She cast her eyes a few metres into the distance, to where Toby was splashing at the shoreline.
‘No further!’ she called to him, before adding to Theseus, ‘He can’t swim.’
As she joined their son Theseus hung back, watching them.
They were the tightest of units. Seeing them together, he could appreciate how hard it must have been for her to leave Toby behind and come to Agon.
It seemed she’d accepted the job because of the large bonus she’d been offered, which would have meant she’d have been able to take Toby to Greece to find him.
If he hadn’t believed her before, he did now. With all his heart.
She really had searched for him.
She really had wanted him to be a part of Toby’s life.
If fate hadn’t brought her to the palace she would never have found him. He would have spent the rest of his life unaware of the miracle that had occurred and he would have had no one to blame but himself.
* * *
Jo followed the squeals of delight echoing from the swimming pool with a smile playing on her face.
The sun was bright, the sky was blue—in all it was a glorious day. She’d caught a snippet of the English weather forecast and had given a sly snigger to see her country was expecting torrential downpours and heavy gales.
There could certainly be worse places to be a forced wife than on Agon, she thought wryly.
Toby spotted her first, and waved cheerfully from Theseus’s arms.
For his part, Theseus’s eyes gleamed to see her, and a knowing look spread over his face when she removed her sarong to reveal the modest bikini she’d bought the day before on a shopping trip with Elektra.
‘Sexy,’ he growled, for her ears only, when she slipped tentatively down the steps and into the cool water.
She stopped with the water at mid-thigh. ‘Inappropriate,’ she whispered.
‘He’s not listening.’
That was true enough. Toby had paddled off in his armbands to the shallow end, to play with the array of water guns, lilos and balls Theseus had bought for him.
‘I’ve never seen you in a bikini before.’ Theseus grinned, sitting on the step beside her.
‘I was so fat I never dared wear one,’ she admitted wistfully. ‘Everyone else on Illya had such fabulous figures.’
She still wasn’t fully confident displaying her body, but after spending her nights sharing a bed with Theseus and having him revel in her curves, her confidence was increasing by the day.
He tilted his head and stared at her, then reached out a hand to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear. ‘Never feel you aren’t good enough, agapi mou. Those women on Illya couldn’t hold a light to you, whatever size you were. You’re beautiful.’
Everything in her contracted—from her toes to her pelvis to the hairs on her head. She couldn’t think of a reply; was too stunned that this glorious, gorgeous man could call her beautiful. If she could float she would be sky-high by now...
Theseus didn’t care how thin she was. No matter what, he would still desire her.
She giggled.
‘What?’ he asked, his eyes puzzled.
She clamped a hand over her mouth.
‘What?’ he demanded to know, playfully pulling her hand away. ‘Why are you laughing? Share the joke. I command it!’
But she couldn’t. How could she say that his compliment was the most wonderful she’d ever heard?
‘Tell me or I’ll get you wet,’ he threatened, clearly remembering her aversion to water from their time on Illya.
But she could no more stop the laughter that erupted than she could have grown wings.
Theseus was as good as his word.
He got to his feet, scooped her up in his arms, then threw her into the middle of the pool.
She was still laughing when she came up for air.
* * *
Preparations for the Gala meant Theseus was caught up at the palace more than he would have liked over the next few days. He made sure always to eat breakfast with his new family, and spent snatches of time with them, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Not for him. He wanted them...close.
He brushed away the strange word.
Things would change after the Gala, when he would be able to announce their existence to his grandfather and the rest of the world. Jo and Toby would move into the palace then.
Living in his villa was like a holiday for them. The sun shone whilst they played in the pool and built sandcastles on the beach. The magic of it all had caught him too. The memory of last night lay fresh in his mind; taking a moonlit walk with Jo down to the cove, making love to her on the sand and then, when they were replete and naked in each other’s arms, gazing up at the stars in peaceable silence.