The Greek's Forbidden Bride. Cathy Williams

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 СКАЧАТЬ