From Dirt To Diamonds Part 16

'My Thea,' he said again.

She opened her eyes. Opened her eyes to see his, the truth pouring into her.

'Is it true?' Her voice was a whisper, her fingers clutching at his lapel.

He gave a smile. Crooked, unsure. Unsure of her.

'True that I love you? Oh, yes ...' He took a ragged breath, his eyes questioning. Fearful of her answer lest it destroy him. 'I loved you the night I made love to you-you whom I had desired for so long, who had become more to me, though I scarcely realised it, than any woman I had known. I loved you as I made love to you-though I did not have the words for it, only the emotion, though it was unrecognisable to me, having never felt it before. I only knew that I wanted to keep you with me from then on, never part with you.'

His voice changed, grew haunted. 'But in the morning you were gone-and when I realised, saw the evidence of what I had done to you-taken your virginity, all unknowing-then I knew why you had fled from me, knew I had to find you. And when I did ...' Again his voice changed, tearing at his throat. 'When I did-you risked death rather than letting me save you ...' He gave a shuddering breath. 'So I know I can ask nothing from you.'

'You have it, all the same,' she said. Her voice was rich-rich with promise, with revelation. Her fingers tightened on his lapel as she gazed up at him. How could this be? she wondered. Moments ago she had stood accepting the devastation of the truth of what she felt, the revelation of her own heart, and thought only that it must mock her all her life. And now- 'I love you,' she told him. It was all she had to say-all he needed to hear.

He crushed her to him, holding her so close against him that she could scarcely breathe, but joy blazed through her. She loved him-and was loved.

'How can that be?' she whispered.

He kissed her softly, tenderly. With all his heart. 'Can you forgive me what I did to you?'

Again the note of doubt, of disbelief was there.

'You didn't know, and I didn't tell you why I wanted that job so desperately. And Angelos-' She laid a finger on his mouth. As he would have spoken, her eyes troubled. 'I did steal from you. I can't deny that. And whether my fear and desperation were enough to justify it, I can't answer-I daren't answer!'

'You've been through so much-all your life.' His voice was ragged. 'Faced so much, overcome so much, achieved so much. As Kat, as Thea-your courage, your determination, your integrity, shine from you! Dear G.o.d, how much I love you!' He kissed her again hungrily, urgently, possessively.

And beneath his lips hers opened to him, desire lighting in her like a flame, kindling and quickening as she wound her hands around his neck, clung to his lean, strong body.

He swept her up, striding across the room, carrying her into the bedroom, lowering her down upon the bed's wide, waiting surface.

'Are you sure? Are you truly sure this is what you want?'

He had asked her the question before, but this time his fate hung upon it.

She gazed up at him. In her eyes a smile gleamed. Warming his heart.

'Oh, yes,' she breathed. 'Oh, yes-my own, adored Angelos.' She opened her arms wide to him and as he came down beside her she clung to him, whispered in his ear. 'And not a single drop of any intoxicant but one.' Her eyes softened, and she hugged him tight against her. 'Love,' she said. 'Pure and potent love ...'

He gave a low, soft laugh-and then there was no more need for words.

Only love, made whole, and pure, and everlasting.

Thea lay warm and nestled against Angelos. Happiness, as unbelievable as it was radiant, enwrapped her as closely as his strong arms wound about her. She gazed into his eyes as they returned her gaze, love light in them both.

She lifted a hand to touch his face.

'How can this be?' she asked wonderingly. 'How can such happiness be?'

He smiled down at her. Tenderness and love filled his gaze. 'I only know I don't deserve it-not after all I did to you.

She laid a finger across his mouth. 'No-it's over now, all that bitter past between us. I won't let it haunt you.'

'I'll spend my life making you happy, trying to undo what I did.'

'It's gone, Angelos-truly, it's gone. And now we have this ...' The note of wonder was back in her voice.

It was in her heart, too, alongside the radiance of her happiness. How strange life was, she thought, that out of all the anger and bitterness love should have flowered.

When had it started to blossom? she wondered. Oh, she had long felt the power Angelos had over her-not the malign power he had wielded, but that overwhelming male power that drew her eye endlessly to him, that made her quiver with awareness of his presence, awakening her nascent female instincts-but it had taken the lonely beauty of the mountains they had shared, those firelit evenings together for her to start to see him as a person other than the forbidding, distant stranger who had so persecuted her.

And then, in the ecstasy of his arms, it had blazed to life, possessing her even as he had possessed her body and she had given herself to him.

A shadow pa.s.sed over her eyes.

'If I hadn't run from your bed that morning-'

His arms tightened around her as he heard the distress in her voice. 'If I had given you reason to trust me, you would not have fled,' he told her. He kissed her gently, soothing her. 'My beloved Thea,' he murmured.

The shadow in her eyes glinted into a smile. 'So I am Thea now, finally?'

His eyes smiled in return, but his voice as he answered was sombre. 'But you are Kat, too-Kat who overcame what she had been born to, who had more courage and guts in her little finger than I have in my whole body and made something of herself from the nothing she was born with. And then made herself Thea after all I did to her ...'

Her eyes glinted again, seeking to draw him away from dark memories that were not needed now, nor ever would be again now that all had been healed by love.

'Kat was very lippy, though,' she murmured.

Now, at last, his mouth curved into a reminiscent smile. 'Oh, she was indeed,' he agreed. 'But I have to admit,' he mused, 'that was part of your charm ...'

'Novelty value? After all those flunkeys kow-towing to you?' she probed wickedly.

'Very possibly,' he said dryly. 'But,' he went on-and his voice had changed, was serious now-'Kat stood up for herself, and so did Thea. Whatever I threw at them.'

Again she laid a finger across his mouth. 'No-the past is over.'

He caught her finger with his lips and kissed it, and then kissed her mouth.

'Only the future matters now,' he told her, and cradled her yet closer against him. But though his arms were strong about her, his voice, when he spoke again, was uncertain-hesitant. 'Your name is yours, and yours alone to choose, but ...' He paused, then took an indrawn breath.

Thea could see the sudden tension in his face, the uncertain wariness in his eyes.

'Would you consider,' he went on, 'taking another name? Would you consider taking the name Mrs Angelos Petrakos?'

She stilled, looking up at him. Then, out of nowhere, his features blurred.

His head dipped to hers, his mouth to hers.

She clung to his mouth, her hands winding up around his neck, holding him to her.

'It's a wonderful name,' she said. 'The best I could ever have!'

He pulled back from her a fraction, love blazing from him. For a moment they only gazed at each other. Then words were no longer necessary.

EPILOGUE.

MRS ANGELOS PETRAKOS stood at the rail of the deck and glanced up at her husband. Love turned over in her heart. Angelos smiled down at her. The sea breeze ruffled his hair, and the rays of the setting sun bronzed his skin. Before them, the azure hues of the Aegean were turning molten, and the lights in the harbour on the distant sh.o.r.e were gleaming in the growing dusk. Warmth enveloped her-and not just the warmth of the Greek summer.

The soft chug of the yacht's engine sent a low vibration through the hull as the boat made its slow way along the coastline.

'Are you sure you want such a remote honeymoon?' Angelos asked her. 'We could easily put into port, if you prefer.'

Thea smiled. 'I think your private island sounds idyllic,' she told him.

'I hope you like it,' he said, that note of uncertainty still in his voice.

'I like anywhere that you are,' she said, and leant against him, feeling the lean strength of his body supporting her.

She lifted her gla.s.s of champagne to her lips, and Angelos did likewise.

'Drink it slowly,' he advised her. 'It's heady stuff.'

She laughed. 'I will. I'm still very, very cautious about alcohol. But I do think-' her eyes gleamed '-that on my wedding day I should risk a gla.s.s of champagne.'

He bent to kiss her. 'And perhaps for breakfast tomorrow?'

Thea shook her head. 'Orange juice,' she said firmly.

He smiled fondly. 'Then orange juice it shall be. Everything in the world that you want that is in my power, shall be.'

Her eyes lit with emotion. 'Oh, my darling Angelos-I have very simple needs. I need only one thing in my life, now and for ever.' She paused, fighting the sudden tightening of her throat. So much anger and bitterness and hatred and tears had gone by, and now all that dark past was over-truly over. Her life was beginning again-anew, afresh-and at her side was all she wanted. All she would ever want.

'I only need you ...' she said.

He raised his gla.s.s to her. 'You have me for ever,' he promised her. 'And my love for all eternity.'

'And you have mine,' she vowed.

She touched his gla.s.s with hers, and they drank a toast to each other, to their love together. A long, deep sigh escaped her, rich with happiness. Angelos's arm wrapped around her shoulder and they stood, side by side, gazing out across the sea towards their future together.

All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

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First published in Great Britain 2011 by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR Julia James 2011.

ISBN: 978-1-408-92592-8.