by Lynne Graham
Winnie settled back into the classic car while Teddy, who complained hugely, was strapped into a car seat. ‘You thought of everything,’ she remarked in surprise at the presence of the seat.
‘Obviously we would want Teddy with us,’ Eros parried.
As the car climbed the steep driveway that wound up past the little village, Winnie craned her neck, curious to see the Nevrakis home. ‘For how long have your family lived here?’
Eros saw no reason to tell Winnie that he had only reclaimed the island by marrying her. What would be the point? It would only make her more suspicious than ever about his motives, he reasoned impatiently. In time she would learn that fact and he would deal with it then.
‘The first house was a farmhouse owned by my great-grandfather, the olive farmer, who turned it into a small hotel. My grandfather razed that building to the ground and rebuilt and in due course, when he died, my father did the same even though he had no intention of ever making this his permanent home.’
Winnie’s brows lifted in bewilderment. ‘No intention? Then why on earth would he—’
‘I think a weird mixture of family pride and his innate streak of extravagance persuaded him into wasting his inheritance here even though he found island life boring. Although Trilis is quite a reasonable size, it couldn’t possibly offer him the social life he enjoyed in Athens.’
‘So, you didn’t grow up here on the island?’ Winnie asked, determined to satisfy her curiosity now that Eros was finally answering her questions.
‘No, I grew up in an Athens apartment, almost exclusively with my mother. She’s gone now too,’ Eros confided flatly. ‘So are my grandparents on both sides. There is only me and Teddy and now you in the Nevrakis family. There are a few distant cousins attending the reception but no close relations. I’m surprised you didn’t invite your foster parents.’
Winnie went pink and trotted out her excuses about how difficult it was for either John or Liz to leave home even for a short time. ‘As foster carers they have constant meetings with social workers, schools, birth parents.’
An ebony brow slanted up. ‘Still, you were very fond of them as I recall and I’m sure they would’ve made a special effort.’
‘I didn’t want to put them under that pressure,’ Winnie muttered in desperation. ‘John’s health can be dicey.’
It was a relief to step out into the sunlight again and see her sisters emerging from the car behind. They all stared at the house, which she thought was stupendously large for a property in which Eros’s father had apparently not planned to live. Extravagant, Eros had labelled his father, and Winnie was inclined to agree as they entered a grand marble-floored hall to be greeted by staff offering drinks on silver trays.
Her grandfather strolled to her side. ‘It is done,’ he pronounced with satisfaction. ‘The ring you deserve is on your finger now.’
Winnie looked down at her finger uncomfortably just as Eros stretched out a hand to her, obviously keen to introduce her to some of the guests arriving. The next hour and more passed in a whirl of introductions and harmless chatter, by which time Teddy was flagging, hungry and overtired.
‘I took the liberty of bringing in a nanny for the day,’ Eros murmured, disconcerting his bride. ‘Teddy can have an early lunch and a nap to recoup his energies while the adults celebrate.’
Winnie could not argue with such a sensible suggestion and the warm, friendly woman who approached with a ready smile was very different from the coldly efficient carer Eros had hired in London for the zoo trip. Agathe swiftly gained her son’s trust and, with his aunt Zoe’s comforting presence secured as well, Teddy had no objection to being carried off upstairs.
In the doorway of a vast pillared ballroom full of tables and chairs for the reception, Winnie paused and swallowed her surprise. ‘I expected a canvas marquee in the garden,’ she admitted.
‘No, my father covered even the most remote possibilities when he built this place,’ Eros confided with rueful amusement. ‘And perhaps you can also see why he eventually ended up bankrupt.’
As they were escorted to the top table, Winnie scanned the fabulous view of the sea and the island from the house’s splendid clifftop location. A wall of glass ran down one side of the ballroom, multiple doors opening out onto a furnished terrace. Her curious gaze lingered on the borrowed yacht dominating the little harbour and she paled, losing her focus again. Soon, soon, she reminded herself, she would be sailing away with Teddy and her sisters and this nightmare wedding would simply be like something from a bad dream that she would never have to think about again.
Long brown fingers feathered down her rigid spine and her entire body tingled, locked into sudden instinctive craving. She glanced up at Eros from beneath her feathery lashes and, with a husky growl deep in his throat, he reached for her, taking her so much by surprise that she simply froze, locked into place like a statue.
His firm, yet soft lips forced hers apart and his tongue delved and she shook and shivered as a gathering storm of sensation bombarded her. In all her life she had never wanted anything as much as she wanted Eros at that moment. A piercing dart of feverish longing shot from low in her body, rousing sweet tingling heat, clenching the muscles in her pelvis so tight she gasped, even more painfully aware of the response between her thighs.
‘Thee mou... I want you,’ Eros muttered roughly into her hair as he jerked his mouth off hers again as though he had been burned.
And in a way, they had both been burned, Winnie acknowledged feverishly, conscious of the tiny tremors racking the lean, powerful body melded to hers and the thrusting proof of his arousal. She still wanted him; it made her hate herself but Winnie had never been the sort to deny an obvious truth. The same passionate attraction that had blindsided them the first time around hadn’t died and hadn’t been conquered by common sense or pride or even guilt. She was ashamed of it, ashamed of the shake in her hand as she used the table to steady herself on locked knees that still trembled. It was a moment when she was almost grateful for the reminder of how much power Eros could still have over her and how very dangerous he could be to her peace of mind. Been there, done that, got Teddy... Never again, she told herself with finality.
* * *
‘Your nerves are showing,’ Vivi whispered under cover of releasing her sister’s gown from where it had caught on her high-heeled sandal.
Winnie compressed her lips. ‘I’m no good at faking it,’ she admitted.
‘Good news on my wedding night,’ Eros murmured sibilantly, lean hands splaying possessively across her hips from behind, the combination of both voice and touch very nearly inducing a panic attack in Winnie as her triangular face flared hotter than hellfire.
Winnie barely touched the meal set in front of her. She nudged stuff round the plate, trying to conceal her lack of appetite. She listened to the world-famous harpist playing atmospheric Greek folk songs, tapped her foot with determination when livelier music followed and only tensed when her grandfather caught her eye with a faint tilt of his chin. Almost as quickly her sisters were approaching her, talking about needing to straighten her hair and, without hesitation, she slid out of her seat and followed them out of the reception to the palatial cloakroom.
‘There’s a car waiting at the back entrance. All you have to do is walk out across the courtyard garden,’ Vivi began tautly.
‘I can’t leave without Teddy!’ Winnie gasped in consternation.
‘Grandad’s men are fetching Teddy,’ Zoe told her soothingly. ‘We only have to get down to the harbour.’
Winnie didn’t feel comfortable walking out of a house where her son slept upstairs, unaware of his family’s departure but her sisters were as nervous as she was, and nerves made the two younger women assertive, thrusting her through the French windows into the fresh air, both of them catching onto her wrists, urging her in the right direction, giving her no chance to change
her mind.
‘This doesn’t feel right,’ she protested in the courtyard garden, a sunny tranquil space that mocked the drama being enacted.
‘We need to get out of here...fast!’ Vivi exclaimed impatiently, pushing her sister through the gate into the rear lane where an SUV idled its engine in readiness.
Having been alerted by the security team he had engaged, Eros observed their departure from the same rear hallway. A kind of white-hot rage unlike anything he had ever felt before surged through him when he saw Winnie pass through the last barrier in the direction of the waiting car.
His wife walking out on him.
Nothing could’ve prepared him for that view. Nothing until that instant could’ve persuaded him that Winnie would do anything so dishonest as to enter a church with him, speak marital vows and then take off like a bat out of hell afterwards. But there she was, the living proof of his delusional belief that she was different from the other women he had known. And the truth was that she wasn’t one bit different from her predecessors, who had convinced him that women were in no way the more delicate, honest and reliable sex, he derided grimly. In fact, she was one of the worst deceivers and the biggest fraud.
Winnie was shaking like a leaf by the time she finally boarded the yacht, perspiration marking her brow, eyes wide with apprehension, her heart pounding fit to burst. Her grandfather’s cheerful greeting made her turn angrily away. ‘Teddy?’ she began anxiously.
‘Teddy will be here in approximately thirty seconds,’ Stamboulas Fotakis assured her confidently.
But the car that drove down to the harbour was not the one the older man was apparently expecting. It was a sports car, with a child seat fitted, driven by Eros. He climbed out, whisked his sobbing son from the seat into his arms and lounged back against the bonnet of the sports car cradling the little boy with supreme cool.
‘Oh, dear heaven...’ Winnie whispered, dry-mouthed. ‘Eros knows.’
Her grandfather said something very rude in Greek about Eros’s ancestors.
‘I can’t leave,’ Winnie breathed shakily. ‘There’s no way I can leave Teddy here.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll come back for him. Nevrakis can’t guard him 24/7,’ Stam Fotakis growled. ‘Nor can he keep him from his mother.’
But Winnie was unconvinced. She studied Eros, the man she had married mere hours earlier. She didn’t need to speak to him to understand exactly what he was telling her. His message was etched in the slumberous relaxation of his lean, powerful physique as he leant back against the car and in the steady direction of his gaze. He had Teddy, and in their son he held all the cards that could possibly be played.
‘Winnie...’ Her grandfather rested a heavy hand on her rigid shoulder. ‘Listen to me.’
‘No,’ she said curtly. ‘Listening to you is where I went wrong. If I don’t go back, Eros will fight tooth and nail to keep Teddy and I will not risk losing my son.’
‘I won’t let him do that.’
‘He’s already outwitted you and you hate him. I can’t trust your promises when it comes to the well-being of the most important person in my life,’ Winnie muttered shakily, stepping back from her siblings’ attempts to offer her sympathy. ‘I’m going back.’
‘But you can’t!’ Vivi exclaimed. ‘You didn’t sign up for that!’
‘Winnie has to go back for Teddy. What else can she do now?’ Zoe groaned.
Winnie watched Eros straighten as she climbed back down into the tender that would whisk her back to shore. She watched him smile with satisfaction, the fierce gratified smile of a man who knew he had won the most important game he would ever play. It was a game very much centred on family.
She had played the same game and lost, alongside her grandfather, she acknowledged between gritted teeth, ready to spontaneously combust with anger, resentment and anxiety about the kind of welcome that awaited her on shore.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ANOTHER CAR DREW up at the harbour and Winnie waited while the car seat was installed, freezing into stillness as Eros approached her and extended Teddy, who was sleepily snuffling and tear-stained. Her husband’s silence unnerved her as much as the chill in the emerald-green eyes welded to her flushed and discomfited face. Eros turned the sports car and drove off ahead of them, her transport whisking her at a more sedate pace back up to the house on the hill and the reception she had vacated in such a panic. Still half-asleep, Teddy clung to her.
Emerging from the vehicle, Winnie stilled and bit at the soft underside of her lower lip. ‘What now?’ she whispered unevenly as Eros stalked up to her.
Eros’s brilliant gaze flashed like a storm warning between lush black lashes. ‘Now we entertain our guests until their departure. Luckily for us, your grandfather is not known for his company manners. That he left early with your sisters will not surprise anyone. You went down to the harbour merely to say goodbye to your family.’
His icy intonation had scoured every scrap of colour from Winnie’s cheeks. ‘We have to talk.’
‘After the wedding,’ Eros traded with sardonic emphasis. ‘I refuse to parade my mistakes in front of an audience.’
Her teeth clenched so tightly at his ready admission that marrying her had been a mistake that she hurt her gums. Even so, she swallowed hard on an acid retort because, whether she liked it or not, discretion made better sense, particularly when it would protect Teddy from witnessing the conflict between his parents.
What remained of the afternoon and early evening felt unbearably long and was an unimaginable strain for Winnie. Her jaw ached from smiling and with the amount of effort required to keep Teddy entertained and in a good mood. It felt like a relief to pop her son into a bath after a quick supper and then hand him over to the hovering nanny until it occurred to her that she still had to face Eros.
For a bridegroom, Eros had contrived to give her a very wide berth since their return to the reception and when one of the guests had expressed surprise at the newly married couple’s failure to take to the dance floor, Eros had smoothly concocted the excuse that his bride was suffering from a recently sprained ankle that was still tender.
Yes, Winnie was learning all sorts of unwelcome facts about the man she had married, facts that were distinctly unsettling. Eros was outrageously nimble and versatile in a tight corner and a far better dissembler than her grandfather, who had struggled to conceal his hostility throughout the wedding. With Machiavellian cunning, Eros had masked his suspicions yet still contrived to coolly outmanoeuvre the older man. Eros had played them all, she recognised angrily, let her make an absolute fool of herself traipsing down to the harbour while knowing from the outset that as long as he retained physical possession of their son, she was unlikely to leave. Eros had won by using Teddy as a weapon and that infuriated her.
As she hovered in the doorway of the fully furnished nursery, listening to Teddy’s drowsy little snuffles as he drifted off to sleep, Eros materialised by her side. She hadn’t heard his approach and she flinched back a step.
‘Let’s go downstairs,’ he suggested, his tone perfectly pleasant and in no way threatening.
But Winnie wasn’t hoodwinked because she gazed up into that lean, darkly handsome face and collided with green sea-glass eyes as cool and cutting as ice shards and her tummy turned over sickly as if she were falling from a great height.
‘I’ve dismissed the staff for the night,’ Eros volunteered. ‘They’ll clean up tomorrow. The nanny, Agathe, will be staying, however, for Teddy’s benefit.’
‘I am capable of looking after my son on my own,’ Winnie framed curtly.
‘Are you?’ Eros sounded dubious on that score.
Determined to retain her temper, Winnie compressed her generous mouth as she traversed the stairs ahead of him.
‘After all,’ Eros continued, refined as a polished steel rapier in her wake, ‘you were ready to sa
crifice my relationship with Teddy, regardless of how losing his father would affect him.’
‘No, I wasn’t. You would still have had access to him whenever you wanted!’ Winnie argued vehemently as she whirled round in the echoing hall, which was far too grand in size and space for comfort.
His beautiful shapely mouth curled in disagreement. ‘Not if your grandfather had anything to do with it. I think we both know that Stam had every intention of writing me back out of Teddy’s life!’
‘That may be true but I’m Teddy’s parent and I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen,’ Winnie claimed with spirit, too overwrought to stand still and walking restively through the huge reception room ahead, which was still littered with glasses. Indeed with all the debris from the wedding reception, it made her think of a ghost ship abandoned by its crew.
‘Thankfully you are no longer Teddy’s sole parent,’ Eros ground out with grim emphasis, watching her cross the ballroom at speed to head through the nearest doors onto the terrace outside. For Eros it was like being brought back to the scene of the crime...an unwelcome reminder of the wedding that hadn’t really been a wedding and the blushing bride, who had never intended to be a bride. His temper was as raw-edged as the sharpest knife. ‘Now you have to share that responsibility with me.’
‘I don’t intend to share anything with you!’ Winnie flung back at him over her shoulder as she reached the fresh air and drank it in deep, struggling to control the nerves flashing through her and the confused emotions bombarding her. She would not allow Eros to make her feel ashamed of what she had done, she swore to herself. Sometimes life enforced unpleasant choices and she had done the best she could with poor prospects.