“Yes, Princesa?”
She extended her hand and he took it. Lifting it to his mouth, he pressed a tender kiss to the inside of her wrist. She clasped his jaw, as if she understood the enormity of his emotional reaction to their little daughter.
The wetness behind his eyes slowly abated. To his wife’s raised brows, he somehow managed to squeeze himself into the tiny bed and wrapped his arm around her. The others had left the room.
“Was that your mother, Gabriel?”
Nothing went missed by his superefficient wife. “Hmm.”
“You asked her to visit?”
“Yes. I...” He nuzzled into her neck, needing the warmth and scent of her. “When you went into labor, I couldn’t bear it. I called her and she offered to jump on a plane within minutes. So I sent her my jet and she got here a few minutes before Maria arrived. You’ve brought me so much love, Eleni, that it seems very hard to hold on to the past, to hold on to anger. There’s no place in my heart, it seems, for anything more than love.”
“I understand, Gabriel. Loving you has taught me to love myself.”
He pushed off a lock of her hair and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Te amo, Princesa. With all my heart.”
She took his hand and kissed it, her eyelids droopy, her mouth trembling. “Thank you for loving me, Gabriel. Thank you for giving me two wonderful daughters.”
“Thank you for making a family with me, Princesa,” he said.
Within minutes, she was out like a light. When his mother returned a little later and handed him Maria, Gabriel said everything he had to in a kiss on his mother’s cheek.
And went back to the bed, sleepy bundle in hand, to wait for his wife to wake up and kiss him again.
Looking at the tight fist that formed around his finger, he realized he was in for a long wait and sighed.
But he didn’t care.
The Princess of Drakon and her kisses were worth waiting for.