by Maya Blake
‘And if I won’t?’
His face went bleak. Then changed to resolute. ‘I’m a very resilient and extraordinarily persuasive man. I won’t stop begging you to forgive me and be mine.’
She shook her head. ‘The things you say to me.’
‘Argue with me. Shout at me. But don’t leave me, Sage.’
Her throat burned and her heart tripped over itself with a wild hope. ‘I thought I would have to. I thought the necklace was all you cared about while I...’
He stepped closer. ‘While you...?’
‘While I was falling in love with you.’
He paled. Then a hoarse sound ripped from his throat. ‘You love me,’ he repeated numbly.
Tears brimmed her eyes. ‘I loved you from the moment you kissed me in Athens. I fell deeper when you danced with me in Napa.’
‘Thee mou. I will buy you the vineyard. We can have a date in that same spot every night if you wish.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘You want to date me?’
He stopped, a mutinous expression crossing his face for a moment before he jerked out a nod. ‘If that’s what you want. To start with,’ he tagged on.
‘Exclusively?’
He frowned. ‘Of course exclusively. You think I’m going to allow you to date other—?’
He spotted the beginning of her smile and sucked in a harsh breath. ‘I’m going to punish you for that, agape mou.’
Her breath caught. ‘I’m pretty sure I know what that means.’
‘Do you, my love? Do you have any idea just how much I love you?’
‘Oh...oh, Xandro.’
He closed the gap between them and caught her up in his arms. ‘I love you, Sage. So much.’
They kissed for a very long time, then parted. ‘I’m sorry I blackmailed you,’ he murmured against her lips.
Her heart snagged. ‘I’m not a huge fan, but this time I’ll let it go.’
‘While I’m confessing, I’ll admit I was a little jealous of how unconditionally you love Ben.’
‘You don’t need to be jealous. I love you, Xandro,’ she murmured.
Stormy grey eyes grew ferocious with wild emotion. ‘I don’t think a thousand years will be enough to hear you say that to me,’ he grated.
‘I’ll say it every day. I promise. Because getting on the plane with you, knowing I wouldn’t see you again once we found Ben, was torture.’
He held her tighter and pressed his lips to hers. Thick Greek words choked out from his throat.
‘You’ll have to teach me what those mean.’
‘Ne. Yes.’ He kissed her again, speared his fingers into her hair and ravaged her lips until she was too weak with love to stand.
He swept her up into his arms. ‘Tell me again,’ he demanded as he headed for the stairs.
She caressed his taut cheek. ‘I love you. I want you. My heart belongs to you.’
‘Mine belongs to you too, Sage mou. All of it.’
Words became redundant after that. They used their bodies to express their newfound feelings. Then repeated the process all over again, just to be sure.
Six hours later, she stretched in bed, smiling when Xandro trailed kisses down her back.
Going over the events of the past day, she bit her lip. ‘I’m worried about Ben.’
He flipped her over and levered himself on top of her. ‘I know, pethi mou. We’ll get him the help he needs when we return home.’
She slid her arms around his neck. ‘I like the sound of that.’
‘What?’
‘Home. With you. I like this house, too.’
‘We can tour my properties after your production ends, and you can choose which one you wish to make our home. Anywhere in the world will be home as long as I’m with you. And you’re completely naked.’
‘Oh, you say the nicest things.’
‘I say what’s in my heart. I love you.’
‘I love you, too, Xandro. So much.’
His nostrils flared as he took in a shaky breath. Then, as natural as breathing, her alpha lover was back, taking charge of her, worshipping her, loving her long into the night. And for as long as they had on this earth.
EPILOGUE
‘YOU HAVE A six-week hiatus between productions. Now that you’ve chosen where we’ll live, I think it’s the perfect time to plan a wedding.’
Sage gasped and stared across the breakfast table at the owner of her heart. ‘What did you say?’
‘I have a wedding planner on standby,’ he drawled without taking his eyes off the finance article he was reading. But she sensed a watchful stillness about him. And the fingers holding the newspaper were decidedly white-knuckled and unsteady. ‘I think it’s time to stop this dating nonsense.’
The love of her life wasn’t as calm and collected as he wanted to appear.
She slowly relaxed in her chair, raised her face to the beautifully warm morning sun and the breeze blowing from the beach where they’d just enjoyed a pre-breakfast swim in the Aegean.
At Xandro’s urging she’d chosen more than one place for them to live throughout the year. Their summers would be spent here on Ianthe Island, the rest of the time split between New York and Vegas, with long weekends away in the Caribbean. The rest of his extensive private property portfolio had been sold off. ‘Well, he or she can remain standing by. I’m not interested.’
The paper hit the floor and then it was his turn to look poleaxed.
‘What?’ His voice was a shocked husk.
‘You heard me.’
‘You don’t want to get married?’ he asked carefully.
‘Quite the opposite. I’m dying to get married. Only I haven’t been asked. I’ve just been informed a wedding planner is standing by.’
He shut his eyes for a tense moment. When he opened them they were stormy. He rose from his seat to crouch in front of her. ‘I’m sorry. I’m learning, agape mou.’
Her heart melted and she placed her hand on his lean cheek. ‘I know. But I reserve the right to yank your chain on your journey up the learning curve,’ she replied with a saucy smile.
He nodded solemnly. Then he completely chopped her off at the knees by reaching into his pocket and extracting a very velvet, very suspicious-looking box. He dropped to both knees, his eyes pinned to hers as he slowly pried open the box and offered it to her.
She couldn’t look. Not just yet. The look on his face was so much more breathtaking.
‘Marry me, Sage mou. Make me the luckiest man in the world by giving me permission to call you mine.’
Tears filled her eyes. ‘Oh, Xandro. I’m already yours. You know that.’
He nodded. ‘I want to make it official. Do you want me to call your father, formally ask his permission?’
A sliver of sadness threatened her happiness. Unknown to her, Xandro had flown to Virginia and had a conversation with her parents about her and about helping Ben. Whatever he’d said to them had brought them to her first performance as a Hunter Dance Company member. Despite the Broadway show’s rave reviews, and her performance receiving even more acclaim, they hadn’t congratulated her.
They’d had a stilted dinner together, during which she’d bitten her tongue against blurting out that Xandro was the secret investor who’d saved Havenwoods from bankruptcy. Only the warning gleam in his eyes had kept her quiet.
When they’d returned home he’d made slow, poignant love to her and cradled her in his arms afterwards. Her strained relationship with her parents might never be whole again, but she was done being heartbroken over it. Her heart belonged to Xandro Christofides and it chose to live in perpetual joy and happiness.
‘You can do that if you want, but I’m marrying you either way.’
‘Not to be pedantic, eros mou, but is that a yes?’
‘It’s a definite, try-getting-rid-of-me-now yes! I love you.’
‘I love you too, agapita. Now, take this ring from me before I sprain my wrist. This thing weighs a ton.’
S
he finally looked at the ring. And gulped at the large, exquisite square diamond set in platinum. The sparkle of the gem alone was enough to blind her. ‘What did you do, pick the biggest rock in the shop?’
‘Of course. My intention is for every man who gets within five hundred feet of you to know you’re mine and to stay the hell clear,’ he growled.
‘My God, you’re a Neanderthal.’
He growled once more against her mouth. ‘Ne. I’m your Neanderthal. And I intend to be for ever.’
‘I love the sound of that.’
‘Then so it shall be.’
* * * * *
Coming next month
IMPRISONED BY THE GREEK’S RING
Caitlin Crews
Atlas was a primitive man, when all was said and done. And whatever else happened in this dirty game, Lexi was his.
Entirely his, to do with as he wished.
He kissed her and he kissed her. He indulged himself. He toyed with her. He tasted her. He was unapologetic and thorough at once.
And with every taste, every indulgence, Atlas felt.
He felt.
He, who hadn’t felt a damned thing in years. He, who had walled himself off to survive. He had become stone. Fury in human form.
But Lexi tasted like hope.
“This doesn’t feel like revenge,” she whispered in his ear, and she sounded drugged.
“I’m delighted you think so,” he replied.
And then he set his mouth to hers again, because it was easier. Or better. Or simply because he had to, or die wanting her.
Lexi thrashed beneath him, and he wasn’t sure why until he tilted back his head to get a better look at her face. And the answer slammed through him like some kind of cannonball, shot straight into him.
Need. She was wild with need.
And he couldn’t seem to get enough of it. Of her.
The part of him that trusted no one, and her least of all, didn’t trust this reaction either.
But the rest of him—especially the hardest part of him—didn’t care.
Because she tasted like magic and he had given up on magic long, long time ago.
Because her hands tangled in his hair and tugged his face to hers, and he didn’t have it in him to question that.
All Atlas knew was that he wanted more. Needed more.
As if, after surviving things that no man should be forced to bear, it would be little Lexi Haring who took him out. It would be this one shockingly pretty woman who would be the end of him. And not because she’d plotted against him, as he believed some if not all of her family had done, but because of this. Her surrender.
The endless, wondrous glory of her surrender.
Copyright ©2018 by Caitlin Crews
Continue reading
IMPRISONED BY THE GREEK’S RING
Caitlin Crews
Available next month
www.millsandboon.co.uk
