Epilogue
WITHOUT OPENING HER EYES, Cassie knew that Antaeus had walked out onto the terrace. They had flown into Pelion yesterday afternoon, eleven months after he had come to find her in her office.
Which was still her office.
Because Antaeus had kept his word. Everything he had promised would happen had happened.
Everything was good between them. More than good, she thought, shifting restlessly against the sun lounger.
It was near perfect. Not without challenges, but they had faced them together, proactively. Problems were not hidden but aired.
And here in the Greek summer sunshine, the living was easy. The loving too.
Back in New York, she was still running Trojan Princess. In fact, it had been named a company to watch by the prestigious Business Buzz website.
Not because it had grown. She had decided to keep it small, and that was her decision. Clients liked the prestige of the brand, and she liked to be hands-on. Although she might have to take a step back some time next year.
Antaeus’s business was booming too. He had acquired more startups and been invited by numerous governments around the world to advise on safety in the crypto space. In consequence, the shadow of his father’s criminal past was no longer the opening sentence to any article or interview.
And that piece of his past was no longer in the past. Andreas was now part of the present. Their present.
Her spine tingled. Antaeus was close.
He liked to say that there was a thread running between them. It was true that he always knew where she was in any room no matter how crowded. And he always came to find her.
Always.
Although they both chose to spend as much time with one another as possible, so in the last eleven months, they had only spent two nights apart.
Both times when his plane got delayed by bad weather.
The story that had broken them apart had fizzled out.
Their story, the real story, was still being written by them.
‘Hi.’
Opening her eyes, she looked up, her stomach flipping over slowly like it always did when she saw her impossibly handsome husband.
‘Geia,’ she said, shielding her gaze from the sun as he sat down beside her and kissed her softly on the mouth. She had been learning Greek and was now if not fluent, then proficient.
‘Did you speak to your dad?’ she asked as he pulled away from her, his hand reaching for hers as it always did.
He nodded. ‘He was just getting on the plane. He sends his love.’
Gazing down into Cassie’s green eyes, Antaeus felt his love for her and his need swell inside him.
They had married seven months ago in a small, private ceremony on the beach here where they had watched the play together beneath the flame-lighted torches.
They had waited for his father to be released from prison, and both Andreas and Cecilia Appleton were in attendance.
His father had been stunned, to put it mildly, when he told him that he was getting married to Henry’s daughter.
It had been a difficult conversation. And it wasn’t the last. After reconciling with Cassie, he’d assumed his anger with the world would disappear.
It had faded, thanks to a lot of support from his incredible wife.
But talking to his father, seeing him, hugging him, had raised old spectres.
Now, though, they had reached a good place. Finally he had his father back. And a surrogate mother in Cecilia.
Nearly three years after Henry’s death, Cecilia was flourishing. She had a whole new life, spending half the year here in Greece. Contrary to expectations, she and Andreas got on very well.
‘When does he get in?’
‘Two-ish. So we have some time left.’
‘For what?’ Her green eyes danced in the sunlight as she smiled up at him, one of those sweet, soft smiles that knocked the air out of his lungs.
He hadn’t quite got used to this way of living, of being exhilarated by every new day.
But maybe that was the way it was when you felt something so extraordinary and precious.
‘For us,’ he said softly, leaning in to kiss her.
As Antaeus’s mouth moved down her throat with an impatience and freedom that made her pulse skip a beat, Cassie pressed her thighs together. She wanted him so badly, but first she had to share her news.
‘Speaking of us, how do you feel about an addition?’
She felt his mouth hover over her collarbone. ‘I thought we’d agreed we’d let your mum get the puppy.’
‘We did, but I’m not talking about a puppy.’ As he sat up, she took his hand and placed it on the warm bare skin of her belly. ‘I’m talking about a baby.’
His face stilled. ‘You’re pregnant.’
She was suddenly close to tears. ‘Is that okay?’
Antaeus nodded. He was struggling to speak. ‘I couldn’t be happier.’ It was a happiness that was all-encompassing. She was his happiness. His Cassandra. She had given him a future. This woman. His wife. His captor. His love.
And pulling her closer, he kissed the tears from her eyes. ‘Se agapó.’
‘I love you too,’ Cassie said, and her mouth found his beneath the clear, fathomless blue sky.