A Night of Living Dangerously (21 page)

“Abbott, what are you doing here?”

She stopped as he opened the van’s back doors. Looking inside, Lilley sucked in her breath, her hand over her mouth.

There was a knight in the back of the van. A medieval knight in full armor.

The knight pushed up his visor, and she saw Alessandro’s dark, handsome face. His warm black eyes were glowing with such adoration that her heart caught in her throat.

She exhaled, tilting her head to look up at him in the back of the van. She’d slipped on the ice and fallen into some kind of coma. She was dreaming. That was the only explanation for Alessandro wearing armor in Minnesota, standing in the back of a van, in front of a snowy white lake.

“What are you doing here?” she breathed.

“I’ve come for you,” Alessandro said, his eyes looking straight into hers. “I was a coward and a fool. Come back to me, Lilley,” he whispered. “Let me show you I can be the husband you always dreamed of.”

Tears filled her eyes as she went towards the van. With a scrape of metal, he hopped off the van’s edge. But the heavy weight of his armor seemed to take him off guard. His visor snapped shut with a loud clang as he fell heavily on the snowy road.

Lilley was beside him in an instant, kneeling as she gathered him in her arms. “Are you all right?” she said anxiously. “Are you hurt?”

Sprawled out across the road, Alessandro didn’t move. Dear God, what if a sharp blow in that tin-can suit had knocked him out? Lilley’s hands shook as she pulled up his visor.

But she saw he was silently laughing. She fell back on her haunches in wonder.

“Oh my God. You’ve totally made a fool of yourself,” she breathed in awe. She shook her head, suddenly smiling. “Dressing up in armor? What were you thinking?”

“I’ve never seen any angel half as beautiful as you.” He lifted his armored hand to touch her cheek. “I would battle far more than armor to be in the arms of the woman I love. I would slay dragons for you,” he whispered.

What had he said?
What had he just said?
That he loved her? She felt her heart expand and bend and swell until it was big enough to swallow the whole world. She looked down, her lashes brushing shyly against her cheek. “Come on,” she murmured. “I’ll help you up.”

But the armor was even heavier than she’d thought. First Abbott, then her father, had to come and help him to stand up.

“Hello, sir,” Alessandro said to her father, smiling.

“I don’t think we’ve ever met in person. I’m Alessandro Caetani.”

Walton blinked, his eyes wide. He looked at Lilley. “This is your husband?” he asked faintly.

Unable to speak, she nodded, then turned back to Alessandro.

Behind her, she heard her father give a low whistle. “What a merger this will make.” But as she turned with a scowl, Walton quickly said to Abbott, “Care for a drink at the gatehouse? Something to warm your blood?”

“You bet.”

Lilley and Alessandro stood alone on the snowy, empty road. A wind blew off the lake, whipping through her hair, but she no longer felt the cold. She felt warm all over, filled with light.

“What possessed you to do this?” she whispered, putting her hand on the side of his shiny helmet. “This crazy thing?”

He moved his metal glove over her hand. “I wanted to show you I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I never should have asked if the baby was mine.”

She swallowed, looking down.

“I shouldn’t have let a single white lie keep me from trusting you for thousands of reasons,” he said. “One most of all.” He lifted her chin with his finger. “I love you, Lilley.”

The winter sun burst through the gray winter clouds. A beam of light caught his armor, making him sparkle like diamonds.

“It took losing you in Rome to make me realize you were right. I was afraid. Now, the only thing that scares me is losing you. I’ll do anything to win you back, Lilley,” he whispered. His dark eyes met hers. “Absolutely anything.”

The white, gray and black of winter suddenly filled with the beautiful pinks and greens of spring in Lilley’s eyes. He loved her. And their lives together were only beginning.

“I love you, Alessandro,” she whispered, throwing her arms around his hard, cold armor.

For a long moment, they held each other on the quiet road. Then Lilley pulled back, her forehead furrowed as she glanced back at the huge semitruck, still parked behind her car. “But why did you bring that?”

“Oh.” Alessandro gave her a sudden grin. “I was afraid I’d kill us both if I actually tried to sit on a horse, so I made other plans.” Looking at the truck’s driver, he motioned with his hand. The driver hopped out and went to the back of the truck. She heard the distant roar of an engine, and then a vintage Cadillac De Ville—in hot pink—rolled off the ramp to park beside them.

As the driver disappeared for his drink at the gatehouse, Lilley walked slowly around the Cadillac, her mouth open.

It was a classic convertible from the 1960s, the exact same fuchsia as the ball gown she’d worn to their reception in Rome. “What is that?”

He grinned at her. “Our getaway vehicle,
cara.
To ride off into the sunset.”

She looked back at him. “And what if you hadn’t found me? What if I’d already been gone?”

“Then I would have sold my business and driven all over the country, looking for you,” he said gravely behind her. “Everywhere. Until you were in my arms.”

She gasped a laugh. “Dressed as a knight? Driving a hot-pink Cadillac? The paparazzi would have had a field day! They’d have said you’d lost your mind!”

“I have,” he said softly. “Along with my heart. All I want to do, for the rest of my life, is make a fool of myself. Over you.”

Tears fell from Lilley’s lashes. Standing on her tiptoes, she held up his cold visor with her fingertips and kissed him. Her husband kissed her back fervently, reverently, passionately. They had been standing in the snowy road for hours, or perhaps minutes, when she finally pulled away for air. His black eyes glimmered down at her. She had no idea if the tears on his cheeks were hers or his. But what did it matter? They were one.

“Thank you for being a fool,” she said, her heart welling with joy. “Thank you for making all my childhood dreams come true.”

He looked down at her, his handsome face glowing with love and shining with the strength of steel. “And thank you,” he whispered, stroking her cheek, “for making me want to dance.”

They danced at their first anniversary party the following September. As Alessandro led Lilley to the dance floor in their Sonoma ballroom, he whirled her in a circle, making her colorful skirts twirl. She heard a soft
“awww”
from their fifty or so guests, just family and friends, including a deep sigh from her father, who was holding his baby grandson, Teo.

Alessandro pulled her close on the dance floor. Lilley looked up at him breathlessly as he swayed against her.

“My, oh my,” she murmured, fluttering her eyelashes. “You’re quite the dancer. Have you been taking lessons?”

“You know I have. You’ve been taking them with me.” He twirled her, then gave a mischievous grin. “No broken toes in sight.”

“Because you’re leading me.”

“No,” he whispered, pulling her close. “We lead each other.”

Lilley looked up at him, dazed with happiness. Their lives over the past ten months had been filled with one joy after the next. They now split their time evenly between Rome and San Francisco, where Lilley had started her fledgling jewelry company, Lilley Caetani Limited. Her first collection had already been a great success at the international jewelry trade show in San Francisco.

So much had changed in the last year. Lilley was still awed to think how, just fifteen months before, she’d attended the trade show as a guest with a dream. Now she was an exhibitor. With Carrie’s financial backing, her fledgling company had already made a splash in the trade dailies and orders had started to flood in from around the world. She would have to hire more employees soon. Lilley often traveled with her husband and their baby to Singapore or Norway or Namibia, getting inspiration for her designs. She happily traveled wherever the continuing expansion of Caetani Worldwide took them.

There was only one of Alessandro’s potential acquisitions that she absolutely wouldn’t allow. Alessandro had made multiple offers to buy her company and merge it with Caetani-Hainsbury Worldwide, which she’d refused in no uncertain terms.

“Sorry, my company is not for sale,” she’d said breezily. “I’m not interested in being part of some soulless, heartless conglomerate—”

“Hey!”

She’d grinned. “Sorry. But my company is small and I like it that way.”

He’d tilted his head thoughtfully. “We could double your growth projections, especially in Europe. And there might be other fringe benefits as well,” he’d murmured. “Think about it.”

“Not for sale at any price,” she said primly.

He’d lifted a wicked eyebrow. “Oh? Are you sure?” And he’d pulled her into bed. Lilley sighed at the memory. Of course, she would never sell him her company, but it was sure fun to let him try.

Tonight’s anniversary party in Sonoma had been Alessandro’s idea. He’d planned the whole thing from start to finish. The wine harvest looked to be excellent this year, and all their friends and family beamed as they held up glasses, toasting Alessandro and Lilley on the occasion of their one-year anniversary.

Olivia Bianchi, alas, was not in attendance. Lilley hadn’t even tried to invite her. She’d learned she couldn’t please everyone, and she didn’t need to impress anyone. The only people she cared about were right here: her friends Nadia and Jeremy, who were now engaged. And her family. Her cousin had come all the way from France, along with Carrie and their baby. Alessandro and Théo might never be friends, but they’d managed to achieve a sort of détente. They’d moved their rivalry to the realms of basketball and extreme sports like skydiving. Great, Lilley thought with an inward groan. Just what she needed. A husband and a cousin who were fighting to jump out of a perfectly good plane.

Even her father was doing better, now that he’d retired and given up day-to-day management of Hainsbury’s to Alessandro. The company was on track to merge with Caetani Worldwide, and all of it would be left in trust to Walton’s grandchildren. Her father had moved to San Francisco to be closer to them, and to focus on getting healthier. And, like a miracle, he seemed stronger every day. Especially on the days he played with his grandson.

Friends and family were all that mattered, Lilley thought. Not fame. Not the glitter of wealth. The only diamonds that mattered were the ones in the bright smiles of the people she loved. As her dance with Alessandro ended and their friends applauded wildly around them, her father brought the baby to the dance floor.

“I think the kid wants to dance,” Walton said gruffly.

A new song began, and Alessandro took baby Teo in his arms. Nuzzling his chubby cheeks and downy head, he looked down at his son tenderly. “I can teach him.”

Lilley’s heart swelled as Alessandro held their cooing baby against his tuxedo jacket, and wrapped his other arm around her. Smiling, she leaned her head against her husband’s strong shoulders as they swayed together in time to the music. Listening to Teo’s baby giggle and Alessandro’s joyful baritone laugh, Lilley suddenly knew their lives together would always be happy like this. Their days would shine with endless brilliant facets, in a hodgepodge of sparkling gemstones and tarnished brass, rough rock crystals and gleaming platinum, that when welded together … formed a family.

Read on for a sneak preview of Carol Marinelli’s
PUTTING ALICE BACK TOGETHER!

Hugh hired bikes!

You know that saying: ‘It’s like riding a bike, you never forget’?

I’d never learnt in the first place.

I never got past training wheels.

‘You’ve got limited upper-body strength?’ He stopped and looked at me.

I had been explaining to him as I wobbled along and tried to stay up that I really had no centre of balance. I mean
really
had no centre of balance. And when we decided, fairly quickly, that a bike ride along the Yarra perhaps, after all, wasn’t the best activity (he’d kept insisting I’d be fine once I was on, that you never forget), I threw in too my other disability. I told him about my limited upper-body strength, just in case he took me to an indoor rock-climbing centre next. I’d honestly forgotten he was a doctor, and he seemed worried, like I’d had a mini-stroke in the past or had mild cerebral palsy or something.

‘God, Alice, I’m sorry—you should have said. What happened?’

And then I had had to tell him that it was a self-diagnosis. ‘Well, I could never get up the ropes at the gym at school.’ We were pushing our bikes back. ‘I can’t blow-dry the back of my hair …’ He started laughing.

Not like Lisa who was laughing at me—he was just laughing and so was I. We got a full refund because we’d only been on our bikes ten minutes, but I hadn’t failed. If anything, we were getting on better.

And better.

We went to St Kilda to the lovely bitty shops and I found these miniature Russian dolls. They were tiny, made of tin or something, the biggest no bigger than my thumbnail. Every time we opened them, there was another tiny one, and then another, all reds and yellows and greens.

They were divine.

We were facing each other, looking down at the palm of my hand, and our heads touched.

If I put my hand up now, I can feel where our heads touched.

I remember that moment.

I remember it a lot.

Our heads connected for a second and it was alchemic; it was as if our minds kissed hello.

I just have to touch my head, just there at the very spot and I can, whenever I want to, relive that moment.

So many times I do.

‘Get them.’ Hugh said, and I would have, except that little bit of tin cost more than a hundred dollars and, though that usually wouldn’t have stopped me, I wasn’t about to have my card declined in front of him.

I put them back.

‘Nope.’ I gave him a smile. ‘Gotta stop the impulse spending.’