by Lucy Monroe
"I'm not big on revenge, Aristide. I forgave you a long time ago for your mistakes. I knew you loved me."
"And yet you still pulled away from me. For two years, no matter what I said, or did."
"It was tunnel vision, I think. This desperate knowledge what I was doing was important and the fear of letting not just the people at the foundation down, but all the children we help."
"And now?"
"Now I understand what I've been doing to you, how I've hurt you. You've got to believe I never wanted to hurt you, my darling. You are the very air that I breathe." Her expression was so wounded, so sincere.
Aristide had to believe. And in doing so, his own pain was diminished, his fears allayed. "Then believe you too are the very air that I breathe. I suffocate when you are not around."
Tears filled her rainwater eyes, their grey depths dark with true and deep love for him. "No more suffocating. No more missing. From now on, I remember that you need me as much as any child the foundation serves."
"More, because they can be helped by others. Only you can give me what I need."
#
Eden felt her heart expand in her chest. How could she not be moved by her husband saying such amazing, loving things?
Her fear of not being enough, her intrinsic need to be everything to everyone, began to break apart inside her. She needed to be wife to this man. She needed to be mother to her children, sister-in-law, aunt, daughter-in-law, and yes, daughter to her mostly reformed workaholic father. And yes, there was room for her to be the guide for her foundation, the heart behind it, but she didn't need to be its primary hands, feet and brain. Not when there were so many talented, generous people who wanted to help.
Eden suddenly knew exactly what she needed to get her husband and children for Christmas.
#
Rachel walked hand in hand with Sebastian on the private beach outside their island villa. The sun was just starting to lighten the sky, turning the water golden orange with its light, the morning air briskly cool.
"This is my favorite time of day," she said happily to Sebastian.
He squeezed her hand. "For me too. I like the quiet and the cool of the morning, knowing our family is safe and secure in our home, but you and I have these moments of privacy."
"Do you think Eden and Aristide are going to be okay?"
Sebastian pulled her close, putting his arm around her shoulders, like he knew she needed that extra bit of comfort. "Ne, fíltatos mou. My brother loves his wife and he is too stubborn to lose her to her own desire to help others."
"She's so driven with the foundation. I thought when I agreed to work there, she would step back a little, but she just took on more commitments in other areas."
"She cares so deeply, she's gotten a little lost, but she adores her family. Perhaps even as much as my own ideal wife."
Rachel smiled. "Maybe. That's a lot of adoration to compete with though."
Warm, masculine laughter rumbled from his chest.
Unmistakable cries of ecstasy sounded from open windows on the second floor of the villa and Rachel felt relief pour through her.
"I believe they have found the reconnection Aristide was looking for."
"Sex doesn't solve everything," Rachel felt the need to point out.
"But between two people who love each other so deeply, it can be very healing."
She couldn't argue with that outlook. Glad that Eden and Aristide had found some sort of rapprochement, Rachel let her mind wander back to her own issues.
"Did you get the report from Hawk's company?" she asked her husband.
"It came in last night while we were sleeping."
"What did it say?"
"According to the documents, Bethany is indeed your mother's daughter."
Rachel felt her knees give way.
Sebastian swore in Greek even as he swept her around to lean into him. "Are you all right, agape mou?"
"Yes…I just…I didn't expect her to be telling the truth."
"The DNA test has not come back yet, but the likelihood is it will be a match for half-sisters."
"I…" Rachel didn't know what she wanted to say.
Andrea had had another child. A daughter, whom she'd given up.
"Did Bethany have a good life?"
"According to the report, her parents were salt-of-the-earth type people who adopted late in life after losing one child and being unable to get pregnant again."
"How awful for them."
"Ne."
"So, she had a good childhood."
"From what they investigators could put together, yes."
"You said, were."
"Her father died five years ago from a heart attack. Her mother passed this last year, after a prolonged illness that ended in organ failure."
"That's terrible."
"You are so compassionate, fíltatos mou. It is one of the many things I love most about you." He brushed her hair away from her face, the touch a caress. "According to her social media and the reports of neighbors, Bethany cared for her mother at home to the very end."
"And that's why she went looking for her genetically related family? She was alone in the world," Rachel guessed.
"She has a couple of cousins, aunts and uncles, but the age difference is significant. Her cousins are closer to the age of your mother."
"I doubted her," Rachel said painfully.
"With good reason, but I believe this Bethany is, in fact, a decent person who is looking for a connection to someone she can love after losing her parents."
"She's not married?"
"She's never even been engaged."
"But she's thirty-one."
"And she's spent the last ten years taking care of her parents."
"She's nothing like Andrea."
"But she is clearly a lot like her half-sister."
"What? I've never taken care of an ill relative."
"If my mother, or your father, became ill, would you place them in a facility?"
"No, of course not!"
"Even a very good one with a private nurse?"
"You know I wouldn't."
"Because your love is more than a feeling, it is a hundred and fifty small actions every day and any big ones necessary to make life better for those blessed enough to fall under its umbrella."
She turned in his arms and put her arms around Sebastian to hug him. "Sounds a lot like your brand of love."
"Perhaps. That is undoubtedly why we are so well matched."
"Or it could be that I fancy you something rotten and always have."
His laughter cascaded around them, making her smile in response. He leaned down and kissed her with satisfying passion. "The feeling is entirely mutual."
"I believe you."
"Do you want to meet Bethany before, or after, Christmas?" he asked.
"Before if we can manage it. I mean, it doesn't sound like she's close to the rest of her family. I don't want her spending the holiday alone."
"What did I say? Compassionate almost to a fault."
"Almost?"
"I can find no fault in you. To me, you are perfect."
"That's a lot to live up to."
"Only if I expect perfection and that is not the same thing as believing you are perfect for me."
"I love you so much!"
"And I love you!" He kissed her again, and then said, "I'll contact Bethany and send the jet to fetch her if she's amenable."
"Okay."
"Now, I think it is time we returned to our room so we can make some of those noises that show how very in tune we are."
Rachel spun around and started running across the beach toward the villa. "Race you!"
Sebastian caught up with her before she'd stepped onto the flagstones of the oversized back patio. He swept her up and threw her over his shoulder. "I've got you now!"
"What are you going to do with me?" she demanded breathlessly, her laughter making it hard to speak.
"If you hav
e to ask, I'm not doing my job right."
"Papa! What are doing?" Achilles demanded, sounding thoroughly scandalized finding his father carrying his mother through the kitchen.
"Having some much needed alone time with your mother."
"Aren't you two too old for that?" their son demanded sarcastically.
"Bite your tongue," Rachel told her son. "Romance is alive and well in our marriage, thank you very much."
Her son made gagging noises as Sebastian carried her through the kitchen.
"He'll change his tune one day and won't I enjoy reminding him of this?" Sebastian carried Rachel up the stairs.
"He's our son, he's always going to think romance between his parents is gag-worthy."
"I do not think so. I am very happy my mother found your father and it makes me very pleased to see them holding hands, or kissing."
"You're a special guy, Sebastian Kouros."
"I am happier than I can say that you feel that way."
#
Eden had offered to come with Rachel for her to meet Bethany for the first time and Rachel gratefully accepted. She was sorry if her sister found two Greek tycoons and their wives a bit overwhelming, but she was finding it very hard to adjust her thinking to having a sister she'd never known anything about.
The driver brought Bethany to the restaurant in Athens that Rachel had picked out for this first meeting. The food was good, but more importantly, there was a small room they kept in the back for business meetings or small social gatherings.
The table easily sat ten, but was laid for five at one end.
Bethany had Rachel's green eyes. Her hair was a really pretty honey blond, though and while she dressed kind of dowdily, her figure was curvy like Rachel's too, maybe even a little more so. But it was the look in her wary green eyes that told Rachel they had plenty in common.
She looked shell-shocked, hopeful and a little terrified all at the same time.
Rachel jumped up and rushed to her half-sister, offering her arms for a hug which Bethany returned without hesitation.
"Oh, it really is you. I wondered…you being married to a mega rich tycoon, if he'd insist on meeting me first, putting me through all kinds of security stuff first."
Rachel smiled as she stepped back. "You've been thoroughly investigated. Don't let his friendly countenance now fool you. But the result of the investigation was that he's decided you and I are a lot alike."
"Being investigated should probably offend me, but it doesn't." She smiled at Sebastian. "I like that you're protective of my sister. A loving husband should be."
"Agreed," Aristide said from the other side of the table with a significant look at Eden. "Even when it means protecting those we love from themselves."
Rachel made the introductions then.
The more introverted Eden surprised Rachel by offering Bethany a hug too. "It's very good to meet the sister of the woman I've considered my own sister for more than a decade."
Bethany looked between them, her eyes soft with approval. "I always wanted a sibling, but mom and dad were in their late forties and early fifties when they adopted me. It wasn't going to happen."
"I hated being an only child," Rachel admitted.
Bethany nodded. "Your husband isn't the only wary one, though I was more curious than worried. I had my own investigation done, not maybe as thorough as what you all could make happen, but I learned one thing for sure. You definitely got the raw end of the deal staying with our mother."
"That is what I have told her," Sebastian said.
Rachel shrugged. "Being her daughter led me to the family I have now. It was worth it."
"I'm glad you feel that way, fíltatos mou, and I love you very much, but I must agree with your sister," Sebastian said.
"Andrea was not a nice person," Aristide offered, with uncharacteristic restraint when discussing the woman who had given Rachel birth.
"My parents were truly wonderful people," Bethany said, sounding a little guilty about that fact.
Rachel gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm glad. I wouldn't have wished growing up with Andrea as a mother on anyone else, no matter how much I wanted a sibling."
"I guess we're both really lucky we got the best of our genetics from our father."
Rachel grinned, sitting down at the table. "You're right."
Bethany took the chair to Rachel's left. "I just wish I'd been able to figure out who mine is. But according to my investigator, Andrea was big on one-night stands with nameless strangers that year after she left your father."
"She actually stole me, hiding me from him," Rachel offered.
"What a truly awful woman."
Sebastian had a strange expression on his face.
"What is it?" Rachel asked.
"The DNA test came in while we were waiting for Bethany to arrive."
"Oh," Rachel cocked her head. "No surprises?"
"Actually, there was one," Sebastian said giving her and then Bethany a very careful look.
"What is it?" Bethany asked, looking ready to cry.
Did she think they might not be sisters? Rachel knew better. Their looks, their mannerisms, their viewpoint on the world? They were related. They were sisters.
"You did not match for half-siblings."
Bethany made a wounded sound.
But Sebastian wasn't done. "You matched for full sisters, who shared DNA from both parents."
Bethany turned whiter than the stucco on their island villa, while Rachel felt faint. "She's dad's daughter too? That bitch didn't just steal me away, she gave away his second child?"
"It looks that way, yes."
"We share a dad?" Bethany asked faintly.
"It appears you do," Sebastian confirmed.
#
"Can you believe Rachel's mother?" Eden asked Aristide that evening as they were once again getting ready for dinner.
They had spent the day together as she had planned, but unlike past times when she'd made such plans, she had not checked her email or checked-in with social media. In fact, she'd left her phone in their room while they went on an early morning swim with the children, then flown to Athens in the helicopter with Rachel and Sebastian. They'd gotten back to the villa only a half an hour before, but their children along with Rachel and Sebastian's were still busy Christmas shopping with their grandparents and a bevy bodyguards.
It was a yearly tradition, allowing the two couples to have a date night during the busy holiday season.
Aristide came over to do up the catch on her necklace. He met her eyes in the mirror. "Andrea was a terrible woman and I thank God, daily, that he gave me a woman like you for my wife."
"You think I'm a Heavenly gift?" she asked, disbelief he could shock her with stuff like this after so many years coursing through her.
"I do."
"Even after the way things have been the last couple of years."
"The foundation is important to you. I understood that."
"But you needed me too."
"I did. I do." He turned her around and pulled her into his body, his unbuttoned shirt allowing his naked chest to press against her hands trapped between them. "And I have you, ne?"
"Oh, yes. You always have. I just got lost for a little while."
"I know, sýzygos mou. You love me, ne?"
She reached up to cup his face, meeting his gorgeous Agean-blue eyes. "I love you with everything in me. My dreams are dry sand blowing on the beach without you by my side."
"You know I feel the same. Of what use is my wealth or my business if my family is not here to share the benefits?"
"You're a special guy, Aristide. I'm sorry I ever made you doubt my love." Her heart was still bleeding from that knowledge.
He kissed her until she melted into him, then it was his turn to meet her gaze, his own intense and dark with emotion. "I am sorry I ever doubted your love. Your heart is what gives my life joy, to doubt its beauty, generosity or passion, hurt both of us and I never will again."
/>
"My dear tycoon husband, even with all your self-confidence, I don't expect you to read my mind or my heart. I have to show you my love, just as, honestly? I need you to show me your love and tell me you love me often. You deserve everything from me that I expect to get from you."
"I will never withhold what you crave to feel secure in our marriage," he promised her.
And that was what it was, wasn't it? He needed to know he and the children came first and she couldn't just say it then turn around and put her work ahead of them on a regular basis and expect him to believe her.
"Neither will I."
He smiled down at her. "That sounds very much like a vow."
"You can take it as such."
"I think tonight, my brother and sister-in-law will have to do without us for dinner."
Eden was laughing with joy and anticipation as she landed on the bed with her very amorous husband.
#
Sebastian watched his wife walk aimlessly around their bedroom. She'd removed her clothes from earlier, but had not yet donned her dress for dinner. As much as he knew she was in emotional turmoil, so he could not act on it, his libido was sparked into heated need by the sight of her in nothing but a skimpy pair of panties and pretty, matching bra.
"Are you all right, yineka mou? You had a very emotionally challenging day."
She turned to face him, her body silhouetted in the setting sun out their balcony window. "That's a good way of putting it. How could my mother do that? Not only did she steal my sister from me, but she gave away her child, a child my father would have been thrilled to raise if she didn't want to. He's going to be so devastated when he learns what Andrea did."
"Perhaps, but he will also be thrilled to have another daughter to dote on. I anticipate a great deal of matchmaking from him and my mother."
"Your mom is an old hand at matchmaking."
"She succeeded with us, yes?"
"Oh, yes."
Sebastian doubted the sensual hunger he heard in his wife's voice. That was just his mind playing hopeful tricks on him.
"Do you want me with you when you tell Vincent what Andrea did?" They'd agreed to wait until his mother and Vincent returned to the villa after their overnight shopping trip with the children to tell the older man he had a second daughter.
