His breath was ragged, torn from his lungs. ‘How can you feel that?’ he murmured with a growing sense of wonderment. ‘I have been—’
‘You have been Nikos.’ She cut across him, but softly, kindly, with the compassion that was always so close to her surface. ‘Determined, arrogant and good.’ She moved closer. ‘Do you think either of us really understood what we were doing and why? You wanted to help my family. I believe that was at the heart of everything you did.’
He made a sound and shook his head, but she lifted a finger to his lips.
‘Whatever motivated you to blackmail me into this marriage, I will never resent you for it. How can I? I’ve missed you and now I have you.’ She paused, her eyes scanning his. ‘I do have you, don’t I?’
He wrapped his arms around her waist, crushing her to him. ‘You have all of me, for all time.’ The words were a promise against her cheek. ‘All of me. And you are the best of me.’
She shut her eyes and listened to the pounding of his heart. Her lips twitched in a smile that shone with true happiness.
Gradually Nikos pulled backwards, dropping a hand to her flat stomach. ‘A baby was not on our agenda,’ he said, as if just comprehending the reality of their situation.
‘Apparently the baby had other ideas. I dare say it has a lot of your determination.’
He laughed. ‘Let us hope that is balanced by your warmth and kindness.’
‘Well, I guess we’ll find out in about eight months.’
‘And you are truly happy?’
‘Nikos!’ She laughed shakily. ‘When I found out I was pregnant I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. I know it wasn’t meant to be part of the plan, but it felt so right.’
He frowned, wondering how long she’d shouldered this secret. ‘When did you first suspect?’
She smiled. ‘Not until we were on the plane back to Greece.’
‘And then I told you to leave me.’ His face paled with remembered regrets. ‘It was for you, Marnie. I didn’t want you to go. You know this to be true?’
She nodded. ‘I’ve never seen you like that.’
His smile was grim. ‘I have only ever drunk to excess one other time in my life—the night your father paid me off and I took his money. Then, too, I felt like a shadow of the man I wanted to be.’
‘Don’t say that,’ she murmured, resting her head against his chest. She stood there quietly for a moment. ‘My father wouldn’t have liked selling you the house...’
He breathed in her sweet fragrance and a sense of deep gratitude filled him. To think that he’d almost pushed her away for good! He would never make that mistake again. Not in his life.
‘He...understood the necessity of it,’ Nikos said after a moment. ‘Agape mou, I thought I would relish that moment. I had fantasised about seeing your father a broken man. I had dreamed of being in a position to throw my own success and wealth in his face and see him suffer. But at the first opportunity to do so I saw only you. I saw you and discovered that loving you meant loving all of you. Even your family. If you married me because you love me then you must understand that I have helped Arthur because I love you. It was not a payment for your marrying me.’
The words filled her with love and certainty—certainty that they were right where they should be. Together.
But she pulled a face of mock consideration. ‘Well, it seems to me, then, that you haven’t upheld your end of the deal.’
Sensing the amusement in her words, he answered in kind. ‘I suppose you’re right. Is there something else I can offer instead?’
She pressed a finger to her chin and pretended to consider it. ‘I can think of a few things...’
He surprised her by scooping her up and laying her down on the sofa. His mouth sought hers and he tasted her giddy delight there and answered it.
‘Starting with right now?’
‘I will expect the payment terms to be over a very long time,’ she said, pushing at his shorts.
‘Would the rest of our lives do?’
She sighed, her body firing with insatiable need for her husband. ‘It just might.’
EPILOGUE
One year later
IT WAS THE ice sculpture that was the final straw.
She shook her head, torn between feeling cross and amused as she tore through the villa in search of her husband.
She found him by the pool, hands on hips, eyes staring out at the ocean. They’d been married for almost a year, and still the sight of him could stop her in her tracks. Her heart hammered roughly against her ribs, beating wildly as she approached him.
‘A swan?’ she said from just behind his shoulder, her expression one of utter disbelief. ‘Seriously?’
His grin as he turned around skittled any discontent she had felt over his lavish decorations.
‘It’s summer,’ she pointed out with a shake of her head, but her grumble was somewhat faint-hearted.
‘Almost autumn.’
‘Almost,’ she responded archly. ‘And it’s as hot as Hades today. That thing’s going to be iced water before anyone gets here.’
‘So we will drink it!’ He laughed. ‘How many times does our daughter get christened?’ he said, with such impeccable logic that all her objections were silenced.
‘You’re right.’ Marnie smiled up at him, giving in to temptation and wrapping her arms around his waist. ‘And now I have another bone to pick with you.’
‘Oh?’ he murmured, his lips still pressed to hers.
She straightened, trying to be businesslike. ‘The trust just called me to report that a rather sizeable donation has been made in Lulu’s name.’
His smile lit the world on fire—starting with Marnie’s heart. She was scorched with happiness.
‘What else can I give you and our daughter on her christening? You will not let me buy you jewels or clothes...you insist she has all she needs. But this, I think, you will let me do.’
Marnie nodded, tears of happiness clogging her throat. ‘But it’s so much...’
‘For a cause that means the world to you—and therefore to me. I still remember what you said to me, agape mou. That one day, through your efforts and the efforts of people like you, young girls like Libby might not get sick any more.’
He pressed a finger beneath Marnie’s chin, lifting her eyes to meet his. She felt the love and commitment that underscored every decision he made.
‘We have our own little girl now. How can you doubt my desire to work with you on this?’
Love coiled inside her. ‘Thank you.’ Her voice was husky. Emotions were too strong to contain. She lifted up on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips. ‘Why did we invite all these people over?’
He kissed her hungrily, his tongue exploring her mouth, his hands holding her tight against his body.
But for only a moment.
Then he lifted himself away, grinning as if he hadn’t been shaken to the core by their molten hot connection.
‘To see my ice sculpture,’ he said, and laughed.
She rolled her eyes, but her mind was drifting. ‘If only we had an extra hour...’
He grimaced, looking past her shoulder. ‘If only we had an extra ten minutes...’
He saw their guests through the glass doors and kissed the top of her head.
‘I will make you a promise,’ he said in an undertone.
Marnie nodded. ‘Oh, yes? I’m all ears, Mr Kyriazis.’
‘Not from where I am standing.’ He grinned at her, his handsome face a collection of lines and shapes that formed an inimitable image of masculinity.
Playfully, Marnie punched his upper arm. ‘I believe you were making me a promise?’
‘Soon we will be alone in our home again, and then I will show you just what tha
t dress and you are making me want.’
Her pulse was lurching out of control. She lifted herself up on tiptoe again and kissed his lips, smiling as familiar sensations rocked her to her core.
‘You’d better,’ she said simply.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to his side and knowing how right it was that they should be together. Everything in his world seemed to shine with the perfection that Marnie brought to his life.
‘Your parents are here,’ he murmured, looking down into the villa as Anne and Arthur Kenington made their way through the house.
Marnie took a moment to observe them, staying right where she was. Anne was her usual self—elegant and perfectly neat, despite the fact they’d come straight from the airport. Although a flight in Nikos’s jet was hardly an arduous ordeal. Arthur Kenington showed the greatest change. He was dressed casually in a pale polo shirt and a pair of beige chinos. His hair was a little longer, and there were more lines on his face now—lines Marnie chose to believe were formed by happiness.
‘Darling, there’s a puddle forming in the foyer,’ Anne said with pursed lips as she swept onto the terrace.
A breeze lifted past them, drawing with it the tang of the ocean and the sweetness of Libby’s rose garden. Marnie inhaled, drawing strength from this reminder of her sister before steeling herself to enjoy the next few hours. Her parents were not perfect, but they were still her parents. And, fortunately for Marnie, despite their meddling and strong opinions she and Nikos had found their way together in the end.
‘That would be the ice sculpture.’ Marnie winked up at her husband, then moved towards her mother, kissing her cheek. She hugged her dad before returning to Nikos’s side. ‘Thanks for coming.’
‘Of course.’ Anne nodded. ‘Where is our granddaughter?’
‘She’s with her uncle.’ Marnie grinned. ‘Her honorary uncle.’
Anderson emerged at that moment, their chubby dark-haired little girl propped on one hip.
‘Nothing honourable about him,’ Nikos teased, with a genuine smile reserved for their closest friend. ‘Unlike you, Lady Heiress.’
She shook her head, her hands extended for the baby Elizabeth. But Lulu only had eyes for her father.
Marnie laughed. ‘I see!’ She shook her head. ‘That’s the way it’s going to be, huh?’
‘It is because I am not often here when she is awake.’
‘Sure it is,’ Marnie said with another laugh. ‘And also because you spoil her silly. That’s okay—I’m not offended.’
And she wasn’t. How could she be? She had everything she’d ever wanted in life.
It was a beautiful afternoon, filled with happiness and joy. Finally, though, after the last of the guests had left and Lulu was fast asleep, Marnie went in search of her husband.
She found him on the terrace, his eyes focussed contemplatively on the shimmering moon. It was a cool night now, and Marnie wrapped her arms around herself for warmth.
Nikos noticed—as he did everything about his wife—and shrugged out of his jacket, placing it around her slender shoulders on instinct.
‘Here, agape mou,’ he said, pulling her closer to his warmth.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured, inhaling his intoxicatingly masculine scent. ‘Have I ever told you there was a time when I hated you calling me that?’ she asked softly.
‘Did you?’
‘It just reminded me of what I wanted from you. What I doubted you’d ever feel for me.’
Her eyes pierced his, and for a second those thoughts and feelings were right there before her. Such pain and heartbreak! How had that ever been their story when there was now such love between them? Such joy and trust?
She blinked to clear those dark vestiges of the past.
‘Did you doubt, Mrs Kyriazis? Did you really doubt?’
His eyes held hers, and in them she saw the truth that perhaps she’d always held deep in her heart. The incontrovertibility of who they were to one another.
His soft sigh breathed warmth across her temple. ‘I called you that, even when we were at odds, because I needed to believe we could be that to one another again. I wanted to feel that I had the right...’
Her smile shifted her features, taking his breath away completely.
‘It sounds a little like you were the one who doubted we’d find our way here.’
He put an arm around her waist, his fingers feathering over her hip. ‘Not for a second.’ His voice was gravelly. ‘I could never accept a world without you in it.’
‘Even if that meant blackmailing me?’ she teased, finding it almost impossible to credit the start of their marriage with the state of it now.
‘Even then.’ He dropped a kiss against her hair. ‘Will you ever forgive me for that?’
‘Forgive you? Hmm...’ She pretended to think, her eyes full of love and amusement. ‘I can think of one way you could make it up to me.’
He smiled softly. ‘Your wish is my command. Although in this case I think it is my wish also.’
The stars shone overhead and the rose garden was bathed with magical milky moonlight. Nikos Kyriazis kissed his wife, carrying her into their now quiet home.
And it was a home. Not simply a house, as it had been for so long.
Now it was a collection of walls that contained their family’s life, that was filled with pictures and love and the kind of warmth he had only ever dreamed possible. It was a home he shared with Marnie and Lulu, just as he shared his heart and his being with them.
A man who had never known love was now overflowing with it, and always would be.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Natasha Pellegrini and Matteo Manaserro’s reunion catches them both in a potent mix of emotion, and they surrender to their explosive passion. Natasha was a virgin until Matteo’s touch branded her as his and when Matteo discovers Natasha is pregnant, he’s intent on claiming his baby. Except he hasn’t bargained on their insatiable chemistry binding them together so completely!
Read on for a sneak preview of Michelle Smart’s book
CLAIMING HIS ONE-NIGHT BABY
The second part of her Bound to a Billionaire trilogy
‘For better or worse we’re going to be tied together by our child for the rest of our lives and the only way we’re going to get through it is by always being honest with each other. We will argue and disagree but you must always speak the truth to me.’
Natasha fought to keep her feet grounded and her limbs from turning into fondue but it was a fight she was losing, Matteo’s breath warm on her face, his thumb gently moving on her skin but scorching it, the heat from his body almost penetrating her clothes, heat crawling through her, pooling in her most intimate place.
His scent was right there too, filling every part of her, and she wanted to bury her nose into his neck and inhale him.
She’d kissed him without any thought, a desperate compulsion to touch him and comfort him flooding her, and then the fury had struck from nowhere, all her private thoughts about the direction he’d taken his career in converging to realise he’d thrown it all away in the pursuit of riches.
And now she wanted to kiss him again.
As if he could sense the need inside her, he brought his mouth close to hers but not quite touching, the promise of a kiss.
‘And now I will ask you something and I want complete honesty,’ he whispered, the movement of his words making his lips dance against hers like a breath.
The fluttering of panic sifted into the compulsive desire. She hated lies too. She never wanted to tell another, especially not to him. But she had to keep her wits about her because there were things she just could not tell because no matter what he said about lies always being worse, sometimes it was the truth that could destroy a life.
But, God, how could she t
hink properly when her head was turning into candyfloss at his mere touch?
His other hand trailed down her back and clasped her bottom to pull her flush to him. Her abdomen clenched to feel his erection pressing hard against her lower stomach. His lips moved lightly over hers, still tantalising her with the promise of his kiss. ‘Do you want me to let you go?’
Her hands that she’d clenched into fists at her sides to stop from touching him back unfurled themselves and inched to his hips.
The hand stroking her cheek moved round her head and speared her hair. ‘Tell me.’ His lips found her exposed neck and nipped gently at it. ‘Do you want me to stop?’
‘Matteo…’ Finally, she found her voice.
‘Yes, bella?’
‘Don’t stop.’
Don’t miss
CLAIMING HIS ONE-NIGHT BABY
By Michelle Smart
Available September 2017
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Copyright ©2017 Michelle Smart
ISBN: 978-1-474-05278-8
BOUGHT FOR THE BILLIONAIRE’S REVENGE
© 2017 Clare Connelly
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.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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