Angel admitted ruefully. ‘I thought that for the first time in my life I was loved for who I was, not for what I can do or buy or provide. You know I’m flawed and you accept it. You know I’m still finding my way in this family set-up.’
‘You’re not the only one. Yesterday I discovered that Sybil is not my aunt but my grandmother,’ Merry told him in a sudden surge. ‘That’s another reason why I was so upset and over the top with you yesterday. I was already all shaken up. My mother was adopted by Sybil’s parents and only learned the truth when she was eighteen. Oh, never mind, I’ll explain it all to you later, but finding out that Sybil and Natalie had been keeping all that from me all my life made me feel deceived...and you’re right, I do love you,’ she completed almost apologetically. ‘I have almost from the start. Don’t know why, don’t know how, just got attached regardless of common sense.’
Angel rested his hands down on her taut shoulders. ‘We had an electric connection from the first day. Somehow, we match. I just wish I hadn’t wasted so much time staying away from you when I wanted to be with you. I was existing in a sort of fog of denial that everything had changed and that I wanted the sort of relationship that I had never trusted or experienced with a woman.’
‘And I let you down,’ she whispered guiltily. ‘I did think the worst at the first sign of trouble. I wasn’t strong and sensible the way I should have been.’
‘It’s sort of comforting that your common sense leaves you when you’re upset. When I arrived and saw you’d been crying, obviously upset, it gave me hope that you did care.’
‘I’ll always care,’ she muttered softly, turning her cheek into the caress of his long fingers.
‘I’ve never trusted love. I know my father cares about me but my mother lost interest the minute I grew beyond the cute baby stage,’ he confided. ‘What you said about Sybil and your mother? Take it back to basics, agape mou. You may not have known the whole story but you were always loved. That’s a blessing. It’s much harder to love without that experience and the confidence it gives you.’
Merry stretched up to him and buried her face in his shoulder, drinking in the musky familiar aroma of his skin like a restorative drug. He caught her chin in his fingers and tipped up her mouth to taste her with hungry urgency.
‘You taste so good,’ he ground out, walking her back towards the bed with single-minded intent. ‘Tell me you love me again... I like hearing it.’
‘How did you guess how I felt?’ Merry pressed. ‘I thought I was hiding it.’
‘You put up with all my unreasonable demands and still smiled at me. I didn’t deserve it so there had to be some other reason why you were being so tolerant and sometimes I couldn’t help testing you to see if you’d crack.’
‘I don’t crack. I’m loyal and loving...as long as you don’t take on a mistress.’
‘Where would I get the energy?’ Angel growled, his attention elsewhere as he slid his hand below the tee shirt to mould it to a plump breast with satisfaction, and then wrenched her out of its concealment with unashamed impatience. ‘Thee mou, I want you so much it hurts... I thought I was losing you.’
‘And then I disappointed you.’
‘You’re not supposed to walk away, you’re supposed to stand and fight for me,’ Angel told her. ‘I fought for you.’
‘I was hiding behind my pride.’
‘I don’t have any where you’re concerned and I have even fewer scruples. I was willing to drug and kidnap you to get you back to Greece. You don’t want to know the things that ran through my mind when I thought I was losing you,’ he assured her. ‘A large helping of crazy, if I’m honest.’
‘That’s because you love me,’ Merry told him happily. ‘You’re allowed to think crazy things if you want to fight to keep me...’
And their clothes fell away in a messy heap as Angel moved to make her his again and satisfy the last lurking stab of insecurity inside him. Merry was his again and all was right with his world, well, almost all. He shifted lithely against her, holding her close.
‘When you feel up to the challenge, we’ll have another baby and I will share the whole experience with you,’ Angel promised, jolting her out of her drowsy sensual daydream.
‘Another...baby?’ Merry gasped in disbelief. ‘You’ve got to be kidding! Elyssa’s only seven months old!’
‘You could consider it...eventually, hopefully,’ Angel qualified. ‘Although I’ll settle for Elyssa if you don’t want another child. It’s not a deal breaker.’
‘Are you sure the threat of that extra responsibility won’t make you run for the hills again?’ Merry asked snidely.
‘No, set me the challenge of getting you pregnant and I assure you that I will happily meet every demand, no matter how strenuous or time consuming it becomes.’ Dark golden eyes alive with tender amusement, Angel gazed down with a wide, relaxed smile. ‘In fact I find the concept quite exciting.’
Merry punched a bare brown shoulder in reproach. ‘Anything to do with sex excites you!’
Angel looked reflective and a sudden wicked grin lit his darkly handsome features. ‘I’m sure if we had about six children, six very noisy and lively children, I could persuade my mother to find her own accommodation. You see, expansion could be a complete game changer in the happy-family stakes...’
‘I do hope that was a joke,’ Merry sighed, warm and contented and so happy she felt floaty. He loved her and it shone out of him. How had she not seen that? How had she tormented herself for so long when what she desperately wanted was right there in front of her, waiting to be claimed?
And now Angel was hers, finally all hers, and equally suddenly she was discovering that she was feeling much more tolerant and forgiving of other people’s frailties. Her mother was trying to show her that she cared and perhaps it was past time she made more of an effort in that quarter. And then there was Roula, unhappy and humiliated—possibly she could afford to be more forgiving there as well. Happiness could spread happiness, she decided cheerfully, running a seeking hand down over a long, sleek male flank, keen to increase his happiness factor too...
* * *
‘Well, I have to confess that I never saw this coming,’ Natalie admitted, studying her mother, Sybil, and Angel’s father, Charles, as they stood across the room graciously receiving the guests at the wedding reception being held at Angel and Merry’s home on the island of Palos. ‘I thought it would fizzle out long before they got this far.’
‘He’s daft about her and she has made him wait six years to put that ring on her finger,’ Merry reminded the small blonde woman by her side. ‘I think she’s just finally ready to settle down.’
‘Well, she took her time about it,’ Natalie pronounced wryly. ‘Angel’s mother isn’t here, is she?’
‘Hardly, considering that she was Charles’ first wife,’ Merry remarked.
‘Not much chance of her settling down.’
‘No,’ Merry agreed quietly, reflecting that they saw remarkably little of Angelina these days. Angelina had bought a Manhattan penthouse where she now
