as he was bid, Christian tore the envelope open and studied the document inside.
After long moments he faced her, his eyes brimming with so much emotion it was like looking into an overflowing bucket.
‘Thank you, Kiria Markos.’
‘You’re welcome Kyrios Markos.’
It was a document making official Alessandra’s name change from Mondelli to Markos.
This was her gift to him, her statement to them both as much as to the world that they were a unit. Their love was for keeps. Cut one and both would bleed. Their baby made them a family. She wanted their little family all to have the same name.
‘There is one little problem.’
‘Oh?’
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope.
Inside was a document making official Christian’s name from Markos to Mondelli.
Thus, when their swaddled baby was handed to them properly to begin their journey as a family, the first thing their daughter heard was the sound of her parents’ laughter.
As beginnings went, it couldn’t be bettered.
‘Three, two, one, drink!’
In unison, Christian and Rocco raised their glasses to their mouths and downed their shots.
‘To Letizia Markos,’ said Rocco, picking up his next shot.
‘To my beautiful baby,’ Christian agreed. ‘And to my beautiful wife.’
‘Three, two, one, drink!’
Christian had already celebrated the birth of his baby with Rocco, Zayed and Stefan four months before.
Tonight it was Alessandra’s turn. She was having her own version of wetting the baby’s head in the bar next door with her sister-in-law and some other friends. He suspected theirs would be a much more civilised affair than his had been. But not by much.
Thinking about it, he realised Alessandra hadn’t drunk any alcohol for well over a year, what with the pregnancy and then the four months of breast-feeding she’d done.
Her tolerance would be minimal.
Theos, and she’d insisted on wearing her five-inch heels.
He was all set to bolt out of the bar and hover over her like her own personal guard when Rocco called the barman over for another round.
‘Now we need to drink to baby Mondelli,’ Rocco said with a knowing look.
‘Baby Mondelli?’ It took a moment for the penny to drop. ‘Olivia, she is…?’
Rocco couldn’t hide the beam on his face. ‘Yes. I’m going to be a father.’
‘That is wonderful news!’ Embracing in a manly fashion, the two men then downed their final shots, got to their feet, walked out of the bar and into the next one, both eager to be with the women they loved above all else.
Tara Pammi
“I HAVE A proposition for you, Jasmine, that would allow you to pay off your brother’s debt within a year.”
Fear was a cold fist clamped over her spine, but Jasmine Douglas forced herself to stare steadily into the chilly green eyes of Noah King.
That word proposition from any other man of her acquaintance, while wholly unwelcome but an awful reality of her life, was something she was used to.
The clientele of the club where she worked, owned by Noah, was constantly under the impression that her scantily clad, gyrating-around-a-pole body was up for sale. That she was for sale.
She wasn’t and never would be.
Only soul-wrenching fear of the consequences of owing a debt to this man who owned three underground gambling clubs in London, and who was even now contemplating her future without blinking, had forced her into it.
She had barely buried her brother Andrew when she had learned of the debt he had piled up with Noah King, of all people. Desperation to resolve this debt and a need for survival forced her every night to take the stage.
So coming from Noah, that dangerous word turned the very blood in her veins into ice. “I’ve not missed a single payment, Noah,” she finally said through a dry mouth.
“Yes, but you’re barely making a dent. You have no assets that you could sell off, either.”
Her skin turned cold in the comfortably warm warehouse that was the headquarters of Noah’s empire. A couple of completely harmless-looking men had showed up at her flat this morning and very politely accompanied her to see Noah here.
Sweat pooling over her neck, Jasmine realized how foolish she was to assume that anything related to Noah King was harmless.
“Am I a prisoner, then?” she said, before she could hold back the reckless question.
Noah didn’t even blink as he casually peeled an orange and offered her some. “Until we find a satisfactory resolution, yes.”
Her gut dropped and she fought the instinct to turn around and run. No phrase had ever scared the daylights out of her like satisfactory resolution.
Why, oh, why hadn’t Andrew thought of where his debt would lead him one day? How could he have left her to deal with this dangerous man?
How, after all the promises he had made to her, could he have left her even worse than they had already been?
She had slaved for five years and was still stuck in this man’s power, like a fly stuck in a spider’s web. The more she tried to get out, the more she was ensnared.
On the heels of that thought came instant guilt. Andrew’s face flashed in front of her, his eagerness shining in his eyes, his expression so kind, lodging a lump in her throat.
We’ll get out of this dump one day, Jas. You just wait and watch. I’ll get us out of here.
Her brother had only wanted what was best for her, had only wanted to improve their lot in life. Had watched out for her for years.
Equipped with no skills, saddled with their mother’s drinking and responsibility
