Page 70 of His Housekeeper's Twin Baby Confession
‘Doyouknow? That’s what’s important here.’
‘I’m no one special. I’m just your housekeeper.’
Massimo shook his head. ‘You are the woman who has humbled me. No one else ever managed that because no one else ever interested me enough. I never wanted another woman beyond one night, and that made me arrogant...complacent. I thought I was in control. Then you came along and I realised I’d been fooling myself. I just hadn’t met you.’
Carrie came out from behind the chair and took a small box out of her jeans pocket. She came over to stand in front of him. Her hands were trembling.
She opened the box to reveal a thick gold band. She looked up at him and said, in a voice full of emotion, ‘Massimo Black... Linden... Earl, Lord, all that you are, will you please marry me?’
Massimo was in shock. Emotions were rushing through him, filling him and breaking him wide open. He shook his head faintly, ‘None of that matters, and yes, I’ll marry you but on one condition.’
‘What’s that?’
‘That you love me too. I want everything, Carrie. Your heart and soul and body and mind. And our babies.’
Carrie’s eyes filled with tears. She smiled, and it was wobbly. ‘You have me—heart, soul, body and mind. I love you, Massimo, and I’ve known it for so long. I was too afraid to admit it, because I knew that once I did I’d have no control over what happened... I was terrified to think that I’d repeat the mistakes of the past. I was afraid I’d be handing you power over me... It was all tangled up... I didn’t want to be weak again.’
Massimo cupped her cheek with his hand. ‘You were abused by a master manipulator, Carrie, and you paid the highest price. You were never weak and you arenotweak. You’re the strongest person I know.’
Massimo bent his head and kissed Carrie so softly and with such reverence that her heart cracked open all over again. The pain of the past dissolved completely, and the hope she’d been holding back expanded and filled every inch of her being.
When he pulled back she felt dizzy. She was still holding the box. She smiled at Massimo and took the ring out of the box, took his hand in hers. ‘It’s only a placeholder until you can choose your own ring,’ she said.
‘Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?’
Carrie put the ring on his finger. It fitted perfectly. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed close. She lifted her face to his and said, ‘We have time to say all the things...but first, make love to me, Mass.’
‘Always, my love,’ he breathed—and did exactly as she asked.
Massimo never did choose another ring. A month later they were married in a discreet civil ceremony in London, with Sheila and Tom from Linden Hall as their witnesses.
EPILOGUE
Two years and three months later, Rio de Janeiro
THETWOSMALLbodies were sprawled side by side on the sunbed under the shade. They had just turned two the day before. They were sturdy and mischievous and demons and angels all at once. They both had dark hair, but Ricardo’s eyes took after Carrie’s, greenish hazel, and Frida’s were dark, like her father’s. And for a short time, blessedly, they were asleep.
Sheila and Tom had come with them to help look after the babies and to have a holiday. They’d become much beloved adoptive grandparents to the twins, and were now off on a tour for a couple of days.
Massimo and Carrie had kept Ricardo’s penthouse apartment down on the beach for themselves, as a secret bolthole, but they’d bought a more practical villa-style house in a leafy suburb of Rio for the family.
Carrie sighed contentedly and settled back into Massimo’s embrace on their own lounger. His arms were wrapped around her, their legs entwined.
She could feel the rumble of his chest against her back when he said, ‘You never did tell me why you wanted to call our daughter Frida.’
Carrie turned so that she was looking up at him. She traced the lines of his face with a finger. Love for this man filled her entire being. For everything he’d shown her about what love really was. Empowering and unselfish and amazing.
She’d grown into herself in a way that still made her emotional, fully stepping into her power and her confidence. There were no dark corners any more, and if there were they worked through them together.
‘I love you,’ she said simply, the words flowing out easily.
Massimo took her hand and lifted it, kissing her palm. ‘I love you too... Now tell me why you wanted to call our daughter Frida.’
Carrie smiled. It was one of the last secrets she’d kept from him... ‘Well, do you remember the day I proposed?’
Massimo smiled too. ‘The best day of my life? Of course.’
Carrie told him about the exhibition, and how it had opened her up and allowed her to be brave.
