Page 47 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

She swayed as air swirled around her, and then hands rested gently on the tops of her arms. ‘Please, Lena, look at me.’

For the first time since that one glance on the terrace all those hours ago, her eyes overrode her will and met his stare.

What she found there sent ripples through her heart. It was the same agony she knew was mirrored in her own eyes.

‘I’m truly sorry, Lena. For everything. I’m sorry for my cruel proposal. I’m sorry for being a gutless coward. All these years I’ve let my brother’s betrayal fester in me. Infect me. It cut too deep for me to realise his betrayal had actually done me a favour.’

He must have read the question in her eyes for the smallest smile pulled on his lips. ‘I never loved Cassia. Not really. I loved the idea of her. I’d spent so many years infatuated with her that when we got together, I thought I had to be in love with her. If I hadn’t met you, I might have spent the rest of my life believing it.’

He lifted his hand and brushed his fingers over her cheekbones. She felt them tremble against her skin.

‘But I did meet you. And my heart recognised you. I have fought it every inch of the way and I have hurt you. That kills me. My blindness. I pushed you away in the most cowardly way and it was deliberate. Deep down I knew you would never agree to that insulting proposal, and all I can say is if you give me another chance, I swear on our child’s life that I will never push you away again. Not ever. I love you, Lena. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You’re the sun who lights my entire world and I can’t go on without you.’

From spending the entire day avoiding his stare, Lena now found herself unable to tear her gaze from his. She didn’t want to, anyway, not when such sincere, heartfelt emotion was contained in the green depths.

‘Give me your hand,’ he whispered.

It gave itself to him willingly.

He held it tightly to his chest. ‘Do you feel that?’ he asked in that same barely audible voice.

The strong beats of his heart thumped against her palm.

‘This is yours to do with as you will. My heart and my life are entirely in your hands.’

Her own heart swelled like a balloon to fill every crevice in her chest, pumping blood that fizzed through veins that had feared they would never feel joy again. The fizz seeped into her skin and bones until every cell in her body was suffused with the warmth that came only from Tinos, and suddenly she could contain it no more. She was never certain if she threw her arms around his neck or if her arms threw themselves, but around his neck they went and all the agony they’d both lived in their time apart healed in the passionate urgency of their fused mouths.

Breaking apart, they stared at each other in wonder.

‘I love you,’ he said, his words sweeter than manuka honey.

‘I love you more.’

‘Not possible.’

Cupping her face in his hands, he pressed his forehead to hers. ‘You will marry me, won’t you?’

Lena laughed. She couldn’t help it. ‘Just try to stop me.’

A beaming smile broke out on the face she loved with all her heart and then he was squeezing her tightly, overwhelming relief pouring out as laughter from his mouth and into her hair, and as their dizzying happiness soared in the air like a cloud around them, their baby woke up and had a party in Lena’s belly to celebrate.

EPILOGUE

STARSFILLEDTHEskies over Trollarudden. Lena, absorbed with the Christmas present her darling husband had gifted her with, stared through the powerful lens in rapture and astonishment. Thecoloursshe could see up there were...

‘Hot chocolate?’

Moving her face away from the telescope, she beamed at Tinos and tilted her head for a kiss.

With a vampiric grin, he obliged, his green eyes flashing when he pulled back. She bit back her protest at this kiss, far too fleeting for her liking, when her mother emerged from the back door of the cabin Konstantinos had had rebuilt and extended that summer, carrying a snow-suited Phoebe in her arms. Right behind them came Heidi on her brand-new, all-weather wheelchair, followed by their dad carrying a tray full of mugs of steaming hot chocolate.

While everyone settled on the long bench with Lena, Heidi held her arms out for her niece. It never failed to make Lena’s heart melt to see her sister’s devotion to the youngest member of their family. Never failed to astound her with the progress Heidi had made this past year.

Lena had believed Heidi’s recovery had long ago reached its limit. None of the Weirs had ever thought their beloved Heidi a burden but only once they’d moved into their new, gloriously spacious, wheelchair-friendly home did Heidi confess the guilt she’d felt at all they’d given up for her. Now, with both their parents having resigned their part-time teaching jobs, seeing their mother create pockets of time to fulfil the creative side she’d thought gone forever and their father dig his old golf clubs out of the garage, had lifted Heidi of the guilty burden none of them had known she carried.

But it was Phoebe who’d really proved the impetus for Heidi to throw herself even harder into her physiotherapy and, even with tears streaming down her face from the exertion of it all, strengthen her arms enough to safely hold the niece she was smitten with. Her devotion was entirely mutual and, wrapped in the sanctuary of her husband’s loving arms, Lena watched her eight-month-old daughter place a mittened hand to Heidi’s cheek with a contentment in her heart she’d never imagined it would be possible to feel.

Konstantinos’s phone rang. Placing a kiss to his wife’s temple, he disentangled his arms and accepted the video call from Kos.

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