‘Not really brutally,’ she corrected, being per- fectly honest, because even if the intentions had been brutal the act itself had been bliss.
‘Single-mindedly, then. I used my experience quite ruthlessly to get you to capitulate. After that I wanted to show you how sweet seduction could be, but I wanted to do that after we were married, to make amends for my behaviour, if you like. That night, when you turned to me, I felt so close to you, and I wanted to show you that closeness didn’t necessarily have to culminate in making love. But you persuaded me to stay. And once again, I dem- onstrated that around you, all my self-control amounted to nothing.’
Jade gave him a look of satisfaction.
‘Yes,’ he teased her. ‘You can afford to look smug!’
‘Why didn’t you tell me all this in London?’
‘Because our time in London had been tainted with nothing but bad experience and misunder- standing. I was afraid that you were going to call my bluff and leave me, in London. That is why I wanted to start again, on the island. Alone. I brought you back to the island, where we had once been so happy—to rediscover our love for one another without the pressures which surrounded us in London. It was to be a honeymoon of the most traditional kind. The last thing in the world I im- agined was to find my stepmother and sister waiting here, with my stepsister attempting, and managing, to drive a further wedge between us.’ He paused. ’I need to know, agape mou, whether you can find it in your heart to forgive me, and whether there is any of the love left which you once felt for me?’
She suspected that her beautiful, arrogant Constantine already knew the answer to this question. His mouth was now inches away, but, much as she longed for him to kiss her, there were a few more things which she needed to get off her chest. ‘You, Constantine Sioulas,’ she said firmly, ’are the most arrogant man I’ve ever met in my life.’
‘I agree,’ he said gravely.
‘You think you can just barge your way through life, riding roughshod over people’s feelings, doing exactly what you want, in order to get your own way. Don’t you?’
‘I do.’ His lids hooded the spark in his eyes. ‘And?’
‘And I love you in spite of it, or because of it; I have done since the moment I set eyes on you, and it’s never going to change, even though I probably shouldn’t be telling you that.’ But the softness in her eyes belied her words and she knew that, arrogant or not—she would never hide her love from him. Because Constantine was strong, yes—but at a cost. The cost of his lost years of childhood, unloved after his mother had died, a situation not unlike her own.
‘Say it again,’ he urged her softly, her powerful, beautiful man, and she needed no second bidding.
‘I love you.’
He gave her a slow, slow smile. ‘I don’t think I could ever grow tired of hearing you say that.’
She vowed to tell him so every day of their lives, and the reality of their future suddenly hit Jade like a gloriously starry blow to the heart. ‘Oh, Constantine,’ she began, but the sentence was never completed because he started kissing her.
Some time later he raised his dark head and looked down at her.
‘My main residence is in New York. Do you mind?’
‘Mind?’ She gave him a dazed, dreamy smile. ‘I know that this is the most corny thing to say, but I’d live anywhere with you, Constantine.’
He wound a strand of bright gold hair round and round his finger. ‘At the moment I travel all over the world, and I want you to travel with me, but when the babies come—well, then we won’t be so nomadic.’
Babies! Jade wriggled her toes with anticipation, then kissed every inch of his face. ‘Just so long as we can have our holidays here,’ she murmured.
‘I promise. But only if you promise me that you’ll write that book you once told me you thought you had in you.’
She kissed the end of his nose, her eyes sparkling with mischief. ‘Funny you should say that—I happen to have the first twenty pages in my suitcase.’
‘Then I am afraid I shall have to confiscate it,’ he said gravely. ‘This is, after all, our honeymoon— and I intend to spend the whole time making love to you.’
‘Oh, Constantine,’ she said breathily, helpless with a love for him which overwhelmed her, her feelings shining from her eyes, so that he grinned— that rare and bright and irresistible grin.
‘Jade,’ he whispered, and buried his head in her shoulder, and when he raised it again he looked like a man at peace with himself, but a man with something else on his mind too.
‘And now,’ he murmured, ‘sweet bride, what shall we do next? Any ideas?’
Her heart swelled with love, and her body tingled with the glorious anticipation of his touch. ‘Oh, yes, my darling,’ she whispered, and reached up to kiss him. ‘More than you’d ever believe.’