Page 35 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘I’m done with pretending. I grew up having to pretend that I lived in a perfect family, but the truth is that it was dysfunctional...and violent,’ Nic framed tautly. ‘And at times, I despised my mother even though I always loved her too. But she took everything my father threw at her and when I talked to her yesterday and she told me that she’d always known about Angeliki being my sister, I felt out of all patience with her.’

‘I think I might have been as well,’ Lexy said uncertainly. ‘But Bianca was very young when she met your father.’

‘She told me that she still loved him until the day he died, but she also told me that she stayed with him formybenefit,’ he admitted with a sardonic twist of his wide sensual mouth. ‘She said that if she had tried to divorce him, he would have fought to keep me as his all-important son. He had the power and he would’ve won, but I didn’t like being blamed for her choices.’

‘Of course you didn’t,’ Lexy agreed, linking her fingers with his to tug him down on the bed beside her. ‘But maybe you could stop being so judgemental.’

‘I need to,’ he agreed grimly. ‘I wanted you back a month ago. I wanted you on any terms the moment I saw you again.’

‘Enough to take me on as a gold-digging wife?’

Nic laughed. ‘I wanted you any way I could get you!’

‘Me and the kids,’ she qualified.

‘You’re my family,’ he said simply. ‘My fatal error was wanting you to be perfect and holding all those months we were apart against you. I see in black and white. No shades of grey. I assumed that you were lying to me about having tried to contact me while you were pregnant and I couldn’t get past that. I should’ve given you a clean page and let it go but I wasn’t capable of that.’

‘Neither was I. I couldn’t forgive you either for not coming to my rescue,’ Lexy confided gently. ‘I thought you were lying too, unable to face up to the situation at the time and unable to admit that either. I still fell back in love with you...’

‘Seriously?’ Nic prompted in astonishment.

‘Oh, totally.’ Lexy looked up at him with wry blue-green eyes. ‘Don’t know what it is about you, but you’ve got that vibe I can’t resist—’

‘I love you so much.’

‘I’m starting to believe that,’ Lexy said, sitting up to begin unbuttoning his shirt. ‘You’re wearing too many clothes again, Mr Diamandis.’

Never slow to take a hint, Nic straightened, stepping away to remove the shirt and follow with the jeans and the boxers. Lexy wriggled her shoulders and began to try and undo the zip of her dress but Nic got there first, running it down and gently easing the dress up over her head while she kicked off her shoes, peeling down the hold-up stockings she wore.

‘Leave those on...they’re sexy,’ Nic murmured.

Lexy just laughed, watching him come down to her, bronzed and sleek and breathtaking, and her heart stopped inside her for an instant. ‘Do you think it’s possible to fall in love at first sight?’

‘I did.’

He looped her tousled hair back from her brow and leant down to claim her lips with his. ‘I fell for you like a ton of bricks. The instant I saw you and you started talking and then you cooked—’

‘Major selling point from the guy who can afford a personal chef!’ Lexy quipped.

‘Everything about you is a major selling point. Your face, your smile, your honesty, loyalty, kindness. Your ability to accept a less than perfect guy.’

‘But he’strying!’

‘I want to deserve you and our children. I need to do a better job than our parents did,’ he admitted in a raw undertone.

‘And we’ll be all the better for it because we know we’re not perfect,’ she told him soothingly, smoothing a tender hand down over his hard jawline. ‘I will never stop loving you, flaws and all.’

‘So, you weren’t leaving me after all when you came here?’

‘Maybe I finally wanted you to sit up and take notice. I was miffed that you didn’t want me in Athens with you. But no, I didn’t want to leave you. It was more about trying to protect myself from being hurt.’

‘I will strive to never hurt you again. I love you. I will always be here for you, from now until the end.’ His dark golden eyes were molten with love and tenderness as he claimed her parted lips with his and silence fell as they luxuriated in being together again. Intimacy entwined them heart and body, passion and need zinging through them, joyful pleasure and security entangling them as Nic held her close in the drowsy aftermath. In the middle of the night, they got up to raid the kitchen and recalled that long ago night in Yorkshire.

‘No triplets this time,’ she warned him when they finally fell back into bed.

‘But maybe some dayonemore baby?’ he proposed.

‘It would take an act of God to persuade me to go through that again,’ she warned him ruefully. ‘And you can’t tell if it will be one baby or more than one.’

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