It was time to fess up and win back the girl of his dreams. The love of his life.
Yes, that was exactly was what Allegra was—his life.
* * *
Allegra got home late after a mediation meeting ran over time and still the husband refused to settle. She thought longingly of that week, sailing around the Greek islands with Draco, when dirty divorces were the last thing on her mind. Not a minute went past without her thinking of him, wondering how soon he would find someone else once their marriage was formally over. She could have drawn up the papers herself, or got one of her colleagues to do it, but her heart wasn’t in it. She would leave it to him to sort out. He was the one who’d wanted the marriage in the first place. It was his mess to undo.
She had only just got inside and slipped off her coat and heels when the doorbell rang. Something about how the bell rang made her pulse pick up its pace. Emily did a quick ‘one-two’ buzz. Her neighbour on the left held it down for three counts and the neighbour on the right used the brass door-knocker instead.
This sounded...urgent. Insistent. ‘I’m not going away until you answer’ insistent.
Allegra peered through the peephole and her heart did a backflip as good as any Olympic gymnast. She opened the door with a hand that felt more like an empty glove than a hand. ‘Draco...’
‘May I come in?’
She held open the door. ‘Of course.’ Allegra closed the door and turned to face him. ‘Did you get the package with...? Oh, you’ve brought it with you.’
Draco placed the package on the hall table and turned to face her again. ‘You didn’t actually say you loved me the other day.’
Allegra licked her suddenly dry lips. ‘I... No. I didn’t see the point since—’
‘Then let me be the first to say it.’ He took her by the upper arms in a gentle grip, his dark, lustrous eyes meshing with hers. ‘I love you.’
For a moment she just looked at him, completely stunned. She had longed to hear those words for so long and now she’d heard them she was too overcome with emotion to speak. She gazed into his eyes, her heart thumping so erratically, as if it was looking for an exit route out of her chest. ‘You’re not just saying it to get me to come back to you?’
His hands tightened as if he was worried she was going to slip out of his grasp. ‘I’m saying it because it’s true. I love you so much it, scared me to admit it. I’ve been a fool, Allegra. A stubborn, block-headed fool. Can you ever forgive me for putting you through the last few days? If you’ve felt even a quarter of the despair I’ve felt then I deserve to be horsewhipped.’
She touched his face, not sure if this was really happening.
He loved her. Draco loved her.
‘I love you too. I think I may have done so since I was sixteen. But it’s grown from a silly crush to love of such depth and intensity, I can hardly describe it. I just know I feel it and I can’t imagine ever not feeling it.’
He smiled and hugged her close, rocking her against him as if he wanted them to be glued together. ‘I’m sorry for the other night. I was blindsided by your decision to end things. I didn’t see it coming because I was too proud to admit you had the raw end of the deal.’ Draco eased back to look down at her. ‘I’ve got a lot to learn about giving and taking in a relationship, but I hope you’ll teach me. If you’ve got the patience, that is.’
Allegra pressed a kiss to his mouth, breathing in the familiar scent of him that thrilled her senses so much. ‘Maybe you could teach me to be a little less insecure. I’ve been torturing myself with images of you taking up with someone else.’
‘There is no one else for me, agape mou,’ Draco said. ‘I realised that during my epiphany earlier this evening. I made those promises when we got married because there could never be anyone else for me. My subconscious must have known it, even if I wasn’t ready to admit it. I told myself I was marrying you to protect you, but what was motivating that protectiveness was love. You are my heart. My life. Can we start again? Stay married and live together for the rest of our lives, in a partnership others will envy and want to emulate?’
Allegra hugged him so tightly her arms ached. ‘I can think of nothing I’d like better.’
‘I wish I’d gone about this differently,’ he said. ‘It would have saved these last days of hell.’
‘They were hell for me too,’ she said. ‘But that’s all behind us now.’
A shadow passed through his gaze. ‘I couldn’t be in my house after you sent back the gifts I’d given you. It was like coming back to the house after my parents’ funerals. Even though they died years apart, the feelings were exactly the same. Seeing stuff sitting there but knowing they were never coming back to collect it. It’s the worst feeling in the world. The sense of helplessness. Aloneness. Emptiness. That’s when I realised I had blocked my feelings out of fear. I didn’t want to lose you, like I’d lost everyone else I cared about, so I fooled myself into thinking I didn’t love you. But then I realised why I was feeling so bad. Not out of pride or because of the business arrangement. But because my life is meaningless without you in it.’
Allegra stroked a fingertip around his mouth. ‘I was so miserable after you left. I couldn’t understand why you weren’t fighting to keep our marriage. It sort of confirmed my doubts in a way. But now I realise how hard it must have been for you, with me springing it on you like that. I just couldn’t go another day without knowing for sure how you felt.’
‘I should have fought for you. But I guess I was feeling so raw I had to get away to process things. But it’s not going to be how I solve conflict in the future.’
His eyes looked suspiciously watery. ‘I saw a family today. A young family with a toddler, and the wife was expecting another baby. It made me realise what I was missing out on. I don’t want to be surrounded by my wealth and possessions at the end of my life. I want to be surrounded by my family. Our family.’
She framed his face in her hands. ‘You say you’ve been denying how you feel about me—well, I’ve been denying how I feel about having kids. I’ve suppressed my maternal longings for years as I worked to build my career. I don’t want to get to the end of my life with a stack of legal documents for company. I want you. I want us to be family. And I want to live in Greece. It’s my home. I want to set up a legal practice where I can help women like Iona and Elena. Iona might fancy a career change as a nanny. I’m going to ask her next time I see her. If ever there was a frustrated grandmother, she’s one.’
His smile lit up his eyes, making them crinkle at the corners. ‘That’s been my mistake in the past—thinking “either, or” instead of both. We can both have what we want. It will take a bit of compromise on my part, but you’re going to give me lessons, ne?’
Allegra gave him a teasing smile. ‘When would you like me to start?’
He brought his mouth down to within a millimetre of hers. ‘After I do this.’ And he covered her mouth with his.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Being forced to spurn Nikos Kyriazis devastated Marnie Kenington. Years later, he offers to absolve her family’s bankruptcy—if she marries him! Nikos wants revenge – and he knows that in the bedroom he can take Marnie apart...piece by sensual piece...
Read on for a sneak preview of debut author Clare Connelly’s book
BOUGHT FOR THE BILLIONAIRE’S REVENGE
‘Now you will marry me, and he will have to spend the rest of his life knowing it was me—the man he wouldn’t have in his house—who was his salvation.’
The sheer fury of his words whipped Marnie like a rope. ‘Nikos,’ she said, surprised at how calm she could sound in the midst of his stormy declaration. ‘He should never have made you feel like that.’
‘Your father could have called me every name under the sun for all I cared, agape. It was you I expected more of.’
&nbs
p; She swallowed. Expectations were not new to Marnie. Her parents’. Her sister’s. Her own.
‘And now you will marry me.’
Anticipation formed a cliff’s edge and she was tumbling over it, free-falling from a great height. She shook her head, but they both knew it was denial for the sake of it.
‘No more waiting,’ he intoned darkly, crushing his mouth to hers in a kiss that stole her breath and coloured her soul.
His tongue clashed with hers. It was a kiss of slavish possession, a kiss designed to challenge and disarm. He blew away every defence she had, reminding her that his body had always been able to manipulate hers. A single look had always been enough to make her break out in a cold sweat of need.
‘No more waiting.’
‘You can’t still want me,’ she said into his mouth, wrapping her hands around his back. ‘You’ve hardly lived the life of a monk. I would have thought I’d lost all appeal by now.’
‘Call it unfinished business,’ he responded, breaking the kiss to scrape his lips down her neck, nipping at her shoulder.
She pushed her hips forward, instinctively wanting more. Wanting everything.
Her brain was wrapped in cotton wool, foggy and filled with questions softened by confusion. ‘It was six years ago.’
‘Yes. And still you’re the only woman I have ever believed myself in love with. The only woman I have ever wanted a future with. Once upon a time for love.’
‘And now?’
‘For...less noble reasons.’
Don’t miss
BOUGHT FOR THE BILLIONAIRE’S REVENGE
by Clare Connelly
Available August 2017
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Copyright © 2017 Clare Connelly
ISBN: 978-1-474-05265-8
WEDDING NIGHT WITH HER ENEMY
© 2017 Melanie Milburne
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Wedding Night with Her Enemy Page 16
