Modern Romance Collection: February 2018 Books 1 - 4. Lynne Graham

brown shoulder in reproach. ‘Anything to do with sex excites you!’

      Angel looked reflective and a sudden wicked grin lit his darkly handsome features. ‘I’m sure if we had about six children, six very noisy and lively children, I could persuade my mother to find her own accommodation. You see, expansion could be a complete game changer in the happy-family stakes...’

      ‘I do hope that was a joke,’ Merry sighed, warm and contented and so happy she felt floaty. He loved her and it shone out of him. How had she not seen that? How had she tormented herself for so long when what she desperately wanted was right there in front of her, waiting to be claimed?

      And now Angel was hers, finally all hers, and equally suddenly she was discovering that she was feeling much more tolerant and forgiving of other people’s frailties. Her mother was trying to show her that she cared and perhaps it was past time she made more of an effort in that quarter. And then there was Roula, unhappy and humiliated—possibly she could afford to be more forgiving there as well. Happiness could spread happiness, she decided cheerfully, running a seeking hand down over a long, sleek male flank, keen to increase his happiness factor too...

      * * *

      ‘Well, I have to confess that I never saw this coming,’ Natalie admitted, studying her mother, Sybil, and Angel’s father, Charles, as they stood across the room graciously receiving the guests at the wedding reception being held at Angel and Merry’s home on the island of Palos. ‘I thought it would fizzle out long before they got this far.’

      ‘He’s daft about her and she has made him wait six years to put that ring on her finger,’ Merry reminded the small blonde woman by her side. ‘I think she’s just finally ready to settle down.’

      ‘Well, she took her time about it,’ Natalie pronounced wryly. ‘Angel’s mother isn’t here, is she?’

      ‘Hardly, considering that she was Charles’ first wife,’ Merry remarked.

      ‘Not much chance of her settling down.’

      ‘No,’ Merry agreed quietly, reflecting that they saw remarkably little of Angelina these days. Angelina had bought a Manhattan penthouse where she now spent most of her time. Occasional scandalous headlines and gossip pieces floated back to Angel and Merry, but Angel was no longer forced to be involved in his mother’s life and now found it easier to remain detached.

      Elyssa rushed up, an adorable vision in a pink flower girl’s dress that already had a stain on it. ‘Keep this for me,’ she urged, stuffing the little wicker basket she had carried down the aisle into her mother’s hand. ‘Cos and I are going to play hide and seek.’

      Merry bent down. ‘No, you’re not. This is a very special party for grown-ups and children aren’t allowed to run about.’

      Her son, Cosmas, four years old to his big sister’s almost six years, rushed up, wrenching impatiently at the sash tied round his waist. ‘Take this off.’

      ‘Not until Sybil says you can,’ Merry warned. ‘There are still photos to be taken.’

      ‘Where’s the rest of the horde?’ Natalie enquired curiously.

      Their two-year-old twins, Nilo and Leksi, were chasing Tiger through the hall. Merry hurtled in that direction to interrupt the chase before it got out of hand. Tiger was a mere shadow of the fat and inactive little dog he had once been. Living in a household with five children had slimmed him down. His first rehoming hadn’t worked out and when he had been returned to Sybil soon afterwards, after shaming himself and stealing food, Merry had scooped him up for a rapturous reunion and brought him back to Greece. As she hovered Angel appeared, a baby clutched securely below one arm, and spoke sternly to his youngest sons. Atlanta beamed gummily across the hall at her mother and opened her arms.

      ‘I don’t know where you get the energy,’ Natalie confessed, watching Merry reclaim her eight-month-old daughter. ‘Either of you. You produce like rabbits. Please tell me the family’s complete now.’

      Colour warmed Merry’s cheeks because their sixth child was already on the way, even if they had not yet announced the fact, and Angel grinned down at his tongue-tied wife with wicked amusement. ‘We haven’t decided yet,’ he said lightly.

      Atlanta tugged on her mother’s long hair as Merry walked out onto the terrace to take a break from the festivities. It had taken weeks of careful planning to organise the wedding and accommodation for all the guests. She had wanted everything to be perfect for Sybil and Charles, both of whom were frequent visitors to their home. After all the years of feeling short-changed in the family stakes, Merry had come full circle and now she was surrounded by a loving family.

      She was even happier to have achieved a more normal relationship with her mother, who had returned to the UK and started up a very successful yoga studio. These days she regularly saw Natalie when she went over to London with Angel. Her mother had mellowed and Merry had put the past behind her in every way.

      A year earlier she had acted as Roula’s matron of honour when the other woman had married the island doctor in a three-day-long bout of very Greek celebration. Roula was still a friend of the family, and sometimes Merry suspected that the trouble the other woman had caused with the mistress lie and the truths that had then come out had actually helped Roula to move on and meet someone capable of loving her back.

      But then Merry was willing to admit that she had learned from the same experience as well. Discovering that she was married to a man who loved her so much that he was willing to do virtually anything it took to hang onto her and their marriage had banished her insecurity for ever. She liked being a mother and Angel revelled in being a father. The rapid expansion of their family had been exhausting but also uniquely satisfying.

      Lean brown hands scooped the slumbering baby from Merry’s lap and passed her to Jill, Sally’s co-nanny, for attention. Angel then scooped his wife out of her chair and sank back down with her cradled in his arms.

      ‘You are very tired,’ he scolded. ‘We’ve talked about this. You agreed to take afternoon naps.’

      ‘After the meal,’ she murmured, small fingers flirting with his silk tie as she gazed up at him, loving and appreciating every line of his lean, startlingly handsome features and thinking back lazily to the poor beginning they had shared that had miraculously transformed over the years into a glorious partnership.

      ‘Thee mou,’ Angel intoned huskily. ‘Sometimes I look at the life you have created for all of us and I love you so much it hurts, agape mou. My wife, my family, is my anchor.’

      Happy as a teenager in his public display of affection where once she would have wrenched herself free, Merry giggled. ‘You mean we drag you down?’

      And Angel gave up the battle and kissed her, hungrily, deeply, tenderly while somewhere in the background his mother-in-law snorted and said in a pained voice, ‘You see...like rabbits.’

      * * * * *

       A Bride at His Bidding

      Michelle Smart

      Hired by her enemy

      Yet tempted to say “I do”...

      Billionaire Andreas Samaras is nobody’s fool. And his beautiful new employee, Carrie Rivers—an undercover journalist—is playing a dangerous game. He’ll keep her at his command until he can expose her deception... But when her ruse is revealed, there’s only one way to protect his spotless business reputation: blackmail innocent Carrie to the altar!