The Secrets She Carried

by Lynne Graham

  ‘That sounds exceedingly caveman-type basic,’ Erin remarked.

  ‘I suppose carrying you upstairs before we entertain our guests would be even more basic?’ Cristo rested scorching golden eyes on her face as she turned fire-engine red with sexual awareness and embarrassment.

  ‘You’re scaring me because I know you’re capable of behaving like that,’ she admitted ruefully.

  ‘I was pure caveman when I blackmailed you into meeting me in Italy,’ Cristo conceded with a sardonic laugh. ‘I do crazy things with you that I’ve never done with any other woman. Italy was supposed to be an exorcism—’

  Erin gave him a blank look while trying not to picture how wickedly exciting it would be if Cristo was were to trail her straight off to his bedroom. That was the real problem. He might be pure caveman but on some level she liked that side of him and responded to it. There was something uniquely satisfying about knowing she was such an object of desire to him.

  ‘An exorcism?’ she repeated.

  ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you and how incredible we were in bed. It infuriated me. I thought that if I saw you again, slept with you again I’d be disappointed and I could get you out of my system. My, didn’t that work well?’ he said with rich self-mockery. ‘Here we are just three weeks later and we’re married!’

  ‘Did you and Lisandra get married in the same church?’ Erin asked, no longer able to stifle her curiosity.

  ‘Of course not. We had a massive society wedding staged in Athens. Lisandra likes to make a big splash in public.’

  ‘But the church here and the simple service were lovely,’ Erin commented softly.

  His handsome mouth twisted. ‘You and Lisandra are very different.’

  Did he have regrets? A little ache set in somewhere in the region of Erin’s heart. Erin had seen photos of his ex-wife in glossy magazines and Lisandra was much more sophisticated than she was. Most people would reckon that Cristo had married ‘down’ in choosing Erin and when they realised that the twins were his they would put another construction altogether on their marriage. Did that matter to her? Was she too sensitive? Expediency, rather than love, made the world go round. She didn’t need him to love her. Evidently she didn’t have that essential spark that would inspire such feelings in him or he would have fallen in love with her when they were first together and everything was all shiny and new.

  ‘Visiting my mother in spite of what she did, allowing her to be present today and treating her like one of the family,’ Cristo specified wryly. ‘Lisandra would never have forgiven her.’

  ‘I haven’t forgiven Appollonia either.’

  ‘But you’re willing to try. I’m very grateful for that,’ Cristo told her quietly. ‘You had the opportunity to get your own back by excluding her from our lives but you didn’t take it. That was generous of you.’

  ‘She truly regrets what she did. We all make mistakes.’

  Cristo grasped her hand, curved lean fingers to the side of her face and brought his mouth down on hers with a hungry urgency that sent pure energy winging through her trembling body. ‘I’m wrecking your make-up,’ he groaned against her sultry mouth.

  ‘Doesn’t matter,’ Erin proclaimed breathlessly, looking up at him with starry eyes and a thundering heartbeat.

  Cristo handed her a tissue for the lipstick he had smeared. ‘Our guests await us but first … I have a gift for you.’

  He handed her a tiny jewellery box, which she flipped open. It contained a band of diamonds, an eternity ring. ‘Cristo, it’s beautiful but I haven’t got you anything.’

  ‘My gift is having you back in my bed again,’ he murmured lazily.

  The burning intensity of the look that accompanied that statement was like a blowtorch. She tottered out of the car on wobbling knees, struggling to pin a social smile to her lips. He really really wanted her and that was good, a healthy sign for a very practical marriage, she told herself earnestly, striving hard to be sensible while she admired the new rings sparkling on her finger. Cristo for eternity would be paradise, she thought dizzily, barely able to credit that he was finally hers. She watched as the twins ran to him and he scooped them up in both arms in a movement that made Lorcan and Nuala break into fits of laughter.

  ‘He’s so good with them,’ her mother remarked approvingly from the front door that stood open. ‘I expect you’re planning on more children.’

  ‘Not at the minute,’ Erin told her mother frankly. ‘I think we’ll be getting used to being married for quite a while.’

  ‘Cristo looks happier and more relaxed than I’ve seen him in years,’ Vasos commented approvingly at her elbow. ‘You’re good for each other. I only wish that my wife’s interference hadn’t parted you when you should have stayed together.’

  ‘It’s water under the bridge now,’ Erin said lightly as she looked up at the older man.

  ‘I had an argument with my son when he said he couldn’t possibly take a honeymoon while my company was failing. Don’t worry,’ Vasos urged comfortably. ‘I soon talked sense into him. Of course you’re having a honeymoon.’

  Erin swallowed uncomfortably. She knew how hard Cristo had worked in his efforts to support his father’s business, which had suffered badly in the difficult economic climate in Greece, but she also knew that Vasos’ stubborn independent streak had made it an almost impossible challenge. ‘He worries a lot about you.’

  ‘He’ll get over it,’ Vasos replied staunchly.

  ‘No, he won’t actually,’ she told him in a low voice. ‘He’ll feel like the worst failure if your business goes down. Why won’t you let Cristo help you?’

  ‘I could never accept money from Cristo.’

  ‘But you’re his family.’

  ‘When he came to us as a child he was a fantastically rich little boy and I swore never to take advantage of that.’

  ‘Times change. For a start, he’s an adult, not a child any more. He loves you very much. Isn’t it selfish to force him to stand by and do nothing while you go bankrupt? He’ll be devastated.’

  Vasos frowned.

  ‘Please don’t be offended with me,’ Erin begged. ‘I just wanted you to know what it’s like for him not to be allowed to help when you’re in trouble. In the same situation wouldn’t you want to help him no matter what?’

  ‘I will consider that angle,’ Vasos replied after a long minute of silence, his stern face troubled. ‘You can be very blunt, Erin … but you do understand Cristo.’

  ‘Hopefully.’ With a warm smile, Erin moved away to greet other guests, praying she hadn’t said too much to Cristo’s foster father. Cristo would probably be furious if he knew she had said anything, but negotiations between him and the older man were currently at a standstill and she had decided that she might as well speak up on Cristo’s behalf.

  Late afternoon, Cristo informed her that they were leaving. ‘To go where?’ she pressed.

  ‘It’s a surprise.’

  ‘I haven’t even packed—’

  ‘There’s no need. A new wardrobe awaits you at our destination. You don’t need to worry about the twins either because your mother has agreed to stay on here until we return. Let’s go—’

  ‘Like … right now?’ Erin exclaimed. ‘I need to get changed—’

  ‘No. I want to be the one to take off that dress,’ Cristo confessed, gazing down into her eyes with a sensual look of anticipation that sparked fire in her bloodstream.

  They flew to the airport in the helicopter and, having presented their passports, boarded the jet straight away. By then, having been up at the crack of dawn, Erin was smothering yawns and the drone of the engines sent her into a sound sleep. When she wakened, she was embarrassed by the poor showing she was making as a bride and barely had time to tidy her mussed hair and repair her make-up before they landed.

  ‘You’ve brought me back to Italy,’ she registered in surprise, recognising the airport. ‘Why Italy?’

  ‘It’s where we began again even if we did
n’t appreciate it that weekend.’

  And alighting from the limo that brought them to the villa and struggling to walk in the high-heeled sandals that were now pinching horribly, she decided that he had made a good point. Her emotions had rekindled along with her desire for him. It had been time out of time and wonderful in the strangest way of happiness coming when you least expected it to do so.

  ‘I gave the housekeeper the weekend off.’

  Cristo swept her up in his arms to carry her through the door he had unlocked.

  It was a romantic gesture she hadn’t expected from him and, eyes widening, she smiled up at him, colliding with dark golden eyes that made her heart race. They walked up the stairs, though, hand in hand and she almost giggled, unfamiliar as she was with such signs from Cristo, who was usually cooler than cool in that department. In the bedroom doorway she stilled, scanning the room, which had been transformed with lush arrangements of white flowers and dozens of candles with little flames that leapt and glowed in the darkness: she was transfixed.

  ‘Good heavens,’ she murmured, totally stunned by the display. ‘You organised this?’

  ‘I wanted it to be perfect for you.’

  Hugely impressed, Erin smiled again and walked on in, kicking off her tight shoes with a sigh of relief.

  ‘Now you’ve shrunk,’ Cristo teased, uncorking the bottle of champagne awaiting them and handing her an elegant flute bubbling with the pale golden liquid.

  Erin sipped. ‘Did you do something like this for Lisandra?’

  He frowned. ‘Why do you keep on asking about her?’

  ‘Well, did you?’ Erin persisted.

  ‘No, I didn’t. It wasn’t that kind of marriage. I thought you would have worked out by now that I married Lisandra on the rebound,’ Cristo imparted with a rueful twist of his mouth. ‘I reeled away from the wreckage of our relationship and made the biggest mistake of all.’

  On the rebound? She liked that news. She liked it even better that he was willing to admit that his first marriage had been a mistake. It soothed the hurt place inside her that had formed when she had realised he had taken a wife within months of their split. An extraordinary urge to move closer and hug him also assailed Erin. She might want to wrap that confession in fairy lights and laugh and smile over it but an aching sadness afflicted her at the same time. Three years back, he must have cared about her more than she had realised but she had still lost him through no fault of her own.

  ‘You weren’t in love with your wife?’ she prompted stiffly.

  ‘I thought I’d made that clear.’

  ‘Why did you marry her, then?’

  ‘After losing faith in you I had no heart for dating. My marriage pleased my family, gave me something to focus on other than you, but it was a catastrophe.’ Cristo shifted a broad shoulder in a fatalistic shrug and gave her a wry look. ‘This is our wedding night. I don’t want to talk about this now.’

  Something to focus on other than you. And suddenly Erin understood something that she had never quite believed in before. When they broke up, he had been badly hurt too, he had suffered as well. He had rushed into a marriage that he had hoped would cure him of his unhappiness. But now she was suddenly reflecting on the eternity ring and the beautiful bower of flowers and candles he had had prepared for their arrival and her heart swelled with warmth and forgiveness. He was doing things he had never done before. He was trying to show her that he had feelings for her and naturally he didn’t want her rabbiting on about Lisandra in the middle of it.

  ‘I love you,’ he told her in a roughened undertone, detaching the champagne glass from her nerveless fingers and setting it aside so that he could pull her close. His eyes were bright with emotion in the flickering candlelight. ‘I was in love with you when we broke up but I didn’t know it. You’ve haunted me ever since. When I saw you in that photo with Sam and his staff, all I could think about was seeing you again. I lied to myself. I told myself that it was only sex and that I wanted to get over the memory of you, but I was still in love with you when I brought you here that weekend. When I woke up beside you the next morning I knew I didn’t ever want to let you go again.’

  Tears welled up in Erin’s amethyst eyes and any strand of lingering resentment over that weekend vanished, for they had found each other again in this peaceful house, re-establishing the connection they had forged years earlier. That he loved her meant so much that she could barely contain the huge surge of happiness spreading inside her. ‘We’ve lost so much time when we could have been together,’ she sighed.

  ‘But we’re still young enough to make up for that and maybe while we were apart we both learned stuff we needed to know,’ Cristo countered more thoughtfully. ‘But if we had stayed together I would have eventually married you. I just wasn’t in a hurry.’

  ‘And this time around you probably felt like you didn’t have a choice,’ Erin completed.

  Cristo spun her round to run down the zip on her gown. ‘No, I thought very carefully about that decision. I didn’t have to live with you to play a part in the twins’ lives and my financial support would have taken care of any problems you had. No, I asked you to marry me because I wanted you in my life every day.’

  Smiling widely at that assurance, a glow of pleasure lighting up her eyes, Erin turned back to help him out of his jacket. ‘And there I was thinking that you had only married me because you thought it was the practical thing to do!’

  Cristo curved long fingers to her cheekbones and groaned. ‘I know it was a useless proposal. I should never have asked you when we were in bed but I couldn’t hold back any longer. Wives are a lot harder to lose than girlfriends and I needed to know that you were mine again for ever, pethi mou.’

  ‘I like the sound of for ever,’ Erin savoured, shimmying out of her lace gown and standing in her frivolous silk and lace bra and panties, a blue garter adorning one slim stocking-clad thigh.

  ‘I like the underpinnings,’ Cristo teased, fiery dark eyes welded to her scantily clad figure as he appraised her with lingering intensity. ‘But I’ll like you out of them even better and after a week of celibacy it’s overkill.’

  ‘Is it?’ Her brows lifted, her uncertainty visible.

  Laughing, Cristo picked her up and dropped her down on the gloriously comfortable bed. ‘You look gorgeous but I did notice that the separate bedrooms made your mother more comfortable in our home, latria mou.’

  ‘I wanted tonight to be special,’ Erin whispered, running a possessive hand up a shirt-clad arm.

  He sat up and discarded his shirt with alacrity, revealing a hard brown torso taut and roped with muscle. She spread her fingers there instead, revelling in the solid reassuring beat of his heart. ‘I forgot to tell you that I loved you.’

  ‘And as punishment you have to tell me at least ten times every day,’ Cristo delivered, lowering his head to claim a long passionate kiss that sent her hands up to clasp his head. ‘You know, I thought it might take you much longer to forgive me for not being there when you needed me … and even worse marrying another woman.’

  Erin smiled. ‘No, I know you’ve been through tough times too. What I didn’t understand is why you were suddenly doing all the romantic stuff you never did before. Do you remember what our first ever row was about?’

  ‘I forgot Valentine’s Day once we were dating. Well, actually I didn’t. I’d always avoided the mushy stuff as it raises unfair expectations and I was embarrassed about the one I sent you before you agreed to go out with me.’

  ‘A card?’ Erin scorned. ‘A card would rouse expectations?’

  Cristo winced. ‘I thought that sort of thing, like meeting each other’s families, should be kept for someone you’re serious about. We had only been together eleven months and twenty three days …’

  Her eyes widened. ‘You counted how long we were together?’

  ‘I was always a maths whizz,’ Cristo fielded deadpan.

  Erin was impressed. She glanced around her candlelit fl
ower-bedecked bower and smiled happily at what that display said: she had finally made the grade for the mushy stuff! He would never ignore Valentine’s Day again. She gazed up at him, enthralled by his lean, darkly handsome features and the tender look in his beautiful dark eyes.

  ‘I missed you so much!’ he breathed suddenly. ‘Something would remind me and then, boom, all these images would flood my head. And then I would remember what I thought you had done and get really angry that I was thinking about you again.’

  Erin reached up and kissed him. ‘That time is gone. Now we’ve got something better and stronger, something that will last—’

  ‘For ever,’ he slotted in with determination.

  Her eyes slid shut as he claimed her parted lips in another hungry, demanding kiss. Heat spread inside her with tingling, burning energy and she gave herself up to desire and happiness without any sense of fear at all.

  Two years later, Erin hosted the grand opening of Cristo’s first spa hotel on Thesos. Built beside a secluded beach and surrounded by lush pine forest, it provided a back-to-nature retreat with luxury on tap for the discerning traveller, and as the latest must-have place to go it was already fully booked six months in advance. As Cristo had been held up, Vasos and Appollonia Denes were by her side.

  A sea change had taken place in her relationship with the older couple. The passage of time had soothed the bad memories of the past and Erin’s natural resentment. Appollonia had grown stronger and calmer and as she recovered from her excessive nervousness and fatal tendency to apologise for everything had confided that her greatest fear had always been that Cristo would discover what she had done and refuse to forgive her. Once the secret was out, Appollonia had had to deal with her guilt, and forging a healthy, normal relationship with Erin and the twins had gone a long way to achieving that.

  Vasos had ultimately accepted a loan from Cristo to save his business but had insisted that Cristo accept a partnership in the firm, an arrangement that had left both men with their pride and principles intact. Cristo had been overjoyed that Erin’s intervention had wrought a change in his foster father’s stubborn outlook.