Chapter Five
USHERED ONTO THE private jet, Tabby attempted not to gape at the gorgeous pale pearl leather upholstery or the number of hovering staff who had greeted her as she climbed the steps to board.
She looked the part of a passenger on such a luxury flight, she reckoned with relief, well aware that her smart green dress and light jacket, which were cut to flatter the increase in her bust and waist measurements, would look stylish in any company.
Even walking through the airport, she had registered that a mere flash of her dazzlingly noticeable engagement ring was sufficient to make her conspicuous to many people.
‘You look terrific,’ Aristide drawled with quiet approval, revelling in her newly found poise. ‘I also feel a little less likely to be accused of cradle-snatching!’
‘I’m almost twenty-two!’ Tabby objected.
‘And I’m almost twenty-nine. It’s enough of a gap to cause comment,’ Aristide told her, veiled eyes roaming slowly over her as she sank into the seat opposite him, slender, shapely legs set at a graceful angle to one side.
‘Did your family comment?’
‘Only to tease me about younger women,’ he acknowledged with amusement.
‘I think it’s time you tell me who makes up your family,’ she responded nervously. ‘I only have Mum, Violet and Belle in my corner and you already know all about them. My grandfather doesn’t really count because Violet and I’ve never got to know him…and what we do know isn’t good.’
‘My only really close relative is my father, but he has several brothers and sisters, who have given me a squad of cousins. My father’s on his fifth marriage and my stepmother, Andy, has stood the test of time, unlike her predecessors. They’ve been married ten years now.’
‘Andy?’ she questioned.
‘It’s short for Andromeda. She’s a darling, who would’ve made a great substitute mother for me, had she been around when I was younger and still needed one,’ Aristide confided. ‘I’m fond of her.’
‘What happened to your own mother?’ she asked uncertainly.
‘She was my father’s first wife,’ Aristide informed her ruefully. ‘She died from a fall on the stairs when I was only a few months old.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Tabby muttered with a wince, blue eyes awash with sympathy. ‘Do you have any memory of her?’
‘None whatsoever,’ Aristide admitted with regret. ‘My earliest memories only relate to nannies, stepmothers or my father’s temporary lovers.’
Her brow furrowed. ‘Temporary?’
‘The lovers, even the other wives, were all of a temporary ilk until my father met Andy. Dad’s liaisons lasted weeks or a couple of months but, sometimes, only days,’ Aristide related with a pained look of recollection stamping his lean dark face.
‘My father is or was a dysfunctional man when it came to the women in his life. But he’s settled now and content in his marriage. ’
Tabby nodded. ‘That’s good. What about siblings?’
‘None. I’m still an only child but I do have a few stepsisters and stepbrothers, whom I still view as family members. Some of their mothers were rather unreliable and my father maintained close ties with them, no matter how bitter the break-ups were.’
‘What’s your relationship like with your father?’ Tabby was enjoying herself, delighting in Aristide’s new openness with her and his willingness to satisfy her curiosity.
‘At times, it’s been troubled,’ Aristide admitted, his shapely mouth compressing as he spoke with yet more honesty than she had expected to receive from him.
‘For a long time I blamed Demetrius for the unstable home I grew up in with all those different women coming and going. I was a very pious teenager.’ He grimaced at the memory.
‘At one point, we didn’t speak for several years.
But adulthood made me less judgemental. He did fall for some truly horrendous women, however.
He also cheated on some decent ones. Maybe he just wasn’t ready to fully commit again until he met Andy. ’
‘And how does he feel about this pretend engagement of ours?’ she steeled herself to ask.
‘Nobody but us knows that it’s fake,’ he reminded her in stark reproof. ‘He’s shocked and surprised but very excited about the prospect of two grandkids. The stepchildren are all younger than I am. You will be the first in the family to reproduce. Now tell me about your father.’
‘He’s a creep,’ Tabby admitted without hesitation.
‘He never wanted children and if he’d had a choice, it wouldn’t have been what he referred to as “whiny” daughters.
I haven’t seen him since the divorce and that’s six, no, seven years ago.
He tied Mum up in court for months because he fiercely resented being expected to support us and he didn’t want further contact with either of us.
We’re just grateful that he’s out of our lives now. ’
‘You’re making me appreciate that I could have had it a lot worse. Demetrius has always loved and defended me. Whatever else he was, he has always been a great father. Clearly, I was fortunate, angelos mou.’
‘Better the devil you know,’ Tabby teased, watching that smile like summer sunlight flash across his lips, elevating his cheekbones and lightening his eyes to scorching gold enticement.
She saw the approaching stewardess perform a double take at his sheer masculine appeal in that moment.
Colouring on her own behalf for her hyper-awareness of Aristide, she listened as a wide variation of refreshments was offered.
As she collided involuntarily with his eyes, a little shimmy of heat currented down from her belly, making her squeeze her thighs together, much as if she was afraid of that sexual response somehow escaping her.
It was little wonder that she was so susceptible, she reasoned.
Aristide was drop-dead gorgeous, particularly with his lean muscular physique shown to advantage in beige tailored chinos and a dark purple shirt open at his strong brown throat.
Naturally she was still attracted to him.
Nothing that physically intense magically evaporated like mist.
‘So, where in Greece are we heading?’
‘Anthos, the island where my mother and I were both born. Her family has always been based there,’ he explained. ‘My father has made Anthos his home too.’
Somewhere in the aftermath of a light lunch, Tabby shifted as Aristide lifted her into his arms to carry her on board a helicopter, where he fixed headphones to her head and fastened her seat belt for her before sitting down.
‘Where are we?’ she mumbled, barely opening her heavy eyes.
‘Almost at our destination,’ he promised.
The jolt of the helicopter landing again woke her and she surfaced in a tizzy, peering out of a window to note the sprawling white house on the hillside below the hot blue sky.
It was massive, an undeniable mansion in size, and people were already gathering on the spacious front veranda.
In dismay she sat up and dug into her bag to search frantically for a comb and a lipstick.
A cool, restraining hand covered hers. ‘You look great,’ Aristide told her soothingly, and he was telling her the truth because she might look rumpled and a little sleepy but she was still indisputably beautiful.
‘There’s no need for you to primp when we’ve been travelling for hours. ’
‘This is my property,’ Aristide told her quietly as he vaulted out onto the grass and reached back to lift her down by his side in the sunlight.
‘Demetrius and Andy host family parties here because I have more space. Their own home, my former childhood home, is on the other side of the island, so there is no need for you to feel like a guest here.’
As they walked down a grassy path, Tabby noticed many of the guests standing outside disperse back indoors at a small, bustling brunette’s instigation.
Aristide, she realised, was the very image of his father and how he might look twenty or thirty years down the road.
Demeterius was tall, straight, his black hair winged with grey, undeniably handsome and fit, the very image of a silver fox.
By his side, his wife, Andy, was a curvy, scarlet-clad brunette with lively dark eyes and an irrepressible smile of welcome.
‘Oh, it is the ring!’ Andy exclaimed in excitement as she caught Tabby’s wrist lightly in hers to grab a closer look at the sapphire. ‘It’s absolutely tremendous, gorgeous!’
‘Thanks. I love it,’ Tabby admitted with a smile.
‘I’ll show you up to our room. You can lie down if you like,’ Aristide interposed.
‘Again?’ Tabby stressed with amusement, thinking that he needed to spend a little longer with his father and stepmother. ‘I slept most of the way here. I can surely stay awake long enough to meet some people.’
‘If that’s what you would prefer—’
‘Maybe you’re gasping to look after an invalid,’ she teased with a roll of her eyes. ‘’Fraid that’s not me. All you’ve got here is one pregnant lady, who’s feeling chirpy after so much rest. My nausea is definitely subsiding now. If you were to offer me food—’
‘I can help there.’ Andy cupped an arm to Tabby’s elbow and walked her off into a grand room where a splendid buffet table and a collection of people awaited them.
‘I slept the clock around when I was pregnant and I ate regular snacks to stave off the sickness,’ she told her.
‘Do you realise that Aristide has never brought a woman here with him before?’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Tabby said non-committally, all too well aware that she was visiting because at some stage their twins would be visiting with their father and it was her job to pave the way for that future.
As she was filling a plate, various casual introductions were made. A welter of middle-aged uncles, aunts and more youthful cousins followed. A skinny teenaged girl with bright red hair darted past them to throw her arms round Aristide as he appeared in the doorway.