AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘And you are sure that this is something you want to do?’ Kyros asked his daughter, everyone seeming to hold their breath.
‘Absolutely,’ Summer replied resolutely. ‘I—we—couldn’t be doing this without you, though. And we can’t thank you enough.’ Her sisters’ agreement rose in the air, but Kyros seemed to shake them off, the swift jerk of his head reminding her bruised heart of Theron.
Mariam Soames looked to Kyros. ‘But after Althaia...’
Summer could sense it—her mother’s sadness, guilt even, about Kyros caring for another sick lover.
‘It is the least I can do,’ Kyros said, taking her hand in his and gazing into her eyes, ‘and the least I want to do. The treatment will start the day after tomorrow and I will be there with you every second of it. And when you beat it, you will come with me to Greece and recuperate in the sun, on my island.’
Star’s eyes bugged out. ‘He owns an island?’ she whispered, and Summer smiled.
‘You own a country,’ Skye chided.
‘Well, notownand notyet,’ she replied, fanning herself as if the thought was suddenly quite overwhelming.
‘And I own an estate,’ Summer said in wonder as her sisters looked at her with joy and excitement for her.
‘Yeah, you do,’ Skye said, gently bumping her shoulder against Summer’s shoulder.
It unfurled within her, this sense of rightness and excitement. She would restore the building using the latest and safest technologies and ensure that Catherine’s heritage,theirheritage, would stand for a very, very long time.
Once again, she could have sworn she heard the sound of a child’s laughter disappearing into the estate, and, whether it was prescient of the future or an echo of the past, Summer felt comforted by it. A gift, given to her by her ancestors.
The sound of wheels on gravel drew the group’s attention to the windows.
‘I’d hoped Beamish had left,’ Skye said, failing to suppress the shiver of dislike that ran through her body.
‘He must have forgotten something,’ Summer said, standing from her seat.
‘I’ll go,’ Star offered.
‘That’s okay,’ Summer said, stretching out the slight ache across her shoulders. ‘I’m sure I’ll only be a moment.’ She left the room before there could be any more protests. It was a strange feeling, but after weeks on her own in the estate, with her parents and her sisters here it suddenly felt crowded, a little claustrophobic even. A part of her wanted to be alone, to feel all the things that had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours. If she thought about it too hard her head started to spin.
The sound of the car grew closer and closer as she reached the front of the house and she pulled open the door in time to see a black behemoth pull to a stop. It looked like something from the army.
She frowned, a little worried now, as the passenger door opened and she heard the tail-end of an argument in heavily accented English, ‘At least it’s better than a convertible!’
The slam of the door drew her attention to the tall form stepping down from the beast of a car, long legs easily reaching the distance to the ground and turning on the gravel. From the handmade shoes to the expensive superfine wool trousers moulding powerful thighs, the leather belt at lean hips she had clung to, the broad expanse of chest that made her pulse trip, she knew every inch of the father of her child and would never tire of seeing him, even if he had shattered her heart.
The sensuality of his lips was inflamed by the determined slant to them, the flare in his gaze as he drew to a sudden halt, seeing her standing in the doorway at the top of the stone steps. For moments they just stood and stared, as if gorging on the sight of each other.
They both moved at the same time, starting towards each other and stopping again.
‘Gia ónoma tou Theó...’Summer shot a glance over Theron’s shoulder to see Lykos Livas standing against the monstrous vehicle with his arms crossed over his chest and an almost childlike look of irritation on his features. Summer had to suppress a smile, guessing at the translation from the obvious impatience in Lykos’s voice.
Then she saw him flinch as Lykos looked over her shoulder, and she turned to find her father and mother standing behind her with her sisters off to the side. Lykos and Kyros stared each other down, before Lykos purposely cut his gaze away.
Summer frowned, wondering what had happened there but knowing that was a story for another time. Paying no more attention to them, her gaze hungrily returned to Theron. Hope bloomed in her heart and she gazed into his eyes, knowing that something was different. She’d been waiting for the shutters to come down to mask his feelings, but they didn’t and she began to believe that they might never come down again.
He opened his mouth as if to speak, then stopped. She moved a step forward as he did and then stopped again.
‘I love you,’ he said, and her legs trembled. ‘There are things I was supposed to say. Aplan. But... I love you.’
She couldn’t help but laugh gently as she repeated the words he’d once said. ‘Plans are not wants.’
‘Iwantyou,’ he said helplessly. ‘With every single fibre of my being. I want you. I always have. You need to know that. But now, and for ever, I want tobewith you. To hear you laugh, to help you cry, to be the vent for your anger, your frustration. I want to argue with you, I want to make up with you, I want to care for you, protect you, grow old with you. I just... I want to love you and be loved by you. Any plan, now or in the future, will always be for you and our child. Whether I’m with you in the same room, house or even country. Whether—’ he paused, as if swallowing some deep emotion ‘—you want me or not.’
Her love-filled gaze cleared enough to see his sincerity, but his words brought back the memories of their argument and, despite the joy she felt at his declaration...it wasn’t enough. She needed it and their child needed it. ‘What changed?’ she asked, shrugging helplessly.
