Modern Romance November 2019 Books 5-8. Dani CollinsЧитать онлайн книгу.
the screen, his whole body rapt as Andreos was laid in my arms for the first time. He watched me kiss his wrinkled forehead, heard me murmur, ‘My little miracle,’ as tears of joy spilled down my face.
His throat moved in a swallow when the video ended, and he immediately hit ‘rewind’ and watched it all over again.
Then his gaze shifted to me.
‘Ax…’
He shook his head, raised my hand to his mouth, gently kissed the back of it. ‘It was a magnificent birth.’
Deep inside me something essential melted, pulling me into a dangerous spell I wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to fight. Emotion clogging my throat, I smiled.
‘He’s a beautiful boy,’ he rasped, a throb of deep pride in his voice.
I blinked unbidden tears away. ‘Yes. He is.’
‘As beautiful as his mother.’
As my breath caught all over again, his thumb rubbed across my knuckles.
‘Again you have my thanks—especially since you had to go through that alone.’
‘I’d do anything for him,’ I replied, and I knew the fervent well of my emotion had registered with him.
For the longest time he simply stared, then his gaze returned to the screen, his vision going a little hazy. ‘The reality of him—’ He stopped. ‘He may be an unexpected arrival in my life, but I want the chance to do right by him. To do things differently—’
Again he stopped, prompting questions I couldn’t halt.
‘Differently from what? Your father? I noticed your stiff interaction at the wedding, then again at the family mixer, and assumed I was to blame.’
He shook his head. ‘Our issues go back a little further. I was still a teenager when my grandfather announced that I was to be his successor. In his eyes my father didn’t have what it took to make the tougher decisions.’ A muscle ticked in his jaw as his lips firmed. ‘My father disagreed. He attempted to prove my grandfather wrong.’
I frowned. ‘How?’
‘My grandfather temporarily handed him the reins of the company. Six months later my father suffered a breakdown brought on by extreme stress. He didn’t take the prognosis well.’
‘What did he do?’
‘He believed my grandfather had humiliated him. And when my grandfather made it known that he’d seen me as his successor all along, my father…didn’t take it well. His resentment festered irreparably.’ His lips twisted. ‘Which, in a nutshell, is the story of my whole family.’
‘But you all seem so…united—give or take the odd vibe or two.’
He shrugged cynically. ‘Self-interest, especially where wealth is concerned, has a way of binding even the most dissenting individuals. My father may not like the status quo but he’s had to accept it.’
‘Is there no way to repair your relationship?’
A hint of bleakness came and went in his eyes within a heartbeat. ‘We’ve accepted our strengths and our weaknesses. My father may resent me for seemingly usurping him, but he doesn’t want the role.’
‘You offered it to him?’
His lips thinned. ‘A few years ago I suggested a partnership. He refused.’
‘He wanted all or nothing?’
His lips twisted. ‘Don’t we all?’
Pain lashed me. ‘Not all of us. Our fathers, maybe.’
Grey eyes met mine and a moment of affinity lingered between us, threatening to burrow into vulnerable places.
I cleared my throat. ‘Is that why you’re determined to try with Andreos?’
He’d said on the balcony that he was attempting to be different. The part of me that wasn’t terrified of what the future held desperately craved to see that difference.
The question took him aback, and a naked yearning blanketed his features before he mastered it. ‘Is it wrong to wish for a better outcome with my son than that between my father and I?’ he rasped.
Again, a deep, sacred sensation pulled at me. Harder. Stronger. Making it impossible to breathe.
Despite the danger of falling under the silken spell he was weaving, I laid my hand on his arm. ‘No, it’s not.’
His gaze dropped to my hand. Silence charged with electricity filled the room as something flashed in his eyes. Primal and fierce. The video and our conversation had done something to him. Shifted the dynamic.
I was tempted to run. To hide from it. But I was just as determined not to regress.
‘So…where do we go from here? After tonight, I mean?’
His eyes dropped to my lips, then moved back up to seize mine.
‘Now we consolidate on what we’ve started,’ he murmured huskily.
I wanted to ask for clarity. Wanted to ask whether he meant us or the larger world. But his fingers wound tighter around mine, his free hand rising to slide into my hair, dragging over my scalp in a wickedly evocative move that snatched the air from my lungs and hardened my nipples into aroused peaks.
Those penetrating eyes tracked my every reaction, his nostrils flaring when he caught the visible signs of my agitated state.
‘And how do you propose to do that?’ I asked.
‘By making things real both inside and outside of the marriage bed,’ he stated, his voice deep and sure.
Lightning-hot excitement charged through me, the need to experience this altered Axios overwhelming me. Would the change he wanted with his son manifest itself with me too, even in the short time I might have?
Only one way to find out.
I tugged myself free and stood to my feet.
Mutiny flashed in his eyes.
When he started to reach for me, I held up a hand. ‘If you want me to change my mind convince me that you’re worth it,’ I said.
Then I fled.
I went after her like a beast possessed.
She was mine.
My wife.
All evening I’d caught tantalising glimpses of her. The way she moved, the thoughtful way she responded to strangers’ rabid curiosity, even accommodating Stavros…
I’d run the gamut from telling myself I didn’t care about all the facets of herself she was revealing to feeling a determination to pin her down and extract every last secret from her.
But that video…
Her father was in possession of a hundred million euros. My name could have commanded an entire wing in a plush private hospital. And yet Calypso had chosen to deliver our son in a state-run hospital in Kenya with third-rate equipment. And, not only that, she’d done all that with an inner strength that shone through the footage, surrounded by people who had clearly held her in high regard.
She’d spent some of the past year volunteering. I couldn’t name a single member of my family who would devote their time to charity unless it came with a tax write-off or a star-studded gala where they could show off their diamonds.
And besides the awe-inspiring act of giving birth, the most striking thing about Calypso Xenakis was the determination I’d seen on her face in that video.
It had sparked something inside me. A need for…more.