Modern Romance June 2017 Books 1 – 4. Maisey Yates
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and make a home for our daughter, the kind of home neither of us had the advantage of growing up in,’ Jax extended with unearthly calm.
‘I don’t know much about your background. Well, I know your parents divorced when you were young but—’
Jax stiffened. ‘You already know that my mother was unstable and not a reliable parent. Men came and went in her life. None of them ever stayed. She was too high maintenance. I don’t want our daughter to have to adapt to that kind of lifestyle.’
‘With respect,’ Lucy said uncomfortably, ‘I’m not a world-famous, gorgeous actress and I don’t think my lifestyle and your mother’s would have anything in common.’
Jax released his breath in a small hiss of frustration. ‘Do you really believe that your life is going to stay the same now that I know you are raising my daughter?’ he pressed in disbelief. ‘Do you honestly believe that you can go on working as a waitress and living with your father? Obviously I will take care of all your expenses now—’
‘No,’ Lucy broke in with a frown. ‘I don’t want that.’
‘But that’s what will happen whether you like it or not. Naturally I want my daughter to enjoy the same lifestyle that I enjoy myself and I can’t believe that you would deny her what she is entitled to receive. Bella is an Antonakos,’ Jax reminded her with pride.
‘Yes but...’ Lucy’s voice ran out of steam as she began to think about everything he had said.
He was asking her to marry him. Jax Antonakos was asking her to marry him, offering her the dream conclusion she had once secretly cherished and then buried deep two years earlier. For the space of several frantic minutes Lucy could only stare down into her tea and struggle to come to terms with a proposal she had never expected to receive. A home, two parents and a real family for Bella. That truly was the ultimate ideal for Lucy when it came to her daughter. Her mother had ended up alone raising Lucy and Lucy had ended up alone in the care system because the authorities had failed to trace Kreon. Sometimes she hated herself for making the same mistake with Bella and having to bring her up without a father.
‘Are you serious about this?’ Lucy asked breathlessly.
‘Of course,’ Jax asserted levelly.
‘But you never wanted to get married,’ Lucy reminded him helplessly.
‘And then Bella came along and turned everything upside down,’ Jax confessed with complete honesty. ‘This is no longer only about you and me. We have to think about our daughter and about what would make her happy.’
‘Unhappily married parents wouldn’t help,’ Lucy pointed out apologetically.
‘I see no reason why we shouldn’t make a go of it. Even sitting here having a serious conversation I can barely keep my hands off you,’ Jax admitted bluntly, his stunning green gaze glittering across her heart-shaped face and watching the flush of awareness slowly build there. ‘And if you’re honest, it’s the same for you.’
Lucy dragged her attention from his sleek, darkly beautiful features with the greatest difficulty. But trying to blank her mind, trying not to look at him was no use when the hunger inside her felt like an insidious virus that refused to die. And she knew what the cure was and that unnerved her. The only cure she knew was the wild, pounding plunge of his body into hers and the explosive release he would give her. And even that wasn’t a permanent fix, she thought shamefacedly. She had once craved him as she craved air to breathe. She set her tea down with a jarring crack on the coffee table, her hand trembling.
‘Look at me,’ Jax urged, breaking the smouldering silence.
And Lucy looked even though she knew she shouldn’t, desire clawing at her insides, awakening the yearning buried deep within her body. A ragged breath escaped her, her pulses racing. Her breasts ached but the biggest ache of all was between her legs, at the very heart of her where she was burning with need. That voracious need that hungered for his touch terrified her because it was so ready to rage out of control and sweep all restraint and all common sense before it.
‘We’re getting married as soon as it can be arranged,’ Jax decreed.
Her head flew up. ‘You can’t just—’
‘One of us needs to be decisive. You want to bury your head in the sand and run away from the responsibility.’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘We do it for Bella. Together we make a family,’ Jax intoned.
‘It’s not that simple.’
‘Nothing worth having is ever easily acquired,’ Jax said drily. ‘Everything worthwhile I have ever achieved has come at a cost and there have always been sacrifices involved. Are you willing to make sacrifices for Bella’s benefit?’
Lucy leapt upright in frustration. ‘Jax! Stop trying to railroad me!’
‘In a couple of days the paparazzi will be on to us. I want to pre-empt them with a wedding, a big splashy wedding, which they won’t be expecting,’ he told her grimly. ‘They’ll be happy enough to settle for wedding photos.’
‘Do you really want to do this?’ Lucy whispered shakily.
‘I want you. I want my daughter. To give her what we both want, to give her what she deserves, we have to get married,’ Jax countered with measured cool. ‘I can handle that. Can you?’
And Lucy thought about that, really seriously thought about that even though her brain did not feel up to that challenge. Even when she had dreamt about marrying Jax two years earlier she had known it was only a dream because Jax had seen too many relationships break down to have any faith in the marriage bond. He had admitted that to her in Spain and afterwards he had seemed unnerved by what he had told her and he had cut their evening short.
‘We will fight,’ Jax forecast. ‘But we’re good at making up again.’
Lucy flushed and nodded jerkily and he laughed huskily for they had always ended up in bed after arguments, taking refuge in the sexual unity that bridged their differences.
‘And if you don’t want to give up work after we’re married I’ll make a special arrangement for you,’ Jax murmured lazily. ‘I’ll buy a bar and I will be the only customer and you can serve me to your heart’s content.’
‘You say the craziest things,’ Lucy muttered, shaking her head while locked to the stunning green eyes gleaming below his black lashes.
‘I will say whatever I have to say to get that ring on your finger,’ Jax admitted truthfully. ‘The world’s your oyster tonight, koukla mou.’
But Jax was no perfect pearl for her to acquire, she thought helplessly. Jax was complicated and reserved and unpredictable. Living with Jax would not be easy; it would be a roller coaster of highs and lows. Yet didn’t she want to take the chance? It was a chance she had never thought she would have. Yes, Jax had treated her badly in the past but marriage was an equal partnership and this time around she wouldn’t have to surrender her independence or her self-respect because money wouldn’t be an issue. Giving her daughter the secure and loving childhood she had not had herself would mean so much to her. How could she refuse that offer?
‘I’ll marry you,’ Lucy breathed tautly. ‘But you’d better not make me regret it.’
Thinking of the secrets he had withheld and the complete honesty that he would eventually have to practise, Jax breathed in deep. He had given way to blackmail to protect his family but in marrying, he acknowledged grimly, he would be protecting his new family from potential harm as well.
‘I should be honest,’ Lucy murmured, her blue eyes awash with regret and apology. ‘I don’t trust you.’
Jax, who had learned never to trust anyone, particularly one’s nearest and dearest, almost laughed out loud. Lucy would flourish like a tropical flower in the Antonakos family.