Hope dealt him a startled glance. ‘Andreas…at this moment, I’m the size of a medium-sized house,’ she pointed out gently. ‘I don’t think there’s much risk of any guy making a play for me right now.’
‘I’ve had a problem handling your friendship with him.’ Dulled colour scored his high cheekbones. ‘If you hadn’t been pregnant, you’d probably still be with him—’
‘No, slow up there!’ Hope inserted in dismay. ‘As far as I’m concerned I’m with you by choice and our baby has very little to do with it.’
‘But you had something good going with Campbell—’
‘I liked him very much but he’s not you and he was never going to be.’
Encouraged by that statement, Andreas bit the proverbial bullet. ‘I’ve been jealous as hell—’
Hope looked up at him in amazement. ‘But why? There’s no need. I had only started seeing Ben when I found out I was expecting. It’s not as if I slept with him or anything like that!’
The silence sizzled.
‘You…didn’t sleep with him?’ Andreas prompted fiercely. ‘Have you any idea how much knowing that means to me?’
‘If you had asked, I would never have lied. You didn’t ask.’
Andreas flexed lean brown fingers, shrugged broad shoulders, compressed his beautiful mouth and nodded into the bargain. It took all those separate gestures to express the intensity of his response. ‘It always meant a lot to me that I had been your only lover—’
‘You never said.’
‘I took you for granted. You were there. Life was good and then…pow! It’s gone,’ he breathed in a roughened undertone, pulling her close as though to combat that unhappy memory.
‘Elyssa,’ she sighed.
‘Her lies tore me apart. I have never been so wretched in all my life. I didn’t understand what you meant to me until you were gone,’ Andreas confessed raggedly above her head, his strong arms tightening expressively round her. ‘Then I couldn’t admit to myself that I hated my life without you in it.’
‘Honestly?’ Her head came up, turquoise eyes focusing on him.
‘Honestly.’
‘But what about all the women you were seen about with?’
Andreas grimaced. ‘Window dressing.’
Hope snatched in a stark breath. ‘Did you undress any of the windows?’
Andreas winced. ‘Couldn’t…’
Her eyes rounded. ‘Couldn’t?’
‘I couldn’t because…’ Andreas dragged in a sustaining breath before he pushed himself on to the crux of the matter. ‘I couldn’t because I only turn on for you. Didn’t you notice how hot I was for you at the cottage?’
‘You’ve been faithful.’ A huge sunny smile lit up her heart-shaped face.
‘I’ll always be faithful…’ Andreas hesitated. ‘I love you, pedhi mou.’
Her lashes fluttered up on wide, disbelieving eyes.
‘It’s true…I do!’ Andreas stressed as if she had argued the score with him. ‘When I feel this weird, it’s got to be love!’
‘You love me…’ Hope felt buoyant with happiness. ‘I love you too—’
‘So why won’t you marry me?’ Andreas demanded fiercely. ‘Being single is driving me mad!’
‘Oh, I think I could do something about that and save your sanity for you,’ Hope whispered teasingly. ‘If you love me—’
‘I love you like crazy!’ Andreas launched, cupping her cheekbones with his spread fingers.
‘I’ll marry you just as soon as you can get it organised,’ she told him happily. ‘That was what I was waiting and hoping for. I didn’t want you to marry me unless you loved me.’
Andreas did not let the grass grow under his feet. The relatives assembled to meet Hope that weekend extended their stay and got treated to a big splashy wedding in Athens. Hope’s grasp of the Greek language was finally revealed and much admired. Hope took centre stage in a pink off-the-shoulder dress and a bag in the shape of a lucky horseshoe. Vanessa acted as her bridesmaid. Ben attended with Chantal. The paparazzi turned out in large numbers but were prohibited any wedding pictures by tight security arrangements.
The happy couple returned to Knightmere for their honeymoon because the bride did not feel up to anything more strenuous. When she lamented that truth, Andreas just laughed and reminded her that they had their whole lives in front of them.
Karisa Nicolaidis was born five weeks later. Andreas had to get Hope to the hospital in the middle of the night, an event he had planned for with split-second timing. It was an uneventful and quick delivery. Karisa came into the world at dawn with her mother’s lack of fuss. With her crisp head of dark curls, she was a very pretty infant and she was christened when she was four weeks old.
Elyssa sent a gift. Andreas returned it without discussing the matter with Hope. When Hope found out, she told Andreas that she thought it was time that hostilities ceased. By all accounts, Elyssa was having a rough enough time. Her husband, Finlay, was divorcing her and contesting custody of their two little boys. Hope encouraged Andreas to at least consider the idea of speaking to his sister again as, while he was unwilling, Elyssa was receiving the cold-shoulder treatment from most of his family.
The collection of bags that Hope designed for Leonie Vargas sold like hot cakes and catapulted her name to fame. Instead of being called the ‘bag lady’ by the press, she was referred to as the ‘reclusive accessory designer, Hope Nicolaidis.’ Her bags sold for a small fortune. Andreas was impressed to death by her profit margins but he never did comprehend the attraction of most of her designs.
Several months after the birth of their daughter, Andreas flew Hope to Paris for a very special meal. When they got back to their exclusive hotel suite he presented her with a fabulous pair of diamond earrings. ‘This is our third anniversary since we met, agape mou.’
After a night of wild passion they lay talking way into the small hours. Curved beneath his arm, Hope loosed a blissful sigh. ‘I’m so happy…’
‘And I intend to devote the rest of my life to ensuring that you stay that way,’ Andreas promised, his dark golden eyes full of love resting on her smiling face.
“Did it hurt to hear I could never love you?”
“Yes.” Rachel had promised herself a long time ago to be as honest as it was possible for her to be. “Do you need to hear that I’m stupid enough to care about you so your ego is bolstered? Or maybe you just want revenge?”
“It is not that.”
“I don’t understand you, Sebastian.” She swallowed against the constriction in her throat. “You kissed me in Andrea’s room. And the other night, you kissed me on the beach and touched me. We almost made love, for goodness’s sake, but then you told your mother you could never love me.”
His hand traveled down her cheek and neck, one finger softly brushing the rapid pulse he found there.
“Sex is not love.”
Mills & Boon Modern®