Pixie arrived back in London late afternoon in late December with Hector in tow. A limo met her at the airport and whisked her back to the penthouse apartment. Apollo was flying in from LA and had told her that he would not be arriving until shortly before their scheduled meeting. That was why it was a surprise for Pixie to be curled up on a sofa with her dog in front of the television and suddenly be told by Manfred that she had visitors. As she stood up Hector bolted for cover under a chair.
A tall man with prematurely greying dark hair walked in with an oddly self-conscious air but Pixie’s attention leapt straight off him towards the highly recognisable youthful blonde accompanying him.
‘I’m Jeremy Slater and I apologise for walking in on you like this but my sister has something she has to say to you,’ the man told her stiffly. ‘Izzy...you have the floor...’
The tall, slender blonde fixed strained blue eyes on Pixie and burst into immediate speech. ‘I’m really sorry for what I did. I set Apollo up as cover. I knew he was married but I didn’t think about that. I’m afraid I was only thinking about what suited me.’
Pixie was frowning in bewilderment. ‘You set Apollo up?’ she repeated blankly.
‘I knew that if I was spotted with Apollo, the paps would assume that we were together and that they wouldn’t look any more closely into who I was staying with in that building,’ she spelled out tautly.
‘What my sister isn’t saying,’ Jeremy interposed drily, ‘is that she has been involved with a famous actor, who keeps an apartment in Apollo’s building. As that man is married, both my sister and he wished to keep their relationship out of the public eye.’
‘I didn’t intend to cause anyone any trouble,’ Izzy said pleadingly.
‘But you weren’t too concerned when you did cause that trouble,’ Pixie pointed out, her stomach churning with shock. ‘I can see that I have your brother to thank for this explanation being made.’
‘I couldn’t stand back and let Apollo take the fall for something he didn’t do,’ Jeremy declared cheerfully. ‘He’s been guilty as charged so often and I’m certain that that means that he suffers in the credibility stakes.’
‘Yes,’ Pixie agreed, her face hot with shame because even she hadn’t really listened to Apollo when he’d said he was innocent.
She hadn’t asked the relevant questions and she hadn’t asked if he could prove his story. In fact she hadn’t given him a fair hearing in any way and in retrospect that acknowledgement humbled her. In common with any other bystander she had indeed assumed that he was guilty as charged, but she had had much less excuse than other people because she had lived with Apollo for months and knew that he was something more, something deeper than the heartless womaniser he appeared to be in public.
Jeremy and Izzy departed soon afterwards with Jeremy remarking that he hoped they would soon meet in more sociable circumstances. His sister, however, said nothing, probably guessing that Pixie never wanted to see her again if she could help it.
After that visit, Pixie went to bed but of course she couldn’t sleep. She had never trusted Apollo and had essentially regarded her distrust as a trait that strengthened her. Only now was she seeing the downside of that outlook. Looking for the worst and always expecting the worst from a man was not a healthy approach and it was unfair. Even worse, using distrust as a first line of defence had crucially blinded her to what was actually happening in their marriage. She should have recognised how far Apollo had already drifted from his original blueprint for a marriage that was a business arrangement. Time after time he had done things, said things that defied that blueprint and she had ignored that reality. After all, she had changed—why shouldn’t he have changed too?
* * *
The next morning it was a struggle for Pixie to eat any breakfast. She had forced a separation on Apollo and had voluntarily given him back his freedom. She had well and truly proved to be her own worst enemy. Pride and distrust had driven her into rejecting the man she loved. Could he forgive her for that? Could he forgive her for misjudging him?
Would her misjudgement and their marriage even matter to him now? After all, his inheritance would soon be fully his because by the time their children were born he would have met the exact terms of his father’s will. Nowhere in that will did it state that Apollo had to be still living with his wife.
A limousine collected her at half past nine, wafting her through streets soon to be thronged with Christmas shoppers. Shop windows were bright with decorations and sparkle. Pixie had dressed with care and not in one of her less than flattering maternity outfits. She had put on a green dress. True it was a little tight over her bust but it gave her a shape and her legs were the same as they had always been. In truth, she reflected unhappily as the car drew up outside a smart city town house in a tree-lined Georgian square with a private park, she would never be able to hold a candle to the likes of Izzy Jerome in looks. On board Circe, she had marvelled at Apollo’s insatiable hunger for her and revelled in it. Now, she had to ask herself if she had anything more substantial to offer a male of his sophistication...
Apollo opened the door of the house himself, which shook her because he almost always had staff around to take care of such tasks.
Pixie stepped over the threshold. She glanced up at him, encountering shimmering green eyes below lashes as rich and dark as black lace, and her heartbeat raced, butterflies unleashed to fly free in her stomach. ‘Apollo...’ she acknowledged jerkily.
She came to a halt to stare in wide-eyed amazement at the lavish Christmas tree in the hall and the glorious trails of holly festooning the hall fireplace and the stairs. ‘Oh, my goodness, this house...it’s all decorated for Christmas,’ she muttered inanely. ‘And it’s still furnished.’
‘Relax. The furniture and the decorations are mine. This house was rented out for years. My father owned it but he didn’t use it and it was too large for me to use while I was still single,’ Apollo told her, gently but firmly urging her down into the armchair set by the small crackling fire in the hearth. ‘Sit down and stop stressing.’
Pixie sat but she couldn’t stop stressing. Apollo was exquisitely well-dressed in a formal navy suit, cuff links glinting at the cuffs of a fine white shirt, and she remembered him dressed like a pirate and every skin cell leapt up in sensual recollection. ‘You want me to live in your father’s house? I thought I was supposed to live in a house you bought me?’
Apollo dealt her an impassive appraisal that told her nothing about his mood. ‘I understand that Jeremy called on you with Izzy last night,’ he remarked stiffly.
Pixie flinched and paled, unnerved by that reminder. Of course, it had been foolish of her not to appreciate that his friend would naturally have told him about that visit. ‘Yes, I’m so, so sorry. I misjudged you and refused to listen and there’s no excuse for that, is there?’
‘Perhaps there is,’ Apollo conceded, sharply disconcerting her with that measured response. ‘Maybe if I’d said more sooner, you would have wanted to listen to what I had to say.’
Sick with nerves, Pixie curled her hands tightly together. ‘I’m really sorry,’ she said shakily again. ‘I didn’t give you a chance.’
‘I have a bad reputation with women,’ Apollo allowed reflectively. ‘But in one sense it’s unjustified. I have always ended one relationship before I embark on another. I don’t do crossovers or betrayals. That’s a small point but that’s how I live. I don’t cheat on anyone.’
Her nails dug into her palms because she was so very tense and afraid of saying the wrong thing. She had said she was sorry but she didn’t want to keep on saying sorry and she didn’t want to crawl either. ‘I understand.’
‘We were talking about this house,’ Apollo reminded her, lounging elegantly back against the marble console table behind him.
‘Y-yes,’ she stammered.
‘I want you to live here with me. With twins on the horizon we definitely need a spacious family house.’
Her smooth brow indented as she struggled to understand. ‘Are you saying that you can forgive me for the way I behaved on Nexos?’
‘There are still things that you have to forgive me for,’ Apollo told her tautly. ‘When we first married I pretended that I was still holding your brother’s debt over you because I saw that debt as a guarantee that you would do as you were told.’
Her smooth brow furrowed. ‘You pretended? In what way?’
‘I paid off the debt in its entirety before our marriage. I didn’t want any further dealings with the thug your brother owed that money to,’ he admitted.
Pixie nodded understanding. ‘The carrot and the stick approach again...right? Well, you’re good at faking.’
‘Thank you,’ Apollo murmured wryly. ‘I should’ve been more honest with you though.’
‘We both hugged our secrets back then. It takes time to learn to trust someone.’
‘You’re the first woman I’ve ever trusted,’ Apollo admitted. ‘You know the worst of me. You’ve seen the bad stuff. Give me a chance to show you the good things I can do.’