The two children were very different. Lili was highly strung and wary of anything or anybody new, but still a good deal calmer than she had been as a baby. Even at just over a year of age, Timon was her opposite in nature. He was naturally confident and unafraid and a real little rip, with his father’s independent streak. Sometimes Tally felt she needed eyes in the back of her head to keep tabs on her lively son and she was grateful to have the support of a nanny to help her look after the children. Timon had learned to talk and walk early. His father’s parents had pronounced him a handsome little boy but Tally was well aware that Sander’s mother was still keen to have another granddaughter and thought that perhaps in a year or so she might consider having a third baby.
In the meantime two young children felt like plenty. Her pregnancy with Timon had proved an anxious time for her and Sander, because even with all the extra checks put in place to ensure a safe delivery both of them had secretly worried that something might go wrong. Sander had treated Tally like the finest and most breakable porcelain for the duration of her pregnancy and the unreserved joy with which they both welcomed Timon into the world was a fair testimony to the love they shared.
Crystal had got the job as a buyer for a string of boutiques and had recently been headhunted by a leading department store with a subsequent very welcome rise in salary. She loved working in the fashion world and adored the foreign travel and the shows, not to mention the discounted clothing she had access to. She was presently very excited about the prospect of buying her first apartment and had announced that she was ‘off’ men. Tally believed her mother was simply enjoying her independence.
Binkie, who had retired from her job in Devon, visited them regularly in London and her granddaughter was currently working as their nanny. In fact, the biggest change in Sander and Tally’s family connections had taken place with Anatole, his wife, Ariadne, and daughter, Cosima. When Sander and Tally had attended Anatole’s birthday party the year before, Tally had met all her father’s relatives and new ties had been forged. Her father’s wife had gone out of her way to give them a warm welcome. Tally had reaped the greatest pleasure from her new closeness with Cosima.
Her design firm had gone from strength to strength and Robert Miller had finally consented to allowing Sander to buy out his partnership. Robert was currently dating a very glamorous American model and, if the tabloids were to be believed, it was a serious relationship.
When their nanny had taken the children indoors for a bath, Sander closed a hand round Tally’s wrist and tugged her down onto his spread thighs. He brushed teasing fingers through her marmalade-coloured corkscrew curls. ‘Did anyone ever tell you that you have very sexy hair?’
‘Someone might have done. That could be why I don’t have it straightened any more,’ she whispered, green eyes alight with amusement. ‘Talk about weird tastes …’
Sander twisted her slim body round to find her mouth and tasted her lush lips with unmistakeable hunger. ‘Weird …’ she teased again.
His fingertips glided up the taut skin of her inner thigh and her breath caught in her throat, desire drowning her sense of fun. ‘Sander …’ she muttered in another tone entirely, her delicately rounded figure tut.
‘I love you, Mrs Volakis, and very possibly I love you more every day I’m with you and the children. I didn’t know having a family could feel so good.’
Her eyes sparkled with irrepressible humour. ‘Then, as you once said, you’re a slow learner!’
Dark golden eyes bright with appreciation of that quip and glinting in the sunshine, Sander sprang upright and carried her with him, pinning her to his lean, powerful length with possessive hands so that he could kiss her into breathless surrender. They clung to each other like magnets, their pleasure in one another intoxicating …
* * *