most important one of his life. His whole future depended on it.
His arms became more possessive. Megan was his! She belonged to him for all time. He’d made mistakes but their future was transparently clear. The three of them were a family and nothing or no one was going to split them up. Employing a nanny was a necessity as far as he was concerned. He and Megan desperately needed time; they needed to renew their vows, to renew the love that had once bound them so firmly together.
On the day they met he’d fallen instantly in love and even if she hadn’t let him drive her home with her dangerously overflowing bags of Christmas goodies he would have found some other way to get to know her. Maybe meeting her again at Christmas time was a good omen. The thought pleased him and he deepened his kiss, even more thrilled when Megan didn’t resist.
She felt so good in his arms, her slender body moulding perfectly to his, and he silently prayed that she would let him back into her bed. He had tasted paradise and then been denied it. More than once in the endless dark hours he’d padded to her door, prepared to storm in and not take no for an answer. How he had turned around and returned to his room he didn’t know. It had been sheer hell.
But thankfully she was weakening. The way she was kissing him now with complete abandonment, the way she moved her body suggestively against his, was all the encouragement he needed. He lifted her into his arms with the initial thought of carrying her up to bed, but then thought better of it and they ended up on the sofa instead.
‘My beautiful Megan,’ he whispered huskily into her ear. ‘You’ve no idea how hard it’s been having you in my house and not being allowed to touch you.’
‘Don’t talk,’ she breathed, pulling his mouth down to hers and kissing him so passionately that he felt as though all his dreams were coming true. But suddenly Charlotte’s scream cut through their pleasure.
They were both on their feet in an instant, Megan hurtling up the stairs in panic. He followed close behind. What had happened to his daughter? Had she fallen? Was she hurt? His heart thudded as he realised how deeply he had come to love this child in the few short days he’d known her.
Charlotte was sitting straight up in bed, her eyes wide and staring. ‘She’s asleep,’ said Megan, slowing her hectic race. ‘She’s dreaming.’
‘Does she often do this, dream with her eyes open?’ asked Luigi in concern. It looked weird to him.
‘Only when something’s upset her. It’s some kind of nightmare, I think. It’s always the same.’
As they watched Charlotte’s body relaxed, her eyes closed and she gave a half smile as she curled up beneath the bedcovers again.
Megan leaned over her and gave her a gentle kiss. ‘I try not to wake her because then she doesn’t remember.’
Luigi frowned. ‘What could have upset her?’
Megan shrugged and straightened the quilt. ‘Maybe she heard us arguing. She’s a sensitive little soul and we didn’t keep our voices very low, did we?’
Luigi shook his head. ‘We were too far away.’ But a shadow of guilt made him uneasy. He had a lot to learn about children. ‘Will she be all right if we leave her?’
‘I’m going to stay in my room just in case,’ declared Megan. ‘Alone!’ she added warningly.
Luigi compressed his lips. ‘We have unfinished business.’
‘That was a mistake,’ retorted Megan on a loud whisper.
‘Like marrying me was a mistake?’ He couldn’t help himself. He’d been so confident that tonight was the night they’d both realise that they couldn’t sleep apart, and to have it all snatched away from him because Charlotte had had a bad dream drove him crazy.
‘Since you put it like that, yes.’ Her eyes were cool on his, her earlier passion gone, melting as quickly as the snowflakes outside.
‘I think you’re lying,’ he snarled. ‘You’re afraid to admit it but you still care for me.’
‘In your dreams, Mister,’ she hissed.
‘Then why, when I kiss you, do you melt in my arms? Why do you return my kiss with so much passion that it makes a lie of everything you’re saying? Tell me that, dear wife of mine. Look me in the eye and tell me you have no feelings for me.’
Megan woke with a start. She’d been dreaming about Luigi and had the strangest feeling that he was standing beside her. But the room was empty. Even Charlotte hadn’t yet stirred. She switched on the bedside lamp and looked at the clock. Almost half past seven! It was unusual for her daughter to still be asleep. Usually she crept into her bed at around six and they both dozed for another hour.
She rolled out of bed and padded across to the window. It was dark, and all was still and cold and eerily white outside from a further fall of snow. Then she crossed to the adjoining door and opened it wider. What she hadn’t expected to see was Luigi sitting in a chair beside Charlotte’s bed holding her hand. They were both asleep.
For at least two minutes Megan stood there watching and wondering. Had her instinct been right when she’d thought he was beside her bed? She didn’t like the thought that he’d crept into her room in the middle of the night. He could have slipped in beside her and she wouldn’t have known! Had that been his intention and then he’d had second thoughts and decided to sit with his daughter instead?
Last night she’d declared that she had no feelings for him, that he managed to arouse her sexually but that was all. She’d even looked him straight in the eye as she’d said it. Because it was the truth. She didn’t love him any more. She didn’t!
Suddenly she realised that Luigi had opened his eyes and was watching her. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked in a fierce whisper.
Gently he let his daughter’s hand go and moved stiffly across the room towards her. Megan shut the adjoining door and glared at him as she waited for his answer.
‘Charlotte cried out again,’ he informed her.
Megan was horrified that she hadn’t heard. In fact she found it hard to believe. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I wouldn’t have been sitting there if I wasn’t,’ he informed her, stretching his arms above his head and yawning widely. His silk dressing gown fell open, revealing a pair of black boxer shorts and a tanned bare chest.
Megan’s heartbeats quickened.
‘She didn’t wake but I thought she ought to have company and, as you looked so beautiful and comfortable in your sleep,’ he growled, ‘I didn’t want to disturb you.’
‘You should have woken me,’ she tossed stormily. ‘It’s my place to be with her.’
‘Not any longer,’ he said with a warning light in his eyes. ‘We share responsibility now.’
The days of sharing with Luigi had long since gone. Luigi was his own man, doing only what he wanted to do. And at this moment he thought that sitting holding Charlotte’s hand made him look good. Would he be as quick to be at her side if she were throwing up? Somehow Megan doubted it.
‘We share?’ she echoed, ‘and yet you’ve gone to the trouble of employing a nanny. How hypocritical is that?’
‘It’s different; it’s a necessity.’
‘So you keep saying. I don’t happen to think so. I like looking after my daughter; perhaps you’re not aware of that. I don’t want a stranger doing it for me.’
‘I’ve said all I’m saying on that matter,’ he retorted sharply and headed for the door.
By the time he’d gone Charlotte had woken and when they went down to breakfast Luigi had left. ‘He said he won’t be more than a