Modern Romance October 2019 Books 5-8. Annie West

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СКАЧАТЬ expectation, if your aunt and uncle couldn’t cover your expenses in the interim. There were ways for you to live your dreams but she held you back because she didn’t want you to succeed.’

      Something sparked in Hannah’s chest because he was right, and she’d made excuses for Cathy and Gary all her life and she didn’t want to do it any more.

      ‘I miss my mum and dad every day,’ she said, simply, focussing on the only kernel of good she could grasp at. ‘Especially now.’ She ran a hand over her stomach, thinking of the daughter growing inside her, and love burst in her soul.

      The air between them resonated with understanding, with compassion, and then Hannah blinked away, moving her focus to the vista before them.

      Their conversation was serious, and yet she felt a shifting lightness in her heart, a sense of newness. Perhaps it was simply the beauty of the day, or looking down over the horizon and seeing so much that fascinated her, so much to explore, but she found herself smiling.

      ‘What’s down there?’ She nodded towards the village she could see in the distance. ‘I thought this was a private island.’

      ‘It is. That’s the staff quarters.’

      ‘Staff quarters?’

      His smile was teasing. ‘Where did you think all the people in the house went to at night?’

      ‘I didn’t think about it,’ she said, and he smiled then, a smile that was natural and easy and that made her pulse feel as if it had hitched a ride on a roller coaster and were zipping and whooshing through her body.

      ‘There are about fifteen gardeners, Mrs Chrisohoidis, her husband Andreo, who oversees the island, the domestic staff, chefs, and I have two personal assistants based out of the island for when I need to work.’

      Hannah’s eyes flew wide. ‘Seriously?’

      ‘And their families,’ he said, still smiling, the words lightly mocking.

      She shook her head from side to side, wondering at how anyone could have this kind of money.

      ‘It takes a team to manage all this.’ He gestured with his palm to the island.

      She nodded. ‘And then the yacht crew, too?’

      He nodded. ‘They stay on board, though there are dorms for when the boat is here over winter.’

      ‘You must spend a fortune in salaries.’

      ‘I suppose I do.’ He wasn’t smiling now, but he was looking at her with a heat that simmered her blood. He lifted a hand to her hair once more, tucking it behind her ear slowly, watchfully.

      ‘There’s the security team, as well,’ he said, and she felt his past pulling him deep into a raging ocean.

      ‘Greg Hassan lives here?’

      ‘Greg lives in Athens. He oversees Stathakis Corp, including my brother Thanos’s security arrangements, and our company procedures. He has a manager on the island, and there are thirteen guards permanently placed here.’

      ‘Thirteen?’ She exhaled. ‘Security guards?’

      ‘It used to be only four,’ he said nonchalantly.

      ‘But because of me it’s thirteen?’

      ‘Because of you, and because of her.’ He dropped a hand to Hannah’s stomach, and right at that moment one of the little popping sensations Hannah had become used to reared to life, and Leonidas’s eyes widened in wonder.

      ‘Did she just kick me?’

      Hannah laughed, but there was a sting of happy tears against her eyelids. ‘She’s telling you we don’t need anything like that kind of security.’

      ‘I think she’s giving me a high five of agreement.’

      Hannah laughed and Leonidas did, too. She had no way of knowing how long it had been since he’d felt genuine amusement, or the occurrence might have taken her breath away even more than the sound did on its own.

      Hannah lay with her head on Leonidas’s chest, in the small hours of the next day, listening to his heart. It beat slow and steady in sleep. She lay there, her naked body close to his, their limbs tangled with the crisp white sheets, their bodies spent, her body round with the baby they’d made, and she smiled.

      Because there was such randomness in this, and yet such perfection, too.

      How could she have known that one night of unplanned sensual heat would lead to this? She lay with her head on his chest, listening to the solid beating of his heart, and admitted to herself there was nowhere on earth she’d rather be.

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

      ‘YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED?’

      Thanos’s voice came to Leonidas from a long way away.

      ‘Where are you?’ Leonidas stretched his long legs out in front of himself, crossing them at the ankles.

      ‘Somewhere over the Atlantic.’

      ‘You’re going to New York?’

      ‘It’s model week.’ Leonidas could hear his brother’s grin, and experience told him that in approximately twenty-four hours there’d be tabloid headlines about Thanos’s latest stunning conquest. ‘Did you say you’re getting married?’

      Leonidas’s eyes drifted to the window of his study, and beyond it, to where Hannah was lying beside the pool. The bathing costume was really just a couple of scraps of Lycra, and his fingers itched to remove it.

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘You’re getting married?’

      Leonidas grimaced. ‘On Friday.’

      ‘As in three days away Friday?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Christós. I didn’t realise you were seeing anyone.’

      ‘I’m not. I wasn’t.’ He swept his eyes shut, his stomach clenching painfully. ‘It’s not like that.’

      ‘So what is it like?’

      Leonidas’s chest felt as if it were being scooped out, replaced with acid. ‘She’s pregnant.’

      Silence.

      It stretched for so long that Leonidas thought they might have lost reception. The phones on their state-of-the-art jets were good, but not one hundred per cent reliable.

      ‘Thanos?’

      ‘I’m СКАЧАТЬ