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‘Sorry.’ He shook his head again. ‘No I can’t do that. You aren’t going to sabotage this, Tamsyn—no matter how hard you try. And even if you continue to glare at me and send me away—I’ll just keep coming back until you give me the answer that both of us really want. Which is that you will be my wife for real.’
She chewed on her bottom lip as her eyes swam with green tears and it took a full minute before she could form the words. ‘You...you really mean it?’ she whispered.
He slammed his palm against the left side of his sternum. ‘From the bottom of my heart.’
At this she started crying again but this time the tears were different and her mouth was trying to smile instead of wobbling with pain and Xan pulled her into his arms and kissed her with a tenderness he hadn’t known he possessed. For a long while they just stood there, locked in each other’s arms as their mouths connected in kiss after kiss, and not long after that, Xan made the discovery that the bed was plenty big enough for what he had in mind.
Efficiently, he stripped off all their clothes and it wasn’t until he had filled her with his seed and heard her choke out her own cry of fulfilment, that he
finally felt as if he was exactly where he needed to be in the world. That everything he’d ever wanted was right here, right now. They lay there, quiet and contented and Xan was stroking Tamsyn’s tumbled curls when he tilted her chin to look at him.
‘One thing interests me,’ he said.
Dreamily, she looked up into his face. ‘Mmm?’
‘Why didn’t you make a claim on Jonny’s estate, which presumably you didn’t? You could have been a very wealthy woman.’
Tamsyn shook her head. Even Hannah had told her she should try to get something from Jonny Trafford’s property portfolio and his back catalogue of songs,, but Tamsyn hadn’t wanted to know. ‘It all just seemed too sordid,’ she said slowly. ‘I knew there would be publicity and DNA tests and inevitable opposition to my claim and I couldn’t...’
‘You couldn’t face them?’
‘That’s right. It wasn’t worth it. All the money in the world wouldn’t have tempted me to put myself through an ordeal like that.’
He flinched. ‘Yet you were willing to marry me for a price.’
She met the question in his eyes and shrugged. ‘To be honest, it wasn’t for me. I was worried about my sister.’
‘Hannah?’ He looked at her in bemusement. ‘Who’s married to one of the wealthiest men on the planet?’
She nodded. ‘At the time I wasn’t sure if her marriage to the Sheikh was going to last and realised I needed funds to help her if she needed to get away from him. That’s why I did it.’
He pulled her closer and his eyes were darkly blue. ‘Oh, I love you, Tamsyn Constantinides. I love you because you’re strong and brave and loyal. You are the bright fire in my life, my love—and the world would be a very dark and cold place without you.’
Tamsyn swallowed, knowing that there was one thing more which needed to be addressed. ‘It doesn’t matter what my reasons were, Xan,’ she said quietly. ‘I still married you for money, didn’t I? All your life you’ve been pursued by women who know how wealthy you are and maybe at heart, you think we’re all gold-diggers. I can’t blame you for that, Xan. If I were you, I might even think the same!’
He traced his finger thoughtfully over the trembling outline of her mouth. ‘Okay. Let’s sort this out once and for all. Will you answer me just one question, Tamsyn, with all the honesty you have already demonstrated today?’
She hooded her eyes suspiciously. ‘Just one?’
‘Just one.’ He looked her straight in the eyes. ‘If I didn’t have a cent in the world, would you be lying with me now, like this?’
It wasn’t a fair question because there could be no equivocation about her answer and more stupid tears sprang to Tamsyn’s eyes as she nodded. ‘Of course I would,’ she whispered. ‘Because I love you for you, Xan—you and only you. All the other stuff simply doesn’t matter.’
His face was serious as he kissed away her tears and only when her cheeks were dry did he turn his attention to her mouth. And the kiss which followed was like no other. It wasn’t about sex, or ownership or possession. It was seeking and tender. It spoke of compassion and true intimacy. It spoke of the powerful trust which existed between them now. It spoke of sanctuary and a golden future.
And for the first time in her life, Tamsyn felt safe.
EPILOGUE
‘IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL,’ breathed Tamsyn as the sun sank slowly into the sea, turning the surrounding water into contrasting shades of deep purple and gold.
‘I know,’ said Xan softly. ‘Utterly beautiful.’
Tamsyn looked up to find her husband’s gaze fixed not on the magnificent spectacle taking place over the Aegean but on her. ‘Xan,’ she said, in mock-reprimand. ‘I was talking about the view.’
‘So was I. But in my mind there’s no contest. The sunset on this island is always magnificent—but its blaze is nothing compared to the colour of your hair, agape mou.’
Tamsyn gave a shiver of delight as his silken words washed over her. ‘If only I’d realised I was marrying a poet.’
