Xenakis's Convenient Bride(32)

"Ophelia. Exams went well. She's flying to Athens tomorrow and Takis  will bring her next week. Then I talked to Takis and told him we'd like  her to stay the summer if he's willing. He said at her age, extended  time with a newborn could go either way in terms of curbing impulsive  behavior."

They both chuckled and Stavros cocked his ear. "There's the doorbell."

Simpson would get it. They had settled into Edward's mansion last year,  once her pregnancy had been confirmed, and had quickly adopted his  grandfather's routine of spending half their time here and the rest at  Galíni. In fact, they had gone there straight from the hospital and had  only come back to the city last night.

Stavros went to greet their guests while Calli finished nursing, then made herself presentable.

When she came down the stairs, James-whom she still called Dorian in her  heart-was hanging off the newel post at the bottom, waiting with barely  contained impatience. His wide grin was missing all four front teeth.  He extended a stuffed bear wearing a blue ribbon around its neck.

"Is that for me?" She stooped for a hug.         

     



 

"It's for my brother." He was reaching the age where shows of affection  were brief, even with his mothers, but he lingered in her looped arm,  staring into Lethe's sleeping face. "Is that him?"

"This is Lethe, yes. He'll love it. Thank you." She tucked the bear  against Lethe's freshly swaddled chest. "How is your sister? How was her  appointment yesterday?"

"She's sick. She couldn't come."

"Just a cold," Wanda quickly provided as Calli shot her a look of  concern. "Her counts were exactly where they should be." She crossed her  fingers. "But we didn't want to get Lethe sick, so she stayed home with  Daddy."

"I hope she feels better soon." Calli rose to hug Wanda.

Wanda smiled at Lethe with the melting expression most women wore when  they gazed on a newborn. "Oh, he's beautiful. Look at that mouth. It's  yours, same as James's."

They had become fast friends, she and Wanda. Calli had only been back in  New York a few weeks when Wanda had invited her to visit James. She was  a woman with a strong conscience who had been torturing herself since  asking Calli to back off. "You obviously love him," she had said. "Who  am I to deny my son more love in his life? What if something happened  and I had kept you apart?"

Calli had sat with Wanda more than once as she waited for her daughter  to come out of treatment. They shared a son and so much more.

"We've been very excited all morning," Wanda said ruefully, as James went on his tiptoes, trying to see Lethe again.

"Lethe, too." Stavros was completely straight-faced as he teased James. "He's been asking for you. All morning."

"He's a baby!" James protested, giving Stavros a you-can't-fool-me look.

Those two had their own special relationship characterized by  discussions of heavy equipment and debates about superheroes and  spirited wrestling matches over possession of a foam football.

"Do you want to hold him?" Calli sat down on the sofa and patted the  cushion beside her. James wriggled his bottom into position beside her,  right up against her side.

Her heart melted every time she was with him, every time she gazed into his bright, cheeky expression.

Gently she set her newborn son in the arms of her firstborn, keeping one  hand lightly on the infant, securing him on James's lap. She was so  happy in that moment, she could hardly bear it.

Lethe yawned and opened his eyes, making James jolt with excitement. "He's looking at me."

"He is." Her throat was nearly too tight to speak. "Say hello."

"Hello, Lethe. I'm James. Your brother." Then he leaned down to whisper. "I love you."

Calli's eyes filled.

"This is too cute for words," Wanda said, voice throbbing with emotion. "Stavros, sit down with them. I need a photo."

He sat on the far side of James, arm outstretched so his fingers  caressed Calli's shoulder. She lifted her gaze from her children to meet  her husband's warm, dark eyes. She saw so much love reflected back at  her, she thought she would combust.

"Do you know how happy it makes me to see you this happy?" he said in a quiet rumble.

"You must be pretty happy, then," she choked.

He gave her cheek an affectionate brush with the back of his finger, sweeping away her tear. "I am."

Later, when the house was quiet and their son was settled in his  bassinet, and they were naked in the big bed they shared, she snuggled  into Stavros and said with a tiny throb of old anxiety, "I sometimes  wonder what would have happened if Sebastien hadn't sent you to the  island."

Sebastien was still setting up his extreme challenges, but Stavros was  picking and choosing, just as happy to schedule a ski trip or another  more mainstream vacation with his friends. Calli had developed wonderful  friendships with all the wives, which was another thing she would have  missed if Stavros hadn't taken that dare from his friend.

The happiness she enjoyed seemed so tentative sometimes.

But his low rumble was reassuringly confident. "You would have come here  for Dorian and I would have seen you. We would be exactly where we are  right now."

"In a city this huge?" She lifted her head from his shoulder, trying to  see him in the dim light from the clock. "You really believe you would  have noticed me?"

"I do. Even if you had been able to keep him, our lives would have found  another way to intersect. We were meant to be together, Calli."

"Oh." His words panged her heart. "When you say things like that, I  believe you." She cuddled into him again, squeezing her arm across his  waist, eyes closed against emotive tears.         

     



 

"No one could love you the way I love you." He cradled her close, lips  against her hair, then her cheekbone, searching for her mouth. "No one  else could love me the way you do."

They kissed. The passion between them hadn't abated, staying strong  between them right up to the evening before she delivered. He'd been a  perfect gentleman since the birth, but she could feel how aroused he  became, and stroked him.

He groaned. "I miss making love to you."

"We'll have to find other ways to appease ourselves, won't we?" she teased. "Lucky for you, I'm an inventive woman."

"I'm fairly innovative myself. Let's see what we come up with."

He pressed over her and she made a noise of indulgence, already sinking into the world of pleasure he gave her. The joy.

He was right. Something this perfect must have been fated. She never worried about it again.

 * *





EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT

Ariston Kavakos makes impoverished Keeley Turner a proposition: a  month's employment on his island, at his command. Soon her resistance to  their sizzling chemistry weakens! But when there's a consequence,  Ariston makes one thing clear: Keeley will become his bride …

Read on for a sneak preview of

THE PREGNANT KAVAKOS BRIDE

'You're offering to buy my baby? Are you out of your mind?'

'I'm giving you the opportunity to make a fresh start.'

'Without my baby?'

'A baby will tie you down. I can give this child everything it needs,'  Ariston said, deliberately allowing his gaze to drift around the dingy  little room. 'You cannot.'

'Oh, but that's where you're wrong, Ariston,' Keeley said, her hands  clenching. 'You might have all the houses and yachts and servants in the  world, but you have a great big hole where your heart should be-and  therefore you're incapable of giving this child the thing it needs more  than anything else!'

'Which is?'

'Love!'

Ariston felt his body stiffen. He loved his brother and once he'd loved  his mother, but he was aware of his limitations. No, he didn't do the  big showy emotion he suspected she was talking about and why should he,  when he knew the brutal heartache it could cause? Yet something told him  that trying to defend his own position was pointless. She would fight  for this child, he realised. She would fight with all the strength she  possessed, and that was going to complicate things. Did she imagine he  was going to accept what she'd just told him and play no part in it?  Politely dole out payments and have sporadic weekend meetings with his  own flesh and blood? Or worse, no meetings at all. He met the green  blaze of her eyes.

'So you won't give this baby up and neither will I,' he said softly.  'Which means that the only solution is for me to marry you.'

He saw the shock and horror on her face.

'But I don't want to marry you! It wouldn't work, Ariston-on so many  levels. You must realise that. Me, as the wife of an autocratic control  freak who doesn't even like me? I don't think so.'

'It wasn't a question,' he said silkily. 'It was a statement. It's not a case of if you will marry me, Keeley-just when.'

'You're mad,' she breathed.

He shook his head. 'Just determined to get what is rightfully mine. So  why not consider what I've said, and sleep on it and I'll return  tomorrow at noon for your answer-when you've calmed down. But I'm  warning you now, Keeley-that if you are wilful enough to try to refuse  me, or if you make some foolish attempt to run away and escape … ' he  paused and looked straight into her eyes ' … I will find you and drag you  through every court in the land to get what is rightfully mine.'