become almost barren and now it was alive again.
‘Do you still want to go up to your room?’
‘No,’ she whispered, her throat aching with the pleasure she’d just experienced.
And as they lay there in each other’s arms Luigi reached for her again. This time there was no urgency; they were able to take their time rekindling all the delicious excitement that had once been theirs.
When Megan finally lay in her bed she felt as if she were floating on air. Her body had been taken over by forces beyond her control. There was no thought in her mind about escaping back to her own home; her place was here with Luigi.
Luigi, who was in bed beside her!
He’d wanted her to join him in his own bed but Megan had refused. ‘What if Charlotte wakes and can’t find me? She’ll panic.’
‘Then,’ he’d announced in a deep, sexy growl, ‘I’ll share yours.’ And there had been no hope of saying no to him.
He lay on one elbow now looking at her, a gentle finger exploring the contours of her breasts, his eyes, so dark with pleasure, stirring fresh emotions. Where they all came from Megan had no idea. She couldn’t quench her thirst for him. Nor could he, for that matter.
‘We have a lot of time to make up,’ he murmured, honing in on her thoughts.
Megan smiled, her eyes softening and warming. ‘And you propose doing it all at once?’
‘I intend to try.’
‘How do you suggest we cope with a spirited child tomorrow if we have no sleep?’
‘Uh oh!’ He slapped a hand to his head. ‘I’d forgotten. I’d imagined spending the whole of Boxing Day in bed. Edwina bringing us up our meals while we did our best to catch up on the missing years.’
‘Think you could manage?’ she taunted, her eyes alight with wicked pleasure. She had never in her wildest dreams imagined that this was how the holiday would turn out. And the most amazing thing was that she didn’t mind. She was actually enjoying it. She had shut out of her mind the fact that all too soon Luigi would be back at work and this honeymoon period, if she could call it that, would be over. She was taking every minute as it came and making the most of it. It was the wrong time of the month for her to conceive, so she wasn’t even worrying about that.
Luigi couldn’t believe his good fortune. He hadn’t even had to work on Megan; she had fallen into his arms as naturally as if they had never parted. Elation filled his very soul and there was no doubt in his mind that she would now move in with him and they would become a proper family.
It would change his life. He was a father! He wanted to shout it from the rooftops. And what a gorgeous little girl she was. Megan had done a brilliant job bringing her up so far, and now he would be here to help. Long hours would be a thing of the past. Charlotte needed him. And he needed Megan!
Hungrily he reached for her again but she had fallen asleep. He smiled and with his arm across her body he too drifted into the world of the unconscious.
They were woken by Charlotte’s highly excited voice. ‘Mummy, wake up! It’s snowing again. Daddy, it’s snowing. Come and look.’
As they were both naked under the bedcovers they waited until Charlotte had turned to the window before Megan dived for her dressing gown and Luigi whipped a sheet off the bed and tucked it around his loins in double-quick time.
They were laughing as they joined Charlotte and it pleased him that his daughter had made no comment about finding them in bed together. It meant that she’d accepted him unreservedly as her father, and as Megan had welcomed him with open arms too the future looked good.
The snow fell more heavily than the day before and began to stick to the ground. It was so rare to have a white Christmas, thought Megan, that it had to be a good omen. In fact she was glad that she’d let Luigi persuade her to join him.
Later in the day they snowballed each other and made a snowman and Luigi let his hair down more than Megan had ever seen before—except in bed, of course. There were no inhibitions there. He was, if anything, a better lover.
There was the faint niggling doubt in her mind that he had gained extra experience with other girls, but she swept it away—it was her fault if he had—and if he had enhanced his sexual prowess then she ought to be grateful. The many different ways he’d pleasured her had been utterly fantastic. She only had to think about it to experience a resurgence of the feelings that had danced excitedly inside her.
Her eyes sparkled whenever she looked at him and Luigi gave her slow, intimate smiles that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. ‘Later,’ he mouthed and Megan hugged the precious thought to her. She couldn’t wait. It was like a replay of when they first met and couldn’t get enough of each other.
Before he had become a tycoon and work was more important!
She dismissed the thought as immediately as it entered her head. Luigi was a father now, he had a different set of responsibilities. He wouldn’t let Charlotte down.
Neither of them could wait for their daughter’s bedtime. Luigi followed Megan to the bathroom and watched her bathing Charlotte. What an amazing mother she was, so gentle, with a glow about her that touched his heart. But his fingers curled into his palms when he recalled how she had cheated him out of seeing his daughter born, of sharing the first few precious years of her life, even preparing for the birth. Not that he was going to let that spoil his pleasure this evening.
He’d been looking forward all day to making love to Megan. She had matched him step for step last night and judging by the way she kept looking at him, her beautiful eyes full of passion and desire, she was quite willing to allow him into her bed again.
And he was not disappointed. From the very moment he slid his arms around her the years they had spent apart dissolved into the mists of time. She was his again, completely, urging herself against him, her hunger as deep as his own.
She kissed him with the sensuality that only a woman deeply in love could give. And it amused him to let her take the lead—for now! She touched and kissed and stroked, enjoying the fact that she could arouse him by a simple kiss, or the lightest touch of her fingertips, her actions becoming more and more urgent until in the end he could contain himself no longer.
‘No more,’ he growled, laying her on her back and positioning himself over her. Then he took her, instantly and fiercely, and her cries of pleasure matched his as the intense joy of making love filled their hearts and minds. It was a long time before their sweat-slicked bodies stopped writhing in the aftermath of exquisite pleasure, before their breathing returned to normal.
‘That was quite something,’ he muttered hoarsely. ‘Lord, am I glad I found you again.’
Megan didn’t answer. She had her eyes closed and a blissful expression on her face. In fact he had never seen her look more beautiful. Every feature was softened, and her skin had a lustrous glow. She looked like a woman who was extremely satisfied. He was sure now that she wouldn’t walk away from him again.
They made love twice more before falling asleep in each other’s arms. And for the first time in his life Luigi didn’t feel the urge to be up at dawn and at his desk. He had a woman at his side whom he had almost lost; he wasn’t going to risk it again. He would go, eventually, and he would work sensible hours, but for the moment Megan was more important.
Except that it didn’t work out