Shackled by Diamonds

But what he was the most Leo never heard. Because he simply grabbed her hand, hauled her down against him, and kissed her.

It silenced her completely.

For a considerable length of time.

And when, at length, Leo released her, he cupped her cheek.

‘Once a month,’ he said to her, gazing into her eyes, which were not flashing or glinting now, but simply glowing with a light that had never been in them in her life before, ‘on a Friday evening, for one hour, yineka mou, you can yell insults at me. For the rest of the time…’ he brushed her mouth caressingly with his ‘…you purr. You purr for me, Anna Delane, because I am the only man who can make you purr, and you are so very, very good at it. You’ll purr for me in bed and out, and you will be very, very happy. And so will I,’ he added.

She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. She didn’t try again. It might hurt his wounds. Wounds he had taken for her sake—to save her life.

So she just lay there in the crook of his arm.

It felt a good place to be.

A very good place.

‘You see,’ he said, smoothing her hair, ‘you’re doing it already—aren’t you, yineka mou. Purring away in my arms.’

She eyeballed him suspiciously. ‘What’s yineka mou mean? Troublemaker in Greek?’ she demanded.

He gave a wry smile, his eyes softening.

‘Truer than you know, Anna Delane. It means my woman—and you are my woman. For the rest of our lives you are going to look after me, and cosset me, and do everything you can to please me and—Ouch!’ He looked at her, outrage in his face. ‘I took bullets for you, woman. And, besides, I hadn’t finished.’ He laid a hand against her cheek, gazing into her green, green eyes. ‘For the rest of our lives I am going to look after you and keep you safe—from psycho gunmen, from anything and everything—and I’m going to cosset you and cherish you and take care of you and buy you everything I want to buy you—including cups of coffee, and all the jewellery you don’t want—and I’m going to do everything I can to please you and—’

He broke off, eyeing her again sternly.

‘Why does the prospect of that reduce you to tears?’

It was hard to explain to a man who asked stupid questions, so Anna didn’t. She just went on crying.

Leo’s arm tightened around her.

‘You’re getting my bandages wet,’ he complained.

She went on sobbing.

There was a low knock on the door, and then it opened. The doctor standing on the threshold stopped. Anna jerked upright, face swollen, eyes bleary, nose running.

‘Tsk, tsk, I told her you needed to see a beautiful face when you surfaced,’ the doctor told Leo, shaking his head.

‘I know,’ agreed Leo. ‘She looks awful, doesn’t she? Fortunately, I love her, and she loves me, so it’s all right.’ He looked back at Anna. ‘You do love me, don’t you, yineka mou?’ he asked conversationally.

‘Yes!’ wailed Anna, and burst into tears again.

EPILOGUE

‘WHAT would you say to having our wedding right here on the island?’ Leo asked Anna as they walked along the beach towards the villa, barefoot in the silvery sand.

He’d been out of hospital for a week now, and though his gait was slower than normal he was well on the way to a full recovery. And every day, and every night, Anna gave thanks to all the powers that be for his safety. She loved him so much she thought her heart would overflow and burst. She cherished him and fussed over him and cosseted him.

It was a daily miracle to her that he had forgiven her for nearly getting him killed, for lying to him about having stolen the rubies, for having so stupidly, idiotically, kept on denying that he had only to touch her to melt every bone in her body. And he kept feeling so bad about the way he had treated her when he’d thought her a thief—so completely different from the way he was treating her now. Cosseting her as if she were made of porcelain. Cherishing her and fussing over her, day and night, all the time. Desperate to undo the way he’d treated her.

But now, as he spoke about a wedding, she halted, staring at him.

‘Wedding?’ she echoed.

‘It’s the usual way to get married,’ he said.

‘Married?’ she echoed again. She swallowed. ‘I—I didn’t know you were thinking of marrying me.’

It was his turn to stare. ‘You have some objection?’ he posed. She could hear the slightest, just the slightest, edge in his voice.

Her expression was troubled. ‘Leo, I know what you think about women wanting to marry rich men—you think they’re gold-diggers, trying to trap them.’