Chapter Five #2
‘Melody, one of my husband’s former stepkids,’ Tabby’s companion explained.
‘She and her two brothers lived with Aristide for weeks after their mother left them alone in London, where they attend school. They knew him when they were very young and contacted him when they ran out of money. I think they’ll be spending most of the summer with us. ’
‘I’m glad he stepped in,’ Tabby remarked, watching two tall teenage boys join their sister’s animated conversation.
‘He’s good with children,’ the brunette said cheerfully. ‘Particularly teenagers. We’re getting a little too old to be seen as cool.’
‘Aristide can be surprising,’ Tabby admitted with a sudden smile, suddenly grateful that she had come to Greece to meet his family even if she was a fake fiancée. It was reassuring to be somewhere Aristide could relax and shed his remote and detached business persona.
Making some more food choices with Andy’s encouragement, she was soon sitting down and socialising.
‘So, tell me about her,’ Demetrius Romanos invited his son.
‘Not right now. I know how you work. The more I tell you about her, the more suspicious of her you will become,’ Aristide countered, knowing his parent of old and too respectful of him to comment that he considered his father one of the last people he would listen to advice from when it came to a woman.
‘She is a real beauty,’ his father conceded. ‘But so was the last one—’
‘Don’t bring Imogen into it,’ Aristide sliced in grimly. ‘That’s old history.’
‘She’s on the island right now,’ his father warned him impatiently. ‘I was furious when I was told but her grandfather is dying and she’s entitled to visit. However, you own their properties—’
‘I’ve no intention of being that petty,’ Aristide parried, his lean, strong face taut. ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.’
‘As long as the dog doesn’t start barking and upset her replacement—’
‘Tabby’s not a replacement. Tabby’s an entirely different kind of woman,’ Aristide murmured with innate assurance. ‘If you take the time to talk to her, you will realise that.’
In between conversations, Tabby sipped her tea and watched Aristide with his father, wondering what they were discussing because she could see Aristide’s hackles rising and his parent’s unapologetic stance.
‘They argue…frequently,’ Andromeda Romanos whispered in rueful warning. ‘But I’ve only once seen it come to an exchange of blows—’
‘Oh, my goodness…’ Tabby’s eyes rounded in dread.
‘I shouldn’t have mentioned it,’ the older woman said equally quickly. ‘It only happened that once and tempers had become very frayed, I’m afraid. That incident separated them for years, so it won’t ever happen again. They’re far too fond of each other to risk it.’
‘I’m relieved to hear that because I grew up in a violent home. My father drank and he often took his temper out on us,’ she confided.
‘How on earth did you and your mother cope?’
‘Well, ultimately we didn’t. They divorced years ago.’
Shortly after that exchange, Aristide retrieved her and offered to show her round the house. Some visitors were leaving, a few were staying over until the following day and some, like the former stepchildren, were staying at his father’s house.
‘It’s a huge house,’ Tabby commented as they stood in the giant hall with its contemporary limestone floor and modern paintings. ‘Did you inherit it?’
‘No. I built it during the period my father and I were at odds,’ Aristide confided with a wince. ‘I was only twenty and I was showing off—’
Tabby grinned as he directed her towards the glass and stone double-flight staircase. ‘You? Showing off? I don’t believe it!’ she mocked.
‘It’s far too big and unless I have half a dozen kids, I’ll never fill it. It doesn’t have much character either—’
‘So why did you build it?’
‘It was petty,’ Aristide said wryly. ‘But I was reminding my father that I was totally independent. I inherited my mother’s wealth and this island on the day she died. I’ve never had to fight or ask or struggle for anything, which is why I went into business. I needed the challenges.’
Tabby sighed. ‘My life has been so different from yours. Growing up, we were always struggling for money. Mum wasn’t well enough educated to get a decent job and what she did earn my father tended to take off her.
He was always moaning about how his family sucked his artistic soul out of him,’ she muttered with a curled lip.
‘But I don’t believe he had an artistic soul.
That was his excuse for ignoring the bills for rent, electricity and food and all the rest of the stuff you need to cover to survive. ’
‘No wonder you were willing to marry a stranger for cash!’ Aristide said, startling her rigid with that assumption.
‘Oh, good heavens, no, is that what you think? But that wasn’t why I was willing to marry Tore Renzetti.
No, that was to pay for Mum’s clinical trial in Massachusetts and cover her costs while she was there.
It’s taken every penny of it too because Violet and I wanted to know she would be comfortable,’ she explained.
‘And she hasn’t known what it is to be comfortable very often since she left my grandfather’s home to marry my father. ’
In receipt of her explanation, Aristide froze into stillness on the landing, his lean, powerful frame suddenly rigid with tension as he vented a harsh exclamation in Greek. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me about your mother’s need to pay for her treatment weeks ago?’ he demanded in raw disbelief.
‘It wasn’t relevant to us…and anyway, Violet ended up having to marry Tore instead, so it wasn’t really my story to tell any more,’ she proffered uncomfortably.
‘And I hope that I can trust you to keep those facts quiet. Now that my sister and Tore have fallen for each other and are staying together, I shouldn’t think either of them would want that original story told. ’
‘I’m not going to discuss it with anyone,’ Aristide declared curtly. ‘I’m just furious that you threw Renzetti’s existence in my face that night and you all but encouraged me to think the very worst of you!’
Tabby shrugged a slight shoulder, not quite sure why he was so annoyed with her.
‘Well, I had to throw back something with all the accusations you were hurling,’ she reasoned defensively.
‘And I believed that telling you I was to marry Tore and that he was wealthy would relieve you of the fear that you’d been specially targeted by me for some sort of profit venture—’
‘But it also made me believe that you were a cheat!’ Aristide flung back at her in condemnation. ‘And I don’t like people who cheat on their partners!’
Surprised by his vehemence and the fierce burnished gold of his gaze, Tabby flinched and spread her hands slowly in a soothing gesture. ‘I’ve never cheated on anyone. I’m sorry if I misled you but it was accidental—’
‘If you hadn’t misled me, I’d have been in touch with you far sooner than I was,’ Aristide shot at her, faint colour now edging his hard cheekbones while emotion still flared like a storm warning in his dark golden eyes, his annoyance and embarrassment visible.
‘Sometimes, you really can be a piece of work!’
‘I’ve apologised,’ Tabby reminded him flatly. ‘Have the grace to accept it and move on…’
Aristide closed a hand over hers and stalked down the long landing to the double doors at the foot, throwing a door wide. ‘This is the master suite for our use.’
‘Our?’ Tabby questioned, kicking off her shoes that were pinching a little and stepping back to take in the full impressive span of the spacious bedroom and the selection of doors that opened off it.
It was a really lovely room done in masculine shades of silver grey and dark blue, but the giant bed festooned in silvery drapes and crisp white linen would have delighted any princess in search of a suitable setting.
‘Well, obviously we’re sharing,’ Aristide pointed out.
Tabby had assumed they would be sharing a bedroom and had refused to think about what that would be like.
But now Aristide had started criticising her behaviour and had riled her up into a mood.
‘Obviously?’ she stressed out of badness and as Aristide’s eyes flamed like torches, she lifted a brow.
‘There’s a very nice couch over there. You could use that. ’
‘Like hell I will!’ Aristide fired back at her.
Tabby gave him a tight little smile and rested her hands down on her hips for emphasis. ‘Right at this minute, you have made me so mad with you that you’re condemned to the couch—’
‘I’m not sleeping anywhere but in that bed with you!’ Aristide framed.
‘Andy mentioned dinner and that I could change into something more relaxed,’ Tabby announced, ignoring that statement as she shifted the subject. ‘After you unzip my dress…’
The grudging hint of an appreciative smile tugged at the corners of Aristide’s sensual mouth. ‘Turn around,’ he instructed.
Tipping off her jacket, Tabby acquiesced.
The zip ran down, the edges parted, cooler air brushing her heated skin.
Lips pressed in a brief, light salute to her slender spine and she gasped, an electrified shiver running through her entire body.
He set her back from him and murmured in a husky undertone, ‘Don’t pretend that you’re not feeling the same things I’m feeling, angelos mou. ’
In instant denial of the charge, Tabby spun round. ‘The couch is still yours,’ she countered.
‘I need a shower,’ Aristide breathed in a driven undertone. ‘This room has separate bathrooms and dressing rooms, enabling both of us to have our privacy.’