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Lisa snorted with laughter. ‘Like you couldn’t find company with this place and Ari behind you! You’re living the dream, my love. You and those babies of yours are going to have a wonderful life.’
‘I certainly hope so.’ Cleo contemplated the huge mound of her pregnant tummy, being at that stage of pregnancy where she could no longer see her feet and when she felt as though she had been pregnant for ever, rather than a mere seven months.
She was carrying twins: two little boys she couldn’t wait to meet. And considering the fuss she had made about the unplanned conception Ari’s ex had tried to lay at his door, she did not have a leg to stand on when it came to her own. They had decided to wait for two years before starting a family, and then, over a year into their marriage, they had had a romp late one hot night in the swimming pool when Cleo had been ready to expire from the heat and...Boom.Cleo had conceived and twins were on their way, with Ari claiming that he was delighted, regardless of that conception having been an accident.
Ari might continue to insist that he hadn’t changed, but he had definitely mellowed. His wardrobe was no longer colour-coded, and he had learned to live with the clutter of a toddler’s life, not to mention a wife who was infinitely less organised and tidy than he was, Cleo reflected fondly.
And having observed her husband with Lucy, who was almost three years old now, for they had picked her birthday as the date she had been found and rescued, Cleo was pretty sure Ariwasdelighted about the little boys soon to join their family. He was brilliant with Lucy, who had recovered from her poor start in life slowly, reaching the milestones other children took for granted at her own pace. Luckily for her, Lucy had no lingering medical issues. Now she was a happy, healthy toddler with a shock of black hair and she still had Ari’s eyes, except hers were full of mischief most of the time. Those dancing dark eyes full of love and trust had walked so easily into Cleo’s and Ari’s hearts. Lucy had finally become officially their adoptive daughter only a couple of months earlier, but they had become her foster parents within a few months of that first meeting.
Now watching Lucy walk up from the beach with her little fingers possessively clinging to the leg of Ari’s denim shorts, Cleo smiled because father and daughter, uncle and niece, however you wanted to look at them, were very close. And Lucy couldn’t wait for the babies to come, the little brothers she would undoubtedly fuss over and boss around.
‘It’s idyllic here,’ her mother sighed happily.
She watched Ari come to a halt to answer his mobile phone. Lucy abandoned him and ran up to the house, ducking the other children, who were all older than her, and rushing up the steps to Cleo to climb straight onto her lap. Unfortunately, it was a lap no longer in existence since pregnancy had altered Cleo’s shape, and she sat up to accommodate the little girl more comfortably.
‘Sleepy,’ Lucy grumbled, slotting her thumb into her mouth.
‘I’ll take you upstairs for a nap,’ Cleo promised.
‘Love you, Mum-mum,’ Lucy sighed.
Cleo’s mother stood up and lifted the little girl. ‘I’ll take her up. You’re supposed to be staying off your feet in the afternoon,’ she reminded her daughter as Lucy snuggled her head into her grandmother’s shoulder. ‘And I’ll be a while. I like reading her a story.’
‘I only do that at night.’
‘Well, when Granny’s here, it’s naps as well,’ Lisa said cheerfully.
‘Thanks, Mum,’ Cleo murmured, thinking about how grateful she had been for her mother’s laid-back attitude towards her getting to know her long-lost father.
Gregory Stevens was not the selfish, uncaring man Cleo had once imagined he would be. She saw her father when she was in London and she liked him, although she doubted that they would ever develop a truly close relationship. She had also met her half-brother, Peter, who was a medical student and very down to earth. Her half-sister, Gwen, hadn’t yet agreed to meet up with Cleo and clearly wasn’t sure she wanted the connection, and that was fine with Cleo. She had no desire to upset anybody and thought it was sad that Gwen’s loyalty to her mother should have made meeting Cleo contentious. But Cleo was so happy in her own life that she had no need to put pressure on anyone.
Ari, having been cornered to settle a dispute in the kids’ ball game, mounted the steps into the shade. He scrutinised Cleo, lying there all golden and ripe and so damned sexy it made him smile, because he knew that if he told her she looked like some sensual fertility goddess in her current condition, she would threaten to slap him. Unlike her husband, Cleo was waypastfinding pregnancy sexy.
He sat down in the seat his mother-in-law had vacated. ‘Oliver’s got information on the whereabouts of Lucas’s twin sister,’ he told her in an excited surge, his gorgeous dark eyes golden and bright with satisfaction, for he had been chasing dead ends in his search for his siblings for the whole of their marriage.
Cleo sat up. ‘No bad news?’ she checked.
‘Well, Oliver said it’s a mix. She’s healthy, not an addict or anything like that. Clever girl, has a business degree, but, as Oliver put it and, no, I don’t know what he means by it, she’s had a lot of bad luck.’
‘Oh, dear... You’ll have to be careful about how you deal with her,’ Cleo warned him. ‘No bull-in-the-china-shop approach. You’ve seen how differently my siblings have reacted, so you have to accept that you may not be a welcome arrival in her life.’
Ari raised a cynical ebony brow and said drily, ‘Beware Greeks offering you a small fortune?’
‘Ari! There’s much more to it than the bottom line of an inheritance!’ Cleo framed worriedly, fearful that he would be tactless and would destroy the potential relationship before he even got the opportunity to have one.
Ari just laughed, all sun-bronzed and gorgeous and smiling, his spectacular eyes glittering. ‘I was only teasing you. I’ll find out what Oliver has to tell me about her “bad luck”.’ His handsome mouth took on a sardonic twist at that phrase. ‘And I will act accordingly, but you have no idea how relieved I am just to find her and know she’s alive and healthy.’
‘I do understand,’ Cleo protested, linking her fingers with his to tug him down to her. ‘Now, just one kiss...’
‘Just one kiss could lead to more,’ Ari warned her thickly, leaning down, closing his beautifully moulded mouth to hers and saying huskily, ‘Do you have any idea how much I love you?’
‘Possibly just as much as I love you,’ Cleo whispered as she gave herself up to that passionate kiss.
