The Maid's Best Kept Secret (Mills & Boon Modern) (The Marchetti Dynasty, Book 1)
Page 18
Maggie reached out and cupped his jaw. ‘Oh, Nikos...of course you deserved it. You deserved it more than anyone. You lost your mum so young...’
He pressed a kiss to her palm. ‘I believed for a long time that she left me because I wasn’t worth living for.’
‘I can understand that. Especially when no one was around to tell you otherwise.’
‘I’ve never let myself feel anything for anyone until you. It took me a year to come back to you.’
‘You’re here now.’ Suddenly Maggie felt insecure. ‘Are you sure? You’re not just saying this because it’s better for the company—’
He was shaking his head. ‘I would sell all my shares tomorrow if that would help convince you. I want us to have a home. A proper home. In Paris...here...wherever you want. My life is with you now, and with Daniel.’
Maggie felt ridiculously shy all of a sudden. ‘I don’t mind living in Paris or wherever. I just want a home with you and a safe, secure place for Daniel to grow and feel rooted. For our family to feel rooted.’
Maggie took his hand and put it on her belly.
He looked at her. ‘You said...family?’
She nodded. ‘I’m pregnant. Again. I was feeling nauseous... I didn’t think it was possible... But apparently even if you’re breastfeeding and your periods haven’t started again it’s not impossible—’
Nikos pulled his hand away. ‘Pregnant? Another baby?’
He stood up and left the room so abruptly that she felt dizzy. She stood up too, her insides turning to jelly. It was too much. Too soon. Even the strongest of relationships might not be able to cope with a second pregnancy so soon after the first...
She waited to hear the sound of the front door slamming but it didn’t come.
Then Nikos reappeared in the doorway, with a sleepy Daniel in his arms, his face wreathed in smiles.
Maggie sat back down, her legs failing her. Nikos came and sat down too. He held Daniel in one arm and put his other hand on Maggie’s belly.
‘See here, moro mou? This is your little sister or brother—right now, growing in Mama’s belly.’
Maggie was crying now...sobbing. Nikos reached for her and she wrapped her arms around her husband and her baby, a joy such as she’d never imagined possible filling every pore and cell of her body.
After a long moment she pulled back, wiping her eyes. ‘I thought you...’
Nikos was shaking his head, and his eyes were suspiciously shiny too. ‘This has been my dream all along too—I was just too scared to acknowledge it to myself. Too scared to believe I might deserve it.’
‘You do deserve it, my love.’
They kissed. Daniel gurgled. Maggie laughed through emotional tears.
Nikos said, ‘Marry me again? Here? I want to give you a proper wedding day—to show you and everyone how much I love you.’
Maggie wiped at her tears and nodded and smiled. ‘Yes, I’d like that.’
Seven months later. Spring. Ireland
Nikos and Maggie emerged from the small country church near Kildare House. Cherry blossoms had turned the ground pink and white. Nikos held his son Daniel high in one arm and his other arm was around his pregnant wife, stunning in a lace white dress, flowers in her long wavy hair.
Everyone cheered and clapped—and then started groaning when they kissed for an indecently long time.
When Nikos pulled back he looked down at his wife and said, ‘Any regrets, Mrs Marchetti?’
She grinned. ‘Never. Someone once told me that regrets were for losers.’
Two months later, in Paris, they welcomed their daughter Olympia—named after Nikos’s mother—into the world.
An emotional Nikos introduced his son to his little sister, and then he looked at Maggie on the bed, exhausted but happy. Never more beautiful.
She mouthed, I love you, and promptly fell asleep.
Nikos watched over his family as dawn broke outside on another beautiful day, and gave thanks for the woman who had opened his heart to love and shown him a world where not all sweetness was toxic.
Coming next month
CONFESSIONS OF AN ITALIAN MARRIAGE
Dani Collins
“Get in,” Giovanni said.
The sight of him struck like a gong, leaving her quivering. He had a shaggy black beard and dark glasses, and his black hoodie was pulled up to hide all but his familiar cheekbones, but his legs stopped above the knees and she recognized the tense line of his mouth.
Alive. Her heart soared so high, it should have shattered the sky.
At the same time, a thousand furies invaded her like a swarm of killer bees. There was no triumph in learning she was right. There was only a crippling heartbreak that he had abandoned her. If he’d been truly dead, she would have been angry, but she wouldn’t have blamed him.
This, though? He had put her through horrifying hours of actually believing he was gone. She had endured his gut-wrenching funeral, convinced it was a sham. Then, two short weeks later, she’d suffered another unbearable loss that would never heal.
He’d forced her to go through all of that alone. dpg
For every minute that had passed since that awful day, she had longed for him to reveal himself, but now her feet only carried her forward so she could bitterly hiss, “Go to hell.”
“Where do you think I’ve been?” he growled.
“I’m calling the police!” Teresina yelled from deep in the alley. Two of Teresina’s employees were recording everything on their phones.
A man in a suit was running toward her. She instinctively moved closer to Giovanni, heart jamming with fear.
Giovanni’s hard arm looped around her and he dragged her into the back of the car. He clutched the door for leverage, but his strength was as annoyingly effortless as always.
She didn’t fight him. In fact, once he grabbed her out of her stasis, she helped, kicking against the edge of the door to thrust herself inside, desperate for whatever sanctuary he offered.
They wound up in a heap on the back seat while the man who was chasing her came up to the open door and reached for her leg.
She screamed and kicked at him with her sharp heels. He dodged her shoes and threw the yards of silk in after her, then slammed the door before he leaped into the passenger seat in front of Giovanni.
“Go,” Giovanni said to the driver, and he pushed himself upright.
As the SUV sped into traffic, Freja rocked deeper into the seat, stunned to her toes.
Continue reading
CONFESSIONS OF AN ITALIAN MARRIAGE
Dani Collins
Available next month
Copyright ©2020 by Dani Collins
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