Page 65 of The Tycoon's Shock Heir

This life of sunshine was what her daughter should have—her grandmother and her father, sunshine and health. Happiness. Italy.

‘You’ll live here I take it...?’ she said, her voice trailing off.

She couldn’t speak any more, because the thought of what she would miss was choking her—her whole heart seemed to be tugging free and choking the very air from her body.

‘I assumed you’d want to be based in England?’ he said, turning her round.

She closed her eyes as she felt his warm, wonderful strength fold around her—her solid wall.

‘Where do you want us to live? We don’t need to decide right here, right now, but we’re free to choose—we can be wherever we want. Ruby, we’re free. I am free. For the past ten years I’ve been enslaved—as much as any of the slaves that fought in that Coliseum over there. Every day making myself do a job I didn’t like, becoming a person I didn’t want to be, showing disrespect to women.’

She looked up into his face and saw a brightness she’d never seen before. Hope shone from his eyes and his smile broadened widely. ‘I’m so happy for you, Matteo. It must have been the hardest thing to decide, but it’s the best news too.’

‘I still don’t think you get it, Ruby. This is the happiest day of my life. You have made me the happiest man alive. I don’t care about anything else.’

He cupped her face, bent forward to kiss her, and it felt different. It felt like the most possessive, passionate branding of his love.

‘Do you love me?’ she heard herself say.

‘Do I love you? Yes. I’ve never met a woman like you. I’ve never seen such passion and spirit. You’ve set me an example that put me to shame, and when I asked you to, you stood by me. You were prepared to do anything for me and our little family. I won’t ever forget that.’

She swallowed. ‘You told me to pretend I loved you. I didn’t need to pretend.’

‘Me neither. We’ve got our lives ahead of us now. We’ll work out where we want to be and what I’m going to do—maybe I’ll coach. Who knows? But as long as we both know that we’ll put our daughter first in all we do—that’s all I ask. She needs to know she’s the most important thing in the world to us.’

Ruby nodded. She knew more than anyone that her life’s work was going to be making her daughter know that, in every fibre of her being. She knew that her only medicine was to fill up her soul with love, not fear.

‘My father...’ she said. ‘I’ve never told you—or anyone, for that matter—but I’ve never met him. I only know his name and his home town. Will you help me find him? I really want to contact him now.’

He tucked her close and she buried herself against him, smelled him, breathed him in, and with every second felt replete with the power of his love.

‘I’m so glad you’ve told me that. We’ll find him together. We’ll work it all out together. And Coral is here for you as much as she is for me. For this one,’ he said, stroking the soft curve of her stomach.

She smiled into his chest. Nodded. She finally knew.

She whispered the words she now understood.

‘“Lovers don’t finally meet someone. They’re in each other all along.”’

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