Cathy Williams - The Greek's Forbidden Bride

‘Of course it’s a good idea. You’re not going to back out on me now, are you? Are you?’

‘I just didn’t think it through,’ Abby mumbled. ‘I can see why you wanted it, really I can, but now that I’m actually here, I don’t like deceiving your mother. And your grandfather, for that matter. They’re nice people.’

‘We’re not deceiving them,’ Michael whispered urgently. ‘And the reason we’re doing this is because they’re nice people. Please don’t back out on me now, Abby. Please.’

‘And another thing,’ she said uneasily. ‘Your brother suspects something.’

‘What?’

‘Well, for a start he thinks that I’m after your money.’

Michael grinned at that. ‘Well, that’s okay. He’s way off target, then.’

‘True, but the fact is that he’s going to probe until he finds out the truth.’

‘He’s here for three days, Abs. How much probing can one man do in the space of three days?’

A normal man, she wanted to say, not much, but your brother, more than I feel happy about.

‘I suppose I could just keep out of his way for the whole time,’ Abby said, more to herself than to Michael. ‘I mean, it shouldn’t be too difficult. I can just stick to whoever happens to be around and make conversation.’

‘Which would really make him think that you’ve got something to hide,’ Michael mused with a frown. ‘On the other hand, it might be better if you just try and convince him that he’s wrong. I mean, talk to him, give him the impression that you and I adore one another. Which, incidentally, also wouldn’t be a lie.’ The boyish grin was infectious and Abby found herself reluctantly drawn into his optimism.

‘And don’t worry; we’re only here for a week, then we’ll be back in England and everything will return to normal once more. Look, I’ll get dressed and we’ll have breakfast and then what say we head down to the town and do a bit of touristy stuff?’ He pulled back the covers, stood up and pulled her into his arms so that he could wrap her up in a big reassuring hug.

After the tension of being in Theo’s company Abby gave in to the hug with relief. One of the most wonderful things about Michael was the friendship he so unstintingly gave her. She had agreed to the engagement because she loved him and she succumbed to the wonderful mixture of tenderness and affection that he inspired in her.

‘But you just need to spend some time with him,’ he said into her ear. ‘Honestly, I know Theo can be a bit overwhelming but he has always been the fairest man I have ever known.’

‘If he was that fair…’

‘Fair but frighteningly old-fashioned in his beliefs. You have nothing to fear in his company. You’re not after my money and we do care deeply for one another. So give me a few minutes and we’ll head down for breakfast together. Okay?’

Half an hour later, they emerged to find that the household had finally awakened. From where he was sitting out on the front veranda, Theo watched as they joined in with the other guests, chatting and easy, their body language speaking of a certain closeness which he couldn’t believe was all it was made out to be.

She had tied her hair back into two very loose plaits and it irked him to see how genuinely warm her expression was as she made conversation with the other relatives milling around the buffet, helping themselves to the warm breads and fruit and cheeses. She turned around to say something to Michael and his brother grinned at whatever she had said and bent towards her to murmur something. Some sweet nothing, Theo thought, watching the display through narrowed eyes. The poor fool. Take one sexy woman and one gullible man and you get a divorce within a year and a hefty settlement for a gold-digger.

He frowned. When had he stopped thinking of her as a girl with no figure to speak of and started thinking of her as a sexy woman?

The main thing, he mused to himself, still following them as they helped themselves to some breakfast and took their seats at the far end of the table with his mother and two uncles, was that he was there to look out for his brother. It was what families did. They protected one another at all costs.

As though suddenly aware of him staring at her, Abby lifted her eyes and stared across the room and out towards the veranda, to where he was sitting, watching them and sipping his coffee. Theo met her gaze with cool, speculative eyes and was quietly satisfied when she gritted her teeth together and hurriedly looked away. She might have taken his brother for a fool but he was damned if she was going to think that he was the same.

He drained his cup and sauntered back into the villa, pausing where the group was sitting and chatting and leaned on to the table, palms spread to support his massive body-weight.

‘So,’ he drawled, ‘what are the plans for today?’ He was addressing the group as a whole but his eyes were fixed on Abby, who ignored him by concentrating on her croissant.

His uncles and their wives were staying put, it seemed, so that the wives could help prepare for the party and begin receiving the flood of guests to the villa, while their husbands, in typical Greek fashion, relaxed by the pool and refrained from doing anything too active.

‘We wouldn’t want to get in the way, would we, Nick?’ Dimitri said in a self-sacrificing voice and, amid the laughter, Theo looked at his brother, eyebrows raised in a question.

‘We’re off to explore the town,’ Abby inserted quickly. Five minutes ago, she had been relaxed. Now she felt as though a tiger had entered the flock of sheep and was prowling around with her set firmly in its sights. The minute she had spotted him over there, sitting outside with his coffee, she had known that he had been watching her. She should have smiled but had found that she couldn’t. Those cool black eyes stripped her of all her normal reactions. She had had time to brace herself for him now, though, and she gave him a wide, bright smile.

‘Michael’s been telling me a few things about Santorini and I’m dying to have a look around. What about you? Will you be helping with the preparations or just relaxing?’ Abby tried to imagine Theo Toyas helping with preparations but that was enough to stretch anyone’s imagination. She doubted he knew how to chop an onion, never mind doing anything more elaborate, although, from what she had gathered, caterers were being flown in for the party and would pretty much be doing the lot without any intervention needed from anyone.

‘We all want it to be just right,’ Michael’s mother had confided to her earlier. ‘There will be his favourite foods. Everything will be perfect. I have even arranged for the flowers and napkins to be in his favourite colours. He is eighty and do not be fooled by his joviality. George has a heart problem and none of us knows whether this will be the last birthday he will be celebrating.’

This had not come as news to her. Michael had said very much the same thing himself before they left England. Reading between the lines, she realised that part of his urgency for this engagement was to produce the girlfriend his grandfather had always wished him to have, to at least let him see that his grandson now had the promise of stability within his reach.

‘I have work to do.’ Theo broke into her thoughts.

‘Now that is a real shame,’ Michael said, and they both looked at him. ‘Darling, I know I promised to take you into Santorini, spend the day driving around and showing you the sights, but…’

In a split second Abby knew what was coming and she gave him as much of a warning glance as she could. He smiled blandly and ruefully at her and only flinched a little when she smartly jabbed him on his shin with her foot under the table.