‘Sometimes I can hate you.’ Her chin was up. ‘All the time you were dressing me up in these, you were laughing at me!’
He laughed now, low and huskily. She was beginning to sizzle. He loved it when she sizzled. ‘The Venezuelan pirate was pure inspiration.’ Another flash sparked from her eyes and he should have been slain where he stood. ‘Now tell me the fairy tale Chloe fed to you.’
Her mouth snapped shut in refusal to answer. ‘Loyalty from the witch for the cat?’ he drawled quizzically. ‘Now, that does surprise me.’
Isobel had surprised herself. She had a suspicion her silence had something to do with the pained look she’d seen on Chloe’s face as Leandros taunted her, and the fact that Chloe had flicked her a glance of mute apology before she’d slipped away.
‘I’m hungry,’ she said, which could not be less true since she knew she would not be able to swallow a single thing tonight. But the claim served its purpose in letting him know that a discussion about his sister was not going to happen. Not until she understood where Chloe was coming from these days. It was Leandros who wanted her to give his family a chance, after all.
‘Why Venezuelan?’ she asked suddenly. ‘Why not French or Spanish or—?’
His laughter sent his dark head back. People turned to stare as if they weren’t used to hearing him laugh like this. He deigned not to notice their disconcerted glances, kissed her full on her mouth then led her to join the crush around the buffet table.
The evening moved on. With a quiet determination, Leandros took her from group to group and pulled her into conversation in a way that she could only describe as making a statement about the solidarity of their marriage. As he did this he also exposed yet another secret, by always making sure he made some remark to her in Greek. By the time a couple of hours had gone by there wasn’t a person present who had known her before who did not know now that she understood their native tongue.
And he had done it with such ruthless intention. Leandros was making sure that people thought twice before discussing his wife in her presence. Some looked uncomfortable at the discovery; some simply accepted it with pleased surprise. The uncomfortable ones were logged in his memory; Isobel could almost see him compiling a list of those people who would not be included in their social circle in the future.
Other people made sure they kept their distance, which spoke even greater volumes about what they were thinking. Takis Konstantindou was one of those people. Chloe, of course, was another one. She could understand Chloe’s reasons for steering clear of them but the lawyer’s cool attitude puzzled her.
Then there was Diantha Christophoros. If Isobel glimpsed her at all it was usually within a group that contained either Chloe or Leandros’s mother. In a way she could find it in herself to feel sorry for Diantha, because it couldn’t have been easy for her to turn up here tonight knowing that everyone here was going to know by now that old rumours about Leandros wanting to divorce his wife to marry her had to be false.
‘Don’t you think we should go and speak to her?’ she suggested when she caught Leandros glancing Diantha’s way.
‘For what purpose?’ he questioned coolly.
‘She has got to be feeling uncomfortable, Leandros. The rumours affect her as much as they do you.’
‘The best way to kill a rumour is to starve it,’ was his response. ‘Diantha seems to have my sister and my mother to offer all the necessary comfort.’
Which said, more or less, what Isobel had been trying not to think. The family preference could not be more noticeable if they stuck signs on their backs saying ‘Vote Isobel out and Diantha in’. It was Eve Herakleides who put it in an absolute nutshell when she came to join Isobel out on the terrace, where she’d slipped away to get some fresh air that did not contain curiosity and intrigue.
‘Word of warning,’ Eve began. ‘Watch out for Diantha Christophoros. She may appear nice and quiet and amiable but she has hidden talents behind the bland smile. She has a way of manipulating people without them realising she’s doing it. It was only a few weeks ago that she convinced Chloe that she should remain here to help her mother with Nikos’s wedding arrangements, while Diantha went to Spain in Chloe’s place to help Leandros with a big celebration party he threw in San Estéban. Chloe puzzled for ages afterwards as to how it had actually come about that she’d agreed, since she had been so looking forward to spending two weeks with her brother. Then, blow me if Diantha isn’t back in Athens for less than a day when the rumours were suddenly flying about Leandros filing for divorce from you so that he could marry her. She wants your husband,’ she announced sagely. ‘And her uncle Takis wants her to have him.’
‘Takis and Diantha are related?’ It was news to Isobel.
Eve nodded. ‘They’re a tightly knit lot, these upper-crust Greeks,’ she said candidly. ‘Thank goodness for women like you and my mother or they’d be so inbred they would have wiped themselves out by now.’
‘What a shocking thing to say!’ Isobel gasped on a compulsive giggle.
‘And what shocking thing is this minx saying now?’ Leandros intruded.
A pair of hands arrived at Isobel’s slender waistline, the brush of his lips warmed her cheek—the lick of his tongue against her earlobe as he pulled away again sent her wretched knees weak.
‘Woman-talk is for women only,’ the minx answered for herself. ‘And you, dear cousin, have had a lucky escape in my opinion.’ With that provocatively cryptic remark, she walked away.
They both turned to watch her go, an exquisite creature dressed in slinky hot pink making a direct line for her husband, who sensed her coming—his broad shoulders gave a small shake just before he turned around and grinned.
‘She hooked him in against his will,’ Leandros confided. ‘I think he still finds it difficult to believe that he let her do it.’
‘Well, I
think he’s a very lucky man,’ Isobel stated loyally because she liked Eve and always had done.
‘Mmm,’ he murmured, ‘so am I…’
‘No—don’t,’ she breathed when he began to lower his dark head again. ‘Not here; you will ruin what bit of dignity I have managed to maintain.’
His warm laughter teased as he used his grip on her waist to swing her round until her hips rested against the heavy stone balustrade behind her. His superior bulk was suddenly hiding her from view of everyone else. Eyes like molasses began sending the kind of messages that forced her to lower her gaze from him.