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  ‘Lucy’s my sister and I didn’t kidnap her… I offered her sanctuary,’ Polly declared loftily.

  ‘Sanctuary?’ Rashad echoed, visibly appreciating that choice of word. ‘I don’t think I would employ that particular word with Jax, Lucy.’

  ‘Jax is here?’ Lucy flew off the sofa as though jet-propelled and then stilled, colour rising in her cheeks below her sisters’ interested scrutiny.

  ‘Let the rehabilitation commence,’ Ellie remarked softly.

  ‘Have I been interfering?’ Polly asked worriedly.

  ‘No, I was hugely grateful for the support,’ Lucy told her warmly.

  Lucy couldn’t think straight. It had taken Jax less than forty-eight hours to come out to Dharia and she was sharply disconcerted. In the back of her mind, she had feared that he would let her go and write off their marriage as a mistake. After all, how could he possibly want to stay married to a woman whom he had such a low opinion of? But then letting her go could well be what he had arrived to discuss, she reasoned unhappily.

  Jax was in no better mood after his long flight to find himself in a room decorated like something out of an Arabian Nights’ fantasy, which dovetailed beautifully with the royal palace of Dharia. Rashad, the King, had seemed fairly normal though, acknowledging that he too would have been very ‘put out’ to find his wife and child had staged a vanishing act.

  And then Rashad had murmured, ‘But now that you’re part of the family I should warn you that when the sisters get together, they plot and plan. You’re either with them or against them.’

  ‘You’re my brother-in-law…well, half-brother-in-law,’ Jax adjusted, recognising that the three sisters had all had different fathers.

  ‘They don’t think of each other as half anything,’ Rashad cautioned him.

  ‘Catching up?’ another voice interposed, a voice that Jax recognised and he tensed, slowly turning round to arrange his thoughts before meeting the eyes of his former business partner, Rio Benedetti. ‘Well, isn’t this a small world?’ he breathed uncomfortably.

  ‘Relax,’ the Italian billionaire urged. ‘I ran into Franca last year and she brought me up to speed on past events. No disrespect to Franca intended, but I had the lucky escape and you had—?’

  Jax winced. ‘I owe you a wholehearted apology for what happened but let’s not talk about it,’ he retorted wryly of that sobering experience.

  ‘Let’s not,’ Rio agreed, leaning closer. ‘A word of advice though,’ he added in a rueful undertone. ‘The word “alley” will be etched on your gravestone…’

  Momentarily, Jax froze as if a gun had been angled at him and faint colour rose over his sculpted cheekbones. ‘Is that so?’

  ‘The sisters don’t keep secrets,’ Rio imparted. ‘Nothing is too sacred to be discussed. Cross one and you cross all three and none of them are batting for you.’

  That was information that Jax could well have done without. He knew he had messed up but everyone else knowing how badly he had messed up made him feel worse. He had had forty-eight hours in which to think and he had done more thinking within that forty-eight hours than he had done in all his twenty-nine years. And having reached obvious conclusions, had even decided what to say.

  But Jax’s prepared speech flew right out of his head when Lucy walked into the suite he was wafted off to. Lucy was wearing a long flowing dress in shades of blue and it fluttered round her as she moved and just seeing her again, just looking at her again, made Jax feel stuff he couldn’t suppress any longer.

  ‘I came because…’ he began.

  Jax looking gorgeous as usual, Lucy was noting, striving to be cool and composed after Ellie had advised her to play hard to get. But she couldn’t play hard to get with Jax, which was the crux of her problem where he was concerned: she loved him. She had always loved him and what had been rather insta-love in Spain when she barely knew him had turned into something much deeper and more binding the second time around. Jax might be hopeless at some things, like talking about feelings and paying compliments, but he was very, very good at other things.

  ‘Yes…you were saying?’ Lucy prompted, striving to take control of their meeting.

  Jax raked a deeply frustrated hand through his tousled black hair, green eyes glinting from below black lashes, and her heart jumped. ‘I don’t know what I was going to say. I had it all planned out but now it’s gone. This is all new to me,’ he muttered in a sudden surge. ‘But the only really important thing I have to say is that I love you and I need you and I want you to come home with me…’

  And just like that and with the unexpectedness of an explosion, Jax stole the wind from Lucy’s sails. She didn’t have time to try and work out how to play hard to get. He took the breath from her lungs and the arguments from her brain because what he had just said was what she felt as if she had been waiting all her life to hear.

  ‘I’ve never said those words to anyone else,’ Jax admitted gruffly as the silence dragged. ‘I married you, not because of your father’s blackmail, but because somewhere deep down inside me I wanted to be married to you. My head was telling me I didn’t want to get married but my instincts were pushing me in a very different direction. Is that weird?’

  ‘No…’ Lucy almost whispered the word, scared to move, scared to speak lest she interrupt him and stop him speaking.

  ‘My father reminded me that over one two-week period I flew back to Spain five times to see you. My attachment was obsessional,’ he conceded grudgingly. ‘I loved you then but I was afraid to accept that. Possibly when you said it suited me to believe that file and…the other stuff there was a shred of truth in that. Love has always been something that hurt and damaged me. I loved my mother, my father, my little sister, my half-brother and years before I met you I fell for a woman, who turned out to be a very troubled alcoholic, whom I had to place in rehab for recovery. I was determined not to get hurt again.’

  Lucy nodded like a vigorous little marionette, wanting so badly to reach out to him and hug him and cover him in kisses but knowing it was wiser to let him say what he needed to say to explain the past and the present. ‘I can understand that—’

  Jax released his breath on a hiss. ‘How can you? You keep on caring about people even when they hurt or disappoint you. That’s brave—’

  ‘Or plain stupid,’ Lucy slotted in wryly. ‘That’s just me. I tend to look for saving graces in people and stay optimistic but you’re a giant pessimist, who always sees the worst possible conclusions.’

  ‘Pretty much,’ Jax conceded.

  ‘And thinks the worst,’ Lucy added with spirit, thinking about the alley. ‘Even if there’s no justification for it.’

  Carefully avoiding the word Rio had advised him to avoid, Jax straightened his shoulders. ‘The alcoholic that I fell for was repeatedly unfaithful to me. She couldn’t help herself—she was a mess until rehab. But like my mother before her she conditioned me to distrust women. I’d seen that file. I saw a woman I thought was you and it seemed to fit, it seemed to be exactly the sort of thing that happened to me—I had got in too deep and you weren’t who I thought you were—’

  ‘Like with this alcoholic lady? That would be…er… Franca?’ Lucy checked. ‘Rio told Ellie about her and Ellie told me.’

  Jax took on board the second of Rio’s warnings. ‘Yes, it was Franca. After her I was very wary and cynical with women. I didn’t have faith in my own ability to read a woman, to really know her and, life being life,’ he groaned, ‘that meant I screwed up very badly with you. I ran when I should’ve stayed. I thought I was protecting myself but you had already burned me.’

  ‘Burned you?’

  ‘I never got over you. I kept on thinking about you at random times and reminding myself how bad you were…you know the—?’

  ‘Alley stuff?’ Lucy enunciated with precision, bright blue eyes gleaming.

  ‘Yes, that,’ Jax muttered, desperately keen to move on. ‘Obviously I was wrong and I am very sorry that I believed tha
t was you. I just saw the dress and the blonde hair and—’

  Lucy moved closer and closed both arms around him. ‘It’s all right,’ she murmured softly because his voice was ragged and too troubled for her to bear without touching him. ‘It’s all right. I forgive you. You made a mistake. It’s over, done and dusted—’

  Jax stared down at her with suspiciously bright green eyes. ‘I don’t deserve you. You probably don’t even believe that I love you and that I loved you right from the start and I don’t know how to prove it to you.’

  But Lucy didn’t need any more proof. Jax had wanted to stay married to her even though he believed she had once been unfaithful to him and that spoke volumes on its own. He had loved her warts and all, carefully schooling himself to overlook what any man would have seen as a monumental flaw and betrayal and predictably keeping his thoughts to himself. And then he had come clean and what he had been keeping secret had shocked and distressed her but at the same time it had set both of them free.

  ‘I love you too,’ Lucy whispered, planting a flyaway kiss on his freshly shaven jaw line, which was as high as she could reach even on tiptoes. ‘So much that when you’re not there it hurts.’

  Jax carried her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it in the most un-Jax-like tender manner. ‘You didn’t even leave me a note. I felt sick. I didn’t know what to do. I experienced pure panic—’

  ‘I would’ve phoned eventually,’ she confided. ‘I was so upset but you were right to tell me. It all needed to come out for us to deal with it and then put it away again.’

  ‘Your departure in a royal private jet was fairly straightforward when it came to tracking you,’ Jax admitted ruefully, and then he gathered her up into his arms with the attitude of a male who couldn’t keep his hands off her any longer.

  ‘The bedroom’s next door,’ Lucy told him helpfully.

  ‘I even told myself I was only marrying you for Bella’s benefit,’ Jax confessed. ‘I lied to myself all the way down the line.’

  ‘I persuaded myself I was only marrying you for our daughter’s benefit as well, so you’re not the only one.’

  ‘How’s Bella reacting to being here?’ Jax queried.

  ‘She’s got six cousins to watch and loads of toys to steal. She’s having a whale of a time.’ Lucy laughed, blue eyes sparkling, and Jax looked down at her with his heart in his own eyes and adoration there, a brilliant smile on his lean, darkly handsome features.

  ‘You are a very special woman, Tinker Bell,’ Jax declared, settling her down on the bed with that same heartbreaking smile dazzling her. ‘And the saddest element of all this is that my father is now going to be battering down our doors for invites.’

  Lucy studied him in bewilderment. ‘How? Why?’

  ‘Heracles is the son of a pig farmer,’ Jax told her with a chuckle. ‘Yes, he keeps that little fact well under wraps because he is an enormous snob. When he discovers that your sister is a queen, he will be horribly friendly. He’s very easily impressed in that line.’

  Lucy shifted an unconcerned shoulder. ‘I can live with that. It’s not as though either of us can change our fathers. They are what they are but neither of them is going to get the chance to spoil our happiness again.’

  ‘Can you be happy with me?’ Jax pressed with touching anxiety. ‘You do know I’ll screw up again. I won’t mean to but I will because I won’t always get it right—’

  ‘Neither will I,’ Lucy pointed out equably as she struggled to get him out of his jacket and tie and then, when he got helpful, embarked on his shirt, spreading her fingers lasciviously across his muscular torso. ‘Love is all about making allowances and compromises. We’ll get there. Nobody has to be perfect.’

  ‘I think you are. You have a heart as big as any country, khriso mou,’ Jax told her with a blissful sigh as she knelt over him, cheerfully stripping him.

  ‘And so have you,’ Lucy countered, much amused. ‘The difference between us is that you put your heart in a cage to keep it safe—’

  ‘And you still worked your way through the bars of my cage,’ Jax reminded her appreciatively. ‘You’ve got more power than you realise.’

  Lucy let a small hand stray and he arched up against her as if she had pressed a switch and she laughed as he sat up, wound both hands punitively into her hair and kissed her into breathless, leaping excitement. There was no more conversation then. They were both much too involved in sharing their bodies as they had shared their love.

  ‘I suppose we should get up for dinner…or whatever they call it here,’ Jax mused hours later. ‘I’m being a very rude guest.’

  ‘No, I know my sisters and they know me. They’ll have tucked Bella into bed and gone on as normal. There’s no pressure, no expectations. Everyone’s family here and that’s just the way it is. I love it, especially because you’re here too now,’ Lucy confided, tucking a sleepy head into the crux of a strong brown shoulder and dreamily taking in the familiar scent of his skin, soothed by his proximity and the glorious high of knowing herself loved at last.

  ‘I love you,’ Jax muttered, easing her closer, marvelling at how easy it had become to say those words that he had refused to think about for so long.

  ‘Love you,’ Lucy whispered, dropping off to sleep, because she had lain awake sleepless while they were apart.

  And Jax smiled in the darkness, recognising that for the first time in his life he was truly, joyously happy.

  *

  ‘This place looks amazing,’ Polly carolled as she stood in the marble hall of the house on Tifnos and admired the fabulous Christmas decorations and the glittering tree. ‘It’s wonderful that you have a home big enough to take us all too, so we can get together like this to celebrate.’

  ‘You can thank my fatherin-law, Heracles, for that. He built big.’

  ‘Was that the little man who kept on bowing to me?’ Polly whispered uneasily.

  ‘Yes, that was him, very subdued at being in the royal presence,’ Lucy remarked, stifling her amusement.

  In the three years Lucy had been married to Jax a great deal had changed. Her fatherin-law was a frequent visitor, their children providing a major draw. Lucy had warmed up to Heracles considerably once she’d realised that he genuinely adored children and his grandchildren most of all. Yes, she had had another baby, a little boy called Dmitri, who was almost two years old. Their lengthy unplanned holiday in Dharia after their reconciliation had extended the family. She had enjoyed her second pregnancy much more than the first because she had had Jax by her side and Jax had been scientifically fascinated by every change she had gone through on the road to producing his son. He had shared everything with her and supported her right through the nausea in the early stages to every medical appointment and finally the birth.

  During those three years only Lucy’s son had been born but Polly was expecting again, freely admitting that she wanted a large family. Ellie had declared that two children would do her nicely but one never knew with Ellie, who could be prone to saying one thing and then quietly doing another. As for Lucy and Jax, they were still young and, while being quite happy with the children they had, they thought that some day they might plan a third child. Ellie had already lectured them hilariously about birth control, pointing out that two accidental conceptions was inexcusable, and her audience had only laughed.

  Kreon and Iola were regular visitors on the island and Kreon and Heracles politely avoided each other at family gatherings. Her father had faced bankruptcy proceedings the year before and Jax had bought a small business for him and placed him in it, pointing out that Kreon needed to be kept occupied and independent. His kindness had almost reduced Lucy to tears and she was relieved that Jax had finally begun to see and understand Kreon’s essential good-heartedness.

  ‘He’s your father and you love him,’ Jax had said to Lucy. ‘We have to do our best for him. After all, you put up with my father and forgive his foibles.’

  Jax was a wonderful husband in every way,
Lucy reflected gratefully, feeling very blessed. After spending so many years of craving the feeling of being special to someone she had finally found a safe harbour.

  Leaving Polly to get settled in with her children and explaining that Ellie had gone straight to bed after a hospital late night shift, Lucy went off to put Dmitri down for a nap because he got very cross and whiny when he got too tired and with all the children in the house and the excitement of the Christmas season, he needed more sleep. The little boy snuggled into his cot, clutching his toy elephant. He was as blonde as his mother, which had been a surprise to his parents, but he too had Jax’s green eyes and olive complexion.

  Lucy looked out of the window and saw the older children down on the beach with Rashad and Rio. She could just make out four-year-old Bella in her yellow dress skipping through the surf with Polly’s younger son, Hassan, and Ellie’s Teresina. The cousins had all become fast friends and playmates, which made family get-togethers run more smoothly.

  Recognising that she finally had the family circle she had dreamt of having all her life, Lucy vented a contented sigh and went to freshen up before dinner. She was in the shower when another body stepped in beside her and she spun round with a delighted smile of welcome.

  ‘Jax…thought you were going to be late tonight!’ she gasped.

  ‘No, I looked round my office, thought of you all here enjoying yourselves without me and decided I was needed at home. I saw the children down on the beach as we flew in.’

  ‘Dmitri’s having a nap. He was throwing tantrums all over the place,’ his mother confided ruefully.

  ‘I swear he’s got my mother’s temperament,’ Jax said worriedly.

  ‘No, don’t be silly,’ Lucy soothed, aware that he had that little fear that he might somehow pass on some troublesome gene. ‘He’s a toddler with a short temper and he hasn’t learned to control it yet. When he’s not tired he’s very good-natured. And, hey, did you join me in the shower to talk about the kids or—?’

  ‘Or, agapi mou,’ Jax chose, plastering her back against the shower wall and tasting her lush mouth with hungry urgency.