Chapter Eleven #2
‘Because I’ve been an idiot and it’s been a week since I last saw you and I don’t want to spend another day ever without you by my side. I should never have let you go. I want you back in my life.’
Hope had to put a hand up on the wall to steady herself.
She wanted to leap into his arms but caution was holding her back.
She knew his world, how it worked—he might be saying this and meaning that he just wanted her back in his life as some sort of mistress while he got on with his appropriate wife.
‘Like…on the side?’
He frowned. ‘The side? What do you mean?’
‘Like a mistress or something.’ Now she felt foolish.
‘No! Why would you think that?’
She threw her hands up. ‘Because your world is full of people who are just together because it’s strategic or appropriate and I can’t imagine you denying yourself sex!’
He shook his head. ‘No way, there will be no denying of the sex.’
Hope stood her ground. ‘I won’t be sidelined, Axel. I deserve to be the one. I deserve to be chosen.’
‘I choose you, Hope. I chose you the moment I laid eyes on you.’
Was this real? Was she just hallucinating?
They still weren’t touching, but the air between them was thick with electricity. Then the phone rang. Hope had to answer. She said, ‘Yes, OK,’ and put it back down.
Axel looked impatient. ‘What do they want?’
‘Seat number twenty-three A is waiting for their sandwich.’ Just then the microwave bell pinged. Hope felt dazed. ‘That’s it.’
Axel held out a hand. ‘Give it to me.’
Hope took the sandwich out and gave it to Axel along with a napkin. She watched, totally bemused, as he took it down the aisle and handed it to the person who’d ordered it.
He came back, pulled the curtain over again. ‘Where were we?’
Hope shook her head. ‘I have no idea… Axel, are you really here?’
He nodded. ‘Yes. I’m here and I love you and I know it’s love because I can’t breathe or think without you.
I’ve had a pain in my chest since you left.
I need to know if you really love me too or if it was just…
a passing thing, and now that you’re back in the real world maybe you’re happy that it’s all over. ’
Hope shook her head. ‘Definitely not happy it’s over. And yes, I do really love you, Axel. More than anything.’
For a second nothing happened and then suddenly she was in Axel’s arms and their mouths were fused and a wild joy was moving through Hope with such force that she was trembling when they broke the kiss.
She asked, ‘You really love me?’ But she knew he did. She felt it.
He nodded. ‘Like Lucas loves Sasha.’
Hope’s eyes boggled. ‘You watched the finale of Love in Paradise?
He nodded. ‘Like a lovestruck fool. It was the only thing that made sense.’
Hope’s vision was becoming very blurry. Then Axel said, ‘Thank you for the painting. It’s beautiful.’
Hope blushed. ‘You’re welcome. You seemed to like it. Why don’t you have art like that in any of your places?’
He grimaced. ‘I have to explain something first. I told myself that I couldn’t have you in my life because I didn’t want to see your spirit crushed or your light dimmed. The thought of you becoming cold and brittle like my mother—’ He stopped and she felt him shudder slightly.
He went on, ‘But I know that could never happen to you because you’re simply too good.
I’m the one who has let their light be dimmed and spirit be crushed.
Ever since Ares was taken I’ve felt like I had to make it up to him, and my sisters, to forge a legacy on their behalf, and I did come to be proud of the success I’ve achieved, but you were right, it’s empty and meaningless without them. ’
‘You’ve been in self-imposed prison,’ Hope said, her heart aching.
Axel grimaced. ‘A luxurious prison.’
Hope tugged at his hair. ‘That does not make it any better.’
‘That’s why my world has been so bland…muted. I couldn’t really express myself because I was punishing myself for failing my siblings.’
Hope shook her head. ‘That’s not on you, Axel. Your brother looked really happy, by the way—I watched the wedding.’ The royal wedding between Ares Drakos and Queen Cassandra of Sadat Sur Mer had taken place a few days ago, and he was now King Consort.
‘Did you contact him yet?’
Axel shook his head. ‘No, but I will. I want to. And my sisters. I want to restructure the company and bring them on board, if they’re willing. I told Baros I didn’t have any interest in expansion. Drakos Solutions is doing fine just as it is.’
Hope’s heart swelled and she just knew that it was going to work out. She wouldn’t be surprised if Baros ended up pursuing Axel to do business with him. ‘That’s a really good idea.’
‘But there’s something I need more than all of that because none of that is important without it…’
‘What?’
Axel let Hope go and got down on one knee, in the tiny space at the end of the plane. He took a box out of his pocket and opened it. Hope looked down to see a beautiful sapphire ring with smaller diamonds either side. Subtle, elegant. Perfect.
Axel seemed nervous. He held the ring up.
‘Hope Smith, will you marry me and be my wife and the mother of our children, who I know you will love in the way that children deserve to be loved and I promise that they won’t have to join the business, they’ll be free to live their own lives and do what they please, because the only legacy I want to create is one with you. Nothing else matters.’
Hope felt emotional. ‘You’re forgetting something.’
He went pale. ‘What?’
‘You’ll need to love them too.’
Now Axel looked emotional. ‘I really want to, but I’m afraid that I’ll do the same as my parents—’
Hope came down to Axel’s level and put a finger to his mouth. ‘You won’t,’ she assured him. ‘You love me, and so you will love whoever we create and you deserve to love and be loved unconditionally.’
Axel put the ring on Hope’s finger, but she didn’t look at it, she looked at him. ‘Yes, Axel Drakos, I’ll marry you. I love you.’
He gathered her close and they kissed and it was only when they came up for air that they noticed that the entire plane seemed to have migrated down to this end and the curtain had been pulled back and they were all holding up phones to capture the moment.
Hope ducked her face into Axel’s neck, and Laura, the other steward, started to shoo the passengers back to their seats because they were landing any minute now, and Axel had to go back to his seat but one of the passengers at the back let Axel sit in his seat and he took the one at the front.
So Axel and Hope were only separated for the actual landing, but as soon as the plane touched down she unbuckled and was in his lap. He said, ‘I have something else for you.’
She pulled back a little. ‘I don’t need anything.’ She was home. She was loved. She was chosen. Here on this little budget plane. In Axel’s lap.
But he said, ‘The villa on the island, it’s in your name.’
Hope’s mouth dropped open. ‘Why?’
‘Because you’ve always wanted a home and you loved it so much and, no matter what happens, it’s yours to do with as you will, but I hope you’ll let me share it with you.’
Tears flowed down Hope’s face. How ironic to realise that she didn’t actually want a home any more because all she wanted was Axel, but now she had that too.
She kissed him. ‘Thank you. I love you and of course you can share it with me.’
* * *
A short while later, Axel insisted on standing beside her and holding her hand as she saw the passengers off the plane and then finally, when she was ready to go, he took her small case and carried it down the steps to where Derek, the driver, was waiting with Axel’s car.
Hope snuggled close to Axel all the way back to his house. Inside they went straight to the bedroom and Axel joined their bodies and lavished her with kisses and entreaties of love and promises.
She only thought of something afterwards and lifted her head from Axel’s chest, feeling a knot in her belly. ‘Axel, we didn’t use protection.’
‘I know.’
The knot eased. ‘You don’t mind?’
He looked at her. ‘Why would I mind?’
Hope rolled her eyes. ‘Because we might get pregnant.’
‘I thought you wanted a big family.’
‘I do…but are you ready?’
Axel flipped them so that Hope was on her back and he was over her. He pushed her thighs apart with one of his and she could feel his body stirring against hers. ‘Yes, Hope, I’m ready…are you?’
She wound her arms around his neck and moved against him, inviting him into a deeper intimacy. ‘I was ready as soon as we made love for the first time and I knew I wanted to have your babies.’
He smiled at her. ‘I was ready too but it took me a little longer to understand what was happening—you see, I’ve been under the crazy illusion that I’m in control of my life.’
‘And you’re not?’
‘Not since I set eyes on you. And I happily relinquish it, for ever.’
Hope grinned. ‘Me too. I love you, Axel.’
‘I love you, Hope.’