The Mills & Boon Christmas Wishes Collection. Maisey Yates

for ever. Marzia was the past—a past Vito neither missed nor wanted to revisit. That, she decided, was a very encouraging discovery.

      All of a sudden hiding her love, being so painfully careful not to let those words escape in moments of joy, seemed almost mean and dishonest. Vito loved Angelo so freely. She witnessed that every day. Her husband hadn’t even had to try to love his son and Angelo loved his father back. Perhaps in time Vito could come to love her too, she reflected hopefully. When he had told her that he much preferred her to just be herself around him without the fancy clothes or any airs her heart had taken wings. He liked her as she was. Wasn’t that wonderful?

      Vito strode out of the en suite, still towelling dry his hair. ‘We’ll have a very special Christmas this year. For the first time I’ll happily celebrate the season. That’s the effect you and Angelo have had on my Scrooge-like outlook.’

      ‘I’m grateful because I will always love Christmas.’

      ‘Because that’s how we met,’ Vito reasoned. ‘And I’ve never forgotten how appealing you looked dressing that little tree at the cottage.’

      ‘Is that so? And yet you made me fight for the opportunity,’ Holly reminded him.

      ‘You gave me a fresh look at the world and it’s never been the same since,’ Vito intoned very seriously as he settled down on the bed beside her and closed her into his arms.

      ‘Meaning?’

      ‘Remember I said I went through my twenties waiting for someone special to appear?’

      Holly nodded and rubbed her cheek against a damp bronzed shoulder.

      ‘And then she came along when I was thirty-one years old and, unfortunately, incredibly wary and set in my ways.’

      Her brow furrowed because she thought she had missed a line somewhere. ‘Who came along?’

      ‘You did,’ Vito pointed out gently. ‘And I wasn’t waiting or looking for love any more, and my practical engagement had gone belly-up. So, when you appeared and you made me feel strange I didn’t recognise that it was special. The sex was incredible but I was blind to the fact that everything else was incredible too.’

      ‘I made you feel...strange?’ Holly exclaimed in dismay.

      ‘Confused, unsure of myself. I behaved differently with you, I felt more with you...and it troubled me. So, like an idiot, I walked away from what I didn’t understand,’ he completed.

      ‘I wish you’d found my note,’ Holly lamented.

      ‘When you walked out first, I told myself that was for the best, that we could never work in the real world. But we do work,’ Vito told her with quiet satisfaction. ‘We work like a dream on every level and I have never been as happy as I am now...’

      Holly was thinking about what he had said and a spark of excitement lit inside her.

      ‘If you and Angelo hadn’t found me again, where would I be now? The heart and soul of my world was the Zaffari Bank but the bank wasn’t enough to satisfy me.’

      ‘Are you trying to tell me that you fell for me that night?’ Holly whispered shakily.

      ‘Well, if you have to ask, obviously I’m not doing a very good job of the telling.’ Vito groaned. ‘What you made me feel unnerved me. I wouldn’t even let myself try to trace you because I was too proud. If you didn’t want me I wasn’t going to chase after you. I tried very hard to forget that night. I even tried to sleep with other women.’

      ‘And how did that go?’ Holly broke in to demand.

      ‘It didn’t. I made excuses to myself that I was stressed, overtired. I had endless fantasies about you.’

      ‘Me...the temptress,’ Holly framed blissfully. ‘Who would ever have thought it?’

      ‘You’re the love of my life...the only love I have ever had,’ Vito husked, clamping her to his long, powerful length with strong arms. ‘And I fell hard. I fell so hard I can’t imagine ever living without you and our son. You have brought passion and fun into my daily life and I never had either before.’

      ‘I love you too,’ Holly muttered almost shyly.

      Vito smiled down at her with burnished golden eyes and her heart skipped a beat. He kissed her with hot, hungry fervour and she ran out of breath. He lifted his tousled dark head and murmured, ‘I have one special request. Would you consider having another child?’

      ‘Another?’ Holly gasped in astonishment.

      ‘Not immediately,’ Vito hastened to assure her. ‘I want to share your next pregnancy, be there when my child is born, and experience everything I missed out on with our son. If you employ an assistant, even if you get pregnant I don’t see why you shouldn’t still be able to concentrate on your interior design plan.’

      Holly smiled at that prospect. Her very successful bedroom project had quickly spread to include other major rooms at the castello. She had had the adjoining reception room done in toning colours before moving on to attack the scarlet Victorian dining room. At present she was well aware that the castello was large enough to offer her the chance to utilise her talents and gain proper experience before she considered moving on to tackle outside projects.

      ‘I’ll think about another baby,’ she told him thoughtfully. ‘I would prefer Angelo not to be an only child.’

      Vito stared down at her as she gazed up at him with starry eyes. He loves me, he loves me, he loves me, she was thinking on a happy high. She ran an appreciative hand up over a long, muscular, hair-roughened thigh and sensible conversation ceased around that point. Vito told her he loved her. Holly told him she loved him too. No sooner had they exchanged those sentiments than they both succumbed to an overwhelming desire to dispel the tension with the passion they shared.

      Long after, Vito lay studying Holly as she slept, marvelling at how happy he felt. He wondered if he could persuade her into another sexy Santa outfit at Christmas and wondered if it would be a little pushy to buy one for her. Pushiness came so naturally to him that he soon convinced himself that his laid-back bride would simply laugh.

      He curved an arm round her slight body.

      ‘Love you...’ Holly mumbled automatically.

      Vito smiled. ‘Love you. You’re my happy-ever-after, amata mia.’

       EPILOGUE

      VITO STRODE THROUGH the door and was immediately engulfed in the flying energy of his son, who flung himself at his knees in a classic tackle. Angelo started chattering in a hail of words, only a handful of which were in distinguishable Italian and occasional ones were in English. Mamma figured a lot. Nonna, as he called his grandmother Concetta, figured too. If Angelo was to be believed, he, his mother and his grandmother had spent the afternoon feeding a dinosaur. A very small dinosaur was waved in Vito’s general direction and comprehension set in as he crouched down to dutifully admire the toy.

      A giant Christmas tree adorned the hall. It was festooned with ornaments and lights. There were no gifts heaped below the branches because Angelo loved to rip off wrapping paper. Silvestro had been heard to tell a tenant that the Zaffaris were having ‘an English Christmas’, and Vito’s chef, Francisco, had been feeding them turkey for weeks as he fine-tuned his recipes to provide them with an English banquet on Christmas Day. In respect of the Italian traditions, Angelo would receive la calza—a stocking full of sweets. The red-suited Babbo Natale would obviously visit on Christmas Eve, but the kind-hearted Italian witch La Befana, who searched for the Christ child in all the houses, would visit at Epiphany with more gifts.

      Vito breathed in deep as he saw a small figure clad in white-fur-trimmed scarlet appear at the top of the stairs. ‘You’re not wearing your hat,’ he complained.

      Holly stopped midway and jammed it on