Love, Griffin found, changed everything.
He found his way back to his brother, because he understood, now, the things that love could make a person do. He understood that Orion had thought he was helping, not hindering.
And he forgave not only his mother for leaving, but himself, too.
The joy got wilder and brighter all the time.
He and Orion, without consulting their brides, took it upon themselves to suggest—in no uncertain terms—that Aristotle Skyros remove himself from Idylla. For good.
“You cannot banish me,” the horrible man seethed at his King.
“And he will not, as he is a good and benevolent king,” Griffin replied, all idleness until he met the despised man’s gaze. “But I do not think you would like it should the rest of the royal family feel compelled to take matters into their own hands.”
Aristotle slunk off, never to be heard from again. It was impossible not to view his departure from the island—and his daughter’s lives—as a triumph of epic proportions. Especially when his wife remained behind.
And Griffin watched as time did what nothing else could have. He would not call it a true healing, necessarily. But when Calista started giving Apollonia grandchildren, a mother found her way back to the daughters she had abandoned.
“I will never trust her,” Calista said with a sniff after her first child was born, sitting in the private parlor where the four of them often gathered.
Melody shrugged. “I have always liked her more than you. She was kind enough.”
“Kind enough is not kind.” Calista smiled down at the newborn Crown Prince while beside her, Orion looked besotted. The Queen gazed at her sister. “Though I will admit, even she blooms without Father around.”
“So would a desert,” Melody replied.
And later, when they were alone, Griffin showed Melody precisely what he thought about kind enough. By being first deliciously cruel.
Then so kind she screamed.
“I think I’m ready for the next adventure,” Melody said one night, when they had been married for five glorious years.
“You may have any adventure you like,” Griffin told her with that gallantry that made her smile. And call him Gaston. “You already have.”
They spent the bulk of their time dutifully representing the interests of the crown. They were mindful of their responsibilities. But they also took long, significant breaks, where they pleased no one at all but themselves.
Melody had wanted to explore the world, and he had taken her wherever she wished to go. They had jumped from planes, hiked up mountains, swum with dolphins. Griffin had lived more since he’d met Melody than the whole of his previous life.
The longer they stayed together, the deeper and better it got.
“I hope you mean that,” Melody said then. They lay in their bed, the soft Aegean breezes playing over their naked skin.
She nestled against him. Then smiled.
With an innocence that struck fear into his heart.
Because whatever else his beautiful Princess was, a secret ninja or a wildly creative lover, she was never innocent.
“Tell me what you want and I will give it to you,” he declared.
“You already have,” Melody said quietly. “And in about seven months, you can meet him yourself.”
Griffin thought that his heart could never beat that hard again. That he could never love more than he already did.
He kept thinking it, and he was always wrong.
As Melody proved twice more. Two perfect princes and one remarkable princess filled this house of ghosts with laughter, bloodcurdling screams, and joy.
So much joy, it hurt.
You missed all this, Mother, Griffin thought years later.
All three children had been settled into their beds, some with tears and some with grace. And his wife appeared before him on her soundless, careful feet, her hair the way he loved it, wild all around her.
Fifteen years had passed since the day he’d carried her here from the reception rooms where the local ladies had long since learned not to poke at Princess Melody. Since the day they’d stopped being two and had become one, at last.
Since the day their true marriage had begun, and changed everything.
“I hope you locked them in,” he said, grinning as she came to him. “Hellions.”
“There is no point. It would work for one night only, and then Fen would teach them all how to break out. But I’ve thrown the bolt on our door, never fear.”
“My beautiful, perfect wife.” Griffin gathered her to him, holding her in his arms. “My Princess. What would I have done if I’d never found you? Who would I be?”
“Let’s never find out,” Melody said.
Then she wrapped herself around him, making that same, sweet fire burn bright between them, the way it always did.
And always would, hot enough to propel them straight on into forever.
Over and over again.
Coming next month
AN HEIR CLAIMED BY CHRISTMAS
Clare Connelly
‘I will never understand how you could choose to keep me out of his life.’
Annie’s eyes swept shut. ‘It wasn’t an easy decision.’
‘Yet you made it, every day. Even when you were struggling, and I could have made your life so much easier.’
That drew her attention. ‘You think this is going to make my life easier?’ A furrow developed between her brows. ‘Moving to another country, marrying you?’
His eyes roamed her face, as though he could read things in her expression that she didn’t know were there. As though her words had a secret meaning.
‘Yes.’
For some reason, the confidence of his reply gave her courage. One of them, at least, seemed certain they were doing the right thing.
‘What if we can’t make this work, Dimitrios?’
His eyes narrowed a little. ‘We will.’
It was so blithely self-assured, coming from a man who had always achieved anything he set out to, that Annie’s lips curled upwards in a small smile. ‘Marriage is difficult and Max is young—only six. Presuming you intend for our marriage to last until he’s eighteen, that’s twelve years of living together, pretending we’re something we’re not. I don’t know about
