Her Venice Affair (The Albury Affairs) (28 page)

BOOK: Her Venice Affair (The Albury Affairs)

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He turned to her and Riana pressed down a sob when she
saw tears in his eyes. “Those were my moments, Riana, and they were stolen from
me.”

“You can do that with the next baby,” she choked out.

He shook his head. “It won’t be the same. He or she won’t
be my first-born. They won’t be my Aurora.” He quickly caught the tears before
they fell. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad for letting your brother step
in for me…but I just…I feel cheated.”

Riana moved closer to him. “He didn’t just step in for
you. He stepped in for me, too. I was such a mess, I paid more attention to
keeping her close so that I wouldn’t lose her too that I missed most of her
firsts. My mind wasn’t present enough to register that they were happening until
it was too late.”

He kissed the top of her head. “We’ll make it up to
her.”

“I know how we can do that.” Riana kept her head low
on his shoulder to hide her smile.

“How?”

“We can let her lose in your office. That’s bound to
make up for all our short comings for the past twenty-two months of her life.”

Riana felt Allan’s body shake as he chuckled. She was
glad the tense moment was over.

“You’ve become such a comedian.”

Riana shrugged. “I try,” she said dryly before she
giggled.

“I have an idea. Not that terrorizing my employees
isn’t a good one, but mine’s better. We could celebrate her second birthday in
the country where she was conceived.”

Riana pushed up onto her elbow. “Don’t you think
that’s a little extravagant?”

He shook his head, turning his attention back to
Aurora when she sighed, clenching his T-shirt in one small fist while the other
arm hugged her ‘dada’ closer under her chin and turning her head to face Riana.
She’d slept with Allan’s shirt since the day she was born and it was now the
one thing the toddler wouldn’t willingly be parted from.

Riana always wished it was Allan she did that with
when she was a baby, and not Reno.

Riana cleared her head of those depressing moments and
smiled at Allan. He didn’t just want to do this he needed to do this to make up
for the twenty-two months he wasn’t around.

“We could go back to
L’Archeologia
? It doesn’t have to
be a big affair. Loraine, Melody, Matthew and his family, Dante and maybe Tony—”

Oh damn!
Riana wanted to slap herself for mentioning him. She
saw Allan’s jaw clench and a muscle twitch. Yup, she shouldn’t have mentioned
him.

“I’m sorry—”

“Mr. Torino died of a heart attack when he found out
what Anthony did, well supposedly did, to you.”

“Oh no!” Riana sobbed, covering her mouth.

Allan’s hard expression softened. He cupped the back
of her head and pulled her down to his shoulder. “Hey, don’t cry.”

“He’s dead because of that idiot.”

She felt
Allan’s warm lips on her forehead before he spoke. “The way I see it, he’s back
together with Mariana. The best way we can honor them is to respect his wishes.
Maybe you can add a few of your own to the collection.”

Riana chewed nervously on her lower lip. She hadn’t
touched a paintbrush since finishing NYU. Could she still do it?

She felt Allan’s thumb on her chin as he pulled her
lower lip free of her teeth.

“Stop sweating it. You’ll do great.”

Riana turned to stare at him. “It’s been a really long
time since I painted.”

His lips lifted in a loop sided grin. “I have a
feeling you’ll be painting until you can’t stand it.”

Riana chuckled shaking her head. “That’s never going
to happen. I’m always going to love painting.”

The other side of his lips lifted to form a full scale
I’m-so-sexy smile that made her breath catch.

“Maybe you can
open an art school and a gallery for the students through the foundation Melody
started in your honor.”

Riana excitedly jumped onto her knees. “Yes! That
would be great. We could do a summer school kind of deal for students who
couldn’t get into good art schools. Or…or we can be like the middleman. They
get their skills tuned in Cora’s Art Institute then we can offer scholarships
to any art school anywhere in the world…but mostly Europe.”

She tapped her fingers at her temples as she tried to
get her thoughts in order. She had so many ideas!

“Oh, oh! How about using the gallery for both
promising students and great artists out there who haven’t—” She yelped when
Allan cupped the back of her head and pulled her down. “Wait I’m not—” The rest
of her words were stopped by his lips, and the kiss evaporated every thought
she had running around in her head.

His lips were hard and oh so sweet. She could feel the
tingles rush down her back to the tips of her toes as he made love to her
mouth. She sighed, leaning into the kiss. She whined when he ended the kiss.

“I’d love to continue this, but we have our baby in
the room,” he brushed his thumb on her lower lip and she pulled it into her
mouth, including his thumb.

He let out a shuddering breath and pulled his thumb
out of her mouth, moving a few inches away from her. “Your rambling still turns
me on.”

Riana sighed flopping down onto the bed. “I would
suggest putting Aurora in Loraine’s bed…”

“…but you know I want to hold my daughter for the
night.”

She sighed with disappointment again. “Exactly.”

Allan chuckled, clearly laughing at her. He gathered
her closer to him and kissed her forehead. “I love you,” he pressed another
kiss, “My heart,” kiss, “my soul mate,” kiss, “my life,” kiss, “and soon…my
wife.”

Riana froze, replaying his words in her head. “Did you
just…did you just propose to me!”

“
Ssh
, you’ll wake Aurora,” he chuckled. “And when I do
propose, you’ll know.”

Riana turned in his arm and leaned up to kiss his
lips. “You are really bossy, you know that.”

“I know. Now
come here. I want to hold my family in my arms all night.”

Riana settled on his shoulder, weaving her fingers with his on Aurora’s
back. It felt wonderful just laying together, just the three of them. This was
her family…she rested her free hand discreetly on her belly…and maybe, just
maybe, they’d already added one more member to their family.

*THE END*

About the Author

Christina OW

loves reading novels that take her on
a ride of wild emotions. Books have always been an escape for her, for a few
hours she gets to live the lives of characters she grows to cherish and admire.
She's always had an active imagination and because of it has lived in her head
more than she has been in the outside world. She always imagined scenarios and
wondered how they would turn out in the end, and what kind of emotions they
would invoke. Thus began her writing career.
Besides her twin sister, her
pajamas

are her best friend. She'd rather curl
up on the couch with a good book than join the night life. Raised by a selfless
mother who put up with the twins playing pranks all the time, Christina feels
she owes her mother a lot and strives to make her proud every day. To find out
more about Christina, please visit her website, blog, or follow the links
below.