Expectant Bride Page 18

  Ellie frowned, her hands tightening their hold on his. ‘What did she do to you?’

  ‘She played me like a violin,’ Dio grated with a perceptible rise of blood to his bronzed complexion as he recalled that meeting. ‘She said that she would be a laughing stock, and that no man would ever marry her if I didn’t. But she kept on reiterating that of course she understood and forgave me…I was there for hours!’ He gave a feeling shudder of recollection. ‘I felt like a complete bastard. I honestly thought that I had ruined her life.’

  ‘She’s a terrific actress…or maybe…maybe she really does love you, Dio,’ Ellie suggested unhappily.

  Dio gave her an aghast look. ‘You’ve got to be joking!’

  ‘I love you…why shouldn’t she? She’s known you a lot longer—’

  ‘Ellie…’ Dio vaulted upright and carried her with him, his dark eyes ablaze with intense pleasure and relief at that simple confession. ‘Ellie, darling, darling, gorgeous Ellie…’ he breathed raggedly. ‘If I was a poor man, Helena wouldn’t give me the time of day. She’s obsessed with marrying a wealthy man worthy of her illustrious family tree. She simply could not credit that I could be wet enough to start talking about love…she said I could have you if I wanted you—’

  ‘As a mistress—’

  ‘And I said I loved you too much for that.’ Dio brushed her hair from her brow with gentle fingers, so much tenderness in his warm dark eyes that Ellie finally believed that he loved her. ‘But when I confronted her two weeks ago, she was much more honest. She assured me that if a better matrimonial prospect had come along, she’d have been married years ago!’

  ‘I’m glad she was angry rather than hurt,’ Ellie admitted.

  ‘Even after all she’s done to you?’ Dio demanded with naked incredulity.

  Ellie stretched up to loosen his tie in a very proprietorial way. ‘I can be very generous when I’ve won,’ she shared rather smugly.

  Dio caught her up in his arms and crushed her mouth with hungry intensity beneath his. As he buried his face in her hair, she quivered, feeling as weak as a kitten.

  ‘I never dreamt that hearing a woman telling me that she loved me could mean so much,’ he confided with roughened sincerity.

  ‘And to think that if you had told me rather than Helena,’ Ellie could not resist remarking, ‘that you loved me, I’d never have left you.’

  ‘Don’t you ever leave me again,’ Dio warned fiercely.

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of it…’ She gave him a teasing glance, rejoicing in this new intimacy of mutual trust which allowed her to do and say what she liked. ‘Not if it means you’re likely to drown in buckets of booze and self-pity…’

  Dio brought her down on the bed and pinned her there, black eyes alight with immense appreciation. ‘You are a minx.’

  ‘I’ve got your number now…you’d better watch out…’

  ‘I adore you,’ he husked feelingly. ‘But you’re not going to boss me around.’

  Ellie slid loving fingers into his luxuriant black hair and whispered, ‘Kiss me…’

  And he did.

  Then he lifted his head with a glint of mocking comprehension in his keen gaze. ‘Pregnant, barefoot and in the bedroom, agapi mou,’ he told her slumbrously.

  ‘You’re misquoting.’

  A slashing smile curved Dio’s mouth. ‘It was a statement of intent.’

  ‘Well, if we’re negotiating, what about all that “You don’t tell me what I can do, where I can go or who I can be with” stuff?’ Ellie enquired playfully.

  ‘I just knew you would remember every word of that.’

  ‘Because I reserve the right to.’

  ‘You could have been a real agent provocateur in the maintenance department.’ His brilliant dark eyes roamed over her and glittered with desire and boundless satisfaction. ‘It’s far safer keeping you in my bed.’

  ‘I’ve got to admit the family cave’s pretty comfortable,’ Ellie sighed happily, sparing her impressive surroundings a look of approval.

  And, with a husky laugh of appreciation, Dio kissed her breathless and proceeded to demonstrate the fringe benefits of sharing that family cave.

  Ellie tucked her infant son, Spiros, back into his exquisite cradle. At four months old, Spiros was just adorable. He had hair the colour of silver-gilt and dark, dark eyes—an arresting combination of his parental genes. When he was sound asleep, he looked like a little angel.

  The past twenty-four hours had been hectic, Ellie acknowledged. Dio had thrown a huge party in London to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. Then they had flown out to the island and spent the day entertaining Dio’s relatives, who had now all either gone to bed or travelled home again.

  A whole year. Ellie could still hardly credit that she had been married to Dio for that long. And the magic had not only lasted but got stronger, she reflected, with glowing eyes and the slow, steady smile of a contented woman.

  Working conditions in the maintenance department of Alexiakis International were now as good as they could get. Dio had never quite recovered from the sight of Ellie plugging in that floor-polisher and then fainting dead away. Ellie had had no trouble convincing him that the cleaning staff deserved more generous remuneration for their rarely appreciated efforts.

  Ellie returned to their bedroom to slide into a very sexy confection of gold satin, a special order fashioned along the lines of a flamenco dress. Setting off to the beach house, after having instructed a maid to deliver her surprise note to Dio, Ellie took with her the glossy magazine that gushingly described Helena Teriakos’ wedding the previous week. She hadn’t had a chance to finish reading the article yet.

  The bridegroom was a blue-blooded aristocrat, with a title a yard long. Helena looked positively triumphant. However, it was rumoured that the non-attendance of the groom’s powerful family signified their outrage at his choice of bride. On their terms it seemed that Helena was just not acceptable. Her family tree only went back a couple of generations, while theirs went back several centuries. But, studying the photo of the bridal couple, Ellie reckoned it would be a successful marriage. Helena’s husband looked like Arctic Man, his cold blue eyes, tight mouth and rigid carriage.

  Slinging the magazine aside with a smile, Ellie lit all the candles and switched off the lights. Then she began to dance to the music she had put on to accompany her display. This was her private anniversary present to Dio. She loved to surprise him. And when she caught the door opening out of the corner of her eye, she had to work really hard not to be drawn into looking directly at him.

  When the music rose to a savage crescendo and ended, then she looked, and just burned beneath the sheer, glittering hunger and appreciation in Dio’s stunning eyes.

  ‘You are just so easily impressed!’ she teased.

  Dio hauled her into his arms just like a caveman. She was shivering with excitement. Sensual anticipation ran like fire through her veins, leaving her weak as he slowly crushed her into the hard, muscular heat of his big powerful body. ‘So we’re back where we started out—’

  ‘Plus Spiros.’

  ‘I never forget our son for a single moment…or the very beautiful, very sexy and wonderful woman who gave him to me,’ Dio intoned with impressive intensity. ‘I think I love you even more now than I did a year ago.’

  Ellie closed her arms round him tightly. ‘You make me so happy.’

  ‘That’s what I’m here for…’ Somewhat distracted by his need to seal his mouth hotly to hers while at the same time backing towards the bedroom, Dio finally contrived the feat and got them both as far as the bed. ‘And to give you this…before you dare to suggest that I rushed down here in the most uncool manner imaginable just because I could not wait to go to bed with you!’

  Ellie gazed down at the exquisite diamond eternity ring he was now sliding onto her finger and she just melted back into him. ‘Oh, Dio…it’s gorgeous.’

  ‘It’s engraved with the date we first met.’

  �
��Gosh, you’re getting so romantic!’ Ellie sighed.

  Dio looked exceedingly smug. ‘You may have set up the candles and the note, but I brought the champagne and had a rose put on the pillow.’

  Ellie’s eyes widened and her face fell. ‘You mean my note wasn’t a surprise?’

  Dio winced, registering the error of one-upmanship.

  A slow, misty smile curved Ellie’s generous mouth and she pushed Dio gently back against the pillows. ‘I just love you to death when you drop yourself in a big tactless hole,’ she told him helplessly.

  ‘I don’t quite follow that.’ Dio surveyed her with adoring eyes that had a definite hint of bemused relief.

  Ellie arranged herself sinuously round him, knowing he didn’t understand. But that anxious look he had worn when he had feared that he had hurt her feelings just turned her heart inside out. ‘Great minds think alike,’ she whispered soothingly.

  ‘You are just amazing…’ Dio curved her so close she could hardly breathe.

  But then, at the moment, breathing was not half as important as the urgent need to seal their love in the most intimate way of all. Ellie meant to tell him just how amazing he was as well. But the electrifying combination of passion and joyous happiness now unleashed ensured that she didn’t tell him until the following morning.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1098-1

  EXPECTANT BRIDE

  First North American Publication 2000.

  Copyright © 1999 by Lynne Graham.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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