He cleared his throat and delicately brushed his thumb over the back of his father's palm, overcome. "In the end, I succumbed to the devastation and ruin. What was I doing in a distant nation trying to reconcile shattered families when my own was coming apart at home? What right did I have to keep you at arm's length, Father, when your biggest sin was wanting to provide me with a better life than you had when you were younger?" "You're my son," Rocco said. "Stubborn and proud and hell set on making your own way in the world, just as I was at your age. And you wanted to make that world a better place." "Yes, I did. But I neglected you in the process. Have I left it too late to ask your forgiveness?" Rocco lifted his other hand and placed it alongside Chris's stubble-covered jaw with great difficulty. "Ah, my foolish boy," he grumbled. "Don't you realize it's never too late for a father to welcome his kid when he returns h

Throughout the night, Lara and Chris kept vigil. Lost in their own thoughts of the man who'd made such an indelible impression on them both, they spoke little. At six o'clock the next morning, Rocco died. "He's gone, Chris," she said. "It's over." He nodded, bent his head and gathered his father's frail body in his arms. Leaving him to make his private farewell, she slipped from the room and went out to the terrace. In the half-light of dawn, the flower beds shone like pale clumps of stars. It was going to be another beautiful late September day. The first of many without Rocco. She didn't hear Chris join her until he spoke. "He was rambling, wasn't he, when he said the baby's mine?" "No," she said, too sad and exhausted to prevaricate. The truth had to come out sooner or later, it might as well be now. "You're her biological father." "Th

“We have to go now to buy a crib for Helen but I don’t want to leave you in a state of wanting either. Why don’t you lie on the bed for me?Dazed by his mellifluous voice and that tantalizing instruction, Maya tugged her top back down over her bra. “What—what for?”“Lara…do you really need to ask?”Eyeing him seductively, Lara found herself doing as he’d asked her—just as if her body made its own decisions without even consulting her mind. Her very ribs aching with the tension that was building inside her, she forced herself to try and relax even as the room was bathed in a soft, intimate glow.Chris slipped off her shoes—and even the touch of his hands at her bare ankles sent hot darts of torrid pleasure bolting almost violently through her. Then, crouching down by the bed in front of her, he eased her long legs towards him. In another fluid, commanding motion he moved upwards to un

Now, as Chris voraciously claimed her body, Lara’s hands locked tight onto the impressive iron muscle in his shoulders—the touch of his skin warm and silky, his muscled forearms and lean torso dusted with a smattering of darkly golden hair through which she glimpsed his darker, flat male nipples. He was raining kisses on her mouth, her throat, her breasts, his seductive masculine scent and strong, hard body saturating her senses—making her forget that a world even existed outside this room. Wriggling beneath him on the carpet, Lara adjusted her slender body to accept his possession even deeper inside her, wrapping her long legs round his waist, one hand moving to the back of his neck to guide his lips voraciously back to hers whenever he removed them.Somehow, she’d become addicted to the taste of him. It seemed impossible that she would ever get enough of those scalding, inflammatory kisses… But suddenly Chris tore his mouth for hers, to stare

It was time to take her clothes off. He did, using the opportunity to tease and tantalize her further. But revealing her peaches-and-cream body was a double-edged sword. The light smattering of freckles over her shoulders and upper breasts were his downfall. She had none on her face, so the cinnamon dots felt secret—private—for him alone. A special knowledge shared just between them. He was tempted to count them—with kisses—every time he got her disrobed.This time was no different.The allure of her body for him never diminished.He traced the light dots on her skin. “You are so beautiful.”“You’ve got an unnatural affection for my freckles.” It might be a full sentence, but the way she said it, breathless with pauses between words, told him that she was no more in possession of her faculties than she had been a moment before.“You think?” he asked against her silken skin, tasting t