The Greek's Convenient Cinderella

by Lynne Graham

  ‘You married me to save Posy from an unhappy childhood. You didn’t want the money for yourself. Obviously, that makes a difference.’

  Tansy lifted a cool, doubting brow. ‘Does it? You referred to renegotiating terms. That’s business talk.’

  ‘I was trying to be cool, clever. I shot myself in the foot,’ Jude breathed in a driven undertone. ‘I got it wrong. I get a lot of things wrong with you, but I don’t really know how to tell you what I’m feeling right now…’

  ‘Honest and simple works best for me,’ Tansy told him, stabbing a fork into a piece of avocado, savouring its flavour while he studied her in growing frustration. She marvelled at the perfection of his lean bronzed features, the piercing intensity of his extraordinary eyes, and forgave herself for getting too attached to him. After all, she was only human.

  Jude straightened his broad shoulders and rose to his full height. ‘Thee mou… I fell in love with you! I wasn’t expecting it and I didn’t immediately recognise it, so I messed up everything. I didn’t even realise how I had changed until you began referring to us getting a divorce and it bothered me. I didn’t want the clock to start ticking on a separation either.’

  Her fork fell out of her nerveless hand with a clatter. ‘You f-fell in love with me?’ she stammered in disbelief.

  ‘Understandably, I don’t want a separation or a divorce now but there is no allowance for a change of heart in the terms of our marriage agreement. Nobody, least of all me, foresaw this development and, of course, it alters everything between us. I need you to give me the chance to prove that this can be a real marriage.’

  Tansy had stopped breathing as well as eating. ‘A real marriage,’ she echoed weakly.

  ‘I can see this has been a shock to you as well,’ Jude commented, hunkering down beside her to settle dark golden eyes on her transfixed face. ‘You’ll need time to think about this.’

  ‘Don’t try and wriggle out of it again,’ Tansy whispered with dancing eyes. ‘You said you loved me… I want to hear the proof.’

  ‘How do you prove something like that?’ Jude groaned. ‘The practical marriage I originally intended would exclude almost everything we have done together. I tell you everything. I’ve told you stuff I’ve never told another living soul. I feel very comfortable with you in every situation. You’re very grounded, very calm and thoughtful. I appreciate that because I’m more volatile and impulsive. I think we are a very good match but whether we are or not doesn’t matter because, at the end of the day, I don’t want to go on living if I haven’t got you beside me…’

  Tansy dug her hands into his T-shirt and dragged him closer, almost knocking him off balance. ‘Be warned. I won’t let you live without me. I’m hopelessly in love with you but I’m terrified this is all some insane misunderstanding and any minute now I’m going to wake up and realise it was all just a dream!’

  Jude’s dark golden eyes blazed like molten metal as he vaulted upright and lifted her up out of her chair. ‘It’s not a dream. I was just a little too slow to recognise how I felt about you. There’s been no special woman in my life since Althea and what I feel for you is much deeper than anything I ever felt for her.’

  ‘Honestly?’ she pressed as he brought her down on the bed and kissed her breathless.

  ‘That was all first love, hurt pride and ego.’

  ‘I still don’t understand why Althea let you down in the first place,’ Tansy admitted ruefully.

  ‘We were each other’s first,’ Jude murmured. ‘Even though we had no problems in that department, she was determined to try sex with someone else as a comparison.’

  ‘Oh…’ Tansy’s green eyes had rounded in surprise at that information.

  ‘So…’ Jude purred, staring down at her with a new tenderness glowing in his beautiful eyes and a dazzling smile tilting his lips. ‘You will have to content yourself to never ever having a comparison.’

  ‘I’m very attached to what I got first time around,’ Tansy confided as she struggled to extract him from his T-shirt. ‘In fact, so keen am I that I just enjoy try, try, trying you again.’

  Wicked amusement lit his amazing eyes. ‘I love you so much,’ he husked, claiming her parted lips again in a passionate kiss.

  The robe fell open, exposing pale silky skin, and Jude took full advantage. Both salad and conversation were forgotten as the fever of desire took over and drew added fire from the depth of their new attachment. Passion and excitement combined until Tansy finally flopped back against the pillows and gazed at Jude with loving tenderness in her eyes.

  ‘Why on earth did you talk about renegotiating terms when you loved me?’ she demanded without comprehension.

  ‘When you told me you were pregnant I panicked because I assumed that you would also be thinking of that clause in our prenup and you had already mentioned the prospect of us getting a divorce,’ Jude reminded her. ‘I honestly believed that you might already be planning to walk out on our marriage.’

  ‘Idiot!’ Tansy scolded, running gentle fingers along his strong stubbled jawline. ‘You were the guy who warned me not to get too attached—’

  ‘When I was already insanely attached to you…only I hadn’t put a label on those feelings.’ Jude flung his head back with a sigh, skimming narrowed dark golden eyes to her. ‘It wasn’t until you said this morning that you were pregnant that I realised why I was so happy with you.’

  ‘And then you decided you needed to renegotiate.’ Tansy grimaced.

  ‘Not my most shining moment. But after getting to know Posy, I am incredibly excited about our baby,’ he confided, warming that cold spot that his silence had inflicted earlier that day. ‘I love her too…you know that, don’t you?’

  ‘There’s a lot of love in the air right now.’

  ‘But it was you who taught me to love again. Until I met you, I was so closed off from my emotions that I couldn’t even see Isidore’s affection for me,’ he confided guiltily. ‘I misinterpreted everything he did. I saw my mother’s pain and blamed Isidore for it, but it wasn’t his fault that my father was continually unfaithful to Clio, and I can understand that at the end of the day he chose to support his son, only he shouldn’t have been so cruel about it.’

  ‘She’s your mother and she did suffer at their hands. Your father treated her badly and her experiences with him are still influencing her now. There’s not much you can do about that.’ Tansy sighed. ‘But, thankfully, Isidore looks spry enough to be around for many years more and you still have the chance to show him that you care.’

  ‘He really likes you. When he hears about the baby, you’ll be the eighth wonder of the world!’ Jude teased.

  ‘I’m more worried about keeping Posy with us,’ she admitted anxiously.

  Cradling her tenderly in his arms, Jude gazed down at her with an air of satisfaction. ‘I have good news on that front…although it’s not good for your stepfather. I received a call about him late last night and another confirming his situation only an hour ago.’

  Tansy stared at him. ‘Calls from whom?’

  ‘His former employers, my UK legal team. Apparently, Hetherington was helping himself to money from clients’ accounts at the legal firm. That’s why they laid him off—they needed time to bring in a forensic accountant to investigate. They have concrete proof now and he’s been charged with theft. He’ll go to prison,’ he forecast grimly.

  Shaken by those facts, Tansy swallowed hard. ‘Prison? My goodness, Calvin is not going to like that.’

  ‘He was in a position of trust. That kind of crime is severely punished.’

  Tansy nodded, shaken to think of Calvin in a prison cell and so grateful that her little sister had been safely removed from the fallout of such a crisis.

  ‘If he agrees to surrender his parental rights to Posy, I will offer him the services of the best criminal defence lawyer in the UK,’ Jude told h
er. ‘I think he’ll go for it. After all, he’s not interested in his daughter and doesn’t want the responsibility for her. The lawyer won’t be able to get him off the charges, but he may well be able to win him a shorter sentence.’

  ‘Let’s hope he accepts your offer,’ Tansy murmured heavily. ‘You know I never liked him, but I’m shocked that he was actually stealing.’

  ‘I bet you made all sorts of allowances for him because your mother loved him. You have too much heart, but I’m not about to complain when you managed to fall in love with me even though I was behaving like a four-letter word of a guy.’

  ‘I want to record that admission and use it against you in the future,’ Tansy confided with eyes brimming with laughter as she laced her fingers in his ruffled black curls and drew him down to her again.

  ‘You do realise that I’m never ever letting you go?’

  ‘Cuts both ways,’ Tansy warned cheerfully.

  ‘How could I not love a woman who makes me this happy?’ Jude purred, stretching against her, lithe and lazy, and pulling her close. ‘You’re my personal gift of sunshine and I love you.’

  The same happiness swelled inside Tansy, assuaging all fear and insecurity. He loved her. He loved Posy and hadn’t she seen that love in action? And he would love their baby as well. Contentment settled over her as she closed her arms round him, full of joy and love and possessiveness and no longer afraid of what tomorrow would bring.

  EPILOGUE

  FOUR YEARS LATER, Tansy sat on the beach on Rhodes, enjoying the sunshine while Posy and her little brother, Bay, built a sandcastle. Posy chattered incessantly, telling Bay what to do, groaning when his foot knocked a carefully built wall flying. Bay’s mouth compressed and he loosed a shout of frustration, kneeling down and striving to rebuild what he had ruined.

  ‘Let him have a go,’ Tansy urged Posy before she could take over and do it for him.

  ‘He can’t do it,’ Posy muttered in a long-suffering tone.

  Tansy watched without surprise as her son carefully, clumsily patted the wall back into place. It was neither so neat nor so tall a wall as it had been, but it was a good effort for so young a child. He had phenomenal concentration for a toddler, and he preferred to build rather than destroy. Satisfied, he stepped back, watching Posy stick the plastic flag on top, and he beamed.

  ‘Daddy see,’ he said with decision.

  Hearing voices, Tansy got up from the lounger she was on. She was slow because she was five months into her second pregnancy. Pulling on a beach dress, she heard the children yell, ‘Pappi!’ in excitement and race off to greet Isidore, who could always be depended on to visit with toys and treats.

  Kerry, who had stayed in their employ, began shepherding the children back to the castle, but Bay was clinging like a leech to his father’s leg, determined that Jude should first admire his castle.

  The little boy looked very like his father, but he had Tansy’s streaky light hair, though it was curly rather than wavy. Jude grinned at Tansy and performed the official sandcastle inspection for the kids, making acceptable noises of admiration. Isidore swept up Posy, who was chattering away to him.

  Since Tansy and Jude had settled into a more permanent home in the UK, Isidore had become a frequent visitor. He loved to see his great-grandson and he did not make a difference between Bay and Posy, which had won over Tansy to his side. Jude had, however, had some difficult conversations with his grandfather about his mother and Isidore had acknowledged the part he had played in Clio’s breakdown, admitting that his punitive approach and his unhesitating support of his son had gone too far.

  He had made a magnificent cash gift to the Villa Bardani gardens in an act of contrition but Clio had had to be persuaded to accept it. Jude and Tansy visited Clio in Italy, but she had yet to visit them because she refused to leave her garden. While fences were gradually being mended and a new spirit of openness was growing in the family, they had yet to persuade Clio and Isidore to occupy the same room at a family gathering. Even so, Clio had made tentative moves towards being friendlier with Tansy, and the older woman was unreservedly fond of her grandson, Bay. These days Jude was a little more relaxed in his mother’s company and she uttered fewer dire warnings about the likelihood of his continuing fidelity. Tansy was hoping that, for Clio, the past was finally staying in the past.

  Her stepfather was still in prison. He had received a heavy sentence for his crimes in spite of the excellent defence that his lawyer had made for him in court. That he had embezzled the funds of a disabled client had counted heavily against him. He had, however, surrendered his paternal rights over his daughter and, eighteen months after his court case, Jude and Tansy had become Posy’s adoptive parents.

  ‘We’re dining on the yacht tonight, birthday girl,’ Jude reminded Tansy. ‘And you’re all sunburned and covered in sand.’

  It was her twenty-seventh birthday. Tansy lowered her lashes and then looked up at the husband she adored with gleaming green eyes of innocence. ‘I suppose you’ll have to harass me into the shower. Maybe you should have married a more decorative woman, who makes more effort.’

  ‘But would she be as hot and willing in the shower with me?’ Jude husked in her ear.

  Tansy went red. ‘Who can tell?’

  ‘I can,’ Jude purred, running a possessive hand down her slender spine as Isidore, the nanny and the children disappeared into the castle. ‘I choose the sex bomb every time.’

  ‘I don’t look like one of those right now,’ Tansy lamented. ‘I’m all tummy—’

  ‘That’s my baby in there…that’s wonderfully sexy,’ Jude insisted, pausing on the path to crush her ripe pink mouth under his, tugging her up against his lean, powerful body and sending her temperature rocketing sky-high.

  In the bedroom he presented her with an eternity ring. ‘Eternity won’t be long enough for me with you,’ he swore.

  Giggling helplessly at that high-flown assurance, Tansy headed for the bathroom, only to be scooped off her feet and taken there even quicker than her own feet could have carried her. Off came the beach wrap and the bikini beneath. Jude knelt at her feet, nuzzling against her swollen stomach while his deft and clever fingers made her writhe and gasp.

  ‘We’re heading out on a moonlight cruise, special dinner, all that jazz,’ he told her thickly as she moaned at the zenith of her climax and went limp against him. ‘I’m making you pay in advance in case you fall asleep early on me.’

  ‘Took a nap this afternoon. I love you,’ she whispered contentedly against his shoulder.

  ‘And I adore you, Mrs Alexandris. You’re the sun at the centre of my world,’ Jude swore with passionate certainty.

  Coming next month

  PRIDE & THE ITALIAN’S PROPOSAL

  Kate Hewitt

  ‘I judge on what I see,’ Fausto allowed as he captured her queen easily. She looked unfazed by the move, as if she’d expected it, although to Fausto’s eye it had seemed a most inexpert choice. ‘Doesn’t everyone do the same?’

  ‘Some people are more accepting than others.’

  ‘Is that a criticism?’

  ‘You seem cynical,’ Liza allowed.

  ‘I consider myself a realist,’ Fausto returned, and she laughed, a crystal-clear sound that seemed to reverberate through him like the ringing of a bell.

  ‘Isn’t that what every cynic says?’

  ‘And what are you? An optimist?’ He imbued the word with the necessary scepticism.

  ‘I’m a realist. I’ve learned to be.’ For a second she looked bleak, and Fausto realised he was curious.

  ‘And where did you learn that lesson?’

  She gave him a pert look, although he still saw a shadow of that unsettling bleakness in her eyes. ‘From people such as yourself.’ She moved her knight—really, what was she thinking there? ‘Your move.’

  Fausto’s gaze quickly swept the board and he moved a pawn
. ‘I don’t think you know me well enough to have learned such a lesson,’ he remarked.

  ‘I’ve learned it before, and in any case I’m a quick study.’ She looked up at him with glinting eyes, a coy smile flirting about her mouth. A mouth Fausto had a sudden, serious urge to kiss. The notion took him so forcefully and unexpectedly that he leaned forward a little over the game, and Liza’s eyes widened in response, her breath hitching audibly as surprise flashed across her features.

  For a second, no more, the very air between them felt tautened, vibrating with sexual tension and expectation. It would be so very easy to close the space between their mouths. So very easy to taste her sweetness, drink deep from that lovely, luscious well.

  Of course he was going to do no such thing. He could never consider a serious relationship with Liza Benton; she was not at all the sort of person he was expected to marry and, in any case, he’d been burned once before, when he’d been led by something so consuming and changeable as desire.

  As for a cheap affair…the idea had its tempting merits, but he knew he had neither the time nor inclination to act on it. An affair would be complicated and distracting, a reminder he needed far too much in this moment.

  Fausto leaned back, thankfully breaking the tension, and Liza’s smile turned cat-like, surprising him. She looked so knowing, as if she’d been party to every thought in his head, which thankfully she hadn’t been, and was smugly informing him of that fact.

  ‘Checkmate,’ she said softly and, jolted, Fausto stared at her blankly before glancing down at the board.

  ‘That’s impossible,’ he declared as his gaze moved over the pieces and, with another jolt, he realised it wasn’t. She’d put him in checkmate and he hadn’t even realised his king had been under threat. He’d indifferently moved a pawn while she’d neatly spun her web. Disbelief warred with a scorching shame as well as a reluctant admiration. All the while he’d assumed she’d been playing an amateurish, inexperienced game, she’d been neatly and slyly laying a trap.