Bridal Bargains

The island was trapped in the sultry heat of the late afternoon when the helicopters began to arrive. From her place at the nursery window Nell watched as Marcel jumped down onto the ground then walked towards the glinting pool. He looked so absolutely gorgeous that Nell uttered a small sigh of sisterly pride. A sudden cry of delight went up, then a young boy in swimming shorts was racing to meet him. Marcel grinned lazily as he accepted this show of pure hero worship from the much younger Alex.

‘My hero status has been eclipsed by the matinée idol,’ Xander murmured with a regretful sigh.

‘Never mind, your real son worships you,’ Nell consoled. ‘And look at your mother and my father watching them together. They’re actually smiling. That has to be a first for both of them.’

‘It’s called bowing to fate,’ Xander said. ‘They either accept our family as a whole or they miss out.’

‘And who’d have thought Gabriela would be so besotted?’

‘Why should she not,’ Gabriela’s son defended loyally, ‘when my son looks exactly like me?’

‘Too like you,’ Nell complained, turning away from the window to go and lean over the cot, where Demitri Pascalis lay kicking contentedly. ‘Now, you know I love you,’ she informed the wide-eyed baby. ‘But I still don’t think it’s fair that you didn’t even elect to have my green eyes.’

The baby let out a shriek of delighted laughter. He didn’t care that he looked the absolute spit of his dark-eyed papa.

‘Cruel,’ she scolded. ‘But I will get my own back,’ she warned him.

‘And how do you intend to do that?’ Xander asked.

Straightening up to find herself slipping easily beneath his waiting arm, Nell smiled one of those wait-and-see threats at him as she let him lead her away.

‘I see,’ Xander murmured fatalistically. ‘The wicked witch is mixing spells again.’

As they left the baby’s room Thea Sophia slipped quietly into it, and took the comfortable chair placed by the cot. Out came her lacework and her gnarled fingers got busy while the baby chatted away to her. He would fall asleep in a few minutes, bailing out with a blink of an eye, but until that happened he had his ever-attentive thea to entertain.

Walking Nell into their sunny bedroom, Xander turned her to face him. He was dressed in one of his loose white shirts and casual trousers, but soon they would have to start getting dressed up for the party that was to take place tonight—which was a shame, in Nell’s opinion, because she preferred to keep him in clothes she could strip off quickly.

‘Mmm,’ she said as she pressed her lips to the triangle of hair-roughened flesh exposed by the open neck of his shirt. ‘You taste of sun and salt and sexy masculinity.’

‘And you have a one-track mind,’ he sighed.

‘It’s my birthday. I’m allowed a treat.’

‘Several treats.’

‘OK,’ she shrugged, not arguing the point because it was oh, so much more interesting to discover how smoothly the shirt fell open to her lightest touch. She ran her fingernails down his front and watched taut muscles flex.

‘You’re so gorgeous,’ she murmured helplessly—and received her reward with the hungry clamp of his mouth.

It didn’t take much longer for them to be lost. Xander’s muttered, ‘We don’t have time for this,’ was ruined by the urgency with which he stripped her blue T-shirt dress off her and tumbled her onto the bed. They made hot, frenzied love while the rest of the family chatted by the poolside.

When they came downstairs two hours later you would be forgiven for thinking that Nell had spent the whole afternoon achieving that gloriously chic look she’d donned in a short half-hour. She was wearing aquamarine silk, smooth and slinky, a perfect set of blue diamonds sparkling at her creamy throat.

Her hair was up to show them off because Xander had given her them for her birthday. And if anyone wondered at the rueful grimace he offered when his mother congratulated his wife on how two hours’ pampering could put such a wonderful glow to her daughter-in-law, no one would have thought to question whether he knew something that they did not. He looked far too smooth and sophisticated to be recalling what they’d been doing in the shower only half an hour ago.

They separated, they danced and circulated amongst their fifty-strong guests as goods hosts did. They laughed and teased and flirted and came together on the terrace to snatch a private moment or two gazing at the moon.

‘Happy?’ Xander asked, holding her in front of him.

‘Mmm,’ Nell murmured uncertainly.

‘Something missing from your perfect day?’

‘Mmm,’ she nodded.

‘You would like me to toss you into the pool perhaps?’

‘Not tonight, thank you,’ she answered primly, then took hold of one of his hands and slid it over her abdomen. ‘I’m afraid it’s tender loving care time again,’ she softly confided.