“I know,” he growled. “Losing someone to death is agony, but it’s even worse knowing the person you love with all your heart is alive and doesn’t want to see you.”
Hearing how much he loved her was bittersweet. She stared at him in anguish, not wanting the power to hurt him that badly, but seeing from his tortured expression that she had. There were no words to heal, only an urge to draw him close so she could try to kiss away his pain.
“I’m sorry. I love you.”
“I know, me, too. I love you so much.”
Their mouths met in homecoming, both of them moaning as the ache ceased. He opened his lips over hers and she flowered like a plant tasting water. Heat flowed into her. Joy.
Love.
A door swished and a nurse said, “Bit soon for that, isn’t it?”
They broke apart. Gideon shot a private smile at Adara as he reached to tie her gown behind her neck.
“And how is our young man? Does he have a name?” the nurse chattered.
Adara licked her lips, eyeing Gideon as she said, “Delphi’s not exactly a boy’s name, but I thought...Androu?” It was Gideon’s real name.
His expression spasmed with emotion before he controlled it. “Are you sure?” he asked, voice strained, body braced for disappointment.
“He’s someone I love and want in my life forever. I think, someday, he’d be really proud to know who he was named after.”
“I don’t deserve you,” he said against her lips, kissing her resoundingly, right there in front of the nurse.
Adara flushed and smiled, bubbles of happiness filling her. “We do, you know,” she contradicted him. “We both deserve this.”
She didn’t care that the nurse was smiling indulgently at them even as she took Androu and undressed him so she could weigh him.
“Well, you certainly deserve to be happy. Me, I just demand the best and get it.” You, he mouthed. Him. He cocked his head toward the baby.
“A habit I’m adopting,” she said with a cheeky wrinkle of her nose. “I know how possessive you are of the things you’ve built, too. I’m taking on that trait as well. Us,” she whispered, soft and heartfelt.
“Yeah, I’m going to hang on to us pretty tight too,” he said in a way that made her heart leap. “Agape mou.”
EPILOGUE
GIDEON WALKED INTO his home office thinking he really needed to start spending more time in here. It wasn’t that things were falling apart. He and Adara had put some great people in place when they’d first learned of the pregnancy. Her brothers were still running things like a well-oiled machine and he should have quit micromanaging years ago, so this was a timely lesson in letting go.
But there was a fine line between delegating and neglecting. Much more lolling about his home, playing airplane with his son and necking with his wife, and he’d be a full-fledged layabout.
Of course, he could blame finishing the renovations, putting in a staircase to the lower floor, painting and furnishing their new private space away from the main floor. That had taken time. There had also been his recovery from minor surgery, but that had really only been the one afternoon on headache pills and he’d been fine.
No, he might be getting up in the night to change diapers, but he wasn’t breast-feeding or anemic from childbirth. He didn’t have Adara’s totally legitimate reasons for shirking work.
He certainly shouldn’t be leaving confidential papers lying openly on his desk, whether the workmen were gone or not.
The block letters and signature tabs were a dead giveaway that this was a contract, one he couldn’t remember even pulling out to review, but— Ah. It was the separation agreement he’d sent to Adara. She must have left it here.
A pang hit him, but it was merely the remembered pain of thinking he’d lost everything and was quickly relieved by a rush of relief and happiness that they’d recovered. Her devotion was as steadfast as his, prompting a flood of deep love for her as he walked the papers toward the shredder. He didn’t want this bad mojo in the house, but then he saw she’d signed it. His heart stopped.
Ha. That wasn’t her name. Under the statement that began, I, Adara Makricosta, hereby agree..., she’d scrawled with a deep impression, Never, and added a smiley face.
Quirking a grin at her sass, he decided this was a signed contract in its own right, definitely worth tucking in the safe. Suddenly, work didn’t seem important after all. Was she finished feeding Androu? he wondered. They’d had coinciding follow-ups at separate doctor clinics today. He’d returned to find her rocking a drifting Androu to sleep downstairs and decided to see what he could get done here, but...
He turned to find her in his office doorway, the baby monitor in her hand.
“He’s asleep?” he asked.
She nodded and came to set the monitor on his desktop. “How did your appointment go?”
“Not swimmingly.”
Her eyes widened in alarm.
“That’s a joke,” he hurried to assure her. “I’m saying there were no swimmers. I’m good. Shooting blanks.”
She snorted, then sobered and cocked her head in concern. “You’re sure it doesn’t bother you? I really was fully prepared to have my tubes tied.”
He tried to wave away the same worries he’d been trying to alleviate for weeks, but she kept her anxious expression.
He sighed. “I’d make ten more just like Androu if we could. We both would, right? He’s perfect,” he said, moving to take her arms in a warm but firm grasp of insistence. “But if we want more children, we can find another way. You can’t risk another pregnancy.”
“Exactly why I should have been the one having the permanent procedure. What if someday—”
“Are you going somewhere?” he challenged lightly. “I’m not. Therefore, my getting fixed is a solution for both of us. You’ve been through enough. And this was not a big moral struggle for me. I’m happy to take responsibility for protecting you.”
She pouted a little. “Well, thank you then. I do appreciate it.”
He caressed from the base of her throat to under her chin, coaxing her to tilt her head up so he could see those pillowy lips pursed so erotically.
“There was some self-serving to it, you know,” he admitted, voice thickening with the many weeks of abstinence they’d observed. Now there’d never be any worries for either of them, no matter when or where they came together. And hell, if he hadn’t inflicted pain down there to distract himself, he probably would have lost his mind waiting for this moment. “How did your appointment go?” he belatedly asked, reminding himself not to let the engine rev too high and fast.
“Oh.” Her lashes swooped and her mouth widened into a sensual smile of invitation. “All clear to resume normal activities.”
“If you can call how we make each other feel ‘normal.’” He backed her toward the desk. “I was just thinking I haven’t been spending enough quality time in here.”
Her breath caught in the most delightful way, and even though she stiffened in surprise when her hips met the edge of his desk, she melted with reception just as quickly, hitching herself to sit on it. Her hand curled around to the back of his neck and she leaned her other hand onto the surface of his desk, watching without protest as he began unbuttoning her top.
“We do have a nice new bed downstairs that hasn’t been used for one of its intended purposes, you know,” she reminded in a sultry voice.
“I am quite aware,” he countered dryly as he bared her chest and released her bra. Her breasts were bigger, pale and lightly veined, the nipples dark and stiff with excitement. “God, you’re beautiful.”
“They’re kind of majestic, aren’t they?” She arched a little.
“They kind of are,” he agreed with awe, tracing lightly before he bent to touch careful kisses around her nipples.
“Gideon?”
Her tone made him raise his head. “What’s wrong?”
“I know we should savor this because it’s been a really long time and we kind of started over with our marriage so this is a bit of a honeymoon moment, but I’ve really missed making love with you. I thought about walking in here naked. I don’t want to wait.”
Ever willing to accommodate, he stripped her pants off without another word, taking her ice-blue undies with them. Spreading her knees, he only bothered to open his jeans and shove them down as far as necessary, before he carefully pushed inside her.
Adara gasped at the pinch and friction of not being quite ready, but his hot, firm thickness was the connection she’d been longing for. With a moan, she twined her legs around him and forced his entry, drawing a deep hiss from him.
They fought a light battle, him trying to slow her down, her urging him as deep into her as she could take before she sprawled back on his desk and let him have his way with her.