Lynne Graham - A Vengeful Passion

He fell back on the bed with her, deaf to all reasoning of the prosaic variety. 'I can't believe that you can forgive me,' he groaned into her hair. 'I screwed up at every turn.'

'I'll take it out of your hide… my way,' Ashley told him. He bit sensuously at the ripe curve of her breast as he slowly dispensed with the scrap of lace depriving him of proper access. 'I'm all yours,' he confided. 'My jealousy blinded me to what I was doing to you in the past. I spent four hellish years wanting you. I nearly worked myself to death trying to forget you. And then you walked into my office that day and suddenly I knew that I would move heaven and earth to get you back. That night, after the opera, I knew that I still loved you. I was devastated by how I felt. I wasn't in control-'

'Neither was I, and that's the way it should be.' She ran loving fingers along the taut line of his mouth. 'You brought us together again. How could I not forgive you for that?' she teased.

'I'll never forgive myself for not being there when you lost the baby,' he admitted gruffly.

Her green eyes shadowed. 'I wanted it so much because you had gone. That was all I had left-' 'Don't-' As he buried his face in the sweet valley between her breasts, she felt the moisture on his cheeks, comprehended his sudden rigidity.

She smoothed his head in forgiveness but her own throat was closing over. 'It happens, Vito. It just wasn't meant to be.' And maybe it would be the same this time too, she conceded painfully, but wishing and worrying weren't likely to change her prospects either way. Perhaps tomorrow she would share those fears. But not tonight. Now was a time to celebrate the sheer joy of being together. But Vito was not so easily diverted. He had to know everything about that first pregnancy. How she had felt, what she had done, how she had managed,' what the miscarriage had been like. Finally she felt the benefit of that sharing. The past slid back to where it should be, less painful than it had ever been.

'I was so shattered when you wouldn't marry me,' he breathed. 'But you were right. Much of it was my ego.'

'I shouldn't have moved out of the apartment so quickly. I was being childish, making a point,' she muttered ruefully. 'I couldn't believe it when you didn't come in search of me. That far, I did trust you even then.'

'I love you so much.' Vito wrapped both arms tightly around her. 'I will never fail you again-'

'You're failing right now.' As he tensed and looked anxiously down into her dancing green eyes, she added softly, running a teasing hand down a long lean thigh, 'I seem to remember something about this guy who gave me fabulous sex… and here I am offering solid gold I'll-never-Iet-you-go commitment-'

'If you feel like it,' he murmured lazily. 'I do… I do!'

'I'll take them up for their nap.' Fixing a mock-stern expression to her round face, Priya shooed the two giggling little boys up the slope towards the villa. Marco darted back to treat Ashley to a soggy kiss. He was the quiet twin. Carlo, not to be outdone, came tumbling back, dashed a kiss on her cheek and mumbled, 'No nap, Mummy.' He was the pushy one.

Sent back to rejoin Priya, he dragged his plump little legs and threw her a reproachful glance. For a split second he was Vito to the manner born. Susan laughed. 'He's a real little operator, isn't he?'

'I can't believe they're nearly two years old.' Ashley rested back on her lounger and smiled at her sister, thinking how much closer they had become since the twins' birth.

'Time flies when you're enjoying yourself. I wonder what mine will be like.' Susan patted the slight bulge of her once flat stomach. 'I don't care as long as he's healthy.'

'He will be,' Ashley soothed.

'I never thought I would get up the courage…if it hadn't been for the twins-'

'An utterly trouble-free pregnancy,' Ashley reminded her with a grin.

Susan lifted the book that Ashley had been reading, raising a brow at the title. 'Educational Psychology,' she groaned. 'You have to be out of your mind to want to sign on as a student again.'

'It's something I need to do.' 'I'm amazed Vito agreed.'

Ashley smiled with contentment. 'He understands perfectly. '

Vito strode up with Arnold lagging a few steps in his wake. All burnished brown vitality, he crouched down. 'You look really tired, cara.'

'It's all the studying she's trying to do into the bargain,' Susan said disapprovingly.

'It's the heat,' Vito contradicted, springing up. 'You're shameless,' Ashley hissed when they were out of earshot.

Vito followed her upstairs. 'Why should guests change our routine?' He dealt her a wicked grin. 'I can hardly tell your sister that I'm feeling incredibly randy and would she excuse us for a few hours!'

'So I'm just routine now, am I?'

'You're the most gloriously passionate and loved woman alive. And you know it, you shameless hussy,' he reproved, tugging her down on to the bed. 'Let's make the most of the time we have left before your parents arrive.'

'Do you think they'll like it here?' she sighed anxiously.

'Sylvia will love it, but your father… utterly surrounded by foreigners?' Vito gave vent freely to his humour at the prospect.

But Hunt Forrester had changed a great deal. Her parents had ended up seeing a Relate counsellor. The old bullying tactics were no more. Her mother simply wouldn't stand for such treatment now. And through occasional visits and some admittedly awkward discussions Ashley had formed a new relationship with her father. They would never be particularly close, but what they did have was considerably more than she had ever expected to achieve.

'I'm looking forward to seeing Tim.' Her brother was taking a rare break from his medical studies. Vito had been very good to her kid brother, she acknowledged. Whenever they were in London, Tim treated their home as his.

'And while your father is doing his level best to survive his trip abroad, you can continue to find the heat too much in the afternoons,' Vito instructed single-mindedly, running the tip of his tongue seductively along the full line of her lower lip. She let him claim her mouth in a devouring kiss, felt as always the ripples of excitement begin to build. It never failed. As he shuddered responsively against her, she smiled secretively beneath the rising urgency of his mouth. Some day, when he was in a really good mood, she would ask him who had actually tamed whom.