Chapter 23
FOUR WEEKS LATER…
Theo stood on the terrace squinting against the vicious sparkle of morning sun on the Aegean.
Even though it was November and the days were cooler, the sea was still a blinding blue.
As blindingly blue as the building behind was blindingly white and the bougainvillea creeping over the facade was blindingly purple.
It was stunningly, blindingly perfect. Except he hated it. Because he was here and Tiffany was in fucking Australia.
He’d gone into work this morning and lasted for two hours before his brain had churned with thoughts of Tiffany, rendering him utterly useless, so he’d jumped in the company helicopter and been standing on the terrace of his villa forty minutes later, his tie and jacket discarded.
Because this was where he felt closest to her.
Please, Theo, can we just take some time?
But how long was that? Was it weeks? Because it had been four already.
Or was it months? Theo had never been a particularly patient man and, as she had pointed out, relationships weren’t his forte, but he knew enough about her to know that she was going through a lot and he was going to have to wait till she figured it out.
He smashed his hand on the railing. Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuck!
‘Here you are.’
Theo turned to find Ari striding towards him in his business suit. He must have caught the helicopter straight back once it had landed on the pad on top of their building.
‘Go away, Ari.’
His brother grinned, unconcerned by Theo’s scowl. ‘And miss out on seeing you brought to your knees by a woman?’
Ari had told him once, on this very terrace, that one day a woman was going to bring him to his knees and that he hoped he was around to see it.
And here they were.
‘Don’t worry. I brought the reports with me to read.’
‘I don’t give a fuck about the reports.’ Ari glared at him as he drew level at the railing. ‘I want to know what the hell’s going on with you.’
‘I’m giving her space,’ he growled. There was no point pretending it was anything else other than Tiffany making him lose his mind.
‘Why?’ he demanded.
Theo ground his back molars. ‘Because she asked me to.’
‘I mean,’ Ari said with a sigh, ‘why are you indulging her like this? Anything else you wanted, you’d go at it like a bull at a gate.’
‘Because she’s not some business deal.’
‘And?’
‘She’s just lost her father?’
‘And?’
Theo frowned. ‘And… she’s going through some stuff.’
‘ Thee mou! ’ Ari muttered. ‘But why her?’
‘Because I don’t want to be with anyone else.’
Ari sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose as if he was holding on to his last shred of patience.
‘You know I was standing right here when Pappou challenged me over my feelings for Kelsey so I’m going to do the same thing for you.
Are you ready? Maybe,’ he said, slowly and purposefully, as though Theo was a little dim, ‘the reason you’re out of your mind right now and ill-tempered and generally unpleasant to be around is not just because you suddenly don’t want to be with anyone else but Tiffany, but because you’re in love with her. ’
Theo blinked at the announcement. This was love? How could that possibly be true when it felt like he was developing an ulcer?
Anxiety. Concern. Obsession, even…
And yet, looking in his brother’s eyes, he could see the truth of it. Could feel the truth of it. He was in love with Tiffany.
‘ This is love?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘Like… someone’s punched me in the gut and I can’t breathe?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘I thought it was supposed to be giddy and fucking… unicorns pooping glitter?’
Ari shrugged. ‘Some people get that. Not us.’
‘Well, that sucks.’
‘Yup,’ Ari agreed as he grabbed his brother by the shoulder. ‘Now what are you going to do about it?’
‘I don’t know.’ He stared at Ari incredulously. ‘I don’t know how to do this. You’ve done it twice. You tell me.’
Bugging his eyes, Ari said, ‘Go and tell her.’
Theo bugged his eyes back. ‘She asked me to give her space.’
‘Yes, but you haven’t given her all the information.’
‘What if I do that and she tells me she doesn’t love me?’
‘Then too bad for you. You leave and come back to work.’
God, he hated that option. ‘What if she’s not sure and wants more space?’
‘Then you still leave. But you don’t go far and you let her know that you’re there for her when she’s ready.’
‘What if that takes a while?’
‘It takes as long as it takes, dumbass. All you need is your laptop and an internet connection and you can run the company from anywhere.’
‘You want me to live in the outback?’
‘Hey, I lived in a caravan park. For months. You can live in the outback.’
That was true. He was Theo Callisthenes, the CEO of a billion-dollar cruise ship company. He could kick outback ass.
‘Okay then.’ Mind suddenly made up, he nodded. ‘I’m doing it.’
‘Atta boy,’ Ari said, slapping him on the back then pulling him into a bear hug.
Love might feel like a rupturing peptic ulcer, but if Tiffany loved him back then he’d stock up on anti-aids and take it like a man.
* * *
Three days later, Tiffany was in the stables rubbing down Maximillian and chatting to her mother, who was rubbing down her horse, Moonshine.
They’d been out riding all morning, helping with fences, and she was looking forward to a long, cool drink of the Pimm’s and lemonade her mother had made up in a jug in the fridge.
They’d talked a lot the last month, her mother coming over most days, and although things would probably never be the way they were, they were better, and she was happy for that.
Tiffany didn’t want to still feel angry with her mother till the day she died, not when that had been such a punch to her gut with her dad.
And knowing how painful it had felt seeing Theo in those paparazzi pictures a month ago, she had a little more insight into how gutting her father’s betrayal had been for her mother.
‘Tiffany?’
Freezing mid-brush with the curry comb, Tiffany blinked. Had she just conjured Theo up by merely thinking about him? Turning slowly, she saw a figure silhouetted against the backdrop of bright blue sky. A very familiar figure, tall and broad, in blue jeans – a first – boots and a button-down shirt.
‘Theo?’
‘ Yassas , Tiffany,’ he said as he stepped inside and came closer.
It was him, and gah , he was a sight for sore eyes. She’d asked him to give her space and he had, but as a hot rush of emotion she knew without a shadow of a doubt was love flooded through her system, she realised she’d been such an idiot.
She been ignoring her feelings whilst she worked on her other emotions around her father and the unresolved stuff from her childhood and had figured somewhere deep down that Theo would tire of the wait and move on.
But seeing him again, she was so relieved he was here she almost sobbed.
Love for him poured from her chest as the truth rang clear as a bell.
She, Tiffany Wainwright, was in love with Theo Callisthenes.
And she had no idea how that was going to work; she just knew she wasn’t scared any more to feel it and that she was going to give it a red-hot try – if it was reciprocated.
She ran at him then, dusty jeans and shirt and smelling like horse, her heart suddenly flying as she threw herself into his arms and kissed him with all the pent-up emotion that had built over the weeks they’d been apart.
Taking it as a good sign that he wasn’t stopping her – in fact, he was enthusiastically partaking in their lip lock – Tiffany wanted to drag him to the ground and kiss him some more and demand that he love her back.
She would have, too, had her mother’s amused ‘Tiff?’ not brought her up short.
They broke apart then as if they’d been zapped by a cattle prod, but her hand still clung to his sleeve because she didn’t want to let him go, and also, she was a little too dizzy to stand unaided.
‘Mum,’ she said, feeling very much like they were teenagers who had been caught making out.
‘This is Theo.’ In normal introductions it would be usual for her to explain the nature of their relationship, but Tiffany figured her mother had already worked that one out.
‘Theo, this is my mother, Beverly Martin.’
Thankfully, her mother was walking forward and extending her hand to him, so Tiffany didn’t have to test the solidity of her legs. ‘So, you’re the one my daughter has been mooning over,’ she said with a smile as they shook hands.
Tiffany bugged her eyes at her mother. ‘I have not been mooning.’
‘Maybe not.’ She winked at Theo. ‘But a mother knows when something is up.’ She beamed at both of them. ‘Come inside when you’re ready, I have a nice cool jug of something prepared.’
She left them alone then and Theo promptly gathered her back in his arms, but he evaded her mouth as she stood on tippy toe. ‘Wait,’ he said with a smile. ‘I need to tell you something first.’
Tiffany sighed. ‘Okay, fine,’ she teased.
‘I know you wanted space and if you need more, then I’ll go but not without telling you that I love you.’
‘Oh, thank God.’ Tiffany’s forehead pressed to his chest, and she gripped the front of his shirt standing in his embrace, absorbing those three little words for long moments.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his lips pressing into the top of her head.
‘I didn’t know how much space was too much space, or even if what I was feeling was love.
I knew I couldn’t stop thinking about you and didn’t want to be with anyone else, and Ari had to explain to me that feeling like I’d been sucker punched and brewing an ulcer were classic symptoms of love and I was suffering them big time. ’
Circling her arms around his waist, Tiffany laughed as she tipped her chin back to look into his strong face. His whiskers were longer than she was used to, which would have probably looked haggard on anyone else but just added to his charisma.
‘If it helps, I’ve been feeling pretty sucker punched too.’
‘Really?’
‘Really.’
A huge smile spread across his mouth. ‘Is that because you love me too?’
Tiffany nodded. ‘It is.’
He laughed then, picking her up and twirling her around because apparently she wasn’t giddy enough. ‘Why do people do this?’ he asked, smiling down at her.
‘Because it’s the best worst feeling in the world.’
‘Oh God.’ He blinked. ‘You’re right.’
She shrugged. ‘Of course I am. Now can I kiss you?’
‘Not yet, there’s more.’
‘Okay.’ Tiffany braced herself for how ominous that sounded.
‘I need you to know that I understand you’re going through a lot at the moment and if you need to stay here, then we’ll stay.
Hell, I’ll move here if that’s what you need.
And the paparazzi thing? I’m afraid it’s part of my life, but I suspect when they know I’m now a one-woman man, I’ll be far too boring for them and they’ll leave us alone.
But you have to trust me that all of my wild oats have been sown and you are the only woman for me, and I know that’s not an easy ask for you because of your dad, but I promise I’m going to work every day to make sure you’re secure in my fidelity. Then there’s kids.’
Tiffany smiled. He wasn’t joking about there being more.
‘I know you said you weren’t sure about kids but, to be honest, the thought of having babies with you makes me kinda giddy – in a good way,’ he assured her. ‘So I’m happy to get reversal; just say the word.’
Tiffany smiled. He was just too damn sweet, this badass billionaire of hers. ‘I don’t know about kids but I love that it’s not a hard line for you any more, so let’s cross that bridge when we get to it, yes?’
He nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘And I understand about the paparazzi and how tabloids can misrepresent things. I’m not saying it won’t be challenging at times, but I do trust you.
’ She did. Not every man was her father.
There were plenty of honourable men out there in the world; she only had to look to Theo’s family for confirmation.
‘And I promise to work every day to show you that.’
‘Good idea,’ he said with a smile. ‘We’ll both promise.’
‘Lastly, I don’t need to stay here. It’s the place I grew up and I never thought I’d leave, and I do love it, but life has taught me that home is where the person you love is.
I’d like to come back to Balmain Downs more often than I have because my mum and I are working things out and I’d like to keep going with that, but it’s not my home any more. ’
‘We’ll come back as often as you want.’ He lifted a hand and tucked a loose tendril that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ear.
We’ll . Tiffany’s heart skipped a beat and she smiled – she liked the sound of that.
‘What I’d really like is to live on Mykonos. If that’s possible? In the villa. It’s close to Athens and Kelsey and, ohhh, Theo! I can write there. I could spend my life writing there. I mean… it’s so crazy to comprehend that a villa on Mykonos is my life now.’
Tiffany didn’t even know what to do with the whole billionaire thing yet.
‘Believe it,’ he murmured. ‘Because you deserve the best. And I can’t wait for Mykonos to be as much a part of your life as it is mine.’
That sounded pretty damn good to Tiffany. ‘Now can I kiss you?’
He grinned. ‘For as long as you want.’
Tiffany didn’t need any further invitation…