Page 36 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘Let’s talk about it some other time,’ Nic murmured sensibly. ‘Did I tell you how much I love you?’

Lexy smiled happily. ‘You can tell me again. Over and over andoveragain.’

EPILOGUE

Five years later

LEXYSTROLLEDOUTonto the bedroom terrace of her brother-in-law’s yacht and lifted her binoculars to scrutinise her home on the island of Faros. There had been big changes to the property, which had required a major redesign. It no longer resembled a palace. It was more of a sprawling and comfortable beach house, and it was much better suited to a family with young, active children.

Fivechildren, she reflected in wonderment, marvelling that she was the mother of so many. She had allowed Nic to persuade her to try for another baby and, instead of one baby, they had been blessed with twin girls. So that was that now, they were content that their family was complete. Madison and Ella were non-identical and even as toddlers both had burned with high-octane energy. Madison was blonde like her mother and Ella was dark, but they both had Lexy’s aquamarine eye colour. Ezra was very much their babysitter on the beach.

As she squinted through the binoculars, she could see her eldest son standing, hands on hips just like his father, telling the little girls to stop doing something he saw as dangerous. He was very protective of his little sisters. Ethan, meanwhile, a risk-taker to the core, was climbing the steep rocky outcrop at the end of the beach and Lily was sitting far below him with her nose deep in a book, staying well clear of the noise and chaos created by her siblings.

Lexy’s mother-in-law, Bianca, was sitting on a rug above the beach, her husband, grey-haired Matteo Rossi, by her side. They were supervising the kids for the weekend while Lexy and Nic took off to Corfu to celebrate Lexy’s twenty-seventh birthday with dinner and a night at a club.

A step sounded behind her and her binoculars were tweaked from her grasp.

‘You promised that you would relax,’ Nic censured, making a nonsense of the stricture when he took the opportunity to lift the binoculars to his own eyes to spy on their family. ‘Why did we ever think that a broken leg would put Ethan off climbing?’

‘Well, at least we’ve got a retired doctor on site in case of emergencies,’ Lexy quipped, referring to Matteo, the laid-back older man Bianca had married during her sojourn in the country of her birth.

‘Yes. I like my stepfather. My mother seems much happier.’

Four years earlier, Bianca had announced that she was tired of being a Diamandis and needed a change. She had bought an old farmhouse near the village where she had been born in Italy and had pretty much left the trappings of her wealth behind her, with the exception of her frequent flights back to London and Greece to see her grandchildren. Lexy was very fond of her mother-in-law and had interceded with Nic, who had been rather overprotective and suspicious when his mother had first met Matteo.

A childless widower, Matteo was a cheerful man with a terrific sense of humour and a great love for both his second wife and her grandchildren. They took occasional trips back to Italy but had based themselves in Greece since their marriage. Although Bianca still regularly saw her friend, Rhea, Rhea’s daughter, Angeliki, carefully avoided the Diamandis tribe for neither of her half-brothers trusted her around their families or friends.

During term-time, Lexy and Nic lived in London, where the children went to school, and summers were always spent on the island, but in between times, they travelled widely. Jace and Gigi and sometimes Matteo and Bianca stepped in to take the children and allow Lexy to go off on occasional business trips with Nic. They had returned to South Korea several times together, exploring and enjoying the freedom of being childfree, however briefly.

Lexy was looking forward to seeing Mel and her husband, Fergus, at the party on Corfu that evening. They were staying there on their vacation and Lexy would introduce her friends to those of the Diamandis family attending. She couldn’t wait to catch up on gossip with Mel.

Lexy stilled as she felt Nic’s fingers brush her shoulders and something cold and heavy settled round her throat. ‘What on earth?’ she gasped, fingers fluttering up to touch the jewel suspended between her breasts. She hurried into the bedroom to look in the mirror and study the large teardrop diamond pendant on a platinum and diamond collar. ‘Wow! Snazzy.’

‘Happy birthday,’ he murmured huskily as he closed both arms round her and eased her slight body back into the solid heat of his. ‘I told Jace we’d be late for dinner.’

‘Is that so?’ Lexy gave a shameless little wriggle of encouragement as she spun in his arms and stretched up to connect her mouth to his.

As he kissed her with hungry intensity, he was also in the act of sliding down the straps on her sun dress and divesting her of it and she laughed, feeling it fall round her bare feet. Her hands slid under his tee shirt to smooth up over his muscular torso. ‘I like my gift,’ she told him softly. ‘It’ll go amazingly well with the silver dress I’m wearing tonight.’

‘I know. I made Gigi tell me what colour it was.’ Nic flung off his tee shirt as Lexy stroked her hands slowly over every part of him within reach, teasing the zip straining at his groin and running it down to release him. ‘So forward now, Mrs Diamandis.’

‘You have no idea,’ she said, pushing him back in the direction of the bed. ‘You were in California for a whole week.’

‘And you missed me,’ Nic gathered with a wicked grin as he hauled off his jeans with enthusiasm.

‘I always miss you.’

‘I was on the phone so much I didn’t think you’d have the chance to miss me,’ he teased, hauling her down to him and whisking off her lingerie to seal his mouth to a prominent pink nipple.

‘Every time I turned over in bed and you weren’t there,’ she complained with a faint moan.

And then the conversation died away and the passion took over, their bodies straining together as he drove into her with an urgent groan.

‘So I think you’re getting something fluffy and four-legged from Gigi...just warning you,’ he told her breathlessly as he sprawled back against the tumbled sheets.

Lexy beamed. ‘She’s been looking for a dog for us for months. The children are at just the right age now to be more responsible and Gigi will have tested him out living with their kids,’ she said, her body heavy with relaxation and happiness bubbling through her because Nic was home again and she hated it when he was away.

‘Act surprised when she shows you before we get off on Corfu. He’s rather big though and lively.’

‘Perfect for Ethan.’

‘Just like you’re perfect for me,’ Nic quipped, resting back with a smouldering smile of satisfaction. ‘You smoothed away my rough edges.’

‘Put you in touch with your inner man,’ Lexy slotted in, trying to imitate Jace’s deep sardonic drawl while thinking about how much more open Nic had become with his emotions now that he no longer felt that he had to suppress or hide them.

Nic rolled her over and closed both arms round her. ‘I love you madly, desperately and for ever,agapoula mou.’

‘And I love you,’ she told him, resting her cheek down on his shoulder. ‘Perhaps because you’re still impossibly pretty.’

Lexy laughed like a drain as he tickled her in retribution, and they never made dinner at all.

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