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‘That’s what I told myself.’ Jace raked his hand through his hair and took a jerky step towards her. ‘I’ve never told you that I found my father at the bottom of the cliff. His injuries were horrific, but he was still alive—just.’
‘Jace, don’t,’ Eleanor pleaded. The pain he clearly felt as he relived the terrible memory tore at her heart.
He closed his eyes briefly. ‘I need to explain why I treated you so badly. My father made me promise that I would take care of my mother and reclaim the hotel for her. I was fifteen and I swore as I held my father’s broken body that I would take vengeance on Kostas Pangalos.’
‘Jace...’ she pressed her knuckles against her mouth to hold back a sob ‘...it’s over. The Pangalos is yours.’
‘I don’t want it.’ He cupped her cheek in his hand, a hand that was as unsteady as the erratic thud of Eleanor’s pulse. ‘I want you to be my wife till death do us part, as we promised each other when we married.’
She stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. He stared back at her and she was afraid to trust what his night-dark eyes seemed to be telling her.
‘Why, Jace? We made your mother happy before she died, and you have honoured the promise you made to your father. There is no reason for us to stay married.’
‘There’s this,’ he said raggedly before he pulled her into his arms and lowered his head, claiming her mouth in a devastating kiss that sent her defences tumbling. He kissed her with fierce passion and such aching tenderness that she could not resist him. She felt the thunder of his heart when she laid her hand on his chest. Gone was the coolly controlled Jace who, even in the wildest moments of passion, had kept something back from her.
Now he kissed her as if he were a starving man and she was a feast. His big body shook as he crushed her to him, and his lips moved from her mouth, over her cheeks, the tip of her nose and claimed her lips again with a desperation that made her tremble.
At last he lifted his head and her breath snagged in her throat when she saw that his eyelashes were wet. ‘I love you.’
Eleanor swallowed. ‘Before...’ she meant when he had courted her in England ‘...I would have given the earth to hear you say those words to me.’
‘Does that mean you no longer want me to tell you that my heart is yours for as long as I live?’ he said tautly.
‘Only say it if it’s true.’
His throat worked. ‘I deserve your mistrust, but please believe me,agapi mou. I love you more than I knew it was possible to love. I fell in love with you that first week we spent together on the boat cruising around the islands. It’s true,’ he said deeply when she looked doubtful. ‘But I couldn’t admit how I felt. It seemed like a betrayal of the promise I had made to my father if I fell in love with Kostas’s granddaughter.’
‘That’s just it,’ Eleanor choked. ‘I can’t change who I am, and the bitterness you feel for my grandfather will always come between us.’
Jace brought his other hand up to cradle her cheek. ‘I don’t want to change anything about you, my angel. I love you because you areyou. Beautiful and courageous, and with a depth of compassion that humbles me.’
He sighed. ‘I used guilt as an excuse not to tell you how I felt about you. The truth is that I was devastated when my father died, and I saw that my mother was heartbroken. I never wanted to fall in love and risk the pain of loss.’
He smoothed her hair back from her face. ‘Prison was hell, and soon after I was released I met Katerina and fell hard for her. When she made it clear that I wasn’t good enough for her, I resolved never to put my heart on the line again. But then I met you, and you fell in love with me. You gave your love freely and bravely, even though you had suffered loss when your parents died. But I was a coward, and scared to admit to myself that I loved you beyond reason.’
Jace hesitated. ‘Did I dream that last night you made love to me with love in your heart?’
Slowly she shook her head, trying to summon the courage to take a leap of faith. ‘You didn’t dream it.’
His gentle smile stole her breath. ‘It wasneverjust sex. Every time we made love, I told you with my body what my stubborn brain refused to accept. You are my world, Eleanor, and I have discovered these past weeks that the world is a dark and lonely place without you.’
He stared at her with eyes that were suddenly bleak when she did not respond. ‘Will you give me another chance,pouláki mou, and allow me to try to win your love again? I swear I will prove that I truly love you with all my heart and soul, with everything that I am. Yours for eternity.’
Finally, Eleanor believed him, and happiness exploded inside her. ‘I never stopped loving you,’ she said softly. ‘Even when I told myself that I hated you, I was hopelessly in love with you. Why else do you think I agreed to a marriage of convenience? It was my chance to try and win your love. But when I thought you had betrayed me again it felt that all hope had gone, especially as I had lost the baby who would have been a link between us.’
Jace groaned. ‘I’m sorry I hurt you.’
She pressed her finger against his lips. ‘Let’s make a pact to leave the past behind and look to the future.’
He drew her close, and she curled her arms around his neck and laid her head on his chest, entranced by the urgent thud of his heart that echoed her own. For timeless moments they simply stood there, wrapped in each other’s arms while love enfolded them. And then Jace kissed her, and it felt new and wonderful because now Eleanor knew there was love in his tender caresses. He claimed her lips with sensual passion and the fire that was always between them blazed.
‘Se agapó, kardiá mou,’he said thickly as he carried her into the bedroom and tumbled them down on the bed. Her bikini, his clothes, were hurriedly removed, and their naked limbs entwined. ‘You do realise that I plan to spend the foreseeable future making love to you?’ Jace murmured as he positioned himself over her.
Eleanor gave him a joyous smile. ‘I can’t wait for our future together to begin.’
‘It begins now, my love.’
EPILOGUE
