Читать книгу The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance - Мишель Смарт, Annie West - Страница 15
ОглавлениеTHE HELICOPTER LANDED in a clearing lit by torches on the island of Letsos.
‘So, this is the island where you were born. Does it belong to you?’ Billie remarked as Gio lifted her down to the ground and then went back to take Theo and assist the nanny in her descent.
‘It still belongs to my grandfather, Theo’s namesake. I imagine if it had ever passed to my father, it would’ve been sold long ago,’ he opined drily. ‘He sold everything that wasn’t nailed down long before he died.’
‘Did your family name the island after themselves?’ she asked curiously.
‘No, I believe my ancestors stole the name and began using it several generations back after a family dispute split them into two factions,’ he explained, ushering her into the four-wheel-drive vehicle.
‘I’m looking forward to meeting your family,’ Billie lied because she felt she had to lie out of politeness.
While Billie was undeniably curious, she was also very apprehensive about the sort of reception she could expect to receive from Gio’s wealthy relatives. In her own opinion she had so many strikes against her: the speed of their marriage, Theo’s birth out of wedlock, never mind the reality that she was a complete stranger and a foreigner without either fancy lineage or cash. She was convinced that those facts would ensure that she was viewed with extreme suspicion and possibly even hostility.
‘You’ll meet them all tomorrow,’ Gio told her calmly.
‘But I assumed I’d be meeting them now...tonight,’ she said tensely.
‘It’s been a very long day and we’re not staying at the main house tonight. We’ll introduce them to Theo in the morning.’ Gio smoothed a hand down over Theo’s back as his son squeezed out a cross little mutter as he secured him in a car seat. ‘The sooner he’s in bed, the better. Irene, you’ll have the help of my old nursemaid tonight because I know you’re tired. We’re leaving Irene and Theo at Agata’s house.’
‘Leaving...Theo?’ Billie parroted in dismay.
‘Relax. It’s not as though we’re abandoning him on a park bench,’ Gio censured with quiet amusement, dark eyes skimming her anxious face. ‘We’re spending our wedding night at the beach house. We’ll pick up Theo in the morning before we go and meet the family. Agata will revel in being the first islander to get to know my son.’
When they drew up at Agata’s house, Billie soon appreciated that Gio had not exaggerated because Theo’s arrival was the source of much excitement and pleasure. Agata was middle-aged and rotund. She greeted Gio with overflowing affection and took hold of his son with a blissful smile while contriving simultaneously to offer Irene a warm welcome and the promise of a comfortable bed in her guest room.
Gio swept Billie back into the car. The road was soon travelling sharply downhill and the car finally stopped at the mouth of a sandy path. Their driver, a strapping youth, grabbed the heavy cases and trudged down the path, leaving them to follow.
‘Watch your step. It’s a steep track,’ Gio warned, clamping a strong arm to her slender spine to steady her as her heels sank into the sandy surface.
‘I’d never have worn these shoes if I’d realised we were going to a beach house!’ Billie muttered ruefully. ‘I’m dressed up in my fanciest togs because I thought I’d be meeting your family tonight.’
‘I wanted to surprise you.’
‘You’ve succeeded.’ Billie laughed, staring down at the stretch of pristine beach coming into view as they descended. The sun had gone down but a brazier was burning, casting flickers of light across the sand and the dark waves washing into the cove.
The wooden beach house was tucked into a corner and lit up with fairy lights that looked like roses. ‘Wow...that’s so pretty!’ Billie exclaimed, staring when she saw lights flickering beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows as well.
Gio carried her over the threshold and she lost one of her shoes and he said that was a good thing because she couldn’t walk in them and she was smiling as he set her down on a polished wood floor. There were flowers everywhere she looked and lots of burning candles casting glimmers of moving light and shadow across the opulent interior. Their driver settled the cases in the adjoining bedroom and departed.
Billie wandered barefoot into the bedroom, appreciating the luxurious but plain furnishings and the wide, comfortable bed.
‘Champagne?’ Gio prompted.
‘Maybe later. Right now, I want a shower more than anything,’ she confided, keen to be free of the tailored dress and jacket she had worn to look smart. ‘Could you unzip me?’
‘If I unzip you,’ Gio remarked as she shed her jacket and moved helpfully close, ‘you’ll never make it to the shower.’
The zip ran down. He spread the fabric back and pressed his mouth to the smooth slope of her shoulder. ‘Your skin is so wondrously soft,’ he told her huskily, skimming the short sleeves down her arms, giving the dress a helpful push downward as it threatened to settle at her waist, and lifting her out of the folds.
‘I’m not going to get my shower,’ Billie forecast as he turned her slowly round to face him.
‘Well, possibly not until later and you might have to share it.’ Gio grinned down at her, his eyes hot as the sun’s rays on her exposed the lush curves of her figure in a green satin and lace bra and panties set. ‘That’s if I ever let you out of bed...’
Billie resisted a sudden urge to stupidly ask him if he thought her bottom was too large. She tried to stay a stable weight but she had never fussed about the curvy shape she had been born with, regarding that as a futile exercise destined to lead only to disappointment. Irritated by her sudden self-consciousness in his presence, she said instead, ‘You’re wearing way too many clothes.’
Gio hauled her up into his arms and kissed her with passionate force before bringing her down on the bed. ‘A shower and food and civilised behaviour later...I promise,’ he swore.
Billie’s memory flew back to the many, many times in the past when Gio had barely stepped through the door of the apartment before grabbing her with the wild impatience and hunger she had always cherished in him, deeming that fervour proof that she was more important to him than he was ever likely to tell her. Of course, the fallout when he announced that he was marrying Calisto had been all the more painful to bear, she conceded ruefully. He had forced her to see the danger of wishful thinking, the foolishness of the assumptions that had made her feel secure. But as soon as she found herself thinking that way, Billie kicked out those negative thoughts and, reminding herself that this was their wedding night, she lay back on the bed where he had placed her.
Gio was her husband now and he was hers in so many ways that he had never been before, she conceded, trying to banish her worries. Together, she and Gio and Theo would be a family. They would also be part of a much bigger family, which she was praying would eventually accept her, even if it was only for Theo’s sake.
‘Who organised all this?’ Billie asked, shifting a hand to indicate the flowers and the candles and the opulent comfort of the room’s appointments. ‘Is the beach house in regular use?’
‘It hadn’t been used in quite some time,’ Gio admitted as he shed his shirt in a careless heap. ‘Leandros’ sister, Eva, is an interior designer and she agreed to do a rush job for me as a favour. She wasn’t sure she would make the deadline until the last minute and only finished this afternoon. The household staff saw to the rest.’
‘I love the candles and the flowers,’ Billie admitted.
‘I knew you would...you’ve always been such a romantic,’ Gio teased.
‘But you organised it so you must be a romantic too,’ she pointed out, absolutely blown away by the gradually dawning realisation that Gio had had the beach house set up for their wedding night solely in an attempt to please her.
‘I’ll never be romantic,’ he fielded wryly. ‘But I am bright enough to work out what’s required and deliver it, glyka mou.’
With the greatest difficulty, Billie dragged her attention from his washboard abs and the way his naturally golden skin sleekly delineated his ripcord musculature. He was gorgeous and yet he was with her and not with the equally gorgeous Calisto. For a split second she let that mystery unnerve her and then she squashed the thought flat, telling herself off for even thinking it. He was married to her now, with her, and Calisto was in the past. Gloriously unaware of her constant attacks of insecurity, Gio stepped out of his trousers and skimmed off his boxers in one fell swoop of impatience.
Her mouth ran dry, her heartbeat quickening. It had been so long since she had had the luxury of watching Gio strip. That day she had gone for lunch with him at his hotel and ended up in bed with him, he hadn’t even got undressed. Her face burned at the recollection.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Gio breathed, stalking across the bedroom to join her on the bed.
And she told him and, surprisingly, he laughed. ‘I wasn’t exactly the cool seducer, was I? I was as hot for you as a teenage boy having sex for the first time but I did at least use a condom.’
‘I got carried away too,’ she soothed, running gentle fingers along his angular jaw line. ‘But you’d best be careful. I’m not using any form of contraception.’
Gio tugged her down on the pillows beside him and leant over her. ‘Do I need to be careful? I missed out on you being pregnant with Theo and I would be pretty excited if you were to conceive again,’ he admitted, dark eyes shimmering gold in the candlelight.
That was the most confidence-boosting thing Gio could have said to her, Billie reflected dizzily. His interest in her having a second child took her by storm because it meant that he regarded their marriage as a long-term venture rather than an exercise to simply grant Theo his legal birthright.
‘I put on a lot of weight when I’m pregnant,’ she warned him.
‘And in all the best places,’ Gio husked, running an admiring finger across a bra cup overflowing with soft creamy flesh. ‘Theos, I love your body.’
‘Honestly?’ Billie prompted, loathing herself for pressing the point.
‘I can’t keep my hands off you, Billie,’ Gio groaned, flipping open the catch on her bra and filling his hands with the bounty he had been admiring. ‘I never could...’
Her wretched brain was still shooting in directions she didn’t want it to. It was urging her to ask why he had then chosen to marry a woman like Calisto and suddenly she couldn’t restrain that need to know any longer and she asked, ‘Then why did you marry a woman half my size?’
There was a sudden deathly silence. His head bent while he toyed with the warm soft curves he had bared, Gio glanced up at her from below his ridiculously long lashes. ‘For all the wrong reasons...and I paid the price,’ he admitted in a roughened undertone.
Billie wanted to dig deeper into the topic but she also knew that she didn’t want to spoil their wedding night with the shadow of past pain and loss. With an almighty effort she cleared her head of such morbid reflections and said nothing at all because regret had coloured every syllable he spoke. Regret was enough to satisfy her, wasn’t it? How much of a pint of blood did she need to satisfy her damaged ego? Enough blood to cause ructions in their shiny new marriage when Gio had already mentioned a desire for another child? She thought not, decided it was better to leave the past where it belonged and look to a brighter future.
Gio captured a turgid nipple in his mouth and toyed with it until it was throbbing. Billie rested back, letting the heat flow through her, warming and moistening ever more sensitive parts. Her hips shifted, her fingers raked through his short hair, eyes sliding shut as she held him to her with a deep sense of happiness. Another baby? What a sign of optimism on his part! He was a child of a broken marriage and she was convinced he would not risk bringing a second child into the mix if he believed their relationship was likely to break down.
‘Tomorrow’s going to come too soon for me,’ Gio complained huskily as he tugged up her knees and peeled down her knickers in one smooth operation. ‘But if I make love to you all night, you’ll be too tired to meet my family in the morning.’
‘You’ve got every night with me that you want now,’ Billie whispered as he shifted to trace the moist cleft between her legs with a roving forefinger and she quivered instantaneously, every tingling nerve ending instantly clamouring for more.
‘And I’m going to make the most of every opportunity. I’m sex-starved,’ Gio confided, working a trail of lusty nipping and sucking across the upper slope of her breasts to her throat. ‘I never could get enough of you. Now I’ve finally got you round the clock, I’ll be very demanding.’
‘Promises...promises,’ Billie quipped, warmed by that threat, for the more Gio expressed his desire for her, the more secure she felt.
As excitement began to claim Billie, conversation died because she couldn’t think straight for long enough to vocalise. He touched her with the unerring skill of an expert and she writhed, hands digging into his cropped black hair as he used his mouth to bring her to a shattering climax.
Weak with satiation in the aftermath, she loosed a startled gasp as Gio flipped her over onto her stomach. ‘What—?’
‘I’m in a very dominant mood, moro mou,’ Gio growled, gripping her hips and driving hard into her passion-moistened depths, stretching her to the limit with his length and girth and sending a renewed and arousing wash of hunger through her.
And Billie had always secretly liked it when Gio was forcefully passionate in bed. Then as now, his dominance somehow made her feel irresistible. A helpless shudder of response snaked through her quivering body, her breath rasping in her throat, her heart hammering as he plunged into her with pounding erotic urgency. It went on and on and on, igniting the bittersweet torment of need inside her again. A carnal finger stroked and encircled her clitoris and the tightening knot of tension in her womb started up a chain reaction. A string of tiny inner convulsions pulsed along her inner channel and finally merged into a rapturous explosion of soul-destroying pleasure.
‘That’s something you’re very, very good at,’ Billie mumbled unsteadily just as Gio began to pull away from her and she grabbed his arm, eyes flying wide in the candlelight. ‘No, don’t, don’t move away. I hate it when you do that.’
‘It’s just the way I am,’ Gio framed, frowning.
Billie brought up another hand to grip his shoulder. ‘But it doesn’t have to be like that. You can hug Theo.’
‘That’s different.’
Billie knew she was hitting barriers and that possibly she hadn’t chosen the best time to complain, but his habit of shifting away from all contact in the immediate aftermath of intimacy had always hurt her feelings. ‘You’ve never had a problem with hugging me if I’m upset about anything, have you?’
‘Well, no, but—’
‘So, pretend I’m upset,’ Billie urged with all the enthusiasm of a woman who believed she had found the perfect solution to his lack in the affection department.
Gio settled dazed eyes on her. ‘What?’ he breathed in disbelief.
‘After sex,’ Billie told him bluntly. ‘Just think. She’s upset, now I have to hug her.’
‘I don’t want to think of you being upset after we make love.’
‘Have you got an argument against absolutely everything?’ Billie asked him in a pained tone. ‘I was trying to work out a strategy which would suit us both.’
‘Forget the strategy,’ Gio advised, anchoring both arms firmly round her and hauling her back against him with gritted teeth. ‘I’ll work on it...OK?’
‘OK,’ Billie agreed, satisfied, running an exploring hand down over his hair-roughened torso and then teasingly lower in an operation destined to prove to him there would be advantages to a change of behaviour that brought him physically closer.
‘OK,’ Gio said again but in a deep husky purr. ‘Very OK...’
An hour later they were outdoors, lying relaxed on the huge upholstered recliner on the deck and watching the flames from the brazier shooting up against the night sky. Discarded dishes from the packed fridge were scattered around, evidence of the substantial meal they had contrived to eat. Billie laced her fingers round the stem of her champagne flute and heaved a contented sigh. ‘It’s incredibly peaceful here with just the sound of the sea in the background.’
‘I always loved that sound when I was a kid. My parents used to bring us down here and...’ Gio’s voice trailed away into silence.
Billie glanced up at him, aware of the tension now stiffening his long, lean length against her. ‘And...what?’ she pressed. ‘It’s great that you’ve got some good memories of your childhood.’
‘My sisters and I were very young then. It was long before my parents broke up...before my father met the love of his life.’ Gio voiced that emphasis with biting derision.
‘Oh...and she was?’ Billie jumped straight into the opening he had given her because he had always avoided the subject of his parents’ divorce.
‘An English fashion model called Marianne. She was his mistress and when she became accidentally pregnant—with the boy who later turned out not to be my father’s—he decided that he couldn’t live without her.’
‘Oh,’ Billie said in quite another tone, discomfited by the similarities she saw to their own previous relationship, wondering if she was at last learning the reason why Gio had always maintained an emotional distance in their relationship.
‘My sisters and I returned from boarding school for our summer break and learned that our whole lives had changed. My father had divorced my mother and stuck her in an Athens apartment. Suddenly we weren’t welcome on Letsos or in our childhood home any more because my father—and it is a challenge to compliment him with that label—had married Marianne and she refused to have the children of his first marriage hanging around.’
The depth of Gio’s bitterness shocked Billie but she could imagine how horrible it must have been for him and his sisters to see their mother rejected and all of them excluded from everything they had become accustomed to believing was theirs. ‘Didn’t your grandfather intervene? You said he owned this island.’
‘He couldn’t disown his son though, and naturally he didn’t want to make an enemy of his new daughter-in-law. He does regret, however, that he didn’t do more to help my mother, but at the time he was really struggling to repair the damage Dmitri’s extravagance and marriage breakdown had already done to the family and the business.’
‘Did you have much contact with your father after the divorce?’ Billie asked.
‘No, after that one meeting, I only saw him one more time. Marianne very much resented the fact that he had had other children. Love,’ Gio breathed witheringly, ‘can be a very destructive emotion. My father destroyed his family in the name of love and my mother never recovered from the treatment she suffered at his hands.’
Billie was thoughtful because she was finally seeing when Gio had reached the conclusion that the softer human emotions could be toxic. As a child, Gio had seen the consequences of what he believed to be love in all its selfish, dangerous glory when his father had sacrificed his family so that he could be with the woman he wanted.
‘You can’t say that a parent’s love for their child is destructive,’ she commented mildly. ‘Most people see it as supportive.’
‘A man of principle can do what he should do for his family without prating about love,’ Gio asserted with a slight shudder as he tightened his arms round her. ‘I don’t need to love you to look after you.’
Billie’s eyes stung painfully. He, most certainly, hadn’t been looking after her when he had chosen to marry Calisto two years earlier but that was not a memory she wished to rouse. Instead she set down her glass and pillowed her head against his shoulder.
‘I suppose,’ Gio said, after a great deal of unusually introspective thought, ‘I do love Theo but it’s because he’s little and helpless. He’s got all the appeal of a puppy or a kitten. I took dozens of photos of him on my phone before I left Yorkshire and I couldn’t wait to see him again.’
Billie thought it was sad that at that moment she envied her son for having that amount of pull with Gio after such a short acquaintance.
‘I couldn’t wait to see you either...as you know when I turned up today before you could even make it to the church,’ Gio confided, nuzzling his unshaven jaw line softly along the line of her creamy throat, feeling extraordinarily at peace for the first time in a very long time and wondering what it was about her that had that effect on him. ‘I don’t know why I did that. It was absolutely crazy.’
‘I didn’t mind,’ Billie interposed, squirming round in the circle of his arms to look down at him instead of up at the stars.
His lean, strong face was still a touch bemused by his own behaviour that morning and it was obvious that he was still mulling that over. ‘You know, somewhere in the back of my mind, I honestly think I was afraid you mightn’t turn up at the church... Isn’t that insane?’
If he had known how much she loved him, he would have known he was quite safe on that score, she reflected ruefully. No, no matter how mad she had been with him she would never have jilted him at the altar.
* * *
‘My goodness, it’s a huge house,’ Billie breathed as the four-wheel drive parked outside a very large sprawling villa set high on the hillside and surrounded by glorious tropical gardens.
‘It has to be big for family get-togethers and it’s been extended by almost every generation since it was built.’ His tension pronounced enough to attract Billie’s notice, Gio sprang out and turned back to unstrap Theo from the car seat while Irene and Agata headed up the wide, shallow steps that led to a front door that already stood wide.
The housekeeper hovering at the door fussed around them but Gio would not even linger long enough to perform an introduction and strode on past, knowing exactly where he was going and clearly determined not to be held back.
‘Gio!’ Billie exclaimed, hurrying out of breath in his wake. ‘If we’re going into a crowd, give me Theo. He can be awkward with strangers...’
His stubborn jaw line clenching, Gio passed their son to Billie, who settled the toddler comfortably on her hip. ‘And smile, for goodness’ sake,’ she urged, troubled by the forbidding cast of his lean, darkly handsome features. ‘It doesn’t matter if your family aren’t too sure about me...you have to give them time...’
The elegant reception room was in proportion with the house and very big and Billie was disconcerted to peer in the glass doors and see an absolute throng of people, both standing and seated, on the marble floor. Gio had a much bigger family than she had appreciated. As they entered the room every head turned towards them and Billie sucked in her tummy by breathing in deep and slow, striving to steady her nerves.
‘I asked you all here today to introduce you to my wife,’ Gio declared in the rushing silence, his dark deep drawl measured and carrying to every corner of the room. ‘This is Billie. We got married yesterday and—’
A noise erupted from the far corner as an older man stood up and banged his walking cane loudly on the floor. His lined face rigid, he shot a stream of furious Greek at Gio. Gio grated something back and then closed an arm to Billie’s spine to thrust her back in the direction of the door. ‘We are leaving,’ he said curtly.
‘Oh, please, don’t go, Gio!’ A tall, shapely brunette was chasing after them. ‘I’m Sofia, Gio’s youngest sister. Gio, why on earth didn’t you tell us that you were getting married?’
Billie stopped dead and swopped Theo to her other hip because he was getting heavy. ‘He didn’t tell any of you?’ She gasped in disbelief.
‘No, he said he had a surprise to share with us and that’s why we’re all here.’
‘We’re leaving, Billie,’ Gio reminded her doggedly.
But Billie spun round before he could open the door and marched back into the room. ‘Gio should have told you that we were getting married. I had no idea—’
‘Billie,’ Gio cut in, clamping an imprisoning hand to her shoulder.
‘Well, I’m sorry to criticise you in front of your family but you really should have warned them. Obviously everybody’s in shock and people say things they don’t necessarily mean when you shock them,’ Billie pointed out, studying the fuming older man, who she suspected was Gio’s grandfather, Theon Letsos. ‘There’s no sense in storming out in a huff over it.’
‘I am not in a huff,’ Gio ground out between clenched teeth, outraged that she was defying his lead and his wishes with his own family.
‘Perhaps we could talk about this,’ the old man said gruffly, scanning Billie with astute dark eyes that reminded her strongly of Gio’s. ‘Your wife is correct. I spoke in haste and without thought.’
‘He insulted you,’ Gio bit out harshly.
‘That’s all right. I can only be offended if you abuse me in English,’ Billie declared forgivingly. ‘I don’t speak a word of Greek!’
‘Gio and his sisters attended English schools,’ the older man told her with a sudden smile. ‘Now come and sit down and tell me about yourself. I find it hard to stand for long.’
In a state of disbelief, Gio found himself in the rare position of being assigned second string within his family as Billie, chattering away to his grandfather as though she had known him for years rather than seconds, walked slowly over to the closest seats available.
‘Forgive me for being so remiss in the courtesies,’ Theon murmured. ‘I am Gio’s grandfather, Theon Letsos.’
‘I’m Billie. It’s not short for anything.’
‘And your son?’
‘Our son,’ Gio corrected with pride. ‘Theon Giorgios, your great-grandson, known as Theo.’
Taken aback by the revelation, the older man studied Theo as he crawled across the floor with all the energy of a toddler kept in restraint for too long. ‘Theo...’ he mused in the crashing silence that had once again engulfed the entire room. ‘And you only married yesterday?’
‘Gio only found out that Theo existed very recently,’ Billie cut in hastily. ‘We hadn’t been in contact for a couple of years—’
Gio gritted his teeth. ‘There is absolutely no need for you to talk about that.’
‘Of course there is. I don’t want anyone thinking that I had an on-going affair with a married man,’ Billie declared without hesitation, marvelling at how slow on the uptake Gio could sometimes be because he was totally indifferent to what other people thought of him. But she didn’t want that stigma within the family circle. She might not have liked Calisto, nonetheless she would not have engaged in a relationship with Gio with or without his wife’s knowledge.
‘A great-grandson named for me...’ Theon was keen to concentrate on the positive and politely ignore Gio’s brooding protective stance beside Billie’s chair. ‘A fine boy...not shy either!’ he remarked with an appreciative laugh as Theo made his way over to another toddler with a small heap of toys in front of him and snatched at the first colourful item he could reach.
‘So, tell me about yourself,’ the older man invited.
‘Billie’s not here for an interview,’ Gio incised coolly.
‘My goodness, I’m so thirsty. I would really love a drink,’ Billie informed Gio, shooting him an expectant look.
Of course, Gio simply snapped his fingers like some desert potentate and a uniformed maid materialised.
Billie met Theon’s amused eyes and her own mouth twitched because her strategy had been lame but she really could have done without Gio standing over her in warrior mode as if she were defenceless in enemy territory. He had never acted that way around her before and the discovery that his reserve was as great within his own family as it had once been with her was a major shock to her expectations. Yet that insight saddened her as well. Gio was such a lone wolf. How had he contrived to become the guarded, unemotional male he was with such a large and, she sensed, loving family?
Theo crawled back and hauled himself up against Billie’s knees and then clutched at his father’s legs until Gio abandoned his rigid stance, smiled with a sudden brilliance that lit up his lean, strong face and swept his son up in his arms to carry him back to the toys.
‘It’s been a long time since I saw Gio smile,’ Theon remarked.
‘I don’t have a fancy background or any money. I owned and ran a shop. I’m just an ordinary working woman,’ Billie volunteered before Gio could return to censor the conversation. ‘You might as well know that upfront.’
‘In recent years, very recent years, I have learned the unimportance of such distinctions.’ Theon gave an emphatic shrug and relaxed back into his armchair. ‘And I’m afraid I must disagree with you on one point. No ordinary woman could handle Gio and the Letsos family with so much tolerance and common sense.’
That was Billie’s last private moment with Theon. One by one she received introductions to Gio’s uncles, aunts and sisters, including, to her surprise, his half-sister, Melissa, who had passed half a lifetime being royally ignored by her father’s family because she was the result of Dmitri Letsos’ illicit teenaged romance.
‘They’re not a bad bunch when you get to know them,’ Melissa, a collected blonde teacher in her forties, pronounced with a wry smile. ‘Oh, there’s the usual sibling rivalry, but they are, one and all—I assure you—devoted to Gio. He brought me into this family and he’s the first port of call for all of us when there’s a crisis. I hope you can handle that. Calisto couldn’t.’
From stray comments made and generally quickly leading to a subject change rather than risk causing offence, Billie began to suspect that Gio’s first wife had not been well liked. She cursed her own curiosity about her predecessor: it was pointless and the gratification of that curiosity was more likely to lead to hurt. Gio had married another woman. Get over it, she urged herself impatiently, determined not to be haunted by the shadows of the past.
‘If your wife is the woman she appears to be, she’s solid gold,’ Gio’s grandfather told him disconcertingly.
Tight-mouthed, Gio breathed, ‘When it comes to Billie, I have no need of anyone’s approval.’
‘But an invitation to the wedding would have been very much appreciated,’ Theon countered drily.
Once Irene had taken Theo up for his bath and guests had begun to disperse to their own corners of the rambling villa, Billie slipped away to explore the wonderful gardens, finally sitting down in the shade of an ancient chestnut tree to appreciate the glorious bird’s-eye view of the island and the ocean. Although she was exhausted she was quietly pleased that her meeting with Gio’s family had ultimately gone well when it had so very nearly gone badly wrong.
When had Gio become so hot-tempered? He had been like a stick of dynamite with a smouldering string attached, aggressively ready to attack anyone who attacked her, over-sensitive to every comment and question that came in her direction. Billie sighed over that mystery and slowly relaxed, letting the tension drain out of her.
‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you,’ Gio delivered in a minatory tone, striding down the gravelled path towards her. ‘Downstairs, upstairs...’
‘Maybe you should microchip me and then you would know where I am at all times,’ Billie told him deadpan.
Struggling to master his exasperation, Gio released his breath in a rush. There she was, curls foaming round her lovely face, eyes contemplative, clearly happy and content. He could not explain to her his personal fear that she had put on a fantastic sociable act all day for the benefit of his family while secretly masking her hurt at her less than welcoming reception. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Tired,’ she admitted, sleepy green eyes locked to him while a wicked little current of remembered pleasure travelled through her. ‘But then we didn’t get much sleep last night...’
The faintest colour stung his stunning cheekbones, brilliant dark eyes flaring gold, lean bronzed features breathtaking in their perfect symmetry as his wide mouth took on a sensual curve. She loved him; she loved him so much, she acknowledged helplessly.
‘What are you out here worrying about?’
‘I’m not worrying,’ Billie declared. ‘This is a gorgeous garden and I’m enjoying it.’
Recalling the window boxes and pot plants she used to keep at the apartment, Gio felt his conscience ping. Just as quickly he recalled the hollow sensation he had suffered when, following her disappearance, he had seen those plants dead and withered and as always he buried the memory deep of that period in his life. ‘I should’ve bought you a house with a garden a long time ago.’
‘My only experience of gardening was visiting my granddad’s allotment as a child,’ Billie confided quietly. ‘He used to plant vegetable seeds for me. That was in the days before the betting shop and the drink pushed him into a less active lifestyle.’
Gio frowned, astonished by the sudden realisation that he could know so little about his wife’s background. Momentarily he marvelled that he had never asked her anything beyond the most basic questions, but, after learning that she had virtually no living relatives that she knew of, he had seen no reason to probe deeper. ‘He was a drunk?’
‘No, that’s too harsh. He drank to escape my grandma’s nagging. She was kind of sour in nature. If he was a drunk,’ Billie extended, ‘he was a nice drunk because he was never mean, but his liver failed and he was ill for a long time. That’s when I first began missing school because my grandma wouldn’t look after him the way he needed to be looked after and I felt so guilty leaving him to her care every day.’
‘Surely there was some care offered by the state?’
‘No, there’s actually very little help available. Grandma was told he wasn’t sick enough to get a bed in a nursing home even though he was terminally ill. Once he had passed, it was just her and me...and she never liked me, said I reminded her of my mother.’ Billie grimaced. ‘You can’t really blame her. My mother dumped me on her and never came back. She was a bitter woman, who just never saw the good in anyone. I got to go back to school for a couple of years and then Grandma’s health failed too and that was the end of that.’
Gio was stunned by what he was belatedly learning. ‘How is it that I’m only finding out all this about you now?’ he could not help asking, as if he thought the oversight might somehow be her fault.
Tactfully concealing her wonder at that question, Billie shot him a wry glance. ‘Gio, back then, in your eyes, when I wasn’t physically in front of you, I didn’t exist.’
Gio tensed. ‘That’s untrue.’
‘Do you recall that cabinet with drawers I once mentioned where I was tucked in my own tiny drawer, only to be taken out and appreciated by you on special occasions? Seriously, I wasn’t joking—that was what it was like.’
His lean dark features were grim. ‘What you’re really saying is that I’m a colossally selfish individual.’
‘You were self-absorbed and very driven. Let’s face it, when we were together your main focus was always business. I also think you were too posh to be comfortable with the difference in our backgrounds. Ignoring it was easier. I think as long as I was willing to be quiet about it, you preferred not to be reminded that I was once a humble cleaner,’ Billie told him gently.
‘I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation!’ Gio ground out angrily, his temper, kept on a short leash all day, whipping up in a sudden surge hotter than lava. ‘Or that you could ever have had such a low opinion of me!’
In mute frustration, Billie closed her eyes and counted to ten. ‘It’s done and dusted, Gio—it’s the past. I’m not attacking you. I’m only being honest. I wasn’t perfect either. I should have stood up to you, demanded more, but I was too young and in my very first relationship.’
‘You lied about your age.’ Gio was quick to pounce on that reminder.
Billie nodded peaceably, refusing to rise to the bait because there was no way she was about to engage in a massive row with Gio about their past. After all, everything had changed now and they were making a new start at a very different level of intimacy.
‘I’ve got some work to do,’ Gio said in a tone of finality.
Billie smiled, knowing his first refuge when emotion threatened was work. ‘I’ll walk back indoors with you.’
Gio settled with his laptop in the library, which was set up like a high-tech office for his use. Theos, he still found himself thinking furiously, he was not and he never had been a selfish person. On one issue, Billie was correct: he had no need whatsoever to revisit the past. That conviction in place, Gio struggled to concentrate on the lines of figures on his laptop screen and he was fine until the moment that the matter of the pre-nuptial settlement contract squeezed into his mind and practically obliterated everything else in the process. He rang the housekeeper to discover where Billie’s possessions had been stored since being shipped out the previous week.
It occurred to him then without warning that even the devil could not have devised a more colossally selfish or fiendish document. He refused to act like a male engaged in a covert operation, but on some level of his brain he was astounded by what he was about to do when he finally stood in the room confronted with a heap of boxes. After all, when was Billie ever likely to lift that contract out and reread it? Why the hell was he so damned rattled by a very minor risk? Perspiration dampened his lean, bronzed features. He was engaging in a cover-up and the knowledge didn’t sit well with him. But prior to that contract he had never once been dishonest with Billie. He hovered, studying the boxes. That document could hurt her, he reflected broodingly, and he latched onto that excuse for what he was about to do with alacrity.
Gio had never unpacked a box in his life but he wasn’t surprised by the discovery that every box was labelled and incredibly neatly filled because Billie was very, very organised and always had been. In the third box, he hit the pay dirt of finding files full of papers and in the second file he espied the contract and ripped it out, but not before he frowned down at a certificate for wine tasting and found beneath it one for art appreciation. He went through the whole file, checking the dates, learning what he knew he should have learned years sooner.
There was a burning behind his eyes that made them feel scratchy and he felt oddly hollow, as though someone had gutted him without warning. Feeling rather as though he had been beaten up, Gio replaced everything where he had found it with the exception of the contract and strode off to pour himself a very stiff drink. The contract went through the shredder but the relief he had expected to feel was utterly absent. He had gone digging where he had no business digging, he conceded sardonically, and he rather thought that in the process he had got what he deserved.
‘Theon wants you to join him for afternoon tea,’ Sofia told Billie cheerfully around three that afternoon. ‘It’s a big honour.’
Billie grinned. ‘I liked him.’
‘I think the feeling’s reciprocated,’ Gio’s sister responded with a laugh as she guided Billie across the villa to the wing of the house Theon occupied.
A manservant showed her out onto a big shaded balcony where Theon awaited her. ‘I believe this is an honour,’ Billie remarked with a grin.
‘How on earth have you escaped Gio?’ his grandfather enquired mockingly.
‘Something I said annoyed him... He’s taken refuge in work,’ Billie confided, marvelling at how very comfortable she felt in the older man’s company.
‘I overheard that conversation,’ Theon admitted, disconcerting her. ‘This balcony is directly overhead.’
Billie reddened but sat down. ‘Oh, well, it’s all within the family,’ she said without great concern because it wasn’t as if she and Gio had been hurling insults at each other or discussing anything she considered particularly private, although she knew that put in the same position Gio would have been furious.
‘I thought I should bring you up to date on some family history, as I doubt very much that Gio has done the job for me,’ Theon commented.
‘I know about his parents’ divorce,’ Billie contributed. ‘And I know his father really didn’t have much to do with him after it.’
‘Dmitri was a weak man. There, I have said it,’ the older man said wryly. ‘For years I wouldn’t admit that to myself because he was my son...’
‘It’s challenging to accept faults in those we care about most,’ Billie murmured soothingly.
‘You love Gio a great deal—it shines from you,’ his grandfather told her. ‘He’s a very lucky man.’
Billie flushed and decided not to embarrass herself with a denial while she poured the tea. ‘I hope he always thinks so. He’s much more complicated than I am...’
‘And that’s why I invited you for tea,’ Theon told her. ‘I’m very much afraid that his complexity can be laid at my door. I raised Gio from the age of eleven after his mother died.’
‘I had no idea she died while he was still so young,’ Billie said in surprise as she buttered a scone and deliberated with some gastronomic anticipation on whether to have raspberry or strawberry jam with her cream.
‘Ianthe couldn’t cope alone after Dmitri divorced her for Marianne. I had no idea how bad things had become for Gio’s mother,’ Theon told her heavily. ‘Perhaps if my wife had still been alive she would have had the wisdom to foresee the problems and she would have encouraged me to offer help in time to prevent a tragedy.’
Billie set down her scone after one delicious bite. ‘A tragedy?’ she pressed.
‘Ianthe hanged herself...and Gio found her,’ the older man recounted with a shudder. ‘I will carry the burden of my guilt to the end of my days.’
Eyes widening, Billie had lost colour. ‘I had no idea...’
‘I didn’t think you would, which is why I told you,’ Gio’s grandfather confessed. ‘The effect on Gio was catastrophic. He had lost his father, his home and then his mother, only a few months later.’
Billie shook her head slowly, cringing at the thought of such a huge loss being inflicted on Gio and his sisters while they were still so young. ‘That must have been dreadful for him,’ she muttered unsteadily, her heart swelling. ‘He would’ve felt responsible—’
‘I worried that Gio would inherit the same excessively emotional personality that both Dmitri and Ianthe demonstrated in the way they led their lives. That kind of emotional intensity leads to instability.’
‘Not always,’ Billie inserted gently.
Theon shook his white head. ‘I wanted to be sure that Gio did not repeat his father’s mistakes. It was too much responsibility to place on a child’s shoulders. In many ways I taught him the wrong values,’ he explained with unashamed guilt etched in his lined features. ‘I expected, wanted him to marry well...and we all know how successful that proved to be. I put far too much emphasis on wealth, status and family duty—’
‘But,’ Billie cut in with an apologetic look, ‘at the end of the day, Gio is a highly intelligent adult and totally independent and he made his own decisions.’
‘Ne...yes, and he married you without telling any of us because he refused even to risk the fact that I might have tried to interfere.’
‘Probably,’ Billie agreed thoughtfully. ‘But he’s not enough in touch with his own feelings to even know that.’
‘You know him so well,’ Theon pronounced with appreciation. ‘Now we’ve got the difficult bit over, shall we enjoy our scones?’
* * *
Gio was on the phone to Leandros and Leandros was asking awkward questions, destined not to be answered. ‘I just don’t understand.’ His best friend sighed. ‘You only got married yesterday. You only arrived with your family today. Why would you want to fly back to Athens for one night simply to have some fancy dinner?’
‘Tomorrow’s Billie’s birthday.’
‘So, make it tomorrow, then.’
‘I want to do it tonight. Are you joining us?’ Gio prompted. ‘And, Leandros, if you mention Canaletto, I’ll cut your throat.’
‘Of course I’ll join you.’
Billie was engaged in drying Theo and slotting him into his pyjamas when Gio appeared in the bathroom doorway of the nursery suite.
Gio swept up his son and hugged him and did the flying thing again, which sent Theo into gales of laughter. ‘He’s tired,’ Gio acknowledged as Theo then rested his curly head down on his father’s shoulder and slumped.
‘He’s had a lot of excitement today and he’s always exhausted when he’s been with other kids.’ Billie carried her son through to the bedroom and settled him down in the very fancy cot, from which she quickly detached the flouncy hangings and everything else within reach for such dangling temptations were not a good idea with an active toddler.
‘This place needs to be refurnished,’ Gio commented tautly, watching her every move, it seemed, unsettling her.
Billie laughed. ‘It’s perfectly fine. It might have been done up for a little girl but Theo doesn’t know the difference yet.’
‘It was decorated for Sofia’s youngest daughter. She had a difficult birth and her husband was travelling and Theon suggested she move back here while he was away,’ Gio volunteered.
‘Sofia’s lovely,’ Billie said warmly.
‘We’re going out tonight,’ Gio announced abruptly.
‘Where to?’
‘Athens.’
Billie blinked. ‘Athens? But we’ve only just got here!’
‘We’ll be back tomorrow,’ Gio sliced in. ‘We’re eating out with Leandros and his current girlfriend.’
‘Are they getting engaged or something?’
‘Not that I know of. Is going out with me such a big deal?’ Gio demanded in frustration.
Billie almost said that, naturally, it was a big deal when he had never taken her anywhere public in years, aside of the wedding, but she thought better of that piece of one-upmanship. She was reluctant to hark back to the past when their marriage was, self-evidently, a very new and much altered situation. She supposed that, for Gio, taking a flight for one night out was almost normal, certainly nothing he appeared to have to think about, and she resolved to say no more while privately worrying about what she had to wear.
She blessed the foresight that had sent her out shopping for more sophisticated and expensive clothes before the wedding and pulled an elegant pewter-coloured dress from a closet in the luxurious dressing room where all her clothes had been carefully unpacked for her. While she showered and attended to renewing her make-up, she pondered Gio’s strange mood.
‘What do you think?’ she asked, twirling a little apprehensively in front of him when she found him waiting in the bedroom for her.
Stunning dark golden eyes flared over her. ‘You look incredible,’ he intoned with convincing appreciation. ‘Are you ready to leave?’
A warm sense of acceptance blossomed inside Billie even though she could still not understand how he could have been married to a beauty like Calisto and still deem his infinitely less-beautiful second wife equal to the label ‘incredible’.
‘Are we returning to Letsos tonight?’ she prompted as she let Gio lift her into the helicopter.
‘Yes, although the family own a city apartment if you would prefer to stay there,’ he volunteered.
‘No, I’d miss Theo at breakfast time when he’s all warm and cuddly and glad to see me,’ Billie confided sunnily.
As the helicopter rose in the air Gio leant closer, meshing long fingers into the tumble of her curls. He turned her face up and crushed her mouth under his in a breathtakingly hot kiss and that not only startled her, but also sent hunger crashing greedily through her body.
Billie rested disconcerted eyes on him in the aftermath. His lean, darkly beautiful face was slashed by a brilliant smile and he closed one hand firmly over hers. Wonderment filtered through Billie. There was something wrong but she didn’t know what it was...
