At what point she started dreaming, she later had no clear idea. In her dream she was running down the steps of the castle the night of the crash and she was doing it over and over again. Ol y was behind her, tel ing her he would run her home, and then without the slightest warning the picture in her head changed and her mother erupted into Ol y"s lecture about Ava"s provocative erupted into Ol y"s lecture about Ava"s provocative behaviour with Vito.
"I"l drive!" Gemma proclaimed, ignoring Ol y before tel ing him that she was perfectly capable of driving them al home and refused to be driven by a teenager.
As the argument got more heated voices were raised.
Ava shouted across the bonnet of the car that Gemma wasn"t al owed to drive when she had been drinking and her mother took that as a chal enge, thrusting Ol y furiously out of her path and jumping into the car to rev the engine like a boy racer. Ava leant across Gemma to try and steal the car keys and the car skidded with squealing tyres on the drive while Ol y tried to reason with the older woman and persuade her to stop. The car careened through the gates at the foot of the drive onto the road with Ava screaming at her mother to stop while Ol y urged everyone to be calm and think about what they were doing. And a split second later, it seemed, Ava saw the tree trunk looming up through the windscreen, heard Ol y cry out her name ... and then everything just blanked out.
Ava woke up with a frantic start, her heart hammering, anguish enclosing her like a su ocating coc.o.o.n as she realised that she had relived the accident.
She was disconcerted to discover that the light was on and Vito, naked but for a pair of jeans, was on his knees beside her. "You were dreaming and you let out a shriek that would have wakened the dead!" he exclaimed.
that would have wakened the dead!" he exclaimed.
But it would never wake Ol y, Ava thought foolishly, a sob catching in her throat as she hugged her knees and rocked back and forth. "I relived the crash ... I remember what happened but why now? Why couldn"t I remember before?"
"Why would you have wanted to remember it when you thought you were guilty? Was your mother driving?"
Ava nodded jerkily and told him what she had recal ed, trembling as she spoke, the images so fresh and frightening she almost felt as though she were trapped back in that car again. In silence, Vito held her close. "I didn"t want you to relive that," he confessed. "I didn"t real y think al this through when I listened to what Greg James had to tel me. I saw what I thought was the chance to x it al for you and I went and saw David Lloyd and your solicitor and your father to check out al the facts." His strong pro le was tense. "I was very pleased with myself."
"Yes," Ava whispered shakily, glad the tears had stopped, relaxing back into the warmth and security of his arms.
"And then I saw your face this morning and I ... I hadn"t a clue how to make it bet er for you," Vito admit ed grudgingly, his frustration over that fact palpable. "It was only then I saw that you were devastated that your mother could have stood by and hurt you like that."
hurt you like that."
"She watched me take her punishment and she never breathed a word," Ava conceded strickenly. "Even if she gave way to an impulse to let me take the blame for the crash, she could have thought bet er of it. She could have made a statement to the police once she realised how il she was ... but even then she didn"t think bet er of what she had done."
"Let it go. That crash has already ruled your life for far too long," Vito murmured tautly as he released her and sprang of the bed.
"You weren"t sleeping in here with me," Ava registered with a frown. "In fact I thought you weren"t coming back tonight."
"I thought bet er of that but I returned very late and I didn"t want to disturb you, cara mia."
"So where are you going now?"
"I left some stu in my room. I a.s.sumed you"d stil be up when I got back," Vito admit ed, compressing his lips.
A lit le less tense, Ava rested back against the pil ows.
She pushed the jagged images of the crash back out of her mind, stil shaken that those mislaid memories had nal y broken through to the surface. Her mother had been driving, not her. A sense of relief nal y owed through her but she felt guilty about it, as if somewhere in her mind she stil couldn"t quite believe that she was ent.i.tled to feel that way.
Vito strode back from the door, stil bare-chested, his Vito strode back from the door, stil bare-chested, his remarkable abs exing as he set led the items he carried down on the bed in front of her, for al the world like a caveman dragging a dead deer into the cave for his woman.
"Er ... you went shopping?" Ava prompted in astonishment, lifting the wilting red roses. "You should"ve put these in water to keep them fresh."
"I haven"t physical y bought owers before," Vito grit ed. "I usual y order them on the phone to be delivered."
"That does cut out the practical aspect," Ava conceded in an understanding tone, pleased he had chosen her owers personal y. "n.o.body"s ever given me owers before. They"re lovely."
"If they weren"t half dead already," Vito quipped, set ling the box of chocolates on her lap.
Ava wasted no time in opening the chocolates while covertly eying the third and final package.
"I"m sorry I didn"t appreciate how you would feel about what your mother did to you," Vito volunteered. "I couldn"t see the wood for the trees."
"You always think you can x things." Ava comfort ate a couple of chocolates and o ered them to him before reaching for the nal box. It was very light and she peeled o the wrapping and extracted a bubble-wrapped bauble. "My goodness, it"s a tree ornament," she said, astonished at him having purchased such a festive said, astonished at him having purchased such a festive item.
The hand-decorated bauble twinkled in the light. It was marked with the year. "Is the date signi cant?" she asked.
"Dio mio, of course it is. It"s the year you brought Christmas back to life at Bolderwood. The castle looks fantastic," Vito informed her, sliding lithely into bed beside her. "Do you like it?"
"I love it," she confessed, ensnared by smouldering dark golden eyes and registering that comfort s.e.x was as much on of er as comfort eating.
He removed the tree ornament from her hand and set the chocolates down. But Ava evaded him by scrambling out of bed with the roses. "I"m just going to soak these in the basin!" she told him, hurrying into the bathroom.
"They"re half dead!" Vito growled. "I"l buy you more tomorrow."
Ava ran water into the washbasin and caressed a silky petal with an appreciative nger. They were stil the very rst owers he"d ever given her and in her opinion, worthy of conservation.
"Thanks for the pressies," she told him, climbing back into bed. "I wish I"d got something for you."
"You"re my present," Vito proclaimed, circling her soft mouth and then ravishing her generous lips with his own with a hunger that made her every sense sizzle with reaction and joy. "But there"s one more I"d like to give reaction and joy. "But there"s one more I"d like to give you first. It"s downstairs below the tree."
"Oh ... downstairs," Ava responded without enthusiasm, her at ention locked to his wide sensual mouth and only slowly skimming up to meet his smouldering dark golden gaze.
"I want you to open it."
"Now?" Ava pressed in disbelief. "It"s two o"clock in the morning and it"s the party tomorrow!"
Vito vaulted o the bed and extended the silk wrap he had bought for her. "It"s important, bel a mia," he urged.
With a sigh, Ava got up and slid her arms into the sleeves. "You can be very demanding."
"It"s not a deal-breaker, is it?" Vito studied her with his shrewd gaze, his innate cunning never more obvious to her and she ushed, wondering how much he had guessed about how she felt about him.
"You let Harvey into your bedroom," she registered, hearing the dog whining behind the door at the sound of their voices and let ing him out.
Vito seized the opportunity to grab a shirt and put it on. "He cried at the door."
They descended the stairs, where the dying re in the grate was ickering enormous eerie shadows over the wal s and the decorations. Ava bent down and switched on the sparkling tree lights before spying the large gift-wrapped box below the huge tree. "What on earth is it?"
wrapped box below the huge tree. "What on earth is it?"
"Your Christmas present."
"But I wasn"t going to be here at Christmas!" Ava protested.
"I wouldn"t have let you go," Vito countered stubbornly.
"I was planning to leave the morning after the party,"
she reminded him.
His handsome mouth quirked. "The best-laid plans ..."
he said.
Ava hauled out the box and began to rip the shimmering golden wrapping paper o it, only to expose another di erently wrapped box inside. "What is this? Pa.s.s the parcel?" she teased in surprise.
The pile of discarded wrapping grew larger as the boxes got smal er until nal y Ava emerged with one tiny box and paled. "What is it?"
Vito dropped down on one knee in front of her and asked level y, "Wil you marry me?"
Ava sucked in air like a drowning swimmer and stared at him with bright blue eyes l ed with astonishment.
Shock was snaking through her in dizzy waves. "Where did this idea come from? Are you insane?"
"That"s not how you"re supposed to respond to a proposal!" Vito p.r.o.nounced, springing back upright again to gaze down at her with a frown.
Ava opened the box and stared at the gorgeous Ava opened the box and stared at the gorgeous diamond ring inside, the jewels of which shone with blinding bril iance when the ickering tree lights caught them. She blinked, her throat closing over al tight. "You don"t mean this ... you"re not thinking about what you"re doing. You know you don"t want a wife. You know you think that if you get married your wife wil divorce you and take your castle and your kids and at least half your money-"
"It"s a risk I"m prepared to take to have you in my life,"
Vito admit ed tautly.
Ava looked up at him with drowning eyes. "You know, I think that"s probably the nicest thing you ever said to me but I can"t marry you. You"re only asking me because you know that I wasn"t driving that night, after al ," she condemned painful y. "And that wouldn"t feel right."
"I bought the ring the day before Greg James phoned me," Vito traded. "And I can prove it."
"Before?" Ava pressed, startled by the claim. "But I thought you couldn"t forgive me?"
"And I thought it too until I tried to imagine my life without you," Vito admit ed, crouching down so that they were on the same level, his eyes l ed with grave honesty as they met hers. "The forgiveness was there al along. I just didn"t realise that I"d already achieved it. We both loved Ol y. He loved you and I love you as wel . It"s a link we wil never lose."
"You love me?" Ava gasped, suddenly out of breath as "You love me?" Ava gasped, suddenly out of breath as her heart began to hammer inside her chest.
"Why else do you think I"m asking you to marry me?"
Vito demanded with some impatience. "I didn"t think I would ever fal for anyone but I started fal ing for you the moment you came back into my life."
"Oh ..." Ava said again, sharply disconcerted. "I love you too but I thought this was just a casual af air?"
"That was my fault. I"m so used to laying down limits and then you came along and washed them al away.
Very quickly, I just wanted you, amata mia." Vito reached for her hand, tugged the ring from the box and threaded it onto her engagement nger. "And tomorrow, when you"re acting as hostess at the party, I want that ring on your nger so that everyone appreciates that you"re the woman I intend to marry."
Ava looked down at the ring sparkling on her nger in wonderment and then back at him to take in the tenderness in his gaze with a leaping joyful sense of recognition. "You real y do love me ... even though I"m hard work?"
"You made me think, you made me try to be something more than I was. No woman ever a ected me that way before," Vito con ded. "You"re not hard work ...
you"re the best thing that ever happened to me. Only one thing about you bothers me ..."
Concern a.s.sailed Ava. "What?"
"You don"t con de in me. You spent three years in "You don"t con de in me. You spent three years in prison and you never ever talk about it."
"It"s not something you want to accidental y refer to in the wrong company. It was a di erent world with its own set of rules," Ava told him uncomfortably. "I had some very low moments in prison. I was scared a lot of the time. I got bul ied for having a posh accent. I was strip-searched once because my cel mate was caught with drugs. At the beginning I was on suicide watch under constant surveil ance for weeks-"
Troubled, Vito gripped her hand. "You were suicidal?"
"No, I never was. Unfortunately the psychologist thought I was more at risk. But I was down because I got a six-year sentence for drunk driving. I had no visitors, nothing to do, it took me a long time to adapt and learn how to keep myself occupied."
"How did you adapt?"
She told him about the reading and writing programme she had eventual y partic.i.p.ated in and how feeling useful had lifted her mood. The move to an open prison where she had fewer restrictions had also provided a tremendous boost.
"When my parole was granted, when I knew I was get ing out, I decided to put the whole experience behind me," she admit ed. "I didn"t want it colouring my life for ever. I just wanted to forget it ... can you understand that? Remembering those years just made me feel bad about myself."
feel bad about myself."
"I do understand," Vito murmured tautly, closing his hand over hers in rea.s.surance.
Ava shivered. "It"s cold. Let"s go back to bed."
Vito bent down and scooped her up in his arms.
"You can"t carry me up the stairs!" Ava told him.
But he did, although he was noticeably relieved to set le her down on the bed again.
Ava dealt him a teasing smile. "You"re wrecked. You"l not be fit for anything now."
Vito laughed appreciatively as he unzipped his jeans.
"Dio mio, I love you! Do you realise I"ve never said those words to anyone before?"
"Not even when you were a teenager?"
"I was a very cynical teenager. Watching my father screw up after my mother left him made a big impression on me. My father thought he was in love with every new woman who came into his life and then, ve minutes later, it would al be over again," he explained with a curled lip. "I didn"t think I had what it took to fal in love and then you came along and lit up everything for me like the sun on a dul day."
"You do realise that marrying me wil commit you to celebrating Christmas every year?" Ava warned him.
"I"l share it with you. I"l always remember that Christmas rst brought us together. We"l make new memories. I feel I can be myself with you."
memories. I feel I can be myself with you."
"Domineering, arrogant, impatient, stubborn," Ava slot ed in, spreading her ngers across his hair-roughened chest and gazing into black-fringed dark golden eyes that made her heart quicken its pace. "But I do love you very very much. You are also generous and kind and surprisingly thoughtful."
Vito lifted his tousled dark head in apparent wonderment. "Is that a compliment from you?"