Cristos vented a startled laugh and shook his handsome dark head in amazement. 'Patras said no woman could be interested in hearing what a smart-mouthed kid I had been unless she loved me. I didn't believe him.'
'He was right… he had me hanging on his every word. When he came to stay, I was just missing you so much…' Betsy squeezed out tearfully.
'You love me!' Without warning Cristos lifted her up in the air like a doll and spun her round and back against him.
'Oh, that was so cool…' Betsy whispered with immense appreciation, stretching up to frame his face with her spread fingers and survey him with loving pleasure. 'But now I finally believe you're mine.'
His stunning dark golden eyes clung to hers. 'Always, agape mou.'
'So what happened to that.., you weren't looking for me to love you stuff?' Betsy enquired saucily.
'That was my pride talking.'
She wound her arms round his neck and pushed into the hard, muscular heat of his big, powerful body. He answered her encouragement by kissing her breathless. Crushing her to him, he muttered thickly, 'I'd love it if we tried for another baby some time-'
Inspired by a project that had such immediate appeal to her own heart, Betsy leant back from him to say, 'Would right now be too soon?'
The strain etched in his lean, powerful face evaporated. 'I was afraid that I was going to upset you and that maybe you wouldn't want to risk a second pregnancy-'
'We just had bad luck. Oh, I do wish that you'd told me how you felt when I was in hospital,' Betsy admitted unsteadily, her emotions very close to the surface.
'That I'd like us to try again? One of my female cousins warned me on no account to mention anything like that in case you felt I wasn't showing proper respect for the child we had just lost,' Cristos confided in a taut undertone. 'I didn't want to risk hurting you.'
'I wouldn't have felt like that… I was just desperate for some sign from you that you still saw us and our marriage as having a future,' Betsy explained. '-
'Our future is together, pethi mou. I went through hell when you went back to England,' Cristos admitted raggedly, gazing down at her with adoring intensity. 'Never again do 1 want to go· through the agony of wondering if I've lost you-'
'From now on, you won't have that worry,' Betsy assured him with sunny good humor and newly learned confidence. 'You won't even get time off for good behavior.'
Cristos threw back his handsome dark head and laughed with true appreciation. 'I love you,' he intoned then with smouldering intensity and she dragged him down to her and found his sensual mouth for herself.
Almost a year later, Betsy gave birth to their daughter, Karisa. Karisa was followed eighteen months afterwards by the arrival of a son, Darian.
Overjoyed with his two great-grandchildren, Patras Stephanides bought the island of Mos and gave it to Cristos and Betsy to mark their fourth wedding anniversary.
Lynne Graham
