Page 65 of Greek's Temporary Cinderella

His hands went to her shoulders. He lifted his mouth away, his eyes still pouring into hers. ‘Forgive me.’

His voice was low and husky. His eyes were saying all that that brief plea could not.

A cry broke from her, and her arms tightened around his waist.

‘Oh, my dearest, dearest one—we’ve been given each other again, and that is a gift past any price.’ A crooked smile curved her lips. ‘Even that of any pearl...’

He gave a laugh, releasing her shoulders. ‘You shall have pearls and rubies and diamonds and emeralds and sapphires and—’

She kissed him, and it silenced him. Then she spoke again.

‘Leandros...money—the want of it, the fear of it—drove us apart. With all my heart—with all my heart—I wish it had not been so. Had you been a poor man six years ago, and had my father always been poor, such that there would have been no call for me to protect him as I felt I had to do, then nothing would have stopped me marrying you. Believe me, I beg of you, that is the truth.’

It was his turn to kiss her, so he did. Gently and tenderly.

‘Always,’ he said.

He smiled down at her lovingly. Then his smile turned rueful.

‘How I wish,’ he said, ‘that I hadn’t promised Miki’s grandmother I wouldn’t keep you out late. All I want to do now...’ his voice was husky, and she knew why ‘...is whisk you off to my hotel room and make passionate love to you until dawn breaks.’

She gave a laugh, her hands tightening around him. ‘Me too,’ she said. ‘But first I must get back, sit down with Agnetha and talk with her.’ Her expression changed. ‘Are you sure, Leandros, that you’re happy with what you told me at the restaurant? About your plans for how we should settle matters?’

He kissed the tip of her nose—it was safer than kissing her lips, given that he could not, alas, whisk her back to his hotel room.

‘Absolutely. It will work out perfectly for all of us.’ A thought struck him. ‘Shall we take her and Miki out to lunch tomorrow and tell her together? We both know a good local fish restaurant here—and after our free bottle of fizz, I think we owe them some more custom.’

She laughed again. ‘But you insisted they put it on the bill—and left a huge tip too!’

‘Well, happiness makes you do things like that,’ he answered.

He would have bought a hundred bottles of domestic sparkling wine if it would have given him even a fraction of a fraction of the happiness that was possessing his whole being now.

He lifted her hands away from his waist—that was safer too...not to have her crushed against him. He slipped his hand into hers instead. Started walking forward again, along the seafront.

How long it had taken for him to arrive here—thanks to his own blindness and lack of trust, his fear and bitterness. But now he was here, holding the hand of the woman he loved—the woman he had always loved, would always love, till the last breath in his body and beyond—and no power in heaven or earth was going to separate them again.

‘My Eliana,’ he said, pausing to kiss her one more time.

And his name was breathed by her in turn, with all the love in it that was in him for her...sighed in the gentle breath of the soft breeze lifting off the night-dark sea as they walked forward again, hand in hand, into the future that awaited them—waited them to possess it together.

EPILOGUE

ELIANA SAT BACK on the sun lounger. Leandros’s was drawn up beside her, and both were shaded by a parasol against the warm early-summer sun. A little way away Miki was sitting in the shallow paddling pool that had now been added to the villa’s main pool. He was perfectly content, splashing away, playing with his fleet of colourful plastic boats, chatting to them.

Eliana smiled to see him. He was happy here—and so was his beloved ya-ya. Both had made the transition to her father’s villa—now hers and Leandros’s out-of-city home where they came for weekends.

They often invited guests like Chloe and her new husband, Andreas—Chloe had been delighted at her reconciliation with Leandros.

Miki and his ya-ya lived in the little lodge where her father’s housekeeper had once lived. Keeping them company was Sophie, who combined the roles of nanny for Miki and home help for his grandmother.

Hiring Sophie had been part of what had kept Leandros so busy before he’d descended on Eliana in Thessaloniki to lift her from that life into the life he wanted for her—as his beloved and adored wife. And as Eliana wanted Leandros for her beloved and adored husband, it suited them both.

And there was more that had kept Leandros busy then, which was bearing fruit now. Beyond the hiring of Sophie, and the repurchasing of Eliana’s father’s villa, his lawyer and his specialist financial investigator had been busy.

His lawyer had set in train Miki’s grandmother’s claim for formal adoption—which had gone through, with Eliana and Leandros named as guardians. Now Miki, Eliana knew with relief, would be safe from Damian’s father, should he ever discover he had a grandson.

As for the financial investigator—Leandros had told her what he had found out.

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