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‘Put the book down. I really need to talk to you.’
Slowly, she lowered the book to her lap but didn’t speak.
Cristiano wasn’t finding it easy, either. ‘I didn’t see our relationship the way you saw it. I can see now that I took a great deal for granted.’ Just when it was imperative that the words spoken were perfectly matched to the situation, his habitual fluency had deserted him. ‘It’s true that I may have been guilty of a certain level of arrogance.’
Her gaze was steady. ‘May have been?’
‘All right—I was arrogant, I admit it. I made far too many assumptions.’ Trying to right a wrong, he paced from one side of the room to the other. ‘But this whole situation has emerged because I didn’t know what you were thinking. Yes, I was very much at fault, but you were also at fault in not telling me more about your past. Had you done so, I would have understood the reason you find it so hard to trust anyone and could have addressed it.’
‘So then you would have added reassure Laurel to your bulging to-do list? I didn’t want to be a project, Cristiano.’
‘I didn’t say that! Maledezione, give me a chance to explain myself!’ His sudden explosion was greeted by a low warning growl from the dog by her side and Cristiano’s mouth tightened. ‘That animal is overprotective.’
‘He loves me.’
‘And apparently you accept that love without question whereas the rest of us have to work hard for that same degree of blind faith.’ He ended that forceful declaration with a deep breath. ‘I have never felt for any woman what I felt for you.’
‘So you keep saying.’
‘Speak again before I’ve finished and I’ll find ways to silence you, dog or no dog,’ he vowed, watching as her cheeks turned pink and she closed the book. ‘I admit that I thought that by marrying you I’d demonstrated the depth of my feeling for you. I see now that I didn’t spend enough time showing you how much I loved you but part of the reason for that was that I had no idea that you were having any doubts about my commitment to you. I made a terrible decision that day, but you have to believe that I didn’t think you would lose the baby.’
Her cheeks turned a shade paler. ‘Do we have to go over this again?’
‘Yes, because we are not giving up on what we have so we have to both be clear about the way we feel. I married you because I loved you and wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. I didn’t spend enough time making sure you knew that.’ Acknowledging just how much damage that attitude had caused, he let out a long breath. ‘You have to understand that that lapse on my part was to do with pressure of work, not because I felt less for you than I should have done. At worst I can be accused of complacency.’
‘And arrogance.’
‘Yes, we’ve already agreed that—’ Cristiano spoke through his teeth ‘—but you didn’t once come and tell me how you were feeling. I made mistakes, I admit it, but I made them because I believed everything to be good and strong with our marriage. You did not feel that way and yet you didn’t tell me. Every time I gave you jewellery, you thanked me. You suffered my mother’s less than subtle comments without confiding in me.’
‘She’s your mother and you love her.’
And she’d never had that, he realised. She’d never had the luxury of knowing she was loved without question. Never been safely wrapped in the warmth of family. ‘You are my wife and I love you. My first responsibility was to you. Is to you. Always.’ He watched as her breathing turned shallow and discovered that he was holding his own breath as he waited for her response. ‘Say something. But no more observations on my arrogance. That lesson is well and truly learned.’
‘If we do this—’ she left the word hanging vaguely ‘—what about the family you dreamed of having?’
‘You are the family I dreamed of having and as for the rest—’ ignoring the dogs, he leaned forward, removed the book from her hands and pulled her to her feet ‘—we’ll find a way through it. But we’ll find it together, not separately. Whatever you’re thinking, you must share with me and this time I will be listening with both ears. Ti amo. I love you.’ He scooped her face into his hands, feeling the softness of her skin against his palms. ‘By the time I’ve finished proving it to you there will be no room for doubt in your head.’
There was a long silence and he discovered the true meaning of the word suspense.
He wondered what he was going to do if she backed off because he knew he was never going to accept no.
