by Tara Pammi
He found another note on top of a DVD.
If you want to know if I’m a boy or a girl, go to the kitchens.
He went to the kitchens, where he’d taken her one pink dawn because she’d said she was hungry.
This time, there was a note and something more on the table where they had sat down. A small black-and-white picture, an ultrasound scan. And even he, who knew nothing about babies, could see the two tiny beans nestled against each other.
Mama says my sister gets to be the captain of the soccer team. But boys are good at soccer too, yes?
Joy made his chest ache while Nikandros dragged himself off to his suite. Dressed in a peach-colored ball gown that hugged the slim curves of her body, Mia stood in the middle of the lounge, waiting for him. Her golden skin gleamed in the lights of the chandelier, her eyes traveling over him with a joy that he knew mirrored his own.
“You took far too long,” she said, and he burst out laughing.
“You took forever to come back to me,” he threw back at her, greedily consuming her with his gaze. His heart was threatening to beat out of his chest so he stood at the arch, willing his emotions to calm down. If he touched her now, he would rip off that beautiful ball gown and take her with a raw, primal hunger that could even hurt her.
His gaze moved to her belly and then up. “Two, Mia?”
Tears were fluttering in her eyes as she nodded. “Two, Nikandros. And all three of us choose you. We love you.”
He fell back against the wall, his knees shaking for the first time in his life. Not even on the highest cliff or the darkest night had his heart threatened to beat out of his chest like this. Never had shivers like these filled his body.
Such engulfing love filled him that he thought he couldn’t draw air.
She walked toward him like a dream come true. “You’re the sexiest, kindest, most wonderful man I’ve ever known, and I’m not giving you up without a fight.
“I want to share the good and the bad with you. I want to be your friend and lover and everything under the sky. A hundred years, an eternity and I would still choose you, Nikandros. No one could measure what you mean to me.
“I love you with my every breath, carino, and I only ask what you said once.
“To give us a chance. To let this grow into something more. To let me show you that you’re my heart.
“I won’t leave your side through anything.”
He still didn’t say anything. Something torturous flitted across his face.
Mia reached for him with a whimper. Fingers shaking, she traced the proud angles of his face. “Please, Nikandros. Say something. Anything. Tell me how to love you. Tell me what you need me to be, and I will. Demand what you want of me and I’ll willingly give it to you.
“I have enough love for the both of us, Nik.”
With a deep groan, he crushed her mouth with his.
Whispered frantic endearments that skewered the last of Mia’s fears. “I had to send you away, Mia. I had to know if I would be your choice.
“It was the hardest thing I have ever done. Like breaking my own heart with my hands.
“I love you, Mia. I think I fell in love with you all those years ago, when I saw you streak through the field like a bolt of lightning.
“I believed every lie Brian told me because it would be easy to resent you.
“I will love you with everything I have, glykia mou. This world, Drakon, all my achievements, nothing matters without you by my side.”
Tears spilled over onto her cheeks. “Sorry it took me this long to figure it out,” Mia whispered, wrapping her arms tight around him.
His fingers held her tight at the base of her head, his mouth pressed tight against her temple. He showered kisses all over.
Mia shivered at the graze of his hard body, at the power contained in his lithe frame. At the desire he was unleashing with a shudder that rocked his body.
And then he went to his knees and kissed her belly, such joy shining in his eyes that Mia knew they’d make it. That she’d found her Prince, the man who’d taught her what brave meant, the man who’d taught her to love.
EPILOGUE
Seven years later
PRINCESS MIA OF DRAKON leaned back and balanced herself on her elbows to get a better view of her six-year-old twins giving their dad a run for his money with a swift kick of the football. Drakonite sun made the sandy beach nicely warm against her skin while the waves at her feet provided a cooling contrast.
Miles of beach stretched on either side, breaking against the craggy cliffs of the mountains. The water was such a gorgeous turquoise blue that it never failed to take away Mia’s breath.
It was a slice of paradise. Made even more so because in seven years of marriage, it had become a private haven for her and Nik and their twins. Seven years of marriage while Nikandros settled into his role as the chief economic advisor for the Drakonite economy.
Only a week ago the project he had begun with Gabriel had reached completion. Seven long years of Nik’s hard work and now Drakon reigned top as the Mediterranean’s true jewel, its economy booming in the world market. And for every hour and day and night he’d spent making his vision come true, Nikandros had given Mia even more.
A loving husband, a wicked lover to this day and the best friend, a man who kept every promise he’d ever made to her and to their kids.
He didn’t miss a single vacation, nor failed to notice a single one of their twins’ myriad accomplishments. Between the kids and her sports charities, her life had been brimming with happiness and pride.
A shout from him tore Mia’s gaze to him.
Royal blue shorts hanging low on his hips bared Nikandros’s leanly defined chest. Olive skin gleamed in the sun and even at this distance, Mia could feel his gaze travel over her with a sizzling intent that made the sand rub restlessly against her damp and warm skin.
Just then, a ball came flying toward him and he barely kicked it back.
Grinning, Mia let out a whoop as Tia kicked the ball past her twin Alexio’s head and toward the imaginary goal post. Leaving them to their squabble, Nikandros flopped down on the sand, rubbing one muscled thigh against hers.
The heat that flared between them was instantaneous, all-consuming.
Grasping her chin in his hand, he pressed a hot, damp kiss to her mouth. Breath hitching, Mia sank her fingers into his hair and stroked his tongue. Barely had they gotten started when the ball flew over their heads again and they fell apart, shaking and laughing.
“I told you we were turning them against each other,” Mia complained, hearing the argument about the goal between the twins.
Gaze devilish blue, Nik only smiled. Even before he asked it, Mia knew what he was thinking. She’d insisted on waiting before they got pregnant again. Because, Prince of Drakon or not, it was hard enough to share him sometimes with their boisterous twins.
She’d wanted them to learn each other better, love each other a little more before they added to their brood.
Pushing her back into the sand, Nik palmed her almost-flat midriff, his gaze intense. “Remember how we talked about our own team?”
Mia nodded, breathless like a teenager again. Breathless in the rush of his love, still. Always breathless, he made Mia feel like she was the center of his world. Nothing—no man or politics or thrill—would ever take him away from her.
Fingers trembling at the surge of love that filled her, Mia pushed back the hair that flopped onto his forehead. “Yes, Nikandros, I’m ready.”
“Tonight then, pethi mou? After the midnight swim?”
She laughed, nodded and then pushing herself upward, pressed her mouth to his. “It’s a date, carino.”
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Persuading plain Jane to marry him was easy enough – but Shiekh Zayed Al Zawba hadn’t bargained on the irresistible curves hidden under her clothes, or that she is deliciously untouched. When Jane begins to tempt him beyond his wildest dreams,
leaving their marriage unconsummated becomes impossible…
Read on for a sneak preview of
THE SHEIKH’S BOUGHT WIFE
It was difficult to be distant when your body seemed to have developed a stubborn will of its own. When she found herself wanting to push her aching breasts against Zayed’s powerful chest as he caught her in his arms for the traditional first dance between bride and groom. As it was, she could barely think straight and wasn’t it the most infuriating thing in the world that he immediately seemed to pick up on that?
‘You seem to be having trouble breathing, dear wife,’ he murmured as he moved her to the center of the marble dance floor.
‘The dress is very tight.’
‘I’d noticed.’ He twirled her around, holding her back a little. ‘It looks very well on you.’
She forced a tight smile but she didn’t relax. ‘Thank you.’
‘Or maybe it is the excitement of having me this close to you which is making you pant like a little kitten?’
‘You’re annoying me, rather than exciting me. And I do wish you’d stop trying to get underneath my skin.’
‘Don’t you like people getting underneath your skin, Jane?’
‘No,’ she said honestly. ‘I don’t.’
‘Why not?’
She met the blaze of his ebony eyes and suppressed a shiver. ‘Does everything have to have a reason?’
‘In my experience, yes.’ There was a pause. ‘Has a man hurt you in the past?’
This was her chance to tell him yes—even though the very idea that someone had got that close to her was laughable.
Zayed had already guessed she might be a virgin, but that didn’t even come close to her shameful lack of experience.
Trying to ignore the way his groin was brushing against her as he edged her closer, she glanced up at him, her cheeks burning. ‘I refuse to answer that on the grounds that I might incriminate myself. Tell me instead, do you always insist on interrogating women when you’re dancing with them?’
‘No. I don’t,’ he said simply. ‘But then I’ve never had a bride before and I’ve never danced with a woman who was so determined not to give anything of herself away.’
‘And that’s the only reason you want to know,’ she said quietly. ‘Because you like a challenge.’
‘All men like a challenge, Jane.’ His black eyes gleamed. ‘Haven’t you learned that by now?’
She didn’t answer—because how was she qualified to answer any questions about what men did or didn’t like?
Don’t miss
THE SHEIKH’S BOUGHT WIFE
by Sharon Kendrick
Available May 2017
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Copyright © 2017 Harlequin Books S.A.
ISBN: 978-1-474-05232-0
CROWNED FOR THE DRAKON LEGACY
© 2017 Tara Pammi
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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