‘Well, perhaps not quite then.’ She looked up, her eyes alive with amusement. ‘Admittedly Donna’s lies didn’t help the situation, but I was still feeling more than a little jaundiced about the whole idea of love and marriage then. So it came as something of a surprise to me when I found myself attracted to you anyway,’ she acknowledged ruefully. ‘When I continued to fall for you a little bit more each time we met.’ She gazed steadily into his eyes. ‘I believe I fell all the way in love with you after we went to Jonathan’s party and you were so protective and caring of me.’
‘Before or after we made love?’ he teased gruffly.
‘Oh, definitely before,’ Eva answered him without hesitation. ‘Markos, there has never been anyone else for me. Not before I was married. Or in the three years since. And I don’t believe I would have made love with you that day if I hadn’t already been in love with you.’
‘And now?’
‘Now I love you so much that I just want to be with you all the time,’ she admitted softly. ‘With or without marriage.’
‘And I will settle for nothing less than to be married to you for the rest of our lives,’ Markos told her firmly.
‘Does that mean you accept my marriage proposal?’
Markos felt the last of his tension leaving him as he grinned down at her. ‘On the understanding that you realise after accepting I will then tease you mercilessly for the next fifty years about your having been the one who proposed!’
‘I would expect nothing less,’ she assured him unconcernedly.
Markos gave a triumphant laugh as he drew her fully into his arms and hugged her tightly against him. ‘I love you so very much, Evangeline Grey-soon-to-be-Lyonedes!’ he murmured huskily, and at last he claimed her mouth with his own.
* * *
It was a long, long time later before Eva remembered she had something else she wanted to tell Markos, to show him. The intensity and wonder of their lovemaking had wiped everything else from her mind but Markos and the joy of being in his arms.
She looked at him almost shyly as he lay back against the pillows in her bed, holding her cradled tenderly against him in the aftermath of that lovemaking.
‘Markos, I have an
early wedding present I would like to give you.’
He looked down at her indulgently, all the strain and tension now erased from his wonderfully handsome face. ‘I have no need of anything else but the love you feel for me, my darling Eva, and the love I feel for you, and the long and happy life we are going to have together,’ he assured her emphatically.
Eva sat up beside him to kiss him lingeringly on the lips before straightening. ‘I’m hoping that you’ll love the gift I’m about to give you just as much.’
Markos reached out to grasp one of her hands in his as she would have risen from the bed. ‘Believe me when I tell you I could never love anything or anyone as much as I love you, my Eva.’
Her eyes glowed deeply golden with the love she felt for him. ‘Wait and see…’
Markos lay back against the pillows, feeling his desire returning as he watched Eva get up and leave the bedroom, knowing that he would always feel this way about her.
It had been an agonisingly long and sleepness night after he and Eva had parted so badly the evening before. A long and restless night during which Markos had realised that in just a few short weeks Eva had not only taken possession of his heart but become the centre of his world, that he loved her, would always love her, more than life itself.
To be here with her now and know that she loved him in exactly the same way was joy beyond imagining.
‘Here.’
Markos looked up uncomprehendingly as Eva sat down beside him on the bed, holding out what looked like a thermometer. ‘I do not understand—’
‘It’s blue, Markos!’ She glowed at him, looking heartbreakingly beautiful with her cheeks flushed and her eyes fever-bright.
He gave a puzzled shake of his head. ‘What—?’
‘We’re pregnant, Markos!’ She smiled widely, joyously. ‘I hadn’t even considered the possibility until you mentioned it last night. But once I did I stopped off at a pharmacy on the way home and bought one of these instant pregnancy kits. It’s positive, Markos. We’re pregnant!’ she said again excitedly. ‘I think I was in shock last night, once I’d found out, and by the time I recovered I thought it was too late to call you. And then the hours seemed to go by so slowly until I felt it was late enough to call you this morning—but then you called me instead, and— Markos…?’ The flow of words came to a halting stop as she realised he hadn’t yet said a word in response to her announcement.
Markos was in shock. He felt as if his heart had stopped beating, that no air could enter his lungs. His whole world had tilted on its axis before tilting back again, leaving himself, Eva and the baby—their baby!—having miraculously taken up residence in her gloriously beautiful body. Not only did he have Eva’s love, but the two of them were going to have a baby together.
The important word being together…
‘You’re going to be a father, Markos,’ Eva told him excitedly, still hardly able to believe the wonder of it all herself.