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level and filled her head with happy images. That was a goal that she, and surprisingly Vito in spite of his privileged background, both shared, and that touched her. As she studied her son sitting peacefully in his father’s arms her heart melted. She had felt ashamed of the lack of caution that had led to her pregnancy. She had been mortified that she had failed her own life goals and could not give her son the family security and the opportunities he deserved. But if she married Vito she would be able to put all her regrets behind her and give Angelo two parents and a stable home with every advantage.

      ‘Even people in love find it hard to make marriage work,’ Holly reminded him, fighting to resist the tempting images flooding her imagination, and to be sensible and cautious.

      ‘We’re not in love. Our odds of success may well be better because we have less exalted expectations,’ Vito contended silkily. ‘And our arrangement need not be viewed as a permanent trap either. In a few years, should one or both of us be unhappy, we can divorce. All I’m asking you to do at this moment in time, Holly...is give marriage a chance.’

      He made it sound so reasonable, so very reasonable. He was inviting her to try being married to him and see if they could make it work. It was a very realistic approach, guaranteed to make her feel that by trying she would have nothing to lose. And she looked back at him in silence with her heart hammering while he raked an impatient hand through his cropped black hair.

      ‘I’ll think it over.’ Holly fibbed, because she had already thought it over and really there was no contest between what Vito was offering Angelo and what she could hope to offer her son as a lone parent.

      ‘Be more decisive, bellezza mia,’ Vito urged. ‘If you marry me I will do everything within my power to make you happy.’

      Holly had known true happiness only a few times in her life. One of those moments had been waking at dawn enfolded in Vito’s arms. Another had been the first time she had seen her infant son. But just being with Vito also made her happy and that worried her, implying as it did that she was craving something more than a very practical marriage based on their son’s needs. Should she listen to that voice of reason and warning now? Stay on the sidelines where it was safe rather than risk dipping her toes into the much more complex demands of a marriage?

      But at the baseline of her responses there was no denying that she wanted Vito Zaffari with a bone-deep, almost frighteningly strong yearning. How could she possibly walk away from that? How could she stand back and watch him take up with other women, as he would, and know that she had given him that freedom? And the answer was that she couldn’t face that, would sooner take a risk on a marriage that might not work than surrender any hope of a deeper relationship with him.

      Holly breathed in slow and deep and lifted her head high. ‘All right. We’ll get married...and see how it goes...’

      And Vito smiled, that heart-stopping smile that always froze her in her tracks, and nothing he said after that point registered with her because she was washed away by sheer excitement and hope for the future.

      Vito registered the stars in her eyes with satisfaction. Having been driven by the need to secure the best possible arrangement for his son’s benefit, he had expended little thought on the actual reality of becoming a married man or a father. He wanted Holly and he wanted his son: that was all that mattered. And Holly would soon learn to fit into his world, he thought airily.

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      ‘SMILE!’ PIXIE TOLD HOLLY. ‘You look totally stupendous!’

      Holly smiled to order and gripped her hands together tightly on her lap. The past four weeks had passed in a whirlwind of unfamiliar activity and changes. Now it was her wedding day and hopefully she would finally have time to draw a breath and start to relax. Only not when it was a wedding about to be attended by a lot of rich, important people, she reasoned nervously.

      ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked her best friend and bridesmaid, ruefully surveying Pixie’s legs, which were both encased in plaster casts.

      Her housemate had returned from a visit to her brother badly battered and bruised from a fall down the stairs, which had also broken both her legs. The extent of her injuries had appalled Holly and, although the bruising had faded, she couldn’t help feeling that there was more amiss with her friend than she was letting on because Pixie’s usual chirpiness and zest for life seemed to have faded away as well. And although she had gently questioned Pixie on several occasions, she could not work out if it was her own imagination in overdrive or if indeed there was some secret concern that Pixie wasn’t yet willing to share with her.

      Predictably, Pixie rolled her eyes. ‘I keep on telling you I’m fine. I’ll get these casts off in a couple of weeks and I’ll get back to work and it’ll be as if this never happened.’

      ‘Hopefully you’ll be able to come out to visit us in Italy in a few weeks’ time.’

      ‘That’s doubtful.’

      ‘Er...if it’s money—’

      ‘No, I’m not taking money off you!’ Pixie told her fiercely. ‘You may be marrying Mr Rich but that’s not going to change anything between us.’

      ‘All right.’ Holly subsided to scrutinise the opulent diamond engagement ring on her finger. Vito wasn’t the least bit romantic, she conceded ruefully, because he had sent the ring to her by special delivery rather than presenting her with it. That had been such a disappointment to her. It would have meant so much to Holly if Vito had made the effort to personally give her the ring.

      ‘Let’s simply be a normal couple from here on in,’ Vito had urged, and seemingly the ring signified that normality he wanted even if it had not entailed him changing his ways.

      She had wanted to ask if it was the same ring Marzia, his previous fiancée, had worn but had sealed her lips shut in case that question was tactless. And staging a potentially difficult conversation with a male she had barely seen since she had agreed to marry him had struck her as unwise.

      ‘Of course I’m very busy now. How else could I take time off for the wedding?’ Vito had enquired piously on the phone when she’d tried to tactfully suggest that he make more effort to spend some time with her and Angelo.

      Vito hadn’t even been able to make time for Angelo, whom he had only seen once since their agreement. Of course, to be fair, he had suggested that they move into his London apartment before the wedding and she had been ready to agree until she had heard from Pixie’s brother and had realised that there was no way she could leave her injured friend to cope alone in a house with stairs. She had had to put Pixie first but Vito had not understood that. In fact Vito had called it a silly excuse that was dividing him from his son. After the wedding she needed to explain to Vito just how much of a debt she owed Pixie for her friend’s support during her pregnancy and after Angelo’s birth, and she needed to explain that she loved Pixie as much as she would have loved a sister. Although, never having had a sibling of his own, he might not even understand that.

      And there were an awful lot of things that Vito didn’t understand, Holly reflected ruefully. He had been thoroughly irritated when she’d insisted on continuing her childminding until her charges’ parents had had time to make other arrangements for their care, but Holly would not have dreamt of letting anyone down, and took her responsibilities just as seriously as he took his own.

      Furthermore, in every other way Vito had contrived to take over Holly and her son’s lives. He had made decisions on their behalf that he had neglected to discuss with Holly. Maybe he thought she was too stupid and ignorant to make the right decisions, she thought unhappily.

      First he had landed her with an Italian nanny, who had had to board at a hotel nearby because there were only two bedrooms in the house Pixie and Holly rented. London-born Lorenza was a darling and wonderful with Angelo, and Holly had needed outside help to cope with shopping for a wedding dress and such things, but she still would have preferred to play an active role in the hiring of a carer

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