His Greek Wedding Night Debt

by Michelle Smart

  ‘She left hours ago,’ Natassa replied.

  He craned his head round sharply. ‘What do you mean, she left?’

  ‘She went to the island.’

  ‘Sidiro?’

  She nodded, eyes suddenly wary.

  ‘How?’

  ‘I don’t know. I assume she took the boat.’

  Theo took a moment to compose his features and lower his tone. ‘Did she say how long she would be there for?’

  ‘No...’ Natassa raised her shoulders. ‘She gave me a hug and thanked me for everything. My feeling was that she wouldn’t be coming back—she said her work for you was done. Should I have told you? I didn’t think. I assumed you knew.’

  ‘It’s okay.’ He breathed deeply as he attempted to reassure her. He felt light-headed and blinked hard a number of times to regain his focus. ‘Her work here is complete.’ And Helena had no reason to suffer his company another minute. She had probably decided to get a lift back to Agon from one of the partygoers on the island. ‘Where is Elli? I have something to discuss with you both.’

  * * *

  Fifteen minutes later, Theo borrowed Elli’s scooter to reach his yacht. He assumed Helena had taken his when she’d made her early morning escape, an assumption confirmed when he reached the small cove he kept the rowing boat in. The boat had gone and his scooter was propped up in its place.

  Shading his eyes from the rising sun, he squinted. The sea was calm. There was nothing floating on the water.

  It was only a short boat ride to the island. Helena could have reached it in ten, maybe twenty minutes. She was nowhere near as strong as him but she was hardly a weakling.

  All the same, he borrowed the captain’s binoculars when he boarded his yacht and found he could breathe a little easier when he spotted his rowing boat pulled up high on the beach. She had made it there safe and sound. She had money in her bank account. She had friends on Sidiro. If the worst happened and she couldn’t get a lift off the island, she could catch the ferry.

  It was time to put into practice what he’d promised and leave her to get on with her life. Maybe one day he’d be able to get on with his too.

  * * *

  Helena looked out of the window of the bedroom she’d taken possession of barely an hour ago. She’d arrived on Sidiro as all the partygoers were off to bed and had been incredibly lucky the room they’d rented that weekend was still free. Even luckier that Marinella, the owner of the house-hotel, allowed her to swap the room for another. She couldn’t bring herself to sleep in the bed in which she and Theo had spent practically the whole weekend.

  Had it really been only twelve hours since they’d left it?

  She’d come to Sidiro on impulse after a sleepless night. She hadn’t been able to stomach the thought of travelling back to Agon with Theo on his yacht, so had rowed here intending to spend a night catching up on sleep and then either cadge a lift or get the ferry off the island.

  The house-hotel was located high on a hilltop. The only downside with this room was that it faced the peninsula.

  About to fall onto the bed and sleep her exhaustion away, she caught a flash of white in the distance.

  Theo’s yacht.

  Her eyes remained fixed on it until it became a distant speck and then faded into nothing.

  Theo had gone.

  She would never see him again.

  * * *

  Theo drummed his fingers as he read the email that had pinged into his inbox a few minutes ago from Staffords. His phone, switched to silent, vibrated. Seeing it was an old friend no doubt wanting to make plans for a night out, he let it go to voicemail. He’d been home for five days and had only left the villa for business purposes, but now it was Friday and all his friends, neglected since he and Helena had become lovers, were trying to tempt him out.

  He rubbed his eyes and reread the generic email. It was an acknowledgement of the payment Theo had made to them. He printed it off and read it again. Reading it somehow made him feel closer to Helena.

  Was she, at that moment, sitting in her open-plan London office working on a new project? Had she spoken to her mother? Had she seen her mother?

  His phone vibrated again. He let it go to voicemail again. Sooner or later his friends would get the message. Theo didn’t want to party. He didn’t want to go anywhere.

  Without Helena, what was the point?

  He’d never allowed himself to grieve the first time he’d lost Helena. He’d done everything he could to deny the pain that had ravaged him. This time he would grieve. He would suck it up because all the pain he was feeling was his own fault.

  His phone suddenly emitted a short trill, notifying him of a text message.

  His heart stopped.

  It was the specific tone he’d set for Helena. He’d set the emergency bypass on his phone so he would always hear if she reached out to him on it, even if his phone was on silent. He’d never dared hope it would happen.

  His hand shook so much he dropped his phone. It took a few attempts to get his fingers to work enough to open the message.

  His first instinct was she’d sent it to the wrong person.

  Greek Doctors and golden sand, sunshine and warm sea. A happy place for everyone, find me and together be free.

  He read it a number of times, trying to make sense of it.

  On impulse, he called Staffords and asked to be put through to Helena.

  ‘I’m sorry, sir,’ the disembodied voice politely informed him, ‘but Miss Armstrong is on leave.’

  He disconnected the call and read the text again, his shuddering heart pounding through his ribs.

  He hardly dared believe what he thought it meant.

  * * *

  Helena hit send and then pressed her phone to her chest. She felt giddy.

  ‘Can I get you anything else?’

  She looked up at the friendly waitress and smiled. ‘No, thank you. Just the bill, please.’

  While she waited, Helena gazed out at the blazing orange sunset. Soon, Theo’s yacht would appear.

  Had she been too subtle with her message to him? Should she have simply put that she was on Sidiro and that she wanted to see him?

  She smiled to herself. No. Theo would know. He’d always understood the little poems and riddles she’d liked to write for him. He understood her like no one else. Sending it as a riddle poem felt right.

  Being in his arms felt right.

  The one night she’d intended to spend on Sidiro had stretched into days. Slowly, the dark cloud of Theo’s betrayal had lifted. Everywhere she’d walked on this beautiful island brought back memories. Good memories. Beautiful memories.

  She began to see more clearly. Theo’s heartfelt words began to echo in her ears. His behaviour had been heinous and there was no excusing it, but as her blinkers came down she began to understand. And she began to forgive.

  She understood because love did crazy things to people. She should know.

  She’d spent three years adrift without him. They’d been necessary years in which she’d learned to stand on her own two feet, find her voice and gain the confidence to speak her mind about important things without fear of the consequences. But always there had been something missing: Theo.

  They were years she would never get back and she didn’t want to live any more of them. The frightened bird he’d once described her as had flown free but the only nest it wanted to make was with Theo.

  She’d never stopped loving him. She could admit that now. Her heart had bound itself to Theo and never let go.

  Her bill paid, she left the beachside bar and joined the throng of partygoers emerging like vampires from their hotels to start the weekend in style. It didn’t bother her being there alone. The people who came to party on Sidiro were too warm and friendly to allow anyone to be by themselves unless it was what they wanted. T
hey were people in Theo’s own mould.

  * * *

  Theo, still uncertain of his instincts, disembarked from his yacht. He’d barely reached the end of the beach when he was pounced on by friendly familiar faces.

  It took a few minutes to extract himself and then he was off, walking the familiar path to the top of the island, where the evenings really came to life. He strolled past dwellings rammed with people dancing, eating, drinking, laughing, past the booths selling mouthwatering street food, past a street magician holding a small child with braids in her hair, enthralled—he’d noticed an increased number of small children here last weekend, the first generation of Sidiro’s partygoers bringing their offspring with them.

  He didn’t dare dream that one day he and Helena would bring their own children here.

  He still wasn’t convinced he’d interpreted the message correctly.

  He should have replied to make sure but his hands had refused to co-operate, too fearful that his fledging hopes would be dashed.

  Theo found the dwelling he’d been looking for.

  The front door was open. Dance music pumped out. He paid his entry fee and stepped inside. There were only two dozen people in the living area, which had been cleared of furniture for two months and transformed into a nightclub. He scanned the dancing bodies illuminated by the twirling disco lights, unable to exhale until he spotted a curvy figure dressed in frayed denim shorts and a white vest top, her chestnut hair loose and sprawled over her shoulders, dance her way through the doorway separating the dance floor from the makeshift bar. She held a glass of what was unmistakably a Greek Doctor in her hand.

  Her eyes locked on to his in seconds. For a moment she stilled. Slowly, a smile spread over her face before she turned and disappeared for a moment. She returned holding a second cocktail. The smile on her face was wider than ever. And then she began to move.

  Her body softly swaying, eyes not leaving his, she danced her way through the heaving bodies. When she was only a foot from him she stopped and passed one of the glasses to him. Feeling as if he’d slipped into a dream, Theo chinked his glass to hers. In unison, they drained their cocktails. Helena took his empty glass and put both on a nearby stool. Only then did she take the last step to him.

  For a long time she did nothing but stare at him and then a smile of such radiance lit her face that, finally, the kernel of hope nestling inside him since he’d received her message broke to the surface.

  Her fingers drifted down his arms and entwined with his. She took a step back into the throng of dancers and tugged him with her.

  Hands clasped tightly together, hips gyrating, her hair flicking in all directions, they danced, not speaking, simply as one in a moment that time could never replicate.

  More people arrived. The dance floor became crammed. Theo didn’t care, not when it forced him to hold Helena even closer, dancing now with their thighs nestled together, her arms looped around his neck, his arms wrapped around the hot curves that were tailor-made for him.

  And then she stopped dancing, took hold of his hand again and led him to the bar. There, she shouted for two Greek Doctors. When they had them in their hands, she led Theo through the back door and out onto the small, deserted courtyard.

  After the noise and heat of the dance floor, it took a few moments for his ears to adjust to the comparative silence. Only when the freshness of the night air cooled his face did he accept that this was no dream.

  Helena had reached out to him and brought him here.

  She hauled herself onto a wooden table and turned her face up to the starry sky. He didn’t think she’d ever exuded such serenity. She shone brighter than any of the stars above them.

  He sat beside her and waited for her to speak.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  ‘Can we marry in the chapel here?’

  He almost choked on the mouthful of cocktail he’d just swallowed.

  Still gazing at the sky, she laughed, a joyous tinkling sound that landed like music in his ears. ‘You know you have to marry me, don’t you?’

  He couldn’t speak.

  ‘I think it’s the least you deserve.’ She spoke matter-of-factly but he could hear the undertones of glee. ‘That’s going to be your punishment. You have to marry me. And impregnate me.’

  ‘That’s a punishment?’ he managed to say.

  Her bright eyes landed on him. ‘Oh, yes, my love. I’ve decided that killing you is a waste of an excellent lover, so you have to do a lifetime of hard labour in my bed instead.’

  If wishes could come true, then all of his had just turned to gold.

  Bowing his head, he closed his eyes. ‘I would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you...’

  ‘But?’ she prompted cheerfully when his voice trailed off.

  He met her gaze. ‘I’m all wrong for you. You deserve...’

  ‘I deserve retribution for your heinous plot, is that what you were going to say?’ Mock innocence rang out of the sparkling eyes. ‘I quite agree.’

  Before he could speak, she jumped off the table. She appeared to have springs in her feet. Spreading her arms wide, she pirouetted then curtseyed. ‘Do you see what you do to me?’

  At Theo’s furrowed brow, Helena burst into another peal of laughter. She felt as if she could fly. ‘You’ve set me free, my possessive love. You’ve taught me how to embrace life, and you know what? I’m going to take your advice and live but unfortunately for you that means you have to put up with possessive, jealous little old me.’

  The furrow in his brow was now so deep she was quite sure it would lead to a permanent indentation.

  ‘You think you’re the only possessive one? My love, since the day I met you, I’ve wanted to scratch the eyes out of every woman who’s looked at you. It’s like I have a hot snake living in my belly that strikes whenever a pretty woman is within a twenty-foot radius of you.’

  ‘I’ve only had eyes for you since the day I met you.’

  Fresh happiness bubbled in her. ‘I know. But three years ago I was a naïve, insecure lamb who was terrified of all the feelings you brought out in me. I was as terrified of losing you as you were of losing me, but I was too immature to understand my feelings. I remember shouting at you that you were just like my father, but the truth is I was terrified that I was like him. I couldn’t handle the jealousy and the control-freakery I have in me. I never understood what you saw in me. To be honest, I still don’t...’

  ‘Sunlight,’ he interrupted.

  She looked at him.

  Finally, a smile played on his lips. ‘That’s what I see in you. Sunlight.’

  She beamed. ‘That’s much more romantic than the gorgeous devil I see in you.’ She stepped to him and hooked her arms around his shoulders and sighed. ‘You swept me off my feet when I was still learning to dance. I wasn’t ready for you and I definitely wasn’t ready for the love I felt for you. It all got too much for me, fears I would become my mother and fears over my possessive feelings for you... I couldn’t see straight, so I ran. I spent three years web-searching your name and going green with jealousy over those women but I was powerless to stop. When you brought me back here, all those feelings I’d buried built up in me again...’ She shook her head. ‘They don’t frighten me any more. Your control-freakery doesn’t frighten me any more either. I know you love me as much as I love you. I know you’re as greedy for me as I am for you. I know what we have is special. We belong together and I know we will both move heaven and earth to make it work. So, my love, I figure you deserve retribution too for all the hurt I caused you and I figured that if you were telling me the truth the other night, then you might settle for me doing hard labour in your bed for the rest of my life to make up for it.’

  Staring deep into her eyes, his hands clasped her hips. ‘You love me?’

  ‘More than there are star
s in the sky.’

  ‘Say it again,’ Theo whispered. He brushed his lips over hers and inhaled her warm, sweet breath.

  ‘I love you.’

  ‘Again.’

  ‘I love you.’

  He kissed her, then wound his arms around her and crushed her to him. ‘I love you, you crazy, beautiful, clever woman. I swear I will spend the rest of my life making up for—’

  She interrupted him with a kiss full of such passion that the last cells in his body able to believe that this was happening, that Helena was here, solid, beautiful and declaring her love for him, woke up and joined the party.

  ‘No more apologies,’ she whispered when she broke the kiss. ‘Let’s make this a new beginning for us. No secrets, no lies, just you and me together, loving each other.’

  ‘Always.’

  ‘Always.’

  Then their mouths fused in a kiss that sealed their fates together for the rest of their lives.

  EPILOGUE

  HELENA LOOKED OUT of the kitchen window at her husband holding court in their vast garden and smiled. She finished her glass of water, swiped a canapé from a tray freshly removed from the oven and went out to join their guests, blowing a kiss at Theo’s grandmother, who was beaming her joy at the grand home on the peninsula finally built and lived in.

  Theo’s eyes brightened when he saw her. ‘I was about to send a search party out for you.’ He hooked an arm around her waist.

  ‘I was only gone for five minutes,’ she chided, tapping his nose.

  ‘Takis is here.’

  ‘Right.’ She had no idea why this was supposed to mean something to her. All the guests at their housewarming party had already shown their rapture at the sculptures Takis had created.

  A gleam flared in his eyes. ‘I have a surprise for you.’

  She patted her growing belly. ‘Bet it’s not bigger than this one.’

  He laughed and nuzzled his face into her hair. ‘Nearly.’