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 that 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.
* * * * *