Beauty and the Greek (13 page)

Ignoring the voice that said
denial
repeatedly in her head, Beth smiled. How Gran would have laughed, and she would also have encouraged her granddaughter to enjoy every moment of the experience.

Beth lifted her chin. She intended to do just that.

T
WO
firsts in one day
—
a ride in a private jet and a helicopter trip across the Aegean. The latter left Beth's knees feeling a little shaky as she stood holding down her hair as the helicopter updraught tried to tug it out by the roots.

Beth looked around and thought
what next?

Then she saw the figure striding towards her and the smile of anticipation faded from her face.

This is not happening
, but it was and she had about thirty seconds to prepare herself for it.

Short of jumping off the nearby cliff and into the sea, she had no choice but to wait for him to reach her. She stood there, her eyes welded to his tall athletic figure, her heart throwing itself against her ribcage as if it was struggling to escape.

Play it cool, Beth.

The advice almost made her laugh; wild exhilaration and fear in equal quantities made playing it even tepid a non-starter. A fractured sigh slipped from her parted lips; the nervous tension that consumed her like a fever made her shake literally from head to toe as he approached.

Theo was going to take one look at her and know that she was aching with lust for him—he was going to look at her and she was going to tell him everything and she just wasn't ready!

‘Elizabeth?'

He tipped his dark head in her direction and Beth just stared; it was almost a relief to stop fighting and accept that the only constant thing in her life was her feelings for him.

She loved him and that would never change.

‘Theo, I've miss—' She stopped as a tall blonde figure stepped between them.

She had been so busy staring at Theo that she hadn't, until this moment, been aware of the woman with him. Her expression froze. Ariana's presence here—minus Andreas—did not necessarily mean she had switched brothers but it was a distinct possibility.

Beth closed her eyes and inhaled.

‘You had a good journey?' Under the sweep of his ludicrously long lashes, Theo's dark, deep set eyes held no expression as they swept over her. ‘You are ill?'

Beth took a deep breath and opened her eyes. ‘Nausea, but it's passed. My first helicopter ride.'

She had seen him in formal clothes and no clothes but never before dressed casually. Wearing a white T-shirt and faded jeans, a shadow of stubble on his jaw and his short dark hair ruffled by the wind, he looked tanned and fit and perfectly at home, but then he
was
at home and she was the intruder.

‘I didn't know you'd be h…here,' she said earnestly. ‘Or I wouldn't have come,' she added quietly before turning her attention politely to the Greek woman.

‘Hello, Ariana,' she said, forcing a smile.

The older woman was wearing an off-the-shoulder cropped T-shirt, very short shorts that showed lots of slim, tanned leg and very high spindly-heeled strappy sandals, none of which looked suitable for a trek along the rocky cliff path.

Ariana did not respond to her greeting, turning instead to Theo and voicing a loud complaint. ‘I was stung! By a wasp—see.' She lifted up her T-shirt even higher to show Theo more of her smooth midriff.

‘I can't see anything.' Theo barely glanced at her before he turned back to Beth.

She wouldn't have come if she'd known he was here.

They were not the words he had imagined hearing when he had played the scene in his head, but then neither had there been a third person in the scene.

He nodded towards her holdall and said, ‘Is that all your luggage?'

‘Yes, but I can carry it,' Beth said, snatching up the case before he could lift it.

‘I'll carry it.'

Beth shook her head and insisted, ‘It's not heavy.' Why was she making a big deal of this?

‘It's half a mile to the house.' He put his hand over hers on the handle.

Beth pulled her hand away, gasping as an electrical pulse zapped along her nerve endings.

She saw him staring at her and said, ‘Ouch—I snubbed my toe,' to cover the slip. Her determinedly cheerful smile grew even brighter as she added, ‘A nice brisk walk will do me good.'

Theo levelled a critical gaze at her. ‘You look like a nice brisk walk would kill you.' The short period since he had last seen her had taken its toll. Always fragile, she looked positively breakable.

Beth's lips tightened. ‘Thanks very much; you sure knew how to make a girl feel good.' Then, remembering how good he was at making this particular girl feel a lot better than good, she felt a tide of warm colour wash over her skin.

He continued his censorious survey. ‘What have you been doing to yourself?'

‘You introduced me to fashion,' she reminded him, thinking
and a lot of other things
.

She struck a pose, sticking out her hip to display her jeans and brightly coloured T-shirt.

Theo's expression did not soften in response to the jokey action. ‘I'm not talking about your clothes.' Her soft curves had vanished and in their place was an angularity that he found disturbing. ‘You look like a puff of wind would blow you away.' Was she pining for Andreas? ‘Have you been in contact with Andreas?'

It was Theo's cold, accusing manner as much as the seemingly unrelated question that made Beth blink in confusion. ‘I sent him a couple of emails. There was a query about one of the accounts but things in the office are actually fine,' she added, wondering if he thought her presence here meant she was neglecting her new responsibilities.

‘I do not wish to discuss the office.'

She looked up at him warily. ‘You don't? You don't think someone more senior should be in charge?'

His eyes narrowed. ‘Has someone been interfering? Because I gave instructions that you were to be given support but a free hand.'

Beth's eyes flew saucer wide. ‘
You
suggested me for the job?'

His autocratic smile flashed. ‘I would not use the word
suggested
.'

‘I'll try not to let you down.'

‘Your work ethic or ability has never been in question, Elizabeth.' Her taste in men was. ‘Andreas—he has not discussed his decision with you?' While Theo had been relieved that his brother had realised his engagement had
been a mistake, this relief was tempered by the realisation that this decision left Andreas free to pursue Beth.

‘What decision? And why would he discuss anything with me?' She frowned, alarm flashing into her eyes. ‘If something has happened to Andreas I'd prefer you just told me.'

A muscle clenched in Theo's lean cheek as he flicked a look in Ariana's direction. ‘Andreas is fine.'

Beth let out a gusty sigh of relief.

‘He has somehow managed to muddle along without you.' And if he had any say in the matter he would continue to do so.

‘I'm allergic!' Ariana, tired of being ignored, suddenly shouted, making them both turn. She pressed a hand to her chest. ‘I think I'm having an anaphylactic shock.' She sank gracefully to the ground and moaned, ‘Call an ambulance.'

With a sigh, Theo put Beth's holdall down and Beth promptly picked it up.

‘Is it this way?' Without waiting for a reply, she set off along the path he had used. She had no desire to see Theo fussing around Ariana. The thought that he might be doing more than fuss sent a stab of jealousy through her aching heart.

After a few hundred yards the path forked. Beth barely paused before she took the right hand path; even if she got lost she didn't see how it could make the situation much worse than it already was.

Her fears that she might have missed the place proved misplaced—the Kyriakis house appeared around the next bend. It was a vast sprawling affair set almost into the cliff above the sea.

She was making her way towards the pillared main entrance when Theo caught her up.

‘Where's Ariana?'

‘Recovered,' he said shortly.

In a way, her unwelcome presence was his own doing. He now wished he had not insisted that Andreas break off his engagement in person and not, as his brother had intended, by email. Until he arrived, it would seem that they were stuck with Ariana.

‘It was very kind of your mother to invite me.'

He stepped to one side to let her enter the house before him. ‘My mother is a very kind woman.'

Beth looked around the space she found herself in. An entrance hall, but not as she knew it, it was vast and simply furnished, white walls and dark wooden floor scattered with rugs. The effect was one of space and coolness.

‘She sends her apologies.'

Beth shook her head, not understanding.

‘My mother sends her apologies. Georgios had an emergency at work. She managed to contact most of the other guests, except Ariana,' he added drily.

‘And me.'

He tipped his head in acknowledgement.

This got worse. ‘So there is no party.' Just a party for two and she was the gatecrasher. Feeling physically sick, she pressed a hand to her trembling lips. ‘That's terrible. When can I arrange to go home?'

From her expression, it seemed to Theo that she looked capable of swimming if necessary. ‘There is no transport back to the mainland until tomorrow and it need not be
terrible
.'

‘Sure, because you really want
me
here.' She buried her face and groaned. ‘Never mind. You can lock your door tonight as a safety measure. You and Ariana need not know I'm here; I can eat in my room and—'

His deep voice cut across her increasingly frenzied reassurances. ‘What do I need protecting from?'

At that moment a man appeared. Theo spoke to him and, after nodding politely to Beth, he took her holdall away.

Theo turned back to Beth. ‘So what do I need to lock my door against?'

‘Me.'

‘You?'

‘In case I come begging for sympathy sex.'

An expression of utter astonishment crossed Theo's face, followed by comprehension. ‘You think I fear you will beg me to make love to you?' His heated glance slid down her body.
Fear
would definitely not be his response if what she spoke of occurred.

Her chin fell to her chest. ‘I won't,' she promised him in an earnest mortified whisper.

‘You have no idea how relieved that makes me feel.'

This was Theo at his most sardonic and, puzzled by the ironic inflection in his deep voice, her head came up.

His thoughts flickered back over that fateful conversation. ‘This is the shame you spoke of that morning?' At the time, her comment had cut him bone-deep and each time he had recalled the words since the pain had not lessened.

She nodded, her eyes sliding from his. ‘You must think me a totally awful person,' she began huskily.

He arched a brow and felt a swell of tenderness as he looked into the face turned up to his. ‘Why must I think this,
agape mou
?'

Beth's eyes widened. Was he joking? ‘Gran was not even buried and I was—'

Theo's chest swelled as a wave of utter relief washed over him. His hand fell to her shoulder. ‘I think that you would find that most people would not find your actions
despicable, but mine. You asked, yes, but I did not need to say yes. I took advantage of you.'

It was Beth's turn to be astonished. ‘But you didn't do anything I didn't want you to.'

Their eyes met and clung. Without thinking, she turned her face into his hand and closed her eyes as she felt his thumb move across the curve of her cheek. All she could hear was the banging of her heart as it threw itself against her ribs.

‘And do you still?'

Beth swallowed past the emotional occlusion in her throat and opened her eyes. ‘Yes, Theo,' she whispered.

A smile of primal male satisfaction split his lean features.

‘The heel has come off my shoe.'

Beth jumped guiltily and wondered how long the woman had been standing there and how much of their conversation she had heard.

Beside her, she heard Theo swear. ‘This situation is…' He stopped, making a visible effort to control his feelings. ‘I told you they were unsuitable but you insisted on coming.'

‘For a walk, not a run.'

Theo clenched his teeth and fought to control the swell of frustrated anger that made him want to forget the code of hospitality that compelled him to be at least basically civil to this unwanted guest.

‘Perhaps you should take a rest. If you would excuse me, I have some calls to make.'

Just one, to his brother. He was going to suggest that Andreas brought forward his proposed flight from New Zealand—no, he was going to
insist
that he did.

Jaw taut with determination, he tipped his dark head to
the two women and saw the look of disappointment that Beth struggled to hide.

He took her chin in his hand, tipping her heart-shaped face up to him. ‘Do not,' he said, fixing her with a look that made her heart leap, ‘move from that spot. I will be back directly.'

Beth, oblivious to the flash of anger on the older woman's face as she silently observed the interchange, nodded her agreement to this fierce command and watched him stride away with a stunned expression. Things were happening so fast that she was finding it difficult to keep up.

‘Long journey?'

Beth shook her head to clear her thoughts and responded to the older woman's bright enquiry with a vague nod.

‘I know the perfect remedy for jet lag.'

‘I'm not actually jet-lagged.'

Ariana acted as though she had not spoken. ‘A nice swim. There's a lovely little cove just at the bottom of the cliff path.'

The woman appeared to be making a genuine effort to be friendly and, actually, a swim did sound rather nice. Beth smiled and admitted, ‘That does sound tempting, but Theo has…' She paused, her eyes dropping as she added awkwardly, ‘Plans.' What his plans might include sent a secret shiver of anticipation down her spine.