AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Why?’ Maddie hoisted herself up on her elbows. She felt stronger now, more alive, determined to get to the bottom of this unholy mess. His talk about Irini’s problems, his brotherly love, did ring true. Yet …'For the children I could give you?’
‘Chrysi mou!’ A ferocious little frown had gathered between her crystal-clear eyes. ‘That you will give me children, God willing, is a blessing. But I will still love you until the day I die if that never happens,’ he assured her emotionally, leaning forward to kiss the frown away, murmuring, ‘You will get wrinkles!’
‘And?’ she got out chokily.
‘I will love them. As I will always love everything about you.’
‘You’ve never said the love word.’ Maddie could hardly speak for the fluttering of unbearable hope that coursed through her. But could she trust it?
Cupping her face between his lean hands, he had the grace to look discomfited as he confessed, ‘I never got the hang of it. I don’t remember if my parents told me they loved me, but I know they must have done. After that, my life was a series of chilly rules and regulations.’ He shrugged. Then beamed. ‘But I’m telling you now! I fell fathoms deep that first day, remember? In the courtyard. You were wearing tatty old shorts, had smears of dirt on your lovely face. And freckles! I knew I was in love for the first time in my life, and vowed I would make you my wife!’
&
nbsp; Somehow he was on the bed beside her, holding her, but Maddie wasn’t going to let herself melt into him.
Instead, she said firmly, ‘Do you promise on our child’s life that all that stuff Irini told me wasn’t true?’
Golden eyes widened. He looked as if she had asked him to swear the earth wasn’t flat. He hoisted himself up on one elbow, his mouth quirking. ‘My Maddie, sometimes I think you don’t possess even one streak of logic in your beautiful head!’ A gentle finger made an exploratory journey over the fullness of her lower lip.
‘Think about it. If she and I had indeed made such absurdly Machiavellian plans, would she have alerted you to them right at the beginning of our marriage, when it would have ruined everything? Of course not!’ He answered his own question with that well-remembered supreme self-assurance. ‘She would have held her tongue, done and said nothing to make you suspicious, kept her fingers crossed, and hoped you remained in ignorance!’
‘Oh!’ Feeling monumentally stupid for not having worked that out for herself, she felt colour wash over her face.
Contrite at having pointed out her lack in the logic department, he amended, ‘I can see why you fell for it, though. You implied you were feeling out of your depth at the time. And Aunt’s spitefulness would have further dented your feelings of self-worth. For which she will go unforgiven. And as for Irini—well, my only guess is she saw you as a threat to what I can now see as her possessive feelings towards me. She wanted you out of my life and used the most far-fetched and ridiculous pack of lies I have ever heard! Amanda was quite right in insisting that Irini was just a spiteful, malicious woman. But wrong in advising you not to tell me.’
‘Don’t I know it?’ Maddie mourned with real regret. And then forgot any further explanations as he kissed her.
He lifted his handsome head long minutes later to state thickly, ‘Now everything is right between us? No more misgivings, doubts, chrysi mou?’
Everything inside her yearned to say Yes, of course! But there was still that raw spot, so recent it was capable of hurt. ‘So what was so important that you had to go to her a couple of weeks ago, when I asked you to stay with me?’
He stilled. She thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he shrugged, his golden eyes rueful. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t like to be reminded of the worst failure of my life.’ He took a long breath. ‘I was absent for the week before we went to the island, remember?’
Maddie nodded speechlessly. How could she forget? She’d been convinced he and Irini were together.
‘I was at the end of my tether,’ he confessed impatiently, as if that state of affairs was anathema to him. ‘You’d told me you wanted a divorce. I was determined to make you change your mind. On top of that, in refusing necessary treatment Irini had become a constant albatross around my neck. I needed all my energy to convince you to stay with me. So I decided to get her sorted out once and for all—get her off my back. I booked her into a clinic in California and personally escorted her there, thinking she’d be in good hands and far enough away to ensure she would think twice about just walking out.’
Anger darkened his eyes. ‘But that is what the wretched woman did! She was back in Athens and again threatening to kill herself. I couldn’t take the risk that she didn’t mean it. I wouldn’t have my worst enemy’s death on my conscience, never mind the woman I’d always looked on as a needy little sister. It took me two days to convince her that her problems weren’t over, as she claimed, and that her suicide threats were simply a cry for help. That I could no longer provide that help and her parents had to be told.’ He sighed heavily. ‘Apparently Aunt Alexandra was the first person she contacted when she got back to Athens. She learned that you were expecting our baby, and I guess that tipped her over the edge.’
He cupped her face in his hands and Maddie noticed the strain etched on his tight features, the set of his sensual mouth. ‘I will never be able to get within two miles of that woman without wanting to throttle her!’ His voice was roughened, the sexy accent more pronounced than she had ever heard it. ‘She did you great harm. Can you ever forgive me for failing you when you most needed me?’
For answer Maddie leaned into him and wound her slender arms around his neck. ‘I already have!’ Her smile was radiant. He loved her, and she loved him to pieces! And the feared Irini was just an irritating thorn in his side! ‘You didn’t know what was happening to me. It had only just dawned on me—that I might be about to miscarry, I mean.’ His fantastic eyes were beginning to lose that self-condemning harshness, so she pressed on, ‘You were doing the honourable thing—looking out for someone in distress. I know you’d never understood why I disliked Irini—how could you? And when I threw that panicky ultimatum at you, naturally you decided I was throwing a jealous tantrum.’
He closed both arms tightly around her and she laid her bright head against his shoulder and murmured, ‘Try not to think too harshly of Irini. Her head must have been really messed up. After our marriage she could see her prop—you—being taken away so she lashed out at me.’
That fairy story had probably been wishful thinking. Irini had been in love with Dimitri for years, hanging on to his protective concern for her for grim life, because that was all he’d ever offered, privately hoping for his love. But Maddie wouldn’t offer that piece of logic. Why burden him with it when in the past he had been unable to see what was right under his nose?
‘You are too generous, chrysi mou. Every day, every hour, I love you more and more, until I think I will explode with it!’
She could feel his heart thumping against hers. Her breathing quickened. She could afford to be generous when she had the blessing of his love. When she knew he would avoid the other woman like the plague in future. She lifted her face to his, her eyes drenched with emotion. ‘I love you more than I can ever tell you,’ she confessed.
His beautiful eyes were intense. ‘Then our marriage is safe?’
‘As the Bank of England! Please kiss me!’
So he did. He took her lips with an aching tenderness that brought tears of joy to her eyes and she wriggled closer to him and felt his body leap at the contact. The kiss deepened until she quivered with longing and just had to lie back against the pillows, making sure he came with her. In no time at all he was reverently sliding the fabric of her top away from her shoulders, until something stilled his hands and made his voice emerge on a determined tone.
‘Did you really mind about having a quiet wedding? If I deprived you, then I will arrange a blessing—a fabulous designer gown, bridesmaids, flowers and bells, a zillion guests in fancy hats! Just say the word!’
