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Loucas squeezed her hand. His eyes were dark, his lips twisted into a small smile. “Mikey, I don’t know how to describe how I feel. I thought,” his voice was thick as he searched for the words. “Before I met you, I thought I had the answer to everything. I thought I knew everything. I actually thought I was happy and that my life was perfect. And then, you stormed into my office, and it was like a window had blown open, and for the first time, I caught a glimpse of what an incredible world was out there. A world that you, and you alone, make possible. That I can only access with you by my side. You are my source of happiness in this world. Please, Mikey, walk with me through life, and keep that window open. I don’t want to go back to life without it, ever.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she slipped the ring onto her finger. She didn’t even look at it. Though of course, later, when she was snapping photos with her phone to send back to her delighted family, she was almost embarrassed by the sheer size of the solitaire diamond. But in that moment, she was only capable of absorbing his words.
“This window is glued open, Luc,” she promised. “The best builders in the world couldn’t shut it.”
He pulled her down to him, kissing her soundly now as he couldn’t with Andrew cuddled in with them. “And now, I have a family. My precious family, that I will love, protect and cherish with all that I am, for the rest of my life.”
THE END.
If you enjoyed THE GREEK TYCOON’S FORBIDDEN AFFAIR, please keep reading for an excerpt from THE BILLIONAIRE’S CHRISTMAS REVENGE by Clare Connelly. It’s available, along will all of Clare Connelly’s titles, right here, on Amazon.
THE BILLIONAIRE’S CHRISTMAS REVENGE
By Clare Connelly
CHAPTER ONE
He’d watched the video enough times to be certain, but still he hit the play button once more.
A strange lurching feeling clenched in his gut as he watched his wife, his beloved wife, check into a hotel with another man. He knew every curve of her body. Her hair was so pale, like silver, that it almost glowed in the grainy monochromatic footage.
He’d tried to imagine a justification. Some reasonable explanation as to why, at two o’clock in the afternoon, when she was supposed to be working, his wife would instead be with a strange man, at the concierge of Claridge’s.
At least she looked guilty. That was some consolation, though it did nothing to ease his strong sense of betrayal. Her beautiful face jerked towards the door once more, as though she was terrified she might get caught. And though the quality was poor, and the video grainy, he was a world expert in Bianca Casacelli and he knew she was scared out of her mind.
He almost felt sorry for her, except that she’d cheated on him. And Niko was not a man to be made a fool of. It had taken only a few minutes for the entire fantasy of an idyllic marriage that he’d built to crumble down around him. He who had never believed in Happy Endings, who had never thought love and marriage were at all sensible, who had grown up knowing women were inherently untrustworthy, had put all his doubts and beliefs aside the second he had seen Bianca Scott-Lee. She had completely turned his world on its head, and he had imagined she felt the same. That same blissful, enervating energy that flowed through him when they were together, surely she had felt it too? But this was clear evidence that she hadn’t. Not in the same way, at least.
It was the worst possible moment, but then, Marcos had a knack for catching Niko at his worst. He pushed into Niko’s office and began speaking immediately about a friend of theirs, but one look at his brother’s ashen face silenced him.
“Niko? What’s going on?”
For the smallest moment, Niko considered concealing the truth from his brother. A strange protective instinct made him want to shield Bianca from the condemnation that Marcos would certainly feel for her. But such loyalty wasn’t required anymore. Not when she had broken the vows of their marriage.
“I’ve just discovered Bianca has been cheating on me.”
Marcos stopped walking and inclined his dark head, surprise evident in every line of his body. “I’m sorry, Niko. Did you just say…?”
“Yes. Bianca’s having an affair.”
Marcos pulled two bottles of sparkling mineral water from the fridge and tossed one towards Niko. He caught it easily in his left hand, and put it straight back down again. He didn’t want a drink. Not of water, anyway.
“I don’t believe it,” Marcos said finally. “You must be mistaken.”
“Unfortunately, I have ample evidence. Credit card receipts show a long history of deceit, and more damning than that, surveillance footage of her checking into a hotel with one Simon Cave.”
Marcos moved to look over Niko’s shoulder, at the computer screen. Though Niko was beginning to feel sick to the stomach, he once more pressed the play button, so that Marcos could see for himself the full extent of his wife’s duplicity.
When he’d watched the security tape fully, Marcos swore under his breath. The tape was damning. “How did you find out?”
Niko’s lip curled in a sarcastic grimace. “An over-efficient security staff member brought it to my attention.”
“I see. And what does Bianca say?”
Niko lifted his eyes to his brother’s, his pain obvious. “I haven’t spoken to her yet. I just found out.”
Marcos searched for the right words. “You fell hard for this woman. You need to speak to her. I know the video is pretty hard to argue with, but I know Bianca. She loves you, Niko.”
“Enough,” Niko said forcefully. “It has been going on since we returned from our honeymoon. Three years, she has been running around behind my back. With this idiot.”
