‘She looked younger than her age,’ Theo commented, fidgeting.
‘Then there was Nora. Beautiful Nora. Curvy brunette. Trouble was she had a brain the size of a pea!’
‘But other assets that were far from pea-shaped.’ Theo smirked.
‘Perhaps you should scamper over to meet Alexis,’ Abby said with a straight face. ‘We wouldn’t want to keep you from a love-match, would we, Michael?’
Theo hesitated. Under normal circumstances, he would have been all too happy to meet the girl, but when he stared frowningly down at the blonde angel innocently staring back at him he felt crazily reluctant to leave.
Dammit, didn’t he remember that this so-called angel was engaged to his brother?
They were even sharing the same room, the same bed! He must be losing his mind…thinking about his brother’s fiancée…wondering…
Alexis Papaeliou was everything the doctor ordered. She was vivacious without being free-spirited, stunning in a fiery kind of way, intelligent whilst still being deferential. And utterly, utterly straightforward. She worked for her father’s company and had never nurtured any ambitions to do anything else. Highly commendable, Theo thought, searching with his eyes and finding Abby, who had once again been deserted by Michael but seemed to be doing just fine amongst a group of the younger men. God, not only did he have to watch out for his brother, but he also had to give him some sound advice on how to handle his woman.
As the assorted crowd were invited inside for supper he listened to his companion stretch her wings by telling him about her hobbies. She enjoyed horse-riding, it appeared, and was thinking of doing an art course so that she could paint when she retired from active work to marry and have babies.
At this point Theo decided that the conversation was getting a little too hazardous for his liking. He thanked heaven that his mother wasn’t within earshot because she would be milking the situation for all it was worth.
He hadn’t been lying when he had once told his mother that he would go down the expected route by the time he was forty. It was a good age to marry and assume the responsibilities of having a family. With a good Greek girl, pretty much like the charming one whose name-plate he found was next to his.
Abby, he couldn’t help noticing, was next to Michael at the same table. Too far to hear what she was saying but within easy eye range. And she seemed to be having a wonderful time. How much had she drunk? he wondered grimly. She was certainly engaging in hectic conversation with old papa Silvio sitting next to her, whose face hadn’t been known to crack a smile in over twenty years, since his wife died. He was laughing now, Theo noted.
He was vaguely aware of Alexis asking him questions about himself, trying to engage him in conversation, at which point he dragged his eyes away from the object of his scowling attention and did his utmost to charm his companion. It was something he found remarkably easy to do, even though precious little was ever revealed about himself and, in fact, any direct questions were cleverly side-stepped.
Abby didn’t seem quite so circumspect in her conversation. In fact, she was leaning across Silvio now, engaging one of his aunts in animated chat. Theo wondered whether she would be able to eat at all in between being the life and soul of the party.
Professional caterers had been flown in to handle the food, which was a formal meal. Several tables had been interspersed in the open garden to accommodate the eighty or so guests, and the food, Theo had to admit, was very good. It was also served with an efficiency that came from paying the best to produce their best.
It was hard to tell whether the assembled crowd enjoyed the high quality food as much as they enjoyed the high quality wines. Certainly over the course of the evening the level of noise grew in direct proportion to the level of alcohol imbibed.
Theo drank enough to appear sociable and then he stopped. Amusing to watch everyone else lose their head, but he himself had no intention of following suit.
It did, however, make for an amazing atmosphere when, at shortly before midnight, his grandfather tapped his spoon on crystal and gave a short but funny speech about reaching the grand old age of eighty. He paid tribute to the wonderful wife he had lost and graciously thanked each and every one for making the tremendous effort to get to the island so that they could celebrate his birthday with him.
The round of applause was rousing. Various people had a go at making speeches themselves, to great cheering. When the noise had died down, Michael, who had always been his grandfather’s favourite, did his best to give a sober performance and nearly succeeded but for the booming hiccup at the end. That, likewise, met with great cheering.
‘After all this,’ Theo began, standing up and lifting his glass in one last toast to a man who had touched all their lives in some way, ‘my few words can only come as an anticlimax…’
Far from it. Abby had consumed far more than she ever could remember in her life, but she was still aware of how powerful Theo’s brief speech was. There were a couple of funny moments mentioned in passing, but it was impassioned and moving and when she glanced across the table it was to see Lina dabbing her eyes with her serviette.
As many of the crowd capable of standing stood to raise their glasses, so did she. For one split-second their eyes tangled and she felt a funny feeling rip through her. Where had that come from? she wondered dazedly. She had made a point of not looking at him at all for the whole of the evening, even if she had been conscious of his presence there on the same table as her. Now, those eyes seemed to pierce straight through her and send her carefully built-up self-control into immediate meltdown. She had a sudden, graphic memory of him on the beach, with the sun glinting on his bronzed, powerful body, and overlaying that were images of him swimming in the pool, cutting through the water like a smooth moving missile.
Abby blamed the champagne. There had been a lot of it before the food was finally served and even when the champagne had stopped it had been replaced by wine. Her glass had been permanently topped up.
With the toasts out of the way, people began drifting off, some moving to embrace the old man before retiring, others heading towards the garden. A music system had been cleverly rigged up and, whoever the DJ was, he was certainly digging back through the archives as the sweet voice of Nat King Cole wafted on the breeze.
Abby cornered Michael and whispered whether it might not be time for them to retire.
‘The night is still a pup.’ He grinned back, giving her a hug. ‘Darling, you were just brilliant. You look wonderful and you’ve captivated everyone.’
‘Your speech is sounding a little slurred,’ Abby said irritably. Out of the corner of her eye, she was aware of Theo moving away from the table with the brunette on his arm. She turned her back on both of them.
‘Did you like my speech?’
‘It was wonderful.’
‘Let’s have a dance and then if you’re tired you can head back. I’m going to stay until the break of dawn.’
That was reasonable enough. They joined the others in the other vast area of garden that had become an outdoor dance floor. Couples were entwined and dancing very slowly to the music. Some, Abby thought with amusement, were definitely propping each other up. One sudden move and they would topple over. Her eyes scanned the darkness and rested on Theo, also dancing with the brunette and holding her very close to him indeed.
Abby’s heart gave another little flip which was almost as irritating as the fact that she hadn’t been able to stop herself from seeking him out. Would they be retiring together? she wondered fuzzily. The thought of it made her feel hot and bothered.
She allowed herself to be pulled into Michael’s arms, and she rested her head on his shoulder. He was a wonderful dancer. Even drunk, his feet seemed to be programmed to do exactly what they should do and Abby let herself go with the flow.
She closed her eyes and was only dimly aware of one slow number flowing into another one. Michael, in one ear, maintained a disjointed running commentary on the evening,
dishing out little titbits of gossip that made Abby smile. That was so like him. He gossiped in the nicest possible way.
Halfway through a song, just when her thoughts were beginning to drift, Theo’s voice brought her up sharply. She had been so far away mentally that in her confusion it took a few seconds to realise that he was cutting in so that he could dance with her.
Before she could protest, Michael was obligingly stepping aside and the safe comfort of his arms was replaced by a leaner, harder and infinitely more dangerous kind of embrace. Abby felt her body tense and she stiffly tried to impose a few inches of space between them but the slowness of the music was not helping her manoeuvres.
‘Relax,’ Theo murmured in her ear. ‘Your body has to co-operate with the music, not fight it.’
‘Shouldn’t you be dancing with your love-match brunette?’ Abby responded tartly and he gave a low chuckle that sent shivers down her spine. Through the haze of her blurry mind, one thought was emerging very clearly and it was that this man was sexy—really, truly and devastatingly sexy. She was appalled to find her body responding to his nearness now. Her breasts had become acutely sensitive and she could feel her nipples straining through the dress as, without the barrier of a bra, they pressed and rubbed against his shirt.
‘I don’t believe I was the one who called Alexis my love-match,’ Theo drawled in a low voice. ‘Although I admit she does fit the right mould…’
‘The right mould?’ Abby pulled back so that she could try and see whether he was being funny at her expense or not, but he responded by pulling her closer against him. It was quite likely he could feel her heartbeat because the damned thing was thudding against her ribcage like a hammer drill.
‘Of course. We Greek men are very traditional. Women like Alexis are perfect. The right background, the right family connections…also, she has the right ambitions in life. She wants to have babies and please her husband…’
‘What a role model for the modern woman,’ Abby said. He hadn’t included beauty in his list but perhaps that was taken as a given, one of those things that the ideal woman for him would have to possess.
‘And are you any better?’ he whispered smoothly.
Abby felt too languid to argue. The night was warm, the music was softly seductive and champagne was flowing through her bloodstream, not too much but just enough to dampen her hostility. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not, gold-digger that I am. For a minute there I forgot that I was supposed to be a vile, unscrupulous woman with nothing more on her mind than destroying someone’s life for the sake of his bank balance. Really the sort of person you wouldn’t want to release in the presence of the young, the helpless or the impressionable.’
Theo felt a kick of pleasurable adrenaline rush through his body. ‘How do you do that?’ he murmured.
‘Do what?’
‘When I first saw you stepping out of that taxi…’
‘You mean you were spying one me?’
‘Appreciating the scenery, as it happened. It was greatly improved by your arrival. You looked like a kid…but I’m discovering that you’ve got the tongue of a rapier…my brother might have a flair for wielding a knife in the kitchen but I can’t believe you would ever cut him to shreds with your own verbal dexterity…is that a side you haven’t shown him yet…hmm? Because I don’t think Michael has the stamina to take it…’
‘That’s unfair!’ Abby protested. ‘You make me sound like a shrew and I’m not! Anyway, I’m tired. I think I’ll head back to my room now.’
‘If you look behind you, you’ll find that Michael doesn’t look like someone who’s ready to retire to bed.’
‘I’m not expecting him to. He’ll be staying up until the very end. Don’t tell me…it’s just not the Greek way…’ She sighed. ‘Look, Michael’s letting his hair down and he deserves it. He works all the hours under the sun in England…I certainly don’t begrudge him wanting to have a good time while he’s over here…’
‘What an understanding partner you are…and would you be so understanding if the free rein you give him encourages him to wander off and find himself a new woman…?’
Abby couldn’t help it. She giggled. That certainly did the trick when it came to Theo releasing her, which he did promptly, drawing her to one side away from the dancing couples, so that he could look down at her with a frown.
‘Share the joke?’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to giggle. It’s all the drink. I’m not used to so much wonderful champagne and wine. It’s gone to my head and what with my exhaustion as well…’ Her gorgeous dress, which had made her feel coolly confident at the start of the evening, was beginning to cling. During one of the toasts she had been jostled and champagne had spilled over it and being outside in the garden had done very little for keeping it pristine at the hem. She had felt curiously alert only moments before when she had been dancing with Theo, but now she really did feel bedraggled and a little sticky.
Theo continued to look at her. She confused him, was confusing him now, and he didn’t like that. He didn’t know how to deal with it.
‘You don’t think that Michael would run off with someone else? You are so confident of your charms?’
Abby could feel herself sobering up fast. ‘No, not at all…I told you…I’m tired, I’m not reacting the way I normally would…’
‘I will walk you to your room.’
‘No!’ She backed away slightly.
‘It is only proper that you be escorted to your room…’ Theo glanced briefly to where his brother appeared to be telling a joke that involved lots of hand gestures and hysterical laughter. Well, his audience were certainly appreciating it. ‘And it would be cruel to interrupt Michael when he seems to be in the middle of a captivating anecdote.’
Abby turned around and couldn’t stop herself from smiling. When she faced Theo again the smile was still tilting the corners of her mouth. ‘Honestly, he’s such a kid. I bet he’s begun one of his jokes and can’t remember the punchline. Happens every time he has too much to drink.’
The look on her face…and that confused feeling again, this time sharper. Theo drew his breath in sharply. Under the soft artificial light of the lanterns her face was all knowing and gently amused. Or was that his imagination? When he looked harder, the smile was no longer there and she was pulling back, ready to head off.
He couldn’t let her go. Not yet. And he couldn’t work out why. He was leaving the island the following day and he knew that he needed to talk to her for just a bit longer. The urge was so strong that it rocked him to his very core and just for a minute he experienced something he had never felt before…he experienced a complete absence of self-control. For a split-second something else was controlling him and he didn’t know why or how.
‘I’ll walk you to your room,’ he repeated tightly and watched the pale delicacy of her neck as she turned away from him before shrugging as though resigned to something being thrust upon her. He shoved his fists into his pockets, knowing that somewhere out there in the shadows Alexis was probably watching and wondering why he was clearing off without a word to her. Thank goodness his mother and his grandfather had already retired for the night. He would have been hard-pressed to have explained why he was showing his brother’s fiancée to her room and, worse, why he felt compelled to do so…
CHAPTER FIVE
‘YOU look tired.’ He noticed that she was making sure to keep distance between them, as much as was possible without scraping the wall next to her.
‘I am. It’s been a long day.’
Theo let a few seconds of silence stretch past. ‘I suppose you’re referring to our little sightseeing trip earlier on?’
Abby couldn’t be bothered to respond to the jibe. While she had been at the party she had felt buoyant and keyed up and the alcohol had given her a flushed, excited feeling that had kept her going through the difficult task of mixing and mingling with Michael’s relatives, people she had never met in her life before. Now that the
evening was over, she felt drained. It didn’t help that this man was walking next to her, escorting her to her bedroom like a security guard making sure that the guest didn’t make off with the family heirlooms.
‘I hope you understand why I have obvious concerns about you, Abby.’
‘I really don’t want to talk about this. Again. I’m tired and I just want to get to bed and go to sleep.’
Theo felt his hackles rise at the casual dismissiveness in her voice. His time on the island was virtually up and he had achieved nothing when it came to protecting his brother’s millions. True, the woman had not been what he had expected, but he had not found a single foothold which he could have used as a cautionary tale to his mother and Michael. Nor had she risen to the tempting bait of being paid off.
And here she was, dismissing him.
‘Won’t Michael be disappointed to find his woman sleeping when he gets in from the mad festivities?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Abby spied her door with some relief. The intricately sprawling villa, which had been virtually empty when she had arrived, was now full to bursting, a very comforting thought just at this point in time when Theo’s unwanted presence was pressing down on her like an enforced intimacy, stretching every nerve in her body to tense breaking-point.
‘I never asked,’ Theo said casually. ‘Do you and my brother live together?’ That would account for the way they carelessly seemed to take one another for granted. It would also account for the ease with which she had rejected his financial carrot to disengage herself from Michael. No incentive there if she was already feasting off the spoils by way of a joint income in a joint house somewhere and, however much Michael was unmoved by money, his house would be nice. He liked beautiful things. He could have kicked himself for never having taken the time out to go and see for himself how his brother lived. It had always been convenient to have Michael travel to London to see him. That way, he had never had the need to interrupt his working life too much. As it was, he could only imagine the luxury in which Abby was basking.
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