Chapter Fourteen
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next morning when Jasmine woke up in Emilio’s bed, she found him standing at the window, bare-chested, grey sweatpants hanging low on his hips.
He was serene, the picture of tranquillity, as he surveyed the vast estate.
It seemed as though the playboy, the high-handed CEO she’d seen in New York, had been cast away to reveal the real him.
A little calmer, with a much purer smile than the smirks of the charmer.
Despite his mixed memories of this place, he clearly loved it here.
Jasmine wished she could give him this peace all the time.
But how? They lived half a world away. She wasn’t sure what this marriage was turning into.
She had been the one to say she would not sleep in his bed but here she was, waking up to his scent on the sheets.
She couldn’t lie to herself. There was something brewing here that was more than chemistry.
She burrowed further under the covers, Emilio’s scent enveloping her, and the movement attracted his attention.
‘Buongiorno, belleza . ’ He moved away from the window and walked to the bed, giving her flashbacks of the night before, when he’d prowled towards her and taken her lips in a ravishing kiss. But, still, he hadn’t pushed to sleep with her.
‘I wish I had a camera,’ she said.
He reached over, picked up his phone from the side table and handed it to her as he sat on the bed.
‘One that would do you justice,’ Jasmine amended. She saw the look of confusion on his face and continued. ‘To capture the way you looked when you stood there.’ She nodded towards the window.
‘Ah, you were watching me, were you?’ His conceited smirk made her laugh.
She ran her fingers through his hair. It was always so soft. ‘You love it here.’
‘I do.’
Jasmine thought maybe there was a way she could allow him this feeling a little while longer. ‘I have a suggestion.’
‘What’s that, mia regina ?’
Jasmine barely understood two words of Italian, but she was growing to like it when he used it on her. She didn’t care about the meaning when the words fell like silk upon her.
‘Let’s stay in Italy for a few weeks more. You love it here and so do I.’
‘What about work?’ Emilio asked. Jasmine wasn’t surprised; she had made it perfectly clear that SOP and their baby were all she cared about. But maybe that was losing some truth.
‘The Internet is a thing, Emilio,’ she teased. ‘Besides, neither one of us has had much of a vacation in the last few years.’
Maybe with Emilio she could let go just a little bit, enjoy the life she had built for herself.
That she was still building. What use would it be to achieve all that she wanted if she didn’t let herself enjoy it?
Even Emilio, with his massive weight of a legacy, found time to enjoy himself. That was how they’d met, after all.
That life wasn’t filled with enjoyment. He was escaping, just like you.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Unless I’ve read this wrong, and you don’t want to spend this time with me.’
He took her hands from beneath the covers and kissed them on the knuckles, sending sparks skittering along her skin.
‘I would take all the time you gave to me and still want more.’ She watched him study her before he said, ‘I would very much like that.’ He paused.
‘But I don’t want to go back to Perlano. We’ll stay here.’
‘That’s fine by me. I’d like to see more of Vozzano anyway. You still have a lake to show me.’
‘Mia vita,’ Emilio whispered, caging her in his arms and kissing her. Lightning sang through her. If this was to be her very first holiday since starting SOP, she was glad it was with her unlikely husband.
***
A few days later, while Emilio was unsuccessfully trying to teach Jasmine how to make a ragu—honestly, he was shirtless in the kitchen while cooking and feeding her little samples to taste; how was she expected to concentrate?—her phone rang loudly on the stone worktop.
‘Hi, Mom.’ Jasmine suddenly realised she hadn’t spoken to her mother since she’d arrived in Italy. She never went that long without calling to check in. She looked at Emilio, who was concentrating on the pot in front of him. Had she relaxed so much because of him?
‘What did you do, Jasmine?’
‘I don’t know. What did I do?’ Alarm bells went off in her head. Had something happened to her mother? To SOP? Did she need to leave for New York? She was halfway out of the kitchen when what her mother said next stopped her in her tracks.
‘You didn’t have to buy me a house!’
Jasmine spun around and looked at Emilio. He’d stopped stirring the contents of the pot and watched her impassively. ‘Mom…’
But Angela continued without letting her get a word in. ‘And I could have moved myself in. You didn’t need to go through all this trouble.’
Jasmine could hear how close to tears her mother was and it made her own eyes well up. ‘I’ve always wanted to take care of you.’ She wasn’t sure if she was saying that to herself, her mother or Emilio, but the words hung in the air.
‘I love you so much, Jasmine.’ Angela was crying now. Jasmine could hear it. Could hear her mother’s watery voice and sniffles.
‘I love you too, Mom.’
‘I’ll let you get back to your honeymoon, but I just have to say something: he’s special.’
‘I know.’ Jasmine hung up but stayed where she was. A lump was forming at the back of her throat that made it hard to speak. ‘You did this. You bought my mom a house.’
‘I did. I know you’ve wanted to take care of her…’
He knew because he’d wanted that too, to take care of his own mother before she’d passed.
‘So I bought her a house close to ours.’
Ours . Her brownstone, that he’d promised to move into even though it wasn’t nearly as fancy as his penthouse. A promise he’d made so they could both be there for their child and he could be the father he hadn’t had. Jasmine was seeing him so much more clearly now.
‘When you say close…’
‘A street over. I thought you would want her close by as this pregnancy progresses. Would need her support when our daughter is born.’
Jasmine laughed despite the tears running down her face. When had anyone cared this deeply for her? Cared for her so much that they respected her goals, took care of her family? Richard had wanted more space from her mother. Emilio understood why she needed Angela.
Emilio was beyond special. And he’d finally begun opening up to her. True, nothing he’d said quite explained his behaviour in Perlano; there was something, she was sure, that he was holding back. But…
Maybe it didn’t matter. How bad could his secret be?
His actions spoke volumes: he was good and kind and everything she could hope for in a partner.
So unlike the last man she had promised herself to, who had found her controlling.
Maybe Richard had had a point. She did try to control everything.
What if, in her pursuit of this secret, she pushed Emilio too far and he left too?
She would lose the perfect father for her child, and she couldn’t do that to her baby. Maybe it was time for her to let go of the barriers and allow him to tell her in his own time. Maybe she could make peace with not knowing. Maybe she should.
She crossed the kitchen and kissed him. Kissed him with everything she had, and he held her tightly to him, kissing her back, returning her passion. The affection she couldn’t name.
‘Are you happy?’ he asked, resting his forehead on hers.
‘You have no idea.’
That kiss had turned Emilio’s world on its head.
He’d felt Jasmine’s feelings for him shift in the kitchen but he wasn’t quite sure what it meant.
What they meant to each other. The only relationship he could compare this to was what he’d felt for Gia, and he didn’t want to do that.
He had already made a commitment to Jasmine for their child, but he wanted this to be the start of something more.
And that would start with being there for Jasmine.
He hadn’t been around when Jasmine had learned of her pregnancy, or for the very first scan of their child.
He couldn’t change that, but he could be better.
After dinner, and after Jasmine had fallen asleep in his bed, he sat in an arm chair in the corner of the room and did as much research as he could. He sat there until his eyes began to droop. He did it every night for a week and then some.
Jasmine was in the window for the baby’s genetics testing and nuchal translucency scan—things she would easily have made an appointment for in New York. But, out of her generosity to him, they were staying on in Italy, so it was his responsibility now to ensure she received the care she needed.
Over the past weeks, she had let go so much, relaxed, but Emilio knew she still needed control. Both were key parts of her personality. Having the doctor of her choice around would give her that control, even when they were away from home.
So he called her OB-GYN and had him on the next available flight to Milan.
***
‘Thank you,’ Jasmine said on the drive to meet with him.
‘Of course.’ He laced their fingers, kissed her hand then placed it on his thigh. He liked the way it looked there. As though she had ownership of him.
Jasmine didn’t protest when he took her hand as they walked to the doctor’s room in the medical centre, and he was especially glad that she didn’t let go when the doctor performed the ultrasound.
‘There’s your baby,’ the doctor announced.
The pulsing sound of his child’s heartbeat wasn’t something Emilio was prepared for. Yes, he had expected it, but to see this tiny living thing that was part him and part Jasmine filled him with wonder.
Jasmine looked at him with tears in her eyes and a tender smile on her face.
He was happy—a happiness he wasn’t sure he had ever experienced.
And he’d found it with Jasmine, a random stranger he’d met in a club, but Emilio was certain that fate had intervened, because there was no other reason someone so perfect should be in his life.
There was something real, something tender, between them, something he’d never experienced with Gia. She’d taken everything he could offer but she hadn’t cared about him. He’d been young and stupid and thought he’d fallen for her, but it hadn’t been true.
He knew that now. Everything before Jasmine was lifeless. This was love. This was home.
Once the doctor was done, he took some blood and left the room. Emilio helped Jasmine wipe off the gel and straighten her clothes, even though he knew she was fully capable of doing it herself. Once her appearance was as impeccable as ever, he kissed her.
‘I know none of this happened as you had planned, but I’m grateful it did.’
Jasmine smiled at him, glowing brighter than ever. ‘I am too.’
During the entire drive back to the Vozzano estate, Emilio kept replaying the sound of the baby’s heartbeat in his head, over and over.
It was the sweetest music. His baby had been a tiny shape on a screen, and he couldn’t comprehend just how much he loved them already.
More than ever, Emilio couldn’t understand his father at all.
How could he have witnessed such a thing and remain unmoved?
All Emilio knew was that he was done with wasting time.
‘Get some rest, belleza . I have an email to send and then I will bring you some tea.’
‘Thank you.’ She caressed his cheek and he left her to go to his study.
Inform the De Luca lawyers about the will, he typed. I want this dealt with swiftly.
Everything that was his mother’s was his and his child’s. He had no doubt that it all would be resolved quickly—he probably wouldn’t even have to deal with Enzo.
His attention now belonged to his wife.