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Brooklyn

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

About an hour and a half later, my beautiful nieces, Dimitra and Angeliki, make their debut on this crazy stage called planet Earth.

Athanasios came to the hospital ahead of me with Zeus, Eleanor, Hades, Ares, and Madison, while I stayed back with Dionysus until his son’s nanny, Cecily, arrived to take care of the three children.

I was worried she wouldn’t be able to handle that little army, but Zeus’s brother assured me I could come to the hospital with peace of mind because Cecily is very capable.

I noticed a look exchanged between the two of them, and I’m almost certain there’s something more there than just an employer-employee relationship.

I know he’s a widower raising his son alone, practically since birth. Madison told me that Joseph used to be very quiet, but after Harper Cecily became his nanny, the little boy changed visibly.

“Congratulations, Mama,” I say to my sister, kissing her forehead.

“I’m bursting with happiness, Brooklyn. I thought I had everything when I married the man of my dreams, but they”—she points to the babies in Eleanor’s and their proud father’s arms—“are my air, my heart outside my chest.”

“I understand exactly how you feel, and I can’t even put into words how happy I am for you.”

“I’m sure you do, but now I need to ask you to go home and rest. You look exhausted. Today has been an emotional rollercoaster.”

“I want to stay with you.”

“Don’t worry about that, Brooklyn. I’ll be here,” our mother says. “Madison’s right. Go to bed. You’re doing well, but you’re not at one hundred percent yet. Rest.”

I stay another twenty minutes and then decide to take their advice.

I walk out into the hospital hallway, trying to figure out where to go, but my eyes are searching for someone—the man who makes my heart race against my will.

When I arrived, I didn’t see Athanasios. Zeus explained that he’d been called into an emergency.

He said back at Madison’s house that he’d pick me up tomorrow for dinner, and though I’m still afraid, I’m not running anymore. I miss him terribly, and I now believe what he said about how at first, he saw me as a candidate for a marriage of convenience but later everything changed.

Why would he lie? As my sister pointed out, he could have chosen someone far less complicated than me, which shows that if he insists on staying with me, it’s because he truly wants me.

Only now does a thought occur to me: why would he insist on me taking a contraceptive injection if, according to Febe, he knew he was sterile?

No, that story doesn’t make any sense. It’s time for us to sit down and clear everything up.

“Brooklyn.”

The sound of his voice sends shivers through my entire body. It’s intimate and possessive, and I don’t want to hide my desires anymore.

I turn carefully to face him, my heart pounding almost painfully in my chest. “I don’t want to fight it anymore. I’m terrified of getting hurt, but staying away from you is breaking my heart.”

I hate that a tear slips down my cheek at that moment, and I also hate feeling so vulnerable. But nothing compares to the emptiness, the feeling that I’m letting the man I’ve fallen in love with slip through my fingers.

He steps closer, his face serious. “Come with me.”

He intertwines our hands for everyone in the hallway to see. As we walk, I can feel all eyes on us, but I’m too anxious to care.

He leads me into the private elevator, the one I know goes directly to his office. Or rather, a small corridor that gives access to his and his partners’ private offices.

He keeps his distance as the elevator moves. He stares straight ahead, almost as if he’s alone. The clenching and relaxing of his jaw are the only signs that he’s just as tense as I am.

When the elevator reaches his floor, he takes my hand again and guides me into his office. He closes the door and leans me back against it.

He steps forward, pinning me between his muscular body and the wooden frame, one hand on either side of my face. “I want to lock you in my house and never let you leave. I don’t know how to handle what you make me feel. I don’t even know what to call it, but I know for damn sure it isn’t ‘convenience.’ I’m hanging by a thread, Brooklyn, so if you want me to leave, now’s the time to say it.”

I swallow hard. “What happens if I don’t tell you to leave?”

“Then I’ll fuck you right here, standing against this door. I’ll make you come on me, screaming my name.”

“I’m not going to tell you to stop.”

Between my words and his next action, not even a fraction of a second passes.

He surges forward, lifting me into his arms. My legs lock around his waist.

Athanasios kisses me, licking and sucking. His madness and lack of control stir something in me that words never could.

He opens his pants with just one hand, pushing my panties aside.

I can’t even draw my next breath before he’s fully inside me.

He doesn’t move, filling me deeply, letting me feel him, showing me that I belong to him. A long moan escapes, and I can’t tell if it’s mine, his, or both of ours.

There’s no time or need for tenderness. What we need is this precious connection our bodies have already discovered, even before our minds fully realized it.

He finally moves, and we both tremble, passion exploding like a tidal wave.

There’s roughness in the act. It’s raw, hungry sex. Our desperation reveals the longing we’ve felt during these days apart.

“I can have children,” he says, thrusting hard inside me. “And I want to see your belly carrying them. Lots of them. A big family. Our world.”

My eyes fill with tears.

I shouldn’t want these promises, but I do. Every single one of them.

“I love you. I tried not to, but I love you, Athanasios. I’m giving you everything. My heart and my trust.”

“I’m crazy about you, Brooklyn. I’ll never hurt you.”