The Secrets She Carried

Erin was frowning. ‘Go on …’

‘I didn’t know what a normal home and parents were like until Vasos and Appollonia took charge of me. They spent time with me, talked to me, took an interest in my small achievements and gave me love. I owe everything I am today to them. I want to do the same thing for Lorcan and Nuala.’

She had not realised that his early years had been so bleak and she understood his attitude, for her own childhood had been almost as troubled and insecure. Marrying Cristo made sense, she reasoned ruefully. She wanted her children to have a full-time father and the chance of a happy family life. Cristo was offering her that option and she put as high a value on that lifestyle as he apparently did. But he would not have wanted to marry her had she not had the twins and that hurt. It hurt that he didn’t love and want her with the same intensity that he wanted their children.

That evening Sam Morton phoned her. ‘Your mother told me you were in Greece. I was shocked.’

‘We’re getting married, Sam.’

‘Yes, she told me that as well. Of course that’s the safest choice for Donakis if he wants access to his children. I understand that he consulted an expert in family law in London to find out exactly where he stood. Watch your step, Erin. In a Greek court, he could gain custody of the kids.’

Erin’s blood ran cold at that forecast. ‘Are you trying to scare me? We’re getting married, not divorced.’

‘I think it’s very convenient for Donakis to marry you now but he wasn’t interested in marrying you three years ago. Don’t forget that.’

Sadly that was a fact that Erin never forgot and she could have done without the second opinion. Had Cristo consulted a legal expert? How had Sam found that out? No doubt someone knew someone in the legal field who also knew Sam and word had got back to him in that way. Ought she to be worried? She supposed it was understandable that Cristo should have sought advice when he first found out that he was a father. That was not in itself wrong. Even so, the knowledge sent a little buzz of insecurity through her that she could not shake.

‘Cristo,’ she said towards the end of the evening while she worried about whether it was foolish of her to trust Cristo to such an extent. ‘Would you mind very much if I slept on my own until the wedding?’

Cristo frowned. ‘Not if it’s important to you.’

‘With Mum arriving a few days before the wedding, it would really be more comfortable for me,’ she told him stiffly.

One week later, Cristo and Erin were married in the little church overlooking the town harbour. She wore a white lace dress, tight on the arms and fitted to make the most of her slender figure, obtained from a designer in Athens. Her mother had thought her daughter was being controversial buying into the whole white wedding fantasy when she already had two young children but Erin had seen no reason why her special day should not live up to her girlhood dreams. After all, she loved Cristo Donakis and preferred to be optimistic about their future.

The Greek Orthodox service presided over by the bearded priest in his long dark robe was traditional and meaningful. The church was crammed with well-wishers and filled with flowers. The scent of incense and the fresh-orange-blossom circlet placed on her head mingled headily and, strange as it all was to her, she loved it, loved Cristo’s hand in hers, the steadiness of his lion-gold gaze and utter lack of nerves. For the first time she felt that they were meant to be together and she fought off downbeat thoughts about what his wedding to Lisandra might have been like as it was clearly not on his mind.

The days running up to their wedding had been exceptionally busy. She had had to take Nuala to an Athens hospital to have her cast checked. Mercifully everything had been in order and the little girl had not required a replacement. That appointment had been followed by a shopping trip to buy Erin’s wedding gown. The next day she had first made the acquaintance of Cristo’s father, Vasos Denes, when he came over to meet the twins. Initially appearing stern and quiet, Vasos had slowly shaken off his discomfiture over his wife’s interference in Cristo’s private life and its disastrous side effects to relax in his son’s home and Erin had decided that he was a lovely man. She had been surprised when Cristo explained that his father’s company was on the edge of bankruptcy but that the older man refused to accept his financial help. She had soon grasped from whom Cristo had learned his principles and even if his volatile nature warred against them and occasionally won—as in when he had blackmailed her into going to Italy with him—she knew Cristo did try to respect scruples and operate accordingly.

In a gesture made purely for Cristo and his foster father’s sake, Erin had volunteered to take the children to visit Appollonia Denes at their villa on the outskirts of the town. Even on the medication her doctor had advised to help her with her low mood, the older woman had been stunned to see the twins and tears had trailed slowly down her cheeks while she attempted awkwardly to express her regret for the actions she had taken almost three years earlier. That she absolutely adored Cristo had shone out of her and her wondering delight in Lorcan and Nu

ala had inspired pity in Erin. She knew it would take time before she could forgive Appollonia for what she had done but she was willing to make the effort.

Cristo had thrown himself into spending every afternoon with the twins. Watching her children respond to his interest, noting the shocking similarity in their lively demanding personalities, Erin had known that marrying Cristo was the right step to take. Lorcan was already learning that when his father said no he meant it and Nuala’s tantrums had become less frequent. The first time she condescended to call Cristo, ‘Daddy’, he admitted to Erin that he felt as if he had won the lottery.

Her mother had travelled to Thesos in the company of Tom and Melissa. Sam had turned down his invitation but had sent a lavish present. The day before the wedding, Cristo had taken them all out sailing. He was a wonderful host and had been in the very best of moods. Erin had taken that as a compliment: Cristo was happy that they were getting married. And she had during the week that had passed learned to regret her request that they sleep apart until the ceremony. Intimacy brought a special closeness to their relationship and she missed it, disliking the new distance that her demand had wrought in Cristo. He was too careful to give her space. A couple of times she had lain awake into the early hours, her body taut with frustration and longing, trying to summon up the courage to go and join Cristo in the opulent master suite at the top of the stairs. Why was she still punishing herself for wanting him? Why had she let Sam’s sour suspicious comments make her doubt Cristo’s sincerity?

Cristo lifted her hand in the car on the way back to the house from the church and touched the shiny new platinum ring on her finger with approval. ‘Now you’re mine.’

‘That sounds exceedingly caveman-type basic,’ Erin remarked.

‘I suppose carrying you upstairs before we entertain our guests would be even more basic?’ Cristo rested scorching golden eyes on her face as she turned fire-engine red with sexual awareness and embarrassment.

‘You’re scaring me because I know you’re capable of behaving like that,’ she admitted ruefully.

‘I was pure caveman when I blackmailed you into meeting me in Italy,’ Cristo conceded with a sardonic laugh. ‘I do crazy things with you that I’ve never done with any other woman. Italy was supposed to be an exorcism—’

Erin gave him a blank look while trying not to picture how wickedly exciting it would be if Cristo was were to trail her straight off to his bedroom. That was the real problem. He might be pure caveman but on some level she liked that side of him and responded to it. There was something uniquely satisfying about knowing she was such an object of desire to him.

‘An exorcism?’ she repeated.

‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you and how incredible we were in bed. It infuriated me. I thought that if I saw you again, slept with you again I’d be disappointed and I could get you out of my system. My, didn’t that work well?’ he said with rich self-mockery. ‘Here we are just three weeks later and we’re married!’

‘Did you and Lisandra get married in the same church?’ Erin asked, no longer able to stifle her curiosity.

‘Of course not. We had a massive society wedding staged in Athens. Lisandra likes to make a big splash in public.’

‘But the church here and the simple service were lovely,’ Erin commented softly.