Holly realized that when she’d bent to get the garland, the quilt had slid off her shoulders to the floor. Her husband’s eyes trailed slowly over her thin, see-through white T-shirt and the tiny knit shorts. Her body felt his gaze like a hot physical touch.
“Stavros,” she breathed.
Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her, his lips hungry and hard. His jacket flew off, followed by his knit hat.
And as they sank together to the quilt on the floor, bodies entwined, Holly felt not just passion this time, but true love and commitment. The cabin was fragrant with pine and sugar cookies and a crackling fire. She’d never known joy could be like this.
And as her husband made love to her that night, on the quilt beneath the sparkling tree, Holly knew that even with the ups and downs of marriage, they’d always be happy. For there was nothing more pure than true love begun on Christmas Eve, when all the world was hushed and quiet, as two people spoke private vows, holding each other in the silent, holy night.
* * *
Three babies crying, all at once.
Stavros looked helplessly at his wife, who looked helplessly back. Then Holly’s lips suddenly lifted, and they both laughed. Because what else could you do?
“I’m sorry,” Eleni sighed, standing on the snowy sidewalk as she held the hand of Freddie, now fourteen months old, wailing with his chubby face pink with heat and lined with pillow marks. She continued apologetically, “I shouldn’t have woken him from his nap. But I was sure he’d want to meet his new brother and sister.”
Holly and Stavros looked at each other, then at their hours-old babies behind them in the third row. Stella and Nicolas had both seemed to agree, with telepathic twin powers, that they hated their car seats. They’d screamed the whole ride home from the hospital. After one particularly ear-blasting screech, Stavros had seen Colton, his longtime, normally unflappable driver, flinch beneath his uniformed cap. As if they hadn’t already shocked the poor man enough by trading in the Rolls-Royce for the biggest luxury SUV on the market.
And that wasn’t even the biggest change. Six months before, when they’d discovered Holly was pregnant with twins, they’d decided to move to Brooklyn, of all places.
“Our kids will need friends to play with,” Holly had wheedled. “And I want to live near the other secretaries from work.”
“You’re friends again?”
“Most of them were finally able to forgive me for marrying a billionaire.” She flashed a wicked grin. “In fact, when you’re grumpy at the office, they even feel a little sorry for me...”
“Hey!”
“The point is, I don’t want to raise our kids in a lonely penthouse. They need a real neighborhood to play in. Like Nicole and I had when we were young.”
Eventually, Stavros had agreed. Now, he shook his head. If his father could only see him now, living in Brooklyn, surrendering to domestic bliss—and liking it! Aristides would swear Stavros wasn’t his son!
His father had replaced him with a son more to his liking, anyway. After Nicole and Oliver’s divorce was settled last summer, his cousin had soon found himself dumped by his wealthy lover. Facing the daunting prospect of finding a job, he’d gone to visit his Uncle Aristides in Greece, and never come back.
Now Oliver would never have to work, and Aristides had the perfect wingman to help pick up girls in bars. It was a perfect solution for them both, Stavros thought wryly.
Luckily, his wife’s family wasn’t as embarrassing as his own. Nicole was apparently settling in nicely to her new life in Vermont, working as a schoolteacher and dating a policeman. The relationship didn’t sound serious yet, but he was sure he’d hear all the details when Nicole arrived tomorrow morning for Christmas breakfast. Whether he wanted to or not.
“Oh, dear,” Eleni said, pulling him from his thoughts as she peered into the SUV’s back seat with worried eyes. Freddie continued to noisily cry in harmonic counterpoint to his younger siblings. “Do you need help, Stavi?”
“May I help with the babies, Mr. Minos?” Colton offered. For Eleni to offer help wasn’t unusual, but for his grizzled driver to offer to provide baby care was unprecedented. The crying must be even louder than Stavros thought.
“Yes. Thank you.” In a command decision, Stavros snapped Stella’s portable car seat out of the base first, then Nicolas’s. He handed the first handle to Eleni, who capably slung it over one arm, and the second to his driver.
“We can manage,” Holly protested beside him.
“I have someone else to worry about.”
“Who could be more important than our babies?”
Stavros looked at his wife. “You.”
She blushed, and protested, “I’m fine.”
Fine. Stavros shook his head in wonder. Holly had spent most of yesterday, her twenty-ninth birthday, in labor at the hospital, then given birth to twins at two that morning. She should have remained in the hospital for another week, relaxing and ordering food as nurses cared for the newborns. But it was Christmas Eve, and she’d wanted to come home.
“We have to be with Freddie for Christmas, Stavros,” she’d insisted. “I want to be in our new home, waking up together on Christmas morning!”