IN THE GREEK TYCOON’S BED

They’re dangerously handsome and

impossibly wealthy….

They’re used to having it all….

The secluded beaches of their private

islands make the perfect setting for red-hot

seduction….

These Greek billionaires will stop at nothing

to bed their chosen mistresses—

women who find themselves powerless

to resist being pleasured….

IN THE GREEK TYCOON’S BED

At the mercy of a ruthless

Mediterranean billionaire…

CATHY WILLIAMS was born in the West Indies and has been writing Harlequin romances for some fifteen years. She is a great believer in the power of perseverance, as she had never written anything before (apart from school essays a lifetime ago!), and from the starting point of zero has now fulfilled her ambition to pursue this most enjoyable of careers. She would encourage any would-be writer to have faith and go for it!

She lives in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside with her husband and three children, Charlotte, Olivia and Emma. When not writing she is hard-pressed to find a moment’s free time in between the millions of household chores, not to mention being a one-woman taxi service for her daughters’ never-ending social lives.

She derives inspiration from the hot, lazy, tropical island of Trinidad (where she was born), from the peaceful countryside of middle England and, of course, from her many friends, who are a rich source of plots and are particularly garrulous when it comes to describing romance-novel heroes. It would seem, from their complaints, that tall, dark and charismatic men are way too few and far between! Her hope is to continue writing romance fiction and providing those eternal tales of love for which, she feels, we all strive.

The Greek’s Forbidden Bride

~ IN THE GREEK TYCOON’S BED ~

Cathy Williams

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ONE

FROM the sprawling veranda outside his bedroom Theo Toyas had a clear and unimpeded view of the drive leading up to his grandfather’s fabulous villa. It was six-thirty in the afternoon, and the ferocious heat of the day was beginning to give way to something a little more acceptable. Even so, it was still too hot for anything other than a pair of light chinos and a short-sleeved shirt.

In one hand he nursed a whisky on the rocks, which he had been periodically sipping for the past half-hour, content to just sit back on the cushioned wicker lounging chair and watch the scenery. And the scenery was indeed magnificent. To the right, just a short walk from his bedroom, was a stunning infinity pool overlooking Santorini’s famous flooded volcano. Meticulously manicured gardens swept around the pool and curved towards the drive, which had been impressively designed to give the illusion of dropping off the side of the caldera.

He had forgotten how tranquil and soporific the place was, but then again he rarely visited the villa. In fact, appreciating scenery was something Theo didn’t do much of. He simply didn’t have the time. He lived his life between London, Athens and New York, controlling the vast shipping empire which his great-grandfather had founded and which was now his legacy. Taking time out was almost unthinkable.

But then an eightieth birthday was not something that came around often and his grandfather’s eightieth, to be celebrated in the villa on the very island where he had met his wife, was the equivalent of a royal summons. Most of the family members who lived on mainland Greece would be there for just the party, flying in on private planes which had been chartered for the purpose. Others, from as far afield as Canada, would be staying for the full week at the villa, or else hiving off to stay with other family members in other parts of Greece, some of whom they had not seen for a very long time.

Theo planned to stay for three days only, long enough to pay his respects and toast his grandfather’s health before resuming his ferociously work fuelled life in London.

A taxi had stopped on the drive and he watched through narrowed eyes as first Michael, his brother, emerged from the car and then his companion.

So this was it. He was finally going to see this mysterious woman who had suddenly appeared on the scene. It had come as a source of relief to everyone, not least his mother and his grandfather. Theo might be single, yes, but he ostensibly enjoyed the company of women. He was also a pragmatist and fully comprehended the advantages of marrying the right girl with the right connections. He would, he had once dryly told them both, be married by forty. In the meantime, they were not to interfere with his private life.

Michael had always been another kettle of fish. Five years younger, he had always been a fragile child, prone to bouts of ill health. Whereas Theo had been sent to boarding school in England from the age of thirteen, something that had gone some way to giving him the hard-edged independence that had become the cornerstone of his formidable personality, Michael had been kept at home. Lina Toyas had not been able to face sending her delicate, sensitive son away from her. She had always worried about him and she still did. The fact that he had never brought home any nice girls to meet her had been just one more thing to worry about. He was shy, she knew, and shy men could often become lonely bachelors and that, for her, would have been a fate worse than death.

The sudden appearance of a girlfriend had brought tears of joy to Lina’s eyes.

Theo, in receipt of this emotional telephone call, had been less thrilled.

Things didn’t add up and he knew, as a shrewd businessman, that if something didn’t add up then it was most probably wrong.

How was it that the name Abigail Clinton had never once crossed his brother’s lips? Surely if they had been an item he would have mentioned her somewhere along the line, in one of the many calls he made to his mother in Greece from his home in Brighton? In fact, the girl’s name had only been uttered a fortnight ago, when he had amazingly announced that he was engaged to an English girl and would be bringing her to his grandfather’s birthday celebrations in Santorini.

Theo had tactfully refrained from voicing any of his suspicions to his mother. He intended to use his brief stay at the villa constructively. He would watch, question and determine whether the girl was, as he suspected, after his brother’s money. Because Michael lived in Brighton and ran a couple of restaurants and a nightclub did not mean that he was unaffected by the fabulous Toyas wealth. In fact, he owned a great deal of highly valuable shares in the company and the trust fund into which he occasionally dipped was well beyond most people’s wildest dreams. He lived a modest enough lifestyle, and at first glance might just come across as being an up-and-coming successful young businessman. That, as Theo knew only too well, was only the tip of the iceberg, just his brother modestly disassociating himself from the vast fortune that was attached to his name. Anyone interested in tapping into the mother lode would only have to do some rudimentary detective work and he was pretty sure that was exactly what had happened.

He was equally sure that he would do anything in his power to prevent his brother being exploited. Although he worried less about Michael than his mother did, he was still very protective of him. Michael trusted people, a huge drawback in life as far as Theo was concerned. To trust was to be vulnerable. Only fools were vulnerable.

He sat forward, black eyes hard as he focused on the girl emerging from the taxi. She was slight in stature, with long, very blonde hair, almost white-blonde in fact, which fell down her back in one perfectly satin-smooth, straight curtain. She kept playing with it, lifting it with one hand into a makeshift ponytail and then letting it drop, and all the while she stared around her, lips parted, taking in the opulence of the surroundings.

Clocking the price tag around Michael’s neck, Theo thought cynically to himself.

Still, he conceded grudgingly, the boy had taste. He couldn’t see the details of the girl’s face but she was neatly built with slim legs and very slender arms. A boyish figure, barely filling the short, strappy dress. Unlike him, Michael had never shown the least interest in the voluptuous, sexy girls that Greece boasted.

He watched as suitcases were taken out of the taxi, his mind ticking along its ruthlessly logical path. When they disappeared from view he pushed himself off the lounger and sauntered into his bedroom, draining the remainder of the whisky in one gulp and dumping the empty glass on the sideboard in the room.

His room was typical of most of the many rooms in the enormous villa. It was luxuriously but simply furnished. The stained wooden floor was dominated by a large, brightly patterned rug and the walls were painted a pale terracotta, an effective backdrop for the cream curtains that hung from floor to ceiling. Against one wall was an impressive Syrian chest embellished with mother-of-pearl and above that hung a darkly compelling painting of the island’s famous volcano by twilight. The majority of the furniture was of dark wood, which gave the room a decadent, opulent feel.

Theo barely noticed any of it. He was busy thinking, working out the best way to approach the girl without rousing his brother’s suspicions or incurring his mother’s displeasure. The latter, he thought to himself, would be slightly more of a challenge.

And who, he thought with a small smile, ever said that Theo Toyas didn’t appreciate a challenge?

He was still contemplating the technicalities of revealing this gold-digger in their midst when, an hour later, he made his way to one of the sitting areas where he knew drinks would already be underway for the guests who had arrived. Not that many of them had so far. Most would be descending the following day, but on this first night there would essentially be just close family members. His grandfather, of course, and his mother, as well as uncles and aunts and their various offspring. And Michael and the woman.

Drinks were being served in the sitting area which overlooked the back gardens. He had spent a couple of pleasantly invigorating hours here earlier on with his mother, arguing the practicality of lighting up the outside area with lanterns and had, as he had expected, lost the debate. As he entered the sitting area, though, he had to admit that the effect was stunning.

The gardens seemed alive with giant fireflies and several of the guests were outside having their drinks, seduced by the romance of the scenery.

‘I admit it looks rather splendid,’ Theo said, grabbing a drink en route and strolling up to where his mother was quietly contemplating the stage she had masterfully set.

Lina turned to her eldest son and smiled. ‘George likes it too. He fussed and fretted about all the effort involved, but look at him out there, puffing and preening like a peacock and accepting all the compliments. It is just a shame that your father is no longer around. He would have enjoyed the moment.’

Theo slung his arm around his mother’s shoulder and nodded. ‘We haven’t had one of these family gatherings since…since that wedding five years ago. Elena and Stefano.’

‘They will be here tomorrow. Along with their two children.’ Lina turned to him and gave him a long, critical look. She was, he freely admitted, the only human being on the face of the earth who could look at him like that and get away with it. ‘It could have been you,’ she pointed out, without bothering to beat about the bush. ‘You are not a young boy any longer. This dynasty needs its heirs, Theo.’

‘And they will be produced,’ Theo murmured placatingly, ‘all in good time.’

‘Alexis Papaeliou will be coming,’ Lina ventured. ‘She would be a good match, Theo. Her grandfather grew up with George. They still keep in touch now, even though it is not as easy as it once was.’

‘Papaeliou…yes the name rings a bell. Alexis, pretty name, and I have to admit that three months of celibacy is beginning to get to me.’ He grinned as his mother blushed furiously at his outrageously personal observation, and then indulged her as she reminded him that he was bordering on being disrespectful. Her voice was teasingly indulgent, however, as he had known it would be.

‘Of course,’ he said lightly, looking out to the gardens and the clusters of chattering people with drinks in their hands, ‘there is no rush for me now, is there? With Michael having won the race to secure a bride…’

‘Now, Theo…’

‘I am merely making an observation, dearest Mama…’

‘In a tone of voice which I am not sure I like. I have met the young woman and she seems perfectly friendly, if a little dazed at the surroundings.’

I’ll just bet, Theo thought to himself. The dazedness, he reckoned, would last just about as long as it took her to add up the millions looming just over the horizon. He opened his mouth to share some of these thoughts with his mother, and then thought better of it. She often accused him of cynicism and she would have a very good reason for doing so again now, although he preferred to use the term cautious.

‘Where are they?’ he asked casually.

‘They’ll be down in a short while,’ Lina said. ‘And Theo…be good.’

‘Mama, I am always good.’ He looked down at her and smiled as she shook her head and sighed. ‘Michael loves this woman. I can see that. Do not spoil anything…’

‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ Theo said noncommittally, and before he could be boxed into a corner, making promises he had no intention of keeping, he moved away, tugging his mother with him so that he could mingle with the guests.

But he was watching the French doors, all eight of them, which were thrown open to accommodate the easy flux of the guests as they went inside to sit, before strolling back out, drawn by the warmth and the seductive glow of the lanterns. His mind was half on the conversation he was having when they arrived. As soon as she saw the scene outside her hand flew to Michael’s arm and he clasped it with his own, a gesture of reassurance. Theo watched as she looked up at Michael and said something and his brother smiled down at her, clearly urging her not to feel intimidated.

A charming charade, he thought. Was it for the benefit of his brother or for the congregation of people, who were now glancing over with interest in their direction?

Her outfit was certainly designed to impress the guests with her innocence. The pale dress was a testament to modesty. The neckline was rounded and buttoned to the top and although it did hug her top half the bottom swung in a swirl around her to her knees. And it was pink, the lightest of pinks, a colour associated with children. There she stood, hesitant and nervous and looking like the innocent he would have bet his bottom dollar she wasn’t. The white-blonde hair was tied back in a neat braid, leaving her smooth, vulnerable neck exposed. In fact, he thought, that was precisely what she looked. Vulnerable. He gritted his teeth together impatiently and headed towards them, altering his expression as he approached and going through the genuine motions of greeting his brother before turning to her.

‘My fiancée,’ Michael said, grinning, ‘Abby. Although I expect you have probably heard. News,’ he said, turning to Abby, ‘travels through this family at the speed of sound.’

Abby smiled and tried very hard to ignore the presence of the man standing next to Michael. He spoke a lot about his brother, Theo, whom he obviously admired, and in her head she had conjured up an image of someone not unlike Michael. Gentle, thoughtful, with the same teasing humour that had made her warm to him instantly.

She couldn’t have been further from the truth.

There was nothing gentle about this man, although he was chatting easily enough with them. Even in the looks department he had somehow managed to take the dark good looks that Michael possessed and push them to the outer limits. His black hair was longer than his brother’s, curling into the nape of his neck, and his eyes were like flint. Even his features were somehow harder and more ruthlessly defined. It all added up to a package that was intimidating, that sent little cold shivers of fear racing up and down her spine, although she had no idea why she should be afraid.

He was talking to her now, asking her something about the weather in Brighton, a perfectly harmless question, but when Abby looked at him she had the unnerving impression that something dark and threatening was stirring just below the surface.

She also found that her eyes were riveted to his face, which was compelling and scary at the same time.

She edged closer to Michael and knew that Theo had noticed that small shift in her stance, although his face remained impassively polite, his head tilted to one side with every semblance of hanging on to what she was going to say.

The man exuded power and menace. She heard herself stammering out some nonsense about winter by the coast, followed by another humdrum remark about the lovely weather here, how super it was to actually be able to stand outside in the evening. In the middle of her tortured reply Michael removed himself so that he could see his mother and fetch them both a drink, leaving her floundering in sudden, inexplicable panic.

‘You can’t be that warm,’ Theo drawled. He, too, shifted his stance, although it was to block her off from the guests behind him. In a minute he knew that his mother would descend upon them and he intended to let no part of his time be wasted. ‘You’re trembling.’

‘Oh, I’m just…a little nervous, I suppose.’ Abby looked away. ‘All these people…’

‘Surely you are not nervous of mixing with our family. They are a perfectly ordinary bunch.’ He didn’t smile when he said this. He just kept looking at her in that way that made her wonder what was going through his head. ‘Although I can understand that tackling Michael on his own might be a little different to dealing with…the rest of us.’

‘What do you mean by tackling?’ Abby asked sharply.

‘Why don’t you come and meet the rest of the clan?’ Theo placed a hand on her arm to usher her in the direction of the assorted guests and he felt her instinctive urge to pull away.

Not, he thought grimly, the sign of someone madly in love with his brother and with nothing to hide. With easy aplomb he directed her to his mother, taking time out to observe her reactions, and then he continued to watch her throughout the rest of the evening. His brother was as solicitous as he had expected and away from him she seemed to relax.

But then no one else was questioning her presence on the island and in his brother’s life.

Supper was served in the dining room, which had been built for entertaining. The table could seat twenty comfortably and Theo made sure that he nabbed a chair directly facing her, a position from which he could make his presence felt without being obvious about it. As was usual at these family affairs, the drink flowed and the conversation became more rowdy as the evening wore on. His grandfather, he was pleased to see, was in his element. Eighty, he exclaimed at one point during the evening, somewhere between the main course and the coffee, was just another two digit number!

By the time the liqueurs had arrived some of the guests had drifted off to bed, including his mother. The remainder were finding excuses to raise their glasses and toast anything and everything. When there was a lull in the raucous conversation, Theo banged his spoon on the table and waited until all heads had swivelled in his direction.

Abby, he noticed, was more cautious than expectant. Was she wondering what he was going to say? Her eyes were certainly watchful. And beautiful eyes she had too. Eyes designed to trap a man, or at least a man who had no great experience of the opposite sex. Brown, widely spaced eyes that he reckoned could turn sultry without too much difficulty. He raised his glass directly at her and drawled, ‘To the beautiful Abigail Clinton on her engagement to my brother!’ There was a roar of agreement and then he added softly, looking directly at her, ‘Speedy though that engagement might be…’

Abby met his eyes and shivered. In the subdued candlelight his dark, handsome face looked almost devilish, but she raised her glass anyway, tilting her chin defiantly at him.

‘Why waste time when two people know what they want?’ she returned recklessly. With everyone else chatting loudly the conversation had a whispered, electric undercurrent that made her feel as though they were talking somewhere very intimate and very much alone. She resisted the uneasy feeling inside her and shot him a wide, bland smile.

She had hoped to disconcert him but he simply raised his glass to her in a silent toast and gulped down a mouthful, staring at her over the rim of the glass until her nerves got the better of her and she broke the eye contact, desperately searching out Michael, who was oblivious to any undercurrents and was busily telling one of the uncles about his latest venture into night life. She had to cough very loudly to get his attention, but when she finally did she was mightily relieved to see him immediately and unsteadily get to his feet and loudly bid good night to everyone at the table. He held his hand out for her and she practically rushed to take it, making sure not to actually meet Theo’s darkly disturbing gaze as she hurried out of the room.

She only breathed a sigh of relief when they were in their bedroom and the door was firmly locked behind them.

‘So,’ Michael said, ‘what do you think of my family?’

‘Very…lively.’ She smiled back at him and went over to the dressing table where she began untying her long hair, running her fingers through the braid to separate the strands of flaxen blonde. ‘Your mother’s wonderful, so friendly. I’m not sure what I expected. Mothers can be a little possessive when it comes to their sons.’ Their eyes met in the mirror and he grinned at her.

‘Ah, but I am not the first born, thank Heavens. The heaviest expectations are on Theo’s shoulders. Not that he doesn’t live up to them.’

‘You do too, Michael.’

‘Hardly.’ The smile dropped for a minute but then he relaxed and moved behind her, massaging her shoulders until some of the tension eased away from her. ‘You can see why it helps so much that I have brought you along…Abby, you’re the only person I trust and I can’t tell you how much it means to me…’

‘Don’t say it.’ She swung around to face him and pulled him down so that he was kneeling in front of her. ‘I trust you too…we’re good for each other, Michael. It cuts both ways. I only hope…’

‘What?’

‘Your brother doesn’t seem to like me,’ Abby said bluntly. ‘Did you notice? I got the feeling that he was looking at me, I mean really looking at me. When everyone was at the table and he offered that toast to our engagement, he just leaned towards me after everyone else had carried on talking and said something about it being a very speedy engagement.’

‘Don’t worry about Theo,’ Michael said reassuringly. ‘He’s just an older brother. He’s always been like that. We didn’t go to the same schools. He went to England to board, but I can remember him coming back for holidays and he would always be there, at my school gates, making sure that everything was all right.’ A smile of affection lit up Michael’s attractive face. ‘He knew about me being bullied, you see. I didn’t want Mum involved, but Theo wasn’t standing for any of it. He only had to show up a couple of times, and it never happened again. He is like that, Abby. Always there for the family.’

‘Yes, but…’

‘But nothing. Do not worry.’ He stroked her arm fondly. ‘He will be able to see that we are very happy in each other’s company and that will be enough.’

Abby wasn’t too sure. Two hours later her mind was still worryingly focused on Theo, on that dark, sexy face staring at her, considering her, trying to get inside her head.

In the opaque darkness she could make out Michael’s shape on the long, elegant sofa by the window, could see his chest gently rising and falling. Michael would never see the darkness behind the light, he was just that sort of person, but she could see it. Theo Toyas unsettled her. There was a still watchfulness about him that had made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and even now, in the sanctuary of their room, she could still feel that shiver of apprehension just thinking about him.

Things didn’t seem so bad in the morning.

She woke early, missing the comforts of her own place and missing her son. Michael was still sleeping and she smiled fondly at the figure curled under the blanket. He could have shared her bed, he knew that, but he had chosen the sofa and she had been quietly relieved. The only body she was accustomed to sharing her space with was that of a five year old, and it would have been uncomfortable having Michael in bed with her, even though he would have kept to his side. He was not a restless sleeper.

Abby clambered out of bed. Dozing had become a thing of the past. Ever since she had had Jamie her body clock seemed to have been reset to waking up early and collapsing in bed by ten.

She tiptoed across to Michael and gently shook him until he had surfaced into a state of groggy wakefulness.

‘I need to phone Rebecca and speak to Jamie,’ she whispered, stroking back his hair, which was sticking up in odd directions. ‘Where’s the phone in this place? I don’t want to burst into anyone’s bedroom but I might as well call now while everyone’s still asleep.’

‘Out of the bedroom…hmm…’ He half sat up and frowned. ‘God, it’s been so long since I’ve been here…Why don’t you use my mobile instead? You can go down to the pool and call. Out through the front door and then turn right and keep going. Want me to come with you?’

‘And deprive you of your beauty sleep?’ Abby grinned. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’ She spent a scant fifteen minutes washing her face and brushing her hair, then she changed into a pair of cropped jeans and a T-shirt and headed out with Michael’s phone.

This was the first time she had been away from her son and she was missing him as much as she had known she would, even though she knew that he would be fine back in England. He was at school during the day and he adored Rebecca, who had moved in for the duration of the week to look after him.

She was already dialling the number as she made her way outside to the pool area, which was a way away from the front of the house and surrounded by protective foliage. She glanced up once and almost faltered at the beauty of the spot.

Although the gardens were lush, the natural glory of the caldera was in its rocky magnificence, sloping downwards to the still, flat water of the volcano.

She could admire later, she thought, turning her back on both the pool and the view and finding a little spot of privacy on a chair by the side. Right now she needed to get through to her son before he headed off to school.

His voice, when she finally heard it down the end of the line, after a few minutes of chatting to Rebecca, brought an instant smile to her lips. She drew her legs up and leaned back, eyes closed so that she could picture his little face, her long hair tumbling over the back of the chair.

He had a secret. He wasn’t supposed to tell. It took all of ten seconds for him to gleefully inform her that Rebecca had tucked a chocolate bar into his lunch-box. But there was some fruit too, he hastened to assure her. He babbled on, with Abby interjecting here and there, content just to listen to his childish ramblings. In her mind, she could picture him with his toffee-coloured hair rumpled, dwarfed in his uniform, which she had sensibly bought one size up so that it could last a bit longer. His thin legs would be dangling from the kitchen stool and his grey socks would be pushed down because all the other boys wore theirs like that.

‘I’ll call again later,’ she promised, hearing the catch in her voice and taking a deep breath to steady herself. ‘Don’t forget to draw me a picture for when I get back. We can put it up on the notice-board next to the one of the dinosaur.’

From the veranda Theo watched silently as the telephone call was ended and she remained where she was, her face soft, lost in her own private thoughts.

His mouth tightened as he considered her. There was only one thing that could make a woman look like that and it was a man. And there was only one reason why she would have slunk out of the house at the ridiculously early hour of six-thirty to make a call, and it was because she couldn’t afford to make the call in front of Michael.

With the fluid, soundless movements of a panther, he fetched his towel from the bathroom and took the roundabout route to the pool.

Abby, still pleasantly absorbed in thinking about Jamie, was unaware of anyone approaching until he spoke and then she jumped, spinning around in shock.

‘I’m sorry,’ she stammered, half rising as he emerged to stand in front of her. ‘I didn’t hear you coming.’

She felt her skin start to prickle with a mixture of fear and awareness as she took him in.

The full force of his male beauty hit her like a sledgehammer. He was more bronzed than his brother and vibrated with a powerful masculine attraction that Michael somehow lacked. The light of day did nothing to diminish the impression. If anything, he seemed more imposing with the harsh early sun accentuating his strong, hard features and those cold, fathomless eyes that were now boring into her with as little warmth as they had done the night before.

‘I have never developed the habit of sleeping in,’ Theo drawled, ‘even when I am taking time off work. And neither, I gather, have you. I could not help but notice that you were making a phone call.’

‘You mean you were spying on me?’ Abby asked, wondering wildly how long he had been standing behind her before making his presence known. Had he overheard her conversation? She and Michael had agreed that they wouldn’t mention Jamie just yet. One step at a time, he had said, and step one would be to introduce her to his family.

For different reasons, Abby knew that it would be a huge mistake to breathe a word about her son to the man carefully and insolently looking down at her.

‘Now I find that a very odd remark,’ Theo said speculatively. She had looked young and vulnerable last night, in her baby-pink dress, and she still looked young and vulnerable now, even though she was in figure-hugging faded cropped jeans and a T-shirt that barely skimmed her top half, leaving a slither of flat stomach visible. Her hair, he could now see, was a streaky blonde colour, the sort that most women would pay to attain, though he doubted she had been one of them. Young, vulnerable and one hundred per cent natural. Vital ingredients when it came to trapping a man, because what man could resist the charm of the untouched?

‘Why do you imagine that I would be spying on you?’ he asked. ‘Surely that would imply that I might think you have something to hide. And you haven’t, have you…?’

Abby felt telltale colour spread slowly across her cheeks. She was sitting bolt upright; their eyes locked together and she opened her mouth to laugh off his remark but nothing emerged for what seemed like the longest time.

Something to hide. Where to begin? she could have asked. The thought that he might find out anything at all made her skin crawl.

‘I should be going back in,’ she finally said, standing up on trembling legs.

‘Why? No one will get up for at least another hour or so. I’m about to have a swim. Why don’t you join me?’ Theo could have kicked himself. The first rule of making the kill was to avoid scaring off the prey. So what did he do? Jump right in and start with the accusations.

‘Join you?’ Abby asked, aghast. ‘No, really, it’s very kind of you to offer but I’ll leave you in peace…’ She took a couple of steps backwards, and then he smiled. It was a smile of such devastating charm that it almost knocked her sideways.

‘I am a man who finds peace very hard to deal with,’ he murmured persuasively. ‘Is that very sad, do you think?’

‘Yes, yes I do, actually,’ Abby replied breathlessly, and he frowned.

‘Why?’

‘I’ve got to go.’

‘You can’t possibly. It would be cruel of you to call me sad and then run away without bothering to elaborate on it.’

‘Oh, no, I didn’t mean…what I meant was…’

‘Go and get your swimsuit. We can finish this conversation in the pool. Or perhaps you would be happier just to sit by the side of the pool while I swim? Hmm?’

‘Yes! I mean…no!’

‘Besides,’ Theo said lazily, ‘Michael would like us to get to know one another, I am sure. He and I may not have grown up together in the normal fashion, what with me being sent to board from thirteen, but we are still close. He would be appalled if he thought that I…intimidated you…’

CHAPTER TWO

OF COURSE, that was what did it.

The implication that he intimidated her, that she wanted to run away from him.

Abigail thought of herself as something of a fighter. She had brought up Jamie on her own, had gone through the entire pregnancy without the support of anyone, and had been almost mortally wounded by the spectacular collapse of her relationship with her son’s father. She herself had no parents on whom to fall back and no handy network of caring relatives who could rush to her clarion call when she needed them. The only two weapons in her armoury had been her resolve to bring this baby into the world and her determination to give him all the love she was capable of giving.

To have Theo Toyas insinuate that she was running scared was like a red cloth to a bull.

Michael, as she expected, was soundly asleep when she quietly entered the bedroom to get her hat, her sun-cream and her book. The restaurant and nightclub business meant that he kept unsocial hours and could never resist the temptation to lie in whenever he could. She decided against breaking into his deep slumber for the second time to tell him where she was going, and instead headed back out towards the pool.

Just as Theo had predicted, no one was as yet up.

An hour ago it would have sent her into a tailspin to think that she was going to be alone with the man, who she was beginning to think of as a bully whatever Michael had to say on the subject, but now she strode out with the bit very firmly between her teeth.

It was to find him already in the pool, cutting through the water with the fluidity of a fish. She watched for a few minutes, fascinated by the movement of muscle, and then slowly walked towards one of the sun loungers.

She tried to take in the breathtaking view, to relish the illusion of the pool leading straight out on to the horizon, but time and again she found herself staring at the body scything through the water until finally she stuck her hat on and relaxed back, linking her fingers lightly together.

This time she was aware of his approach even though her eyes were closed. She heard him emerge from the pool and then the slap of his feet as he dragged a chair over to her and sat down.

‘I didn’t think that you would take up my invitation to join me,’ Theo said, looking down at her, at that slither of pale skin where her top ended and her jeans began. Her breasts were two small mounds pushing against the thin cotton of her T-shirt.

‘Why shouldn’t I? Besides, you’re right; Michael would want us to be friends or at least to make an effort to be amicable.’

Women didn’t usually view him as an object of dislike with whom effort was needed to be amicable but he let it go.

‘Is this your first visit to Greece?’ he asked instead, keeping his voice even. Her eyes were still closed and he found himself looking, unobserved, at those small, rounded breasts. A handful, no more. With some effort he looked away.

Abby opened her eyes and reluctantly looked at him. His hair was wet and slicked back and his body had that still damp sheen from the water. Frankly, she wished he would put his shirt back on because that hardened, well-muscled torso was just a little too much in her face for her liking.

‘My first visit to Santorini,’ Abby said coolly, averting her eyes and staring straight ahead, which was a far more calming view. ‘I’ve been to Athens. A few years ago.’

‘With your family?’ Theo asked.

‘No.’

Since she obviously didn’t want to expand on her answer, he sat back and waited in silence. Sooner or later she would fill it. People were predictable. And, since he wanted to find out as much about her as he could in the limited time at his disposal, he would wait for her to supply the details that would eventually bury her.

‘I don’t have any family. At least not in England,’ Abby eventually said irritably. ‘My parents went to Australia to live seven years ago. We don’t see one another very often, I’m afraid.’

‘You went with friends, then?’ Theo prompted. ‘Athens is a beautiful city, but I’m surprised you would have chosen that as a destination with friends. It lacks the rampant night-life of some other places, like Ibiza. Isn’t that where most young English people go to have a good time?’

‘Most,’ Abby agreed, resisting the bait. Athens was just one of those things she had no intention of talking about. Actually, even thinking about that long weekend there made her feel slightly sick. It had been the last time that she had known complete, innocent happiness. She had been in love, or so she had thought, and the world had been a very rosy place. Looking back on the person she had been then was like looking back at a stranger.

‘So you don’t know much about our island.’ Theo could barely contain the impatience in his voice. ‘Or do you? Did Michael tell you anything about it? I can’t remember the last time he was here.’

‘Oh, no. He didn’t discuss it much. Just said that the villa was your grandfather’s holiday home and that he was having his birthday celebrations here.’

‘And has the villa lived up to your expectations?’ he enquired silkily.

Abby stiffened. ‘I didn’t really think what to expect.’

‘Come now, surely that’s not true. Everyone has a vision in their mind when they’re heading off somewhere on a holiday.’ He omitted to mention the word free to describe her one week stay but it was on the tip of his tongue.

‘It’s a magnificent house,’ Abby said neutrally. She turned towards him and gave him a long, cool look. ‘Is that the right answer or is there something else I ought to say? I’m surprised by its size but only insofar as it seems big for one person to use as a holiday home.’

She might look like a girl of nineteen, he thought, but there was nothing infantile about her mind. Had he really expected that there would be? Any gold-digger worth her salt would have the shrewdness of a fox and would be clever enough to know how and when to use it. Of course she wouldn’t have tried to squeeze too much information out of his brother about where they were going. That would lead to suspicions. Even his trusting brother would be wary of the third degree, no matter how skilfully handled.

‘It was built at a time where there were far more family members around to use it. My grandmother was still alive and all their children were still at home. Then, for a short while, there were grandchildren. Times have changed but my grandfather’s affection for the island is still the same and he still chooses to come here every so often so that he can appreciate the peace of the surroundings. Naturally, Santorini is far more touristy than it used to be, but he contents himself with staying in the house and has very little idea of the shops and boutiques and hotels that have gone up in the past couple of decades.’

‘Doesn’t he get lonely, coming here by himself to relax?’ Abby was drawn into the conversation against her will. It was safe enough, she supposed, and besides, like it or not, he had a mesmerising voice, dark and deep like velvet.

‘My mother accompanies him whenever she can and usually brings some of her friends.’ Theo sat back in the chair and gazed out towards the endless landscape. ‘My grandfather is old. It would be more stressful for him to start taking holidays in a hotel some place he didn’t know than to come back to what he knows. Timos and Maria, who look after the place when it’s empty, have been here for ever. They are almost as old as he is and they are as familiar with him as old friends. Often, if he is here by himself, he will share his meals with them.’

‘And do you ever come here on holiday?’ Abby asked curiously.

‘I don’t tend to have holidays,’ Theo informed her flatly.

‘Why not?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Why don’t you take holidays? Are you one of these people who thinks that relaxation is some kind of sin?’

Theo looked at her incredulously. The way she addressed the question was very nearly bordering on insolent. Insolence was not a quality he ever encountered, not in the people he met in the line of work and especially not in the women with whom he came into contact. And the way she was looking at him, big brown eyes wide and steady and ever so slightly disdainful, made his pulse accelerate with anger.

A gold-digger, he thought, a common little gold-digger daring to cross verbal swords with him!

‘I run a vast and complex empire, Miss Clinton, and, crazy though this may seem, rushing off on holiday every two weeks is not a key ingredient to my success.’

‘People always think they’re indispensable but they never are. Michael often says that he may have opened two restaurants and a nightclub, and they may be doing well, but the most important role he could play would be to ensure that they carried on running well even if he wasn’t around. A bit like having a child, I guess. You put everything into bringing them up and of course they need you, but in the end, if the parenting is halfway decent, they’re confident enough to spread their wings and find their own destiny.’

‘And what would you know about children?’

Abby could have kicked herself. Theo Toyas was dangerous. She should have had her guard up instead of finding herself lulled into meaningful conversation. ‘I’m just saying that never looking up from the grindstone seems a pointless way of life.’ She shrugged, which sent his anger levels rising. To top it off, she actually turned away from him, dismissing him from her line of vision so that she could stare out towards the horizon.

His plan to find out about her had well and truly back fired and if he wasn’t so stunned he would have been substantially angrier with her.

He decided to postpone his inquisition for a little while longer. ‘Naturally I have highly dependable and talented people but I control the reins of my organisation. Call it doing things the Greek way.’ Her face, like her body, was neat. Small straight nose, sprinkling of freckles, surprisingly dark eyebrows for someone so blonde. He caught himself staring and gritted his teeth in exasperation.

‘Okay.’

‘Okay what?’ Theo grated.

‘Okay I’ll call it doing things the Greek way if it makes you feel better.’

Theo controlled himself with difficulty. ‘Tell me, how long have you known my brother?’

‘Oh, a couple of years.’

‘A couple of years. You’ve been going out with my brother for a couple of years and your name has only managed to surface now? I find that very hard to believe. Michael calls our mother every week. He would have talked about you a lot sooner.’

‘I said that I’ve known him for a couple of years, and I have. We’ve been friends for a while.’ Abby could feel herself slipping into dangerous territory. She knew where he was going. Thinking about it, she had seen the drift of his suspicious little mind the minute she had clapped eyes on him and she couldn’t afford to antagonise him into digging any deeper. She had to convince him that everything was precisely as it seemed and getting under his skin was not the right way to set about the task.

She turned to face him and smiled. Warmly, she hoped. ‘We clicked straight away. Michael’s got all the qualities I admire in a man. He’s kind and thoughtful and modest. You would think that in his line of work those are exactly the qualities that would let him down, but all his staff adore him and so do I.’

‘And how did you two meet?’ He could hear the sincerity in her voice but he couldn’t abandon the suspicion that it was all a little too good to be true. People were never straightforward towards each other when it came to dealing with vast sums of money.

‘I worked for him,’ Abby said simply. ‘I was the accounts manager for his restaurants when they opened up. At first there was just me and a secretary, but as they’ve become more and more successful the team has grown. Now, there are ten of us and we work flat out. You’ve never been to Brighton to see Michael, have you?’

‘It is easier for my brother to travel to London to see me, usually for lunch, although lately we have not met as often as we might have hoped. We both have busy schedules.’

‘His restaurants are super,’ Abby enthused, eager to elaborate on a safe topic. ‘One is a pub-style restaurant. Lovely cosy place but with superb French food, and the other’s fancier, although the menu is really quite simple. We’ve found that most people don’t actually want to go out and be faced with a choice of weird things. They like their food to be tasty and fairly straightforward, so we do fantastic sausages and garlic mash, and slow-cooked shin of beef and other dishes along those lines. It’s very popular. In fact, at the moment there’s a two month waiting list for tables at both restaurants.’

‘What a charming eulogy to my brother’s culinary ventures,’ Theo drawled. ‘I’m sure he would have found such enthusiasm very inspiring when he was first starting out.’

Abby tried not to show her intense dislike for the man sprawled in the chair next to her. Every inch of him spoke of arrogance. She had the unnerving sensation that he was circling her, taking his time, trying to find the chink in her storylines that would validate his low opinion.

‘I hope so,’ Abby said equably. ‘It’s a tough business starting out on your own. Other people’s support can be invaluable.’

‘And is this when my brother began appreciating your invaluable contribution to his life?’

‘Oh, I wasn’t the only one who had confidence in his success.’

But I bet you were the only one who had the added advantage of some seriously persuasive feminine wiles, Theo thought. Abigail Clinton might not have the immediate, obvious sex appeal of the full-busted hourglass centrefold, but he had to admit that there was something alluring about her.

‘You should get your swimsuit,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘The pool is lovely. Always at its best when no one else is in it.’

‘I haven’t brought one.’

‘You haven’t brought one?’

Abby blushed and looked away. ‘I…I’m not that confident when it comes to swimming,’ she confessed grudgingly. ‘I did think about bringing one so that I could tan on a beach some time, but then I changed my mind.’

For the first time hostility and apprehension gave way to simple embarrassment and she felt her skin begin to tingle uncomfortably under his piercing black stare.

‘It’s not that unusual,’ she snapped, scowling. ‘Lots of people can’t swim.’ She turned a deeper shade of pink as a slow smile of amusement curved his lips. ‘It’s all right for you—’ Abby flung herself into the ensuing silence, redolent with his silent laughter at her expense ‘—you grew up surrounded by swimming pools and sea! Some of us didn’t!’

Theo was intrigued. He had wanted valuable information, information he could use to build up his case against her so that he could prevent a travesty of a marriage taking place, but this useless snippet was curiously engaging.

‘I didn’t think that you needed to be surrounded by swimming pools and sea in order to learn to swim,’ he said, staring at her flushed face. ‘I thought schools in England offered swimming lessons as part of the curriculum.’

‘They probably do!’ It was out before she had time to think. It wouldn’t take a genius to work out the next logical question to her outburst and she waited in gloomy silence for the inevitable.

‘You mean you didn’t go to school in England? Did you grow up in Australia? Is that why your parents returned there?’

Abby looked at him with a hunted expression. ‘No, I didn’t grow up in Australia. I had an unusual upbringing,’ she eventually muttered.

‘How unusual?’ He sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and continued to look at her with what she thought was an unhealthy level of interest.

Couldn’t the man see that she was uncomfortable? Yes, she thought waspishly, of course he could, which would be no reason for him to back away from the subject. Well this, at least, was no great secret, was it?

‘My parents were…a bit unorthodox. They travelled a lot.’

‘You mean they were gypsies?’

‘Of course they weren’t gypsies! Not that I have anything against gypsies, as it happens! But do I look like a gypsy to you? Do I? With this hair?’ She yanked off the hat and extended one long handful of her amazing hair towards him. Theo realised that he was thoroughly enjoying this surreal turn in the conversation. He took the proffered hair and made a show of examining it carefully.

‘Could be dyed,’ was his comment as she snatched it out of his fingers.

‘I’ve never dyed my hair in my life.’

‘So explain.’

‘Okay. If you really must know, my parents were…were…sort of…hippyish.’ There. It was out. She waited for the roar of laughter and the immediate attack. Instead he was looking at her with real interest. ‘They didn’t believe in material possessions or settling down. When I was older, Mum told me that life was one long adventure and what was adventurous about settling down with a mortgage and a job at the bank? So they travelled. Course, I did go to school but never anywhere for very long, not long enough to…’

‘Take swimming lessons? Make friends?’

‘Of course I made friends! Lots of them over the years.’ But they had come and gone and her parents had never understood that whilst they saw that ever-changing parade of people entering and leaving her life as exciting, she found it very hard to deal with. She had never really even had the opportunity to have boyfriends in the normal way. What would have been the point? They would have been short-lived anyway. Which, with the benefit of hindsight, had made her a walking target for being hurt, because when her parents left for Australia and she could finally impose stability on her life, she just didn’t have the accumulated experience to spot the cad. Oliver James had been charming and persistent and she had fallen for him hook, line and sinker, never spotting all the inaccuracies in his behaviour that most other girls would have seen a mile off.

That, she thought, was something Theo Toyas would never learn about!

‘That was incredibly selfish of your parents. Why did they decide to go to Australia?’

‘More space to wander.’ Abby grinned sheepishly. ‘Although they tell me that they’ve now opened a shop in Melbourne, selling organic food and ethnic ornaments. They’ve even bought themselves a small house and they’re planning on coming to England next year for a three month holiday.’

‘I’d like to meet them,’ Theo surprised himself by saying. He was picturing her as a girl, trekking in the wake of her parents from one place to another, longing for stability so that she could be like everyone else.

Then he reminded himself that really this was just the sort of background that would encourage her to go after a man with money, a man who could promise her the security she craved.

‘I don’t often meet nomads in my day-to-day life,’ he amended, backtracking on that fleeting impulse that had seen him wrapped up in her life story, hanging on like a kid listening to a riveting bedtime yarn. Touching though her little tale had been, it had nothing to do with the reality he needed to deal with. He gave her a brisk, cool smile and vaulted to his feet. ‘I’m going to have one last swim before I go inside for breakfast. In case you don’t know the routine, breakfast tends to be a buffet affair. Everyone’s going to be busy getting ready for tonight, so I shouldn’t expect to be waited on hand and foot if I were you.’

With that he turned his back and sauntered towards the pool, leaving her to simmer at the pointed dig in his remark. She was sorely tempted to throw her book at the back of that arrogant head of his, especially as it was a hardback, but no, giving in to emotion was a bad idea. Instead she glowered and removed herself from the lounger and headed back towards the villa.

For a minute there she had very nearly forgotten how dislikeable he was and that wasn’t going to do. For Michael’s sake, she had to be on her guard.

The object of her protectiveness was still asleep and Abby nudged him with one finger until he rolled over and looked at her blearily. ‘You can’t spend all day in bed,’ she informed him without preamble and Michael smiled at her drowsily.

‘You sound like a wife.’

‘Michael, be serious.’

‘I am being serious.’ He grinned. ‘Where have you been, anyway?’

‘By the pool.’

‘You can’t swim.’

‘I know that, Michael. I was by the pool with your brother and I’m beginning to think that this engagement business wasn’t a very good idea.’

That had him sitting up abruptly. Michael had a range of silk pyjamas. It was his only sartorial weakness. Today’s number was a deep blue and beige Paisley. Abby fleetingly wondered whether his brother had a similar taste in pyjamas and concluded that the man probably didn’t sleep in any at all. He didn’t strike her as a pyjama-wearing type. She immediately squashed any follow-up to that line of thinking and focused on her partner, who was looking at her with a worried expression.

‘Of course it’s a good idea. You’re not going to back out on me now, are you? Are you?’

‘I just didn’t think it through,’ Abby mumbled. ‘I can see why you wanted it, really I can, but now that I’m actually here, I don’t like deceiving your mother. And your grandfather, for that matter. They’re nice people.’

‘We’re not deceiving them,’ Michael whispered urgently. ‘And the reason we’re doing this is because they’re nice people. Please don’t back out on me now, Abby. Please.’

‘And another thing,’ she said uneasily. ‘Your brother suspects something.’

‘What?’

‘Well, for a start he thinks that I’m after your money.’

Michael grinned at that. ‘Well, that’s okay. He’s way off target, then.’

‘True, but the fact is that he’s going to probe until he finds out the truth.’

‘He’s here for three days, Abs. How much probing can one man do in the space of three days?’

A normal man, she wanted to say, not much, but your brother, more than I feel happy about.

‘I suppose I could just keep out of his way for the whole time,’ Abby said, more to herself than to Michael. ‘I mean, it shouldn’t be too difficult. I can just stick to whoever happens to be around and make conversation.’

‘Which would really make him think that you’ve got something to hide,’ Michael mused with a frown. ‘On the other hand, it might be better if you just try and convince him that he’s wrong. I mean, talk to him, give him the impression that you and I adore one another. Which, incidentally, also wouldn’t be a lie.’ The boyish grin was infectious and Abby found herself reluctantly drawn into his optimism.

‘And don’t worry; we’re only here for a week, then we’ll be back in England and everything will return to normal once more. Look, I’ll get dressed and we’ll have breakfast and then what say we head down to the town and do a bit of touristy stuff?’ He pulled back the covers, stood up and pulled her into his arms so that he could wrap her up in a big reassuring hug.

After the tension of being in Theo’s company Abby gave in to the hug with relief. One of the most wonderful things about Michael was the friendship he so unstintingly gave her. She had agreed to the engagement because she loved him and she succumbed to the wonderful mixture of tenderness and affection that he inspired in her.

‘But you just need to spend some time with him,’ he said into her ear. ‘Honestly, I know Theo can be a bit overwhelming but he has always been the fairest man I have ever known.’

‘If he was that fair…’

‘Fair but frighteningly old-fashioned in his beliefs. You have nothing to fear in his company. You’re not after my money and we do care deeply for one another. So give me a few minutes and we’ll head down for breakfast together. Okay?’

Half an hour later, they emerged to find that the household had finally awakened. From where he was sitting out on the front veranda, Theo watched as they joined in with the other guests, chatting and easy, their body language speaking of a certain closeness which he couldn’t believe was all it was made out to be.

She had tied her hair back into two very loose plaits and it irked him to see how genuinely warm her expression was as she made conversation with the other relatives milling around the buffet, helping themselves to the warm breads and fruit and cheeses. She turned around to say something to Michael and his brother grinned at whatever she had said and bent towards her to murmur something. Some sweet nothing, Theo thought, watching the display through narrowed eyes. The poor fool. Take one sexy woman and one gullible man and you get a divorce within a year and a hefty settlement for a gold-digger.

He frowned. When had he stopped thinking of her as a girl with no figure to speak of and started thinking of her as a sexy woman?

The main thing, he mused to himself, still following them as they helped themselves to some breakfast and took their seats at the far end of the table with his mother and two uncles, was that he was there to look out for his brother. It was what families did. They protected one another at all costs.

As though suddenly aware of him staring at her, Abby lifted her eyes and stared across the room and out towards the veranda, to where he was sitting, watching them and sipping his coffee. Theo met her gaze with cool, speculative eyes and was quietly satisfied when she gritted her teeth together and hurriedly looked away. She might have taken his brother for a fool but he was damned if she was going to think that he was the same.

He drained his cup and sauntered back into the villa, pausing where the group was sitting and chatting and leaned on to the table, palms spread to support his massive body-weight.

‘So,’ he drawled, ‘what are the plans for today?’ He was addressing the group as a whole but his eyes were fixed on Abby, who ignored him by concentrating on her croissant.

His uncles and their wives were staying put, it seemed, so that the wives could help prepare for the party and begin receiving the flood of guests to the villa, while their husbands, in typical Greek fashion, relaxed by the pool and refrained from doing anything too active.

‘We wouldn’t want to get in the way, would we, Nick?’ Dimitri said in a self-sacrificing voice and, amid the laughter, Theo looked at his brother, eyebrows raised in a question.

‘We’re off to explore the town,’ Abby inserted quickly. Five minutes ago, she had been relaxed. Now she felt as though a tiger had entered the flock of sheep and was prowling around with her set firmly in its sights. The minute she had spotted him over there, sitting outside with his coffee, she had known that he had been watching her. She should have smiled but had found that she couldn’t. Those cool black eyes stripped her of all her normal reactions. She had had time to brace herself for him now, though, and she gave him a wide, bright smile.

‘Michael’s been telling me a few things about Santorini and I’m dying to have a look around. What about you? Will you be helping with the preparations or just relaxing?’ Abby tried to imagine Theo Toyas helping with preparations but that was enough to stretch anyone’s imagination. She doubted he knew how to chop an onion, never mind doing anything more elaborate, although, from what she had gathered, caterers were being flown in for the party and would pretty much be doing the lot without any intervention needed from anyone.

‘We all want it to be just right,’ Michael’s mother had confided to her earlier. ‘There will be his favourite foods. Everything will be perfect. I have even arranged for the flowers and napkins to be in his favourite colours. He is eighty and do not be fooled by his joviality. George has a heart problem and none of us knows whether this will be the last birthday he will be celebrating.’

This had not come as news to her. Michael had said very much the same thing himself before they left England. Reading between the lines, she realised that part of his urgency for this engagement was to produce the girlfriend his grandfather had always wished him to have, to at least let him see that his grandson now had the promise of stability within his reach.

‘I have work to do.’ Theo broke into her thoughts.

‘Now that is a real shame,’ Michael said, and they both looked at him. ‘Darling, I know I promised to take you into Santorini, spend the day driving around and showing you the sights, but…’

In a split second Abby knew what was coming and she gave him as much of a warning glance as she could. He smiled blandly and ruefully at her and only flinched a little when she smartly jabbed him on his shin with her foot under the table.

‘No matter, we can do it another time,’ Abby said, knowing exactly what he had in mind and doing her best to avert that course of action.

‘I was going to ask you if you could take my place, Theo. Abby’s been really looking forward to our little excursion and I hate to disappoint her, but I had an email last night from my head chef in one of the restaurants, and there’s some kind of problem with the seafood consignment.’

‘Surely Tom can handle that at home,’ Abby inserted grimly, which warranted another sad shake of the head.

‘Would you believe that Tom’s been struck down by a mystery bug?’

‘Frankly, no. He’s always been as healthy as a horse.’

Michael ignored the interjection. ‘No matter if you have work to do, though, Theo. Perhaps you could take the car into town on your own, Abby, or would that be too boring? Actually, you could be driven in and then simply call when you want collecting. Bit disappointing having to do the tourist bit on your own, but…’ He looked utterly crestfallen at this turn of events. ‘Maybe I could grab an hour and meet you for lunch…no…best not to promise…you know how long these problems can take to sort out…’

‘My work can wait,’ Theo said decisively. It was obvious that the last thing Abby Clinton wanted to do was go anywhere with him, and he reasoned why. Too high a chance of being caught out in her little web of deceit.

Abby tried not to look appalled.

He stood up and for the first time Abby realised that, somewhere along the line, the rest of the guests had left the table. She had not even noticed their departure, so compelling had been Theo’s hold over her and the invisible threat he promised. She had also been quite wrapped up in a natural urge to throttle Michael.

‘It will be…delightful to show you around our little island…’ He smiled and Abby gazed back at him with barely disguised horror. ‘So why don’t you meet me here in an hour’s time?’ Theo found himself enjoying the prospect of spending the day with his unwilling companion. His smile broadened considerably. He actually had work to do, but that could wait. He’d barely had the opportunity to get to know the girl, or rather to get her to know where he was coming from. Several hours on their own should do the trick…

CHAPTER THREE

THEO was waiting for her outside. Her heart plummeted like a stone when she spotted him standing in the drive by one of the cars, casually leaning against the bonnet with his back to her, speaking into a cellphone.

Her intention to strangle Michael had fizzled out at the first hurdle. He had smiled winningly at her and somehow managed to puncture her annoyance by pleading with her to be nice to his brother. It was the fastest way of squashing his suspicions, he had assured her. An open, friendly person, he had argued with that boyishly persuasive smile of his, was a person with nothing to hide, and his brother would quickly lose interest if he saw for himself that that was the case. Abby had reluctantly agreed but had felt constrained to remind him that he owed her big time.

Michael had always had the ability to get around her and she knew why. She trusted him. There was no dark, hidden agenda.

Still, standing here now and looking at Theo’s broad back and lazy pose, she couldn’t contain a certain amount of apprehension.

She had apologised profusely to Lina, in the hope that the older woman might see fit to consign her to party preparation duties, but no such luck. Instead she had smiled charmingly, promised longer conversations just as soon as all this hectic stuff was over and expressed delight that she was getting along so famously with Theo, who could be a handful.

He swung round to face her as soon as she began walking towards the car, snapping his cellphone shut and shoving it into his pocket.

He was wearing a pair of khaki coloured Bermuda-style shorts and a short-sleeved shirt which hung loosely over the waistband of the shorts. He looked cool, casual and very, very sophisticated, especially with the dark shades which shielded his eyes from her and made it virtually impossible for her to know what he was thinking.

‘You really don’t need to do this,’ Abby announced flatly when she was within speaking distance of him. ‘You have work to do and I’m more than happy to occupy myself by the pool or out in the garden with a book.’

Theo accepted her remark with a slight inclination of his head and, instead of answering, pulled open the passenger door of the car for her to get in.

‘Not much of an adventure when you’ve been promised a sightseeing tour of the island, though, is it? Reading a book in a garden?’ he murmured once inside the car. Behind the dark shades, she could only imagine the triumph in his eyes as he contemplated a morning of vicious cross-questioning.

‘I didn’t come here for adventures,’ Abby said. ‘I really didn’t even expect that I would get much of a chance to explore the island. Michael said that once the party was out of the way, we would return at a later date and catch up on all the sightseeing we wouldn’t be able to do this time round.’ Faced with a day out in the hot sun, trailing along behind Theo and trying to deflect his arrows, Abby had changed out of her cropped jeans into something cooler—a short lime-green drawstring skirt that fitted on her hips and a small sleeveless white vest. Now she felt hideously exposed even though she knew that Theo wasn’t interested in looking at her legs.

‘So what did Michael tell you about the island?’

‘It’s small and has some very good boutiques.’

Theo felt his mouth twitch. ‘Remind me to tell him never to consider a job in the tourist industry. Okay, here are some facts. This island is one of the most violent volcanoes on the planet. Some think that three thousand years ago it wiped out the entire Minoan civilisation. And, believe it or not, there was no tourism to speak of until fairly recently, when people realised that add one famous crater to amazing black sand beaches and you get a must see resort.’

‘And you don’t approve?’ Abby felt herself grudgingly drawn into the conversation. If her mission was to be super-friendly and allay any suspicions, then this was as good a place to start as any because she was genuinely interested in the history of the place.

‘What small island really approves of tourism?’ He glanced briefly at her and she wished again that he would remove the sunglasses.

‘The ones that make a packet of money out of it?’ Abby ventured.

‘Doesn’t mean that the natives like it,’ Theo pointed out. He interrupted himself to point out various sights, drawing her attention to the colour of the rocks and the nature of the landscape, comparing it to other Greek islands. ‘Of course,’ he said, resuming his original topic, ‘they all work towards promoting tourism because it involves promoting their own standard of living, but do you not agree that it deadens the authenticity of a place?’

‘If I had the choice of a roof over my head and food in my stomach, and the price was to be polite to a few tourists for a few months of the year, then I know what I’d choose.’

‘Ah, a practical woman.’ Or something else. ‘And here I was thinking that all women were romantics at heart.’

‘Because someone is sensible doesn’t mean that they’re not romantic as well,’ Abby said.

He wanted to dwell on the significance of what she had said, but decided to go down the tantalising route of finding out just a little bit more about her.

‘I suppose wandering the land with your parents may have resulted in you not getting a large enough dose of reality to extinguish the notion of romance.’

Abby tore her eyes away from the impressive scenery to stare at him. Remember you’re being nice and friendly and open, she thought. ‘Maybe, although I must say I had a large dose of reality in the form of temporary housing and dodgy neighbourhoods. No, I tell a lie, we never really stayed anywhere dodgy. Wolf and River preferred villages to cities.’

‘Wolf and River?’

Abby hadn’t meant to say that. Not even Michael knew about those stupid names her parents had called themselves. Just uttering it out loud made her cringe with embarrassment. She stared resolutely ahead, chin tilted, and didn’t say anything.

‘Your parents were called Wolf and River?’ Theo stole a glance at the stubborn profile. So she was a slightly more complex gold-digger. Probably why she had succeeded with Michael, who had never been one to fall for the obvious.

‘They explained that they needed names to suit the people that they were. Course, I carried on calling them Mum and Dad.’

‘Bet they loved that.’

‘They accepted that I…wasn’t like them. Anyway, that’s all very boring. Tell me some more about the island. You said it’s volcanic. Isn’t that dangerous?’

Theo’s eyes strayed fleetingly to her slender thighs, abundantly exposed thanks to the short skirt which had ridden up, and he tried to focus on the mission at hand.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.