when I didn’t want to fall in love in the first place?’

  ‘Maybe...because I’m pregnant?’ she suggested uncomfortably.

  ‘Yes, that did increase your desirability once I got over the surprise of it,’ Dante admitted. ‘But I was already in love with you and fighting all these emotions I never allowed myself to feel before—’

  ‘You kept on reminding me that I would be going home to the UK,’ Belle protested.

  ‘As I said, I was fighting what I was feeling and in denial, but I wouldn’t have gone as far as actually letting you leave me,’ Dante assured her confidently. ‘I was kind of lonely before you came into my life. I’ve always been rather solitary in my habits, but you pull me in, take me out of myself, make me happy. Before you, only Cristiano could achieve that feat. So, obviously I’m going to fight to the last ditch to keep you. You’re mine. I know a good thing when I find it and I’m not letting you go.’

  ‘Oh, Dante...’ Belle whispered. ‘Walking away cut me in two but I thought it was what we both needed, although if Krystal hadn’t reminded me how anti-marriage you were and my mother hadn’t shown up...’

  His brows pleated. ‘Your mother?’

  ‘Tracy, yes... Yesterday, she was after money,’ Belle confided in discomfiture. ‘I don’t know how she found out I was with you.’

  ‘A friend called to tell me that a photo of us together appeared in an English tabloid.’

  ‘Well, Tracy threatened to go and sell some story about me to the newspapers and would probably make up lies to make it sleazy.’

  ‘She threatened you and tried to blackmail you? That is exactly what she did to your father!’ Dante interrupted angrily. ‘But you don’t deal with her, you don’t need to. That’s my job now. But she can sell whatever stories she wants to the newspapers, it doesn’t bother me. If she tells any lies about you, however, she will find herself dealing with the full weight of the law because I will sue.’

  ‘But what will your family think about that kind of stuff?’

  ‘Do you think I care? The truth of what went on in my childhood home behind closed doors is more sordid than anything that could be pinned to you,’ Dante derided. ‘Don’t forget that I grew up with my mother’s constant affairs with other men and her abuse and that soured my view of women from an early age. The casual affairs I indulged in didn’t improve that view...but then, to be fair, I chose women who were content to settle for sex and a good time with a rich man. And then I met you and you taught me that there was another kind of woman out there, one who could be warm and trustworthy and caring and who didn’t care about my money.’

  Tears glimmered in Belle’s violet eyes. ‘That’s quite an accolade. Are you sure you’re not seeing me through rose-tinted glasses?’

  Dante laughed. ‘No, definitely not. You are much too fond of homeless animals. You bite your nails and you are also very untidy and disorganised.’

  ‘I’m not...and I’ve stopped biting them!’

  ‘You are. I keep on tripping over the shoes you leave lying around,’ Dante told her without hesitation. ‘So, I think we needn’t worry about me seeing you through rose-tinted glasses.’

  ‘It’s all right to retain a touch of a rose tint,’ Belle told him in reproach as he tugged her upright. ‘I’m sure I’ve loads more faults than you’ve noticed yet, but I do love you an awful lot.’

  ‘And yet you ran away from me!’ Dante lamented. ‘And you refused to marry me—’

  ‘I honestly did believe that you didn’t ever want to get married or have a child.’

  ‘I did think that way until I met you but much of my resistance to those concepts was driven by a powerful need to disappoint and punish my parents for what they did to my brother and me,’ Dante admitted wryly. ‘But, with you, I want a wife and a family, and yes, it’s unfortunate that that news will delight my mother but I’m not about to sacrifice my happiness to punish her.’

  ‘Perhaps in time you’ll mend fences,’ Belle suggested uncertainly.

  ‘Never. I wouldn’t trust my mother near our child either. She doesn’t like children. No, it will always be safer to keep my parents at arm’s length,’ he told her firmly.

  ‘So, when did you decide that you wanted to marry me?’

  ‘The minute I recognised that my home felt like a home for the first time because you were in it,’ Dante admitted, lowering his handsome dark head to hungrily claim her readily parted lips. He kissed her breathless and her hands closed into his shirt front and then slid up to grip his shoulders, happiness finally daring to take her in a stormy surge as she allowed herself to believe that he loved her.

  ‘You’re really not worried about what Tracy might do?’ she pressed. ‘You see, that’s partly why I left. I wanted to protect you from her.’

  Dante smoothed gentle fingers through her tumbled hair. ‘I’m not worried about Tracy. I can handle her and it’s my job to protect you, not the other way round,’ he asserted.

  ‘Why did you insist on paying me that money?’ she whispered. ‘That was very off-putting.’

  ‘I didn’t see it in that light. The money was yours and I wanted you to have it. I didn’t want you to feel trapped in my home because you were pregnant and financially dependent on me. I wanted you to feel that you had choices because you’ve never had proper choices,’ Dante explained feelingly. ‘But I wouldn’t have parted with a penny had I known you would leave me.’

  ‘How do you really feel about the baby?’ Belle asked.

  ‘Excited...but please, no twins, not until I at least learn the ropes of being a decent parent.’ Dante sighed. ‘Fortunately, we’ll be learning together and we both know what to avoid from our own childhood experiences.’

  ‘Yes, we know what not to do,’ she agreed, noticing how dark it was becoming and frowning. ‘Dante, where are we going to spend the night? I don’t think the campervan will meet your standards.’

  ‘What standards?’

  ‘There are probably reigning monarchs in the world today who don’t sleep in as fancy a bed as you do,’ Belle told him squarely.

  ‘I wasn’t planning on us retiring to the campervan,’ Dante said gently. ‘I phoned Steve. They have a very acceptable pool-house guest suite prepared for us and I’m expecting to have to suffer through a great hail of I-told-you-so when I introduce you as my bride-to-be, because he was always telling me that there was a woman out there somewhere for me. Oh, that reminds me...’

  Dante was digging into the pocket of his tight jeans and pulling something out. He lifted her left hand and pushed a ring onto her ring finger without ceremony.

  Taken aback, Belle studied the glittering ring on her finger, a fancily cut sapphire surrounded by diamonds. ‘I still haven’t said yes to marrying you,’ she reminded him.

  ‘You want me to get down on bended knee or something?’ Dante asked bluntly.

  ‘No, I want you to promise to tell me that you love me every day and I promise to tell you the same thing,’ Belle murmured with a huge smile.

  ‘Done. I love you so much more than I ever thought I could love anyone, cara mia. I thought I had an icicle for a heart and you took a blowtorch to the ice,’ Dante murmured raggedly. ‘Now that we’re in a serious relationship, does it mean I can drag you under the trees and have my wicked way with you to celebrate that I’ve finally got you?’

  ‘Nope. I’m not arriving at their chateau with my hair standing on end and covered in sand. I also want the comfort of the pool house. I’m turning into a material girl,’ Belle warned teasingly as she bundled up Charlie and they walked to the campervan parked behind the restaurant, picking up her case on the way.

  ‘My material girl,’ Dante breathed possessively, casting her an appreciative appraisal. ‘My woman, soon to be my wife, and I couldn’t be happier.’

  Belle stretched up to kiss him before climbing into the campervan. ‘So, do you think Cristiano’s dogs could come home to us now?’

  ‘Yes, I’ve been resigned to that idea for at least a week and having competition will keep Charlie on his toes, but they are not all welcome to sleep in our bedroom,’ Dante informed her firmly.

  Belle massaged the long muscular thigh flexing beneath her fingers.

  ‘Then again, if your persuasive tactics are daring enough to impress, I’ll think it over,’ Dante admitted, on fire with pure lust.

  EPILOGUE

  DANTE WALKED ONE step through the front doors of the palazzo and was engulfed, literally, by dogs, kids and an armful of fragrant wife.

  ‘You didn’t say you’d get back early,’ Belle exclaimed, thrilled that he was home for lunch on Christmas Eve.

  ‘I like to surprise you,’ Dante admitted.

  ‘He’s lying,’ Steve Cranbrook piped up cheerfully from the doorway of the drawing room. ‘He gets antsy when he’s away from you too long. Five years married and he’s still trying to play it cool. Where do you get the energy from, Dante?’

  ‘I’m high on life,’ Dante murmured, curving Belle under one arm, scanning the splendidly decorated hall and the big Christmas tree she had ornamented with such care and enthusiasm. In the space of five years, Belle had turned his life inside out and upside down and he loved it.

  But their children were the biggest revelation. Luciano had come along first, red-haired and dark eyed, followed by Cristiano, dark of hair and eye, and then little Violet, the chubby toddler sucking her thumb while hanging onto his leg to stay upright, with her mother’s hair and eyes and so laid-back in comparison to her brothers’ rampant energy that she was almost horizontal. Dante had never expected to enjoy his children as much as he did while he watched their different personalities and temperaments emerge as they developed. And they were each one different, a smorgasbord of their parents and their genes, and he loved them all.

  Tito and Carina, greying with age, wriggled as he moved past in greeting. These days they didn’t get much livelier than that and hugged their beds in a huddle. Even Charlie had slowed down a little, although the addition of a mate and then a litter of puppies, none of whom Belle initially wished to part with, had led to Dante declaring a moratorium on breeding. They had four dogs, but it was a constant battle to keep the number down with Belle having taken an interest in a local animal rescue society and seeing all too many needy causes. The courtyard rejoiced in two tortoises and the children had rescue rabbits and guinea pigs. The palazzo was overrun with animals.

  ‘Dad and Emily will be with us by teatime. They got held up in London,’ Belle told him as they mounted the stairs, the hubbub of Steve and Sancha’s children and their own squealing with excitement as they played tag falling away behind them.

  ‘I need a shower.’ Dante sighed. ‘But first...’

  ‘First,’ Belle repeated, gazing up at him as if he hung the moon, an expression on her face that he never ever got tired of seeing because he knew he wasn’t worthy of it, knew he couldn’t possibly deserve the amount of happiness she had brought into his life.

  ‘Shower,’ he framed doggedly, knowing that if he touched her, he wouldn’t stop because he had been without her for four days, and four days was a very long time for a man like Dante to go without his very sexy, very beautiful wife.

  Belle breathed her husband in like the addict she was. ‘You smell gorgeous... The shower can wait, and you look so sexy with stubble.’

  And that was it, Dante was all out of fight, backing her down on the bed and claiming her passionately and thoroughly to sate a need that never quite quit. ‘Dio... I love you so much, cara mia. I can’t get enough of you.’

  He vaulted off the bed, naked and bronzed, to grab his jacket and brought out a box. ‘Early Christmas present,’ he explained, flipping it open to reveal a diamond bracelet that shone like a river of fire across his darker skin.

  Belle lay there in a sated huddle, trying to summon up the energy to return to their guests and the million and one things she had to supervise as a wife, a mother and a hostess. The diamonds glittered round her slender wrist and a smile slashed Dante’s darkly beautiful features because he loved to see her wearing the stuff he bought her. ‘I need a diamond chain to lock you to the bed and then I wouldn’t have to share you with anybody.’

  Belle lay back, revelling in being quite ridiculously happy, thinking that having lived through all the lonely, stressful times had been worth it when she looked at her current contented life with Dante.

  Her father and his wife, Emily, had slowly become part of the family, grandparents to their growing brood of children. Emily was kind and lovable and she adored kids. Belle was much closer to Emily than she had ever been to her mother or even her late gran. Dante had had one meeting with Tracy to warn her off and Tracy had never bothered them again. Belle had got to know her father bit by bit, visiting him and his wife in London when Dante was in the UK for business. In return the older couple had visited Italy and had been waiting at the hospital when Luciano was born, sharing in their joy at the birth of their first child. They had shown the same interest when Cristiano and Violet were born, and Belle truly valued their enthusiastic approach to being grandparents.

  Steve and Sancha were equally close to them, looking after their children when, occasionally, Dante and Belle wanted some alone time as a couple and sharing most family holidays with them. For their last wedding anniversary Dante and Belle had spent a glorious week rediscovering each other on a Greek island. Cristiano’s log cabin had been extended and in the summer they frequently slept on the roof under the stars, although Dante only did so as long as he had every comfort on the market with him. In the woods, they got back to nature, fishing and exploring and the children and their friends’ children absolutely loved those carefree weekends.