‘Peace? I’ve been in living hell without you!’ he insisted fiercely.
She reached up to gently touch the side of his face. ‘Xander, the only reason I left that day was because I realised I’d fallen in love with you, and I didn’t want you to feel in the least pressured to—to continue the relationship because you felt sorry for me.’
‘What?’
She smiled shakily. ‘I’m in love with you, Xander. So much that it hurts. You asked how I’ve been? Well, I’ve been just awful. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I think about you all the time. I miss you all the time.’
‘Can we both really have been that stupid?’ Xander gazed down at her in wonder.
Sam gave a tremulous smile. ‘It certainly looks like it.’
His expression softened as he took her into his arms in a crushing hold. ‘I love you!’ he groaned achingly into her hair. ‘I love you, Samantha. Do you have any idea what it meant to me—how much I value that you believed in me, trusted me, when I didn’t?’
‘And look how right I was about that,’ she said huskily. ‘Your protectiveness of those weaker than yourself is a blessing, Xander, and has absolutely nothing to do with men like your father and my ex-husband.’
Xander’s arms tightened. ‘I’ve felt so empty without you in my life, Samantha.’
‘Me too, without you.’ Sam held onto him just as tightly.
‘Does that mean you’ll marry me?’
Sam opened startled eyes. ‘Marry you?’
Xander’s hands moved up to cradle each side of her face as he looked down with all of his love for her shining in his eyes. ‘You don’t have to marry me immediately if it’s too soon for you. Just tell me that you’ll be my wife one day very soon.’ His hands trembled. ‘I love you so very much, my darling Samantha, and I can’t bear the thought of not being with you for ever now that I know you love me too.’
It was more, so much more than Sam had ever thought, had ever imagined might happen in her life.
Xander loved her.
As she loved him.
And she couldn’t bear the thought of the two of them not being together for ever either.
‘Yes, I’ll marry you, Xander,’ she answered him exultantly.
‘You will?’ He looked down at her wonderingly.
‘I will.’
‘When?’
‘Next week? Tomorrow?’ She laughed huskily as she saw the urgency in Xander’s expression.
He grinned. ‘I want you to have a big white wedding. In a church. Surrounded by all our friends and family. Daisy can be your bridesmaid.’
Sam was sure it wasn’t accidental that Xander was describing a wedding that was the exact opposite of that hurried union to Malcolm in a register office six years ago. Or that Daisy would be a large part of that ceremony.
Xander was tacitly telling her their marriage, his love for her and Daisy, would be nothing like her previous one.
As if Sam had ever thought otherwise.
She hadn’t thought it possible, but she loved Xander more than ever at that moment, and she knew she always would.
‘It sounds perfect.’ She beamed up at him.
‘You’re perfect,’ he assured her warmly. ‘I promise you we’ll be so happy together, Samantha. We can buy a house, with a garden for Daisy, and—’
‘And have more children?’ Sam ventured cautiously. ‘I always wanted a big family,’ she explained shyly.
‘Then we’ll have a houseful of children,’ Xander promised her. ‘As long as I have you to love, and you to love me, then I’ll be happy.’
It was all that Sam could ever have hoped or wished for...and more.
‘WHAT ARE WE looking at, Daddy?’ Daisy asked in a loud whisper.
‘I’m not too sure,’ Xander muttered, Daisy sitting on his knee as the two of them frowned at the monitor in front of them, his free hand tightly holding onto Samantha’s as she lay on the bed beside them.
‘It doesn’t look much like a baby, Daddy,’ Daisy said doubtfully as they watched the movements being projected from inside Samantha’s womb onto the monitor.
Xander felt his panic rise; it didn’t look like any baby he had ever seen either. Admittedly there was the thud-thud sound of a heartbeat, but even that sounded too rapid, and there were definitely too many legs visible—
‘That’s because it’s two babies, darling,’ Samantha murmured indulgently.
‘What?’ Xander gasped.
‘Two babies,’ she repeated emotionally.
‘Two babies,’ Xander echoed faintly, realising that must be the reason the heartbeat sounded too rapid: because it was two heartbeats, not one.
‘It would seem that we’re having twins, darling,’ Samantha assured him lovingly.
He swallowed, his mouth dry. ‘I can’t— We can’t—’
‘Of course we can.’ She smiled indulgently. ‘You’re a twin,’ she reminded him calmly.
‘Twins.’ Xander put Daisy down to stand up and hug his wife. ‘We’re having twins!’ he cried, tears of happiness shining in his eyes.
‘Yes, we are.’ Samantha laughed huskily as she hugged him back.
He gave a sudden groan as he slowly released her before straightening. ‘You do realise Darius is never going to stop teasing me?’ he explained as Samantha gave him a questioning glance.
‘He won’t,’ she assured him.
‘Of course he will.’ Xander groaned again.
‘He really won’t.’ Sam laughed softly, her heart bursting with love for the man who had been her husband for this past wonderful year. ‘Andy told me yesterday that the two of them are expecting twins too!’
‘Hah!’ Xander gave a grin of triumph. ‘My mother and Charles are going to be thrilled at the idea of more grandchildren!’
Sam couldn’t have asked for nicer in-laws than Catherine and Charles, and they absolutely adored Daisy. She had no doubt there was plenty of room in those two kind hearts for a dozen more grandchildren.
‘Wait.’ Xander gave a teasing grimace. ‘How will I cope if it’s two girls and I have three little Samanthas twisting me round their little fingers?’ He gazed down at Daisy, whom he absolutely adored and who adored him back.
‘Look on the bright side, darling,’ Sam teased. ‘It could be two little Xanders to twist me round their little fingers!’
‘Would you like to know the sex of your two babies?’ the technician asked softly.
Sam looked at Xander and Xander looked at Sam, and then both of them shook their heads at the same time.
Sons, or more daughters, they would love all of their children.
As much as they loved and adored each other.
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from PRINCESS’S SECRET BABY by Carol Marinelli.