Page 62 of The Konstantos Marriage Demand

But she never managed to get any more words out. Whatever she had been about to say was crushed into silence by the force and passion of the kiss that Nikos pressed against her lips. And as he swept her up into his arms, crushed her against him, she knew that no words were needed anyway.

Words were totally redundant when there were much better ways to express the way they were feeling.

‘Can we go yet? Can we go?’

Little George was almost dancing on the spot in impatience, tapping his smart patent shoes on the floor and risking crumpling his crisp white shirt and pressed black trousers as he chanted his request over and over again.

‘Can we go, pleeeease? I want to see Nikos.’

‘So do I,’ Sadie told him, her smile mirroring that on her brother’s face at the thought of the way that Nikos would be waiting for them, just a very short distance away on this special morning. ‘And we’ll be leaving very soon.’

George had adored his big cousin on sight, and in the time since they had first met that love had grown into a sort of idolatry as Nikos filled the role of the father the little boy had never had.

‘But we just have to wait for—’

She broke off as the door opened and her mother, elegant in peach and cream, stepped into the room. Her eyes went straight to her daughter, taking in the full effect of the simple white sheath dress with its overskirt of lace, the simple wreath of flowers on Sadie’s shining dark hair.

‘You look gorgeous, my darling—every inch the beautiful bride. Nikos is going to be knocked for six when he sees you.’

‘I hope so…’ Sadie smoothed a hand down her dress as she drew in a deep calming breath. ‘And what about you—are you OK, Mum?’

It was impossible to iron out the edge of concern in her voice as she studied her mother’s face. Sarah looked calm and in control, but underneath her carefully applied make-up she was still slightly pale and drawn, revealing the effort she had made to be here. The therapist Nikos had found for her had worked wonders, and that, together with the new-found happiness that came from knowing all their worries about Thorn Trees and everything else were far behind them, had created an incredible transformation in her mother’s life. But all the same the journey to Greece, to Icaros, was more than she had ever been able to imagine her mother could manage.

‘I’m fine,’ Sarah assured her now. ‘I’m exactly where I want to be—by my daughter’s side on her wedding day.’

‘And I’m so happy that you’re here with me.’

Happier than she could possibly put into words, Sadie told herself as she collected her bouquet of creamy roses. Today was literally the happiest day of her life. The day on which she was marrying the man she adored, and the day that marked once and for all the final ending of any last trace of the feud that had threatened to tear her and Nikos and their families apart.

Not only had she been welcomed into the Konstantos family, but George too had brought a new happiness to Nikos’s father, the little boy’s uncle. Petros had been overjoyed to find such a special link to his beloved dead brother in the little boy, and Sarah, as George’s mother and the woman Georgiou had loved, had been gathered into the warmth and welcomed too.

‘Can we go now?’ George was chanting again. ‘Is it time? I don’t want to wait another minute.’

‘It’s time,’ Sadie told him, keeping her bouquet in one hand as she held the other out to her mother. ‘And I don’t want to wait another minute, either.’

Arm in arm, with the little boy dancing around them, she and Sarah made their way out into the sunshine, taking the short walk towards the ancient wooden bridge, now beautifully decorated with flowers and ribbons that fluttered in the gentle breeze, leading to the open door of the tiny private chapel where Nikos waited for her.

Just for a moment, as she paused on the worn stone steps that led into the church, Sadie had a momentary flashback to the first time she had set foot inside the chapel. But that only lingered long enough for her to be able to drive it right out of her mind, knowing that such moments of doubt and insecurity were so far behind her now it was almost as if they had never happened. The promise of the happiness of her new life was now stretching out in front of her.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness inside the old building, but as soon as they did her gaze went straight to the tall, dark and powerful figure of the man standing at the altar.

Standing at the altar, waiting to make her his wife.

Immediately it was as if there was no one else in the place. As if the world and everyone in it had faded away and there was only this one man. The man to whom she had given her heart so completely that it was no longer a part of her but his to keep, to hold with him for ever.

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