Читать книгу The Revenge Collection 2018 - Кейт Хьюит, Эль Кеннеди - Страница 21

EPILOGUE

TOBIAS DRAKOS, FIVE years old and a bundle of lively energy who was rarely still, raced downstairs in advance of his mother. Taking note that the front door of the country house, Tayford Hall, already stood wide with Max at the ready to greet his employer, Tobias crowed. ‘I told you it was the helicopter, Mummy... I told you it was Daddy!’

Ella studied her son, the very image of his father with his above-average height, dark eyes and dark hair, and suppressed a groan because she knew that she would never get him to bed early now. That would have been acceptable any other night but it was Christmas Eve and she had loads of things she wanted to do while Tobias was upstairs and out of sight. Even so, he hadn’t seen his father in a full week, which was a good enough excuse to loosen up on routine.

Ella knew that if she had a fault it was her tendency to stick too close to routine. But she and Nikolai led very busy lives, and without a routine someone or something got short-changed. Rory and Butch were already racing across the lawn in pursuit of their offspring, Maxie, the only one of Rory’s litter of puppies they had kept. Maxie was an indiscriminate mixture of doggy genes and she had grown into a much leggier and larger dog than her diminutive parents. Before Ella could say a word, her son had raced out across the lawn in his pyjamas just as the helicopter landed.

Ella stayed circumspectly on the top step, although to tell the truth she would have been much happier pelting across the lawn with dogs and child because Nikolai rarely travelled these days and when he did she missed him terribly. And there he was, her for-ever-and-ever guy, tall and dark and handsome, striding towards her with over-excited dogs bouncing in his path and a son talking a mile a minute to him.

As Nikolai hitched Tobias up and hugged him, her heart constricted because she loved to see them together like that. Nikolai had had so many insecurities about becoming a parent but, like many goal-driven men, he had exceeded her expectations in that role. He tried to ensure that his son received everything he himself had been denied by neglectful parents. He gave Tobias his time, showed an interest and supported the little boy at every step of his development.

Ella smoothed down her scarlet knee-length dress and shifted in her very high-heeled shoe-boots, slender legs braced as Nikolai drew closer and his lean, darkly handsome features came into focus. Her whole body lit up like a firework display because just seeing Nikolai made her that happy and she had news to share that made her even happier.

Nikolai studied the picture Ella made at the front door and thought that he was an incredibly lucky man. Behind her the welcome of the house and the edge of the sparkling Christmas tree in the hall with its roaring log fire made him smile. He had bought the hall when Ella was pregnant and she adored country life. Once she had qualified as a veterinary surgeon, she had taken a job nearby and had become very popular in the local community. If he didn’t watch over her she worked too hard, and now that she had her career and Tobias had started school if he went away on business he had to travel alone, which he disliked.

Nikolai swept Ella theatrically into his arms, melted-caramel eyes brimming with amusement. ‘What have you done with my wife?’ he teased. ‘The last time I saw you, your hair was a mess, you were wearing a lab coat and wellies and now you look like a model.’

‘And it took hours so appreciate it while you can,’ Ella advised him while quietly revelling in the familiar scent of him and the feel of his lean, powerful body even briefly in contact with her own. A familiar burn sparked deep inside her, a burn and an ache that would have to go unsatisfied until much later in the evening because they had a houseful of guests to look after. Gramma and her father were staying for Christmas, as were Dido and Dorkas, Nikolai’s great-aunts, and an array of other Greek family members, whom Nikolai and Ella had grown particularly friendly with during their frequent stays in the house on Crete.

‘I find you sexy in anything. Naked, clothed, it doesn’t matter, latria mou,’ her husband assured her under cover of their son’s chatter, lean fingers spreading caressingly on her hip. ‘I’m shockingly lacking in standards in that line. I’ll take you any way I can have you.’

Ella risked a quick kiss that smudged her lipstick and turned into something a little longer than either of them planned.

‘That’s not cool, Dad,’ Tobias pronounced in disgust.

A highly amused grin slashed Nikolai’s expressive mouth. ‘I can assure you that it was very cool. We can catch up while I get changed,’ he told his wife, grabbing her hand and only pausing on the stairs to greet his father-in-law and Gramma.

‘I should be downstairs being a hostess,’ Ella hissed guiltily.

‘When you put Gramma with my great-aunts, we’re coming down with hostesses who love to host. Anyway, I have something to tell you,’ he announced, thrusting open their bedroom door. ‘About Cyrus.’

‘Cyrus?’ Ella repeated in surprise, because she rarely thought now about the older man, who had received a lengthy prison sentence for his role in the hotel fire and the death of Nikolai’s bar manager. While on bail for those crimes, Cyrus had also been accused of rape by a young woman in his employ and he had been found guilty of that offence as well.

‘He’s apparently in hospital after an attack by fellow inmates. He’s not expected to survive,’ Nikolai informed her flatly. ‘Marika phoned me to tell me.’

‘And how does that make you feel?’ Ella prompted anxiously.

‘As though it really is all over now and I can put it behind me,’ Nikolai confessed. ‘When his sentence was extended because of the rape, I felt that my sister was finally vindicated and I haven’t really thought about Makris since then.’

‘That’s how it should be. It’s over.’ Ella wrapped her arms round him and rested her head against his chest, loving the reassuring beat of his heart and the heat of him on a cold wintry evening. ‘We have more positive matters on our agenda.’

‘Oh... I get it. You thought I only brought you up here to throw you on the bed? How could you think that?’ Nikolai demanded, struggling to look offended.

‘Because I know your sleek, sneaky ways, Mr Drakos,’ Ella told him lovingly. ‘No, I have other news. I’m pregnant again and this time around I’m telling you the same day I found out.’

Nikolai swung her up into his arms and kissed her with passionate satisfaction. They had waited to extend their family until their lives were more settled, but conception had taken several months longer than they had initially hoped. ‘That’s the best Christmas present yet!’ he swore.

‘No, that was our first Christmas when you brought me here to this house and told me it was ours,’ Ella contradicted.

‘And you were enraged that I’d picked a house and the furniture without getting you involved,’ Nikolai reminded her.

‘You did remarkably well on your own,’ Ella said as she freed him of his tie and began to push his jacket off his shoulders. ‘Take your clothes off, Mr Drakos.’

‘I love it when you get domineering,’ Nikolai teased, gazing down at his tiny wife with hotly appreciative dark eyes. ‘I love you, latria mou.’

‘I love you too...’

And they kissed, initially tenderly and then more passionately. The three elderly ladies downstairs were terrific hostesses and ensured that dinner was put back until the owners of the house had reappeared with a noticeable glow of happy contentment surrounding them.

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