by Lynne Graham
Bee was relieved then that it appeared Jon’s desire to see her was professional rather than personal. She very much appreciated the fact that he studiously avoided asking her anything about Sergios. They parted fifteen minutes later but before she could turn away, Jon reached for her hand.
‘I meant what I said earlier,’ he stressed in an undertone. ‘I made a colossal mistake. I’ve always regretted losing you, Bee.’
Green eyes turning cool, Bee was quick to retrieve her hand. ‘It’s a little late in the day to tell me that, Jon.’
‘I hope you’ll be happy with Demonides.’ But the look on his face told her that he didn’t think she would be.
Unsettled by that exchange, Bee travelled back to Sergios’s house to have tea with the children. Sergios had been jetting round the world on business for over two weeks and their only contact had been by phone. After their meal Bee supervised Paris’s homework assignment and bathed Milo and Eleni before tucking them into bed. In a month’s time, Eleni was scheduled for surgery to have grommets inserted in both ears to resolve her hearing problems. Having consulted Paris’s teacher, Bee had learned that the boy was struggling to make friends at school and she had tried to improve the situation by inviting some of his classmates over to play after school. Paris was beginning to find his feet and as he did so he had become more receptive to Bee and less suspicious of her.
Just before Bee went to bed, Sergios called from Tokyo. ‘Who was the man you accompanied to the wine bar?’ he demanded.
Bee stiffened defensively. ‘So, Tom’s a spy, is he?’
‘Beatriz…’ Sergios growled impatiently, forceful as a lion roaring a warning to an unwary prey.
‘He was just an old friend I hadn’t seen since university.’ Bee hesitated but decided to say nothing more, feeling she didn’t owe Sergios any more of an explanation.
‘You’ll find that plenty of old friends will come scurrying out of the woodwork now that you’re marrying me,’ Sergios replied cynically.
‘I find that offensive. This particular friend is asking me to get involved with a children’s charity. You can scarcely find fault with that.’
‘Is that why he was holding hands with you?’
Bee flushed scarlet. ‘He grasped my hand—big deal!’
‘In public places I expect you to be discreet.’
Her anger rose. ‘You always have to have the last word, don’t you?’
‘And I’m always right, latria mou,’ Sergios agreed equably, not one whit disturbed by the accusation.
That night Bee lay in her big luxurious bed and played the game of ‘what if’ with Jon in a starring role. Well, she was only human and naturally she could not help wondering what might have happened had she met her charming ex when she was not on the brink of getting married to another man. Probably nothing would have happened, she decided ruefully, for had it not been for the pressure Sergios had put on her she would have looked like a real Plain Jane and Jon would have been less than impressed. In any case, Sergios was much better looking and had a great deal more personality…
Now where on earth had that thought come from? Bee wondered in confusion. There was no denying that Sergios was a very, very handsome guy but he was not her guy in the way Jon had once seemed to be and he never would be. Bee decided that she was far too sensible to indulge in ‘what if’ dreams. Besides she had long since worked out that if Jon had truly loved her he would never have dumped her because she had a mother who would always need her support. Jon’s rejection had shattered the dream of family, which Bee valued most.
* * *
‘That’s a very romantic dress,’ Tawny commented, studying her half-sister with frankly curious eyes, for the fitted lace gown with the flowing skirt was exceedingly feminine and not in Bee’s usual conservative style. ‘And a very thoughtful choice for a guy entering a very practical marriage of convenience.’
Bee went pink, wishing her other sister, Zara, had not been quite so frank with their youngest sister, who thoroughly disapproved of what Bee was doing in marrying a man she didn’t love. She also wished Zara had not chosen to avoid what might have been an uncomfortable occasion for her by pleading her reluctance to travel while pregnant. ‘Sergios isn’t romantic and neither am I.’
‘Granted the kids are cute,’ Tawny conceded, her coppery head held at a considering angle, blue eyes troubled. ‘And Sergios, on the outside he’s sex on a stick, but only for an adventurous woman and you’re as conventional as they come.’
‘You never know,’ Bee quipped, lifting her bouquet.
‘If I was the suspicious type I would suspect that you’re doing this for your mother’s benefit,’ Tawny commented with a frown, revealing a glimpse of wits that were sharp as a knife. ‘You’d do anything for her and she’s a lovely woman.’
‘Yes, isn’t she? My mother is also very happy for me today,’ Bee slotted in with a pointed glance. ‘Please don’t spoil that for her by giving her the wrong idea about my marriage…’
‘Or even the right idea,’ Tawny muttered half under her breath, not being that easy to silence. ‘Just promise me that if he’s awful to live with you’ll divorce him.’
Bee nodded instant agreement to soothe her half-sibling’s concerns and descended the stairs with care in her high heels. She was in her mother’s house for she had spent the last night of her single life there at the older woman’s request. Tawny was not acting as a bridesmaid because Bee had drawn the line at taking the masquerade of her wedding that far.
‘But I know you, you won’t do it if it means leaving those cute kids behind.’ Tawny sighed. ‘You’ll be like faithful Penelope, stuck with him for ever, and I bet he plays on it when he realises what a softy you are.’
Bee had no intention of being a pushover, convinced as she was that Sergios would happily tread a softy right into the ground and walk on without a backward glance. He was tough, so she had to be even tougher. She reminded herself of that fact when her scowling father extended his arm to her at the mouth of the church aisle and fixed a social smile to his face. Monty Blake had recently been trodden on by Sergios and his ego and his pockets were still stinging from the encounter. She thought it said even more about Sergios’s intimidating influence that her father was still willing, however, to play his part at their wedding.
Full of impatience, Sergios wheeled round at the altar to watch his bride approach. His face unreadable, he studied her and started to frown. She had had her long hair cut back to her shoulders. Whose very stupid idea had that been? But aside from that, Beatriz looked…luscious, he finally selected after a long mental pause while he ran his brooding dark gaze from the sultry peach-tinted fullness of her mouth down to the generous curves he never failed to admire. He wondered absently if men developed a taste for larger breasts when they reached a certain age. He was thirty-two, not fifty-two though. But as he saw the burgeoning swell of those plump creamy mounds so beautifully displayed in that neckline there was no denying that he was spellbound. The model on the catwalk in Milan had had nothing to show off but an expanse of flat bony chest. In her place, however, Beatriz would have been a show-stopper. He frowned at that thought.
Determined not to be cowed by the fact her bridegroom was glowering at her, Bee lifted her chin. Even the most critical woman would have had to admit that Sergios did look spectacularly handsome in a beautifully cut morning suit. Encountering those hard eyes trained on her, she felt briefly dizzy and breathless. The minister of her church was inclined to ramble a little, but he soon controlled the tendency after Sergios urged him in an impatient undertone to ‘speed it up’. Affronted by her bridegroom’s intervention, Bee reddened to the roots of her hair. Had Sergios no idea how to behave in church? Well, it was never too late for a man to learn, although she suspected he would fight learning anything from her every step of the way. He thrust
the wedding ring onto her finger with scant ceremony. She rubbed her hand as though he had hurt her, although he had not.
‘You were rude to the minister,’ she said on the way down the aisle again.
A brow lifted. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘You heard me. There are some occasions when you just have to be patient for the sake of good manners and a wedding service is one of those occasions.’
In the thunderous silence that now enfolded the bridal couple, Milo wriggled like an eel off his nanny’s lap and rushed to Bee’s side to clutch her skirt. She patted his curly head to quieten him and took his hand in hers.
‘He was repeating himself,’ Sergios breathed harshly, but, watching the toddler beam his big trusting smile up at Bee, he restrained the outrage her impertinence had sent hurtling through him. After little more than two weeks abroad he had returned to his London home and noticed a distinct change for the better in his cousin Timon’s children. All the kids had calmed down. Milo had become less frantic in his need for attention, the little girl was smiling and even Paris was occasionally venturing into shy speech.
Sergios had never had a best friend but had he done so Timon would have come the closest, although on the surface serious, steady and quiet Timon would have appeared to have had little in common with Sergios’s altogether more aggressive extrovert nature. But the bond had been there all the same and it was a matter of honour to Sergios to see Timon’s children thrive in his care. Beatriz, it seemed, had the magic touch in that department.
A line of cameras greeted their emergence from the church. As Bee’s eyes widened and she froze with the dismay of someone unaccustomed to media attention Sergios took immediate advantage of the moment. He swung her round into the circle of his arms and, with one hand braced to the shallow indentation of her spine to draw her close, he bent his head and kissed her, instinctively righting the status quo in the only way available to him.
Shock crashed through Bee and made her knees shake at that first breath-taking instant of physical contact. She had never been less prepared for anything and impressions hit her in a flood of overwhelming sensuality: the exotic tang of his designer cologne, the uncompromising strength and power of that lean, muscular body crushing her softer curves, the hard, demanding pressure of his erotic mouth on hers. And while at the back of her mind a voice was shrieking no and urging her to pull back her body was singing entirely another song. There was a wildly addictive fire to the taste of him. She wanted more, she wanted so much more she trembled with the astonishing force of that wanting. His raw masculine passion sliced through her every defence and roused a surge of naked hunger within her. The plunge of his tongue into the sensitive interior of her mouth made her body tremble, while heat pooled between her thighs and her breasts swelled, pushing against the lace of her bra so that it felt too tight for comfort.
‘You’re not supposed to taste that good, yineka mou,’ Sergios breathed in a roughened undertone, drawing back, his brilliant dark eyes cloaked and cool, his face taut.
Dragging her clinging hands from his broad shoulders, Bee was aghast and she turned blindly to pose for the cameras, her head swimming, her treacherous body torn by silent anguish as she struggled to suppress that monstrous hunger he had awakened. She had never felt like that in her life before, not even with Jon. It was as if Sergios had called up something she hadn’t known existed within her and that treacherous loss of control had embarrassed the hell out of her. My goodness, she had clung to him, pushed her breasts into his chest like a wanton hussy and kissed him back with far too much gusto. She could not bring herself to look at him again and inside she was dying of mortification. Obviously he had planned to give her a social kiss for the benefit of the cameras but she had flung herself into it as though she were sex-starved.
Teeth gritted behind his determined smile, Sergios willed his arousal into subjugation and reminded himself forcefully that sleeping with his wife would curtail his freedom and deprive him of the choices that any intelligent man would value. One woman was much like another; all cats were grey in the dark. He repeated that oft-considered mantra to himself with rigorous determination: he had no plans to bed his bride, no need to do so either. To think otherwise was to invite chaos into his head and home. Breaking the rules of his marriage would cost him and why take that risk? Unless he was very much mistaken, and when the subject was women Sergios was rarely mistaken, his mistress would push out every sexual stop to impress him on his next visit. Satisfaction could be had without complications and wasn’t that all that really mattered?
The reception was staged at an exclusive hotel where security staff vetted every arriving guest.
‘Zara was such a fool,’ Bee’s stepmother, Ingrid Blake, remarked in her brittle voice. ‘It could have been her standing here in your place today.’
Features austere, Sergios settled an arm to his bride’s rigid spine. ‘There can be no comparison. Beatriz is…special,’ he murmured huskily.
Bee went pink at the unexpected compliment, although the apparent slur on Zara embarrassed her and as the older woman moved out of earshot Bee muttered, ‘Ingrid has a wasp’s tongue but I could have managed her on my own.’
‘I will never stand in silence while my wife is being insulted,’ Sergios asserted. ‘But only the most foolish would risk incurring my wrath.’
‘Ingrid is a sourpuss but she’s my father’s wife and a member of the family,’ Bee reminded him gently.
Noting the anxious light in her gaze, Sergios laughed out loud. ‘You can’t protect everyone from me.’
His vital laugh, so full of his essential energy, ironically chilled her, reminding her how much ruthless power and influence he had in the world and how much he took it for granted. She thought of her father walking her down the aisle even though it would have been more in character for the older man to express his resentment by refusing to take part in the wedding. Monty Blake’s submission to her husband’s wishes had shaken Bee and shown her the meaning of true supremacy. She had no doubt that if she ever dared to cross Sergios he would become her most bitter enemy.
‘I understood that your grandfather was planning to come today,’ Bee admitted.
‘He has bronchitis and his doctor advised him to stay at home. You’ll meet him tomorrow when we arrive in Greece. I didn’t want him to take the risk of travelling.’
It was not a particularly large wedding: Sergios equated small with the privacy and discretion with which he liked to separate his private life from his public one. Although there were only fifty guests everybody on Sergios’s list was a somebody in the business world. He seemed to have very few actual relatives, explaining that his grandfather had had only two children, both of whom had died relatively young.
‘Was he looking for an heir when he discovered you?’
‘No. In those days he had Timon. Social services discovered my connection to Nectarios and informed him about me. He didn’t know I even existed before that. He came to see me when I was seventeen. I needed a decent education, he offered the opportunity,’ Sergios admitted tautly.
She wanted to ask him more about his parentage but his reluctance to discuss his background was obvious and it seemed neither the time nor the place to probe further. Tense at being so much the centre of attention, she ate a light meal. A celebrity group entertained them. Bee noticed a beautiful female guest casting lascivious eyes in Sergios’s direction and felt her fingers flex like claws ready to scratch. She didn’t like other women looking at him in that speculative sexual way as if trying to imagine what he would be like in bed. It was that wretched kiss, it had changed everything, even the way she thought about him, Bee conceded unhappily.
She had not known that a mere kiss could make her feel hot and hungry and frantic for another. In fact she had always believed that she wasn’t that sexual, and even when she was in love with Jon
keeping him at arm’s length had not proved much of a challenge for her. She had longed for some sign of commitment from him before she slept with him, had wanted sexual intimacy to mean something beyond the physical. With hindsight she suspected that she had always sensed that Jon was holding back as well and reluctant to get in too deep with her.
‘This day seems endless,’ Sergios breathed tersely as he checked his phone for the hundredth time, fingers tapping a restive tattoo on the table.
‘It’ll be over soon,’ Bee said calmly, for she had guessed at the church that he found almost every aspect of their wedding day a demanding challenge. It made her wonder what his first wedding and his first wife had been like. Was he reliving disturbing memories? Had his first wedding been a day of love and joy for him? How could she not wonder? Yet Sergios didn’t strike her as the kind of guy likely to have buried his heart with his dead wife and unborn child in the grave eight years earlier. He was too pragmatic and abrasive and far too fond of female company.
‘Let’s get the dancing over with,’ Sergios breathed abruptly, springing upright and extending a hand to her.
‘I love your enthusiasm,’ Bee riposted, smiling brightly as her mother beamed at her. Emilia Blake was a happy woman and Sergios had not only visited her before the wedding but had also made the effort to sit down and talk that afternoon to her, which Bee appreciated. Emilia believed that her son-in-law was the sun, the moon and the stars and not for worlds would Bee have done or said anything to detract from that positive impression.
This marriage had to work, she reflected anxiously. If her mother came out to live in Greece their relationship would be on constant display, so she had to ensure from the start that the marriage worked for both of them. She would have to be practical, even-tempered and tolerant…for he was neither of the last two things.
