‘That’s true. I didn’t consider my private life any of their business. Be wary of what you say to them.’
‘For what it’s worth, I think they’d be wonderful grandparents. Perhaps they want to try and get it right the second time around.’
‘Humph,’ said Lukas in typical manner. No doubt warning her that she was not in the running as consideration as the mother of the grandbabies. Did he realise how hurtful he was being?
They neared the top of Sloane Street and Ashleigh stopped to admire the Christmas lights. ‘I can’t wait to see Harrods all lit up and—’
She paused as she felt something cold and damp drift onto her cheek. Then looked up to see a flurry of snowflakes cascading towards her. ‘Lukas. It’s snowing. It’s snowing for Christmas! I can’t tell you how exciting this is for an Aussie girl.’
She did a little jig of joy on the pavement. People walking by them laughed, but in a good-natured way—a spirit-of-the-season way.
Lukas picked her up and whirled her around. ‘You are enchanting, Ashleigh Murphy. Has anyone ever told you that before?’
She thrilled to the light in his eyes. What was this about? ‘Actually, they haven’t.’ Something about him was very, very different. Something exciting. Something she could not bring herself to believe. Again she felt that sensation of impending change.
‘I’m telling you now. Ashleigh, that kiss was real. I kissed you without any pretence. As me, Lukas, kissing you, Ashleigh.’
She caught her breath. ‘Are you feeling it, Lukas?’
‘I’m feeling it,’ he said. ‘Thanks to you, you beautiful woman.’ And he picked up her hand and placed it on his chest, just like she had done to him the other night. She couldn’t feel a thing through his overcoat except a wall of muscle. But she felt the pulsing of something strong and perfect and life-changing in her heart.
‘I wasn’t going to tell you this. But your mother asked me was I in love with you,’ she said.
His dark eyebrows rose. ‘And what did you say?’ Again, she sensed his vulnerability, that he needed answers from her as much as she did from him.
This was no time for pretence on her part either. ‘I...I told her the truth.’
‘And that was...?’ She got the distinct impression he was holding his breath for her reply.
‘That I was head-over-heels in love with you.’ She reached up and pulled his head to hers, looked up into his eyes. ‘I love you, Lukas.’
He looked down into her face with relief, joy, and something else so wonderful and exciting her heart started a furious beating. He let out his breath on words she had never imagined she would hear. ‘I love you too, agápi mou.’
His voice sounded rusty, as though he hadn’t said those words for a very long time. Or maybe it was because he was finally letting himself feel the emotions he had blocked for so long.
He kissed her, long and sweet and tenderly, to the sound of cheers and clapping from the circle of well-wishers who had formed around them.
Ashleigh broke away from the kiss, looked around her and grinned at the expressions of goodwill on all the different cosmopolitan faces around them. It was only then that she realised they were standing in each other’s arms in front of the most famous jewellery shop in the world. Tiffany. Fingers of excitement marched up her spine. Were they in this particular spot by accident or by Lukas’s design?
She looked up to him for an answer.
‘We didn’t get it clear the other night about what you actually felt about commitment, about marriage, about children,’ he said. ‘Is it what you want?’
She had to clear her suddenly choked-up throat to reply. She forgot they had an avid audience hanging onto their every word. ‘With the right person. Yes.’
‘I never wanted all that before. In fact I’ve run from it. But I want it now. With you, Ashleigh. Will you marry me?’
Dan had hounded her for years to get her to agree to marry him. With Lukas it took all of two seconds. ‘Yes, Lukas, yes,’ she said. ‘I will marry you.’
His smile was wide with relief and happiness and he had never looked more handsome, with snowflakes frosting his dark hair. He took a small velvet box in a distinctive pale blue from his pocket. Then flipped it open to reveal a huge diamond, simply and elegantly set on a platinum band. ‘What do you think?’ he asked. ‘If you don’t like it we can go inside and choose another more to your—’
She stopped him with a swift kiss. ‘It’s perfect,’ she breathed. ‘I love it.’ He picked up her left hand and slipped the ring on her third finger, where it sparkled in the glow of the Christmas lights that twinkled all around them. ‘And I love you more than I can say.’
Lukas kissed her again. The man who would be her husband kissed her long and slow and thoroughly and she, his wife-to-be, kissed him back with all her heart as the snow drifted down on their heads and the Christmas shoppers of London cheered their approval and delight.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AT CHRISTMAS TIME Australia was nearly a day ahead of London. It was already Christmas morning there as Ashleigh prepared to video-call her family in Bundaberg. She would have left it at a phone call if Dan had been there—anything else would have been most inappropriate. But, thankfully, he had decided to join his father at the Gold Coast.
Ashleigh sat alone behind Lukas’s desk in front of his large-screen computer and keyed in the family code. When the screen came to life, her family were grouped on the sofa, her father in shorts, her mother and sister in brightly coloured sundresses. Her sister’s husband was there too and her aunt and uncle. Yes, her mother was wearing her glittery antler-shaped earrings that played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at random intervals. Ashleigh prayed they were switched off.
‘Merry Christmas,’ she said through sudden tears she had to choke back.
‘Merry Christmas,’ her family chorused as they all waved. Her sister picked up the family tabby cat from a cushion beside her and made him wave a paw too.
‘Are you okay, sweetie?’ her mother said. ‘That doesn’t look like Sophie’s parents’ house behind you. It looks like a library. You’re not on your own, are you? Not lonely? Not cold?’
Ashleigh laughed. ‘It’s a study, Mum. And I’m not alone.’ She beckoned to Lukas, who was standing out of range of the camera with Effie and Dimitris, to join her. Ashleigh shifted in her chair to make room for him beside her. He brought his head to the same level as hers, his cheek against hers. She looked into his face and smiled her love and happiness. The expression on her family’s faces was priceless.
‘This is Lukas Christophedes,’ she said.
‘Merry Christmas,’ said Lukas with a big smile and his slight Greek accent.
Her mother was obviously too stunned to say anything but her sister jumped in with a tentative ‘Hi, Lukas.’
Her father was more forthcoming. ‘And who is Lukas Christophedes when he’s at home?’ he growled.
‘He’s the man I’m spending Christmas Day with,’ Ashleigh said. ‘And the man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.’
Then she splayed her left hand with the beautiful diamond ring on her third finger in front of the computer’s camera so it filled her family’s screen.
When all the excited squeals and expressions of disbelief had died away she spoke again. ‘Mum. Dad. Everyone. I know you all love Dan. But I didn’t. Not enough to marry, anyway. I love Lukas more than I could ever have imagined I could love a person. This is real, this is for ever. I want you to accept him into the family.’
Her family all looked at each other and then back at the camera. Her mother was the first to speak. ‘Whatever makes you happy, sweetie. Congratulations. Welcome, Lukas.’
‘Thank you,’ he said.
‘There’s a couple of other people I want you to welcome too,’ Ashleigh sa
id. She beckoned Effie and Dimitris to the camera and introduced them as her future parents-in-law.
‘So when will the wedding take place?’ asked her mother.
‘In summer. I don’t see myself as a winter bride,’ Ashleigh said. ‘We’ll get married in London.’ She wanted to make that clear from the start.
Dimitris beamed expansively. ‘Of course Lukas will fly you all over for the wedding. Then for a big party on our family’s private island in Greece.’
That caused a flurry of excited reactions. Her father glared at the camera. ‘We’ll pay our own way to London for our daughter’s wedding, thank you very much.’
Her mother jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. ‘And to the private Greek island, don’t forget that.’
Lukas put up his hand. ‘I understand that you are concerned you do not know me. And that this has all happened very quickly. But I can assure you I love Ashleigh and will look after her and cherish her for the rest of her life.’
‘While letting me be my own person at the same time,’ Ashleigh added.
‘We are also planning to come and visit you in the new year,’ Lukas said. ‘That is, if it meets with your approval.’
Lukas turned to her and smiled. She smiled back and hoped her family could see the intensity of her joy. Perhaps they did. Because when he kissed her it was to a chorus of approval and applause from the other side of the world.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Crown Prince Armando enlists Rosa Lamberti to find him a suitable wife—but could a stolen kiss under the mistletoe lead to an unexpected Christmas wedding?
Read on for a sneak preview of
WINTER WEDDING FOR THE PRINCE
by Barbara Wallace
“Have you ever looked at an unfocused telescope only to turn the knob and make everything sharp and clear?” Armando asked.
Rosa nodded.
“That is what it was like for me, a few minutes ago. One moment I had all these sensations I couldn’t explain swirling inside me, then the next everything made sense. They were my soul coming back to life.”
“I don’t know what to think,” she said.
“Then don’t think,” he replied. “Just go with your heart.”
He made it sound easy. Just go with your heart. But what if your heart was frightened and confused? For all his talk of coming to life, he was essentially in the same place as before, unable or unwilling to give her a true emotional commitment.
On the other hand, her feelings wanted to override her common sense, so maybe they were even. As she watched him close the gap between them, she felt her heartbeat quicken to match her breath.
“You do know that we’re under the mistletoe yet again, don’t you?”
The sprig of berries had quite a knack for timing, didn’t it? Anticipation ran down her spine ceasing what little hold common sense still had. Armando was going kiss her and she was going to let him. She wanted to lose herself in his arms. Believe for a moment that his heart felt more than simple desire.
This time, when he wrapped his arm around her waist, she slid against him willingly, aligning her hips against his with a smile.
“Appears to be our fate,” she whispered. “Mistletoe, that is.”
“You’ll get no complaints from me.” She could hear her heart beating in her ears as his head dipped toward hers. “Merry Christmas, Rosa.”
“Mer…” His kiss swallowed the rest of her wish. Rosa didn’t care if she spoke another word again. She’d waited her whole life to be kissed like this. Fully and deeply, with a need she felt all the way down to her toes.
They were both breathless when the moment ended. With their foreheads resting against each other, she felt Armando smile against her lips. “Merry Christmas,” he whispered again.
Don’t miss
WINTER WEDDING FOR THE PRINCE by Barbara Wallace
Available December 2016
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Copyright ©2016 by Barbara Wallace
ISBN: 978-1-474-04183-6
GREEK TYCOON’S MISTLETOE PROPOSAL
© 2016 Kandy Shepherd
Published in Great Britain 2016
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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