‘Marriage is a serious business,’ he agreed solemnly. ‘That is why I have avoided it until now.’
‘But I’m not from your world,’ she said desperately. ‘Don’t you see how impossible it is?’
He swung the jeep across the road, and brought it to a halt, just under the signpost where James and Hilary had deposited her an eternity before.
He turned to her, and he wasn’t smiling any more. Under the smooth olive skin, his face looked taut and drawn.
He said, ‘Without you, Gemma
mou
, I have no world. Don’t you know that? I love you, and I am so afraid that if I let you go back to England, even for a few days, that I will lose you somehow. That when I follow, you will have escaped me at last, hidden somewhere, and I won’t know how to find you.’ He touched her cheek with his hand, and she realised he was trembling. ‘Stay with me here, treasure of my life and let me teach you to love me. Let me make up to you for all the bitterness that has been between us.’
In a little shaken voice, she said, ‘You say—you love me? But how can you? You don’t know me.’
‘What do I not know?’ he asked. ‘I know that you love your family, and that you have loyalty and integrity, and fierce courage. I know that you have a temper, and a sense of humour. I know that when we make love, you give yourself with your whole heart, even though you are still too shy to look at me afterwards. Whatever else there is, it will be my joy to learn as we live together.’
She made a little stifled sound. ‘You’re—very kind.’ She didn’t look at him. ‘But you don’t have to say these things. I know you only offered to marry me—to make amends—and because you think you may have made me pregnant.’
He said very gently, ‘My sweet one, that is not true. From the moment I saw you, looking at the Lily-Prince, I wanted you—before even I heard your friend speak your name, and knew for certain who you were.’ He groaned. ‘And when I realised that you were the girl I was seeking—I felt sick to my stomach. I hated Stavros and his claims on my friendship—hated myself—the whole mess which would stop me meeting you, and wooing you as I wished to do.’ His voice deepened huskily. ‘That first evening, when I asked you to pretend with me that we were simply lovers, with no complications except our need for each other, I meant every word, agape
mou
. Because, but for Maria and her stupid wicked lies, that is how it would have been for us. Can you deny it?’
‘No,’ she admitted helplessly. That day at Knossos, she’d already been tinglingly aware of him, although she’d made light of it to Hilary and tried to deny it even to herself, bewildered and disturbed by the strength of her reaction.
‘And as for any baby——’ His arm went round her shoulders, drawing her to him, and he kissed the corner of her mouth. ‘Only God knows if you indeed carry our child under your heart, but I am selfish enough, matia
mou
, to hope that it has not happened yet, so that we will have some time to ourselves to enjoy each other, and to prepare a proper home for the children that will be given to us.’ He brushed her mouth with his. ‘The apartment at the hotel is unsuitable for a dozen reasons. I want a real home, and you in it. Am I still suffering from egotistical fantasies, my dove?’
She said, ‘No,’ her mouth trembling into a shy smile as she slid her arms round his neck. ‘You make it sound like Paradise, Andreas
mou
.'
He drew her close, and she could feel the urgent, steady beat of his heart against her breast. ‘
M’agapas
?’ he asked her softly. ‘Do you love me?’
‘Yes,’ she said on a little sigh. ‘So much. And I’ve been so unhappy. I thought you were tired of me, and that was why you were sending me away.’
‘Tired of you, wildcat?’ His smile teased her. ‘I could as soon be tired of life itself. No, I meant to behave so honourably. To send you home, so that I could follow. So that we could start again, with me asking your parents for you—convincing them somehow that I was a suitable husband. Convincing you too if necessary,’ he added drily. ‘I would have liked to have murdered Maria and Kemal with her, but also I was grateful to them, because the truth set me free to love you as I wanted. And, of course, it then followed that you had to be protected— especially from myself. As my bride to be, your body should have been sacred to me.’ He uttered a soft groan. ‘But when you came to my room last night, you were a temptation not even a saint could resist, and as I’ve told you, I’ve never pretended to be a saint.’ His mouth twisted a little. ‘So—that is why we go to Rethymnon, to my mother’s house, where not even I would dare to be tempted.’ He took her hands and raised them to his lips. ‘And I think we will not distress either my mother or yours, by giving them any hint that we have already enjoyed our wedding night.’
It was her turn to tease. ‘You have an unexpectedly conventional streak,
kyrie
.'
He grinned back at her. ‘I intend to be a model husband,
kyria
—your husband.’ He stroked her face with his hand. ‘So, I ask again, Gemma
mou
, will you marry me. Will you be my life, as I will be yours?’
And she breathed her answer against his lips as she kissed him.