He dropped a kiss on the corner of my mouth. ‘Perhaps not. But I made you a promise to be here for the good as well as the bad, eros
mou. So I will be on hand to hold your hair when you throw up. To massage your feet when the weight of our child tires you. And everything you need in between. If that’s what you want too?’ he asked, hope brimming in his voice.
I curled my arms around his neck. ‘More than anything in the world.’
The operation to remove what had turned out to be a benign lump in my cervix six months ago had been a resounding success, with every trace of it gone and quarterly scans showing it hadn’t returned.
Today Dr Trudeau had given us the all-clear to try for another baby—a statement Axios seemed determined to capitalise on immediately. And with a doting grandmother to help care for Andreos, in the form of my mother, life couldn’t have been better. Her decision to leave my father hadn’t been easy, but I’d supported her. Yiannis Petras hadn’t resisted for long, busy as he was with frittering away his millions on one bad investment after another.
Ax groaned. ‘Don’t cry. It rips me up when you do.’
I laughed tremulously. ‘Oh, God, then prepare yourself. Because I’m very hormonal during pregnancy.’
‘Hmm, I will have to think of ways to counteract that.’
‘What did you have in mind?’
‘Why, endless seduction, of course. I can think of nothing better than making love to my beautiful wife while she nurtures our baby in her womb.’
More tears flowed. With another groan, he sealed his lips to mine—most likely to distract me. It worked. Within minutes I was naked and gasping, lost in the arms of my true love.
And when, at the height of feeling, he looked deep into my eyes and whispered, ‘I love you, Calypso,’ he went one better and kissed my tears away.
The power of him moving inside me, possibly planting his seed inside me, triggered fresh tears.
I was still emotional when our breaths cooled. When he pulled me close and whispered in my ear.
‘Our adventure is only just beginning, eros mou. And I couldn’t have wished for a better partner at my side to experience it all but you, Calypso Xenakis.’
‘Nor I, you, my love,’ I returned, with every ounce of the love I held in my heart.
* * *