Modern Romance October 2019 Books 1-4. Кейт Хьюит

her stomach growl. Everything was in perfect order. The pasta just needed a couple of moments in boiling water and dinner would be ready.

      When he came home.

      ‘Perhaps I should text and see where he is,’ Aurora said to little Gabe, but he stared back at her with huge navy eyes that were turning black, like his father’s, and she remembered that Nico’s perfect wife would not do such a thing.

      She would accept that he was working when he was late.

      Gabe started to rub his eyes and grizzle.

      ‘He’s tired,’ the nanny said.

      ‘He’s okay,’ Aurora insisted.

      She wanted Nico to come home to a stunning Aurora and a gleaming, smiling baby.

      ‘Why don’t I put him down to sleep?’ the nanny asked a full hour later. Gabe clearly wanted to lay down his head and he had been sick on his lovely pale blue suit. ‘You can have your nice meal and relax…’

      ‘No!’ Aurora said, for she wanted to sleep beside her baby.

      But then she remembered the new rules that she was enforcing. A calm house, a serene and smiling Aurora…

      How it ached to hand Gabe over—and then, for the first time in eight weeks, she was alone.

      Eight weeks and nine months—for she had loved Gabe even when he’d lived inside her.

      And Aurora loved fiercely.

      She could feel snakes of anger rising in her chest as she sat there in the lounge, tapping her grey-shod foot as the night wore on. Finally she caved, and called him—but of course his phone was off.

      So she called the hotel, and was eventually put through to a weary-sounding Marianna.

      ‘Signor Caruso is not here, Aurora.’

      ‘What time did he leave work?’

      ‘He hasn’t been in today.’

      Her new shoes hurt, so she took them off. Her new eyelashes itched as she took the passata off the stove and then decided she was starving and cooked the pasta.

       He could reheat his own.

      The louse.

      She had told him of her love, and she had shared her dark fears. And his response?

      Silence.

      Always, always silence from Nico, when she needed his thoughts the most.

       Argh!

      She threw the spaghetti at the wall—and not to check if it might stick! She threw it in frustration, in despair and in pain—because she wanted this to stop.

      For this love for Nico to fade.

      For the depth of her soul, where he resided, to be excised, so that she could move on with her life with her head held high.

      It was nearly midnight as she sat at the dinner table and wept—because this was her life. Loving a man who did not so much as call.

      Perhaps he was out with his lover. Breaking it off with her because, sorry, he’d just found out he was a father…

      Maybe they were making love now.

      Break-up sex.

      Which would lead to make-up sex when he weakened and grew bored with his Silibrian mountain girl.

      ‘I hate you, Nico Caruso!’ she wept.

      ‘Of course you do.’

      And there he was, standing in the doorway, looking a whole lot more crumpled than he had that morning but still with plenty of dash.

      ‘Where were you?’ Aurora demanded as she stood up. ‘Marianna said you have not been in work today.’

      ‘When you calm down I will tell you.’

      ‘Don’t tell me to calm down. You have a son now—you have responsibilities—’ She could have bitten off her tongue, and yet she could not stop, and now huge angry tears were spilling out. ‘You stay out to this time of night like an alley cat! It is not a good example to set for your son.’ She let out the hurt that was really on her mind. ‘I told you I loved you, Nico. I gave you all my fears and you gave me nothing back. I will never forgive you for that!’

      ‘Never?’ he checked.

      ‘Never, ever!’

      She could feel her hair, uncoiled and spilling over her face, and she knew her make-up was smeared just when she wanted to be so calm and serene.

      ‘Never!’

      She jabbed a finger at his chest, but he caught it and pulled her into him, and kissed her hard, his mouth smothering hers.

      She pulled her face back. ‘Don’t you dare kiss me to keep me quiet,’ she said, but she made only a half-hearted effort to push him off. ‘Anyway, you still haven’t shaved. You will cut my face to ribbons…’

      ‘You wanted a man with a beard, Aurora.’

      ‘Perhaps—but I want a man who is devoted. I want a man who does not tell me he’s in the office—’

      His reply was to haul her over his shoulder.

      ‘You wanted a man to come home to a house in chaos and laugh and then spank you.’

      ‘Nico, no!’ She was wriggling, and she did not know what was happening, but then he let her down, slowly against his chest.

      He did not let her go; he held her tightly in his arms. ‘Good, because I could never spank a woman—let alone the woman I love.’

      She missed the moment. It was just so impossible that her mind brushed it off.

      ‘Oh, the woman you love? Did you say that to your redhead? Did you say that to your blonde?’

      Nico had the audacity to laugh.

      ‘It’s not funny, Nico—how could you?’

      ‘As it turned out, I couldn’t.’ He was the accusing one now. ‘You’ve not only messed with my head but with my prowess, Aurora.’

      ‘Liar.’

      ‘It’s true,’ Nico said. ‘There’s been no one since you.’ And then he amended that a touch. ‘The second time around.’

      That should have made her rage, but then she saw the intense look in his eyes, and she realised that in the midst of all this he had told her he loved her—that in these past agonising months there had been no one but her.

      ‘Don’t tell me you love me unless you mean it,’ she begged.

      ‘I do mean it.’

      He was breathing hard and he put his hands gently on her cheeks. His thumbs wiped away her tears and he made her look at him.

      ‘I love you, Aurora, and you were wrong last night. This is not an occasional love—it’s an endless love. Over and over I told myself that I didn’t want it, but it turns out that I do.’

      ‘Why would you not want love?’ Aurora asked.

      She thought she had already worked out the answer, but she needed to hear it from Nico.

      ‘I never knew how good it could be,’ Nico said. ‘I thought life would be better lived for the most part alone.’

      For look what love had done to him.

      ‘I thought it was better to stay back,’ he explained. ‘But of course I couldn’t. I always wondered if it was guilt or duty that pulled me back to Silibri—I could not decide between the two. But it was neither. It was love—my love for you.’

      And then came that almost grim smile.