Greek’s Baby of Redemption
Page 17
He was silent for a long moment, staring down at their clasped hands. ‘But it was my anger, my pride and my shame that kept us apart, just as before. I was too proud to admit I was wrong, and too ashamed to risk telling you how I felt.’
‘But you are now,’ Milly said softly. Her heart was filling up to overflowing with hope and happiness. ‘And that’s what matters. What we say now. The past is in the past, Alex...all the pain and hurt and regret. It’s shaped who we are, but it doesn’t have to shape our future. It can’t be changed, but it can be redeemed.’
‘Do you really believe that?’ he asked hoarsely.
‘Yes, with all my heart.’
Alex looked at her, his hand still clasped between hers, his expression utterly serious. ‘Did you mean what you said, Milly? About having fallen in love with me?’
Her mouth was dry, tears brimming in her eyes, as she answered. ‘With all my heart.’
‘Why?’
He sounded so incredulous, she couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Because you’re wonderful, Alexandro Santos. You’re kind and thoughtful and courageous and honest. And you’re quite handsome, as well.’
‘Handsome—’ he scoffed, but she shook her head, pressing her palm against his scarred cheek.
‘Devastatingly handsome and sexy to boot. I love you, Alex. I’ve fallen in love with you over the last few months, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you, if you’ll let me.’ It felt so good to say the words, so freeing and wonderful. Not scary after all, in the end, and definitely worth the risk.
‘If I’ll let you? I’ll count myself blessed to do so. All I want to do is make up for lost time, Milly, and love you for the rest of my days.’
‘Starting now?’ Milly said softly.
Alex placed his hand on her slight bump, a look of wonder on his face. ‘And lasting for ever.’
EPILOGUE
Six months later
‘IT’S A GIRL!’
Alex let out an incredulous laugh as the doctor lifted the squalling, red-faced baby onto Milly’s chest. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she touched the damp, dark ringlets of their infant daughter. ‘She’s perfect.’
‘She looks like you,’ Alex said as he dropped a kiss onto her forehead. It had been an intense twenty hours of labour, and Milly had been amazing throughout, as brave as he’d ever seen her be.
‘Like me?’ Milly scoffed as the nurse placed her daughter in her arms. ‘She looks like you. Dark hair and blue eyes. Beautiful.’
‘Her eye colour might change,’ the nurse said with a smile.
‘Either way, she’s perfect,’ Alex stated definitively. ‘Because she’s ours.’
‘Yes.’ Milly cooed down at her daughter. They hadn’t talked too much about names, not daring to hope so much. It had been a difficult pregnancy, and Milly had gone into preterm labour several times before the doctors had been able to stop it. She’d been on bed-rest for four months, and their daughter had finally been born at a healthy thirty-eight weeks, to both of their relief. They’d both been afraid they might never reach this moment, but they had. And while the last six months had been scary, they’d also been wonderful, for the uncertainty of their situation had brought them together, stronger and more in love than ever.
They’d learned to turn towards each other when they were frightened or worried, rather than away. They’d come to depend on each other utterly, and for that they were both thankful, as well as for the miracle lying in Milly’s arms.
‘Have you thought of a name?’ Alex asked softly as he gazed down at the Madonna-like picture of his wife holding their child.
‘I have,’ Milly admitted, her gaze on their daughter. ‘If it was all right with you, I was thinking of Daphne.’
Alex blinked rapidly, moved by her suggestion. ‘If you really mean it...’
‘Of course I do.’ Milly looked up at him, her beautiful face suffused with love and tenderness. ‘Would you like to hold her, Alex? Would you like to hold your daughter?’
Wordlessly, unable to frame the words, he nodded. Gently Milly transferred their daughter to him and Alex cradled her tiny form, amazed and humbled by the slight and yet overwhelming weight of her. His daughter. Daphne.
As Milly had told him all those months ago, the past could not be changed, but it could be redeemed. He could be redeemed, and the proof of it was here in his arms, by his side. His daughter. His wife. His family. For ever.
Turning back to Milly, Alex reached for her hand. In that moment, they needed no words, nothing but the joining of their fingers, their hearts. Together. Always. Her eyes full of love, Milly smiled at him, and with his heart overflowing, everything in him singing with joy, Alex smiled back.
* * * * *
Coming next month
DEMANDING HIS HIDDEN HEIR
Jackie Ashenden
‘Buono notte, Mrs St George,’ Enzo said in that deep voice she knew so well, the one that had once been full of heat and yet now was so cold. ‘I think you and I need to have a little chat.’
‘A chat?’ she said huskily, her chin firming, the shock and fear in her gaze quickly masked. ‘A chat about what?’
With an effort, Enzo dragged his gaze from her throat.
So, she was going to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about, was she? Well, unfortunately for her, he wasn’t having it.
‘I’m not here to play games with you, Summer,’ he said coldly. ‘Or should I say Matilda. I’m here to talk about my son.’
Another burst of quicksilver emotion flashed in her eyes, then it was gone, nothing but a cool wall of grey in its place. ‘Yes, that’s my name. You don’t have to say it like a pantomime villain. And as to a son…Well.’ Her chin came up. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Is that how you’re going to play this?’ He didn’t bother to temper the acid in his tone. ‘You’re going to pretend you don’t know anything about that child you just rescued downstairs? The child with eyes the same colour as mine?’ He took a step towards her. ‘Perhaps you’re going to pretend that you don’t know who I am either.’
She held her ground, even though she didn’t have anywhere to go, not when there was a wall behind her. ‘No, of course not.’ Her gaze didn’t flicker. ‘I know who you are, Enzo Cardinali.’
The sound of his name in her soft, husky voice made a bolt of lightning shoot straight down his spine, helplessly reminding him of other times when she’d said it.
‘Good.’ He kept his voice hard, trying not to let the heat creep into it. ‘Then if you know who I am you can explain to me why you didn’t tell me that I have a son.’
She was already pale; now she went the colour of ashes. But that defiant slant to her chin remained, the expression in her eyes guarded. ‘Like I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Enzo’s rage, already inflamed by his body’s betrayal, curdled into something very close to incandescence and it burned like fire in his blood, thick and hot.
He’d never been so angry in all his life, some distant part of him vaguely appalled at the intensity of his emotions—a reminder that he needed to lock it down, since his iron control was the only thing that set him apart from his power-hungry father.
But in this moment he didn’t care.
This woman, this beautiful, sexy, infuriating woman, hadn’t told him he had a son and, more, she’d kept it from him for four years.
Four. Years.
He took another step towards her, unable to help himself, the heat in his veins so hot it felt as if it was going to ignite him where he stood. ‘I see. So you are going to pretend you know nothing. How depressingly predictable of you.’
‘Simon is my son.’ Her hands had gone into fists at her sides and she didn’t move, not an inch. ‘And H-Henry’s.’ Her gaze was as cool as winter rain, but that slight stutter gave her away.
‘No.’ Enzo kept his voice
honed as a steel blade. ‘He is not. Those eyes are singular to the Cardinali line. Which makes him mine.’
‘But I—’
‘How long have you known, Matilda? A year? Two?’ He took another step, forcing her back against the wall.
Enzo put a hand on the wall at one side of her silky red head and leaned in close so she had no choice but to stare straight at him. ‘Look at me, cara. Look at me and tell me that you don’t see your son staring back.’
Continue reading
DEMANDING HIS HIDDEN HEIR
Jackie Ashenden
Available next month
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Copyright ©2019 Jackie Ashenden
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, ON, M5H 4E3, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India
http://www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com