Theseus Discovers His Heir

by Michelle Smart

  Her time on this island five years ago had been the happiest of her life. On this island she had lost her inhibitions, her virginity and her heart. And, for all the heartache, she wouldn’t trade a second of it.

  Nothing much had changed in Illya. It was part of a cluster of rocky islands in the Adriatic, and the daily ferry was still the only means of getting to or from the mainland without a yacht, or a canoe and very strong arms. And Marin’s Bar was still the only bar on the south of the island.

  Really, ‘bar’ was a loose term for what it was—a large wooden shack with a thatched roof and a kitchen stuck on at the back, surrounded by tiny chalets. Most people who found the island were real travellers, not university graduates like Jo, Jenna and Imogen, who had been there for a cheap couple of weeks in the sunshine.

  She supposed one day it would change. Developers would get their tentacles on it. Maybe it would lose its charm. Maybe it wouldn’t. Change was often scary, but it didn’t have to be bad. She’d gone through a lot of change recently and it had made her stronger.

  Soon she was standing at the front of the shack with her heart in her mouth, taking deep, steadying breaths.

  No more tears. That was what she’d promised herself. No more. Even if today was the day she had been supposed to marry Theseus...

  What was she even doing here?

  Three days ago she’d dropped Toby off at preschool, then walked back along a busy shopping street. A travel agent’s window had been advertising trips to Korcula; another Croatian island.

  Three days later and here she was. Back on Illya. Back in the same spot where she’d once watched Theseus play football on the beach with his Scandinavian friends.

  The bar was empty, save for a blonde barmaid who greeted her with a friendly smile.

  ‘Is Marin here?’ Jo asked. She’d always liked the owner; an aging hippy with a pet Dalmatian that had a habit of falling asleep by customers’ feet. She’d lost count of the number of people she’d seen trip over him.

  ‘He’s gone out, but he’ll be back soon. Can I get you a drink?’

  ‘A lemonade, please.’

  While the barmaid poured her drink Jo cast her eyes around. It was pretty much as she remembered it. The walls were covered with photos of the travellers who had passed through—hundreds and hundreds of pictures, crammed in every available bit of space. And the large noticeboard where people could leave messages for friends still hung above the jukebox.

  Sipping at her lemonade, she gazed at the pictures, wondering if she would see any familiar faces...

  There was one image that rooted her to the spot.

  It was a picture of her and Theo, the night after he’d come to her rescue. Their glasses were raised, their cheeks pressed together and they were both poking their tongues out at the camera.

  When had that been put up?

  She reached out a shaking finger and traced their image. Together their faces formed a heart shape.

  A roll of pain gushed through her, so powerful that she had to grip a table for support.

  Taking deep breaths, she waited for it to pass. The waves of pain always did, leaving nothing but a constant heavy ache that balled in her chest and pumped around her blood.

  ‘I thought I’d find you here.’

  Sending lemonade flying everywhere, Jo spun around to find Theseus standing in the doorway.

  She blinked. And blinked again. And again.

  He was still there, dressed in a pair of familiar cargo pants and nothing else. His hair was tousled; dark stubble covered his jaw. Wry amusement played on his face, but his eyes...his brown eyes were full of apprehension.

  She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

  She blinked again, totally uncomprehending.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she croaked eventually.

  ‘Waiting for you.’

  ‘But how...?’

  He smiled ruefully. ‘You’re the mother of my child. You and Toby have had bodyguards watching you since you left Agon. As soon as they told me you’d booked a holiday to Korcula I knew you’d come here.’

  He came over to stand beside her.

  ‘I put this up,’ he said, putting his finger on their picture and brushing it lightly, just as she’d done minutes before.

  ‘You did?’ Her words sounded distant to her ears.

  Any second now and she would wake up and still be on the ferry from Korcula, the large Adriatic island an hour’s sail away, where she’d left Toby in a family hotel with her brother and sister-in-law.

  ‘I found it last week in a box in my dressing room. When I returned from Illya I put everything to do with my travels in boxes and tried to forget about them. In one of the boxes was my old phone. I got Stieg—do you remember him?—to take that picture of us.’ He finally looked at her, a crooked smile on his handsome face. ‘There were a lot of pictures of you on that phone. More pictures of you than anyone else. Let me show you.’

  He reached into the back pocket of his cargo shorts and pulled out his old phone. He went to his photo gallery and offered it to her. ‘See?’

  But her hands were shaking too much to take it.

  With his warm body pressed against her, Theseus scrolled through the photos of his time on Illya—dozens and dozens and dozens of them. Most of them were of the surf on the north side of the island, or the mountains of the neighbouring islands. Only a few had people in them. Of those she was in over half. Only in two of them was she posing—in the rest he’d captured her unawares.

  There was even a picture of her sitting alone on the beach in her swimsuit. She remembered that day. She’d been too embarrassed at the thought of what she’d look like in a wetsuit to surf with him and the others. She’d been scared someone would call her a hippo, and even more scared that Theo would laugh at it.

  But now she knew differently. If anyone had insulted her he would have probably flushed their heads down a toilet.

  How she wished she’d had the confidence to say to hell with them all and go surfing.

  ‘There’s more,’ he said quietly, opening his phone’s contacts box. ‘There. Do you see?’

  She nodded. It was all she was capable of.

  There was her name. Jo. And beneath it was her old mobile number.

  ‘Come,’ he said, tugging at her frozen hand. ‘Let’s go and sit on the beach together.’

  In a daze, Jo let him guide her out into the sun.

  They sat on the deserted beach and Theseus leaned back on his elbows. Jo sat forward, hugging her knees and watching the sailing boats in the distance.

  Had she fallen into a dream?

  ‘Why do you think I remembered you had royal blood in your veins?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘Because you remember everything,’ she whispered.

  From out of the corner of her eye she saw him shake his head.

  ‘I have a good memory, but when it comes to you I remember everything. I remember standing on the ferry and pressing “delete” on your number. But when I got the message asking if I wanted to carry on with the action I cancelled it. I couldn’t do it. When I got home...’

  He sat up and grabbed her hand, pulling it to his mouth. It wasn’t a kiss. It was a brush of his lips and a warm breath of his air that sent tingles of sensation scurrying through her.

  Dear God, he really was here. Theseus was here.

  And just like that the stupor left her and her heart kick-started in thunderous jolts.

  His eyes were dark and intense. ‘Helios has always known he will one day be king. His destiny is carved in stone. My own destiny was to be nothing more than his shadow—his spare—but I wanted something so much more. I craved freedom. I wanted to play with other children and run free.’ He pointed to the cobalt sky. ‘I wanted to be up there in the star
s. But I was born to be a prince. After my parents died I kept thinking, Is this it?, and I struggled endlessly to reconcile myself with my destiny, never realising that to my family it was like I was spitting on the Kalliakis name.

  ‘When I was too late to say goodbye to my grandmother, and I saw the depth of my grandfather’s pain, I knew I had a choice to either be a real part of my family or leave it for ever. So I put everything about my time exploring the world into boxes, taped them up and put them away. All my memories. I packed Theo into that box. I couldn’t be that man and be the Prince I had to be.’

  He swallowed.

  ‘I wanted to make amends to my grandmother’s memory and prove to my grandfather that I am proud to be a Kalliakis. I’d spent thirty years pursuing my own pleasure and it was time to grow up and be the man he’d raised me to be. I threw myself into palace life and the Kalliakis business with my brothers. I was determined to prove myself. But inside I was empty. And then you walked back into my life.’

  He reached to brush a thumb down her cheek, a wan smile playing on his lips.

  ‘If you’d told me a month ago that I’d fallen in love with a woman I slept with once five years ago I would have said you were mad. But that’s the truth. You were there to catch me when I was at my lowest point and you caught my heart. It’s been yours ever since that night. There hasn’t been another, and only now do I know why—it’s because I’ve belonged to you heart, body and soul since the night we conceived Toby. You came back into my life and the emptiness disappeared. But I didn’t see it until I sent you away and the hole was ripped open again. Don’t speak,’ he urged when she parted her lips. ‘I know you love me. I’ve always known. Just answer me this. When I sent you back to England it was so you could have your freedom. I was so high and mighty, thinking that I was doing the right thing, that I took away your freedom to make a choice.’

  ‘My choice would be you,’ she said immediately, before he could ask.

  ‘But—’

  This time Jo placed her finger to his lips. ‘Your turn to keep quiet. I’ve never craved to see the stars. All I’ve ever wanted was to find a place where I belong, and I’ve found that with you. You make me whole. You make me proud to live in my skin. And that’s the greatest gift you could ever have given me.’

  She traced her fingers across his jaw, finally able to believe that this was real—that he had come to her, had met her back in the place where it had all started between them.

  ‘Palace life doesn’t frighten me the way you think it should, and as long as you’re by my side I will adapt. I will be proud to be your princess and to represent the greatest family on this planet.’

  He sighed and pressed a light kiss to her mouth. ‘After the way I treated you I didn’t dare to presume...’

  ‘Freedom comes in many forms,’ she said gently. ‘You don’t have to hide the essence of yourself away for ever.’

  ‘I know that now. My grandmother was a strong, warm-hearted woman—she would have forgiven me. Now it’s time to forgive myself.’

  The look he gave her warmed her right down to the marrow of her bones.

  ‘It’s strange, but when I’m with you all my craving for freedom disappears. You make me feel free. You bring sunshine into my life and I swear I will never let you or Toby go again.’

  She cupped his cheeks in her hands. His skin felt so warm. ‘I will love you for ever.’

  ‘And I will love you for ever.’

  His hands dived into her hair and then his mouth came crashing onto hers.

  * * *

  It hadn’t been a kiss, Jo thought a few hours later, when they were entangled in the sheets of the bed in the cabin where they’d first made love five years before. It had been more like the breath of life. It had been filled with promises for the future, something that bound them together for ever.

  ‘Where are you going?’ she asked when he slid off the bed.

  He grinned and dug his hands into his shorts pocket. He pulled out the penknife he carried everywhere.

  He climbed back onto the bed and placed the blade on the wooden wall. He etched the letters ‘TK’ and ‘JB’ into the wood.

  ‘There,’ he decreed in his most regal voice, snapping the blade shut and dropping it onto the floor. ‘It’s official. You and me—together for ever.’

  EPILOGUE

  ‘GOOD MORNING, PRINCESS.’

  Jo opened a bleary eye and found her husband sitting on the edge of the bed beside her.

  She smiled and yawned. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Six o’clock.’

  ‘It’s the middle of the night.’ And, considering they’d spent most of the night making love, she was shattered.

  He laughed and ruffled her hair.

  ‘The surf’s up.’

  That woke her up.

  Theseus had insisted on giving her surfing lessons, and she’d been thrilled to discover that she wasn’t completely awful at it. Now, three months after their wedding, they loved nothing more than leaving their villa early, when surf conditions were right, and spending the morning with Toby in the sea and on the beach before heading off to the palace to undertake their royal engagements. As per their instructions to their respective private secretaries, their mornings were always kept clear.

  Yes, it had all worked out beautifully. With the family’s blessing they had decided to make the villa their main dwelling. They used their apartment in the palace when it was convenient, but to all intents and purposes the villa was their home.

  Theseus was staring at her expectantly.

  ‘I think it might be a good idea for me to give it a miss today,’ she said, her heart thumping at the thought of the news she was about to share with him; a secret she’d been hugging to herself for almost a week.

  ‘Oh?’ He cocked an eyebrow. ‘Are you not feeling well?’

  ‘I’m feeling fine. Fantastic. I just think it would be wise to get a doctor’s advice before I go surfing over the next seven or eight months.’

  She giggled when his mouth dropped open.

  It was good few moments before comprehension spread over his features. ‘You’re not...?’

  She couldn’t stop the beam widening over her face. ‘I’m over a week late...’ She’d noticed her breasts growing tender, but it had been her stomach turning over at the scent of the barbecued spare ribs they’d had for dinner two nights before that had decided it for her.

  ‘I’m going to be a father again?’

  ‘There’s only one way to find out.’

  Jumping out of bed, she hurried into her dressing room and pulled a pregnancy test out of the chest of drawers. She’d got Elektra, whom she trusted implicitly, to buy it for her the day before. With Theseus hovering outside the bathroom, she did the necessary.

  Three minutes later, buzzing with excitement, she poked her head out of the door.

  ‘What do you want? A boy or a girl?’

  The dazed look on his face evaporated. With a whoop, Theseus lifted her into his arms and carried her back to bed.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this book look out for the stunning conclusion of THE KALLIAKIS CROWN:

  HELIOS CROWNS HIS MISTRESS, coming next month.

  And if you missed where it all started, look for the first instalment of this fabulous trilogy:

  TALOS CLAIMS HIS VIRGIN

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE COST OF THE FORBIDDEN by Carol Marinelli.

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  The Cost of the Forbidden

  by Carol Marinelli

  PROLOGUE

  ‘YOU’RE ENGLISH?’ NAOMI watched from the other side of a large polished desk as Sevastyan Derzhavin flicked through her résumé with little enthusiasm.

  He’d already made up his mind that she hadn’t got the job, Naomi decided. So it was now just a matter of going through the motions.

  What she didn’t know was Sevastyan never went through the motions.

  Social niceties did not apply to him.

  ‘I was born here and my father lives here in New York,’ Naomi answered. ‘So I’m legal...’

  ‘I wasn’t asking for that.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m not really big on red tape. It was your accent that had me curious. How long have you been here?’ He continued to look at her résumé and frowned as Naomi answered him.

  ‘Twelve days.’

  ‘You’re staying in a hostel?’ he checked.

  ‘Just till I find somewhere to live, though that’s proving harder than I thought it would.’

  He glanced up and saw that she was blushing—she had been since the moment he’d called her name, or perhaps her complexion was just perpetually red?

  ‘I thought that you said that your father lived—’

  ‘His wife just had a new baby.’ Naomi interrupted.

  ‘I don’t blame you, then.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  He stiffened.

  It was the third time that she had said it.

  ‘I don’t blame you for not wanting to stay with him if there’s a screaming baby.’

  Naomi didn’t respond but her slight swallow and blink told him that, very possibly, his comment was the wrong way around—that her father didn’t want Naomi staying with him.