She froze, unable to move, her heart shuddering in her chest.
And then the figure turned and her heart plummeted.
It wasn’t Adonis. It was Xerxes.
‘What are you doing here?’ Anna demanded, agony crawling through her.
Xerxes, against all odds, smiled. ‘I’m here on behalf of my brother. He’s been unavoidably detained, so he sent me to ask you if you’d like to attend a wedding.’
Anna blinked. ‘A wedding? What wedding?’
Xerxes’s smile grew even warmer. ‘Your wedding.’
Shock moved through her and for a minute she had no idea what to say. ‘Mine?’ she eventually forced out. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The king wants to know if it’s still true. If you’re still waiting.’
She shuddered.
‘Yes,’ she said hoarsely, before she’d had time to think. ‘I am.’
‘In that case, he told me to tell you that “never” came sooner than he thought and that you’re stronger and braver than he’ll ever be. And that he loves you more than he’d ever thought possible.’
Anna felt unsteady, the world upending under her feet. ‘I don’t...’
‘But don’t take my word for it,’ Xerxes said. ‘If you come with me he can tell you himself.’
Everything was the same. Nothing had changed. She still loved a lonely mountain of a man who’d cut her out of his life. Who’d told her that he would never wake up one day and realise that he wanted her love.
But it seemed as if never was here. And she had nothing better to do. The convent was still a prison. And there was a wedding. Her wedding.
‘Anna,’ Xerxes said gently when she didn’t move. ‘Please. He needs you.’
She didn’t know what that meant, and Xerxes wouldn’t explain, but in the end she went with him, shocked when she was taken from the convent to a private airfield and the royal jet took off up into the sky.
On the plane, Xerxes showed her a room where a simple, long, white, silky dress was hanging, plus a raft of feminine beauty products, hairbrushes and pins and make-up.
A wedding, Xerxes had said. Her wedding.
Anna’s heart thumped hard, and after Xerxes had closed the door behind her she stared at the dress on the hanger. Her wedding dress.
With shaking hands, she took it off the hanger and put it on. It fitted perfectly.
She paused over the make-up and then settled for her hair loose over her shoulders and a bit of lipstick. She didn’t need blusher. Her cheeks were already glowing.
And when she came out of the room, Xerxes’s smile filled the entire cabin.
Then there was nothing to do but wait.
Eventually, the jet touched down in Axios and she expected to be taken to the cathedral. Instead she was taken to a helicopter and bundled inside, and then they were flying over the mountains and across the sea, to a small, familiar island.
Anna’s eyes filled with tears as the helicopter touched down and the doors were opened, and then Xerxes was guiding her out of the machine and along a rocky path strewn with white rose petals that led to the sea.
And there on the pure white sand, with the blue of the ocean beyond, stood a man.
Just a man.
He was tall and broad and powerful, and he wore a simple white shirt with black trousers. His feet were bare, and pinned to his breast was a gold crowned lion.
He was looking at her and his eyes weren’t cold; they were a fierce bright blue, full of heat, full of the passion that burned in his soul. The mountain had become a volcano.
Anna’s throat closed and the tears threatened to spill, but when a little girl with bright red curls dressed in a sparkly white dress rushed up to her and thrust a bouquet of sea lilies into one of her hands while taking the other, Anna held on tight. And together they walked towards the man waiting on the beach.
There were only three others watching, Xerxes and his wife, Calista, and the priest standing with Adonis.
And when Anna arrived at last by his side he held out his hand to her, and the love and fierce possession that shone in his face made her heart tremble in her chest.
‘You came,’ he said, his deep voice hoarse as he took her hand in his. ‘I wasn’t sure if you would.’
‘I told you I’d wait.’ She took no notice of the tears on her cheeks. ‘And I would have waited even longer.’
‘I didn’t want you to.’ He brought her hand to his mouth, kissing the back of it, passion blazing in his eyes. ‘You already waited too long for me to come to my senses. Forgive me, little nun. I’ve caused you such pain.’
Anna’s tears fell and she didn’t wipe them away. ‘There’s nothing to forgive. You were just afraid and I understood that.’
‘But I never meant to hurt you.’ He turned her hand over and kissed her palm, keeping his gaze on hers all the while. ‘I should have trusted you and I didn’t. All I ever wanted was someone to put me first, to be more important to someone than a throne. But when you gave me that... I couldn’t take it. Because you were right, I was afraid. I told myself I was afraid that you would fail me somehow, but it wasn’t that. It was the pain I was afraid of.’
Her throat closed in helpless sympathy. ‘Oh, Adonis...’
His eyes gleamed hotter, fiercer. ‘I thought my detachment would save me from that, but it didn’t. There was too much inside me, all those feelings I’d been denying. I couldn’t shut them off. Then someone I know pulled me aside and told me what a fool I was.’ He glanced over to where Xerxes stood and smiled. ‘He told me where to find the strength I needed to step away from my father’s lessons. To overcome my fear.’ Adonis glanced back at her, the fierce love of the man shining in the king’s eyes. ‘It was you, little nun. You’re my strength. You showed me how to love without fear, how to love with passion and bravery. You would never fail anyone. And so I don’t want to fail you. I want you to teach me new lessons, better lessons. I want you to bring happiness into my life and I want so much to bring it into yours too.’
Anna couldn’t stop her tears and she could barely speak, her throat was so tight. ‘I want that,’ she forced out, her voice husky and raw. ‘That’s all I ever wanted.’
His smile was like the dawn after a long, dark, lonely night. ‘Then marry me, Anna. I should have come for you myself, but I wanted this to be a surprise for you. And I wanted to give you a choice too.’
Anna took a shuddering breath. ‘My choice will always be you, Adonis.’
His gaze was bluer than the sea behind him. ‘I always chose my crown before. But not today, little nun. Today, I choose happiness. Today, I choose you.’
And so they were married on the beach, with no fanfare, only family and a priest.
Not a nun and a king.
Just a man and a woman.
And after the ceremony Adonis took her into his arms and kissed her passionately and for a long time, much to Ione’s disgust.
Then much, much later, after celebrations with their family and after Xerxes, Calista and the priest had got into the helicopter and gone, Adonis and Anna let their little girl put Anna’s bouquet into the sea as an offering for Ione’s mother.
‘Will she get it?’ Ione asked her father as it floated in the waves.
‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘She will.’
Then, as Ione scampered down to the water’s edge to play, Anna leaned back in her husband’s arms, his body tall and powerful against her back, a mountain protecting her, sheltering her. Loving her.
‘You haven’t said it, you know,’ Anna murmured, watching the moonlight on the waves, and listening to Ione’s laughter.
‘Said what?’ Adonis’s breath was warm against her neck.
He was teasing her, of course he was. ‘Xerxes told me to come with him so I could hear it from you myself.’
‘You’re
mine.’ His lips brushed against her skin, making her shiver. ‘Is that enough?’
Anna turned in his arms and looked up into his strong face, meeting blue eyes gone dark as midnight. ‘And are you mine, Lion of Axios?’
He smiled just for her, lighting up her heart. ‘Of course, Anna Nikolaides. Who else’s would I be?’
Her new name made her happiness overflow inside her. ‘Say it.’
His expression intensified, blazing into hers. ‘I love you, little nun. I love you, my wife, my lioness, my strength. I love you, Anna.’
‘And I love you, my husband,’ she whispered back.
He kissed her under the moonlight, there on the beach, with Ione’s laughter in their ears. He was a king and a lion. A mountain and a man.
But most importantly of all, he was her love. He was her heart.
He was her home.
He was hers.
EPILOGUE
XERXES LOOKED INTO the crib and pulled a face. ‘Twins? Really, Adonis? You always have to go one better, don’t you?’
Adonis, feeling very smug indeed as he looked down at his two sons, laughed. ‘What did you expect? I am a king.’
Ione stood on the other side of the crib, looking as smug as he felt. ‘Achilles and Hector,’ she pronounced. ‘Those are their names, Papa. And they’re my Defenders of the Throne, aren’t they?’
‘They are,’ Adonis agreed. ‘Both of them.’
‘God help them,’ Xerxes muttered. ‘She’s been reading too many myths.’
But Adonis wasn’t listening. He was already turning back to the bed where his beautiful wife lay, resting on the mound of pillows he’d arranged behind her head.dpg!
He sat down and snuggled her into his arms, every muscle in his body relaxing as she turned her radiant smile on him. ‘We should keep those names,’ she said.
‘Really? You like them?’
‘Yes.’ Her smile deepened. ‘They’re heroes. Just like their father.’
‘Next time, I want heroines,’ he said and kissed her. ‘Just like their mother.’
Anna gave a long-suffering sigh. ‘There won’t be a next time. Not after that.’
But there was. And another. And then again.
Because, though the Lion of Axios was a stern and regal king, Adonis Nikolaides was a man who turned out to have an unlimited appetite for laughter and joy and happiness. For his wife.
And for love.
Always love.
Coming next month
CHRISTMAS IN THE KING’S BED
Caitlin Crews
“Your Majesty. Really.” Calista moistened her lip and he found himself drawn to that, too. What was the matter with him? “You can’t possibly think that we would suit for anything more than a temporary arrangement to appease my father’s worst impulses.”
“I need to marry, Lady Calista. I need to produce heirs, and quickly, to prove to my people the kingdom is at last in safe hands. There will be no divorce.” Orion smiled more than he should have, perhaps, when she looked stricken. “We are stuck. In each other’s pockets, it seems.”
She blanched at that, but he had no pity for her. Or nothing so simple as pity, anyway.
He moved toward her, taking stock of the way she lifted her head too quickly—very much as if she was beating back the urge to leap backward. To scramble away from him, as if he was some kind of predator.
The truth was, something in him roared its approval at that notion. He, who had always prided himself on how civilized he was, did not dislike the idea that here, with her, he was as much a man as any other.
Surely that had to be a good sign for their marriage.
Whether it was or wasn’t, he stopped when he reached her. Then he stood before her and took her hand in his. loz!
And the contact, skin on skin, floored him.
It was so…tactile.
It made him remember the images that had been dancing in his head ever since he’d brought up sex in her presence. It made him imagine it all in intricate detail.
It made him hard and needy, but better yet, it made her tremble.
Very solemnly, he took the ring—the glorious ring that in many ways was Idylla’s standard to wave proudly before the world—and slid it onto one of her slender fingers.
And because he was a gentleman and a king, did not point out that she was shaking while he did it.
“And now,” he said, in a low voice that should have been smooth, or less harshly possessive, but wasn’t, “you are truly my betrothed. The woman who will be my bride. My queen. Your name will be bound to mine for eternity.”
Continue reading
CHRISTMAS IN THE KING’S BED
Caitlin Crews
Available next month
Copyright ©2020 by Caitlin Crews
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The Most Powerful Of Kings (Mills & Boon Modern) (The Royal House of Axios, Book 2) Page 17
