Page 61 of 2 Books in One Bundle

She leaned forward, kissed him on the mouth. His name broke from her, and it was apparently all he needed to hear, for his hand loosed hers and snaked around the nape of her neck, returning her kiss.

It was bliss, it was wonder, it was glory and it was happiness.

And above all it was love.

All that she had ever longed for.

And now possessed.

EPILOGUE

‘THISREALLYISthe most beautiful garden...’ breathed Connie. ‘The scent of the lavender is heavenly.’ Her expression grew poignant. ‘Like the lavender in Gran’s cottage garden...’

She leant back into Dante’s sheltering arms. The West Country cottage would always be there for them, but Connie had given the use of it to a charity that provided respite care for family carers in need of a break—and she knew her grandmother would have approved of that.

Their main home—hers and Dante’s—was a spacious villa surrounded by gardens in the lush Lombardy countryside, within commuting distance of Milan for Dante.

Dante had kept his modern apartment for when they wanted to be in the city. Although... He smiled to himself. He was finding that country life was suiting him fine. Just fine.

And how should it not?

His arms wound around Connie—his adored, most precious Connie, the light of his life and the wonder of his heart. He stood with her there on the sunlit terrace, bathed in the warm Italian sun, with the heady scent of lavender all about them.

‘She would be so very happy for me,’ she said quietly.

Dante gave a wry laugh. ‘And so, I know, would my grandfather for me. Everything he plotted and schemed for has come about.’ His voice changed, became sad, regretful. ‘I wish I had realised just why it was he put that clause in his will. I thought it was because he wanted to control me...the way he had controlled me all my life. But...’ he took a difficult but necessary breath ‘...but now I know it was for a different reason. He wanted to protect me.’

He was silent for a moment, then spoke again.

‘He wanted to protect me from having no one in my life. With my feckless parents gone, and with him gone too, he wanted me to have someone who was important to me. Someone who mattered. And for me to matter to someone in turn.’

Connie felt his arms tighten around her, and she pressed her own hands over his encircling ones.

‘He gave me a gift I’d never realised I wanted,’ he said, and now his mouth kissed her throat, soft and sensuous and blissfully possessive. ‘A gift that is beyond price.’

She craned her head back, turning so that she could catch his lips with hers.

‘As you are to me,’ she said, her eyes aglow with all the love she felt for him, the love she would always feel. Her heart was overflowing with it.

For a while they stood there in total, absolute contentment, drinking in the scent of lavender, basking in the sunshine, Dante holding Connie close against him.

‘When did Raf say he would be here?’ she asked.

‘Late afternoon,’ Dante answered. He gave another wry laugh. ‘I still resent that he could see so damnably clearly what was happening to me. That I was falling in love with you and didn’t even know it myself!’

It was Connie’s turn to laugh. ‘Just as he could see that I was utterly in love with you.’

Dante made a face. ‘All that needling—all that interference of his. For one purpose only. To get me to realise what you meant to me. He was baiting me about domestic bliss just to wake me up to the fact that that was exactly what I wanted!’

Connie turned in Dante’s arms, winding her own around his neck and gazing up at him adoringly. ‘And that is what we have, haven’t we?’ she said, love lighting up her eyes.

The same loving expression was in his own eyes as he looked down at her. ‘Can you doubt it, Signora Cavelli, for one single, solitary second?’

She shook her head.

No, there were no doubts, and no possibility of doubts.

She felt her heart catch.

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