She pressed a kiss to his cheek and said, ‘I’m ready when you are.’
Incredible joy gripped him—there wasn’t a hint of the old darkness and pain. Cesar grinned and threw his phone down, and then got busy showing his fiancée just how ready he was.
EPILOGUE
Eighteen months later
‘I MEAN...THEY look so innocent, don’t they?’
Cesar smiled at Alexio’s almost incredulous tone. Rafaele sighed deeply on his other side. They’d been standing and talking and were now watching the three women who were sitting around a picnic table under a huge tree, a few yards away. They were on Cesar’s lawn, at the back of the castillo, where a new outdoor pool twinkled invitingly through some small trees.
The castillo looked the same on the outside but it had been almost completely remodelled on the inside, so that very few vestiges of the past remained apart from the parts that had to be preserved. It was light and airy, with vast spaces, and decorated with a sumptuous yet understated luxury. Lexie had personally supervised the storage of the portraits of Cesar’s grandparents in a special airtight room deep in the cellars.
‘I know,’ Rafaele said now. ‘And yet in spite of that innocence they all—’
‘Brought us down,’ Cesar chipped in, sounding the happiest out of all of them.
Just then the three women’s heads drew closer together: one dark, one bright blonde and the other reddish blonde. There came a very distinctive peal of laughter from Samantha Falcone, and then they were all guffawing inelegantly, heads thrown back.
Rafaele shifted uncomfortably. ‘Why does that always make me nervous? As if they’re talking—
‘About us?’ Alexio cut in.
‘Because they probably are,’ Cesar said equably, once again sounding like a Zen Buddha.
His younger half-brothers turned towards him and folded their arms, two versions of his own green eyes narrowed on him.
Alexio remarked dryly, ‘I could take a photo of you right now and Tweet it and you’d lose your well-honed mystique in seconds.’
Cesar smiled and said ruefully, ‘Be my guest. I think I lost that mystique somewhere around the first nappy-change, when my sense of smell got scarred for life.’
The tiny bundle wriggled against his chest and he looked down at the small downy head of his two-month-old daughter, Lucita, where she was burrowing into a more comfortable position. His hand supported her bottom in the baby sling protectively.
Just then a small toddler in a bright dress broke free of the women at the table and tottered towards the men with a determined expression on her face. A halo of strawberry-blond ringlets framed a heart-stoppingly cherubic face dominated by huge green eyes.
She’d already wrapped everyone within a ten-mile radius around her tiny finger—even Cesar’s normally very taciturn housekeeper.
Cesar’s chest grew tight as he imagined Lucita at that age. And growing older in a vastly different castillo from the one he’d experienced. One filled with light and love.
Alexio bent down and encouraged his daughter Belle the last few yards, until she fell into his arms with a squeal of excitement. Lifting her up, he settled her high against his chest, a distinctly soppy expression on his face as she rested her head between his neck and shoulder, thumb firmly in her mouth.
‘How the mighty are fallen indeed,’ Rafaele remarked wryly, observing this just as Milo, his almost five-year-old son, streaked by with his armbands on, ready to jump into the pool, followed swiftly by Juan Cortez’s similarly aged son—Milo’s new best friend.
Belle immediately straightened up to take her thumb from her mouth and pointed a clutching hand at where Milo was, exclaiming urgently in baby gibberish.
But Alexio’s attention was fixated on his wife, Sidonie, who had followed her daughter and was sliding an arm around her husband’s waist. She wore a long colourful kaftan over a bikini.
Cesar knew that they were sitting on the news that they were expecting again until Sidonie had passed three months. But Sid had already told Lexie, and Lexie had told Cesar, and he was pretty sure that Sam must know too—which meant Rafaele knew, which meant it was an open secret. But of course no one would acknowledge it till they did.
The look between Alexio and Sidonie was definitely carnal and very private.
She smiled as Belle wriggled to be put down. ‘You know that now she’s seen Milo she won’t rest until she can play with him.’
Alexio scowled in Rafaele’s direction and Rafaele raised a brow. ‘What? It’s not my fault she’s hero-worshipping her cousin. She’s displaying remarkably good taste in men already. That’s a good thing!’
Sidonie just shook her head at the men’s ribbing and took Belle’s hand when Alexio let her down. She glanced fondly at where her new niece was cuddled against Cesar’s chest. ‘Lucita’s due a feed, and Sam wants to take a nap, so I said I’d watch the kids. I’ll take Belle to the pool.’
Alexio immediately declared, ‘I’ll come too,’ and another hot, private look passed between them.