The Billionaire's Runaway Bride (20 page)

“Well I have been rested and kept in a cool environment for days… so perhaps you should put me to bed after all”. Alexos had risen and lifted her with him, a warm smile on his face. “Only if you let me do one thing first”

Taking her hand he had moved up to the bedroom they had shared. Reaching into his nightstand he had pulled out the ring that they had chosen only weeks before. As she had stood he had knelt down before her

“Grace Leotta…I love you”

This simple declaration had made her smile, tears magnifying her large eyes.

“I am asking you to marry me. To fill the gap that has been in my heart from the first time we ever met. You told me once that it had always been my choice not to choose somebody else to marry…but it never was. Once I fell in love with you…I lost that choice and I am begging you to be the woman I share my life with. I will support you in anything you choose to do…just as I know you will with me”

Giving her a heart-flopping smile, his eyes had danced with both fun and sincerity

“If you want to go and chase a whole school of sharks I will support you with everything in me”

Grace had felt the tears of happiness as they had slid down her face, her head nodding as she had whispered ‘yes’ her hand held out to let him slip the ring onto her finger.

“I will…I love you”

The words lost as he had stood and pulled her in to kiss her so passionately before sweeping her into his arms and laying her gently onto the bed, kissing her and loving her with every part of him. Grace had known that finally she never wanted to run away again, that she was with the one man she would love forever.

Two years later Alexos had stood with his arm loosely around his wife’s waist, the two of them smiling happily at each other. Their son Dimitri had sat in the grass, having plonked himself so comically there only moments earlier. As he pulled his ball back against himself Grace had held back the small chuckle as the small dog they had rescued only months earlier had tried to get the little boy to throw it for him, Dimitri growing cross at the antics of the animal.

At the table Daryle had risen, dramatically ‘clinking’ the wine glass with his fork, his partner Conner rolling his eyes at his dramatics.

“Please everybody” his large smile turning the heads of the assembled group.

“I would like to propose a toast. A toast to the most wonderful couple that it has ever been my privilege to know” his smiling eyes laughing as he had added “It may have taken longer than expected”

A small ripple of laughter ran through the group

“But they found each other and on this their second wedding anniversary, I would like to wish them all the happiness in the world”

His glass raised as the others also had lifted theirs “To Alexos and Grace”, the two leaning in to kiss each other, their smiles so bright.

Grace had given a content sigh, so happy with the way life had turned out over the past couple of years.

She and Alexos had been married less than a week after she had returned from Libya, Alexos flying Conner over to be with Daryle as he had persuaded the two to attend. Even his father had made the journey to the island, accompanying her mother, the two developing a great friendship. Not romantic, it had been one that had seen both flourish, Nikoli making great leaps and bounds with his health as her mother had refused to allow him to sit back and let life go past him. She had insisted that being the only person she knew that he had to show her around.

Her mother had also gone back to university when it transpired that her dream before marrying had been to become a teacher, excelling in the course and soon finding herself working with children with special needs, loving the work and being loved in return.

As he had promised, Alexos had supported her career, although Grace had taken another job working for the Greek government in an advisory role with regard to the marine life of the area. She had loved the job, both because it gave her the opportunity to be with her family, while at the same time giving her the ability to carry out research abroad. When this would happen Alexos would try and organise for he and Dimitri to visit her regularly, the two of them making the arrangement work well for them.

Their wedding day had been one of the most wonderful of her life, heralding a happiness that had filled their world, the couple marrying on the beach with the monk seals in the background as ever-present reminders of what had brought them back together. Still so slender, her dress had been simple, the simplicity itself adding to how beautiful she had looked, with her hair falling around her, flowers entwined within it.

Sitting listening to Daryle, she had felt the smile rise to her lips remembering as she had joined Alexos at the waterside to become his wife, he wearing a black suit, the wonderful smile on his face as he had leant in against her and chuckled “What no seaweed?” Grace grinning as she had allowed him to see the small piece of seaweed peeking out of the spray of flowers she had held. His bright eyes had laughed at her as his mouth had whispered so lovingly “I love you”. Grace happy as she had smiled adoringly back at the man she now knew she had always loved.