CHAPTER TWELVE
‘MICHAEL...?’ EVA’S EYES opened wide as she didn’t even attempt to hide her surprise, after opening the door to her flat to find him standing outside in the hallway of the slightly shabby Victorian building she had lived in for the past three years.
It had been four days since she had left Paris—and Michael—and flown back to England with the twins. Four very long and oppressive days, when she had missed Michael as much, if not more, than she had dreaded hearing from Pierre Dupont again, in regard to the twins’ future.
So far there had been complete silence from Pierre, lulling Eva into—what she was sure was a false hope!—thinking that maybe he had decided not to do anything about them, that things could just continue the way they had been, and the twins would stay with her. Ridiculous, perhaps, but even so it was all that had kept Eva from going quietly insane.
Seeing Michael again—literally visually eating up his casual appearance in a pale blue shirt unfastened at the throat and worn beneath a black soft suede jacket, and faded denims—was more wonderful than she could ever have imagined. And she had imagined seeing Michael again a lot!
Had missed being with him beyond that imagining.
Loved him beyond imagining too...
‘Are you going to invite me inside...?’ he prompted gruffly.
‘Of course.’ Eva stepped back in order to open the door wider so that he could step into the hallway before she closed the door behind him, instantly aware of how tall and wide-shouldered—and immediate—he appeared in the narrow confines of the hallway. ‘Come through to the sitting room,’ she invited as she stepped past him to lead the way.
‘Have I arrived at nap time...?’ Michael prompted ruefully as he looked around the deserted and silent sitting room. A room that so obviously reflected the warmth of Eva’s personality, the colours an amalgam of warm russets to cream, with multicoloured cushions on the sofa and chairs, several of her own framed photographs adorning the walls.
‘How did you guess?’ She chuckled softly as she indicated he should sit down in one of those armchairs.
Michael remained standing as he turned from looking at those photographs in order to study Eva more closely, noting the deepened shadows beneath her eyes, and the fact that her face seemed thinner than ever, no doubt a sign that worry over the twins’ future had caused her to lose weight since he had last seen her. Unless... ‘Are the twins both well?’ he prompted concernedly.
‘Very much so.’ Eva lightly dispelled that worry.
‘Good.’ He nodded his satisfaction. ‘And you?’
She grimaced. ‘I’m as well as can be expected when I still haven’t heard anything from Pierre.’
Michael straightened. ‘That’s one of the reasons I’m here.’
She tensed warily. ‘It is?’
He nodded grimly. ‘Pierre has decided to give up any and all rights to the twins and allow you to formally adopt them, if that’s agreeable to you?’
Relief washed over Eva, hot tears welling in her eyes and spilling unchecked down her cheeks, her knees feeling suddenly weak and causing her to stagger blindly over to drop down heavily into one of the armchairs before she buried her face in her hands and began to sob in earnest.
‘Eva...?’
‘I’m okay.’ She waved away Michael’s concern even as she tried to mop up the worst of the tears. ‘I just— You didn’t coerce him or force him in any way, did you?’ she prompted suspiciously as she realised that maybe this solution to the problem that had kept her awake for so many nights was perhaps just too good to be true.
Michael gave a humourless smile. ‘I would have done everything in my power to do exactly that if Pierre hadn’t come to me yesterday and told me that he and his wife have spoken at length on the subject, for the last three days apparently, and that the two of them have decided to give their obviously rocky marriage another go. But not with the twins as a constant reminder of Pierre’s infidelity. Something I could have—should have—telephoned and told you yesterday,’ he added, ‘rather than wait until today so that I could come here and tell you in person.’
Eva was just too relieved at the news to care when she was told. ‘He won’t change his mind...?’ she prompted uncertainly.
‘He assures me that he won’t,’ Michael said hardly. ‘And, as I no longer require his services at any of the Archangel galleries, I’ve arranged a...change of employment for him, as another incentive for him to keep to that decision.’
‘What sort of change of employment?’ Eva prompted uncertainly.
Michael shrugged. ‘Believe it or not the world of art galleries and auction houses is a relatively small one, and Pierre is intelligent enough to know that if I chose to do so then I could ensure that he never works in another gallery again. Anywhere,’ he added grimly.
‘And that isn’t coercion?’
‘Not in the least, when I didn’t make the arrangements until after he had told me his decision regarding Sam and Sophie,’ Michael dismissed. ‘Which was when I told him that my own decision is that he will never work in an Archangel gallery ever again.’ He grimaced with distaste. ‘He saw the...practicality of my suggestion, once I’d told him that I would arrange for him to work in another gallery elsewhere. Apparently he’s always wanted to work and live in Rome, and feels that it would be better for his marriage if he and his wife were to start somewhere completely afresh. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but in the meantime I have no intention of allowing him the time to change his mind where the twins are concerned.’
‘How do you intend stopping him?’ Eva looked up at him slightly dazed, thrilled at the idea of the twins being completely hers, and so grateful to Michael for what he had done for her. For them, she reminded herself, because Michael had done this for the twins as much as for her.
‘Immediately after Pierre told me of his decision I contacted the lawyers who act for our galleries in Paris and London, instructing them to liaise on the application for the formal adoption of the twins,’ Michael revealed huskily. ‘Those papers are now waiting at the lawyers’ office in London to be signed and formally submitted.’
Eva could barely breathe, had no idea what to think, knowing that, despite all her false accusations of paternity the previous week, Michael had still done this for her and the twins.
Tears once again blurred her vision, but they were happy tears this time. The twins were going to be truly hers, so that no one, and nothing, could ever take them away from her again.
‘And you said you aren’t kind!’ she reminded teasingly through the falling of those happy tears.
‘I’m truly not,’ he denied ruefully.
‘You truly are!’
He looked at her intently. ‘And if I were to tell you that my reasons for doing any and all of those things, even being here today, are completely selfish ones...?’
Eva gave a puzzled shake of her head. ‘What could you possibly hope to gain by helping me to adopt the twins?’
The moment of truth, Michael realised. The reason he was here today. The reason he hadn’t been able to stay away a moment longer...
His Parisian apartment had been every bit as much like a morgue as Michael had expected it would be after Eva’s departure: silent, cold, and empty. So empty.
He had filled his days with work at the gallery, of course, but each evening he had returned to his apartment, knowing that Eva wouldn’t be there, that the twins wouldn’t be there. And he had hated it. Every damned moment of it.
He had felt as if he were truly damned and bereft without Eva’s sunny personality and warmth to come home to, without the twins’ antics to laugh about with her.
And he couldn’t stand the distance yawning between them another moment longer, so moved down on his haunches beside Eva’s chair before taking one of her hands in his. ‘Eva—’ He broke off, his voice very hoarse as his fingers lightly caressed hers. ‘There’s one detail on the adoption application that hasn’t been filled in yet.’
‘Oh?’ Her expression became wary again.
‘Nothing for you to worry about,’ he assured firmly. ‘I just—I wanted—Eva, you misunderstood me the other evening!’
And warier still... ‘About what?’ she prompted distantly.
Michael released her hand to stand up restlessly. ‘I didn’t—I wasn’t—’ Damn it, this indecisiveness wasn’t like him! ‘The reason for my concern, about our not having used contraception that night, was for your benefit, not mine,’ he bit out forcefully. ‘You already have the twins, and they’re so young still, and I thought an unexpected pregnancy of your own would be a very bad idea right now.’
Her cheeks were flushed a fiery red, her gaze no longer meeting his. ‘You’re right, a very bad idea. For you as well as me. Which is why—why I quickly assured you that you had no need to worry about it—’
‘I told you, I’m not worried on my own account, Eva,’ he insisted fiercely. ‘We could have another set of twins immediately for all I care. Three sets! We would cope. I just—’ He thrust his hands into the pockets of his denims. ‘I didn’t—I don’t want it to happen like that for you. For us,’ he added huskily.
Questioningly, it seemed to Eva, almost afraid to hope, and yet knowing that hope was growing, building inside her, nonetheless.
She swallowed before speaking. ‘I don’t understand...’
Michael drew in a harsh breath. ‘There’s something I need to tell you, and ask you in a moment, but first I want to explain about something that happened to me fourteen years ago—’
‘You don’t owe me any explanations—’
‘I was twenty-one at the time,’ he continued determinedly. ‘One of the three eligible D’Angelo brothers, slightly wild, slightly na?ve, and no doubt more than slightly full of myself— Oh, yes, Eva,’ he drawled as she gave a disbelieving snort, ‘I think I was probably all of those things then.’ He grimaced. ‘Anyway, I became involved with someone while at university. Her name was Emma. We had a good time together, and I thought I was in love. And when she came to me one day and told me that she was pregnant, I— No, this isn’t a pretty story, Eva,’ he acknowledged grimly as she gasped.
Not pretty, no, but Eva was starting to suspect it might be the reason for Michael’s distrust of women, and surely responsible for his instant and assured denial of her initial claim as to his being the twins’ father, when she had mistakenly thought he was Rafe D’Angelo. It had already happened to Michael once, and it wasn’t something he would ever risk happening again.
Except he had...
With her.
Oh, she might not be pregnant, her pill having ensured that she wasn’t, but Michael hadn’t known that at the time...
‘Go on,’ she encouraged softly.
He nodded. ‘I asked her to marry me. We were making plans for the wedding when she met someone else, someone wealthier, older, and decided that he was a much better prospect as a husband. The—the baby miraculously disappeared overnight.’
‘God...!’ Eva breathed softly.
‘I told you it wasn’t a particularly pretty story.’ Michael sighed at his naiveté all those years ago. ‘It’s the oldest trick in the book, I’m told.’
‘She was lying the whole time...’
‘Yes,’ he acknowledged grimly. ‘She tried the same trick on the new man she’d met, and was furious when I warned him what she was up to. None of which is important now—’ he straightened dismissively ‘—except I hope it might explain some of my behaviour this past week?’ He looked at her searchingly. ‘I was distrustful when you arrived with the twins, first claiming they were mine and then that they were Rafe’s, and I made accusations that I’m sincerely ashamed of—’
‘I understand the reason for that now.’ Eva understood so much of Michael’s previous behaviour now; was it any wonder he had been so suspicious of her motives after this girl Emma had tried to trick him into marriage with a false pregnancy all those years ago?
‘Yes. But I want you to know that has nothing to do with my worry over our not having used contraception the night we made love together,’ he continued decisively. ‘As I told you just now, we can have half a dozen sets of twins as far as I’m concerned. I just don’t want that for you right now.’
‘You said you had something else to tell me and something to ask me...?’ she reminded huskily, still too afraid to truly hope.
‘Yes.’
‘And?’ she prompted tensely when he remained silent.
‘And I’ve fallen in love with you!’ The words burst out of him, as if from lack of use. ‘I love you, Eva.’ It seemed easier for him to say the second time, the darkness of his eyes glowing with the emotion. ‘The last four days without you have been—they’ve been hell on earth!’ He gave a shake of his head, his expression bleak. ‘I can’t think, can’t sleep for thinking of you, wanting to be with you. As for the apartment—! I couldn’t stand spending another single day or night there when everywhere I look, every room I go into, reminds me of you, and your being there with the twins. With me.’
The hope Eva had been holding in check now blossomed, burst free, and she rose quickly to her feet to go to Michael, hating that look of desolation on his dear beloved face. ‘I love you too, Michael.’ She raised a tentative hand to his cheek. ‘I love you so much, and it hurts so much not being with you!’
‘Eva...!’ His eyes glowed down into hers like black onyx as he swept her up into his arms and kissed her.
Eva had no idea how much later it was when they finally surfaced long enough to be able to talk again, having been too lost in the wonder of loving Michael and knowing that he loved her in return to notice the passing of time.
‘Will you marry me, Eva?’
She looked up at Michael uncertainly as they lay together on the sofa. ‘The twins—’
‘Will be ours,’ Michael assured firmly.
Eva gave a pained frown. ‘Are you sure? It’s an awfully big responsibility to take on someone else’s children—’
‘As you should know, but they’ll be our children, Eva. That’s if you’ll agree to marry me...?’ he prompted uncertainly. ‘I don’t want some brief relationship with you, Eva, I want to know that you’ll be mine. For always.’
‘I am yours, for always.’ Eva had no doubt that the love she had for Michael, that he had for her, was a tried and tested love, the sort of love that would last and endure.
‘Then marry me,’ he urged huskily. ‘Eva, the only detail missing from the adoption papers is the names of the adoptive parents, and I would deem it a great privilege if you would allow my name to appear next to yours...’
‘Oh, Michael!’ Eva choked back the tears. ‘Yes,’ she cried. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ She covered his face with happy kisses.
‘Is that a yes to marrying me or a yes to my adopting the twins with you?’
‘Both!’ She beamed up at him.
‘I was hoping you would say that!’ Michael’s arms tightened about her possessively. ‘I promise to love you for the rest of our lifetime, Eva Foster,’ he vowed fiercely.
‘And I promise to love you for the same lifetime, Michael D’Angelo—’ She broke off as one of the twins let out a cry. ‘Oops.’ Eva chuckled ruefully as she sat up. ‘This could be the story of our life, you know, baby interruptus!’
‘I’m looking forward to every moment of it!’ he assured as he stood up with her to go to Sam and Sophie.
So was Eva.
So was Eva...