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She enjoyed a couple of glasses of champagne before Alexandros took her on to the dance floor. When he drew her close to his lean, hard body, she shivered a little. Suddenly she was overwhelmingly aware of his potent masculinity and how long it had been since they had last been that close. The faint familiar aroma of his skin enveloped her, and she tensed in dismay at the flicker of sensual heat curling low in her pelvis.
‘Aren’t you going to say anything more about Leanne?’ she queried, happy to offer that potential bone of contention in an effort to distract herself from a response that she knew she had to suppress.
‘Why did you invite her?’
‘She’s very sorry, and she was a friend for a long time.’ Her words muffled against his shoulder, Katie linked her arms round his neck until she realised what she was doing.
‘I hope you don’t live to regret it. You’re very trusting. Some will take advantage of that trait and make it a weakness,’ Alexandros warned her wryly. ‘When someone lets me down, I don’t give them the chance to do it again.’
The movement of the dance brought him up against her, ensuring that she was fully acquainted with the lithe strength and power of his hard, muscular frame. Her mouth ran dry. Her body seemed to have a series of triggers, which responded without her mental output and made concentration an outrageous challenge.
As the music segued into another song, Alexandros tugged her head back and gazed down at her with slumberous golden eyes. ‘I can’t wait to be alone with you. My grandfather wouldn’t even let me come up and talk to you last night,’ he confided hoarsely. ‘Admittedly talking wasn’t much on my mind…’
Colour stung her cheekbones. She didn’t know what to say, and was entirely disconcerted when he lowered his proud dark head and tasted her generous pink lips with an intoxicating sensuality that left her head swimming and her knees weak.
Laughing appreciatively at the applause that had broken out from their audience, Alexandros brushed her flushed cheekbone with a long forefinger. ‘Later…a wedding night to remember for a lifetime, thespinis mou.’
Katie veiled her eyes, feathery lashes concealing her troubled expression. Why was she feeling guilty? For goodness’ sake, was loving Alexandros so deeply rooted in her psyche that she could deny him nothing? Even when he was very much in the wrong? She had been weak too often with Alexandros, and this was the reckoning time, she thought apprehensively. It was not a matter of trying to level the score. How could it be? Alexandros was her husband, and naturally she wanted a future with him. But it had to be a future in which she was more than the twins’ mother and the woman in his marital bed. He might never love her, but she was determined that he should learn to treat her as an equal, a wife worthy of his respect.
As the afternoon wore on, however, it started to dawn on her that, in public at least, Alexandros did treat her very much as an equal. He had never been so attentive. He never once left her side while they worked their way round their guests. On more than one occasion he reminded those who wanted to talk business with him that it was his wedding day.
When the bride and groom had satisfied the conventions, they sat down with Toby, Connor, Maura and Dermot for a while. That was the moment when their younger son, Connor, chose to haul himself up on the edge of a sofa and take his first wobbling steps towards his mother. His little face lit up with amazement at the achievement of walking upright for the very first time.
‘Aren’t you wonderful?’ Dropping down on her knees, Katie opened her arms wide and caught Connor to her in an exuberant hug. She saw the same glow of love and pride in Alexandros’s lean dark face. A lump formed in her throat when she watched him comfort Toby, who had tried and failed to emulate his brother’s feat and burst into floods of tears.
Pelias joined her later, when she was helping to put the children down for a much-needed nap. ‘Calliope is so excited about having Toby and Connor to stay with us this week. Of course we’ll have your nanny to help out, but we have so many treats planned. When they wake up, we’ll take them.’
‘I’m going to miss the little rascals,’ Katie confided ruefully. ‘But it is only for a week.’
The bridal couple were to spend their wedding night at Dove Hall and leave for their Greek honeymoon the following day.
‘A week for the grown-ups to enjoy being newly married and alone.’ Pelias Christakis studied her with warm approval. ‘I had almost given up hope of seeing it happen, but you have transformed my grandson’s life.’
‘I’ve turned it upside down,’ Katie slotted in ruefully.
‘Alexandros deserves a normal marriage and family life. We are sincerely happy for you both,’ Pelias told her gruffly.
As she went back downstairs, that phrase, a normal marriage, made her a frown. It seemed an odd thing for Pelias to have said. Had it been a veiled criticism of his grandson’s first marriage? Doubtless it had been a reference to Ianthe’s infertility. Children, after all, were highly prized in Greek culture. But she was still a little surprised, for all things considered it had been a rather unkind comment—and Pelias Christakis was one of the kindest, most tactful men she had ever met.
Cyrus approached her. ‘Leanne Carson is taking photos with her phone,’ he informed her.
Katie blinked, and the pink bled out of her cheeks. ‘Are you sure?’
The older man nodded confirmation.
‘Does…my husband know?’
‘Mr Christakis said that you would want to deal with it.’
Her tummy knotted at the prospect of that unpleasant challenge, but accompanied by Cyrus, she went downstairs to confront her friend. Leanne just laughed when reminded that there had been an embargo on photos printed on her invitation. The phone was a very expensive high-tech model. Katie suspected that the other woman had deliberately come armed with the means to invade their privacy and that of their guests. Was some newspaper already standing by, waiting to hear from her?
Leanne needed little encouragement to show off the pictures she had taken, and Katie was horrified to see that the twins featured—as well as certain celebrity guests caught unawares. Leanne only lost her temper when Katie passed the phone to Cyrus to delete the photos. A car was already waiting to take the furious brunette to the train station. Her vindictive final comments hurt Katie more than anything else that had taken place, and she was seriously worried that another newspaper article might appear. Had Leanne managed to send any of the photos before their deletion? And would a tell-all scoop of a story appear in print regardless? After all, Leanne would still be able to describe their entire wedding day.
Alexandros said nothing. Unaware of what had taken place, Pelias and Calliope took their leave with Toby, Connor and the nanny. Maura and Dermot left next, and Katie hugged her mother close. Her mother and stepfather were planning to spend a week visiting friends and relatives before flying back to New Zealand.
Soon the steady hum of cars and helicopters marked the departure of the guests, and the bride’s tension began to climb like a pressure gauge. As the moment of revelation with regard to their wedding night came closer, Katie could feel her store of courage shrinking.
‘Where are you going?’ Alexandros asked when he saw her near the top of the staircase.
‘Well…er…to get changed,’ she mumbled through stiff lips, all composure threatening to desert her.
‘But why?’ Alexandros mounted the stairs to join her on the landing. He closed light hands to her shoulders and turned her away from the direction in which she had been about to head. ‘Our bedroom is this way, agape mou.’
‘It’s been a really, really lovely
day…’
As Leanne’s shocking behaviour swam back into Katie’s memory like a giant man-eating shark, she was silenced. She waited for Alexandros to make a sardonic comment on that same score but he did not.
‘The very best…’ Alexandros agreed, with remarkable restraint.
With careful hands he turned her back to face him and then bent down and swept her up into his arms.
‘What on earth are you doing?’ Katie gasped.
‘I like the fact you’re mine, lock, stock and barrel now,’ Alexandros shared, striding down the corridor and shouldering his passage into a room bedecked with so many glorious flowers that her jaw dropped as he lowered her to the carpet. ‘Calliope flew in Greek florists. She really goes for all the traditional stuff. This is a mark of her affection for you. But I told her not to bother rolling a baby on the bed…’
‘I beg your pardon?’ Katie echoed weakly.
‘It’s another tradition. But fertility is not one of our problems.’ Laughing huskily, Alexandros drew her back into the shelter of his big, powerful body. ‘I love our sons, but I would like to wait a little while before we extend the family. I want my precious wife all to myself,’ he breathed thickly.
Within the strong circle of his arms, Katie felt as at risk as a bale of straw within reach of a match. She had still to drag her mesmerised attention from the bed, which had been transformed into a romantic floral bower. It was all so gorgeous—but now she had to say what she had to say, and he was going to hate her…
Easing free of his light hold, Katie spun round and backed off a couple of steps. ‘I have something I have to say to you…’
