The Greek Tycoon's Bride

‘What I see is me being man-handled and Jill left alone at a difficult time,’ she snapped hotly. ‘That’s what I see! And who do you think you are, anyway, telling everyone what to do?’

‘My parents’s son,’ he bit out with soft emphasis.

‘And I’m Jill’s sister,’ she snarled with equal ferocity.

‘What on earth do you think they are going to do to her in there?’ Andreas asked testily, lifting a hand to Michael who had now reached the end of the hall and was waiting for them.

‘I’ve no idea, have I?’ Sophy returned cuttingly. ‘Jill and I don’t know you or your family from Adam! All we do know is that, for some reason, you all fell out with Theodore years ago and there’s been no meeting point until now.’

‘You cannot lay that at my parents’s feet. My mother was inconsolable when he left Greece and would have done anything to bring about a reconciliation.’ He glared at her, only moderating his expression when Michael called to them impatiently. ‘And there was no “falling out” in the way you have suggested. My brother left Greece because he wanted to and in the same way it was Theodore who cut his family out of his life.’

‘He had a family, Jill and Michael,’ Sophy snapped back quickly. ‘And, from what I can gather, the fact that he married my sister was the final nail in his coffin. Well, let me tell you that he was lucky to get her! Darn lucky, in my opinion. Jill is worth ten of any high society girl he might have had paraded in front of him by your parents.’

‘Now, look here—’

‘I don’t have to look anywhere, Mr Karydis. Jill might be inclined to give you all the benefit of the doubt, but I tell you here and now that my sister and Michael are my only concern. I don’t have to like you, any of you, and I intend to make sure that Jill’s good nature is not taken advantage of. Now, you promised Michael a look at the pool and the cars, so I think we should get on with it.’ She glowered at him, her eyes shooting blue flames, before she turned to face Michael fully and arranged her features into a more harmonious whole.

As she went to walk away, she felt his hand catch her wrist again and she shot round to face him, grinding out through clenched teeth, ‘You touch me once more, just once, and so help me I’ll forget Michael is standing there watching us and give you the sort of come-uppance you should have had years ago.’

The stunned outrage on his face almost made her smile—almost—but she was too angry to fully appreciate that it was probably the first time Andreas Karydis had ever been well and truly castigated. And by a mere slip of an English girl at that.

As his hand dropped from her arm she swung round and made her way to Michael—who was hopping about with fretful eagerness—sensing Andreas was just behind her, and then they were all entering a long corridor leading off the hall. The kitchens were on one side and—according to Andreas’s terse voice—the resident housekeeper and the maid’s private quarters on the other.

Andreas stopped to poke his head round the kitchen door and ask that their refreshments be served in the pool area, and then they continued to the end of the corridor and passed out of that door into the grounds of the estate and into hot bright sunshine.

Sophy let Andreas and Michael walk in front of her once they were outside for two reasons. One, she wanted to let Andreas establish a nice easy rapport with Michael for the little boy’s sake and for the atmosphere to lighten generally, and two, she found she needed to dissect all that had been said and determine if she had been hasty at all. The truth of the matter was that she was feeling slightly guilty about some of what she’d said, and the more she went over their conversation in her mind the more she acknowledged she had gone too far.

She bit her lip as she glanced at the tall powerful man and small boy in front of her, the blistering afternoon sun beating down on one jet-black head and a smaller golden-brown one. Oh, darn it—what a way to set the ball rolling!

She had only been in Greece two minutes and she’d already dug a big deep hole for herself as far as Andreas Karydis was concerned! Not that it bothered her personally, if she was being truthful—he was a hateful, arrogant pig of a man and she thoroughly loathed him—but she was here as Jill’s sister and Michael’s aunt, and Andreas was Jill’s brother-in-law and Michael’s uncle. Unfortunately, the family connection was close.

They had almost reached the Olympic-sized swimming pool which glittered a clear blue invitation in the sultry heat but, although the magnificent surroundings and acres of landscaped grounds were breathtaking, their beauty was curtailed by her thoughts. Which had become clearer in the fresh air.

It was a less than auspicious start to their two weeks in Greece! Sophy groaned inwardly. But maybe Andreas wouldn’t be around much anyway? They’d established earlier in the car that he had his own property some miles away, so apart from an odd call or two to be polite he probably wouldn’t waste his time calling on his brother’s widow and her sister.

But then there was Michael. And the two of them seemed to be getting on very well. Which was good—great, in fact. Of course it was. Or it would have been, if Michael’s uncle had been anyone rather than Andreas! Oh, she didn’t know what to think any more and she had a headache coming on. And it was all Andreas’s fault.

‘Why don’t you sit down in the shade?’ Andreas suggested as they reached the pool area and he turned round to look at her, his voice expressionless as he pointed to the far corner of the tiled surround where the dark shade produced by an overhanging and thickly blossomed tree was broken into patches by dappled sunlight. ‘The sun can be fierce to the uninitiated.’

‘Thank you.’ It was stiff but the best she could do. The whole area was scattered with plump sun loungers and several tables and chairs, and she could see a vast brick-built barbecue in one corner and a pretty wooden sunhouse in another. Sophy glanced about her and then forced herself to say, ‘This is very pleasant, idyllic in fact.’

He nodded, leading the way to a table and four chairs, and they had no sooner seated themselves than Christina, the plump little housekeeper, appeared, pushing a trolley containing an iced jug of lemonade and three glasses, along with a plate of sweet pastries and another of small rich cakes. A large bowl of fruit and several smaller bowls of different kinds of nuts and dried fruits was also placed before them, Christina smiling and nodding at them all before she ruffled Michael’s curls and waddled back off to the house. It was some snack, Sophy commented silently.

‘I like her.’ Michael was blissfully unaware of the tense atmosphere as he helped himself to a nut-filled and honey-flavoured pastry. ‘I like everything here.’ He took a big bite of the sugared pastry before adding, ‘Don’t you, Aunty Sophy?’

Sophy sipped her lemonade and her voice was carefully neutral when she said, ‘Yes, it’s lovely, Michael.’

Andreas was looking at her, one eyebrow raised provocatively and she couldn’t believe anyone could say so much without uttering a word. ‘This is good,’ he said gravely, ‘as you have two whole weeks to enjoy everything.’

If there was one thing she loathed it was sarcasm, Sophy thought militantly, glaring again before she could stop herself.

As soon as Michael had finished his pastry he made his way to the pool edge, sitting down and removing his socks and shoes and dangling his feet in the water as he hummed a little tune to himself, completely happy for the moment as only children can be.

Sophy had had to restrain herself from stopping the child’s move, but Michael’s departure had somehow heightened the tense atmosphere to breaking point. She was almost relieved when Andreas said quietly, ‘He seems remarkably well adjusted already to the loss of his father,’ as he turned to look at her.

Sophy made the mistake of meeting the dark eyes trained on her face, and the way they all but pinned her to the spot brought a thudding in her chest which made her hand tremble slightly. ‘They…they weren’t close,’ she said stiffly, wrenching her gaze away with some effort. ‘Theodore spent most of his time working.’

In actual fact she had always felt Theodore was a severe father and that Michael feared rather than loved him, but she wasn’t about to tell Andreas that. Besides, she could be wrong. She had only seen the two of them together a few times.

‘You didn’t like my brother.’ It was a cool observation.

Surprised into looking at him again, she saw the intense eyes were narrowed and thoughtful but not hostile. Nevertheless she wasn’t about to trust him an inch, and she stared at him for a moment before responding, ‘What makes you say that?’

‘Am I wrong?’ he asked smoothly.

‘He was Jill’s husband and she loved him.’

‘That’s no answer,’ he said softly.

‘It is to me.’ She raised her chin, her soft mouth tightening as he continued to study her with what Sophy considered to be intrusive intensity. ‘The only answer you’re getting.’

‘You’re very defensive about your sister’s marriage,’ he said at last, his body inclining slightly towards her as he spoke.

Was she? She didn’t think she was, but certainly there was something about Andreas which made her uptight and on edge. ‘No, I’m not,’ she said sharply, moving her body irritably. ‘But I happen to think their relationship was their own business.’

‘I agree absolutely,’ he said with silky composure, ‘but if I remember rightly it was your attitude towards Theodore I was remarking on.’ He smiled what Sophy considered a supercilious smile.

‘And as you’ve only met me today and haven’t seen your long-lost brother for years, I would suggest any remarks of that nature are extremely presumptuous,’ she shot back quickly. Game, set and match.

He settled back in his seat, shifting his large frame more comfortably, and her senses registered the movement with acute sensitivity even as she steeled herself not to reveal a thing to the lethal grey eyes. He was very foreign, very alien somehow—far more than Theodore had been—but she didn’t think it was altogether his Greek blood that made her feel that way. It was the intimidating nature of his masculinity, his bigness, the muscled strength which padded his shoulders and chest and the severe quality to his good looks. There was no softness anywhere, and in spite of herself she recognised such overwhelming maleness fascinated even as it threatened.

He looked cynical and hard and ruthless, but sexy too, very sexy. She bet he would be dynamite in bed.

The thought was such a shock that it literally brought her upright in her seat. She couldn’t believe she’d thought it about him.

‘What is it?’ The grey gaze hadn’t missed a thing.

‘Nothing.’ She forced her voice to sound cool and remote. ‘But I would prefer to get back to the house now, if you don’t mind.’ She eyed him firmly, sensing what his answer would be.

‘I do.’ His voice was very smooth. ‘There are still the cars to see, if you remember?’

‘It’s Michael who’s interested in cars, not me,’ Sophy said sharply, ‘as you very well know. I don’t want to see them.’

He stared at her with an enigmatic smile which didn’t reach the cold intent eyes. ‘That is a pity,’ he drawled easily, ‘because you are going to see them.’

‘I see.’ She was glaring again, she thought angrily, but she just couldn’t match his irritating composure. ‘Hospitality and putting a guest at ease aren’t your strong points, are they, Mr Karydis?’ Each word was coated in sheer ice.

He stiffened at her words and then laughed quietly, his face hard. ‘Would you be offended if I said it depended on the guest?’ he said with insulting politeness. ‘Or that women like you make me think my countrymen were right to wait until 1952 before they gave the female sex the right to vote?’

‘Oh, how very chauvinistic of you, Mr Karydis,’ she said cuttingly. ‘I gather you are one of those rather pathetic males who feel threatened by any woman who has a mind of her own and isn’t afraid to use it? What’s your view of the female sex? But no, let me guess. Our destiny is to be kept pregnant and barefoot, is that it? We’re all supposed to fall into your strong male arms and beg you to make love to us?’

‘If that is a subtle invitation, Sophy, you should wait to be asked,’ he said reprovingly.

She knew it was a calculated jibe to get under her skin but in spite of that she couldn’t disguise the furious anger his cool baiting had produced. It turned her cheeks scarlet and her eyes fiery as she spluttered, ‘You, you—’

‘Male chauvinist pig normally fits the description but you have already used that one,’ he said calmly. ‘However, being such a woman of the world I am sure you can find a more original definition if you try.’

He was laughing at her! It was there in the barely concealed curve of his lips and the glitter of amusement in the dark eyes, and Sophy would have given the world to be able to slap the smirk off his handsome face. But there was Michael just a few yards away, and it wouldn’t do the little boy any good at all if his aunt suddenly attacked his new uncle, Sophy cautioned herself desperately. Although it would certainly relieve her stress levels.

And as though he had read her mind, Andreas added softly, ‘Now, please, Sophy Fearn, do not force me to carry you kicking and screaming to the garages. It might upset the family.’

‘And of course the family is everything,’ she snapped hotly.

‘Just so.’ The grey eyes narrowed ominously. ‘I care very much for my parents and I am sure you care about your sister, so let us at least put on a facade of being civil, yes? It is only for two weeks, after all.’

Sophy drew on every little bit of will power she possessed and took a deep hidden breath. She had never met anyone she had disliked more—or so instantly. He was a brute, an arrogant brute, and she loathed and detested him, but this visit was not about her or her feelings. She had come to Greece to look after Jill and Michael and make things as easy as she could for them, and a feud with Theodore’s brother simply wasn’t an option in the circumstances.

She raised her chin a little higher, forced her voice into neutral and said flatly, ‘I can manage two weeks if you can.’

‘Excellent.’ He rose to his feet and held out his hand to her. ‘So, we will take Michael to see the cars and then return to the bosom of the family, yes? Smiling and calm.’

Sophy gritted her teeth as she ignored his hand and stood up. Thank goodness, thank goodness Andreas didn’t live with his parents. With all the best intentions in the world, she didn’t think she could have stood two weeks of seeing this man every day.

She looked at him as he walked across to Michael after a mocking smile, her senses noting the comfortable, almost animal-like prowl with which he moved. She felt shaky inside and that made her angry with herself. He had wound her up to screaming point and it was the first time she had allowed anyone to do that.

Unbidden, her mother’s wedding photograph suddenly flashed onto the screen of her mind. She had found it one day when she was about eleven or twelve, hidden in the attic where she and Jill had been rummaging about when their mother had been at work. Their mother had spent nearly every waking hour working in an endeavour to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, and although they had never wanted for anything on a material level the two girls had virtually brought themselves up.

From the time they had first asked questions about their father their mother had refused to discuss the man who had let her down so badly, but her bitter silence had spoken for itself. The twins had never dared to press the matter and they had assumed their mother had destroyed any photographs that might have been taken, so when they had discovered the picture of the handsome smiling man and his radiant happy bride they had pored over it for hours.

Their mother’s fragile fairness had seemed even more delicate beside the tall dark man at her side, and she had been looking up at her handsome husband so adoringly, so reverently, it was clear to anyone how much she had loved him.

Their father had not been looking at his new wife but straight into the camera, his stance confident and self-assured and his handsome face wearing an expression of cool self-satisfaction which had bordered on the arrogant.

It had somehow fitted exactly the bare facts they knew—that their father had run off with a local beauty queen just a couple of months after they had been born, and had never bothered with them from that day on or even spoken to his wife again.

Jill had seemed to take the photograph in her stride but somehow, and Sophy couldn’t have explained why, it had eaten into her soul like a canker. Their father had been aggressively handsome, very masculine and dark with a magnetism which had leapt off the paper. And she had hated him. Hated his swaggering bumptiousness, his insolent good looks and the dark charisma that had trapped her mother into a life of lonely, back-breaking hard work and embittered memories. He had ruined her life and he hadn’t given a damn.

‘Aunt Sophy? Come on.’

Michael’s impatient, childish treble brought Sophy out of the dark void and into the bright June sunlight again, but for a moment she stared almost vacantly at the small boy standing in front of her. And then she forced herself out of the blackness.

‘Uncle Andreas is going to take us to see the Lamborghini.’ Michael clearly couldn’t understand how anyone could fail to recognise the importance of this momentous event, and as Sophy looked down into the little eager face she found herself smiling and her voice was soft when she said, ‘Lead on.’

As before, Sophy hung back and let the other two walk a few paces in front of her, and as she followed the large figure of Andreas and the small dancing boy at his side through an arched trellis wound with richly scented white roses, she found herself looking across a velvety smooth lawn which stretched beyond the pool area and curved back round the house in the distance.

The air was rich with the heavy, warm perfume of the scented bushes and landscaped flowerbeds surrounding the green area, and she noticed several flowered arbours complete with low wooden benches as they passed. It was like a stately home in England!

The Karydis family must have an army of gardeners to keep the grounds in such perfect condition, she thought idly as she walked on. Everything was immaculate.

Pristine tennis courts stretched behind the row of pretty red-roofed garages at the rear of the house, and Sophy stood looking into the distance as Michael oohed and ahhed behind her, climbing quickly into the Lamborghini and sitting agog as Andreas went through the controls with his small nephew.

Jill had unwittingly married into fabulous wealth, that much was for sure, but what on earth had made Theodore cut himself off from his family the way he had? Although Andreas seemed to have his brother’s cold, authoritative nature, Evangelos Karydis had appeared quite warm and friendly and Dimitra even more so. Still, it was none of her business, not really, Sophy told herself silently. Only in as much as it affected Jill, that was. But one thing was for sure…

She turned and glanced back at the occupants of the Lamborghini, her face flushing in spite of herself as Andreas’s eyes met hers for an instant, a disturbing gleam at the back of the grey. She was going to make very sure Jill made no commitment to this family, either in terms of herself or Michael.

She didn’t trust these people, she didn’t trust them at all, and the big dark man so deftly charming his small nephew at the moment she trusted least of all.

CHAPTER THREE

JILL was chatting quite happily when they re-entered the drawing room a little while later, and although Sophy was pleased to see her sister apparently relaxed and at her ease she felt a moment’s disquiet too. Jill had always been the one to take everyone at face value and blithely assume people were as nice and straightforward as they appeared to be, and Sophy had picked up the pieces of her sister’s trusting heart more than once when things had gone wrong when they were young girls. But this wasn’t a case of schoolfriends being two-faced or a boyfriend letting her sister down. This was the Karydis family—Jill’s in-laws and Michael’s grandparents—and that was something very different. And it could be very dangerous.

Michael ran to his mother immediately, full of the swimming pool and the cars, and as Sophy stood in the doorway for a moment Andreas turned and looked straight at her. His voice was low as he murmured, ‘Smile, Sophy. My parents will think you do not like them if you look at them like that, and that would never do,’ but in spite of the silky sarcasm coating the words the threat underlying them was very plain.

She started slightly before she could control the action and then responded immediately to the challenge, her eyes fiery and her gaze fearless as she said, ‘No one tells me what to do, Mr Karydis. Least of all you,’ her voice as quiet as his but with a quality that made his mouth tighten. ‘Remember that, will you?’

She had annoyed him. Good. Sophy brushed past him and walked across to the others, the satisfaction she felt at puncturing his massive male ego just the slightest putting a smile on her face as she said politely, ‘You have a beautiful home, and the grounds are quite magnificent,’ as she glanced at Dimitra and Evangelos.

‘Thank you, my dear.’ Dimitra smiled back at her. ‘And I understand you have been a tower of strength to Jill since—’ She faltered and then swallowed quickly, continuing almost immediately, ‘Since Theodore died.’

Sophy opened her mouth to make some polite social reply, but then as she looked into Theodore’s mother’s eyes she saw what Jill had seen. Pain, anguish, an almost tangible desperation that her son’s wife and sister-in-law would like her, and it swept away anything but the desire to comfort the grieving woman in front of her. She sat down and then leant towards Dimitra.

‘I’ve helped a little,’ Sophy said gently, ‘but I know how important it was to Jill to come here and meet you, and for Michael to get to know his grandparents.’

Dimitra’s gaze moved to Michael as she murmured, ‘So much lost time. So many wasted years and heartache.’

‘But now Jill and Michael are here and this is a new beginning,’ Andreas’s voice said just behind Sophy, the warmth of his breath touching the slender column of her neck and making her shiver inside. ‘Yes? And you will have many happy sunny days gossiping and putting the world to rights, no doubt.’

His voice had been tender, indulgent, and as different to the way he had spoken to her as it was possible to be, Sophy thought. But she didn’t understand any of this. According to Theodore, the break from his family had become set in concrete when he had married an English girl, and yet here was his family welcoming Jill with open arms. Something didn’t add up.

She continued to worry at the thought like a dog with a bone once the little maid, Ainka, had shown her to her truly sumptuous room next to Michael’s, Jill’s being on the other side of her son’s. It had been suggested the two women rested before they freshened up and changed for dinner at eight. Andreas had offered to take Michael to the pool for a swim—an invitation his nephew had accepted with alacrity—before the child had his own tea and was put to bed by his mother, and now the house was quite silent.

Sophy lay down on the massive double bed the room boasted but after five minutes or so gave up all thought of a nap, and walked across to the wide glass doors leading on to her balcony.

The luxurious bedroom and marbled en-suite were decorated in cool pinks and pastel blues and lilacs, reminiscent of a bunch of sweet-peas, and the efficient air conditioning had made the temperature comfortable, but as Sophy drew back the gossamer-thin voile curtains and opened the doors the heat struck with renewed force, reminding her she was in a foreign country.