He watched her wipe her hand across her eyes.
‘I miscarried in the seventh week of my pregnancy. Everything seemed fine, but then I woke up one day in agony. I was bleeding, and I guessed I was losing the baby.’ Louise’s voice shook as memories of that terrible day overwhelmed her. ‘One of my housemates was a medical student. She suspected something was seriously wrong and insisted on driving me to A&E. I owe her my life. I was discovered to have an ectopic pregnancy, where the baby develops in the fallopian tube rather than the womb. The tube had ruptured, causing internal bleeding. Not only did I lose the baby, but the doctors had to remove my damaged tube.’
Intent on telling Dimitri everything, Louise hadn’t noticed him move until she suddenly found him beside her. His expression was tortured and her heart turned over when she was that his eyes were wet.
‘Louise, pedhaki—’ His voice cracked. ‘The thought of you going through all that alone, without my support, rips me apart. If I had known I would have come to you—even if it had meant leaving my sister. You needed me, and I will never forgive myself for not being there, not helping you through the grief of losing our child.’
‘It happened so quickly. I was rushed into surgery and there wasn’t time to contact you. Afterwards I didn’t answer your call. I couldn’t. I was so unhappy I couldn’t bear to speak of what had happened, and it seemed pointless to tell you about a baby that I was no longer carrying.’
She touched his damp face and felt tears slip down her own cheeks.
‘I love you,’ she whispered. ‘I always have. Through all the years that we were apart you lived in my heart and you always will.’ She pressed a finger against his lips when he made to speak. ‘I saw the tender look on your face when you held Ana. You would be a wonderful father, Dimitri. But I might never be able to give you a child. Even if I did fall pregnant there is a strong risk that I could have another ectopic.’
Dimitri brushed away her tears and cupped her face in his hands.
‘I love you,’ he told her fiercely. ‘I will love you if we have children and I will love you if we don’t. No one can predict what the future holds. Perhaps we will be blessed with a family, but if we’re not we’ll deal with it together. What matters is that you love me, my golden girl. And I adore you, kardia mou.’
He slanted his lips over hers and kissed her, and it was the sweetest, gentlest, most beautiful kiss because it was given with love.
‘I want to fall asleep with you in my arms every night and see your face on the pillow next to mine every morning,’ he said deeply. ‘I want you to be my friend and my lover and my one true love. Will you be my wife, Louise, and stay with me for ever?’
‘Yes,’ she said simply—because no other words were necessary when her love for him blazed in her eyes. And her tears were tears of joy as he slid the sapphire engagement ring onto her finger.
EPILOGUE
A YEAR later, Louise sat with her sister-in-law on the terrace of the old house on Eirenne and watched Dimitri playing with his niece on the beach.
‘I can’t believe Ana is walking already. She’s growing up so quickly.’ Ianthe sighed.
‘In a few months she’ll have a little brother or sister and you’ll be glad she’s walking.’ Louise studied Ianthe’s bump with interest. ‘I wonder if this baby is a boy or girl.’
‘Lykaios and I don’t mind. But it would be nice for Theo to have a boy cousin—they could play football together.’
Louise laughed and looked down at her son, who was sleeping peacefully in her arms. ‘It’s hard to imagine Theo running around—he’s only eight weeks old.’
She stroked her baby’s downy soft cheek and his shock of dark hair. ‘I can’t get over how perfect he is.’
‘Or how tiny!’ Dimitri had joined them, and crouched down beside his wife and baby boy. ‘Look how small his fingers are. He’s amazing,’ he murmured, still awed by the fact that he was a father.
‘He’s our little miracle,’ Louise said softly. ‘Although he didn’t seem that little when I gave birth to him. The midwife said he was a good weight for a first baby.’
She met her husband’s gaze and her heart gave a familiar flip at his sexy smile. They had married a month after Dimitri had taken her to Eirenne. The wedding in Athens had been the quiet event they had both wanted, attended only by close family and friends. Benoit Besson had made the bride’s dress and had given her away in a simple but emotional church ceremony. Louise had carried a bouquet of fragrant lilies and had worn her grandmother’s diamond fleur-de-lis pendant, which had been a wedding gift from Dimitri.
‘When I realised you had sold it to raise money for your mother’s treatment I scoured every jeweller’s shop in Paris and eventually found it,’ he had explained, when she’d stared tearfully at the necklace sparkling in a black velvet case.
Louise had been delighted to have the memento of her grandmother once more, but something that had made her even happier was Dimitri’s decision to donate the one million pounds she had returned to him to the cancer research project at the Paris hospital where her mother had been a patient. She loved him more and more with each passing day, and knew that he loved her just as deeply.
She turned her head from him to watch Ianthe, who was lifting her daughter into the pushchair.
‘I’ll take Ana back to the villa for her nap. You two must come and see her nursery and the rest of the Villa Aphrodite now that the decorators have finished.’
‘We’ll be over later,’ her brother promised.
When Ianthe had gone, Dimitri took Theo from Louise and settled him in his pram. ‘He should sleep for a while yet, don’t you think?’
‘Probably—he had a good feed. Why? What do you want to do?’ Louise’s pulse-rate quickened when Dimitri swept her up in his arms and laid her on a sun-lounger.
‘What I always want to do and will never tire of doing,’ he murmured as he unclipped her bikini top. ‘I want to love you—with all my heart and soul.’
‘And your body, I hope,’ she whispered against his lips.
The golden flecks in his eyes blazed with love and passion and teasing amusement. ‘If you insist, glikia mou.’
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.1. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
First published in Great Britain 2012
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Chantelle Shaw 2012
ISBN: 978-1-408-97443-8
Table of Contents
Cover
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Copyright
The Greek's Acquisition Page 17