“Ah no I didn’t but you see Italy follows us to all corners of the earth. Emma...we must talk about Italy ...”

  “Not now Carlo, not now let’s not spoil this magic today....these candles, the rose petals, making love whilst floating amongst the rose petals...hmm let me savour it all for now. I want to live for the moment and not think about tomorrow...I want to feel with all my senses...”

  Carlo reluctantly agreed, he could not risk another two months without her. If it was the last thing he did he would marry her and show her in a million ways how to love and how love conquer all...even hostile parents and and a psychopathic ex girlfriend. Just the thought of Antonella made him shiver; she would not manage to ruin his life again. Emma was going to be his and he would one day hold in his arms a little miniature version of her...his face softened just thinking of a little cherub face looking up at him...yes they would one day have children and one day they would be a family.

  “Carlo what are you thinking of you have this gooey look about you!!”

  Carlo blushed “I was thinking of one day holding a little daughter just like you...her looking up at me with your eyes.”

  “I didn’t think men got broody”

  “Neither did I...but you know I love you and you know I want to marry you and you and I know you feel the same....you haven’t changed your mind have you?”

  “No...Carlo, you know I love you...I just cannot cope with your family and your ex girlfriend...Antonella. Unless something changes I cannot see us being happy together in Italy and I want to work. If I was in Italy with this present climate I would never get a job and I would shrivel up if I had to just be a housewife and a mother. If I give you a treat...I want to pay for it myself. If I take you out for a surprise meal or a romantic holiday or a special meal at home...I don’t want it to come from your money, I want to be independent. Also heaven forbid, if anything went wrong, I could slide back into my old life again...and be independent. I would grow to hate you if you took away my independence or if I was forced to put up with your family or psychopathic Antonella forever. I didn’t feel welcome....I didn’t feel accepted...I felt like an intruder....I don’t think I want that forever.”

  “When you come back from India, will you just stay with me for a few days and try and see if it is alright again? You will not see Antonella again...but you would meet my family again...would you do this for me Emma...give me a second chance...what we have together is too precious not to try and give it a go.”

  Emma nodded, “I will try and if it is still impossible, we must look at living away from Italy otherwise we...”

  “There will be no otherwise”

  Chapter Five

  The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.

  Audrey Hepburn

  6 weeks later...

  “Ladies and Gentlemen will you please fasten your seatbelts for our decent to Heathrow Airport, the outside temperature is now two degrees Celsius...”

  Georgina and Emma cringed as they fastened their safety belts, after three months in India, learning about Ayurveda and writing articles and filming for a TV documentary series about modern and ancient India the cold wet welcome was not what they wanted to hear.

  “Do you think they will be waiting for us?” Georgina asked

  “I don’t know, it is Thursday, perhaps they are at work and cannot take any more time off, and they have only been back in Rome for a month.”

  “Well, I hope they don’t come today because we need to get back into the swing of things and the flat will be freezing. There will be no food; the place will need to be aired too!!”

  Emma pointed to the two men they had just hoped would not be there. They were grinning holding up a huge notice saying “Welcome home!”

  “Whoops...speak of the devil” Georgina muttered.

  They rushed over and hugged each other. It seemed like a year rather than a month ago that the four of them had enjoyed the pampering and amenities of the Maharani Suite. Emma blushed remembering the wicked Couple Therapy room and the way they had made use of the “Bath Menu” she would recommend it to anyone on their Honeymoon even if it were only for a few days. Bliss!

  Carlo grinned at her, bending forward and whispering in her ear, “Do you remember our last day together? I can still feel your lips on my body and still smell that bath! Decadent...awesome...kinky...erotic...are just a few of the words which come to mind!! But come, Fabio and I have been home and we have turned on the heating prepared supper, stocked up the fridge, aired the place got a cleaner in to make it ok after being closed up for so long....there is wine in the fridge, your favourite Italian wine....Glicine. Fabio, was dying to see Georgina again...looks like they could be serious, I hope so because I love that girl, ever since she promoted me!!”

  “How long are you both here for?” Emma asked him

  “We have to go back on Tuesday, I fear we will lose our job if we stay any longer, mind you I don’t mind being filmed with you in a bath again! Or watching them filming you do yoga or having Ayurveda treatments or watching them prepare the wonderful food!”

  “Hmm imagine being paid a fortune to miss most of the horrible English winter!”

  “And being paid to have a bath with your lover!! Well, let’s hope I am more than just your lover!”

  “Hmm as a Latin Lover you are not bad!!”

  Carlo burst out laughing, “Not bad....you were crying for more! No make that almost screaming!”

  Emma waved her expressive eyes heavenwards and sighed “Men!!”

  “Cara, just you wait until we get home and I can show you and make you retract that, you will be begging me for more!!”

  “You sound very sure of yourself!”

  “I am, because you are coming to see me in Rome next week and I am going to show you “Carlo’s Rome!” you will fall in love with it and you will marry me tomorrow and I will have my little daughter in my arms looking up at me with unconditional love!”

  “Carlo, what happens if we can’t have children? You talk of having them as if it is a foregone conclusion...what would happen if we don’t have them or can’t have them...then your parents would blame me and an already difficult relationship will become impossible.”

  Carlo hugged her tightly “I love you Emma and only you, I loved you since the first day we met. Neither of us knows what the future will bring, but we do know we love each other and we should give our love a chance.”

  “Sometimes I am worried about being too happy! Carlo I promise I will try with your family...I may not be able to succeed but I will try.”

  “I am sure they will love you, my family will want my happiness and my happiness is with you...I want them to understand that I need you like I need air to breathe. I love you with all my soul...” he looked into her eyes and she saw he spoke the truth, love radiated from his twinkling dark eyes.

  Emma smiled at him, “Ok let’s give them a final chance....Carlo as I said before I love my job and if I go to Italy I am going to be unemployed and completely reliant on you...I don’t want that. I want to be able to be independent and to be my own person. I would end up being bored and fed up and we would regret it. Love is not enough sometimes. I do love you but I am not sure that love on its own is enough to make a relationship endure with time.”

  “I disagree with you but you will agree it is a basis for the future and without it...a marriage cannot survive”

  “Yes I do agree with you...let’s give it another go.”

  Carlo wrapped his arms around her pulling her gently towards him to be enveloped in his arms, he bent down his head to claim her soft mouth in a kiss, he felt the muscles between his legs contract and take on a life of their own...longing for fulfilment. Her fingers caressed the back of his head playing with his thick, dark hair. working their way down his back resting on his backside pulling him closer as she rubbed her hips against his tautness. He lifted her and carried her to her room. Supper would wait. He lit the candles around the room and lit the essential oil burner a waft of Ylang Ylang and cardamom filled the candlelit room, he lowered himself on the mattress and began to remove her clothes slowly, kissing as he removed her clothes then concentrating on getting rid of his own his eyes never leaving hers as if he was afraid of losing her if he looked away. She took one of his nipples into her mouth and teased it with her tongue before moving to the other side and giving it the same treatment. He writhed under her moaning with pleasure, lower and lower she teased and tasted with inquisitive mouth. Finally she took him between her hands tasting his hard smooth tip, she took him into her mouth teasing and licking him until he nearly lost his sanity with desire, oh god if she didn’t stop he would come here and now before he had even begun on her!! His body became her slave writhing to get closer and wanting to plunge deeper into her mouth.

  “I want to come inside you Emma...I need to feel you around me, but now it is my turn...”

  He took her ripe nipple in her mouth nibbling her, she moaned in appreciation, trying to get closer, his hand massaged and teased her core, moving to insert first one finger then another massaging her with his thumb until she became delirious with desire, he shifted to allow himself to enter her, her muscles inside tightened around him then relaxed massaging him inside. He nearly died of pleasure. Hell, where did she learn how to do that, she hadn’t done that before, had someone else taught her this new trick in India, when he had left her with Georgina? The playing of muscles around him made him lose control; they both came together shouting each other’s names.

  They collapsed hugging each other too spent to manage anything else. Slowly he came back to the present moment; he brushed a lock of hair from her face. Oh how I love this girl...he felt his groin come back to life. She had this effect on him! He needed her. She was in his soul. He hugged her close again, breathing in the smell of roses in her hair.

  “Emma, where did you learn that trick? I felt...it was awesome!”

  Emma smiled, running her hands through his hair. “Ah yoga teaches you the most amazing muscle control, you have no idea!”

  “Well....I am beginning to like yoga!! I thought it was mumbo jumbo, but if you can do that to me....hey I love it! I thought it was for a load of new aged hippies...but you two are definitely not that!!”

  Emma laughed, trying to visualise Georgina in the role of new aged hippy and failed miserably.

  CHAPTER SIX

  I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

  Martin Luther King, Jr

  Carlo’s parents met them at Fiumicino, the main Rome Airport. Carlo had impressed upon them that if they wanted him to continue to live in Italy they would have to accept that he had fallen in love with an English girl with a radiant smile, sea green eyes and streaked strawberry blond hair…even her intimate hair…Oh Carlo please do not think of that now…your love is here in Italy and your parents can make the weekend finish with an official engagement or finish with heartbreak. Please let some divine intervention make sure that it finishes with happiness and promises of a fulfilling future.

  Emma shyly kissed both his parents on each cheek, as was the custom in Italy. She had chosen to wear an emerald skater skirt and cashmere jersey. The colour complimented her eyes; she still had a golden tan from her recent months in India. She wore high heels to give the outfit a more formal “look”. Her makeup consisted of mascara and coral coloured lipstick; she did not want to look too loud or too tarty.

  Carlo’s father kissed her on both cheeks and smiled warmly at her “Sei bellissima! Cara welcome to Rome. We have many things to do this weekend, my son has a programme fit for a Queen!”

  Emma blushed and thanked him. “Grazie!”

  Carlo’s mother reluctantly kissed her cheeks and gave a quick glance at her son. Carlo glared at her; willing her to welcome the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

  “Non parlo inglese. I hope you speak some Italian if you are to be part of our family and live in Rome. My son tells me you have been making a film in India with your friend, this is not a suitable job for a person who is devoted to her man. A man will wonder off if his wife gallivants around the world without him. Carlo is a very clever boy and what he earns is enough for you whilst you set up home for him and look after him as I have!”

  Emma shot Carlo a helpless look; he glared at his mother. This was not going as well as he had hoped it would go as he had told them he wanted to marry Emma with or without their blessing...he would have preferred with their blessing.

  Carlo’s father cleared his throat and glared at his wife, “Flavia, will you conduct yourself like a grown up woman, instead of a jealous fish wife. You have been a housewife all your life, shopping and seeing your friends, a maid cleans and a maid cooks you just turn up for the meals if you are not busy shopping or chatting with your friends. This girl as far as I understand has a very good job. She is well paid and she does not want to sit and darn socks yet! If you really love your son you will welcome Emma with the warmth and respect I would hope our son would be welcomed by her family. I will not stand for this selfishness anymore. It was you who insisted on Antonella being the right person for our son...I see instead he has chosen with his heart and his head. I give him my blessing.”

  Flavia almost snorted with rage at being put down in front of a stranger and her own son...HER SON. She had nurtured him and loved him all his life and instead Antonio made her seem like a feckless female. She liked seeing her friends and why slave at home if there was some needy woman dying to cook and clean for her family? She just could not see the sense of it. Shopping was so much more fun. Antonio had been a good husband providing for them as a man should. It was not good for a woman to be a career person the family would suffer. She did have her doubts that he was faithful and she did enjoy the odd younger man, they added a bit of spark to her life when she needed something other than the comfy sex after nearly thirty years of marriage. So long as one was discreet and did not impinge on the family time or values...values the girl was probably not even Catholic! She shuddered. This girl was not going to be manipulated by her or go shopping with her or sit for hours in a hairdresser’s with her...she cringed at the very thought!

  “We can talk about this later, but I would like to welcome you to Rome and I hope you have a very nice weekend.” She could not bring herself to say anymore.

  Emma forced a smile, this weekend was for Carlo and he could not be blamed for this woman. “Thank you. I am happy to see Carlo’s Rome. My family lived here. My father was Naval Attaché and my godfather Commandant of NATO, I have lived in this beautiful city as an expat not as a native, I long to see Carlo’s Rome as he has seen my London. We lived in very salubrious districts in Rome. I was a very lucky girl. I don’t know your area at all it was too far out for us” she unwittingly made another notch against herself. “Sorry that came out wrong! I mean they all live in the centre or out on the Via Appia Pignatelli.”

  If Flavia could have wiped her off the face of the universe she would have done it happily. This person had lived in the most sort after areas of Rome and she was so casual about it!

  **** **** **** **** ****

  Carlo led Emma through the narrow, winding, cobbled streets, the smell of coffee caressed her nostrils, this is Rome. How I love Rome! The smell of coffee and pizza, the chaos, the traffic and the smart shops all vying for the place in the Eternal City. Famous monuments next to Mac Donald’s it never failed to amaze her that if you were so inclined you could eat a hamburger in front of the Pantheon, who had allowed that to happen?

  Rome is a city that has to be seen on foot or on a moped. In a car you miss the smell of Rome and you are so worried about not bumping into the car in front you cannot drink in the beauty of the city. Emma sighed, she loved this city, but what made it different from the other times was the man showing her his city so proudly.

  “Where are you going to take me to lunch I am starving!! We have been walking for 4 hours and my tummy is rumbling!”

  “I am going to take you to one of my favourite restaurants in Rome. It is La Campana, which is one of the most historic places in Rome. It is classic and understated, but the food and the wine are divine. I like the artichokes carciofi alla giudea. I want to show you that Roman cuisine is not just offal and pasta!! Besides we are nearly there!!”

  “Yummy!!” she leaned into his chest and breathed in the happiness she felt in this moment.

  “Emma, please don’t I have a very low thresh hold with you...I want you. I love you and I want you to be my wife!”

  “Let’s see how it goes, I love you too and I want to be with you forever, but wanting and happening are two different things. Your mother doesn’t want me. I am going to leave the people who mean something to me...my family, my friends and my job, I want support here too.”

  They arrived at the restaurant and were immediately led to a table. Little aperitivo bits started arriving. This was going to be a long lunch!!

  Emma loved this about Italy! Food was important! Just as she was slipping into the food paradise, her phone squealed at her, OMG I hope nothing has happened at home, she looked at Georgina’s number...Oh God I hope it isn’t anything serious.

  Georgina squealed at her on the other end of the phone...she was engaged with Fabio. Emma shrieked with delight. Everyone in the restaurant looked at her as if she were mad, she blushed furiously.

  “Georgina and Fabio have just got engaged.” She said lamely

  “Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?” Carlo asked her

  “Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!” She jumped up and kissed him. “I love you! We could have a double wedding!!”

  Carlo lept up and hugged her

  “Yahoo!! Finally!! Oh my God!!” He did a little dance round the table. He was going to get married and they were going to live happily ever after. After months of trying to convince her it had taken that gorgeous Georgina to persuade her in just a few minutes on a cell phone, who would have thought that cell phones were so important...your very existence could depend on a microchip!

 

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