He heard the bite in her voice and his eyes narrowed. ‘You can’t.’
He remained where he stood after rearranging his clothes back into pristine sophistication, blocking out her light, filling every corner of her senses. She needed a moment...several...to recentre herself after yet another emotional roller coaster. ‘Is that all?’
‘Alexis—’
‘We were already late before you came in. I think we’re now in danger of giving fashionably late a bad rep. I need to refresh my make-up. Not to mention the underwear you ripped off.’ Her face flamed as she said the last words, and she forbade herself from looking down, from giving substance to the reality of her shredded weakness.
For an eternity, he stared at her. Then he stepped back. ‘I’ll see you in the living room in five minutes.’
She watched him walk away, a new sensation of being in free fall with no parachute assailing her. She tried to push it out of her mind as she dug out fresh underwear, repaired her make-up and, after a few deep breaths that did nothing to restore her composure, ventured out to join Christos.
He stood with his back to the room, his gaze on the sleek yachts that had started arriving two hours ago. From the buzz around the villa, she knew they belonged to extended family and Costas’s close friends. The remaining guests had started steadily arriving half an hour ago.
Christos whirled at her approach, his gaze sweeping over her. It lingered at her hips and then he nodded and wordlessly held out his arm.
He didn’t speak, and she was too wrapped up in containing her dread and hurt, as they made their way downstairs and out to the west terrace where the party was under way.
The hundred-strong crowd turned in near-unison when they appeared, then the murmurs surged as, one by one, sharply suited men and their stunningly bejewelled women approached to greet Christos and his hitherto unknown bride.
Normally, Alexis trusted herself on her ability to retain names and details, but after what had happened upstairs, and the ever-intensifying sensation that she might be falling in love with Christos, she soon gave up any hope of recollection.
They finally reached the guest of honour and Alexis withstood his long enigmatic scrutiny with a tingling sensation before reaching down to brush a kiss on Costas’s cheek. ‘Happy birthday, Costas.’
He smiled when she straightened. ‘Ne, it’s turning out to be,’ he said cryptically, before turning to his grandson. Their conversation was conducted in Greek before he was drawn away by a small party of guests.
About to ask Christos as he handed her a glass of champagne what had just happened, she stopped when a man materialised in front of them.
He was short and stout, older by about a decade than Christos, but his sour expression nevertheless bore the Drakakis stamp. Accompanying him was a tall statuesque blonde, with overplumped lips and a bust that defied gravity. ‘Ah, Christos. Kind of you to grace us with your presence. I was beginning to think Costas’s mind was playing tricks on him when he said you were here.’
Outwardly, Christos remained unruffled, but the arm beneath hers stiffened. ‘There’s nothing wrong with his memory, Georgios,’ Christos answered and only a fool would’ve failed to catch the sharp warning in his tone.
Georgios raised his free hand in an exaggerated show of surrender. ‘Of course, of course,’ he said without any hint of remorse, then he turned to Alexis. ‘I’m Georgios Pantelli. This is my wife, Arianna. And this must be your elusive bride, Christos.’
Alexis held out her hand. ‘I’m Alexis. Good to meet you.’
Georgios held back from taking it a fraction of a second longer, enough to make her aware of the snub, before taking her hand in his faintly clammy one. His wife’s handshake was equally limp, her eyes mildly hostile as they held Alexis’s.
‘What a vision you are,’ Georgios said. ‘Were it not for my own stunning wife, I would think Christos was hiding you away because he’s afraid of the competition.’
‘I see you continue to set far too high a premium on your own importance, cousin,’ Christos bit out.
For a flash of time, Georgios’s eyes turned flinty. Then he was back to pretended suaveness and affability. He even threw in a belly laugh, attracting several gazes. ‘I have missed our little banters, cousin.’ He stepped closer, grabbed Christos’s arm then, in a low tone, added, ‘I have also not forgotten that while you may have had Costas’s attention as a child, it and Drakonisos is now mine, because I have proved myself whereas you have not.’
Christos bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile as he disengaged himself, a leonine action that sent shivers down her spine. ‘And how do you imagine you have done that?’
Georgios stepped back, all but preening as he adjusted his lapel. ‘I see you’re out of the loop yet again. Costas is craving a child or two from the next generation to run around this place. And I have a feeling the first one of us to provide him with one will get Drakonisos. And tomorrow morning, I will be proudly informing him that my wife is to bless me with a child in six months’ time. So, you see, I win.’
Several things happened in the next minute.
Christos turned statue-still beside her, his face bleeding several shades of colour. At the same time, Alexis’s mind spun a thousand miles an hour. Specifically, to the morning after their night in the cave. Then fast forwarded to tonight, that hedonistic episode in her dressing room.
Two occasions passion had completely engulfed them.
Two occasions they’d failed to use protection.
Grey eyes turbulent with shock and disbelief swivelled towards her. Then his expression slowly morphed to one of dread.
Her belly fell into a steep dive, just as another man approached. The muted roar in her ears made her miss the upsurge of the crowd’s murmuring. But as she fought to reassure herself nothing was wrong, that her utter foolishness couldn’t...wouldn’t be repaid with another life-altering consequence, the present arrived in a rush, and she felt Christos grow even stiffer beside her.