“I loved you then, Sophie, and I love now. Do not argue with me. I always win. Eventually, you will accept that.”
“Eventually … Alex, it’s over between us. I can’t … I won’t … forgive you.”
“You will.” His smile now was confident. “Stay here. I’ll arrange for you to be checked out.”
“Discharged,” she muttered to his retreating back. “It’s a hospital, not a hotel.” She looked down at herself hopelessly, feeling more alone than she ever had in her whole life. “I have nothing to wear.”
He frowned. Her clothes from yesterday were nowhere in sight. “Okay. Wait here.”
“Do I have any other choice?” She queried with a sarcastic smile. And even then, angry with him and desperately miserable, she knew she was being rude and unfair. He had lost their baby too. And he was trying to help. Only she’d run out of any kind of generosity of spirit.
In barely no time at all, Alex was back clutching a dark green shopping bag. “Would you like help changing?”
She scowled at him, but didn’t perceive any innuendo in the question.
He lifted his hands. “It was a genuine question, agape mou.”
“I’m fine.” She took the bag without thanking him and peered inside. A black sweater and a pair of jeans were inside, complete with fresh underwear.
“Wait outside. Please.”
“It was a serious offer of help, Sophie. You might be weak …”
“Then I’ll buzz for a nurse,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Okay. Fine.” Alex tamped down on his frustration. He had lost any right to expect Sophie to simply be an unquestioning part of his life.
Out of nowhere, he thought back to the first week on Corfu, when she had been so happy she’d practically beamed with light and pleasure. He thought back to those heady days, when they’d shared one another’s bodies and they’d talked and laughed as though they were careless and divinely euphoric. That brief, glimmering window of perfection that he’d smashed with his idiotic plan. What he wouldn’t give to go back to that perfect oasis of time and hold it tight to his chest.
She dressed slowly, and Alex was on the verge of bursting back into her room when Sophie finally emerged. She’d washed her face and finger combed her hair, but she still looked a long way from well.
“Ready?” He smothered the worry from his voice, instinctively understanding that she didn’t want sympathy. “My car is out the front.”
She fell into step beside him, and the whole way, she knew she should separate herself from this man. Except she was tired, and she didn’t feel great. It was only with enormous effort that she was able to walk without showing any physical signs of discomfort.
Alessandro Petrides was parked on double yellow lines just outside the hospital. His windshield had a host of paper on the front and he ripped them out impatiently.
“Alex,” Sophie said sharply. “You’re illegally parked.”
The look he sent her was rich with disbelief. “Did you think I would waste time searching for a better spot while you were in hospital?”
She didn’t let her heart swell. He felt guilty, that was all.
“You must have a thousand pounds in fines there.”
“Worth it,” he held her door open and waited patiently while she settled herself into the seat. He had to ball his hands into his pockets to stop from aiding her.
As soon as he took up his seat, the car felt smaller somehow.
“Ready?”
“You don’t need to do this, Alex,” she offered, in a final attempt to convince him she would be fine on her own.
His only response was to snap the car into gear and slip it out into traffic.
He’d booked the penthouse suite at an upmarket Knightsbridge hotel. It had views of Harrods in one direction and Hyde Park in the other. Once Sophie was settled onto the luxurious sofa, she thought she’d relax.
Only Alex was worse than a tightly coiled spring.
“Are you hungry yet?”
“No, thanks.”
“How about tea? Would you like more tea?”
Sophie glared at him. “No.”
“A movie then. What would you like to watch?”
“Nothing.”
He came to sit at her feet. “A book perhaps? A magazine?”
Sophie couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “Please, just stop! I just need to sit quietly for a while.”
Alex nodded. “Okay. We can do that.”
Sophie lay her head back on the fluffy pillows and stared at the ceiling. To his credit, Alex managed to stay silent, though he was anxious and eager to do something – anything – that would ease her suffering. Only every time he opened his mouth, he looked at her face and saw the ghosting emotions there. And it silenced him.
“How did I not realise I was pregnant?” She said finally, a disjointed sounding plea into the cavernous lounge area.
Alex lifted her feet onto his lap. He spoke slowly, with softness. “I’ve been doing some reading. Some women don’t experience any symptoms.”
“I felt just the same as normal. I mean, I guess I’ve been distracted because of … everything … but I haven’t been sick, or tired, or sore anywhere.”
He rubbed the soles of her feet, and watched as her features relaxed visible. “It seems that happens sometimes.
“But maybe if I’d known I could have done something. I could have been more careful.”
Alex moved his hands to her legs and ran them over the jeans. “Agape mou, do not blame yourself.” He dipped his head forward. “If anyone is responsible, then it is me. I upset you. I put you through a traumatic argument. I should have made you safe and happy for the rest of your life, instead of causing you to feel this way.”
She cast him a doleful look. “I don’t think that’s possible of anyone, for anyone. In fact, it’s frankly absurd to think you could do such a thing. Other people’s happiness does not rest on your shoulders.” And because she was tired and fraught, she spoke more frankly than she might otherwise have. “Not mine. Not Helena’s.”
He closed his eyes and nodded. He understood what she was referring to. “I have spent almost my whole life doing it though; fighting her fights and helping her when she asked. I didn’t stop to question her request. And I should have. For both of your sakes.”
Sophie settled further back into the pillows. “That you love your sister so much is to your credit. It’s not your motivation I fault, so much as your method.”
“I fault both. My motivation was to help her, but I didn’t bother seeing what she really needed.”
“Not your job,” Sophie said simply. She was tired. The painkillers she’d had right before leaving the hospital must have been kicking in. Her eyes fluttered shut.
But Sophie was wrong. He crouched down beside her and stroked her forehead. He wasn’t even sure if she was awake still, but he whispered to her, “I have loved you, with all that I am, from the first.”
Her lips parted as though she was about to say something, but she didn’t. She simply sighed and rolled over, turning away from him.
She slept on and off for most of the day, and Alex fretfully watched over her. But by evening, her cheeks had some colour in them and she was able to move more freely.
Alex took great care not to crowd her. He put the television on in the background and ordered a simple dinner that she could pick at when hungry, and then retired to his room on the pretence of work. Of course, he checked on her often, but he didn’t want to rock the boat. For the moment, she had given up on asking him to leave her alone, and he hoped the truce would last.
The following morning, Sophie was even more like herself, though the reserve had returned. She was barely speaking to him, and was certainly unable to meet his eye.
It was out of desperation that he sought the most desperate measure of all.
9 November, 16.08pm
From: A Petrides
To: Ava, Olivia
I’m
in need of the best Christmas pudding recipe ever. Sophie informs me it’s yours. Please send it to me as a matter of urgency.
Yours,
A.P
Ava, who kept all of their sacred family recipes stored in a binder in the kitchen, was able to find it easily and send a copy back to Alex. And far away, on the other side of the world, she imagined her sister happy. She imagined her sister planning an English Christmas with the man she loved, and Ava took comfort from it in the midst of her own anxieties.
Sophie, meanwhile, was none the wiser that her sort-of husband had been emailing with her sisters. She was simply glad that Alex had stayed out for most of the afternoon. It had given her a chance to think, or at least to breathe. The problem was that when he was around, she was totally, utterly baffled. She knew that what he’d done was wrong, but it was almost impossible to hold onto her temper and resentment when he was staring at her with those enormous black eyes.
“Hello, agape mou,” he said from the doorway, and Sophie looked towards him. Her heart began to hammer and she realised that she’d missed him. That, far from being glad he’d stayed out, she’d been counting the minutes until he returned. It infuriated her. He didn’t deserve that. He deserved nothing from her!
“Hello.” A small sounding word, from the depths of her doubts.
“How do you feel?”
Physically, she felt surprisingly well. She had the occasional cramp, and she was tired, but the bulk of how she was feeling was emotional. There, in her heart-space, she was a wreck. A ball of angst-ridden indecision and uncertainty.
“Sophie? You are okay?”
“Oh.” She nodded clumsily. “Yes. I should be out of your hair soon, in fact.”
At his thunderous look of disapproval, she stood. “Truly, Alex, I’m feeling much better. There’s no reason for me to be here …”
He placed the bags on the bench and moved steadily towards her. “There are many reasons for you to be here, and the most obvious one is that you are my wife.”
She looked down at the thickly carpeted floor. “Nothing’s changed since that day in Corfu.”
“No, it hasn’t.” His eyes glittered darkly in his handsome face. “I love you as much now as I did then. I want you as my wife more now than that day, because I know now how empty I feel without you.”
“You married me to break Eric and me up,” she said sharply.
He laughed. “I think I really believed that too. But actually, dear Sophie, I married you because I couldn’t live without you.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. “I hated the idea of you and Eric together; not because I felt concern for my sister, but because I felt more jealousy and despair than I have ever known.”
She shook her head slowly, and Alex took advantage of her silence.
“Now, I have a favour to ask of you.”
“A favour?” She repeated in surprise, her frustration increasing.
“Yes. Do you feel able to sit here, at one of these stools?”
She looked at the kitchen suspiciously. “Why?”
“Well, I thought I would try my hand at your famous pudding. If you tell me what to do, that is.”
Sophie felt a sting of emotion in her chest. He felt guilty. He was over-compensating. “You don’t have to do this.”
His smile was dazzling. “I want you to be my wife for the rest of my life. Do you get that?” He held her hands to his chest, and stared into her soul, hoping she would understand his sincerity. “I want to feel about Christmas as you do, and one day, I want our children to speak of you as you do your mother.”
Tears clogged her eyes at his words, but Alex ploughed on.
“There will be children for us, Sophie. Not now, but one day. And they will be fierce and loyal and clever and beautiful, just as you are.”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered darkly. “I loved you so much. I ignored all of the cautious words in my brain, because I just trusted so implicitly that my instincts were right. And I got burned.” She swallowed back any further expansion on that subject. It was not necessary for her to detail how achingly sad she’d been.
“Yes.” He nodded slowly. “And if I could take it all back, I would.”
Her eyes were pools of doubt. “You’re asking me to take a really big risk.”
“Yes.” He smiled at her encouragingly. “But slowly.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Just don’t run away from me again. Let me show you how much you mean to me.”
She exhaled slowly. “You’re the one who ran away. You were gone most of our very short marriage.”
“True.”
“I don’t want that. I don’t want to miss you like I did.” Her cheeks flamed at the honest admission, and she loathed it for its neediness.”
“I wonder if you realised how I pined for you while I was gone.”
Her voice was cold. “I find it hard to believe.”
“Do you? Then you do not understand how much I cherish you. I ached for your touch and I craved your words. I went because I couldn’t trust myself not to confess everything to you. I hoped, in my wildest imaginings, that you would absolve me of guilt and tell me Eric meant nothing to you. That he was in your past and I your future.”
“Eric was nothing to me, even in my past. Just a friend I cared for. Whose wife I worried about. Nothing romantic. Nothing.”
“I know that now.”
“So why didn’t you do that? Tell me the truth, and let me explain. It would have been resolved so easily if we’d talked. Instead you avoided me and raged at me and blamed me for everything.”
“Because in my worst nightmares, which consumed me for the most part, I thought you would leave me instantly. That you would return to London and Eric, and Helena and I would have both lost the people we loved.”
“That’s … the fears of a mad man.”
“Yes. Absolutely. I was crazy. I completely agree.”
She laughed despite herself. It felt good to laugh. “You believe me, don’t you?”
“About everything.” He shrugged. “I know it is taking the easy way out, but I think I knew all along that you weren’t capable of doing what I accused you of.”
“I would never break up a marriage.” She couldn’t help it. She lifted a hand and traced the outline of his lips. His stubble was like sandpaper. “I told you about my mum. She was the other woman in a marriage, and she was burned by it. She had no clue our father was married. But it doesn’t change anything. She made us understand what a monumental mistake she had made. It’s not in my biology to do what you thought I had.”
“I know.” He kissed her fingertips and his eyes begged her to believe him. “So will you include me in your secret pudding recipe now?”
She pursed her lips and pretended to think. “Well, that depends.”
“Oh?” His expression was mocking, but his heart was barely moving. He was on tenterhooks, waiting to know if she would give him the second chance he so desperately needed.
“Our pudding is no laughing matter. It takes serious skills. I have to see if you’ve got what it takes before I make up my mind.”
He exhaled with giddy relief. “Well then, Mrs Petrides, take a seat and give me a shot.”
Chapter 10
Christmas 2014, London
“John!” Sophie burst out laughing. “You’re going to spill everything.”
John grinned at her. “Nope. I’m not. I promise.”
She arched a brow and regarded Helena over the very confident little boy’s head. Helena’s eyes sparkled as she shrugged back.
As John reached the table, the tray he was haphazardly holding began to tilt, and would have tipped entirely were it not for Alex’s quick reflexes. Alex gripped both sides and smiled gratefully at the little boy, who skipped off, apparently none the wiser.
“He’s very … helpful,” Helena said apologetically.
“Oh, yes,” Eric laughed, putting an arm around his wife’s waist. “He’s our little Jeeves.”
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Sophie leaned back in the leather chair. She didn’t know it, but she was practically glowing with contentment. She missed her sisters like wildfire, but at the same time, she truly felt like she was home.
Alex lifted a flute of champagne from the table and handed it to Sophie. She held it and smiled up at him. She hadn’t tasted champagne since the night in Corfu with Olivia, and the smell of the sweet bubbles brought pleasant memories back to her.
“So, let’s run through our checklist.” He crouched down beside her, his eyes teasing. “We decorated the tree a week ago. Does it meet your requirements?”
She looked beyond him at the beautiful alpine specimen and nodded. For someone who’d missed out on the special Christmas traditions, he’d caught up incredibly quickly. There were unique, custom-made decorations from Murano, and stars with their names on them, including her sisters and their parents. And he’d even had Ava send over a few of the very special heirloom decorations from the vineyard.
“And we’ve made an exceptional pudding.”
“Well, we won’t know that until we try it tonight,” she argued.
“We’ve made gingerbread houses with the boys.”
“And I ate a lot of dough.”
“Yes,” he shifted his eyes heavenward. “So much so that I thought you might be sick.”
“Always a risk I’m willing to take.”
“And I have a present for you.”
She pouted. “But it’s Christmas Eve. Presents come tomorrow.”
“Perhaps. But I want you to have this. It’s overdue.”
That got her attention. “What is it?” She prompted curiously.
“It is in Eric’s office.”
“Oh.”
Alex held his hands out for Sophie and she put hers in them.
“Can I come? Can I come?” John bounded behind them, and Ian followed him silently.
Alex shook his head. “Not this time, little one.”
“I’m not little,” he retorted fiercely, and Alex laughed.
Billionaire Brides: Four sexy cinderella romances Page 32