The Marakaios Baby (The Marakaios Brides 2)

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, and she bowed her head, a few tendrils of hair escaping her ponytail to rest against her cheek.

‘So am I,’ she said, and she sounded so sad that Leo felt an answering emotion rise in him in an unstoppable tide.

For a moment he considered pulling the car over, pulling her into his arms. Making her feel better.

But then she raised her head, set her jaw, and that moment passed almost as if it had never happened at all.

They didn’t speak until they reached Amfissa.

CHAPTER EIGHT

MARGO FORCED HERSELF to relax as Leo turned the car up the sweeping drive that led to the Marakaios estate. She’d seen it all before, of course, when she’d driven up here in her rental car just two days ago. But then it had just been a house, grand and imposing; now it was her home.

As he pulled the car up to the front of the sprawling villa she noticed the other buildings surrounding it. The Marakaios estate was actually a complex, almost a little city.

‘What are all the other buildings?’

‘The office, a guesthouse, staff housing, a private villa where I used to live before I moved to the main house.’

‘When was that?’

‘When I became CEO.’

Which seemed to have been a life-changing moment, with his moving and then thinking of marrying.

‘Why did your brother step down?’

‘He wanted to move into investments,’ Leo said, and the terseness of his reply made Margo wonder if there were more to it than that. She really knew so little about this man, her husband. So little about his life, his family.

And some of his family were coming out of the house right now: two tall, dark-haired women with the same striking good looks as Leo. Margo was intimidated by them already, and they hadn’t even seen her yet, or her bump.

As Leo climbed out of the car the first one addressed him in a torrent of Greek, her hands on her hips. Distantly Margo considered that perhaps she should learn her husband’s native language. Lessons, at least, would fill her empty days until the baby was born.

Leo came round to open the passenger door as his other sister joined them, unleashing her own incomprehensible diatribe. Leo didn’t answer, just extended a hand to Margo.

She rose from the seat, still in her wedding dress, and as she stood the material caught on the door and tugged tight, outlining her small bump. Both sisters stopped abruptly and sucked in their breaths.

‘Kalispera,’ Margo said, and pinned on a bright and utterly false smile.

One of the sisters turned to Leo and began speaking again in rapid Greek. He held up a hand to silence her. ‘Speak English, please, Xanthe. You’re perfectly capable of it. My wife does not speak Greek.’

‘Your wife—’ Xanthe said, and her mouth dropped open.

She looked, Margo thought, appalled.

‘Yes. My wife. We married today and, as you can see, we are expecting our first child in a few months.’ He placed a hand on Margo’s lower back, propelling her forward. ‘Xanthe, Ava—please meet Margo Ferrars, Margo Marakaios now.’

She smiled weakly.

‘Margo—my sisters.’

‘I’m pleased to meet you,’ she said, and they both nodded stiffly. Margo couldn’t really blame them for the lack of welcome; they were clearly completely shocked. Still, it stung.

‘Come inside,’ Leo said, and drew her past his sisters into the villa.

Maria bustled up to them as soon as they stepped inside the door, and Leo spoke to her in Greek before turning to Margo with a grimace of apology. ‘Maria doesn’t speak English, but I’ve told her we’re married.’

Margo nodded. She couldn’t tell a thing from the housekeeper’s expression, but she felt too overwhelmed and exhausted to care. It had been an incredibly long day, and she didn’t have the energy to deal with any of these strangers.

‘Leo,’ she said, ‘I’m tired, and I’d like to rest.’

It was only a little past seven, yet even so Margo knew she couldn’t face an evening with Leo’s family. Was she neglecting her responsibilities, even her vows, so soon? So be it. Tomorrow she would try to be the Stepford Wife he seemed to want. Today she needed to recover.

‘Of course. I’ll show you to your bedroom.’

Margo felt the silent stares boring into her back as she followed Leo up to the bedrooms. He went down a different corridor than before, and then ushered her into a sumptuous room decorated in pale blue and ivory.

‘This is your bedroom. I have an adjoining one.’ He gestured to a wood-panelled door in the corner, by the window.

So they wouldn’t be sharing a bedroom. Margo didn’t know how she felt about that, and in her exhausted state didn’t feel like probing the tangle of her own emotions.