Pixie unfroze and stared up at him. ‘You are willing to forgive me for misjudging you,’ she suddenly appreciated in wonderment.
His smile slanted into a heart-stopping grin. ‘As I can’t live without you I don’t think I have much choice about that.’
‘You can’t live,’ she began incredulously, ‘without me?’
‘I’ve got remarkably used to having you and Hector around,’ Apollo told her almost flippantly.
‘H-have you?’ Pixie mumbled uncertainly.
‘Even though trying to plant an idea in your head is sometimes like drilling through concrete.’
‘What idea were you trying to plant?’
‘That we could be happy together and stay together and married for ever.’
‘You don’t do for ever,’ Pixie argued, her voice taking on a shrill edge of disbelief.
‘But then I met you and ever since then everything I thought I knew has been proven wrong,’ Apollo admitted gravely. ‘That unnerved me...but there it is. You’ve turned my life upside down and, strangest of all, I’ve discovered that I like it this way.’
Pixie’s mouth had run dry. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’
Apollo reached down a lean brown hand towards hers and in a sudden movement she grasped it. He tugged her upright. ‘I want to show you something and ask you a special question.’
Blinking rapidly, her heart hammering inside her chest, Pixie let him urge her upstairs. He pushed open the door on a bedroom but her attention leapt straight to the garment hanging in front of a wardrobe. ‘What’s that?’ she gasped, for it looked remarkably like a white wedding dress.
Apollo dropped fluidly down on one knee while she stared at him as if he had lost his wits, her grey eyes huge and questioning. ‘Pixie...will you marry me?’
‘Wh-what?’ she stuttered shakily.
‘I’m trying to do it right this time. I love you,’ Apollo breathed huskily. ‘Will you marry me?’
‘But we’re already married,’ she whispered in a small voice. ‘You...love...me?’
‘Much more than I ever thought I could love anyone.’
And the power in Pixie’s legs just went and she dropped down on her knees in front of him. ‘You mean it...you’re not just saying it?’
Apollo flipped open the small jewellery box in his hand and extracted a ruby ring. ‘And this is the ruby ring I intended to give you before the fancy dress party but sadly it would have been the wrong time.’
Pixie watched in reverence as he eased the glorious ring onto her wedding finger. ‘Is this an engagement ring?’ she whispered.
With an impatient groan, Apollo leapt back upright and bent to scoop Pixie up and plant her at the foot of the bed. ‘Yes, it is, and we need to start moving quickly. That is if you’re willing to stay married to me?’
‘Yes, I am... I’m kind of...’ Pixie hesitated and then lifted her bemused head high to look up at him ‘...attached to you, so attached I can’t bear having you out of my sight and the last few weeks have been sheer hell,’ she admitted feelingly. ‘I don’t know when it happened because I started out convinced I hated you and somewhere along the way I fell madly in love with you.’
Sheer relief rippled through Apollo’s lean, powerful frame. ‘Thee mou...you made me wait for that, you little witch. Would you like me to help you put on your wedding gown?’
Another wave of bewilderment rocked Pixie. ‘Why would I put on a wedding gown?’
‘Because your very romantic husband wants to take you to a church to renew our vows...and this time, we’ll mean every word and every promise, koukla mou. I wanted to see you in a white dress.’
Pixie felt as though her brain had gone on holiday. She was poleaxed by that information.
Apollo lifted her off the bed and unzipped her dress, pushing it off her shoulders until it slid down her arms and dropped to the rug. ‘I like the lingerie,’ he growled soft and low.
‘We’re going to renew our vows? You’ve actually arranged that?’ she exclaimed as her brain absorbed that incredible concept. ‘Oh, I like that. I like that idea very much...’
‘And then we’re going to fly out to Tuscany to spend Christmas with Vito and Holly.’
All of a sudden, Pixie became a ball of energy. She whirled away from him, a slender vision in white lace underpinnings, and yanked the wedding dress off the wardrobe at speed. ‘I hope it fits.’
‘I told the designer you were pregnant and she made allowances.’
Pixie wrenched off the bag and dived into the wedding gown as if her life depended on it and indeed at that moment it felt as if her life did depend on it. Apollo was making all her dreams come true at once. He was trying to rewrite their history and she adored him for that piece of unashamed sentimentality. He was, after all, offering her the white wedding dress and the church she had once dreamt of. He loved her. Could she truly believe that? The ruby sparkled enticingly on her finger and she heaved a happy sigh. When Apollo began organising church blessings and getting down on bended knee to propose, it was time to take him very seriously indeed, she thought happily.
It was an exquisitely delicate and elegant lace dress and Apollo was fantastic at doing up hooks. Dainty pearlised shoes completed the ensemble and she dug her feet into them with a sigh. ‘You’ve thought of everything.’
‘I had to organise it all in advance even though I was scared you would say no. My first romantic scenario fell very flat,’ Apollo pointed out in his own defence. ‘Your bouquet is downstairs.’
‘What first romantic scenario?’ she prompted with a frown.
‘The one where I had the cover of your bodice-ripping paperback copied for our fancy dress costumes,’ Apollo extended. ‘The one where I dressed up as a stupid pirate and you were supposed to recognise the outfits from the book cover.’
Pixie gasped and her grey eyes widened to their fullest extent. She recalled that sense of familiarity when she had seen the red dress he had had designed for her and she grinned. ‘It was the first romance I ever read. I bought it at a church jumble sale...but when I got older, I didn’t think it was realistic to believe I could ever meet a man as swoonworthy as the hero...and here you are, Apollo Metraxis, and you’re hotter than the fires of hell!’
‘Even so, you didn’t notice,’ he reminded her doggedly.
‘I definitely noticed how sexy you looked,’ she confided, her cheeks turning pink, and her heart literally sang at the image of Apollo going to so much trouble in an effort to be romantic and please her. ‘Breeches and knee boots are a great look on you, so maybe you’ll put that on again for me some day and I faithfully promise to demonstrate my appreciation. That night, I’m afraid I was too locked into the hurt of the Izzy business to notice. I’m sorry.’
‘And I’m sorry you were hurt,’ Apollo confided tenderly as he urged her back down the stairs, grabbed the bridal bouquet out of another room and planted it into her hands. ‘Let’s get to the church, Mrs Metraxis...’
And the little ceremony was glorious and everything Pixie could have dreamt of it being. She could see the love in Apollo’s brilliant green eyes and when he actually paused afterwards on the church steps and posed with his arm round her for the paparazzi, he smiled with even greater brilliance and a level of happiness he had never known before.
‘What time are Vito and Holly expecting us?’ Pixie whispered as they climbed into the waiting car.
‘My social secretary rang them to let them know we wouldn’t be arriving until later,’ Apollo revealed. ‘I don’t want to share you just yet. I want a few hours to privately appreciate my very beautiful, pregnant-with-twins wife.’
‘And how do you feel about the babies?’
‘Over the moon now that we’ll be in London with the best possible medical care on the doorstep,’ Apollo told her, drawing her close, the heat of his big frame sending a little pulse of fiery awareness through her. ‘I was worrying far too much and your consultant reassured me. You’ll be in the best possible hands for the duration of your pregnancy.’
‘Your hands,’ Pixie muttered, pressing his palm against her cheek in a loving gesture. ‘You’ll look after me... I know you will.’
‘You’re my whole world and our children are part of us both. I can’t believe I ever thought I’d be able to walk away and take a back seat in their lives.’
‘Well, you won’t be walking away any place now,’ Pixie said cheerfully, resting shining eyes on him. ‘I love you, Apollo, and there’s no escape.’
‘And you’re the love I didn’t believe existed as well as the most amazing woman I’ve ever met,’ he growled, claiming her parted lips with his in a long, deep, hungry kiss of possession that thrilled her right down to her toes. ‘Where else will I find a woman insane enough to dive off the top of my yacht? And expect me to be pleased? Or threaten me with a miniature Arab Prince as a rival?’
EPILOGUE
AT SIXTEEN MONTHS OLD, Sofia Metraxis was a force to be reckoned with. She ran over to her brother, Tobias, swiped his toy truck off him and sat back to bat away his attempts to retrieve it.