"You don't think Mara will feel like we're trying to steal her thunder or anything?" Chiara worried. "Maybe we should just tell your mum and brother, and leave it at that until after we get back to England? Just so we don't overshadow her wedding?"

Drew stopped walking and looked at her. They'd just stepped back onto the property, and were headed for the beautiful courtyard, where they assumed everyone would still be. The late afternoon light was mellow and golden, turning everything beautiful and magical, like a fairytale.

To Drew, Chiara looked different already. Knowing that she was carrying life inside her made her glorious and glowing to him, benevolently stunning, like a renaissance madonna.

He looked around to make sure no one was watching, then stepped closer to hug her. He kissed the palm of his hand and placed it on her belly, spreading his fingers to cover as much of the cornflower blue material of her dress as possible.

"I'm so happy," he murmured to her.

"Me too," she whispered back. "Do you want a boy or a girl?"

"Either," he said, shaking his head. "Or both."

Chiara's eyes got huge.

"I think twins would be an absolute blast," he confessed with a grin.

"Bite your tongue," she chastised. "I'm already fat enough, thank you very much."

He finally released her after dropping a kiss on her nose. "To get back to your original question," he said as they continued walking. "I don't think Mara will mind at all if we share our news now, she's just not that kind of person. I think she'll be kind of tickled, if I'm honest."

"What if we asked her, then?" Chiara countered.

"Okay. We'll tell mum and Noah, then we'll ask Mara and Luke, how's that?" Drew gave her waist a squeeze.

"Sounds like a plan," Chiara agreed.

They wandered into the courtyard, where bees droned and butterflies fluttered in the late afternoon light. Children chased each other holding slices of watermelon as their parents sat around drinking wine, chatting and catching up with each other, as always happened at family gatherings.

They found Ellie and Noah, who were sitting with Luke's family, visiting and laughing about something.

"Mum, Noah, can we talk to you for a mo?" Drew asked with a polite smile.

Chiara was careful to keep her left hand hidden so as not to give anything away.

"Everything okay, son?" Ellie asked, looking from Drew to Chiara carefully.

"Yeah, everything's ace, just want to talk for a minute, we'll send you right back, promise," Drew said to Luke's family. "Hello, Mr and Mrs. Adesso, long time no see, hope you're all well."

"Come on, Noah, we want to talk to you, too," Chiara reiterated, pulling Noah away from Luke's younger and very beautiful sister, Alessandra.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Noah grumbled good naturedly, rising and following his mother and Drew away from the main gathering of people.

"We have news for you," Drew began as soon as they were around a convenient corner and out of earshot of the others.

"What? Have you patched things up?" Ellie asked, putting a hand on Chiara and one on Drew. "Please, please tell me you've worked things out, please!"

"Oh, I think we can do better than that," Chiara teased, removing her hand from her pocket and showing Ellie and Noah the ring.

Ellie let out a little scream and put her hand on her cheek.

"Oh, son, you didn't, did you? Well done, clever boy!" She leaned in and kissed first Drew, then Chiara. "I'm so happy for you, and for me, and thank the gods above you sent that stroppy cow packing, you know?"

Noah was grinning from ear to ear as he clapped Drew on the back and leaned in and kissed Chiara on the cheek.

"Nicely done, brother! And now I can call you sister!"

"When?" Ellie asked excitedly. "When's the wedding? You're not going to elope or any rubbish like that, are you? You wouldn't do that, would you?"

"Not for another year, mum, no worries," Drew assured her. "We want to have it at Langton, in the rose garden, so we have to wait for the bushes she planted this spring to fill in, you know?"

Ellie was nodding.

"And there's another reason to wait also," Chiara added.

"Would you like to guess what it is, Uncle Noah?" Drew asked with a smile, putting his hand on Chiara's belly, fingers spread, like he had earlier.

Noah stared at them, eyes huge.

"No! Really?"

"Absofuckinglutely!"

"Drew, language!" Ellie said automatically, before the conversation hit her.

"Oh my god, are you joking?" She displaced Drew's hand with her own, looking into Chiara's eyes. "Are you expecting, love?"

Chiara nodded, her face alight.

Ellie gathered her into a bone crushing hug.

"Mum!" Noah admonished. "You're going to squish the baby, you've got to stop!"

"Sorry!" Ellie gasped, releasing Chiara.

The four of them were standing in the lovely twilight, laughing like loons, when Mara came around the corner, dragging Luke behind her.

"What's going on here?" she demanded. "It's my special week, no keeping secrets from the bride on the eve of her wedding."

Luke looked embarrassed to be there. "Sorry, everyone, I tried to get her to leave you alone, but she insisted."

"Now, what's going on that you had to drag your mum and brother all the way over here to talk to them, hm?" Mara enquired, hand on her hip, curly hair bobbing as she looked from one to the other of the Penningtons.

"Come on, Mar, it's obviously good news, see how happy they all look, let's just leave them be, hm?" Luke begged. "Give them some privacy?"

"No, dammit," Mara, insisted, stamping her foot. "It's my special week, I insist on knowing what's going on."

"Well, um, okay," Chiara agreed, nodding. "We were going to tell you, anyway, but just you, because it is your special week, as you pointed out--"

"Holy shit!" Mara interrupted, grabbing Chiara's hand. "Look at that fucking ring! Sorry, Ms. P," she said in an aside to Ellie. "But jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, have you seen the size of that ruby?"

She smiled between Drew and Chiara.

"Does this mean--?" she let the question dangle.

"Yes," Drew answered, putting an arm around Chiara.

"But not until next year, because I want time to lose the baby weight," Chiara told her.

"Of course, you need to lose the--what?" Mara's voice rose nearly to a shriek, the sound carrying in the peaceful evening air.

"Congratulations, mate!" Luke said, kissing Drew heartily on the cheek and hugging him, hard.

"Thanks, thanks," Drew replied.

"Can I tell?" Mara asked excitedly, grabbing Chiara's hands. "Can I make an announcement, right now, like, while everyone's gathered in the courtyard? Please? Pleasepleaseplease?"

"Well, we didn't want to, because we didn't want to steal focus from your special week," Chiara began.

"Damn the fucking focus," Mara said, making it sound like some weird medieval oath. "Your news is so much more exciting than mine, please let me tell?"

"Okay, if you want--"

But Mara was gone, half way around the corner already. She stopped and turned around. "Come on, then, hurry the fuck up!"

So they all trouped over to the stage that had been set up for the band to perform on the next day, and watched as Mara got up and announced that, not only was Drew Pennington officially engaged and getting married next year, he and his fiancée Chiara Cavuto were also expecting a baby in-- "When?" She looked expectantly at Chiara.

"December," Chiara supplied.

"December!" Mara crowed triumphantly.

And everyone there clapped and cheered and toasted to Drew and Chiara and generally made them feel special and loved.

Soon after, just as it got full dark, Drew led Chiara, who was suddenly exhausted, upstairs to bed. Noah and Ellie, who had rested, were both raring to go, and elected to stay downstairs.

When he shut the door to the room he shared with his brother, she reminded him that she was in the other room. "I'm sleeping with your mum, remember?" she said, her voice heavy with disappointment.

"No you're not," he said with a grin. "I asked if, given our change in status, we could switch, and she said it was fine, and that she'd tell Noah."

"You smart, smart man," Chiara said, her voice quiet with relief. "So all I have to do is take a shower and move my stuff and we're good to go, then?"

"How about if we both shower, and since I'm faster I'll just move your stuff when I finish?" he suggested.

"Sounds like a plan, chief," Chiara agreed with a sleepy smile. She gathered her pajamas and wandered off to to the shower, using the one located across the hall and leaving the Jack and Jill they shared for Drew.

She took her time, reveling in the feel of the slippery soap and warm water on her body. She was looking forward to being with Drew. It had been so long since she'd been with him, but she remembered the feel of him against her body, pressing her into the bed as she lay under him.

She finally shut off the water and got out, putting on her summer nightie and going back across the hall carrying her clothes. She could still hear the people in the courtyard having a good time, and smell the citronella candles and tiki torches which had been lit to light the darkness.

She shut the door to the room she'd be sharing with Drew and locked it, going across to lock the bathroom door as well, just in case. Then she crossed to the bed, smiling in the dark to herself, hoping Drew hadn't fallen asleep while waiting for her. The courtyard had been light by thousands of fairy lights, and they provided just enough ambient light for the bedroom to be perfectly lit.

"Drew? You asleep?"

"Are you kidding?"

He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into the bed with a low chuckle, the sound of which sent chills of anticipation up her spine.

"Oh god, you smell so fucking good," he murmured, positioning her so she rested on top of him, kissing her, nibbling on her lips.

"Do you still want to?" he asked in between kissing her. "I was reading a little bit whilst waiting for you, and about how the nausea can just come out of nowhere, and your sex drive can really take a hit."

"I've been so horny for you," she replied, spreading her legs and draping them over his hips. "I think I've had sex dreams about you every night for the last two weeks."

"Really?" Drew smiled, and Chiara could see it in the faint light shining in through the floor to ceiling open windows that opened onto the balcony.

Chiara nodded as Drew slid his hands down her back to cup her bottom and give it a friendly squeeze, making her moan into his mouth.

"And it's perfectly safe? For the baby, I mean?" he asked. "There aren't certain things we can't do? No bad positions or anything?"

Chiara shook her head. "No. Everything's safe, I promise."

"Good, because I'm randy as fuck."

She tried to roll them over so he was on top of her, but he resisted, holding her on top.

"I know you said everything's safe, but I'd feel better if you just stayed on top, yeah? It just feels safer if I'm not pounding away on you, you know what I mean? At least during these early days. Do you mind?" And Chiara could see, even in the faint light, that Drew was looking at her earnestly, brows drawn together, biting on his bottom lip.

"No, Andrew, I don't mind," she told him honestly. She sat up and pulled her nightie off in one smooth motion, knowing he could see her in the light that shone in.

He stared at her, speechless for a moment.

"Jesus, are they bigger?"

Chiara nodded. "That's one of the first things that happens," she told him.

Drew reached out and grasped them, using his thumbs on her nipples, making her gasp as he pressed on them.

She arched her body into his palms immediately, and it was so sexy, tilting her head so Drew could see her long hair spilling down her back. He leaned over and turned the lamp on to its lowest setting so he could see her better, and he sat up against the pillows, smiling at the sight of her facing him in his lap.

"You look stunning," he told her, making her smile at him.

He leaned forward to kiss her body and suck on her, though she admonished him to not do it "too hard," because she didn't want marks the next day at the wedding.

"Sorry," he whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his mouth with her hot, swollen lips, closing her eyes and pressing her body as close to his as she could.

"CC, I don't want to wait, I don't, is that okay?"

She could only nod, carried away by her feelings, by the tingling of her singing nerve endings.

He reached between her legs, loving how warm and wet she was, how he could feel her clit poking out so far that he didn't even have to search for it. He began rubbing her, and she was so engorged and ready that his hand on her, and his other hand squeezing her breast, and his mouth kissing her, brought her to orgasm within a few minutes.

He was shocked. She'd never been so fast before.

"Wow," he whispered. "God, so sexy." And he kissed her again, so hard, thrusting his tongue as far as he could into her mouth as he bent her head back with the force of it.

"It's because of the baby," she murmured into his mouth. She moved to his neck, kissing and licking him as she reached for him, grasping and stroking him, squeezing him in rhythm with her kisses, feeling his abdomen grow taut as she brought him right to the edge of climax.

"What is?"

"That you made me come so easily. I'm growing more blood vessels and everything's more engorged and puffy and just generally bigger, like my breasts," she told him. She nibbled on his neck a little and rose up, putting his cock inside her opening, which was so slick and hot that he slid all the way in with almost no resistance, and it had been so long that she was really tight, almost like the first time.

They both gasped simultaneously as they came together, completely joined, and they just stayed that way, motionless, looking into each other's eyes, before they kissed.

"I love you, CC," Drew said, his voice soft with emotion.

"And I love you right back, Andrew," she said, her eyes wet.

They began to move, just a little at first, then with more motion and rhythm, and Drew could feel the huge orgasm growing deep within his belly as Chiara's body grabbed him and stimulated him.

"Is this okay? Everything feels fine?"

She nodded.

"Jesus, this feels so good, so fucking good, darling," he told her.

"For me too," she said. "I think I'm going to come again," she said.

"Really?"

She nodded as her hips sped up, making him feel so good he was seeing spots.

"Oh, fuck, CC, I'm coming now, is it too soon for you?"

She shook her head violently. "Me too, me too," she told him.

"Fuck," he gasped, amazed at what he was feeling. He rested his forehead against her shoulder, reveling in her and what he was feeling. "Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck."

He fell backward on the bed, pulling her with him, continuing to thrust into her, pushing her hips high into the air.

"Oh god," he finally breathed.

"Yeah," she agreed with a little laugh.

He rolled on his side, clasping her to his body, and she held his hips to hers with her leg.

He grinned at her as she wiped the perspiration from his face with the sheet.

"I'm the happiest person in Italy at the moment, I reckon," he said.

"You think we could sleep like this?" she asked, tightening her leg even more, so their sweaty fronts were pressed together.

"I think we could try," he ventured.

So they did, and they could. They slept joined together until he softened and slipped out of her in the middle of the night. And that woke Drew and he turned Chiara so she was the little spoon, and she slept in his embrace all through the night, and he slept the sweetest sleep he'd ever known, loving the knowledge that his child was sleeping and growing in her belly, under his hands, secure in a warm, watery world of her making, loved by both of them.