Книга - Christmas Eve Marriage

Christmas Eve Marriage
Jessica Hart


A bride for the holidays…?The only thing Thea's looking for on her vacation on the Greek island of Crete is a little R and R–she certainly doesn't expect to find herself roped in to being Rhys Kingsford's pretend fiancée! It definitely isn't relaxing being around Rhys–in fact being with him is exciting, exhilarating…and everything Thea's ever wanted!Back home, Christmas is coming and reality sinks in. Perhaps it was just a holiday fling? Rhys is a single dad, and Thea's not sure there's room in his life for her. But Rhys has other ideas.









“So what do you think?” asked Rhys after a tiny pause.


“Um…about a goodbye kiss?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I…I suppose it wouldn’t do any harm. I wasn’t sure Kate was entirely convinced last night.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Another silence, longer this time. Long enough for Thea to wonder if he could actually hear her pulse booming.

“We’d better make it look good then,” said Rhys.

It was too much for Thea. As if of their own accord, her hands lifted to his arms, slid upwards to wind around his neck and pull him toward her. Or maybe she didn’t need to pull him. Maybe Rhys was closing the distance anyway. But, however it happened, they were kissing at last, and the release from all that anticipation was so intense Thea gasped in spite of herself.

So much for cool, calm and in control.


Jessica Hart had a haphazard career before she began writing to finance a degree in history. Her experience ranged from waitress, theater production assistant and outback cook to newsdesk secretary, expedition assistant and English teacher, and she has worked in countries as different as France and Indonesia, Australia and Cameroon. She now lives in the north of England, where her hobbies are limited to eating and drinking and traveling when she can, preferably to places where she’ll find good food or desert or tropical rain.

If you’d like to find out more about Jessica Hart, you can visit her Web site at www.jessicahart.co.uk (http://www.jessicahart.co.uk)




Books by Jessica Hart


HARLEQUIN ROMANCE®

3757—FIANCÉ WANTED FAST!* (#litres_trial_promo)

3761—THE BLIND-DATE PROPOSAL* (#litres_trial_promo)

3765—THE WHIRLWIND ENGAGEMENT* (#litres_trial_promo)

3797—HER BOSS’S BABY PLAN




Christmas Eve Marriage

Jessica Hart







www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




CONTENTS


CHAPTER ONE (#u57738102-cb2c-5289-935a-65fe757e2dbf)

CHAPTER TWO (#u58b718ab-0e35-5f90-9a15-d6e3fc674fb9)

CHAPTER THREE (#ufb1cd863-536d-593b-b556-c6b2e1f904fc)

CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)




CHAPTER ONE


NOTHING.

Thea closed the fridge with a sigh and began investigating the kitchen cupboards, but they were equally empty of anything remotely resembling breakfast.

What a great start to the holiday! A nightmare journey, an unfriendly neighbour, less than four hours’ sleep, and now nothing to eat.

‘Have a fortnight in Crete, she said,’ Thea muttered her sister’s words as she bent to peer. ‘You need a break. It’ll be beautiful. Nothing to do but read, relax…starve to death…’

‘What are you doing?’

Clara’s voice made Thea straighten and push her tangled hair away from her face. Her niece was at the bottom of the stairs, looking sleepy and tousled and very sweet in a baggy pink T-shirt. There was no doubt that it was a look that was easier to pull off after four hours’ sleep at nine, when you had peachy skin and a nice, firm little body, than at thirty-four, when peachy skin and a firm body had never figured largely among your assets in the first place.

‘Trying to find some breakfast,’ she said, yawning.

‘Oh, good. I’m hungry.’

‘Me too,’ said Thea glumly.

Nothing new there, then. Easy to tell that she and Clara were related. You’d think they’d be too tired to be hungry. It had been nearly half past five before they got to bed that morning, and it was only just after nine now. Any normal stomach would be daunted by a nightmare trip, arriving in a strange country and utter exhaustion, but Martindale stomachs were tougher than that! A massive asteroid could be hurtling towards earth and her stomach would still be going, Mmm, nine o’clock, no wonder I’m a bit peckish…Bacon and eggs would be nice, or perhaps a little croissant before the end of the world…Oh, and make that a double cappuccino while you’re at it.

She hadn’t even lost weight over Harry. It wasn’t fair. All her friends lost their appetites the moment they hit an emotional crisis, but the misery diet never worked for Thea. She just went in for comfort eating on a massive scale.

Not that there was much chance of eating now, worse luck.

‘I can’t find anything to eat,’ she told Clara. ‘I think we may have to go shopping before breakfast.’

Clara’s face fell. ‘But there aren’t any shops here. We’ll have to drive all the way back to that town we passed last night, and it’ll take ages. It’s miles away.’

‘I know.’ Thea grimaced at the memory of their hair-raising journey through the hills in the small hours. ‘I’m not sure I can face those hairpin bends again, let alone on an empty stomach,’ she said with a sigh.

‘What shall we do?’

‘Well, first I think we should ring your mother and ask her why she booked a villa in the middle of nowhere, instead of a nice beach apartment near shops and restaurants!’

Clara grinned. ‘She did say it was isolated.’

‘It’s that all right.’

Thea eyed the view through the kitchen window without enthusiasm. Rocky hillsides, olive groves and the spectacular peaks of the White Mountains in the distance were all very well, but right then she would have sacrificed picturesque for the odd blot on the landscape, an ugly supermarket, say, or a nice plastic restaurant—preferably one that delivered coffee by the gallon and an assortment of calorie-laden breakfasts.

She nibbled her thumb as she tried to think, but her brain really needed caffeine before it would function properly.

‘We’re just going to have to ask the people in the other villas if they can let us have some bread or something until we can get to the shops,’ she decided eventually.

‘We don’t have to ask that grumpy man we met last night, do we?’

Clara looked a little apprehensive, as well she might, thought Thea, remembering their disastrous arrival.

‘I think there are three villas, aren’t there? We’ll try the other one first,’ she said, trying to sound positive. ‘Maybe they’ll be friendlier.’

They couldn’t be less friendly, anyway, she thought glumly. So much for her relaxing holiday. She hadn’t planned to kick it off begging for a bit of bread and water. Why did these things happen to her?

Oh, well. Better get on with it.

They got dressed, which in Thea’s case meant shorts and a T-shirt, while Clara simply pulled a T-shirt over her swimming costume, and then headed off in search of breakfast.

In spite of their hunger, they hesitated on the terrace and took in their surroundings. It was the first time they had seen the villas. Three stone-built houses were set around a communal pool that glinted bright and blue in the dazzling Greek sunlight.

‘Cool,’ breathed Clara. ‘Can I swim after breakfast?’

It was very quiet. The air was already warm and filled with the drifting scent of herbs, and Thea sniffed appreciatively. ‘Lovely…thyme and oregano…let’s get some lamb to cook tonight.’

‘Let’s get breakfast first,’ said the more practical Clara.

Their villa sat between the two others, looking directly out over the pool to the mountains beyond. On the right was the villa they had stumbled into by mistake the night before.

‘Let’s try this way first,’ said Thea, pointing left.

All was very quiet as they climbed the steps leading up to the terrace. ‘Hello?’ Thea called, but there was no reply. ‘Hello?’

‘I don’t think there’s anyone here,’ Clara whispered, affected by the silence.

‘It doesn’t look like it.’

Reluctantly, as one, they turned to look at the villa opposite. They had a much better view across the pool than from their own terrace, and they could clearly see the man sitting at a table under a vine-laden pergola. A little girl was slumped in a chair beside him, scuffing her shoes sulkily.

‘There he is.’ This time it was Thea whispering.

‘He still looks cross,’ said Clara.

It was too far to read his expression, in fact, but Thea knew what her niece meant. There was something off-putting about the body language on the opposite terrace.

She bit her lip doubtfully. She had already experienced the rough side of his tongue, and she didn’t fancy it again. OK, the mistake was theirs, but there had been no need for him to be quite that fierce, had there?

If she had any self-respect, she would go and find the car keys and brave the hairpin bends before she would ask him for so much as a glass of water.

It was a battle between pride and her stomach, and her stomach won. No surprises there then.

‘He’s probably got a nice wife inside,’ she suggested to Clara. ‘She might feel guilty about the way he shouted at us. We weren’t making that much noise.’

‘It was five in the morning,’ said Clara gloomily. ‘And you did crash into his car.’

‘It was just a little bump.’

Clara’s mouth turned down at the corners. ‘Maybe we should go to that town after all,’ she said, but Thea had stiffened.

‘Look.’ She nudged her niece as she spotted a cup and a cafetière on the table. ‘He’s got coffee!’

She felt quite giddy at the thought. She would do anything for a cup of coffee right then. ‘Let’s just go and see,’ she encouraged Clara. ‘He’s not going to be rude in front of his little girl, is he?’

Clara was clearly unconvinced, but she could see that her aunt was determined. ‘OK, but you do the talking,’ she warned.

Buoyed up at the prospect of coffee, Thea bore her niece around the pool and back past their own villa. It was only at the bottom of the steps that her nerve began to fail. Close to, the man’s face was very grim as he looked out at the view. He was evidently lost in his thoughts, and it didn’t look as if they were particularly happy ones.

He hadn’t seen them yet, and Thea faltered. ‘Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all,’ she muttered.

‘Go on,’ whispered Clara, giving her a push. ‘We’re here now, and I’m starving!’

Thea opened her mouth to argue, but just then the little girl spotted them and sat up curiously. She tugged at her father’s sleeve, and he turned his head and saw them lurking at the bottom of the steps. The intimidating brows rose in surprise and Thea gulped. It was too late to turn and run now.

Squaring her shoulders, she trod up the steps with an assumption of confidence, Clara following reluctantly in her wake.

‘Morning!’ She produced a bright smile, the kind of smile she might give someone she had never met before. Someone who had never shouted at her furiously.

He looked a little taken aback by her smile as he got to his feet. ‘Good morning.’

His voice was cool but civil. That was something, thought Thea, looking on the bright side. At least he hadn’t leapt to his feet and roared at them the way he had only a matter of hours ago. It wasn’t the warmest welcome she had ever received, but Thea had to admit that she probably didn’t deserve one of those.

‘Hello.’ She smiled a little nervously at the little girl and received a blank stare in return. Oh. That grimness must run in the family.

She turned back to the man. ‘We…er…thought we should come over and apologise for last night…well, this morning.’

Distracted by the smell of coffee, her gaze wandered in spite of herself over to the cafetière, and she had to force herself to look back at him. ‘I’m very sorry for waking you up and…er…and for crashing into your car.’

To her surprise, the sternness in his face lightened somewhat. ‘I think I’m the one who should apologise,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid I was very rude to you. I’d had a difficult day,’ he went on, his own gaze straying involuntarily towards his daughter, ‘and an even worse evening, so I was in a filthy temper long before you arrived. It wasn’t fair to take it out on you.’

An apology from him was the last thing Thea had expected, and she was completely thrown. ‘I don’t blame you for being annoyed,’ she said, stammering slightly. ‘It was very late and we were making a lot of noise, I know.

‘It was just that we’d had such a nightmare journey,’ she tried to explain. ‘The plane was delayed, of course, and then there was some problem with the baggage handling at the airport, which meant that we had to wait ages for our cases. By the time we’d found the car hire place, I was so tired I was like some kind of zombie—and that was before we had to find our way here in the dark.’

‘It’s not an easy drive at the best of times,’ he said, which was nice of him, Thea thought. Especially when she doubted very much that he would have found it difficult at any time of day. He had an air of calm competence about him that could be intimidating or incredibly reassuring, depending on how much you really needed someone competent with you.

‘I’d no idea it would be so far, or that the roads would be that scary,’ she told him. ‘It’s not as if I’m a good driver to begin with—I’m more used to taking cabs—and I really thought we’d never get here. We’d been creeping along for miles in the dark, terrified we were going to go over the edge…don’t you think somebody would have thought of putting up safety barriers at some point?…and it was such a relief to get here at last that I probably stopped concentrating.

‘We came round that corner there,’ she went on, pointing. ‘And the next thing I knew there was this big bang. I didn’t see your car until it was too late. I wasn’t going that fast,’ she added guiltily and risked a glance at him. Fortunately he was looking more amused than anything. Phew. A big change from last night!

‘It was just a little bump really, but I suppose it was the last straw. We were both so tired by then that we started to laugh. It was that or cry.’

‘So that’s what all the giggling was about,’ he said dryly. ‘I wondered what was so funny.’

‘I think it was hysteria rather than amusement, but once we’d started laughing we couldn’t stop. You know what it’s like when you start snorting, and then you set each other off…’ Thea trailed off as she realised that he was just looking at her.

No, of course he didn’t. Obviously not.

‘Well…anyway…we didn’t realise how much noise we were making, obviously,’ she hurried on. ‘And then when we found ourselves in the wrong villa, it just seemed even funnier.’

Or had, until he had come roaring down the stairs and demanded to know what the hell they thought they were doing. He had been furious. As well he might be, Thea thought contritely. If she’d been woken up in the early hours of the morning by the sound of someone crashing into her car, and if they had then started fooling around, laughing loudly and breaking into her house, she probably wouldn’t have been that amused either.

‘I’m really sorry,’ she said, wondering why it suddenly seemed so important to convince him that she wasn’t as silly as she had been last night. Or not often, anyway.

‘Forget it,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t your fault that I’d completely mislaid my sense of humour last night. I think we should pretend that we’ve never clapped eyes on each other before and start again, don’t you?’

‘That’s very nice of you.’ Thea smiled gratefully at him. ‘I’m Thea Martindale, and this is my niece, Clara.’

‘Rhys Kingsford.’

Nice hands, Thea thought involuntarily as they shook hands. Warm, firm, capable. No clamminess or knobbly knuckles or suggestive little squeezes. Yes, full marks on the hand front.

And the rest of him was bearing up well to closer scrutiny as well. A bit severe-looking maybe, with those dark brows and stern features, but he was certainly more attractive than she had realised last night. Not handsome like Harry, of course—no one was as good-looking as Harry—but still…yes, definitely attractive.

Certainly attractive enough for Thea to wish that she had taken the time to brush her hair properly and put on something more flattering before she came out.

Rhys was gesturing towards the little girl who was still sitting at the table, refusing to show the slightest interest in what was going on. ‘My daughter, Sophie.’

‘Hi, Sophie,’ said Thea, and Clara smiled in a friendly fashion.

His mouth thinned somewhat as she merely hunched a shoulder. ‘Say hello, Sophie,’ he said, a note of warning in his voice.

‘’lo,’ she muttered.

A muscle beat in his jaw, but he turned back to Thea and smiled with an obvious attempt to master his frustration. ‘Well…how about some coffee? There’s plenty in the pot and it’s still hot.’

Thea had been afraid he would never ask. The relationship between Rhys and his daughter was obviously strained but she was slavering too much over the smell of coffee to make a polite excuse and leave them to sort out their differences.

‘That would be lovely,’ she said firmly before the invitation could be withdrawn. ‘Actually, we came over to ask if you could possibly spare us some bread or something for breakfast,’ she went on in response to a nudge from Clara. ‘We haven’t got anything in the villa, and it’s a long drive to the shops.’

‘Of course,’ said Rhys. ‘Sophie, why don’t you go and see what you can find for breakfast—and bring a cup for Thea.’

Sophie’s brows drew together mutinously, and for a moment she looked uncannily like her father had earlier that morning. ‘I don’t know where the cups are.’

‘Try looking in the cupboard,’ he told her, keeping his temper with an effort. ‘There’s some bread and jam on the table. You could bring that out, and whatever Clara would like to drink.’

‘I’ll help you,’ offered Clara quickly as Sophie opened her mouth to protest.

Sophie looked deeply suspicious, but after a glance at her implacable father she deigned to drag herself off her chair and scuffed her way inside, accompanied by an unfazed Clara.

There was a slightly awkward pause. ‘Sorry about that,’ said Rhys, running an exasperated hand through his hair and gesturing for Thea to sit down. ‘She’s going through a difficult phase at the moment.’

‘How old is she?’ Thea hoped she would hurry back with that cup. That coffee smell was driving her wild.

‘Nearly eight.’

‘Clara’s nine. They should get on like a house on fire.’

He sighed. ‘I’m not sure Sophie gets on with anybody at the moment.’

‘Well, Clara gets on with everybody,’ said Thea cheerfully. ‘I bet you anything that they’re friends in no time.’

Rhys looked as if he wanted to believe her, but couldn’t quite let himself. ‘Clara seems a very nice little girl,’ he said.

‘She is,’ said Thea with an affectionate smile. ‘It’s a bit disheartening sometimes to find that your nine-year-old niece is more sensible than you are, but apart from that she’s a star! She’s great company too. It’s easy to forget that she’s only nine sometimes.’

‘Is it just the two of you on holiday?’

‘Yes. Clara was supposed to be coming with my sister but Nell slipped off some steps at the beach three weeks ago and managed to break a foot and a wrist, which means she’s been effectively immobilised ever since. There was no question of her being able to drive or walk, so she’d have been completely stuck up here, even if she’d been able to get here in the first place.’

‘Unfortunate,’ said Rhys. ‘Was she insured?’

Thea nodded. ‘Oh, yes, Nell’s always very sensible about things like that. I’m sure she would have been able to claim the cost of cancelling the holiday, but Clara would have been so disappointed. She’s been looking forward to this for ages. Her father never takes her on holiday.’

She scowled, thinking about her sister’s ex-husband. ‘He’s got a new family now, and his new wife doesn’t like Clara very much. I think she’s probably jealous of her.’

‘Clara’s parents are divorced?’ Rhys looked surprised. ‘She seems so…happy.’

‘She’s fine,’ said Thea. ‘She was very small when Simon left, so she’s always taken the fact that her parents live separately for granted. She sees Simon regularly, and Nell’s been very careful not to expose her to any bitterness.’

‘Maybe she and Clara will have something in common after all.’

Ah. Thea had been wondering about Sophie’s mother. ‘You’re divorced as well?’

He nodded, his face set. ‘Sophie hasn’t adjusted as well as Clara, though. She wasn’t even two when Lynda left, so she’s not used to us living together either.

‘I was working in North Africa at the time,’ he went on. ‘My work took me to the desert a lot and Lynda said it wasn’t a suitable place to bring up a child. I suppose it was difficult for her, but…’

His mouth twisted slightly at the memory and he made a visible effort to shrug it aside. ‘Anyway, she came home and we divorced. Nobody else was involved, and it was as free of bitterness as a divorce can be. We’re still on good terms.’

‘That must make it easier for Sophie, doesn’t it?’

‘The trouble is that I’ve seen so little of her.’ Rhys drank his coffee morosely. ‘My job kept me in Morocco for another five years. Whenever I had leave and could get back to the UK, I saw Sophie, of course, but it wasn’t that often, and I guess I am pretty much a stranger to her.’

‘That must be hard,’ said Thea carefully.

His mouth turned down as he nodded. ‘The last time I came home, I realised that I didn’t know my daughter at all, and I didn’t want it to be like that. I want to be a proper father to her, not just someone who turns up with presents every now and then. So I got myself a job in London, where I could live nearby, and I’m trying to see her more regularly now, but…’

‘But what?’ she prompted. ‘It sounds to me as if you did exactly the right thing.’

‘I’m just afraid I may have left it too late,’ said Rhys reluctantly. ‘I know I only came back a few weeks ago, but it’s as if Sophie is determined not to be won over.’

‘It might take a little time,’ said Thea, hearing the hurt in his voice. ‘It’s probably confusing for her too, to suddenly have a full-time father.’

‘I suppose so.’ He sighed and raked a hand through his hair in a weary gesture. ‘I was hoping that coming away on holiday together would be a good chance for us to get to know each other properly and get used to each other, but it hasn’t been a great success so far. I imagined us going for long walks together and talking, but Sophie doesn’t like walking and half the time she won’t talk to me either. She says she’s bored.’

‘Aren’t there any other children here?’ ‘Yes, there are two boys staying in the other villa.’ Rhys nodded across the pool. ‘Unfortunately, they’re very well behaved. Sophie says they’re boring, too.’

‘I’m sure Clara will sort them all out,’ said Thea comfortably as Sophie came back out on to the terrace, looking marginally less sullen.

She thrust a cup at Thea. ‘Here.’

‘Thanks.’ Thea took it with a smile. Clara would have known that her aunt was desperate for coffee, she thought gratefully, but Rhys was frowning at his daughter’s gracelessness.

‘What about a saucer?’ he asked, but Sophie was already on her way back to the kitchen.

‘Honestly, this is fine,’ said Thea quickly before he followed her. It was all she could do to contain herself as Rhys poured coffee into her cup.

‘That smells wonderful.’ She sighed, breathing in deeply. ‘Mmm….’ She took a sip and closed her eyes blissfully. ‘God, that tastes good!’

Lowering the cup, she smiled at Rhys, a wide, warm smile that lit up her face and left him looking oddly startled for a moment. ‘I’ve been fantasising about this all morning!’

He raised a brow. ‘Nice to meet a woman whose fantasies are so easily satisfied!’ he said dryly.

His eyes were an unusual greenish-grey colour, their paleness striking in his brown face. Thea was surprised that she hadn’t noticed them before, and, distracted, it took her a moment to register what he had said.

A faint flush stained her cheeks when she did, and she made herself look away. ‘Some of them, anyway.’

There was a pause while Thea drank her coffee and gazed studiously at the view, wishing she could think of something to say.

The sudden silence was interrupted, much to her relief, by Sophie and Clara, bearing breakfast. Bread and jam were laid carefully on the table, along with some ripe peaches, a pot of Greek yoghurt and some honey.

‘This looks wonderful, Sophie,’ said Thea, although she was fairly sure that her practical niece had taken a leading role in procuring the lavish spread. Sophie had that pale, thin look of a child with no interest in food. ‘Thank you so much.’

Sophie hunched a shoulder in acknowledgment and resumed her slumped posture on the chair, but Thea noticed that, beneath her fringe, her eyes were alert as she watched them tucking into breakfast with relish.

Rhys watched them too, with quiet amusement. ‘It’s a pleasure to see girls with such healthy appetites,’ he said as Thea poured honey over a bowlful of yoghurt, handing it to Clara before preparing one of her own.

‘We’re very hungry,’ she said a little defensively. ‘We haven’t eaten since the meal on the plane, have we, Clara?’

Clara shook her head, her mouth full. ‘This is so good,’ she said when she could. ‘Can we have yoghurt and honey for breakfast every day?’

‘Sure,’ said Thea. ‘We’ll get some when we replace everything we’ve eaten now.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Rhys, resigned. ‘I bought most of it for Sophie, anyway. I thought it would be good to have a real Greek breakfast, but she won’t touch it, will you?’ he added to his daughter.

Sophie’s lower lip stuck out. ‘Mum doesn’t eat dairy products, so why should I have to?’

‘No dairy products?’ Thea stared at her, appalled. ‘No cheese? No milk? No butter?’

‘Or red meat or potatoes or bread or salt…’ Rhys said, sounding tired.

That was Thea’s entire diet out of the window then. ‘Chocolate? Biscuits?’ She didn’t even think it was worth mentioning alcohol.

His smile twisted. ‘You’re kidding, aren’t you? Lynda’s permanently on some faddy diet or another. She’s obsessive about every mouthful.’

No wonder Sophie had looked so surprised when she saw them guzzling breakfast. Imagine having that kind of self-control.

‘She must have a lovely figure,’ said Thea, wishing she hadn’t had quite such a large bowl of yoghurt.

Sophie nodded. ‘She does.’

‘I think she’s too thin,’ said Rhys.

Thea tried to imagine anyone saying that about her. The thing about Thea is she’s just too thin. No, it just didn’t sound right. Totally unconvincing, in fact. A bit like saying, The thing about George Clooney is he’s just too ugly.

On the other hand, it sounded as if Rhys might actually prefer his women to have a few more curves than a stick insect. That was good.

Whoops, where had that thought come from? Thea caught herself up guiltily. She wasn’t the slightest bit interested in how he liked his women.

‘I wish I had that kind of self-discipline,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I’m always trying to diet, but I’m lucky if I make it to lunch without devouring a packet of Hob Nobs to make up for just a grapefruit for breakfast.’

‘You don’t need to diet,’ Clara leapt in loyally. ‘Mum says you’re silly to worry about your weight. She says you’ve got a sexy figure and men much prefer that to thin girls.’

‘Clara!’ Mortified, Thea tried to kick her under the table.

‘Well, she does,’ insisted Clara, and then made things a million times worse by turning to Rhys. ‘It’s true, isn’t it?’

‘Clara…’

Unperturbed by the directness of the question, Rhys had turned and was studying Thea. ‘I think your mother’s right,’ he said, straight-faced, and Clara sat back, satisfied.

‘See?’ she said to Thea, who was blushing furiously.

‘If you’ve finished your breakfast, maybe you’d like to go and have a swim?’ she suggested through her teeth.

‘Cool!’ Clara leapt to her feet. ‘Come on, Sophie.’

Sophie looked warily at her father. ‘Can I go?’

‘Of course,’ he said, and she slid off her chair and ran after Clara.

Thea buried her burning face in her coffee cup, but when she risked a glance at him saw that the disconcerting eyes were green and light with amusement.

‘Is she always that direct?’

‘If I didn’t love her so much, I could kill her sometimes!’ Thea gave in and laughed. ‘She can be disastrously honest, and if she likes you she’ll stop at nothing to get you what you want—or what she thinks you need!’

She shook her head ruefully. ‘Clara’s like her mother that way. They’re both so determined, it’s often easiest just to give in and do as they say!’

A smile twitched at the corner of Rhys’s mouth. ‘What if they don’t like you? Does it work the other way?’

‘Unfortunately, yes.’ Thea’s own smile faded as she remembered how much Nell and Clara had disliked Harry. She had never been able to understand that. Harry was so good-looking and charming. How could anyone not like him?

‘I’d keep on her good side if I were you,’ she said to Rhys, and the intriguing dent at the corner of his mouth deepened in amusement.

‘I’ll remember that. Now, how about some fresh coffee?’ He picked up the cafetière and waved it tantalisingly.

‘Well…’ She didn’t want to seem too greedy.

‘Go on, fulfil those fantasies! You know you want it,’ he tempted her, and smiled at her, a swift and totally unexpected smile that illuminated his face and left Thea with the peculiar sensation of having missed a step as her breath stumbled.

She swallowed. ‘That would be lovely.’

The coffee smelt just as good as before when he came back, but this time Thea was less easily distracted by it. She found herself studying him under her lashes instead as he sat back in his chair, hands curled around his cup, watching the girls in the pool.

He wasn’t that attractive, not really. He was compactly-built and obviously fit, and he had that air of toughness and confidence she associated with men who spent most of their life outdoors. He had mentioned working in the desert, and Thea could imagine him in a wild setting like that, unfazed by the heat and the emptiness of the elements as he narrowed his eyes at the far horizon.

Of course, it might just be the tan that made her think that.

Her gaze dropped to his hands, and the memory of how his palm had felt touching hers was enough to send a tiny shiver down her spine. Yes, nice hands, nice eyes.

Nice mouth, too, now she came to think of it. Cool and firm looking, with just a hint of sensuousness about the bottom lip. It was a shame it seemed normally set in such a stern line, but the effect when he smiled was literally breathtaking.

Hmm.

Thea was uneasily aware that her hormones, long fixated on Harry, were definitely stirring and taking an interest. Odd. She frowned slightly. Rhys wasn’t her type at all. He couldn’t have been more different from Harry.

She shifted in her chair, trying to shake the feeling off. Maybe it was the sleepless night catching up on her, she thought hopefully, although she was definitely feeling better after that breakfast.

‘Listen!’ Rhys sat forward suddenly, startling Thea out of her thoughts.

‘What?’

‘Sophie’s laughing.’




CHAPTER TWO


THERE was such an odd note in his voice that Thea looked to where the two little girls were running around the pool and dive-bombing with much shrieking and giggling.

‘They’ll be inseparable now,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid you won’t see nearly so much of her.’

‘I don’t mind as long as she’s happy.’

Something about his expression made Thea’s heart twist. Underneath that tough exterior, he was clearly vulnerable about his daughter. He struck her as the kind of man who would dismiss emotions as ‘touchy feely’, but it was easy to see that he loved Sophie desperately and was bothered more than he cared to admit by his inability to bond with her.

And Sophie obviously wasn’t making it easy for him. Remembering that sullen expression and the stubborn set to that little chin, Thea couldn’t help feeling that he had a long way to go. She felt sorry for him.

Which was much better than feeling disturbed by him.

Draining her coffee, she pushed back her chair. ‘Thank you so much for breakfast,’ she said gratefully. ‘I feel as if I can face that awful drive now that I’ve got some caffeine inside me. I was dreading getting back in the car again.’

‘If it’s any help, I’m going down myself in a bit,’ he said casually, getting to his feet at the same time. ‘We need to stock up as well, so I could give you a lift if you really don’t like the idea of driving.’

She really didn’t, but Thea hesitated. ‘That would be wonderful,’ she said, trying not to sound too eager. ‘I feel as if I’d be exploiting you, though. So far you’ve provided breakfast and coffee, and all I’ve done is wake you up in the middle of the night and crash into your car. It’s rather a one-sided relationship, isn’t it?’ she joked a little uneasily.

For answer, Rhys cocked his ear in the direction of the pool where the girls could be heard giggling together. ‘That’s the first time Sophie has laughed in a week,’ he said simply. ‘She actually sounds as if she’s enjoying herself. A pot of yoghurt, a cup of coffee and a lift into town when I was going anyway doesn’t seem much compared to that.’

‘Well, if you’re sure…’ Thea let herself be persuaded. Pride had never been her strong point anyway, and there was no point in both of them driving down that road again, was there?

‘That’s settled then,’ said Rhys briskly. ‘If I can persuade the girls out of the pool, will you be ready to leave in half an hour?’

‘Half an hour’s fine,’ she said, calculating that would give her plenty of time to change. She wasn’t sitting next to Rhys in these shorts, that was for sure.

Oh, to have lovely long, slender thighs that you could flaunt without worrying about how they would look splayed out over the passenger seat. The only alternative was to sit with her feet braced to keep the weight off her thighs, and that drive was stressful enough as it was. The last thing she needed was the added anxiety of keeping cellulite under control.

Not that there was any reason to suppose that Rhys would even notice what her thighs were doing.

Or for her to care whether he did or not.

It was just habit, Thea told herself, frantically dragging clothes out of her case. She had been in no state to unpack when they arrived in the early hours, and now everything was disastrously crumpled. She was used to constantly fretting about her appearance with Harry, who was supercritical and forever remembering how beautifully groomed Isabelle was.

The thought of Harry and Isabelle made her wince, but it wasn’t that awful lacerating pain it had once been. The realisation made Thea pause. Perhaps Nell had been right when she said a change of scenery was what Thea needed.

‘There’s no point in moping around while you wait for Harry to make up his mind,’ her sister had said. ‘Go somewhere different. Think about something different.’

Like the smile in Rhys’s eyes and the feel of his hand touching hers.

Thea went back to pulling clothes out of her case, but more slowly. Yes, maybe Nell had a point. Coming out to Crete in Nell’s place had forced her out of her rut. It had been so long since she had been anywhere new, met anyone new, thought about anything other than Harry that her reactions were all over the place.

That would explain her peculiar physical reaction to Rhys, wouldn’t it? She wasn’t attracted to him. No, she was simply adjusting to the unfamiliar, and obviously lack of sleep—not to mention acute caffeine deprivation—hadn’t helped her behave normally.

Still, that was no reason not to look her best. She would feel more herself when she was properly dressed. But in what?

‘Dress or skirt and top?’ Thea held the alternative outfits up for Clara’s inspection when her niece appeared, still dripping from the pool.

Clara considered. ‘The dress is pretty, but it’s all creased.’

‘Linen’s supposed to look a bit creased,’ said Thea, relieved to have had the decision made for her. Clara had her mother’s taste and even as a very little girl her opinion had been worth having.

Tossing aside the skirt and top, she rummaged around in her case for a pair of strappy sandals. ‘It’s part of its charm.’

‘Are we going out?’

‘Didn’t Rhys tell you? He’s giving us a lift to the supermarket in that town we passed.’

Clara eyed her aunt suspiciously. ‘Why are you getting dressed up to go shopping?’

‘I’m only putting on a dress!’ Thea protested.

‘And you’ve got lipstick on.’

Trust Clara to notice that. ‘I often wear lipstick. It doesn’t mean anything.’

‘Rhys is nice, isn’t he?’

It was Thea’s turn to look suspicious at the airy change of subject. ‘He seems nice, yes.’

‘Do you think he’s good-looking?’

‘He’s OK,’ said Thea. Nothing like Harry, of course, but yes, definitely OK.

She didn’t want Clara matchmaking, though. Her niece didn’t like Harry and was tireless in suggesting alternative boyfriends—encouraged by her mother, Thea thought darkly. If Clara got it into her head that Rhys would do for her aunt, she would be shameless in promoting their relationship, and Thea could foresee huge potential for embarrassment.

‘Sophie says he’s really cross the whole time,’ Clara was continuing artlessly, ‘but he didn’t seem cross to me. He’s got lovely smiley eyes.’

Thea didn’t feel like admitting that she had noticed his eyes herself. ‘Really?’ she said discouragingly instead.

‘Maybe he could be your boyfriend?’ Clara suggested, evidently deciding to go for the direct approach after all. ‘Sophie says he hasn’t got a girlfriend.’

Thea filed that little piece of information away to consider when her niece’s gimlet eyes weren’t fixed upon her.

‘I’m not looking for a boyfriend,’ she said firmly. ‘You know I’m still in love with Harry. You don’t get over somebody just like that.’

Clara set her chin stubbornly. ‘Rhys would be much better for you than Harry,’ she said, sounding so like her mother that Thea was quite taken aback.

‘Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m afraid he’s not really my type,’ she said, wishing that Clara would go so that she could check her make-up.

Just because Rhys wasn’t her type didn’t mean she should let standards slip.

‘I think you should give him a try. I’m sure he’d be nicer to you than Harry.’

‘Clara, we’re going shopping not embarking on a new relationship, all right? And if you dare say anything like that to Rhys or Sophie, I’ll…I’ll be very cross,’ she finished in a threatening voice that had absolutely no effect on her niece, who grinned and skipped out of the room to change out of her wet swimming costume.

Without making any promises at all, Thea noticed.

Rhys had hired a sturdy 4x4 which dwarfed the tinny little model Thea had driven up the road in the small hours. She eyed its gleaming exterior nervously. It looked like an expensive car to repair.

‘Did I do any damage last night?’

‘Barely a scratch, in spite of all that noise,’ said Rhys, giving the bonnet an affectionate slap, much as he might pat a horse. ‘She’s solid as anything. It might be worth checking your own bumpers, though.’

‘I’ll do that when we get back,’ said Thea vaguely, with no intention of doing anything of the kind. She would worry about any damage when she returned the car. For now, she would be quite happy if she didn’t have to go anywhere near it for the next two weeks.

Thea enjoyed the drive much more than she had expected to. It was wonderful not having to worry about the lack of safety barriers or the precipitous drops, or being responsible for getting the car round each of the tortuous bends. She could sit back, relax and enjoy the view.

Or she would have been able to if only she could stop her eyes drifting over to Rhys. He was an incredibly calm and reassuring driver. Unlike her, he didn’t get his gears muddled up. He didn’t shout at the car or swear or panic about which side of the road he was supposed to be driving on. He just sat there, hands sure and steady on the steering wheel, and Thea felt utterly safe in a way she never had with Harry, who drove a flash model and couldn’t bear to have another car on the road in front of him.

Rhys was the kind of person you wanted to be sitting next to on a plane when both pilots went down with some mysterious disease and all the passengers were left to panic. Thea had seen a late-night movie like that once. Everyone flapped around and in the end the heroine had to get the plane down, but if Rhys had been there things would have been different. He would have taken over the controls and calmly landed the plane.

Of course, it wouldn’t have made for such an exciting movie.

On the other hand, if the director added in fizzing sexual tension between Rhys and the heroine, who probably bore an uncanny resemblance to Thea herself, it might work. The two of them could end up shut in a room together—quarantine, Thea decided, blithely disposing of all the other passengers—and someone would have made a mistake so there was just a double bed and neither of them would have any pyjamas with them, naturally, and Rhys would say, Well, no point in wasting it, is there? At which point she…

Good grief, what was she thinking about? Thea jerked herself back from the brink of fantasy just in time. For a moment there she had felt quite…hot.

This getting-out-of-a-rut business was doing very odd things to those hormones of hers. From having their interest piqued earlier over breakfast, they were now standing up, putting on their lipstick and patting their hair into place, ready for action.

Down, girls, Thea told them sternly. Concentrate on the view instead.

Fortunately, Clara was chatting away with her usual disarming friendliness in the back seat. Thea herself felt too shaky to carry on a conversation. It was all she could do to stare unseeingly out of the window and will her hormones to relapse into lethargy once more.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon.’ Rhys’s voice made her start.

‘What?’

He smiled. ‘You’re looking a bit nervous. The worst of the road is over now.’

‘Oh. Right. Yes.’ Thea cleared her throat. ‘I suppose I was a bit nervous.’

That was true enough, but it wasn’t about the lack of safety barriers.

Once at the supermarket, they split up. Sophie trailed listlessly behind her father, responding to his suggestions about what she would like to eat with her usual hunched shoulder.

‘Whatever,’ was all she would say, while Clara and Thea puzzled over the Greek alphabet.

‘We’ll just have to go by the pictures,’ said Thea, tossing what she hoped was a tin of tuna into the trolley. It was either that or pilchards.

‘I think Rhys really likes you,’ whispered Clara in a stage whisper. ‘I saw the way he was smiling at you in the car.’

‘Shh!’ Thea glared at her, pointing frantically to indicate that Rhys and Sophie might be in the next aisle.

‘We should invite them to dinner,’ Clara pursued in the same stage whisper, ignoring her.

Thea closed her eyes briefly. ‘Clara, I really don’t think—’

‘To thank them for breakfast and giving us a lift,’ Clara added innocently. ‘I’m sure Mum would say we should.’

She would, too. ‘We’re on holiday. We don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking,’ said Thea, conscious that she was fighting a losing battle.

‘I’ll help you. We just need to make something simple. Sophie says her dad’s always going on about how he likes home cooking, but he can only do about three things himself. He’d probably really like it if you cooked something for him.’

In the end, Thea gave in to shut Clara up. She knew quite well that her niece had visions of whisking Sophie away so that she and Rhys would be left sharing a romantic dinner for two on the terrace in the dark, with just the stars for company.

Put like that, it didn’t sound too bad, did it? Thea’s hormones rustled with something dangerously like excitement at the thought. They were completely out of order today.

Besides, Clara was right. A meal in return for all Rhys’s help was the least she could offer. She would make the invitation very casual. If he didn’t want to come, she would have done her duty and she could tell Clara that Rhys wasn’t really interested.

But when she mentioned it, as casually as she could, Rhys didn’t even put up a token show of reluctance. ‘That sounds great,’ he said. ‘We’d like that, wouldn’t we, Sophie?’

‘Better than eating with stupid Damian and Hugo,’ she muttered.

Thea raised her brows at Rhys, who was looking uncomfortable at his daughter’s lack of manners. ‘Damian and Hugo?’

‘The two boys in the other villa,’ he explained. ‘The Paines are here for three weeks as well. They’ve been very hospitable all week, a little too hospitable as far as Sophie’s concerned. They’re always asking us over for meals.’

‘You don’t like them either,’ said Sophie sullenly.

‘That’s not true,’ he protested, although not very convincingly, Thea thought.

They were sitting at a taverna in the village square, under the shade of an enormous plane tree. The shopping had been safely stashed in the car, and Thea was starving again. When Rhys had suggested lunch she had agreed with alacrity and had ordered souvlaki and chips with an enormous Greek salad, reasoning that it was too late to start pretending that a lettuce leaf was all she usually had for lunch, with perhaps a low fat yoghurt if she was indulging herself.

‘Well, Clara and I are very honoured that you’d rather eat with us than Hugo and Damian, Sophie,’ she said lightly, and Sophie hung her head.

‘Yes, I would. Thanks,’ she mumbled from behind her hair.

‘It’ll be great,’ said Clara. ‘Can Sophie and I go shopping?’

‘Shopping?’ Thea stared at her niece. ‘Where?’

‘They had some postcards at the supermarket.’

Thea strongly suspected that Clara was concocting an excuse to leave her alone with Rhys, but she could hardly accuse her of that now. She contented herself with a meaningful look.

‘All right, but don’t be too long, and stay together.’

‘OK. Come on, Sophie.’

She bore Sophie off on a wave of enthusiasm that poor Sophie was powerless to resist, and Thea and Rhys were left alone.

There was a slightly awkward silence. For some reason Thea’s nerve endings were on alert, only amber so far, perhaps, but with those treacherous hormones egging them on Thea couldn’t discount the alarming possibility that they would suddenly switch to red alert and start shrieking like an intruder alarm at a high security facility.

Desperately, she gazed around the village square but, stare as hard as she might at the whitewashed walls and the dusty geraniums straggling out of painted oil barrels and the gnarled old men sitting morosely in the shade, her attention was fixated on Rhys.

He was sitting next to her at the small square table, resting his forearms tantalisingly close to hers on the checked plastic tablecloth. Thea was acutely aware of the soft, dark hairs by his broad wrist, of the unpretentious watch, and the square, capable hands, and her fingers tingled with speculation about how it would feel to lay her own over them.

The very idea made the breath dry in her throat. Something was very wrong, she thought, confused. Her body appeared to have forgotten that she was pining for Harry. It was Harry whose warm skin she wanted to touch.

Only yesterday, Harry had dominated her thoughts, and now when she made the effort to conjure up his handsome face all she could see was Rhys, turning his head to smile at her, the sunlight in his eyes.

Thea felt as if the earth beneath her feet had suddenly started to crumble. She was just tired, she told herself desperately. How could she be thinking clearly after less than four hours’ sleep? She would be fine after a siesta.

The waiter brought a little jug of retsina, and Thea tried not to stare at Rhys’s hand as he poured, but her own was unsteady as she picked up her drink and their eyes met as they chinked glasses. She must get a grip.

Looking quickly away, she reached out for a fat green olive. ‘Is it true what Sophie said?’

‘What about?’

‘That you don’t like our neighbours? What are they called again…the Paines?’

‘Oh, that.’ Rhys looked a little uncomfortable. He swirled the liquid in his glass as he picked his words with care. ‘They’re very…kind,’ he said at last.

‘But?’

He grimaced. ‘They’re just a bit much, I suppose. Especially Kate. She’s one of those women who believe everybody ought to be part of a couple, and seems to take the fact that I haven’t married again as a personal affront. I’m not sure where she thinks I would have found a suitable wife in the Sahara!’ he added dryly.

‘Oh, God,’ groaned Thea. ‘Don’t tell me I’ve come all the way to Crete to end up next to the kind of people who think being single is just a deliberately selfish attempt to throw out the seating plans for their dinner parties?’

The creases around Rhys’s eyes deepened in amusement. ‘Oh, you’ve met them, then?’

Glumly, Thea helped herself to another olive. ‘They’re part of an extended sub-species, copulus smugus, otherwise known as smug married couples.’ She sighed. ‘Oh, well, I suppose forewarned is forearmed,’ she went on as she discarded the stone. ‘I’ll be ready for pitying looks and questions about why I haven’t married and advice about not leaving it too long to have babies, because time’s ticking away, isn’t it?’

‘I can’t believe you’d get those kind of comments very often,’ said Rhys, and she stared at him.

‘Why not?’

He looked a bit taken aback by her vehemence. ‘Well…I don’t know. I’d just assumed that someone like you would always be with somebody.’

Someone like you. What did that mean?

‘No, I seem to be a serial singleton.’ Thea picked up her retsina and drank morosely.

The truth was that even when she had been with Harry she had never really felt part of a couple. She had kept waiting for someone to point a finger and say, Who do you think you’re kidding? You’re just playing at having a man.

Rhys was studying her vivid face over the rim of his own glass, noting the cloud of soft brown hair, the smoke-grey eyes, the generous curve of her mouth and the lush body. ‘You surprise me,’ he said.

Thea hadn’t been expecting that. Startled, her eyes veered towards his and then skidded away. That smiling green gaze of his was unnerving enough at the best of times.

He was only being polite, anyway. What else could he say? Lose a couple of stone and do something about your hair, and you might be in with a chance?

She sipped her retsina, willing the faint colour across her cheekbones to fade. ‘At least you’re divorced,’ she said. ‘I’ve always assumed that would be better. And you’ve got a child, too. You don’t need to prove you’re normal!’

‘Don’t you believe it!’ said Rhys with a twisted smile. ‘Kate is on a mission now to fix me up with another wife. Every time we go over for a meal she tells me about another “awfully nice” friend of hers she thinks I would like.’

‘Can’t you just not go?’

‘It’s difficult. The Paines are friends of Lynda’s—that’s how we ended up here. I haven’t been back in London that long, and the summer holidays seemed like a good opportunity to take Sophie away and spend a proper chunk of time together. It suited Lynda, too. She had some conference or something to go to, so we agreed that I would have Sophie for three weeks.’

‘It’s a very isolated place to spend three weeks,’ commented Thea. ‘I think I’d have taken her to somewhere more lively.’

Rhys nodded ruefully. ‘That’s what I should have done, but I didn’t even think about going to a resort. I thought a beach would get really boring. You can’t just lie in the sun for three weeks.’

Couldn’t you? Thea looked at him. He was obviously one of those hearty ten-mile walk before breakfast types who always liked to be doing things. The art of lying on a sunbed and flicking through magazines with nothing more strenuous to do than contemplate what to eat and drink next would be quite lost on him. Shame, really.

‘If I’d been a more hands-on father I’d have known what Sophie would like.’ Rhys was frowning down at his glass. ‘As it was, Lynda told me that the villa here was available because the friends who were originally coming out with the Paines had dropped out.

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time,’ he went on, lifting his eyes to Thea once more, obviously trying to justify the decision to himself. ‘I thought that if the Paines were friends of Lynda’s, Sophie would know the children and be able to play with them, but as it turned out they’ve got absolutely nothing in common.

‘Meanwhile, Kate and Nick are desperate to look after us. Lynda obviously confides in Kate—she seems to know an unnerving amount about my marriage and divorce—and because they’re friends, short of being outright rude, I can’t get out of it.’

‘It sounds a bit of a nightmare,’ said Thea sympathetically.

‘It is,’ said Rhys, reaching for the jug of retsina and topping up her glass. ‘Kate’s impervious to hints that I’m quite capable of looking after myself. She went on and on about all these single friends of hers she wants to introduce me to when we get home, and I could foresee endless dinner parties if I didn’t put a stop to it. Eventually I just told her I had met someone special already and that I was committed to her.’

Thea was conscious of a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she didn’t want to analyse. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Have you?’

He gave a short, mirthless laugh. ‘When would I have been able to meet anyone, let alone anyone special? I’ve been working in the middle of the desert for most of the past five years, and in the few weeks I’ve been back every minute of my time has been taken up with settling into a new job, buying and moving into a house and trying to coax two words out of my daughter.’

‘You lied,’ said Thea admiringly, trying to ignore the sudden lightening of her spirits at the news that Rhys did not, in fact, have a girlfriend.

‘I had to,’ he said, assuming a mock martyred expression, and she laughed as she picked up her drink once more.

‘Well, thanks for the tip. I might invent an adoring fiancé back home myself before Kate gets me in her clutches!’

‘Unless you’d like to be my girlfriend?’ said Rhys.

Thea paused with the glass halfway to her lips. ‘Sorry?’

‘Well, if we’re both going to pretend, we might as well back each other up,’ he pointed out. ‘If my supposed girlfriend was here in person, that would really shut Kate up.’

‘But she’d know that I wasn’t your girlfriend,’ objected Thea, not entirely sure whether he was joking or not.

‘How? I’ve never told her a name or anything about my girlfriend other than the fact that she exists, and Kate doesn’t know who was booked into the villa. She told me herself that she was wondering who would turn up and hoping that it would be a “nice family”. They didn’t see you arrive last night, and they were off on some day trip before you got up, so she still doesn’t know how disappointed she’s going to be.’

His face seemed straight, but that was definitely an ironic gleam in those disconcertingly light eyes, and Thea was pretty sure she had seen the corner of his mouth twitch. So he was joking.

Phew.

She thought.

Sipping her retsina, she decided that she might as well enter into the spirit of the thing. It was just a joke, after all.

‘Wouldn’t you have told her I was coming?’

‘Maybe you decided to surprise me?’

Thea laughed. ‘What, by barging into the middle of the holiday you’d planned to spend alone with your daughter? I think that’s a bit tactless, don’t you? Frankly, I can’t believe I’d be that insensitive!’

He was good at keeping a straight face but there was a definite twitch to his mouth now. ‘Perhaps we’d originally planned to spend it together but you couldn’t make it?’ he suggested.

‘But if I know you’re going to be pleased to see me, why book a separate villa?’ Thea was beginning to enjoy herself. ‘I mean, we do sleep together, don’t we?’ she joked.

Rhys looked across the table at her, his gaze dropping from the wide, quirky mouth to the generous cleavage revealed by her sundress. ‘Definitely,’ he said and, when he looked back into her eyes, Thea was mortified to find herself blushing.

‘That’s good,’ she said, although not quite as casually as she would have liked. ‘I wouldn’t want Kate to think that I was no fun.’

‘No danger of that,’ said Rhys, taking in the wide grey eyes and the mobile mouth that tilted up at the corners and seemed permanently on the point of breaking into a smile.

OK, this was getting silly. Look away from his eyes now, Thea told herself. Now, she added urgently and at last managed to jerk her gaze away. This was just a joke, she reminded herself as she tried to get her breathing under control. That was it, inflate the lungs, breathe out…and again…

‘Ah, so you just want me for my body?’ She tossed her head and the cloudy brown hair tumbled around her face. ‘I thought you loved me!’

‘I do,’ said Rhys. ‘Madly. You’re the woman I’ve been waiting my whole life for.’

Thea hated the way he could say things like that and look so normal, as if the idea—absurd though it was—wasn’t causing little flutters in the pit of his stomach or interfering with the smooth functioning of his lungs at all.

‘Then why aren’t we sharing a villa, if you love me so much?’ she asked almost tartly.

Rhys thought for a moment. ‘You’ve got Clara with you because of your sister’s accident and you need more space?’

Thea wrinkled her nose. ‘She and Sophie could always share a room,’ she pointed out. ‘It’s not as if the villas are pokey. There’s plenty of room for four in ours, and—oh, I’ve got it!’ She held up a hand dramatically, and Rhys lifted an amused eyebrow.

‘Go on, then.’

‘You’ve kept me a secret from Sophie so far,’ she said slowly, thinking her way through it as she spoke. ‘You’re not sure how she’ll react when she finds out that you’ve got a girlfriend.’

He nodded encouragingly. ‘OK.’

‘And I’m a bit fed up with this. If you love me as much as you say you do, why won’t you introduce me to Sophie? She’s the most important part of your life, and I want to be part of it too. You keep saying that you don’t want to rush things, and you think it’s too soon.’

‘I’m still a relatively new feature in her life,’ said Rhys. ‘I probably would think it was too soon to introduce another new person into it.’

‘Well, there you are. But what you don’t realise,’ Thea went on in the same portentous tone, ‘is that I’m sick of the way you’re refusing to commit, and now I’m putting on the pressure. I’ve decided to force the issue by coming out with Clara but, because I’m not quite sure how you’re going to react, I’ve booked a separate villa for us.’

Rhys considered. ‘Aren’t you afraid I’ll be angry?’

‘That’s a risk I’m prepared to take,’ she said solemnly. ‘You might be cross, but you can’t ignore me. By booking my own villa, I’ll be forcing you to introduce me to Sophie, just as a friend initially, but at least then you won’t be able to pretend that I don’t exist.’

She was getting so into the story by now that she was almost starting to feel resentful at the way Rhys kept shutting her out of his life. ‘And with my own villa I won’t be crowding you, so you can’t be too angry. In fact, I’ve probably planned to be quite independent with Clara once I’ve made my point.’

Pleased with her own inventiveness, Thea sat back in her chair. ‘What do you think?’

Rhys was looking at her with open admiration. ‘I think it would convince Kate, and if it would convince her it would convince anybody!’

They both laughed, releasing the tension that had underlain the game, until Thea realised that Rhys had stopped laughing and was looking thoughtful instead, and the chuckle dried in her throat.

‘You’re not serious?’




CHAPTER THREE


RHYS looked at her for a long moment, and then seemed to shake himself back to reality.

‘No, of course not,’ he said heartily. ‘I couldn’t possibly ask you to do something like that.’ He leant forward and picked up the jug to refill their glasses. ‘Have some more retsina.’

She had probably had enough, thought Thea, watching the golden liquid pouring into her glass. The retsina was probably the reason why she had been sitting there joking about anything quite so silly.

Because it was silly, and they hadn’t been serious, and she ought to be running a mile from a strange man who would even suggest such a thing. She didn’t know anything about Rhys Kingsford, other than what he had chosen to tell her this morning.

But it didn’t feel that way. It felt as if she had known him for a very long time. It felt almost as if he had always been part of her life.

They sipped their retsina in silence for a while, both thinking about what a ridiculous idea it was to go to such lengths just to avoid being patronised by a woman who meant nothing to either of them.

But still thinking about it, anyway.

‘It would be very embarrassing if Kate and Nick found out that we were pretending, wouldn’t it?’ said Thea eventually as if carrying on the unspoken conversation between them.

‘Probably,’ Rhys agreed. ‘On the other hand, would it be as bad as spending the next two weeks finding excuses not to go over to dinner?’

‘Or explaining why I’m a sad person without a boyfriend,’ said Thea.

There was another silence.

It was Thea who broke it again. ‘Do you really think we could convince them?’

‘I don’t see why not,’ he said, considering the matter all over again.

‘We’d have to pretend that we were in love,’ she said, as if the idea had only just occurred to her.

‘Yes,’ he agreed.

They glanced at each other and then away.

‘But that shouldn’t really be a problem, should it?’ she reassured herself. ‘I mean, they won’t expect us to be all over each other, will they? Even if we were a real couple, we wouldn’t be sticking our tongues down each other’s throats in company.’

‘Quite,’ said Rhys in a dry voice. He hesitated. ‘I might have to put an arm round you occasionally or something, though. Would you mind that?’

Thea managed a careless shrug. ‘I ought to be able to manage that,’ she said as lightly as she could, but it wasn’t easy when his lean, solid body tugged at the corner of her eye and the mere thought of being held against it was enough to give her a severe attack of the flutters.

The truth was, she wouldn’t mind at all.

‘So what are we saying?’ said Rhys at last.

Thea took a deep breath. ‘I will if you will,’ she said.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Why not?’ She sat up straighter. ‘It’s just a bit of fun. It’s not as if you really do have a girlfriend who would be hurt if she found out…Is it?’ she added, hoping that she didn’t sound too anxious to have this little point confirmed.

‘No,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘I’m keeping all my attention for Sophie at the moment. What about you? No boyfriend likely to turn up and start acting jealously?’

‘No.’ Thea shook her head a little sadly. She would have loved to have been able to imagine Harry turning up out of the blue and glowering jealously at Rhys, but jealousy had never been Harry’s thing, at least as far as she had been concerned. ‘I don’t think he’ll be doing that.’

Rhys hesitated. ‘But there is a boyfriend?’

‘I’m not sure.’

‘You don’t know?’ he asked in surprise.

‘No. I suspect not, but…no, I’m just not sure.’ Thea ran a finger around the rim of her glass, her face sad as she remembered.

‘I met Harry a year ago, and fell for him like a ton of bricks. He was a dream come true—incredibly attractive, charming, glamorous…and honest. He told me all about his split with his ex-girlfriend and how close he still felt to her. Isabelle is the complete opposite of me.’

‘You met her?’

She shook her head. ‘No, but Harry spent most of his time talking about her. She’s very pretty and petite, apparently, and she works in the City like him. She’s got some high-powered job that means she’s constantly under pressure and it doesn’t help that she’s completely neurotic anyway. That’s not what Harry says, of course,’ Thea added with a twisted smile. ‘He says she’s “highly strung.”’

‘I can see that you might be a relief after someone like that,’ said Rhys carefully.

‘That’s what Harry used to say, but I always felt he secretly thought I was a bit dull after Isabelle’s histrionics. According to Harry, it was an amicable split, and they both agreed that they would be free to see other people, but as far as Isabelle was concerned she still had first call on his time. At the first hint of a crisis she’d ring him up and he would drop everything to rush round and sort it out for her.’

Rhys’s eyes rested on her averted face. ‘That must have been difficult for you.’

‘It wasn’t easy.’ Thea managed a shrug. ‘Nell—Clara’s mother—thinks Harry is weak and selfish, but I told her she didn’t understand. Harry’s a kind person. He feels that Isabelle needs him and that he wants to be a good friend to her.’

‘What about being a good friend to you?’

She glanced at him. ‘Funny, that’s what Nell used to say, too!’ Heaving her shoulders, she let them slump back. ‘Oh, I don’t know…I suppose I was prepared to put up with anything as long as Harry came back to me. And he did. He’d tell me that Isabelle was just needy, and that I was the one he loved and, of course, I let myself believe it.’

‘So how come you’re here now, not sure whether you’ve got a boyfriend or not?’ asked Rhys after a moment.

‘We’d booked a holiday together.’ It still hurt Thea to think about how much she’d looked forward to that holiday. ‘I’d found a perfect little cottage in Provence and it was going to be just the two of us, away from Isabelle, but about a month before we were due to go Harry started to backpedal, saying he wasn’t sure it was good timing and maybe we should think about postponing it.

‘It turned out that Isabelle had to have some operation on her foot. It wasn’t anything major, and she was just an outpatient at the hospital, but she decided that she needed Harry to feed her cat, water her plants, make her little cups of herbal tea, and generally dance attendance on her.’

Thea blew out her cheeks and pushed the hair away from her face. ‘Sorry, that sounds bitchy. I’m sure she didn’t choose to have the operation just then, and for all I know it was very uncomfortable for her. It was just the last straw for me.’

‘So you told Harry he had to choose between you?’

‘More or less.’ She hated remembering that awful day, and how heartsick she had been. It had felt as if she were deliberately destroying her only chance at love and that she would never be happy again.

‘We had a long talk, Harry and I, and I told him how I felt. Harry said that he felt guilty about being constantly torn between the two of us, and that sometimes he felt smothered, so I suggested that he take some time to think about what he really wanted.’

One of the worst things had been seeing the unmistakable relief that had leapt to Harry’s eyes, as if he had been trapped, longing for her to open the door for him.

‘Harry agreed that he needed some space, so that’s what he’s doing, deciding which of us he wants.’

‘And in the meantime you’re left hanging on, hoping that you might still have a boyfriend, but not sure if you do or not?’ Rhys’s voice was unusually hard, and Thea glanced at him. What was it to him, anyway?

‘The last time I heard from him, he still couldn’t make up his mind,’ she admitted. ‘At least that means I can still hope. I didn’t get my holiday in Provence, but then Nell had her accident and asked if I would come out with Clara in her place, so…here I am!’

Rhys was frowning down into his glass again, a muscle beating in his jaw as if he was angry about something, but when he looked up after a few moments, he smiled. ‘I’m sorry if it wasn’t the holiday you wanted, Thea,’ he said, ‘but I for one am very glad you’re here.’

‘I think it’s Clara you should be grateful for,’ she said, conscious of a dangerous little glow flickering into life inside her.

He shook his head. ‘You too,’ he said firmly, and the glow spread a little further.

Thea looked around her, at the rickety tables dappled with sunlight through the plane leaves, at the pots of bright flowers and the massively gnarled tree trunk dwarfing them all. The air was warm and full of the tantalising smell of grilling lamb while beyond the shade the light glared and a car tooted in a failed attempt to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere.

‘I’m glad I’m here too,’ she said. ‘It’s been good to get away.’

‘I’m glad you told me about Harry, as well,’ Rhys went on. ‘I think it makes things easier in a way.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well…it means that there’s no danger of either of us taking the pretence too seriously, doesn’t it?’ he said, not quite awkwardly, but as if he wasn’t entirely sure how she would react.

‘Oh. No. Quite.’

And that would explain why that glow was still seeping along her veins and she still had that weird fluttery feeling under her skin at the thought of touching him, wouldn’t it, Thea?

‘No danger at all,’ she said firmly.

Rhys smiled and held out his hand. ‘Let’s shake on it then.’

Oh, dear, touching him just wasn’t a good idea at the moment. Why hadn’t he suggested drinking to it instead? Chinking glasses would have been fine. Even shaking hands seemed fraught with complications given the confused state her hormones were in right then.

But she couldn’t see any way to refuse without looking a complete idiot. Thea eyed his hand as if measuring a jump over an abyss, which was almost what it felt like. All she had to do was lift her own hand, touch palms, curl her fingers around his—briefly, remember—and let go. How difficult could that be?

Thea took a deep breath, put her hand in his and yanked it back before he could do anything alarming like squeeze it or hold it for too long or anything at all to prolong the warmth that was tingling up her arm as it was.

Rhys looked a little surprised but picked up his glass. ‘Here’s to pretence,’ he said, toasting her.

Why couldn’t he have done that before?

‘I’m not sure we’ve really thought this through,’ she injected a note of caution as she resisted the urge to rub her arm where it jangled still from his touch. ‘We’re going to have to explain to Clara, and Sophie knows quite well that I’m not your girlfriend, even one you’ve been keeping secret up to now. What will she think?’

‘It’s impossible to tell with Sophie,’ he said wryly. ‘I can only try. If she doesn’t want to play along, we’ll have to leave it. One thing, she won’t tell Kate,’ he added. ‘She can’t bear her, and is always embarrassingly rude to her. It’s partly Kate’s fault,’ he said in defence of his daughter. ‘She will keep criticizing Sophie’s behaviour in front of her and comparing it to her boys’.’

‘I would have thought that would just make her worse.’

‘It does,’ said Rhys with feeling, and then his face lightened. ‘Ah, here’s our lunch.’





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