Chapter Ten
CHAPTER TEN
T HANASIS’S LUNGS WAITED until Sephone had disappeared on the horizon before opening fully. He was quite sure Lucie had watched the helicopter until it was nothing but a dot in the distant sky.
He put his head back and closed his eyes. He’d hated disappointing her by refusing to let her come with him, and it disturbed him just how much he’d hated disappointing her, but he couldn’t risk having her in Athens until after the wedding. Couldn’t risk her memories being triggered before he had the chance to explain everything to her.
The biggest truth though, another truth he could not share with her, was that he needed space away from her because he didn’t know how much longer he could do this.
He wanted her with a desperation he’d never known it was possible to feel. He wanted all of her. Forget any future wife. No one could make him feel a fraction of what Lucie made him feel. That truth had hit him first in the chapel when he’d tried to picture the ideal wife of his future and then tried to picture marrying her in that same chapel. He’d failed to conjure any face but Lucie’s. It was a truth that had solidified watching the sunset with her. Lucie was the only woman he wanted. The only wife he wanted.
Somehow he had to make it through to the wedding and pray that her dream about Athena wasn’t the start of her memories returning. If that dream expanded into a full-blown memory before he had the chance to explain everything to her…
The confession he’d known he must make since he’d agreed to this charade had changed since he’d first envisaged making it. Initially, he’d imagined himself laying all the facts on the table and, while not exactly relishing the shock that was bound to follow, being unmoved by any histrionics. It had been Lucie’s own fault, after all, that the need to lie to her had been deemed necessary by any of them.
To envisage his confession now, to imagine her shock, to imagine her hurt …
It was enough to fill his guts with an acidic dread that spread into every inch of him.
* * *
Lucie sat on the soft sandy beach of the cove nearest the villa late that afternoon, binoculars she’d managed to pilfer from a member of Thanasis’s staff glued to her face. She was watching the little white dot on the horizon grow bigger. It was a yacht, a very large yacht, and it was clearly headed towards Sephone.
Who could it be? she wondered. Thanasis had mentioned there would be around fifty yachts moored around the island for the wedding, but she’d assumed they’d all be arriving either Friday—tomorrow—or on the wedding day itself.
The yacht was coming closer. Could it be one of the singers who’d be performing for them? It looked like the kind of vessel a particular world-famous diva was often photographed sunning herself on surrounded by all her sycophants. Or maybe it was one of the tech billionaires named on the guest list she’d pored over earlier? Or any of the billionaires listed, she supposed. Owning a floating palace was pretty much part of the billionaire job description, and she was very grateful for it, having spent many wonderful months of her childhood partying and having fun on Georgios’s. Mostly fun, in any case. If Athena was in an accepting mood then everything would be great. If she was in one of her bitchy moods then Lucie had known it was safer to stay in her cabin. The Tsaliki males, including her brother Loukas, had all been good company but without Athena by her side she’d never been able to properly relax, had always felt she had to try too hard to be a good sport about all the boyish pranks and japes.
A sudden thought struck her and made her stomach plummet. What if it was Athena with her current beau—Athena always had a current beau—on that yacht?
Something unpleasant had happened between her and Athena since Lucie’s engagement to Thanasis. She was certain of it. Certain too, having thought about it incessantly since he’d flown off to Athens, that Thanasis knew it too and was trying to protect her from it.
The call of her name shook her out of her thoughts, and she turned her head to find the butler heading to her with a message from Thanasis. Friends of his were arriving early and had invited them to dine on their yacht that evening, and could she please be ready to leave at eight p.m.
Well, that explained the yacht, she thought, cheering right up, and with the same fizz in her veins that had filled her all those months ago when she’d walked through the door to meet her fiancé for the first time, Lucie danced back to the villa and up to her bedroom and through to her dressing room to find something to wear for their first real date since all her memories had been wiped.
* * *
Thanasis splashed off the foam from his neck and face and patted himself dry.
Towel hung loose around his waist, he strolled into his dressing room and soon he was dressed in smart dark chinos and a black shirt he left unbuttoned at the throat.
He could have kissed Leander for arriving early and for his invitation to join them that evening. It meant he got the pleasure of Lucie’s company without the torture of being alone with her. He might even allow himself a drink, something he hadn’t dared since her first night here when the wine had lowered his defences and set this whole damn ball of the Lucie rollercoaster rolling.
If he was being truthful, that ball had been rolling since she’d screeched away from him in his Porsche. Maybe even since she’d bounced into that hotel bar.
The coldness he’d experienced when told she’d been in an accident should have been the warning shot he’d needed that his feelings for her ran much deeper than basic lust.
Too late now, he thought grimly, and then shook the grimness off. His attitude had ruined too many evenings for Lucie before, even if she didn’t remember them. This one he would make special for her. After all, come the morning, the wedding madness would start in earnest. Lucie’s bridesmaids would arrive, as would Thanasis’s groomsmen, and, as a sop to the old English tradition, he and Lucie would go their separate ways and avoid each other until the wedding itself, one of the many details planned to fool the world into believing that this marriage was real.
He would not allow himself to think tonight of how much he now wanted it to be real too. He didn’t dare, not when the confession he must make hung like a dark cloud over him.
A little wax in his hair and a dab of his cologne and he was good to go.
He knocked on her door.
Within moments his senses were engulfed with the scent that most drove him wild…and then he saw her standing there.
A whistle he had no control of escaped through his teeth.
Her teeth grazed her bottom lip and she gave the shy smile he hadn’t seen since her first night on his island. ‘Well? Will I do?’
Do?
All the good his day away from her had done him had evaporated. All the fortifications he’d built in his mind to get through the next few days…vanquished.
Her usual black attire was gone. In its place, a sheer jade wrap dress with spaghetti straps that plunged between her breasts and tied at the waist, heavy jade embroidery threading in a leafy pattern from the breasts and down to the loose hemline below her knees. It was sexy and tantalising without being revealing, and had the touch of bohemian to it that only Lucie could pull off. Only Lucie could pull off the curly black pineapple on her head too, but even thinking of it as that was to do it an injustice when the soft curls framed her face and enhanced her beauty and the beauty of the deep red pear drop earrings in a way that was, to his eyes, a work of art. A tendril had come loose by her left ear, a long ringlet that brushed against her shoulder and filled him with envy that it wasn’t his mouth brushing against that silken skin.
He fought the groan drawing up his throat and clenched his fists to stop them cupping those beautiful cheeks and pulling that beautiful face to him.
Thrumming in him was the deep certainty that should he kiss the delectable mouth painted a tantalising deep dusky colour that was neither pink nor red but, like everything else with this incredible woman, uniquely Lucie, he would never come up for air again.
‘Well?’ There was a touch of anxiety in her stare.
He blew out a long breath. ‘You look beautiful. You are beautiful.’
Her smile would have blown out any air he had left in him.
Only when she stepped closer did he realise she was wearing red heels that lifted her height enough that she didn’t have to crane her neck all the way back to look in his eyes.
The hand that touched his cheeks contained a tremor in it. ‘You’ve shaved.’
He caught the hand and, fool that he was, pressed it tighter to his skin. ‘Do you approve?’
Another smile. ‘You always look gorgeous.’
Incapable of releasing her hand, he lowered it and threaded his fingers through hers, then brought it to his mouth to kiss the delicate tips. ‘Truly, matia mou . You are ravishing.’ He laughed to release the tension tight in his chest. ‘I’d assumed you only owned black clothes.’
‘I’ve not worn this for you before?’
‘No.’ He’d never seen her wear anything like it. For their public dates together she’d always looked beautiful—hell, she always looked beautiful, whatever the time of day and whatever she was wearing—but this was the first time he’d ever felt that she’d dressed with him in mind.
‘Good. Obviously I don’t remember, but I didn’t think I could have. I’ve no memory of buying it.’
When he thought of all the big memories her amnesia had taken from her, there was no reason why her failure to remember buying one dress should make him feel so wretched.
He gently fingered the loose ringlet and inhaled through his nose, filling his senses with the scent that was a manifestation of his addiction to her. ‘Once the wedding is done with, I will do everything in my power to help your memories come back to you. I swear.’
The Aphrodite smile shone up at him.
* * *
Even with the sun having set, it was still hot outside, the breeze created in the buggy welcome as his driver zipped them to the harbour where a tender was waiting to sail them to Leander and Kate’s yacht. Sephone had limited spots for large vessels and with Thanasis determined to leave as much of the island and its coastline untouched as he could, his refusal to dredge and create more space meant most sea-faring guests would be anchoring at sea.
He’d let go of Lucie’s hand. To keep holding it was to torture himself.
From the way Lucie had pressed herself away from him, it was a suffering she shared. The airy way she was asking her questions—they were playing yet another round of Getting to Know You—betrayed it too. Her voice was too airy, like she was trying too hard to be carefree.
‘Which of your family is the most likely to accept me?’ she asked for her third question, the first two of which had been light and innocuous, and his heart sank to guess this was the question she had most wanted to ask and to know it must be playing on her mind. Worrying her.
‘My sister.’
‘How come?’
‘My mother’s loyalty is with my father. She will follow his lead. He’s a good man—a great man—but he can be stubborn. Lydia is more open-minded, and, like a certain someone else I know, does not like being told how or what to think.’ He thought of how subdued Lydia had been when the negative press had imploded their lives. He’d thought the news of the wedding and its real potential to save them all would bring some of her spark back but she’d only become more withdrawn, and he kicked himself for not having checked in on her since Lucie’s accident. The truth was, his mind and his time had been entirely focused on Lucie.
Theos , give him the strength to make it through to the wedding.
‘They will all accept you,’ he vowed. ‘Once they get to know you, they will learn to love you.’ He would make damn sure of it.
They’d arrived at the harbour.
* * *
To Lucie’s relief, Leander and Kate were two of the nicest and most welcoming people in the world. Unlike most of the uber-rich, they didn’t start off their acquaintance by insisting on a tour of their yacht, something Lucie had found incredibly irksome as an adolescent whenever she’d joined the rest of the Tsaliki clan on one of Georgios’s friends’ vessels. Those tours were always, always designed to impress on guests just how much money and fabulous taste the host had. It would’ve been quicker for them to hand over their bank account statements and a listing of all expenses.
Mercifully, there was none of that with their hosts that evening. They greeted them with smiles and kisses and a bottle of champagne, and took them straight up to the sundeck without finding the need to wax lyrical about either the exact number of crystals in the chandeliers or the thread count of the thick carpet in the saloon.
The table had been set with high-class dining perfection but there was none of the formality Lucie had expected, the staff unobtrusive and polite without being fawning, Leander taking it on himself to be in charge of the drinks—Lucie quickly discovered he made a mean cocktail—and Kate, who was nearly as short as Lucie, taking it on herself to be chief taster of them.
With a variety of meze dishes to feast on and loud music playing and the stars above them twinkling, Lucie found herself relaxing in a way she hadn’t expected, relaxing and laughing and generally having an excellent time.
‘I hear you’re an interior designer,’ Kate said to Lucie after Leander had presented them each with a fresh cocktail.
Slightly embarrassed at what must seem a frivolous occupation considering Kate was a vet who’d studied for years to pursue her passion of working with orphaned orangutangs, she nodded and took a sip of her Espresso Martini.
But she really had loved her job. Loved how each job was different but how the end result always gave the same sense of satisfaction, whether it was a subtle room design or the full-blown transformation of an entire house or apartment. Loved feeling she was contributing to Kelly Holden Design steadily taking more and more lucrative business from the bigger boys.
‘Which university did you study it at?’
‘I didn’t.’
To her surprise, Kate grinned. ‘Good for you. I swear I nearly gave myself an ulcer from the stress I put myself under at university. How did you manage to get your foot in the door?’
‘I took a punt… Have you heard of Kelly Holden?’
Kate shook her head. ‘Should I have?’
Lucie laughed. ‘Of course not. She’s a goddess to me though. I always knew I wanted to do something creative, but it wasn’t until I read an interview with her after her firm won this really prestigious industry award no one thought she had a chance of winning as her firm was so small and new, that I thought, yep, I want to do that and I want to work for her.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Just like that.’
‘That’s amazing—it’s really similar to why I decided I had to work with orangutangs, except mine was a TV documentary. So what came next—how did you get her to take you on? Was there a lot of competition for the job?’
‘I collected my final exam results from school and went straight to her offices and parked myself in the reception room for three hours until she appeared, and then I ambushed her. God knows how I did it but I managed to convince her that what she really wanted to do was take on a green eighteen-year-old with zero experience and one A level in art as her apprentice.’
Leander lifted his glass. ‘To always following your dreams.’ His gaze darted to his wife, one of many secret, unspoken messages Lucie had noticed pass between them.
Theirs was the kind of relationship she longed for with Thanasis, a future she could feel them inching towards…
‘Are you still working for her?’ Kate asked, pulling Lucie back to the present.
‘No, I had to resign… Not that I remember resigning,’ she joked, even as her heart panged again at having had to walk away from the job she’d loved so much. Of all the expected guests at their wedding, Kelly was the one she was most looking forward to seeing. ‘But Kelly’s in London and I’m in Greece. It’s just not feasible for me to stay, and interior design is not a job that lends itself to home working.’ She glanced at Thanasis and, remembering his comment about no business talk at the wedding, gave a mischievous wink and said, ‘I might just ask Kelly at the wedding if she’ll consider expanding into Greece.’
He grinned, that gorgeous, gorgeous grin, and idly traced a finger around the rim of his glass. ‘You don’t need Kelly. You can set up on your own.’
‘With what? I’ve got no money.’ At the three identically shocked expressions, she laughed. ‘I’ve supported myself since I was eighteen. I earned decent money but living in London is hugely expensive. I think I’ve managed to save about two hundred quid in the last six years.’
‘I’ll be your backer.’
She blinked, completely taken aback. It would never have occurred to her to ask Thanasis, just as she would never have thought of asking either of her parents or any of her ultra-wealthy stepfamily. ‘I couldn’t ask that of you, but thank you.’
‘You’re not asking, I’m offering.’
‘And it’s a lovely offer but I’ve always had an aversion to being in debt—I borrowed a hundred euros off Athena once and she harangued me until every last cent had been repaid, and then wouldn’t let me forget how kind and generous she’d been to me.’ Those one hundred euros had been to cover Lucie’s share of the bill on a night out for her own birthday at an expensive club where Athena had insisted on taking her to celebrate it.
His smile and accompanying laughter didn’t quite meet the serious hue in his eyes. ‘We can discuss it after the wedding, but what I will point out now is that once we’re married, everything I have is yours, so you can never be indebted to me.’
‘No more boring work talk or I will get the baby photos out,’ Leander interrupted with a grin. ‘Now, who wants to try a Coquito?’
* * *
Was she drunk? Lucie wondered as she embraced Kate and Leander and thanked them again for a wonderful evening. She felt drunk, but not drunk drunk. Not like she had that night with Athena when she’d been fifteen. This was a different kind of drunkenness, one oiled a little by cocktails but fuelled by the joy of being alive.
In less than two days she would be married to this gorgeous man holding her with such secure rigidity to him as their tender sped them back to the harbour. He would be her husband and she would be his wife and the whole future would be theirs for the taking.