whimper. She scooped him from his cot and held him against her. He snuggled into her and her fingers stroked his hair.
The sight… watching her stroke the little boy’s hair did something to him he didn’t begin to recognise.
This was getting harder. He’d come here fuelled with anger against this woman. He’d come here to try and sort a solution.
What he hadn’t counted on was how she made him feel. He’d slept with Lily over twelve months ago and his body still knew why. He was reacting to her as he had then—with a desire that was inexplicable but inarguable.
And Michales…
He’d never thought of himself as a father. This child had nothing to do with him.
Except… He had the look of him. His son.
His world was shifting into unchartered territory.
Just say it, he told himself again, feeling cornered. Lay it on the line.
‘Lily, this is hard,’ he said. ‘But you need to listen. The islanders have lived with such uncertainty that when the truth comes out about Michales’s parentage their likely reaction will be disbelief. And why wouldn’t it be? They’ve been lied to by Mia and Giorgos. They have no reason to trust me—or you.’
‘I don’t… It can’t matter.’
‘But it does matter,’ he said forcefully. ‘We need to give them reason to believe, and the way to do that is by acting truthfully and acting with honour.’
‘Honour… ’ She filled the word with scorn. ‘Honour!’
‘I know it’s been in short supply, but this is my honour,’ he said, ruefully now. ‘I need to be seen to do the right thing.’
‘Finally.’
‘Okay, finally,’ he admitted and spread his hands in apology. ‘I concede my behaviour until now has been less than perfect. I shouldn’t have slept with you. I shouldn’t have blocked your phone call with such a response. But we… both of us… need to move on. The islanders need to be told that Giorgos and Mia lied, but they need to accept that the lies are finished. They need to know I’m to be trusted—and that I’m truly Michales’s father. Right now the island is on the brink of rebellion, but my advisors believe that it would be reluctant. We can head it off by giving the island stability, good government and hope for the future. The island needs an honourable royal family and it needs an heir.’
Lily stared at him over Michales’s small head. ‘S-so?’
But maybe she was already seeing where he was going, he thought. She looked suddenly terrified. She was a lot smarter than Giorgos, he thought. Or her sister.
‘I’m assuming you know the state of the Diamond Isles.’
‘Yes, but… ’
‘But ruin,’ he said forcefully. He couldn’t let the shock on her face deflect him from what needed to be said. ‘The islanders are poverty-stricken. The islands’ land titles are mortgaged to the hilt and there’s threatened takeover by outside interests. We’re facing destruction of our lifestyle—everything we stand for. That’s inevitable, unless these people put their faith in me and in what I can do. The islanders have to accept their new royal family—they can’t think I’m inventing this story merely to claim the throne for my own ends. Lily, I’ve thought about this all week. I’ve listened to the wisest lawyers and political advisors I can find. And they’ve come up, over and over, with the one sure answer.’
‘Which… which is… ’
‘Which is that you marry me.’
FOR a moment he thought she’d faint. The colour bleached from her face. She stared at him in incredulity. Instinctively his hands caught Michales and held.
She was so stunned she let her baby go. He stood, holding his son. Not sure how to hold him. Not sure where to go from here.
‘Maybe I didn’t do that too well,’ he said at last. Then he said dryly, ‘Maybe I should go down on bended knee.’
‘Or maybe you shouldn’t.’ Colour washed back, a flush of anger. Better, he thought. Angry was good.
He could deal with anger.
‘I think you need to leave,’ she said. ‘I’m talking about getting on with the rest of my life. You’re talking fairy tales.’
‘I’m not.’
Michales wriggled in his arms. He looked up at Alex and he smiled, a wide, toothless grin that made Alex feel as if the rug was being pulled from under his feet.
He had to keep hold of his anger. He couldn’t think while holding… his son.
He laid him on the square of carpet under the window. The little boy pushed himself into a sitting position and crowed with delight.
Alex gazed down at him in astonishment. ‘He can almost sit up. He wasn’t doing that in Sappheiros.’
‘As if you’d have noticed.’
‘I did notice,’ he told her. ‘Even before Mia left I was worrying about him. The nursery staff were worrying about him. His mother seemed to be ignoring him.’
‘Yeah,’ she said, sounding dazed. ‘Alex, go away.’
‘I can’t,’ he said soberly, and instinctively he caught her hands. They were cold. Too cold. She didn’t pull away, though—she didn’t move.
Okay. Get this right, he told himself. Stay logical and unemotional.
‘It’s politics,’ he told her. ‘If we leave things as they are, if he stays here with you, the islands will be in a mess. They’ll see me as a usurper, and rebellion is a real possibility. But if we marry… ’
She tugged her hands back in instinctive protest, but he didn’t let her go. He had to impart the urgency of the situation, and at the same time he was trying to figure how to take the blank look from her face.
She looked… battered. It might be a front, but he needed to back off.
He needed to talk a language they both understood.
‘You obviously don’t understand,’ he said. ‘But I’m talking money.’
And here it was. He’d come prepared.
‘There’s a cheque in my pocket for more money than you can dream of,’ he told her. ‘Call it paternity payment if you like, but it’s yours the moment you marry me.’ Then, as she stared at him in stupefaction, he ploughed on. ‘This is not personal. Think of it as a business proposition. The proposal is that you marry me—a real wedding to reassure everyone that we stand together—you stay on Sappheiros for at least a year so our marriage can’t be annulled, and then we can be
