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Jax carried her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it in the most un-Jax-like tender manner. ‘You didn’t even leave me a note. I felt sick. I didn’t know what to do. I experienced pure panic—’
‘I would’ve phoned eventually,’ she confided. ‘I was so upset but you were right to tell me. It all needed to come out for us to deal with it and then put it away again.’
‘Your departure in a royal private jet was fairly straightforward when it came to tracking you,’ Jax admitted ruefully, and then he gathered her up into his arms with the attitude of a male who couldn’t keep his hands off her any longer.
‘The bedroom’s next door,’ Lucy told him helpfully.
‘I even told myself I was only marrying you for Bella’s benefit,’ Jax confessed. ‘I lied to myself all the way down the line.’
‘I persuaded myself I was only marrying you for our daughter’s benefit as well, so you’re not the only one.’
‘How’s Bella reacting to being here?’ Jax queried.
‘She’s got six cousins to watch and loads of toys to steal. She’s having a whale of a time.’ Lucy laughed, blue eyes sparkling, and Jax looked down at her with his heart in his own eyes and adoration there, a brilliant smile on his lean, darkly handsome features.
‘You are a very special woman, Tinker Bell,’ Jax declared, settling her down on the bed with that same heartbreaking smile dazzling her. ‘And the saddest element of all this is that my father is now going to be battering down our doors for invites.’
Lucy studied him in bewilderment. ‘How? Why?’
‘Heracles is the son of a pig farmer,’ Jax told her with a chuckle. ‘Yes, he keeps that little fact well under wraps because he is an enormous snob. When he discovers that your sister is a queen, he will be horribly friendly. He’s very easily impressed in that line.’
Lucy shifted an unconcerned shoulder. ‘I can live with that. It’s not as though either of us can change our fathers. They are what they are but neither of them is going to get the chance to spoil our happiness again.’
‘Can you be happy with me?’ Jax pressed with touching anxiety. ‘You do know I’ll screw up again. I won’t mean to but I will because I won’t always get it right—’
‘Neither will I,’ Lucy pointed out equably as she struggled to get him out of his jacket and tie and then, when he got helpful, embarked on his shirt, spreading her fingers lasciviously across his muscular torso. ‘Love is all about making allowances and compromises. We’ll get there. Nobody has to be perfect.’
‘I think you are. You have a heart as big as any country, khriso mou,’ Jax told her with a blissful sigh as she knelt over him, cheerfully stripping him.
‘And so have you,’ Lucy countered, much amused. ‘The difference between us is that you put your heart in a cage to keep it safe—’
‘And you still worked your way through the bars of my cage,’ Jax reminded her appreciatively. ‘You’ve got more power than you realise.’
Lucy let a small hand stray and he arched up against her as if she had pressed a switch and she laughed as he sat up, wound both hands punitively into her hair and kissed her into breathless, leaping excitement. There was no more conversation then. They were both much too involved in sharing their bodies as they had shared their love.
‘I suppose we should get up for dinner…or whatever they call it here,’ Jax mused hours later. ‘I’m being a very rude guest.’
‘No, I know my sisters and they know me. They’ll have tucked Bella into bed and gone on as normal. There’s no pressure, no expectations. Everyone’s family here and that’s just the way it is. I love it, especially because you’re here too now,’ Lucy confided, tucking a sleepy head into the crux of a strong brown shoulder and dreamily taking in the familiar scent of his skin, soothed by his proximity and the glorious high of knowing herself loved at last.
‘I love you,’ Jax muttered, easing her closer, marvelling at how easy it had become to say those words that he had refused to think about for so long.
‘Love you,’ Lucy whispered, dropping off to sleep, because she had lain awake sleepless while they were apart.
And Jax smiled in the darkness, recognising that for the first time in his life he was truly, joyously happy.
*
‘This place looks amazing,’ Polly carolled as she stood in the marble hall of the house on Tifnos and admired the fabulous Christmas decorations and the glittering tree. ‘It’s wonderful that you have a home big enough to take us all too, so we can get together like this to celebrate.’
‘You can thank my fatherin-law, Heracles, for that. He built big.’
‘Was that the little man who kept on bowing to me?’ Polly whispered uneasily.
‘Yes, that was him, very subdued at being in the royal presence,’ Lucy remarked, stifling her amusement.
In the three years Lucy had been married to Jax a great deal had changed. Her fatherin-law was a frequent visitor, their children providing a major draw. Lucy had warmed up to Heracles considerably once she’d realised that he genuinely adored children and his grandchildren most of all. Yes, she had had another baby, a little boy called Dmitri, who was almost two years old. Their lengthy unplanned holiday in Dharia after their reconciliation had extended the family. She had enjoyed her second pregnancy much more than the first because she had had Jax by her side and Jax had been scientifically fascinated by every change she had gone through on the road to producing his son. He had shared everything with her and supported her right through the nausea in the early stages to every medical appointment and finally the birth.
During those three years only Lucy’s son had been born but Polly was expecting again, freely admitting that she wanted a large family. Ellie had declared that two children would do her nicely but one never knew with Ellie, who could be prone to saying one thing and then quietly doing another. As for Lucy and Jax, they were still young and, while being quite happy with the children they had, they thought that some day they might plan a third child. Ellie had already lectured them hilariously about birth control, pointing out that two accidental conceptions was inexcusable, and her audience had only laughed.
Kreon and Iola were regular visitors on the island and Kreon and Heracles politely avoided each other at family gatherings. Her father had faced bankruptcy proceedings the year before and Jax had bought a small business for him and placed him in it, pointing out that Kreon needed to be kept occupied and independent. His kindness had almost reduced Lucy to tears and she was relieved that Jax had finally begun to see and understand Kreon’s essential good-heartedness.
‘He’s your father and you love him,’ Jax had said to Lucy. ‘We have to do our best for him. After all, you put up with my father and forgive his foibles.’
Jax was a wonderful husband in every way,
Lucy reflected gratefully, feeling very blessed. After spending so many years of craving the feeling of being special to someone she had finally found a safe harbour.
Leaving Polly to get settled in with her children and explaining that Ellie had gone straight to bed after a hospital late night shift, Lucy went off to put Dmitri down for a nap because he got very cross and whiny when he got too tired and with all the children in the house and the excitement of the Christmas season, he needed more sleep. The little boy snuggled into his cot, clutching his toy elephant. He was as blonde as his mother, which had been a surprise to his parents, but he too had Jax’s green eyes and olive complexion.
Lucy looked out of the window and saw the older children down on the beach with Rashad and Rio. She could just make out four-year-old Bella in her yellow dress skipping through the surf with Polly’s younger son, Hassan, and Ellie’s Teresina. The cousins had all become fast friends and playmates, which made family get-togethers run more smoothly.
Recognising that she finally had the family circle she had dreamt of having all her life, Lucy vented a contented sigh and went to freshen up before dinner. She was in the shower when another body stepped in beside her and she spun round with a delighted smile of welcome.
‘Jax…thought you were going to be late tonight!’ she gasped.
‘No, I looked round my office, thought of you all here enjoying yourselves without me and decided I was needed at home. I saw the children down on the beach as we flew in.’
‘Dmitri’s having a nap. He was throwing tantrums all over the place,’ his mother confided ruefully.
‘I swear he’s got my mother’s temperament,’ Jax said worriedly.
‘No, don’t be silly,’ Lucy soothed, aware that he had that little fear that he might somehow pass on some troublesome gene. ‘He’s a toddler with a short temper and he hasn’t learned to control it yet. When he’s not tired he’s very good-natured. And, hey, did you join me in the shower to talk about the kids or—?’
‘Or, agapi mou,’ Jax chose, plastering her back against the shower wall and tasting her lush mouth with hungry urgency.
