Читать книгу Cherish Collection January 2014 (Books 1-12) - Rebecca Winters - Страница 37

CHAPTER TEN

January 24

YANNIS WAS WAITING for her at the car outside the clinic. The temperature had to be in the forties. Her sweater felt good. There’d been some light rain that afternoon, but now that the sun had dropped into the sea, it had stopped.

Stephanie had decided to get her six weeks checkup a few days ahead of schedule, without Nikos knowing. The whole point was to surprise him.

“Dr. Panos says I’m 100 percent healthy, but I need to lose weight.”

“You look good for a new mother.”

“Thank you.”

“Now remember our plan.”

“Are you sure you want to do this, Yannis?”

He grinned. “Nikos’s parents have spent more time on the Diomedes than they have at their house. It’s my turn.”

“Alex is crazy about you.”

“I love him. Maria and I have been waiting to tend him. We have it all planned for tonight. Everything’s ready for you on the cruiser.”

“Do you think Nikos suspects anything?”

“No. Tassos is with him and so are your parents. Between family, the demands of the business and the duties of a new father, he’s too exhausted to be doing much thinking.”

She took a shaky breath, so nervous and excited at the same time that she couldn’t hold still. “Then I’ll just keep walking past the yacht to the cruiser, and wait for him to come.”

“When he asks where you are, I’ll tell him that after you got back from shopping, you went in search of the camcorder, since you couldn’t find it in the lounge. In the end he’ll come looking for you.”

This was the first night they would be away from the baby. “We’ll be in that little cove around the point if there’s a problem.”

“Don’t you worry about anything.”

“Alex isn’t too crazy about formula, but he’ll drink it when he gets hungry.”

“Of course he will. It’s Nikos you should be worried about. He needs some attention.”

She had news for him. So do I. “You’re an angel, Yannis.”

After he’d parked the car at the dock, she gave him a hug, then ran along the pier to the cruiser and hurried on board. There was just one bedroom below. She turned on the heat to warm things up. While she waited, she took a quick shower and changed into a new nightgown her mother-in-law had given her for Christmas.

Though she was already missing her little boy, she was dying to be with her big boy. They hadn’t been intimate since her vacation on Providenciales. Right now she was horribly nervous. If he still wasn’t prepared to make love to her because of his PTSD, she needed to know before she made herself sick with expectations.

For weeks now they’d shared tender, loving moments with the baby, but Nikos went to bed alone every night like clockwork.

Not tonight!

After leaving the light on in the hallway, she brushed out her hair and climbed under the covers with a novel. For fifteen minutes she kept reading the first page, until she heard him call to her.

“Stephanie? What are you doing? The camcorder was in your bedroom. Come on up. The family’s waiting for you.”

Her heart thudded too hard. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay down here for a while.”

In the silence she could almost hear him thinking. “Why?”

“Because I’d like to have my husband to myself for a little while.”

She heard him come down the stairs. “Are you upset about something?” His voice had suddenly deepened. It did that when he suspected trouble.

“Actually, I am.”

He burst into the bedroom. The worried look on his handsome face was priceless. “What are you doing in bed?”

She sat up, feasting her eyes on him. “I’ve been waiting ten months for you. This afternoon Dr. Panos gave me a clean bill of health, so—”

“You’ve been to see him already?” he interrupted. If she wasn’t mistaken, the news seemed to have shaken him.

“Yes. I couldn’t stand to wait until next week. Everything’s been arranged. Yannis and Maria are taking care of Alex until tomorrow. I told him we’d motor around the point to the cove and stay for the night. I grabbed your medication earlier today. It’s in my purse. So there’s nothing you need to go back for. Your parents and Tassos will understand.”

A haunted look crept over Nikos’s features. “Stephanie—”

“If you have a nightmare, you won’t have to worry you’re hurting the baby. He’s safe and sound on the Diomedes. I’m tough, Nikos. I can take whatever happens if you’ll give me the chance. I want to be your wife. Won’t you let me?”

She watched his throat working. It felt like an eternity before he said, “It’s cold on deck. Stay right where you are.”

“I promise.”

In a few minutes she felt the cruiser reversing. After traveling at wake speed, Nikos opened it up and they were flying across the water. It didn’t take long to round the point. He eventually slowed down, and she felt them glide onto the sand in the cove.

More waiting while she heard him take a shower.

Before the light went out, she saw his silhouette in the doorway. He’d hitched a towel around his hips. “I have a confession to make, Stephanie.”

Not another one. She couldn’t take it. “What is it?”

“When I got back to my unit, I told Kon I’d fallen in love with you, and planned to resign my commission after our mission so I could marry you.”

With a moan of joy she climbed out of bed and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck.

He crushed her to him, scattering kisses over her face and hair. “Forgive me for being so horrible to you. You’re the most precious thing in my life.”

“There was never anything to forgive. Let’s not talk anymore, darling. We’ve said everything there is to say. I want to make love all night, and the same thing every night for the rest of our lives. You have no understanding of how much I love you.”

Nikos gripped her shoulders. His black eyes blazed with desire. “Actually, I’m one man who does know. And one day soon, I’m going to do everything in my power to help you find your own father. He deserves to know he has the most wonderful daughter a man could ever be blessed with. I adore you.”

“And I, you. Love me, darling. Love me.”

They were on fire for each other to a degree they hadn’t known in the Caribbean.

As he picked her up and followed her body down on the bed, he spoke the Greek words she’d been yearning to hear him say. Over and over again he whispered, “Agape mou.” My love, my love.

April 26

“Stephanie? Are you ready?” Nikos walked into the nursery they’d made aboard the Diomedes. He was so gorgeous, she almost fainted as he approached in a formal gray suit and white shirt.

“We are!” She looked down at their precious four-month-old Alex, who was so excited to see his daddy he kept smiling and lifting his arms. The two were so handsome it brought tears to her eyes to see them together. “Guess what, big boy? Today you’re going to get christened.”

She expected Nikos to pick him up, but he fooled her and swept her into his arms first. “I need this before we go anywhere.” Catching her to him, he gave her a long, passionate kiss reminiscent of their lovemaking earlier that morning, before the baby was awake. It was a good thing her eggshell-colored suit with lace trim was wrinkle proof.

After thinking it over, she and Nikos had decided the ceremony at the church would take place on the date of their baby’s conception. It was a secret between the two of them. Knowing Alex was their miracle child, they’d chosen this particular date to commemorate the sacred occasion.

They’d asked Tassos and Elianna to be godparents. Except for the addition of Nikos’s mother waiting for them at the church where they’d been married, it was like déjà vu to travel there with Yannis and join their closest friends for the baptism.

Tassos hugged Stephanie before speaking on behalf of their child, then they followed the priest to the font, where Nikos’s mother took Alex to undress him and wrap him in a large towel. Stephanie watched in wonder and fascination as they went through the sacrament of baptism.

After the priest gave him the name Alexandros and anointed him, Tassos wrapped the baby in a white sheet and towel. Then Nikos’s mother dressed him in his christening clothes, but as she did so, Nikos’s father suddenly appeared in their circle. He handed the priest a gold cross and chain to give their baby, the first olive branch toward a reconciliation with his son. At that same moment Tassos lit a candle.

Stephanie slid a covert glance to her husband, whose black eyes filled with liquid. She grasped his hand before they walked around the font three times. Earlier, Nikos had told her it symbolized the dance of joy.

With the circle complete except for Stephanie’s mother, who Stephanie felt was watching from heaven, they witnessed their adorable son’s first communion. Stephanie followed Nikos’s lead and kissed Tassos’s hand before he handed her the baby. Everyone murmured, “Na sas zizi,” which meant “life to Alexandros.”

They’d planned a party back on the yacht afterward, but for Stephanie the real celebrating was going on right here, seeing the beginning of peace for both families after years of turmoil.

On the drive back to the yacht, Nikos pulled her tight against him. “I have two presents for you, my love. One is a home I’ve bought for us on Oinoussa. Now that we have a son, he needs a place to play besides the deck of the Diomedes.”

She hugged him hard. “I agree.”

“Your other gift is in my pocket. I was planning to show it to you tonight, but after seeing my father show up, I’ve decided I can’t wait.”

Nikos sounded exceptionally excited. “What is it?” she whispered against his lips.

“The private investigator I hired has found your father.”

“Nikos!”

“This is a picture of him.” He reached in his breast pocket and pulled out a small photo. The second she saw the dark blond man, she knew it was her father. “We look so much alike!”

Nikos nodded. “He works at a bank in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he was born. He’s married with a son and daughter, who are both in college. When he met your mother, he was on leave from the army. Like me, he had to go back and serve another tour of duty. Four years later he got out of the army and married.”

“D-does he know about me?”

“No.”

“Thank heaven!”

A look of confusion entered Nikos’s eyes before he kissed her. “Why do you say that?”

“Because he’s an honorable man who made a good life for himself.” Her voice shook. “I don’t want to disrupt it. Since Mother chose not to find him, I want to leave things alone.” She grasped Nikos’s face in her hands. “It’s enough to know what he looks like and who he is.”

She crushed her husband in her arms. “Thank you, darling, for such a precious gift. What really matters now is our family, our son. I married the most wonderful man alive and I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you what you mean to me. I love you, Nikos. I love you.”

* * * * *