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After a second of shocked silence, during which the entire group seemed to assimilate her rather risqué teasing, they all burst out laughing, including Dimitri. There were a few more teasing comments and Madeleine even went so far as to welcome Dimitri into the family which he thanked her for with grave appreciation rather than his usual arrogance.
After which, he leaned toward Alexandra and asked, “Are you ready to go?”
“We haven’t danced yet.” And she wanted to.
He smiled indulgently. “And we must do this to fulfill tradition, hmm?”
She nodded, loving the look of indulgence in his eyes. It made her feel cosseted.
He reached out his hand and led her to the middle of the ballroom floor, empty but for a few guests who stood in small groups chatting. Their presence on the dance floor was the orchestra’s cue to move into a slow waltzing tune.
She and Dimitri took the traditional pose for a waltz, her train attached to her wrist making her feel like a nineteenth-century debutante at her comeout ball. Dimitri’s dancing was divine and Alexandra lost herself in the pleasure of his arms and their bodies’ movement to the music.
Other couples began to join them. Madeleine and Hunter. Phoebe and Spiros. Several guests she did not know by name.
She tilted her head to look into his eyes. “Thank you.”
“For dancing with you?” he asked, a smile flirting with the edges of his lips.
“For all of this. The wedding. Keeping Mama calmed down over the last week. Charming Madeleine so she didn’t think I was marrying an ogre. Buying the Dupree Mansion back for Mama. I guess I didn’t think you were totally serious and yet you accomplished the purchase in less than a week. I’m stunned.”
“I want you to be happy, pethi mou. I have told you this.”
“Are all Petronides men willing to sacrifice for their wife’s happiness?”
A shadow passed over his chiseled features, but was quickly gone. “All the Petronides males in my family, yes.”
“That gives me a great deal of hope for the future, mon cher.”
He stopped, stock-still in the middle of a turn.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, anxiously. Had she stepped on his foot without realizing it?
“Say it again.”
“What?” Then she knew. She hadn’t called him by an endearment since he found her at Madeleine’s. Even in the most passionate of their lovemaking, she had used only his name.
She could not deny him. He’d given her so much this week. She went up on tiptoes and still had to pull his head down so their lips could meet. “Mon cher,” she whispered against his lips before kissing him.
It was a kiss completely lacking in passion, a restoration of a bond that had been cruelly severed and left her bleeding. It had left its mark on Dimitri as well and now they saluted one another with a kiss of remembrance and renewal.
Three hours later, they were aboard Dimitri’s private jet. She had changed into a comfortable, but chic honey gold, oversized, crocheted sweater and almond-colored wool stretch pants. Relaxed on the small couch in the plain’s main cabin, she sipped on the glass of fruit juice Dimitri’s personal flight attendant had given her.
“We should be taking off in less than half an hour,” Dimitri informed her, walking into the main cabin from the cockpit after speaking to the pilot.
He had changed too and now wore tailored black slack trousers, a round-necked Armani sweater in gray over a black T-shirt. He lowered his long frame onto the sofa beside her, his outer thigh brushing her own sending the ever ready shivers down her limbs in anticipation of the next touch.
“How long will the flight to Athens take?” she asked, trying to tamp down the urge to slide her hands under his sweater and feel the well muscled contours of his chest.
He shrugged. “It depends. Perhaps eight hours.”
“I’m glad I don’t have to make the flight on a commercial airline. I don’t think I could take it.” So much sitting in one position would be painful to her back in her currently pregnant state.
His fingertips brushed her cheeks. “I would never expect you too.” His hand fell away. “I did not ask if you were okay with changing doctors so late in your pregnancy.”
“I can hardly have my New York doctor in Greece,” she replied with a smile.
“So Madeleine said.”
Her sister again. She bit back a grimace. “I’ll be fine.”
“I have arranged for you to be seen by an eminent obstetrician in Athens. He wants us to move to the Athens apartment for your last month.”
“You’ve already spoken to him?” Why did that surprise her? This was his heir they were talking about after all.
“He comes highly recommended.”
“I have no doubt,” she said with some bemusement. So much for having to find a new doctor and arrange appointments for her last trimester.
“If you do not like him, we will find someone else.”
Suddenly it struck her that Dimitri was worried about her reaction. She laid her hand over his. “I’ll be fine. Really. Have you already arranged for my records to be transferred?”
“I had them faxed three days ago.”
“Did I sign for that?” Between the marriage license, living Visa for Greece and other paperwork necessary for their wedding to take place, she didn’t know what she had signed.
“Yes.”
“Do you plan to be with me during delivery?”
“I would like this very much, but the final decision must be yours.”
That surprised her. First that he wanted to be there. Dimitri wasn’t exactly a New Man. And second that he would leave the choice to her. “I want you there.”
“Then I will be. I believe there are classes we can take to help you through the delivery.”
She stared at him, too shocked to speak this time.
“What is the matter? Do you not wish to take these classes? I had heard they were very beneficial for new mothers. I think you should consider attending them.”
“I had always planned to do so,” she choked out.
“You do not wish me to attend with you? Someone must be your coach. As your husband, I should fulfill the role.” He was arguing with her like she’d denied him.
She hadn’t. Didn’t he realize how much she had wanted to share her pregnancy with the father of her baby? She’d dreamed of taking childbirth classes with Dimitri, but had known her fantasies were unattainable. Cold reality had been a life without him and the prospect of giving birth alone.
“I want you to be my labor coach. I want that more than anything.” Then she burst into tears.
Dimitri looked like he’d just been hit by a truck. It would be funny, if she wasn’t feeling so emotional.
“Alexandra, yineka mou, what is it?”
She shook her head and tried to stem the flow of tears, but the salty wetness kept up a steady flow down her cheeks.
“You must not upset yourself this way.”
“I’m n-not upset,” she sobbed.
“Come here.” He took her glass from her hand and set it down, then pulled her into his arms and onto his lap. Just like in the limo. “Tell me what is making you cry.” He sounded quite desperate.
“I wanted you to be there so many times. I would wake up and reach for you and only find an empty bed. The first time the baby really kicked, I wanted to call you, but I thought you were married. I m-missed you so much…”
His arms tightened around her and he whispered to her in Greek. The words were too low and quick for her to understand, but the soothing tone was not. She snuggled into his arms and cried out the frustration and pain of the last three months.
Her sobs eventually turned to small hiccups and he mopped up her face as if she were a child. She gave him a watery smile. “You’ll be good with the baby.”
He didn’t respond to the joke. His eyes had darkened with unfathomable emotion. “You will never be without me again.”
As vows went, that was a pretty comforting one. She nodded, accepting his words and the promise in his eyes.
CHAPTER TEN
HER tears were killing him. And she’d cried like this for a solid month after leaving Paris? The thought sent shards of pain slicing through him.
This was his woman. His wife. He had almost lost her. He would never let her go again. She had wanted him and he hadn’t been there. He didn’t want her to cry anymore. He wanted to look toward the future, for her to see things were going to be different.
He knew the truth now, who and what she was beyond the fashion model with an almost obsessive focus on her career. He understood that focus now. She’d been supporting her family, her mother now, but presumably Madeleine also until she had married Hunter. Alexandra hadn’t been able to give up her career to travel with him because she had needed the money and she’d not wanted to take it from him.
