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The Greek's Penniless Cinderella(46)
Author: Julia James

‘Shall we?’ Xandros asked of Rosalie, with resigned humour in his voice. dpg!

She gave a nod. Too late now for prevarication.

Xandros duly raised his glass again. ‘I think,’ he said, taking a breath, ‘we have another toast to make... To the next Lakaris!’

There was a cry of delight from her mother-in-law, of excited glee from Ariadne, and then Xandros’s smiling mouth was swooping down on hers in celebration, in joy, and in endless love.

As it always would be between them.

For all time. And way beyond.

Coming next month

CHRISTMAS IN THE KING’S BED

Caitlin Crews

“Your Majesty. Really.” Calista moistened her lip and he found himself drawn to that, too. What was the matter with him? “You can’t possibly think that we would suit for anything more than a temporary arrangement to appease my father’s worst impulses.”

“I need to marry, Lady Calista. I need to produce heirs, and quickly, to prove to my people the kingdom is at last in safe hands. There will be no divorce.” Orion smiled more than he should have, perhaps, when she looked stricken. “We are stuck. In each other’s pockets, it seems.”

She blanched at that, but he had no pity for her. Or nothing so simple as pity, anyway.

He moved toward her, taking stock of the way she lifted her head too quickly—very much as if she was beating back the urge to leap backward. To scramble away from him, as if he was some kind of predator.

The truth was, something in him roared its approval at that notion. He, who had always prided himself on how civilized he was, did not dislike the idea that here, with her, he was as much a man as any other.

Surely that had to be a good sign for their marriage.

Whether it was or wasn’t, he stopped when he reached her. Then he stood before her and took her hand in his.

And the contact, skin on skin, floored him. loz!

It was so…tactile.

It made him remember the images that had been dancing in his head ever since he’d brought up sex in her presence. It made him imagine it all in intricate detail.

It made him hard and needy, but better yet, it made her tremble.

Very solemnly, he took the ring—the glorious ring that in many ways was Idylla’s standard to wave proudly before the world—and slid it onto one of her slender fingers.

And because he was a gentleman and a king, did not point out that she was shaking while he did it.

“And now,” he said, in a low voice that should have been smooth, or less harshly possessive, but wasn’t, “you are truly my betrothed. The woman who will be my bride. My queen. Your name will be bound to mine for eternity.”

CHRISTMAS IN THE KING’S BED

Caitlin Crews

Available next month

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