A Ring for the Greek's Baby

by MELANIE MILBURNE

The door suddenly opened and Emily came in. ‘Oh...you’re back.’

  Relief collided with anger that she’d put him through such a hellish few minutes. ‘Where the hell were you?’ Loukas asked. ‘I’ve been out of my head with worry. I thought I told you to stay put until I got back?’

  She slipped her bag off her shoulder and placed it on the table near the door, her movements slow and measured, as if she was frightened of setting off a loaded bomb. ‘I went to work to arrange for some leave.’

  ‘You could have phoned to do that.’

  Her brown eyes contained a hint of defiance. ‘I preferred to do it face to face. Allegra’s my best friend. I wanted to explain what was going on between us in person.’

  ‘What did she say?’

  ‘She has some misgivings about us rushing into marriage.’

  ‘That’s rich, coming from her.’

  ‘Yes, I said much the same thing,’ she said. ‘But at least she knew the man she was marrying.’

  Loukas let out a long breath to bring down his crazy heartbeat. ‘We’ll get to know each other in time, Emily. This is an unusual situation and it calls for an unusual solution. Did the press follow you?’

  ‘Nope, I went out a side entrance and caught a cab to work,’ she said with an element of smugness in her voice. ‘I came back in the same way.’

  ‘You scared the hell out of me, disappearing like that,’ he said. ‘Why didn’t you leave a note or send me a text?’

  She shifted her weight from foot to foot, like a child caught out in some misdemeanour. ‘I thought I’d be back before you.’

  ‘I would appreciate it if you would obey my instructions in future,’ Loukas said. ‘I didn’t insist you stay here to punish you. I was genuinely concerned about you. The paparazzi can be ruthless in hunting down a target. You can get injured trying to escape.’

  ‘As you can see, I’m perfectly fine and, just for the record, I’m not in the habit of taking orders from the men in my life,’ she said with an uppity tilt of her chin.

  ‘I’m the only man in your life from this moment. Understood?’

  Twin pools of colour collected on her cheeks, either from embarrassment or anger, he couldn’t quite tell. ‘Am I the only woman in yours?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes.’ Loukas was surprised at how good it felt to say it. Shocked, even. He normally found relationships claustrophobic but somehow being connected to Emily didn’t feel like that. It felt like a discovery. An adventure. Every day he learned something new about her. ‘I expect nothing less than absolute fidelity while we are together. Are you okay with that?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t agree to marry you if you didn’t promise me that.’

  ‘Fine.’ He studied her for a moment. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘I was a bit queasy when I was with Allegra but I’m okay now.’

  Loukas slipped his hand into his pocket. ‘I bought this on the way back to the hotel after the meeting. I hope it fits.’

  She took the designer ring-box from him and nudged it open. ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s gorgeous!’

  He hadn’t had much time to choose after the meeting, but he figured she wasn’t the flashy big ring type. He’d gone for a more subtle design with a high-quality diamond and a classic setting that would enhance her small hand rather than swamp it. He took the ring from the velvet lining and slid it along her ring finger, privately pleased he’d got the size spot-on. ‘Do you like it?’

  Her toffee-brown eyes were shining so much they were dazzling. ‘It’s beautiful. But you shouldn’t have spent so much money. What if I lose it? I’m hopeless with jewellery. I’ve lost three pearl earrings and a diamond stud in the last year.’

  Loukas suppressed a smile. ‘Don’t worry. It’s insured.’

  She held the ring up to the light, turning it this way and that. ‘I’ll be super-duper careful, I promise.’ She lowered her hand and gave him a smile. ‘Thank you, Loukas. It was awfully generous of you.’

  Loukas thought her smile gave the diamond a run for its money in terms of brilliance. He had never seen a smile so engaging as hers. When the edges of her mouth tipped up, two dimples appeared in her cheeks. ‘You’re welcome.’

  There was a little silence.

  Emily brushed back a loose strand of hair from her face. ‘What time are we leaving?’

  He wished he hadn’t booked the lunchtime flight. Right then, he could think of nothing he’d rather do than spend the next couple of hours in that bed with her to show her his self-control wasn’t in as good a shape as she thought. But he wanted to get out of London, away from all the attention of the press. ‘Our flight is at one p.m., which doesn’t leave us much time. Do you need a hand packing?’

  ‘No. I’m all good.’

  * * *

  The flight to Corfu was direct from London and it seemed no time at all before they arrived at Loukas’s villa set on a hilltop overlooking the stunning view of the ocean. The villa was Venetian-style with formal gardens out the back leading to woodland filled with pines, Holm oaks and wild olives. At the front of the villa was a sun-drenched flagstone terrace with a swimming pool that beckoned to Emily in the shimmering heat of the late afternoon.

  The housekeeper came out of the villa and greeted Emily with a wide smile, her hands clasped together, as if giving thanks to the divine being who had orchestrated her boss bringing home a bride-to-be. ‘So happy to meet you, Dhespinis Emily,’ she said after Loukas introduced them. ‘I have waited a long time for this day. I was wondering if it would ever come. And a baby too! It is a dream come true.’

  Emily painted on a smile. ‘Thank you. It is very nice to be here.’

  The housekeeper beamed at Loukas. ‘I have a lovely surprise for you.’

  Loukas’s tightly compressed expression gave the impression he didn’t much care for surprises. ‘Oh, really?’

  Chrystanthe’s expression, on the other hand, was not unlike that of a doting fairy godmother who had just waved her magic wand and pulled off the grand wish of the century. She kept looking from Loukas to Emily with a wide smile on her face and her black button eyes twinkling. ‘Your mother and sister are here. They arrived half an hour ago. They’re waiting in the drawing room.’

  His sister? Since when had Loukas had a sister? Why hadn’t he mentioned her? She’d thought he was an only child of divorced parents. He had only been six years old when his parents had broken up. He had never said anything about a sibling, either older or younger. Allegra hadn’t mentioned anything about him having a sister, either, which made Emily wonder if even Draco knew about her existence.

  If not, why not?

  Emily glanced at Loukas to find him frowning darkly. ‘That’s...nice,’ he said, but the way he hesitated over the word ‘nice’ suggested he considered it far from so.

  ‘They came off the luxury cruise you sent them on because they heard the news of your engagement,’ the housekeeper said. ‘They said they wanted to congratulate you in person.’

  ‘Right,’ Loukas said, taking Emily’s hand. ‘We’d better go see them.’

  Emily waited until the housekeeper had gone ahead before asking, ‘Is there anything else I should know about you that you haven’t yet told me? Why didn’t you tell me you had a sister?’

  ‘Half-sister.’

  ‘That’s beside the point. You gave me the impression you were an only child,’ she said. ‘What sort of fool will I look if I don’t know everything there is to know about you? I don’t even know when your birthday is.’

  ‘December twenty-eighth.’

  ‘Capricorn.’ Emily rolled her eyes. ‘I should have guessed. You climb to the top and let nothing get in your way of a goal. You have trouble expressing feelings and do rather than say—or so my mother will tell you. She’s done a course.’
/>
  ‘When’s yours?’

  ‘March second—Pisces. Apparently I’m selfless to a fault, unassuming and naïve and deeply emotional. Go me.’

  Loukas led Emily inside the villa’s foyer. If she had thought the hotel last night was spectacular, then this more than topped it. It wasn’t a showy, over-done expression of wealth, but rather an understated simplicity of design and décor that spoke of a man with good taste and an excellent eye for detail. The walls of the foyer were adorned with priceless works of art, the polished marble floors covered strategically here and there with ankle-deep Persian rugs, and a staircase with glossy black balustrading led to the upper levels.

  He took her to the main sitting room where a collection of plush sofas in brocade the colour of milky coffee sat around a rug beneath a central crystal chandelier. Lamps sat on side tables, their muted light giving the vast room a cosy atmosphere. The walls were bone-white with soft green-grey wainscoting and feature trims that continued the Venetian theme.

  A steel-grey-haired woman in her fifties rose from a wing chair near the marble fireplace and, to her left, a younger, frail-looking woman in her early twenties, presumably Loukas’s sister, was sitting in a wheelchair with a light throw rug over her knees.

  ‘Loukas,’ his mother said without approaching him, her tentative expression giving every indication she wasn’t sure of the reception she would receive. ‘I hope you don’t mind us dropping in without notice, but we were so delighted by your news, we couldn’t stay away. We won’t stay long. We don’t want to be in the way, but we just wanted to meet Emily.’

  ‘It’s nice to see you both,’ he said. ‘This is Emily.’ He brought her forward with a hand on the small of her back. ‘Emily, this is my mother, Phyllida Ryan, and my half-sister, Ariana.’

  ‘I’m delighted to meet you both,’ Emily said, taking his mother’s hand and then his sister’s.

  Ariana smiled shyly up at Emily. ‘Loukas is such a dark horse. He never tells us anything about his private life. We didn’t know he was seeing anyone regularly. When did you meet?’

  Emily wished she’d talked this through in a little more detail with Loukas. What if she said something that contradicted something he’d already said? Had he told them about their engagement or had they found out via the media? He didn’t appear all that close to them. His manner towards them was polite but distant, almost to the point of being cold. ‘Erm...we met through mutual friends.’

  ‘I’m so thrilled for you both,’ Phyllida said. ‘I never thought he was ever going to get married. You must be a very special person.’

  ‘She is,’ Loukas said, slipping his arm around Emily’s waist.

  Emily smiled until her face ached. What was it with Loukas and his mother and sister? They didn’t exchange hugs or kisses with him like a normal family would do. She wasn’t sure what to say or do to ease the stilted atmosphere. She’d thought her relationship with her mother was a little awkward at times, but even a stiff broomstick hug and an air kiss was better than nothing.

  ‘It’s wonderful news about the baby,’ his mother said. ‘I wasn’t sure I was ever going to be a grandmother. Are you keeping well?’

  ‘I’m having a bit of trouble with nausea but otherwise I’m okay.’

  ‘We won’t stay long,’ Ariana said to Emily. ‘We just wanted to meet you in person.’ Her gaze moved to Loukas. ‘I know you don’t like impromptu guests but we couldn’t stay away this time.’

  ‘You are welcome here any time.’ Loukas’s voice was unusually husky.

  Emily couldn’t help noticing the way Ariana kept glancing at Emily’s abdomen with an almost wistful expression on her face. Was she worried she might never have the opportunity to marry and have children herself? How bad was her disability? Would it be rude to ask?

  ‘I’m really happy for you, Loukas. I mean that,’ Ariana said.

  His expression gave little away but his voice still contained that deep, gravelly note. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘So when’s the wedding?’ Phyllida asked with an expectant air.

  ‘In two weeks’ time,’ Loukas said. ‘We’re not having a big ceremony, so don’t feel you have to attend.’

  ‘But of course we’d love to come, wouldn’t we, Ariana?’ his mother asked.

  ‘I wouldn’t miss it for anything,’ Ariana said. ‘Although, if you’d rather not have us there...?’

  ‘I would love you to be there,’ Emily said. ‘In fact, would you be my bridesmaid, Ariana? My best friend Allegra will be my maid of honour but I’d love it if you would be my bridesmaid.’ The invitation was out before she had time to think about it. Why was she organising a bridesmaid when, strictly speaking, this wasn’t a real wedding? Or at least, not the normal kind. Loukas didn’t want a big ceremony, but she couldn’t imagine having a wedding without a bridesmaid or two. And who better than his half-sister?

  ‘Are you sure?’ Ariana asked with a look of such longing it made something in Emily’s chest squeeze, like it was being pinched. ‘I’ve never been in a wedding party before. Are you sure I won’t ruin all the photos because of my chair? I can stand for short periods with a bit of support but—’

  ‘Of course you won’t spoil the photos,’ Emily said. ‘How long have you been...? I’m sorry. Am I being rude to ask what happened to you?’

  Ariana glanced briefly at Loukas, her teeth momentarily snagging her lower lip. ‘Hasn’t Loukas told you?’

  Emily’s stomach shifted like a shoe on a slippery surface. ‘Told me what?’

  Phyllida put her hand on Ariana’s shoulder, her gaze troubled. ‘Come on, love. It’s time you had a rest. Emily too must be exhausted after the flight. We’ve taken up too much of your time already.’

  ‘No, no, of course you haven’t,’ Emily said, glancing at Loukas, but his expression was in its customary locked-down position. What hadn’t he told her about his sister’s disability? Why hadn’t he told her he even had a sister? What was going on? Why was the atmosphere between him and his mother and sister so strained and awkward?

  Phyllida and Ariana left the room, the whisper of the wheelchair’s tyres over the carpet the only sound in the cavernous silence. Emily turned back to Loukas once the door closed quietly behind them. ‘I’ve felt elephants in the room before, but that one was a woolly mammoth.’

  ‘Leave it, Emily. Please.’ He made to leave the room but she caught up to him just in time and snagged him by the arm.

  ‘Tell me what I’m supposed to know,’ she said, looking up into his tightly set features.

  He put his hand over hers to remove it but she dug her fingers in. ‘It’s no concern of yours,’ he said.

  Emily raised her brows until they threatened to disappear past her hairline. ‘No concern of mine? How can you say that when in two weeks I’m going to be your wife?’

  His mouth was so flat his lips had all but disappeared. But then he let out a long breath that sounded as if it had come from some deep, dark place inside him. ‘I was the one who caused the accident.’

  Emily couldn’t swallow her gasp of shock in time. He had caused the accident that had maimed his sister? She clutched at her throat with one hand, her heart shuddering at the thought of the burden of guilt he must feel. ‘Oh, no...’

  ‘I ran into Ariana with my car. I didn’t see her in time. She lost control of the new bike she’d got for her birthday and careened down the driveway and on to the road straight in front of me.’ His throat rose and fell before he continued. ‘I slammed on the brakes but I... I’d only had my licence a few weeks. I didn’t have the experience or the skill to avoid her.’

  He had been so young himself—a teenager on the threshold of adulthood—only to be assailed with guilt that would last a lifetime. How devastating for him to be responsible for causing such hurt and suffering, even if it had been an accident. ‘Oh, Lo
ukas, that’s so awful and tragic. I’m so sorry for your sister and for you. It must have been a nightmare.’

  Long remembered anguish was etched in the landscape of his face. ‘I thought I’d killed her at first. But then she started screaming.’ He took another deep breath and released it in a staggered stream. ‘She was in an induced coma for a month and spent a year in hospital and another six months in rehab. I’ve lost count of the number of surgeries she’s had. The most recent one was the week before Draco’s wedding, in an effort to get her walking again, but so far it’s failed.’

  ‘And all this time you’ve been blaming yourself,’ Emily said, seeing it written not just on his face but also in the way he held his body. Was that why he avoided commitment? Why he had avoided marriage and kids of his own—because of the guilt he carried over that terrible day?

  The look he gave her was grimly resigned and he removed her hand from his arm. ‘Wouldn’t you blame yourself?’

  She ran her tongue over her carpet-dry lips. Of course she would if she had been in the same situation. Who wouldn’t? No decent person wanted to hurt another person and see them suffer and struggle for years and years with the physical damage. The guilt would gnaw away at even the toughest, most resilient personality. ‘Yes, but it was an accident. You didn’t mean to hit her. Little kids are accident magnets. They run in and out of danger all the time. It could’ve happened to anyone coming along that road at that moment. And maybe, if someone else had been coming faster than you, then she wouldn’t have survived at all.’

  His gaze was ghosted with bone-deep sadness. ‘If I had been even five seconds earlier or later she wouldn’t have been hit at all.’

  Emily reached out to comfort him. ‘You have to stop blaming yourself, Loukas. It happened and she survived—that’s the main thing.’

  He eased away as if her touch made him uncomfortable. Or maybe it was because he wasn’t used to talking about the accident. Emily was sure Allegra knew nothing about it, which meant Draco probably didn’t either. Why hadn’t Loukas told his best friend about the most tragic event of his life? Or was his guilt too burdensome to share? His aloofness had struck her from the first moment she’d met him at the wedding. But now she understood why he kept himself separate from other people. An invisible wall of guilt locked him in his own private prison.