Page 84 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

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After a good sleep, Rose woke feeling much better in herself. With all quiet in the adjoining nursery, she brushed her teeth and hair, and dressed quickly in a pair of denim shorts and a white vest top covered with a pretty loose-fitting cream crocheted top. Then, with equal speed, she used her phone to select enough clothes to last her a couple of weeks. Surely they wouldn’t be staying any longer than that?

It was amazing, she mused as she forwarded her choices to Diaz, how sleeping well could change a mood and perspective. The evening before she’d been a bag of nerves and over what? Diaz? She’d spent years living with all the tumultuous emotions he brought out in her without turning herself into a wreck.

All the same, she refused to add any underwear to her clothing selection. Just to imagine him browsing through it all and envisaging her wearing them was enough to make her stomach churn and her skin tingle. She’d rather go knicker-less.

All her mental bravado nearly came apart at the seams when she pushed the adjoining door open and found Diaz already there.

In the process of lifting Amelia out of the cot, he was dressed in a tailored pinstripe suit that subtly accentuated the length and muscularity of his body, and, from the scent emanating from him, freshly showered and shaved.

When his gorgeous stare turned to her, the thumps of her heart became a thrum as her pulses soared.

‘Buenos dias,’he said, his eyes narrowing slightly as he took her in. ‘You are looking well.’

Relieved one of the nannies was already in there too, Rose took Josie from her and, refusing to let herself return to the bag of nerves she’d been the night before, managed a tight smile at the man who’d made her a bag of nerves. ‘Thanks… You’re going out?’

‘I have back-to-back meetings in Madrid over the next couple of days.’

She’d never known it was possible for relief and disappointment to rush through a person at the same time.

Disappointment?Why on earth would she feel that? she thought fretfully. She should be dancing a conga.

Thankful he was too busy tapping Amelia’s nose to spot either emotion on her face, she pithily said, ‘Just as well I didn’t take you up on your shopping offer.’

His shoulder lifted nonchalantly. ‘I would have rescheduled if that had been the case.’

‘No rescheduling needed. I’ve emailed you the clothes I want.’

‘Bueno.I will ensure they are delivered by tomorrow.’

‘Thanks. I ordered enough to keep me going for a couple of weeks. I don’t imagine we’ll be staying here any longer than that, will we?’

‘Did you remember to select a cocktail dress?’

‘I did…’

‘Great.’ He expertly looked at his watch without loosening his hold on their daughter, who was starting to wriggle. ‘I need to go.’

In a flash, he’d kissed Amelia’s forehead and passed her to the nanny, then crossed the divide Rose had deliberately created between them to engulf her all over again in his delicious scent as he bent his head to kiss Josie’s cheek.

Only then did his gaze rest fully on Rose.

The instant their eyes locked, the air shifted.

For one breathless moment she thought he was going to kiss her too.

* * *

On Rose’s fourth morning in Diaz’s villa, she stretched her waking body and realised she felt fully refreshed for the first time since about six months into the pregnancy. Yawning to shake off the last vestiges of sleep, she padded to the adjoining door and checked on her babies. Both opened their eyes when she leaned over the cot and gave the identical gappy smiles that never failed to melt her heart.

After changing and feeding them, Rose called the on-shift nannies in and asked them to watch the girls while she took a shower. She was determined the four nannies Diaz had employed would be the most underused nannies in existence but, standing under the powerful spray of water, had to admit that having all the time in the world to shower was bliss.

Teeth brushed, and wrapped in a huge, fluffy white towel, she checked again on the girls and smiled to find them on their backs on a giant stimulation mat, swiping at the toys dangling in an arch over them, the nannies on the floor beside them.

‘I’m just going to get dressed,’ she murmured, reversing back into her own room. The dressing table drawers she’d shoved the few items of clothing she’d brought with her were empty, and she remembered Diaz’s butler mentioning the day before, just before she’d set off for a late afternoon stroll along the beach with the girls in their plush double pushchair, that her clothes delivery was due at any moment and would be unpacked in her dressing room for her. Still delighting in making up for all her missed sleep, she’d gone straight to bed without bothering to check.

The one time she’d had a quick nose in her dressing room she’d idly thought that if she’d brought the entirety of her wardrobe with her it would only have filled a tenth of the available space. The last thing she expected to find when she opened the first fitted cupboard was a vast array of dresses hanging in it.

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