by Lynne Graham
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.’
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. ‘T
hee 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.
‘That wasn’t nice,’ Pixie said, scooping up Tobias, who was crying over the loss of his favourite toy.
‘You don’t do nice, do you, Alpha baby?’ Apollo chuckled, lifting his daughter and exchanging the truck for another toy to return it to Tobias.
‘She’s just cheeky,’ Pixie contended.
‘And bossy…wonder where she gets that from,’ Apollo teased, watching Tobias stop crying to play with his truck. ‘I can’t get over how different they are.’
And the twins were. Tobias was the quieter twin, clever and thoughtful and methodical even in play. Sofia was all bells and whistles and complaints and needed rather less sleep. Together the two children had transformed their parents’ lives, ensuring that Apollo and Pixie spent more time enjoying the wide open spaces and beaches available on Nexos than in their comfortable London town house.
Pixie had spent all of her pregnancy in London. Only after the birth of the twins had Apollo admitted that his own mother had died in childbirth and that that was the main reason he had been so concerned about her. Luckily the twins had been born only a couple of weeks early by a C-section and neither they nor Pixie had had any health concerns. Her brother’s little boy had been born in the summer and Patrick and his little family now lived in Scotland where Apollo had found her brother a better-paying job. Patrick was still attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings regularly.
Springing upright, Apollo closed a hand over Pixie’s and walked her out to the landing, leaving the twins in the care of their nannies. ‘I have a present for you,’ he proffered.
‘Now? But tomorrow is Christmas Day!’ she protested.
‘Every day feels like Christmas with you, agapi mou,’ Apollo traded. ‘And Vito and Holly will be arriving in a couple of hours.’
‘My goodness, is it that time already?’ Pixie asked in an anxious voice. ‘I should check the—’
‘No,’ Apollo stated firmly. ‘You don’t need to check anything. The house is decked out like a Christmas fair. The gifts are wrapped and our staff have mealtimes covered.’
Pixie gazed down at her gorgeous sparkling Christmas tree in the hall and she slowly smiled. He was right
. Everything was done. It had become a tradition that every year the two young families shared Christmas and this year it was Apollo and Pixie who were playing host because Holly was pregnant again with her third child and she wanted to take it easy and be a guest. And although Pixie and Holly didn’t compete over who could put on the best festive show, high expectations did add a certain inevitable stress to the preparations. In any case, the whole house was looking marvellous. Holly was good at design and she had put together some colour schemes for the island villa and it was a much more welcoming house now that the bland beiges had been swept away and replaced with clear bright and subtle colours.
‘Bed?’ Pixie whispered to her husband because the arrival of guests, even if they were best friends, did put certain restrictions on what they could and couldn’t do.
‘You see, this is why I want to be married to you for ever and ever,’ Apollo declared as he swept her up into his arms. ‘You think like I do…’
Sometimes he was naïve, Pixie thought fondly. It wasn’t that she thought the same way as he did. It was more simply that she could never resist his sex appeal. He was dressed down for the day too in well-washed jeans and a sweater, but her amazing male still took her breath away with one wicked, wolfish smile. He just made her happy. In bed, out of bed, as a husband, as a father, he was all she had ever dreamt of and a couple of years of marriage had only increased his pulling power. His patient approach with Hector had taught her a lot about the man she had married. At heart he was kind and loving and good.
Hector and his little Greek shadow, another terrier called Sausage, followed them upstairs.
Apollo slid a diamond eternity ring onto Pixie’s already crowded finger. Her hands sparkled with a plethora of rings and she chose which ones to wear every morning. He liked to buy her stuff and she knew it was because she was rarely out of her husband’s thoughts when he was away from her. He kept his business trips brief and, if he could, took them all out on the yacht and did business on Circe where he could still have his family around him.
