The Mills & Boon Ultimate Christmas Collection. Kate Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ how far Apollo had already drifted from his original blueprint for a marriage that was a business arrangement. Time after time he had done things, said things that defied that blueprint and she had ignored that reality. After all, she had changed—why shouldn’t he have changed too?

      * * *

      The next morning it was a struggle for Pixie to eat any breakfast. She had forced a separation on Apollo and had voluntarily given him back his freedom. She had well and truly proved to be her own worst enemy. Pride and distrust had driven her into rejecting the man she loved. Could he forgive her for that? Could he forgive her for misjudging him?

      Would her misjudgement and their marriage even matter to him now? After all, his inheritance would soon be fully his because by the time their children were born he would have met the exact terms of his father’s will. Nowhere in that will did it state that Apollo had to be still living with his wife.

      A limousine collected her at half past nine, wafting her through streets soon to be thronged with Christmas shoppers. Shop windows were bright with decorations and sparkle. Pixie had dressed with care and not in one of her less than flattering maternity outfits. She had put on a green dress. True it was a little tight over her bust but it gave her a shape and her legs were the same as they had always been. In truth, she reflected unhappily as the car drew up outside a smart city town house in a tree-lined Georgian square with a private park, she would never be able to hold a candle to the likes of Izzy Jerome in looks. On board Circe, she had marvelled at Apollo’s insatiable hunger for her and revelled in it. Now, she had to ask herself if she had anything more substantial to offer a male of his sophistication…

      Apollo opened the door of the house himself, which shook her because he almost always had staff around to take care of such tasks.

      Pixie stepped over the threshold. She glanced up at him, encountering shimmering green eyes below lashes as rich and dark as black lace, and her heartbeat raced, butterflies unleashed to fly free in her stomach. ‘Apollo…’ she acknowledged jerkily.

      She came to a halt to stare in wide-eyed amazement at the lavish Christmas tree in the hall and the glorious trails of holly festooning the hall fireplace and the stairs. ‘Oh, my goodness, this house…it’s all decorated for Christmas,’ she muttered inanely. ‘And it’s still furnished.’

      ‘Relax. The furniture and the decorations are mine. This house was rented out for years. My father owned it but he didn’t use it and it was too large for me to use while I was still single,’ Apollo told her, gently but firmly urging her down into the armchair set by the small crackling fire in the hearth. ‘Sit down and stop stressing.’

      Pixie sat but she couldn’t stop stressing. Apollo was exquisitely well-dressed in a formal navy suit, cuff links glinting at the cuffs of a fine white shirt, and she remembered him dressed like a pirate and every skin cell leapt up in sensual recollection. ‘You want me to live in your father’s house? I thought I was supposed to live in a house you bought me?’

      Apollo dealt her an impassive appraisal that told her nothing about his mood. ‘I understand that Jeremy called on you with Izzy last night,’ he remarked stiffly.

      Pixie flinched and paled, unnerved by that reminder. Of course, it had been foolish of her not to appreciate that his friend would naturally have told him about that visit. ‘Yes, I’m so, so sorry. I misjudged you and refused to listen and there’s no excuse for that, is there?’

      ‘Perhaps there is,’ Apollo conceded, sharply disconcerting her with that measured response. ‘Maybe if I’d said more sooner, you would have wanted to listen to what I had to say.’

      Sick with nerves, Pixie curled her hands tightly together. ‘I’m really sorry,’ she said shakily again. ‘I didn’t give you a chance.’

      ‘I have a bad reputation with women,’ Apollo allowed reflectively. ‘But in one sense it’s unjustified. I have always ended one relationship before I embark on another. I don’t do crossovers or betrayals. That’s a small point but that’s how I live. I don’t cheat on anyone.’

      Her nails dug into her palms because she was so very tense and afraid of saying the wrong thing. She had said she was sorry but she didn’t want to keep on saying sorry and she didn’t want to crawl either. ‘I understand.’

      ‘We were talking about this house,’ Apollo reminded her, lounging elegantly back against the marble console table behind him.

      ‘Y-yes,’ she stammered.

      ‘I want you to live here with me. With twins on the horizon we definitely need a spacious family house.’

      Her smooth brow indented as she struggled to understand. ‘Are you saying that you can forgive me for the way I behaved on Nexos?’

      ‘There are still things that you have to forgive me for,’ Apollo told her tautly. ‘When we first married I pretended that I was still holding your brother’s debt over you because I saw that debt as a guarantee that you would do as you were told.’

      Her smooth brow furrowed. ‘You pretended? In what way?’

      ‘I paid off the debt in its entirety before our marriage. I didn’t want any further dealings with the thug your brother owed that money to,’ he admitted.

      Pixie nodded understanding. ‘The carrot and the stick approach again…right? Well, you’re good at faking.’

      ‘Thank you,’ Apollo murmured wryly. ‘I should’ve been more honest with you though.’

      ‘We both hugged our secrets back then. It takes time to learn to trust someone.’

      ‘You’re the first woman I’ve ever trusted,’ Apollo admitted. ‘You know the worst of me. You’ve seen the bad stuff. Give me a chance to show you the good things I can do.’

      Pixie unfroze and stared up at him. ‘You are willing to forgive me for misjudging you,’ she suddenly appreciated in wonderment.

      His smile slanted into a heart-stopping grin. ‘As I can’t live without you I don’t think I have much choice about that.’

      ‘You can’t live,’ she began incredulously, ‘without me?’

      ‘I’ve got remarkably used to having you and Hector around,’ Apollo told her almost flippantly.

      ‘H-have you?’ Pixie mumbled uncertainly.

      ‘Even though trying to plant an idea in your head is sometimes like drilling through concrete.’

      ‘What idea were you trying to plant?’

      ‘That we could be happy together and stay together and married for ever.’

      ‘You don’t do for ever,’ Pixie argued, her voice taking on a shrill edge of disbelief.

      ‘But then I met you and ever since then everything I thought I knew has been proven wrong,’ Apollo admitted gravely. ‘That unnerved me…but there it is. You’ve turned my life upside down and, strangest of all, I’ve discovered that I like it this way.’

      Pixie’s mouth had run dry. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’

      Apollo reached down a lean brown hand towards hers and in a sudden movement she grasped it. СКАЧАТЬ