She obliged and placed the necklace round her neck. She blinked back tears, along with the lancing pain she felt because the word love still hadn’t passed his lips. This was enough?
??for now.
When she faced him again, her feelings were under control. Going to the bed, she fetched his gift and presented him with it.
He opened the oblong box that held a gold-embossed scroll, uncurled it, and read the words in silence.
i carry your heart.
“This is the e.e. cummings poem we read at our wedding,” he said in a hushed voice.
She nodded. “I’d planned on giving it to you on your birthday two months ago, but…” But they’d been apart by then.
He looked at her, a strange light burning in his eyes. “Thank you. It means more to me than you know,” he murmured.
Taking her in his arms, he kissed her long and hard.
She was halfway to melting against him when the peal of the doorbell interrupted.
Stepping back, Nick held out his arm. “It’s show time. Let’s go and greet our guests.”
…
“Excuse me.” Belle smiled at Nick’s London right-hand man, Austin Benjamin, and his wife Tamara, and moved on to another couple. After chatting for a few minutes, she set her glass down and stepped out onto the balcony.
“You okay?” Nick approached her, looking breathtaking in his tuxedo.
She smiled up at him. “I guess. I’m not sure whether it’s my imagination, but I feel as if I’m being watched.” All through the dinner, which had been a raving success, she’d experienced the peculiar feeling.
Nick brushed his knuckle down her cheek. “Everyone is watching you, pethi mou.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why do you think I’ve escaped to the balcony? I’ve had enough attention to last me a lifetime. My parents keep watching me like I’m about to collapse in front of their very eyes. But it’s not that.”
He tensed. “What do you think it is?”
She shifted her shoulders but the unsettling feeling stayed with her. “I don’t know. Maybe I am imagining it.”
“Just say the word, and I’ll kick all these people out.”
She laughed and shook her head as Alex headed their way. When he started to grill her on the precise state of her health, she threatened to sic Liz on him.
He backed off immediately. “Whoa. Consider the question withdrawn.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened between you and Liz?” she asked him.
Alex grimaced. “She’s a ball-breaker, that one. I prefer women who don’t look at me as if deciding where to stick their stilettos.”
“Hmm, I see a dinner just for the four of us happening in the future.”
“You wound me, agapita. And after I risked life and limb for you.”
“And I appreciate it, but this is too good to pass up. I think—” She stopped abruptly as an unexpected shiver coursed through her.
A waiter was walking past with a tray of drinks. He stopped beside her. His name badge read “Steven.”
“Champagne, madam?” he asked with a smile.
She looked up at him, smiled, and shook her head. “No, thanks, Steven.”