‘Azrael,’ Molly sighed, wondering what on earth he was talking about. ‘A family as ordinary as mine—unlike yours—doesn’t have what you would call a heritage...’
‘A man with Hashem in his family tree has no false pride and few illusions about his supposedly illustrious bloodline,’ Azrael contradicted.
Molly opened the boxes and her lashes fluttered up on amazed eyes. ‘My grandmother’s brooch and ring!’ she gasped, staring down at the glittering diamonds in disbelief. ‘How on earth—?’
‘They are very fine stones and very old. We will probably never know how they came into your ordinary family, but perhaps they were passed down from a wealthier generation to yours,’ he suggested, smiling as she put the ring on her finger with tears of joy shining in her lovely green eyes.
‘This means so much to me!’ Molly admitted chokily. ‘I am so moved that you would go to that much trouble to get these back for me.’
‘I was touched that you would make such a sacrifice to care for Maurice and I was determined that they should be recovered for you,’ Azrael murmured, brushing a sparkling tear from her cheek with a gentle fingertip. ‘You’re so loyal and loving...and I am so very fortunate to have found you. I adore you, Molly mine.’
‘And I adore you.’
In reward, Azrael brought his firm, sensual mouth down on hers, tasting her with powerful pleasure while hunger sizzled through Molly’s shapely body like a living flame.
‘I was planning to save them until we visited the cave to celebrate our anniversary next week,’ Azrael confided as he came up for air again. ‘But once I received them, I had to give them to you. I couldn’t wait to see your beautiful face light up.’
‘Mr Gorgeous, you are my every dream come true,’ Molly told him joyfully.
‘I can live with that label even less easily than I can live with Glorious Leader,’ her plain-speaking husband told her firmly.
‘But I can’t live without you,’ Molly declared sunnily, lost in those stunning dark golden eyes locked to her smiling face.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Leonidas Betancur was presumed dead after a plane crash, and he cannot recall the vows he made to his bride Susannah four years ago. But once tracked down, his memories resurface – and he’s ready to collect his belated wedding night! Susannah wants Leonidas to reclaim his empire and free her of his legacy. But dangerously attractive Leonidas steals her innocence with a touch… And the consequences of their passion will bind them together for ever!
Read on for a sneak preview of Caitlin Crews’ next story
A BABY TO BIND HIS BRIDE
One Night With Consequences
There was a discreet knock on the paneled door and the doctor stepped back into the room.
“Congratulations, madame, monsieur,” the doctor said, nodding at each of them in turn while Susannah’s breath caught in her throat. “The test is positive. You are indeed pregnant, as you suspected.”
She barely noticed when Leonidas escorted the doctor from the room. He could have been gone for hours. When he returned he shut the door behind him,
enclosing them in the salon that had seemed spacious before, and that was when Susannah walked stiffly around the settee to sit on it.
His dark, tawny gaze had changed, she noticed. It had gone molten. He still held himself still, though she could tell the difference in that, too. It was as if an electrical current ran through him now, charging the air all around him even while his mouth remained in an unsmiling line.
And he looked at her as if she was naked. Stripped. Flesh and bone with nothing left to hide.
“Is it so bad, then?” he asked in a mild sort of tone she didn’t believe at all.
Susannah’s chest was so heavy, and she couldn’t tell if it was the crushing weight of misery or something far more dangerous. She held her belly with one hand as if it was already sticking out. As if the baby might start kicking at any second.
“The Betancur family is a cage,” she told him, or the parquet floor beneath the area rug that stretched out in front of the fireplace, and it cost her to speak so precisely. So matter-of-factly. “I don’t want to live in a cage. There must be options.”
“I am not a cage,” Leonidas said with quiet certainty. “The Betancur name has drawbacks, it is true, and most of them were at that gala tonight. But it is also not a cage. On the contrary. I own enough of the world that it is for all intents and purposes yours now. Literally.”dpg!
“I don’t want the world.” She didn’t realize she’d shot to her feet until she was taking a step toward him, very much as if she thought she might take a swing at him next. As if she’d dare. “I don’t need you. I don’t want you. I want to be free.”
He took her face in his hands, holding her fast, and this close his eyes were a storm. Ink dark with gold like lightning, and she felt the buzz of it. Everywhere.