Page 48 of Contractually Wed

Jia had meant to fly out the same evening but when she’d gone back to the luxury hotel room she’d booked herself into, on Apollo’s card, she found that she was exhausted. Every inch of her wanted to go back to him, to their bed, to their room, to that beautiful house where she’d discovered how much she loved him.

But after she’d showered, changed into one of Apollo’s T-shirts that she’d carefully packed in her bag, and crawled into the large, luxurious king bed, sleep never came.

She turned and tossed for a couple of hours, then, finally sat up and ordered room service. Lunch had been a salad with Rina at one of their favorite places and she’d passed up dinner in pursuit of sleep.

When a knock came mere minutes later, she grabbed a robe, tied it and opened the door. To find Apollo standing there, his coat jacket on his arm.

Shirt buttons undone, a thick stubble on his jaw and his eyes wary with dark shadows cradling them, he looked rough and twisted inside out and somehow...incomplete. Exactly like she did.

Shaking from deep within, she opened the door wider and simply stood aside. Sudden, intense energy swathed what had felt like a vast space.

Jia watched as he threw the jacket on one of the chairs, paced the sitting lounge and then, after what felt like an eternity of seconds, came to face her. She, not having budged an inch from when she’d opened the door, pressed herself against it. She didn’t feel fear, obviously. But something else. Something primal and so real that she felt dizzy under the weight of it.

“If you’re angry that I came to New York anyway, let me explain,” she started.

He shook his head. “I knew you would two minutes after I left our bedroom. And I’ve never, not even in that first moment, ever wanted to change who you are, or how you love so wholeheartedly. You’re like a blazing sunset,matia mou. It was never... I wasn’t trying to tell you that you couldn’t see your bloody family. If you want, I’ll arrange for them to—”

“I know that, Apollo. I also know that I broke the little tenuous trust you placed in me.”

“Little and tenuous,agapi? The sky itself couldn’t contain the trust I have in you. The love I feel for you.”

Jia trembled, and fought the sob rising up from her stomach, through her teeth like some great storm. But he stole that away too, filling her with shock when he went to his knees in front of her. “I’m sorry. I never ever meant to hurt you. I... I wanted you to love me. I wanted you to choose me for nothing but me. And I lost myself in that.”

He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to her belly. “The thought of losing you and this baby and this...” a serrated growl left his mouth, his massive shoulders trembling like an evergreen bending under a gale “...turned me into that powerless, helpless monster again.”

“Only I get to call you that. And after everything you did for my family...thank you.”

“Thank you, Jia. It wasn’t only for you,ne?It was for us.” Then he looked up and Jia cradled his cheeks and she thought she might faint at the love shining in his eyes. “You have released me from a prison of my own making. And suddenly, all I have is this overpowering, all-consuming need to adore you and love you and kiss you for the rest of our lives. Will you let me, Jia? Will you marry me again because I cannot imagine my life without you?”

Jia nodded and fell to her knees. He caught her and kissed her, and that sob she’d tried to hold off so hard broke through anyway.

Which of course made her grumpy husband very angry. He shot to his feet with her in his arms, brought her to the luxurious bed and held her in his lap, and clasped her jaw with a firm grip she loved. “No more tears,agapi.Parakalo. I can’t bear to see them. I adore you,yineka mou, and if you continue to neglect your health, you will force me to—”

“I won’t,” Jia said, hiding her face in his throat.

“And will you take better care of yourself? Will you eat?”

“I want to eat,” Jia said, giggling into his skin. “It’s your little bean that uses my stomach as its very own washer and dryer.”

Apollo looked up, stars and tears in his eyes, his palm covering her belly with a gentle reverence. “You’re happy about this, then?”

Such anguish flickered through the question that Jia had to swallow before she spoke. “Yes. Absolutely. I want this, with you. I want to have at least two more and I want us to love them as much as we love each other, and play with them, and hug them and teach them how to build castles. But more than anything, more than even this, Apollo, I want a life with you. I want to love you and be loved by you. Forever and ever.”

“All of it, and so much more, it’s all yours, Jia. I’m all yours.”

She buried her face in his chest and clung to him while he pressed tender, reverent kisses up and down her temple, jaw and neck.

Finally, after what felt like hours but was mere minutes, her heart settled. Especially when he pulled her under him and began to lavish her with kisses and promises.

EPILOGUE

THREEWEEKSLATER, as afternoon gave way to early evening, Jia tried her best not to steal a glance out the bedroom’s window at Apollo’s, no, their family home.

While she’d spent most of the afternoon napping and daydreaming and drooling over Apollo’s sweatshirt that she’d wrapped around herself—because he’d been gone for the last three days arranging her surprise—Christina came in to help her get ready.

Which wasn’t really necessary. Yes, Jia was showing, because the bean was growing at a steady, good pace, but Apollo’s sisters and mom and he himself, of course, treated her like she was the first one in the entire galaxy to give birth.

Anticipation fluttering through her, she pulled on loose jeans and a lacy, flowy top that flared from under her breasts to still give her a nice shape. The top was a shimmery ivory silk with pearl beading along its neckline, a gift from Chiara. Jia had laughed when she’d opened the package, because Apollo’s sister finally seemed to have understood that she was never going to get Jia to wear frilly, over-the-top dresses.

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