She’d repeatedly reminded herself that the marriage was just a business deal. Another employment contract signed with the hospitality tycoon. It was the only way she could retain some measure of sanity among the excitement generated by his family, as they planned the wedding of their beloved son, nephew, cousin, to the Australian girlfriend they had given their seal of approval.
No one seemed to think it was unusual that the engaged couple had so little time together. George and Eleni had moved on to Kosmimo into one of the finished guestrooms. Understandably, Alex wanted to spend as much time as he could with his parents. Dell was always included and she did her best to be affectionate with Alex without anyone suspecting that her edginess was anything but pre-wedding nerves. She tried to hold herself a little aloof from George and Eleni because she really liked them. They were every bit as intelligent as her parents but in a warm, inclusive way. Losing them at the end of the year as well as Alex would be an added level of pain; the thought of losing George earlier was unbearable. Thank heaven she’d agreed to help Alex in his audacious plan.
She didn’t have to feign interest in Alex’s parents’ stories and reminiscences of him as a little boy and rebellious teenager. She lapped up every detail and realised her obvious fascination with everything to do with her husband-to-be was noted and approved. George and Eleni, Aunt Penelope and Uncle Stavros made their delight in his choice of bride only too apparent. If Alex’s kisses, staged in sight of some observant family member, got a tad too enthusiastic she was only too happy to go along with them. All in the interests of authenticity.
Two days ago, while working alone with Alex in their office on Kosmimo, she had felt a bubbling sensation in her womb and cried out. Alex had jumped up from his desk and rushed to her. ‘What’s wrong?’ he’d said.
Then with sudden joy she’d realised. ‘It’s the baby moving inside me.’ She’d put her hand on her small bump, waited, and felt the tiniest ripple of movement. ‘My baby is kicking, I think.’ She’d forgotten all about the complex layers of her relationship with Alex and just wanted to share this momentous discovery with him.
Alex had stood in front of her and she’d realised he was lost for words, a gamut of emotions rippling across his face. She’d been amazed to see shyness and a kind of wonder predominate. ‘May I...may I feel it?’ he’d finally asked.
Silently she’d taken his hand and placed it on her bump, her hand resting on top of his. The little tremor had come again. Then again. Alex had kept his hand there. When he’d spoken, his voice had been tinged with awe. ‘There’s a little person in there. Maybe a future football player with a kick like that.’
She’d smiled through sudden tears that had threatened to spill. ‘Yes. There really, truly is. My little boy or girl. The baby I’ve wanted for so long.’ Happiness had welled through her. The moment with Alex had been a moment so precious, so unexpected that she’d found herself not daring to say anything further, not wanting to break the magic of it.
Alex had been the first to end the silence between them. His hand had slipped from her bump and he had taken both her hands in his. ‘Dell, I know this is something that I—’ he’d started. But she never heard what he’d intended to say as the man tiling the kitchens had knocked on the door with a query for Alex.
The by now familiar shutters had come down over Alex’s eyes, he’d dropped her hands and stepped back to turn and deal with the tiler, leaving her confused and shaken.
Now she stood at the entrance to the little chapel, in the most picturesque setting she could imagine near the edge of a cliff with perfect blue skies above and the rippling turquoise sea below.
The ceremony was to be a contemporary one, in recognition of the Australian background of both the bride and groom. But there would also be the traditional Greek Orthodox wedding service. She had been walked up from the resort to the chapel by her attendants, Alex’s two sisters and his cousin Melina from Athens. His sisters had flown in yesterday from Sydney, husbands and children in tow. Aunt Penelope had organised dresses for all three as well as Melina’s sweet little daughter, who had walked ahead strewing rose petals.
It was purely a Mikhalis family occasion and Dell was okay about that. This wasn’t about her. It was about Alex and his love and loyalty for his father and her chance to help him right one of the wrongs he imagined he’d caused people close to him.
So here she was, surrounded by so much goodwill and happiness it was palpable, like a wave rushing through the wedding party and guests and whirling them around in its wake. But it was based on a false premise: that she was about to become Alex’s loving wife and the mother of his child.
She was a fraud.
Could it be any wonder that, as she took her first steps over the threshold of the chapel, she was the most miserable she had ever been in her life? Her happy-chick face was threatening to crack from overuse. She took a deep breath to try and control her fear of the wrong she was about to do to this family and it came out as a gasp. Immediately friendly, comforting hands were upon her, patting down and soothing what they so obviously saw as a case of bride-to-be jitters.
She couldn’t do this.
Then another step took her inside and she saw Alex waiting by the side of the small stone altar that had been festooned by his family with flowers. Her heart seemed to stop. He had never looked more handsome, his black hair and olive skin in striking contrast to his white linen suit. But it was the look of admiration and pride on his face as he caught sight of her that set her heart racing. It wasn’t love, she knew that, but it was enough to let her decide to rip off that mask she was so weary of wearing and show him how she really felt. Later, she could put it down to what a good actress she had been on the day.
But right now she was going to let the truth shine from her eyes.
She loved him.
The person she had lied to the most was herself. Because she loved Alex Mikhalis with all her heart and soul and she could no longer deny it. She realised this was a make-believe wedding and nothing more would come of it but she was going to behave as though this were her real wedding.
To pretend just for this day there was love and a future.
She smiled back at him, a tremulous smile that she knew revealed her heart completely without artifice. Their gazes connected and held and there was no one else in that tiny church but her and the man she loved. But she could not tell him how deeply and passionately she felt all those things a make-believe bride should not feel for her pretend husband. There would be heartbreak enough when their contract came to an end—one way or another.
* * *
Dell in her wedding dress was so breathtakingly beautiful that Alex found himself clenching his hands by his sides in an agony of suppressed emotion. He wasn’t aware of anyone or anything else. Not his father and his cousin Cristos by his side. Not the priest behind them. Not the tiny church filled with his Greek family and friends, the scent of roses and a lingering trace of incense, the sound of the sea breaking on the limestone rocks beneath. All his senses were filled by the beauty of the bride walking slowly towards him. His bride.
She was wearing an exquisite long dress of fine silk and lace, deceptively simple, cleverly draped to hide the secret everyone seemed to be only too aware of. Her hair was pulled back from her face and entwined with flowers at the nape of her neck and he knew the gown swooped low at the back and finished with a flat bow. She carried a bouquet of white roses and tiny white daisies, the traditional gift of the groom to his bride. Pearl earrings from her new mother-in-law hung from her ears.
He knew the whole wedding was a sham, although created with the best of intentions. But suddenly he ached for this marriage of convenience to be a marriage of the heart. For Dell to be his wife for real. As she took her place next to him and the traditional crowns connected by ribbons were placed on first her head and then on his, the realisation hit him.
She was his wings.
Dell was the one who would help him soar back into the full happiness and joy of life. Without her he would still be grounded, plodding along looking backwards and sideward, sometimes forward but never up to the sky where he longed to be. But he couldn’t soar to great heights unless she was by his side. He needed her. He loved her.
How blind he’d been, how barricaded against ever finding love, ever thinking he deserved love that he hadn’t seen it when love had found him. When had he fallen for her? At Bay Breeze when she’d been so kind at a time she’d had every reason to hate him? Or the day she’d zoomed up on her bike so full of life and vitality shining her own brand of brightness into his dark, shadowed life? Whenever it had been, he realised now that the job offer, the move to Greece had all been an excuse to have her nearby.
He had to tell her how he felt.
How ironic they were repeating vows—in Greek and in English—to bind their lives together. Desperately he tried to infuse all his longing and love for her into their vows, hoping she would sense it, wanting this to be the one and only time he ever made these vows. Vows that made her his lifetime partner. When they were pronounced man and wife he kissed her with a fierce longing surely she must have felt. Then searched her face for a hint of returned feeling, exulting when he saw it, plunging into despair when he realised it could be all part of the game of pretence he had lured her into playing.
But telling her how he felt wasn’t possible in a snatched aside between the rounds of congratulations and the endless photos. Then when they walked down the hill to the new resort he had created with her, where the party was to be held, they had to face the reception line that saw them individually greeting their guests.
He felt a pang of regret and sorrow when he realised she had none of her own family and friends there. She had point-blank refused to involve them in what she called the big lie. In all conscience he had not attempted to convince her otherwise. Now he wished he had done what he had wanted to do in the interests of authenticity—gone behind her back and invited her parents and Lizzie and Jesse. Because he didn’t intend for her ever to have another wedding—this was it, for him and for her. He had every intention of claiming her for his bride for real.
After the feasting and the speeches, and before the dancing would begin, he managed to lead her out to the marble balcony that looked out over the sea. When a guest with a camera tried to follow them out he gestured for her to leave him alone with his new wife. He and Dell watched her depart and saw her tell others that the bride and groom needed some time together.
Alone with her, Alex found himself behaving like a stuttering adolescent. ‘It went well,’ he said. Of all things to come out when he had so much he wanted to say. Life-changing words, not inane chit-chat.
‘Yes,’ she said with a wistfulness he hadn’t seen before in her and that nourished the glimmer of hope he’d felt at the church. ‘I... I think we managed to...to fool everyone.’ Fool them? Fool him? ‘We both put on quite an act.’ An act? Was that really all it was for her?
‘Dell, did you...did you find yourself during the ceremony wanting...?’ Where were his usual eloquent words when he wanted them?
Her brow pleated in a frown. ‘Wanting what?’
Wanting our vows to be real. The words hovered on his tongue. But she seemed so cool and contained. What would he do if she denied any feeling for him? He had a year to convince her. He shouldn’t rush into this—it was too important for him to get wrong. ‘Wanting your family to be there?’ he finished lamely.
There were shadows behind her eyes when she looked up at him. Her mouth twisted downwards. ‘No, I didn’t. There are going to be enough people disappointed and hurt when they find out the truth of what this wedding meant—or didn’t mean. I don’t want my side dragged into it.’
Her voice wasn’t steady and he realised how difficult the deception was for her honest nature, how, although his father was beaming with happiness, perhaps his plan had not been in Dell’s best interest. But how very different it might be if their marriage was for real. He had the crazy idea of proposing to her in earnest out here on the balcony. Going down on bended knee. But he thought about it for a moment too long.
She turned away from him, her shoulders slumped before she pulled them back up straight. ‘We’d better get back to our guests. Act Three of this performance is about to start—the dancing.’ Then she turned back, lifted her face to his in the offer of a kiss. ‘We’d better do what our guests will expect us to do, Alex, a husband and wife alone together for the first time.’
When her cool lips met his, he knew she was pretending and he didn’t like the feeling one bit. As she moved away he saw the moment she pasted a smile on her face and forced a brightness to her eyes he knew she didn’t feel. Making her his bride for real might be more difficult than he had anticipated.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LEAVING HER DISASTROUS encounter with Alex on the balcony, Dell retreated to the bathroom—the only place she could get a few moments to herself. She splashed her face with cool water, being careful not to damage her make-up. There would be more photos to come and she still had to play her role of the happy bride.
Back in the beautiful little church on the clifftop, there had been no need for her to pretend. After the fervent way Alex had repeated his marriage vows, not taking his eyes from hers for a second, her heart had done a dance of joy, convinced he might feel towards her something of what she felt towards him. And that kiss... He had really taken the invitation to kiss his bride to the extreme. Her toes in her kitten-heeled satin shoes curled at the memory of it. No wonder the congregation had applauded them.
But on the balcony his stilted conversation had proved anything but satisfactory. How foolish she had been to let the romance of an extravagant wedding catch her off her guard. And yet... For a moment she’d been convinced he had something important to say. Maybe he had thought it was important to talk about the fact her family wasn’t there. But was it because he’d thought it mattered to her or because it might make people question the authenticity of their marriage?
She closed her eyes and let a wave of weariness wash over her. Actually, she’d let her personal feelings overcome her business sense. When her carefully worded press release went out announcing Alex’s marriage and the news got out, people might question the lack of participation by her family in the wedding. She’d have to think of a way to explain it. So maybe that was what Alex had been trying to say. But she felt too tired to worry about that just yet. Not just tired. Unwell. She smoothed back her hair from her face and prepared to return to the fray.
Then the cramp hit her. And another. She clutched her stomach protectively. Saw her face go white in the mirror.
Please, not that, not now.
But when she went into the stall to check, there was blood.
Dell rested her face in her hands. Her baby was kicking. She’d allowed herself to believe everything was all right. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t get up, couldn’t move, frozen with terror and disbelief and grief.
She didn’t know for how long she sat there. But there was a knock on the door. ‘Are you all right in there, Dell?’
Aunt Penelope. The woman who had been so good to her since she had arrived in Greece. She was a midwife. Aunt Penelope would know what to do. Dell opened the door.
‘The baby?’ the older woman asked.
Dell nodded. And let herself be looked after by her new family who weren’t really her family at all.
* * *
Alex was talking to his cousin Melina about her four-year-old daughter who was their delightful flower girl. He hadn’t even known Melina had a child until quite recently. Melina was explaining when his father interrupted them. Alex knew something was wrong when his father tapped him on the arm and took him aside. Dell needed to be
taken to hospital urgently. She wasn’t well and there was a chance she could be miscarrying. He heard the cry of anguish before realising it was his.
But his father told him he needed to be strong. How much had he had to drink because his speedboat was the fastest way to get his wife off the island? Fortunately all he’d had was a flute of champagne.
His wife.
Alex found Dell surrounded by the women in his family. His aunt, his mother, his sisters. She looked ashen, her eyes fearful, her hair falling in disarray around her face, stripped of her wedding gown and wearing the white dress with the blue tie she’d worn when he’d first kissed her in front of the Parthenon.
But when they saw him, the women stepped back so he could gather her in his arms. She collapsed against him and he could feel her trembling. ‘Alex, I’m scared.’
‘I know you are, agapi mou,’ he said, scarcely realising he had used the Greek endearment for darling. ‘Try not to worry. We’re getting you to the hospital as fast as we can.’ He knew how important this baby was to her. He would do anything he could to help her.
Alex murmured a constant litany of reassurance as he picked Dell up and carried her out of the building and down the steps leading to the water. But still he hadn’t told her how much he loved her.
She protested she could walk but he wasn’t taking any chances. He carried her to the dock where his boat, and the boats that had brought over the guests, were moored.
Then the women took over again as he took the wheel, released the throttle and pointed the boat towards Lefkada. People were worried about the baby. He was too. Since the day he had felt it move the baby had become real to him. But he was racked with the terrible fear that something might happen to Dell. He had a sickening sense of history repeating itself. Would he lose Dell as he’d lost Mia with her believing he didn’t care about her?
Conveniently Wed to the Greek Page 14
