She touched his face and inhaled shakily when he turned to kiss her palm. ‘Meu querido, I fell in love with you so ridiculously soon after meeting you, I swear I’ll never confess to you when it happened.’
His stunned laugh brought a wide smile to her face. ‘Anjo…’ When her smile dimmed, he shook his head. ‘Don’t bother to argue with me. I love you with every breath I take. You’re my angel and I’ll keep repeating it until you believe it.’
‘We’re not going to have a very smooth-sailing future, are we?’
‘No,’ he concurred with a laugh then kissed her until her head swam with delirious pleasure. ‘But that will be part of our story. And, speaking of smooth sailing…’
‘Sim?’
‘I sent a couple of your sketches to our design guys in Greece. They’re interested in talking to you about them. If you’re up for it?’
Her mouth dropped open. She waited until he’d kissed it shut before she tried again. ‘Really?’
‘Really. And I should bring you good news more often. That happy wriggle does incredible things to my—’
She clamped her hand over his mouth and glanced, alarmed, over his shoulder, just as two text messages beeped in quick succession. He groaned and was about to activate them when a knock sounded on the door.
‘Hell, I knew I should’ve found a quieter place for this.’
The door opened and Pietro entered with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.
Theo’s expression grew serious as he watched him approach.
Pietro set the bottle and glasses down and stared back at Theo. ‘You took care of my sister when I was too much of a burro to do so. I’ll be for ever in your debt.’ He held out his hand.
After several seconds, Theo shook it. ‘Don’t mention it. Any man who’s not afraid to call himself an ass is all right in my book.’
With a self-conscious laugh, Pietro turned to leave.
‘Thanks for the drinks,’ Theo said. ‘But how did you know?’
Inez suppressed a giggle. Pietro rolled his eyes and nodded to the far wall. ‘There’s a partition to the kitchen. Camila’s been spying on you since you came in.’
Theo glanced behind him as the partition widened and Camila beamed at them. Her gaze rested on Inez. ‘Your feijoadas are good enough, but I always believed your destiny lies elsewhere.’ She blew a kiss and shut the partition.
Pietro left and Theo stared down at her. ‘Are you ready to start our adventure, agape mou?’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means my love.’ His smile dimmed. ‘I learnt to speak Portuguese for the wrong reasons. I will teach you Greek for the right ones.’
Her grip tightened on his shirt. ‘Were you really planning to leave Rio?’
‘Yes. After I persuaded Benedicto to sign over the company into your and Pietro’s names, I was done with that soulless vendetta. The thought that I’d lost you in the process nearly killed me.’
‘I…what? You got him to sign over the company to us? Theo, we don’t want it!’
‘It was your grandfather’s, then your mother’s. It’s right that it should be yours and Pietro’s. If you don’t really want it, I’m sure you’ll find a beneficial way to dispose of it.’
She nodded. ‘It would go a long way to help the inner city centre and the favela kids.’
‘Great, we’ll make it happen.’
Her heart contracted as she stared into his warm eyes. ‘I love you, Theo. Thank you for coming back for me.’
‘I couldn’t not return, anjo, because without you I’m lost.’
She lifted her face to his and he slanted his mouth over hers in a deep, poignant kiss that brought fresh tears to her eyes.
‘We need to talk about these tears,’ he said drily, then huffed in irritation as his phone beeped again.
‘Your brothers?’ she guessed.
‘And their wives. Ari wants to know if I’m still alive. Sakis wants to know if he can hire you to design his next oil tanker.’
She laughed. ‘And their wives?’
He glanced down at the screen and back at her. ‘They want to know if they can start planning our wedding.’