Harlequin Presents October 2017--Box Set 1 of 2 by Lynne Graham

Author:Lynne Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460382356
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

EPILOGUE

THE FAMILY WING of the castello was completely overrun with children. Everywhere Daniele went he seemed to tread on some toy or other and had grinned wickedly when he’d seen his cousin Matteo walk barefoot onto a tiny building block.

Daniele’s three children were playing hide-and-seek with their cousins. After the game of War Against the Girls, this seemed safer. His sister’s son Sergio, a sturdy six-year-old with his mother’s bossy nature, had teamed up with Daniele’s middle child, Pieta. The two imps had stalked then cornered the two older girls, Matteo and Natasha’s shy daughter Lauren, and his and Eva’s oldest daughter Tessel, and fired a round of rubber bullets at them. There had been lots of screams and name calling after that.

Those damn rubber bullets got everywhere. He wondered if his mother knew she had one stuck in her hair.

He dreaded to think what kind of state the place would be in tomorrow when all the Christmas presents had been opened.

Sneaking out of the living room, he dodged small children and threw himself into his bedroom with mock relief.

Eva was on the bed, reading, the look on her face serene.

‘Escaping again?’ she queried with a raised brow.

‘It’s all right for you,’ he grumbled, getting onto the bed and snuggling up next to her. ‘You’ve got a perfect excuse to escape the carnage.’

His beautiful wife was two weeks away from giving birth to their fourth child. This meant she could legitimately hide herself away when the noise rose to the level of a rock concert on the pretext that she needed to rest.

‘You can carry the next one if you want,’ she teased.

‘The next one? You want five children?’

‘No.’ She grinned. ‘I was thinking of six.’

Completely unable to resist, he kissed her. ‘I’m happy to keep going until you say stop.’

She hooked an arm around his neck. ‘You might live to regret that.’

It amazed him that even now, after six years together and with Eva huge with child, he still desired her as much as he ever had.

But there was no chance to act on it when their bedroom door flew open and Pieta and Sergio charged in.

‘Mamma, Papa, Father Christmas is here!’ Pieta shouted, his little face alight with glee.

‘Really? Are you sure?’

‘He’s really here,’ Sergio confirmed, nodding his head vigorously. ‘Mamma says you’ve got to stop playing alone with Aunty Eva and come!’

Exchanging a secret smile with his wife, Daniele helped her off the bed and they all went back into the living room, where Father Christmas was making bellows of ‘Ho-ho-ho!’ whilst drinking a large glass of red wine.

If any of the children cared to look beneath the bushy white beard they would see the less bushy black beard of his macho brother-in-law Felipe who, much to his disgust, had been coerced into playing Father Christmas a number of years ago, and now found himself stuck with the role every year. And every year Daniele’s evil sister would cackle like a loon to watch him do it.

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