Page 45 of Legacy of His Revenge
‘As it did me,’ Sophie confessed, so happy that she wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. ‘When I first met you, I hated you.’
Matias’s eyebrows shot up and he shot her a wolfish smile. ‘Yet you still managed to find me incredibly sexy...’
‘Don’t be so egotistical, Matias.’ But Sophie couldn’t resist smiling back at him because he could be incredibly endearing in his puffed-up self-assurance. ‘I thought I was going to see Art and instead I was shown into the lion’s den.’
‘It’s a good job youdidn’tsee Art,’ Matias said drily. ‘You would have walked all over him. He would probably have ended up givingyoua new car and forgetting all about the damage you did to mine. You charmed the socks off him.’
Sophie blushed. ‘We would never have met, though...’
‘We would have,’ Matias asserted. ‘Our paths were destined to cross, even if youdidhate me on sight.’
‘Well, youwerethreatening to pull the plug on my business because I’d bumped into your car...’
Matias acknowledged that with a rueful tilt of his head. ‘And so the rest is history. But,’ he mused thoughtfully, ‘Ishouldhave suspected that the ease with which I became accustomed to the notion of being a father was a pointer as to how I felt about you. If I hadn’t been so completely crazy about you, I would have never slipped into marriage proposal mode so seamlessly.’
‘And then I turned you down...’
‘You did. Repeatedly. You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to prove to you that you could take a chance on me.’
‘And you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to take that chance, but I was just too scared. I think, to start with, it really was because I was suspicious and unsure as to what you might do if you found out about Eric. My gut told me that I could trust you, despite all the water under the bridge, but my gut had lied once and I dug my heels in and refused to listen to it a second time. And then, later, I was scared to think about how you might react to Eric. Alan had been a dreadful learning curve for me. I’d been hurt and bewildered at the man he turned out to be and Eric had been terribly upset. He doesn’t have the wherewithal to cope with upsets like that. Whatever happened, it was very important to me that he not become collateral damage. I could cope with that but he would never be able to.’
‘I’m glad I met him,’ Matias said seriously. ‘Now can we stop talking? Although, thereisone thing I still have to say...’
‘What’s that?’ Sophie whispered, on cloud nine.
‘Will you stop sitting on the fence and marry me?’
‘Hmm...’ Sophie laughed and pulled him towards her and kissed him long and hard, and then she brushed his nose with hers and grinned. ‘Okay. And by that I mean...yes, yes, yes!’
* * *
A handful of months later, another trip had been made to the hospital. Sophie’s labour had started at three in the morning and had moved quickly so that by the time they made it to the maternity ward baby Luciana had been just about ready to say hello to her doting and very much loved-up parents.
She had been born without fuss at a little after nine the following morning.
‘She has your hair.’ Sophie had smiled drowsily at Matias, who had been sitting next to her, cradling his seven-pound-eight-ounce, chubby, dark-haired baby daughter.
‘And my eyes.’ He had grinned and looked lovingly at the woman without whom life meant nothing. His life had gone from grey to Technicolor. Once upon a time, he had seen the accumulation of wealth and power as an end unto itself. He had thought that lessons learnt about love and the vulnerable places it took you were enough to put any sensible guy off the whole Happy Ever After scenario for good. He had sworn that a life controlled was the only life worth living. He’d been wrong. The only life worth living was a life with the woman he adored at his side.
‘And let’s hope that’s where the similarities end,’ Sophie had teased, still smiling. ‘I don’t need someone else in my life who looks bewildered at the prospect of boiling an egg.’
And now, with their beloved baby daughter nearly six months old, they were finally getting married.
Sophie gazed at her reflection in the mirror of the country hotel where she and her various friends, along with Matias’s mother, had opted to stay the night.
Rose Rivero was back on her feet and, as she had confided in her daughter-in-law-to-be some time previously, with so much to live for that there was no question of her being ill again any time soon.
‘You look stunning,’ Julie said and Matias’s mother nodded. The three of them were putting the final touches to Sophie’s outfit, making sure that every small rosebud on her hairpiece was just right. ‘You’re having the fairy-tale wedding you’ve always longed for.’
Sophie laughed and thought back to the journey that had brought her to this point. ‘It’s not exactly been straightforward,’ she murmured truthfully.
‘I could have told you that my son is anything but straightforward,’ Rose quipped. ‘But you’ve calmed him down and grounded him in ways I could never have imagined possible.’
‘You wouldn’t say that if you could see him storming through the house looking for his car keys, which he seems to misplace every other day.’ Sophie laughed and walked to the door, while the other two followed, to be met by the rest of the bridal party in the reception downstairs, where cars were waiting to take them to the quaint church, perched on a hillside with a spectacular view of the sea beneath.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a life as perfect as this.
She still had an interest in the catering firm and frequently went there to help out, but it was largely left to Julie and her three helpers, who now ran the profitable business with a tight rein. Their beautiful new premises had been up and running for some months and they were even thinking of expanding and opening a restaurant where they would be able to showcase their talent on a larger scale and to a wider audience.
