I sat with Harry, watching her four children play, feeling more content than I ever could have imagined.
“They didn’t know you were there?” Harry asked, looking as happy as I felt.
“I’m pretty sure they didn’t. I was coming out of the bedroom, and the door blocked me from them.”
“What did Iakovos say, exactly?”
I glanced at her. “Does his exact wording matter?”
She grinned. “No, but I’m curious nonetheless.”
“All I heard was Theo saying he didn’t know what else he could do, and he didn’t want to make me seriously angry.”
She nodded.
“And then Iakovos said that you were just the same way.”
“They just don’t get it,” she agreed.
“No, they don’t.”
“It’s a matter of pride,” she added.
“I’m not going to say that Theo having ample income to keep us in private-jet rides, and his own island, isn’t nice, but it’s not why I fell in love with him.”
“Yacky knows I don’t give a hoot about his money,” Harry said complacently. “I have more than enough for myself.”
“I have money I inherited,” I told her. “It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to let me get whatever I want. Within reason.”
“So what did Theo say?”
I reviewed the conversation I had overheard. “He asked Iakovos how he coped with it, and he—your husband—said that he simply made sure that whenever you insisted on spending your personal money on things like dresses and getting your hair done, he put money into your account to compensate.”
Harry pursed her lips.
“And then he told Theo that’s what he should do for me: make a note of how much money I have in my account, and then keep topping it up so that it stayed at that amount. He said that it was the only way to deal with our sort of obstinacy.”
“Obstinacy,” Harry said on a snort.
We exchanged glances, and both burst out laughing. “Do you think they will ever realize that we know exactly what they are doing?” she asked me.
“I wouldn’t dream of letting Theo know,” I said, sitting up straighter when the man who made me ecstatically happy just by the sight of him emerged from the house, wearing his horrible ratty shorts, Iakovos at his side. “It would hurt his feelings. Besides, there’s nothing to stop us from putting the money back in their accounts.”
“I take whatever Iakovos slips in my account and send it to local animal charities,” Harry said. “To be honest, I think he knows, because he gets the charity receipts, but he hasn’t said anything yet.” She smiled as Iakovos peeled off his shirt and dove into the pool, and quickly shed the cover-up she’d worn over her swimsuit. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go show him again what he’s doing wrong with that crawl.”
Theo’s eyebrows rose when he stopped in front of me. “Did you want me to start teaching you how to swim?” he asked, nodding toward where Iakovos and Harry were in the middle of the pool, pausing when he saw Harry fling herself on Iakovos, his hands on her butt as he hoisted her higher, kissing her with an oblivion to everything else. “Er ... maybe we’ll use the lap pool for your lessons.”
“I think that can wait.” I stood up and reached behind him, finding the hole on the backside of his shorts. “We have an hour before Peter gets up, husband. Can’t you think of anything else you’d rather do with that hour than teach me how to swim?”
His eyes lit as he scooped me up in his arms and started toward the house. “Yes, indeed I can. I’m going to take you to my bedroom ...”
“Ooh,” I said, nibbling on his ear.
“Where I will set you down on the bed ...”
“I like how you think,” I murmured, moving over to his jaw, gently nipping it.
“At which point I will rub my hands down your long, long bare legs to your slightly ticklish feet.”
I shivered at the thought of his hands on me.
“I’ll slip off the charming espadrilles you are now wearing ...”
I bit his neck. “And?”
His smile was made up of pure wickedness. “And then I’ll get your running shoes, and we’ll go have that race.”
I pinched his arm, so happy I couldn’t believe that less than a month before, my life was nothing but terror and the conviction that I was a hairsbreadth away from death.
“Ovaries,” I told him.
He raised his eyebrows.
“The head of a penis, at a certain angle, if you squint.”
His mouth quirked. “Testicles when they’re sucked tight after fingernails have been dragged gently over them. I love you, wife.”
“I love you, too, husband.” He carried me up the curved flight of stairs toward his bedroom. “Did you really let me win? Because I just don’t see how that could be—”
His laughter filled the hall, the whole house, and my soul.
EPILOGUE
“Hello, sweet. How was the library?”
I jumped a little at the unexpected voice, spinning around to say, “What are you doing here?”
Theo leaped back, his eyes on the roller I held in my hand. “Almost getting my new suit splattered with Midday Bliss Yellow, evidently. I thought I’d come home early to see how playtime went.”
“Those who startle people who are painting a room deserve what they get.” I eyed the suit, but it was paint-free. Theo held his hands behind his back, though, and that immediately had me curious. “Baby and Me time at the library was good. Peter enjoyed playing with the other children, although a little girl with sharing issues sneezed on him, so we can all expect to get sick, according to George. He’s with Anne and Melanie now so I can finish painting. Peter, that is, not George. What do you have behind your back?”
Theo smiled, and set down three packages onto Peter’s sheet-covered crib, then carefully removed the roller from my hands before kissing me soundly. “I have no doubt we’ll get the plague from the child who didn’t want to share with Peter, and presents.”
I gave him a long look, and accepted a rag to wipe my painty-hands on. “Theo—”
“Birthday presents,” he said quickly, his eyes positively filled with laughter.
“My birthday isn’t for another three weeks,” I pointed out.
“These are early presents.” He handed me a small black box.
“You rotter. You know full well I can’t refuse a birthday present without being a jerk.” I frowned at the box. “If this is a ring—”
“It’s not a ring,” he said quickly.
“I don’t like rings,” I reminded him, twisting my wedding ring with my thumb. “This one excluded.”
He just smiled smugly at me, the generous bastard. “Open it.”
I sighed the sigh of the martyred. “Fine, but if it’s jewelry, you know what I will have to say.” I opened the box to find a pair of stud earrings, the only kind I wore. They were the same blue-green stones as the bracelet he periodically tried to give me. “Damn,” I told him, looking up to glare at the love of my life.
“Don’t like them?” A little doubt flashed in his eyes, instantly making me feel like the biggest heel in the world.
Mindful of his suit, I leaned forward to kiss him, relishing the heat of his mouth on mine. “No, just the opposite. They’re lovely. Simple, with no diamonds or flashy bits, just two little stones. I love them. I will accept them as a birthday present.” I held out my hand.
He beamed at me, pulling a small business-card-sized paper from his pocket and handing it to me.
THIS GIVES THE BEARER THE ABILITY TO GIVE ME ONE PRESENT VALUED LESS THAN ONE THOUSAND NEW ZEALAND DOLLARS, the card read. I’d given it and a few others of its ilk to Theo the month before for his birthday.
“Thank you,” I said, tearing up the card and tossing it into the trash.
“Birthday present number two,” he said, giving me a familiar long white leather jeweler’s box.
“Really?” I asked, pursing my lips a
t the box. “You’re going to blow your big card now? I told you I wasn’t going to give you another one.”
“I like to live dangerously,” he said with the cocky grin that made my knees melt.
I told my body we had serious present-receiving business to attend to, and that we could romp all over his body later, reluctantly taking the box. “If it’s that bracelet again, I’ve told you, I don’t really wear jewelry, so thank you, but I don’t need it.”
“Open it,” he said, nudging the box.
I opened it. Inside it sat a set of keys, and a slip of paper with a number written on it. The number was my birth date. “Keys?” I asked, looking up in confusion.
“To our new home.”
I gasped, pleasure filling me. “You closed on the Greek property?”
“I did. They accepted my offer last week.” He peeled off his suit jacket, carefully setting it out of range of the paint things I was using to brighten up Peter’s room. Then after a moment’s thought, he removed his shirt, and pants, as well.
“Theo!” I said, mildly scandalized as I glanced around the room. “You want to make love here? On the drop cloth?”
“No.” He hesitated, then added, “Well, yes, but mostly, I want to hold you, and you, wife, are covered in paint. Now you may thank me properly for buying you a house that is only a few miles away from my brother’s island, so that you and Harry can see each other frequently, and Peter can play with his cousins.”
I flung myself into Theo’s arms, kissing him all over his adorable face before letting myself have a quick nibble on that tendon in his neck. “You are the most wonderful of all husbands,” I told him once he released my tongue. “But what’s my birth date doing with the keys?”
“It’s the security code to get through the front gate. Hmm. How long did Anne say she’d keep Peter?” He eyed the drop cloths spread around the floor with a speculative glance that I didn’t have any problem interpreting.
“Just an hour.” I gently bit his chin. “But that was forty minutes ago.”
He looked thoughtful, but sighed and released me. “I’d go for it, but I have one last present to give you.”
“You owe me a card first,” I said, holding out my hand.
He frowned. “But the house is for all of us.”
“It’s a present,” I said, shaking the box with the keys in it. “You know the rules.”
“Did I mention that my next wife is going to be a gold digger who wants me only for what she can get out of me?” he asked in a decidedly disgruntled voice as he pulled out a stack of cards, quickly shuffling through them.
“Yes, every time you try to force me to take extravagant presents from you. And I’d like to point out that I do let you support me in this lavish lifestyle, so you have no reason to be so crabby about me not wanting to have jewels or cars or that sort of thing.”
“Here, you unnatural woman, you,” he said, giving me one of the cards.
I checked it. THIS GIVES THE BEARER THE ABILITY TO GIVE ME AN ITEM COSTING MORE THAN FIVE THOUSAND NEW ZEALAND DOLLARS, BUT LESS THAN THE PRICE OF AN ISLAND. “Boy, you are really going through these,” I said, tearing it up. “You only have the big one and a bunch of minor ones left.”
He grinned. “Ah, but I’ll have a birthday next year, and I know exactly what I will be asking for.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“And now your third and final present. The best one of all,” he said, presenting me with another bracelet-sized jeweler’s box. “And you’ll want this.”
He made an absurdly dashing bow when he handed me a card. THIS GIVES THE BEARER THE ABILITY TO GIVE ME SOMETHING PRICELESS.
“I hope this is worth blowing your big card on,” I told him, tearing up the card and opening the box. “Because after six months of marriage, I’d think you would know when I’m serious about something—oh.”
Inside the box was a folded piece of paper, not the pretty teal sapphire bracelet I expected.
I glanced up at him, startled for a moment by the look of love in his eyes. “If this is the deed to the Greek house—”
He just smiled, standing there all gorgeous and male and tempting. I had to drag my eyes off his chest to unfold the piece of paper, my eyes moving over the words, unable to take them in for a second.
Goose bumps rippled down my arms and legs as I worked my way through the legalese, looking up to stare in openmouthed wonder at Theo. “She said yes?”
“She did.”
“Did you have to pay her?”
He was silent, and I knew that he did. I decided that was not something I wanted to dwell on. Whatever choices Nastya had made in her life, she’d done the right thing by giving custody of Peter to us. I shook my head, trying to process the surge of joy inside me. “He’s really mine?”
“He always was. Just as I am.”
“For which I’m truly thankful. But now ... I can adopt him?”
Theo held his arms open. I flung myself onto him a second time, allowing him to pull me down onto the floor, my hands busy on his chest and arms even as he divested me of my clothing. “Yes, my delectable one, you can adopt him. Now you will never get away from me.”
I giggled when I stroked a hand down that magnificent chest to his belly, and lower. “Why would I want to get away from the man who makes my soul sing?”
He nuzzled my neck, his hands busy on my breasts before he paused, looking at a slight bruise on my arm where my birth control implant had been removed the day before. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.” I slid my hands lower, cupping his genitals, gently using my fingernails on his testicles. “Are you?”
He growled at me, his eyes hot with passion. “We have a lot of catching up to do if we expect to give Jake and Harry a run for their title of most kids.”
I laughed, nipping his shoulder. “I’m not saying I want to have four children, but I think Peter would like a sibling. You’re going to have to be fast, though. Anne should be here in less than twenty minutes.”
“Oh, I’m fast,” he murmured, sliding his hands up my thighs, parting them as he did so. His body was hot and hard when he moved into me, filling me with so much love, I wanted to shout. “And speaking of that, we really need to have that rematch race. ... Oh, dear God, wife, don’t Kegel on me like that or it will all be over before it starts!”
***
TO: HARRY
Apologies for text, no time for a call. We’re on our way to Wellington to see Peter’s grandma before we fly to Greece. Should be at your place Sunday evening. Race over. Sorry you couldn’t be here. Hope the morning sickness passes soon. Will Iakovos get re-snipped? Please inform him his brother is a slowpoke, and I beat him by over seven seconds. He’s demanded a re-rematch just as soon as he can walk without groaning. Love to you all.
NOTE TO READERS
My lovely one! I hope you enjoyed reading this book, which I handcrafted from the finest artisanal words just for you. If you are one of the folks who likes to review books, I'd love it if you posted a review for it on your favorite book spot. If you aren't a reviewing type, fear not, I will cherish you regardless.
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Best,
Katie
ABOUT KATIE
For as long as she can remember, Katie MacAlister has loved reading. Growing up in a family where a weekly visit to the library was a given, Katie spent much of her time with her nose buried in a book.
Two years after she started writing novels, Katie sold her first romance, Noble Intentions. More than fifty books later, her novels have been translated into numerous languages, been recorded as audiobooks, received several awards, and have been regulars on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Katie lives in the Pacific Northwest with two dogs, and can often be found lurking around online.
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Ever Fallen in Love Page 22