Harlequin Romance March 2021 Box Set Cara Colter (the mitten read aloud TXT) 📖

‘And you get away with it. I couldn’t believe the way you talked that security guard round that time you climbed into the locked yard.’

‘I wanted to see the statues,’ she protested, ‘not wait until the next morning and queue up. But the funny thing is that, for once, coming here to Italy, I had a proper plan. I was going to wait until you were better, and then I was going to find a reason to go back to London. I was going to be mature and stay distant from you. Make sure you were okay but no more. But I couldn’t even follow that plan, could I? Tonight wasn’t supposed to happen.’

‘Do you regret it? Because I don’t, Charlie. Even if you told me that it was the last time, even if you walked away, grabbed a bag and headed off to Vietnam, Australia or Timbuktu. I wouldn’t regret it. I’d regret what happened to us, and I’d regret that we hadn’t managed to make it work. I would regret that in the end I couldn’t convince you to give me another chance, but I don’t regret being with you again. Not a single moment of it.’

She closed her eyes. ‘Neither do I,’ she whispered.

‘Why overthink it, Charlie? We made some mistakes, I know that, but we were good together in so many ways. We are good together. This holiday, concussion and all, has been incredible. We are incredible. We can be incredible.’ He paused, looking for the right words.

Less than two weeks ago he’d been driving down to Kent to persuade Charlie to give him another chance, to apologise, to try to persuade her to come home. He’d never know if he’d have succeeded or if she’d have turned him away and flown off to Vietnam, determined to party their divorce away. But that was before. Before they’d spent all this time together, before tonight. Surely she could see that it made sense for them to try again with so many regrets—and so much passion—between them.

‘We both know better now. We know what we have to get right next time. Learning is a painful process, Charlie. It would be a shame to waste all that progress on the same outcome.’

‘I want to say yes.’ Charlie’s gaze locked onto his. ‘You don’t know how much I want to say yes. To not look back and to throw myself into a new start, the way I always throw myself into something exciting. But Matteo, we are on holiday, nothing is as normal. We always worked well when we were living apart from our responsibilities. We were good together when we were dating, living for weekends and evenings in the headiness of falling in love. We are working now because you’re not actually at work, and I’m not embarrassing you and you’re not frustrating me. We know that when things are good we are very good, but is that enough?’

Matteo could almost see her slipping out of his reach with every word. ‘We don’t have to make any decisions now; let’s see how it goes. Take it a day at a time.’ He was aware of the irony as he spoke. Charlie was urging caution for possibly the first time in her life and here he was, telling her not to plan for tomorrow, to take each day as it came. If they’d both learned these lessons a little earlier they might not be in this position now.

He tried again, his voice low and coaxing, not letting her gaze slip from his. ‘You said yourself, we’re good on holiday. So let’s have a holiday, let’s have a second honeymoon, let me help you put on the gala. Let’s work together to make it the best ballet gala Ravello has ever seen. In the end, we can take stock and either we can part knowing we gave it our best try, or maybe we’ll know that this is where we are meant to be. Together. What have we got to lose from two more weeks?’

She didn’t answer at once, a whole myriad of expressions passing over her mobile face. Indecision, hope, wariness, interest and a flicker of the old impulsive excitement that he didn’t realise he’d missed until he saw it flash into her eyes.

‘No promises?’

‘Not one.’

‘We just live each day and enjoy ourselves? No plans?’

‘Not even for the next day. We’ll see where our whims take us.’

She paused for one eternal second and then nodded. ‘It sounds to me suspiciously like you’re daring me and you know that I can’t resist a dare. Okay, I’m in. Two weeks, no promises, no decisions until the end. Besides, I’ve committed to the gala now and it will be a lot easier with you by my side.’

Matteo sent up a silent prayer of thanks to whatever Roman deities were keeping an eye on them—hopefully Venus and not one of the more mischievous gods. He’d acted badly over the last few months. Being given a chance to try and make things right was more than he probably deserved but he wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip away.

‘It won’t be the only thing that’s easier,’ he said, moving to sit beside her and slipping an arm around her shoulders, drawing her in so that she nestled into him. ‘I’ve been pretty lonely at night in that huge bed all by myself.’

She drew back and smiled up at him, her mouth a sweetly provocative tilt. ‘Is that so?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘And you’re hoping I might be able to do something about it?’ Her eyes were laughing at him now.

‘I was counting on it.’ And with that he kissed her, hot and hard, need and passion and all those weeks of pent-up frustration erupting through him with an undercurrent of relief. He’d bought himself some time. He had two weeks in which to convince this wilful, impulsive creature that living with him didn’t