Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress

‘All right,’ Lindy mumbled sleepily, finally breaking the taut, tension-filled silence.

Atreus closed a lean brown hand over hers. ‘All right…what?’

‘I’ll marry you. But be sure and tell your family that it was all your idea,’ she urged, squirming at the mere concept of meeting his relatives again after her undignified exit from their home the previous afternoon.

His ebony brows drew together as he frowned. ‘What made you change your mind?’

‘I think our son should have two parents,’ Lindy mumbled drowsily. ‘You and I both grew up without a father.’

Atreus released her hand. ‘Get some sleep, glikia mou.’

Her feathery lashes dipped, and then suddenly her eyes flew wide again. ‘You’ll have to wait until I can get into a decent wedding dress!’ she warned him.

They decided to call their son Theodor, which was one of the few names that they both liked, and in a matter of days Theodor had become known as Theo.

Atreus’s relatives visited them in the clinic. They were surprisingly animated, and a great deal more likeable after being introduced to the youngest and newest member of the Dionides clan.

As soon as Lindy was fit to travel she and Atreus flew back to London. After a week in Atreus’s penthouse apartment, with a nanny to help out, Lindy regained her mobility sufficiently to head back home to her cottage and her dogs. While she was occupying one of the guestrooms in Atreus’s apartment she had not felt at home.

Alissa and Elinor had insisted on organising the wedding, and Lindy was glad of their assistance and their company. Atreus, after all, was working very long hours, and within a fortnight of returning to the UK went off on a two-week business trip to Asia. When he visited in between times, he focused all his attention on Theo, but was otherwise cool and distant. Lindy waited in vain for his attitude to warm up. She had naively believed that once she’d agreed to marry him everything would go straight back to the way it had been between them, but it was soon clear that she was very much mistaken in that hope.

As their wedding day drew closer, Lindy became more and more apprehensive. She’d found a beautiful dress, and was relieved that she had regained her figure. Of course she had been fairly active during her pregnancy and had not put on a great deal of weight. She was offered interviews by several celebrity magazines which she turned down. She knew that Atreus loathed that kind of publicity, and saw no reason why she should surrender her privacy purely because she was about to become the wife of a very rich man.

The night before her wedding, Lindy stayed in Alissa and Sergei’s fabulous town house. She lay in bed, castigating herself for not having had the courage to tackle Atreus and persuade him to talk to her about feelings he had never once acknowledged he even had. Was he actually suffering from a case of cold feet? Did he regret proposing to her in the first instance? Was he ever going to touch her again? Was he even planning on a normal marriage? Or was he only marrying her to give Theo his name and gain better access to his son?

Those were the fears tormenting Lindy on the day of her wedding, as it dawned on her that her love might well not be enough to oil the wheels of her marriage. Her mood was not improved by the acknowledgement that she was too much of a coward to force those issues with him lest it provoke the cancellation of the wedding.

Elinor, who was acting as her Matron of Honour, loaned her a fabulous tiara to wear with her veil, while Alissa, her bridesmaid, gave her a gorgeous pair of designer shoes. A sapphire and diamond necklace arrived from Atreus, and it was obvious that Alissa had known in advance about that. It was a magnificent gift, and Lindy put it on and spent some time admiring the glittering jewels in the mirror.

‘You’re the quietest bride I’ve ever come across,’ Elinor complained. ‘Is there something wrong?’

‘No, of course there isn’t,’ Lindy disclaimed hastily.

‘It’s okay to have doubts and be scared,’ Alissa declared cheerfully, giving Lindy’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. ‘Everyone feels like that. Marriage is such a big step, and you’ve seen so little of Atreus since you came back from Greece.’

‘I didn’t realise he would be working so much,’ Lindy confided ruefully.

‘Sergei and Jasim were exactly the same, but when you’re living together you’ll find more time for each other.’

‘You’ve had a bumpy courtship,’ Elinor pointed out. ‘You need to talk about what you both want and expect from your marriage.’

Lindy felt it was easy for Elinor, not knowing all that had happened before, to give advice of that nature when Jasim was so obviously deeply in love with her, his wife, and knew no greater happiness than to make her happy. If Lindy had had the confidence of knowing that Atreus was in love with her, she wouldn’t have had a single worry in her head. But she strongly suspected that if she asked Atreus to sit down and talk about their mutual wants and expectations within marriage he would run for the hills…and never come back.