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Surprise filled Gaby, swiftly followed by pleasure.
‘I let you down with Cassia and I feel so guilty about that,’ Angel exclaimed abruptly, disconcerting her. ‘I let myself trust her rather than you...you, who have never done a single thing to inspire distrust!
‘I couldn’t have survived you being hurt,’ Angel confided, stalking closer, his brilliant gaze intent. ‘I need you to be happy and content here in the palace, living on Themos with me...’
Gaby could feel her heart beating very, very fast, as if she were on the point of starting a race. ‘Why?’
‘You know why,’ Angel told her confidently. ‘You own me body and soul. Why else were you asking me about why I had never wanted an emotional connection with a woman? I’m in love with you. I’ve probably been in love with you since you were a student, only I couldn’t feel safe with you then without an NDA and I turned my back on you...but I never forgot you for so much as a week at a time. I tried to find you in other women, and I couldn’t...’
‘Oh, my word,’ Gaby whispered, in so much shock that she actually felt dizzy.
‘Is thatallyou’ve got to say?’ Angel exclaimed.
‘I had no idea that you loved me,’ she muttered unevenly. ‘No idea at all. I had hoped that you might come to fall in love with me, because I’ve been in love with you again since the wedding... I don’t know how, though—it’s not like you deserved love after forcing me into marrying you in the first place. But I do love you, flaws and all.’
‘That was a kind of backhanded declaration,’ Angel complained with his usual arrogance. ‘You wouldn’t have married me if you hadn’t secretly wanted to. You’re a tough cookie. You would have fought me to the last gasp if you didn’t want me as well.’
Gaby looked reflective and then nodded grudgingly, because there was a certain amount of truth in that accusation.
‘Theos mou...we’re almost fighting about it!’ Angel carolled in disbelief as he grabbed her up in his arms. ‘You crazy, wonderful woman! I love you to hell and back.’
‘It’s to the moon and back,’ she corrected.
‘No, itwashell when we were apart. We had those few weeks and I felt so alive and impossibly happy when you were around, and then it all vanished as though it had been a dream,’ he confessed in a fracturing tone of regret, his dark golden eyes full of turmoil as he remembered that period. ‘I was miserable without you in my life.’
‘That NDA,’ she reminded him gently, but she was not as unhappy as she should have been to hear that he had been miserable without her. ‘You broke my heart.’
‘Broke my own too, but I don’t think I was ready to commit to our future back then,’ Angel told her ruefully. ‘And you were too young and naive to handle me, but it’s not like that any more.’
‘No, it’s not.’ Gaby could barely credit what he was telling her, but a ball of warmth was expanding inside her chest and it was happiness, joy, all the things she had assumed she would never be able to feel with Angel except in fleeting moments. But what he was offering her now was so much more. Love would keep them together through the tougher times. Love would embrace Alexios in a cocoon of security as well. She smiled.
‘You don’t throw things now, you talk, you clarify,’ Angel pointed out lethally.
‘Keep quiet or you’ll put me in a bad mood,’ Gaby warned, trailing off his tie, embarking on his shirt with even more enthusiasm.
‘Does this mean you’re planning to move into my bedroom?’ Angel husked.
‘It’s under consideration,’ Gaby countered, not wanting to give away her every advantage at once.
‘How hard do I have to work to get what I want?’
‘I should think you’ll be very busy persuading me tonight that having you in the same bed has benefits,’ Gaby told him impishly, her sapphire eyes full of tender amusement.
Long fingers framed her vibrant face and he looked down at her with an adoration he couldn’t hide, which lit her up inside like a torch. ‘I love you so much,asteri mou...’
‘My star?’ Gaby translated. ‘Good grief, you can be romantic.’
‘Wasn’t it romantic when I asked you to keep on the wedding gown and the sapphires?’ Angel complained.
‘No, that was you living out a fantasy, but I was still underestimating you then. You were trying and I didn’t see it. You were right. My expectationsweretoo low,’ Gaby confided, wrenching him out of his shirt with a huge smile, struggling to come to terms with the concept that Angel Diamandis was, finally, absolutely hers. ‘I will never stop loving you.’
‘I won’t let you stop. You have a lifetime ahead, which you will share with me and our family. For the first time ever, I have a family and I will do whatever it takes to keep it,’ Angel swore fiercely, and then he gathered her into his arms and passionately kissed her breathless. ‘Right now, we’re going to celebrate.’
‘Bossy...much?’ Gaby asked.
‘Secretly you like it,’ Angel told her, his lean dark devastating features illuminated by a charismatic smile.
‘Just you keep on telling yourself that. I love youin spiteof your bossy taking-charge ways,’ Gaby informed him.
