He kissed Ari and handed him to her. His son cried hard as she carried him down the hall. Andreas turned to Zoe. “This is one time when you come first. Let’s take your bags to your bedroom.”
“But he sounds brokenhearted.”
“He’ll live. I won’t if I don’t get you in my arms in about ten seconds.”
Zoe decided he made it in nine before he pulled her down on the bed and then started kissing her close to oblivion. No kiss was long enough. They couldn’t get close enough.
“You’ll never know how much I want to make love to you.” His voice was husky. “But we need all day and night alone.”
“Darling—” she kissed him over and over again “—we have the rest of our lives. With your grandparents coming, and Ari, who might not take a nap after all, we don’t have this luxury no matter that I’m dying of love for you. Didn’t you say we have to get a notice sent to the newspaper today?”
“Yes. We’ll go to my study to send it.”
“I can’t wait!”
“I don’t deserve you, Zoe, but I swear I’ll love and honor you all the days of our lives.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE FLIGHT TO Santorini took only an hour. Two limos were waiting for the wedding party when they landed. Another gorgeous, sun-filled day greeted Zoe as she left the private Gavras jet.
Andreas’s grandmother Hebe, named after a mythical goddess, had gone shopping with Zoe during the week leading up to the wedding. After picking out her wedding gown, they decided on a stunning, eggshell-toned dress with a beaded hem on the elbow-length sleeves and neckline for her to wear to the Gavras hotel before and after the ceremony.
Hebe chose a soft pink, two-piece jeweled suit that went beautifully with her silver hair she wore swept back in a French roll. Andreas’s grandfather Leonidas, a tall man with a lot of silver in his dark hair, wore a white wedding suit. The two made a striking couple and would serve as their witnesses.
Ari was back in Athens with his mother. They would see him when they got back from honeymoon.
Once the limos arrived at the hotel, Andreas carried Zoe’s wedding dress to the bridal suite. “I’ll see you at the church, my love. Are you ready to take my name?” His eyes almost impaled her with emotion.
For an answer, she kissed him hungrily. He could probably feel her heart jumping around with nervous excitement.
After she let him go, he disappeared with his grandfather to his grandparents’ room to dress in his formal gray wedding suit. Within a half hour she would be married and had to hurry to put on her dress. Hebe helped her fasten the buttons in the back.
“You look a vision in this, Zoe.”
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” She stared at the image in the mirror. The white tulle floor-length princess-style gown had an overlay of lace from the round neck and cap sleeves and down the bodice. Andreas had given her diamond earrings to match the round solitaire diamond ring set in gold he’d slid on her finger yesterday.
Hebe put a garland of white flowers in Zoe’s hair. She didn’t want a veil. “What’s important is that you look beautiful in it. My grandson will be speechless when he sees you.”
Zoe turned to her before going downstairs to the limo. “I love you already, Hebe. You couldn’t know how thrilled I am to belong to your family.”
&
nbsp; Her brown eyes glistened with tears. “I wish my son and daughter-in-law were alive to see the kind of woman their son has chosen. I’d like to think they and your own birth parents are looking on today.”
Now it was Zoe who teared up. “It’s a beautiful thought.”
“Shall we go? My grandson is waiting most impatiently to become your husband.”
Together they went downstairs and out the foyer to the limo. The drive to the small, exquisite church overlooking the water didn’t take long. The other limo was already parked there. How incredible that Zoe was going to be married here!
Tourists milling around stopped to watch as the driver helped her and Hebe out of the car and walked them up a lot of steps to the inside. Andreas had asked him to take pictures they posed for.
Then the doors opened and there was her husband-to-be, breathtaking in his gray wedding suit and silver tie against a white shirt. “You look so incredible, I’m in awe, Zoe.”
“Then you know how I feel just looking at you.” Their eyes clung while the driver took more pictures of the two of them before Andreas walked her inside. Leonidas was waiting and handed her and his wife a sheaf of white flowers. She kissed him before Andreas took her arm and walked her toward the front of the shrine. He’d explained that Bishop Dumitru of the Greek Orthodox Church would be officiating.
There was a spiritual atmosphere with the candles and the faint smell of incense that transported her to another world for the ceremony. After handing her flowers to Hebe, she joined hands with Andreas. She knew it would mean more to him if the words were said in Greek. Zoe didn’t need to know the translation to imagine what was being said or the vows she was making. But he did speak in English when it was time for her to say “I do.”