‘Time flies when you’re enjoying yourself. I wonder what mine will be like.’ Susan patted the slight bulge of her once flat stomach. ‘I don’t care as long as he’s healthy.’

‘He will be,’ Ashley soothed.

‘I never thought I would get up the courage…if it hadn’t been for the twins-‘

‘An utterly trouble-free pregnancy,’ Ashley reminded her with a grin.

Susan lifted the book that Ashley had been reading, raising a brow at the title. ‘Educational Psychology,’ she groaned. ‘You have to be out of your mind to want to sign on as a student again.’

‘It’s something I need to do.’ ‘I’m amazed Vito agreed.’

Ashley smiled with contentment. ‘He understands perfectly. ‘

Vito strode up with Arnold lagging a few steps in his wake. All burnished brown vitality, he crouched down. ‘You look really tired, cara.’

‘It’s all the studying she’s trying to do into the bargain,’ Susan said disapprovingly.

‘It’s the heat,’ Vito contradicted, springing up. ‘You’re shameless,’ Ashley hissed when they were out of earshot.

Vito followed her upstairs. ‘Why should guests change our routine?’ He dealt her a wicked grin. ‘I can hardly tell your sister that I’m feeling incredibly randy and would she excuse us for a few hours!’

‘So I’m just routine now, am I?’

‘You’re the most gloriously passionate and loved woman alive. And you know it, you shameless hussy,’ he reproved, tugging her down on to the bed. ‘Let’s make the most of the time we have left before your parents arrive.’

‘Do you think they’ll like it here?’ she sighed anxiously.

‘Sylvia will love it, but your father… utterly surrounded by foreigners?’ Vito gave vent freely to his humour at the prospect.

But Hunt Forrester had changed a great deal. Her parents had ended up seeing a Relate counsellor. The old bullying tactics were no more. Her mother simply wouldn’t stand for such treatment now. And through occasional visits and some admittedly awkward discussions Ashley had formed a new relationship with her father. They would never be particularly close, but what they did have was considerably more than she had ever expected to achieve.

‘I’m looking forward to seeing Tim.’ Her brother was taking a rare break from his medical studies. Vito had been very good to her kid brother, she acknowledged. Whenever they were in London, Tim treated their home as his.

‘And while your father is doing his level best to survive his trip abroad, you can continue to find the heat too much in the afternoons,’ Vito instructed single-mindedly, running the tip of his tongue seductively along the full line of her lower lip. She let him claim her mouth in a devouring kiss, felt as always the ripples of excitement begin to build. It never failed. As he shuddered responsively against her, she smiled secretively beneath the rising urgency of his mouth. Some day, when he was in a really good mood, she would ask him who had actually tamed whom.