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Around that point of
self-examination, Bee must have drifted off to sleep because she wakened when Sergios stowed her into a cold bed. ‘Er… .what…where…Sergios?’
‘Go back to sleep, Beatriz,’ he intoned.
Her eyes fluttered briefly open on a view of the circular main bedroom in the moonlight and she simply turned over and closed her eyes again, too exhausted to protest. She woke alone in the morning, only the indent on the pillow across from hers telling her that she had had company. After a quick shower she put on Bermuda shorts and a sapphire-blue tee for the trip to the beach she had promised the boys. Nectarios was reading a newspaper out on the terrace where Androula brought Beatriz tea and toast.
‘Sergios is in the office working,’ his grandfather told her helpfully, folding his paper and setting it aside. ‘What are you planning to do today?’
‘Take the boys to the beach,’ Bee confided.
‘Beatriz…this is your honeymoon,’ the elderly Greek remarked thoughtfully. ‘Let the children take a back seat for a while and drag my grandson out of his office.’
Her imagination baulked at the image of getting Sergios to do anything against his will, but she could see that Nectarios was already picking up flaws in their behaviour as a newly married couple. He asked her about her mother and said he was looking forward to meeting her. Having eaten, Bee went off to find Sergios, although after their intimate encounter the night before she would have preferred to avoid him.
Sergios was working on a laptop in a sunlit room while simultaneously talking on the phone. Her troubled gaze locked to his bold bronzed profile. No matter how angry he made her she could never deny that he was drop-dead beautiful to look at any time of day. Finishing the call, he turned his sleek dark head, brilliant eyes welding to her, and her colour fluctuated wildly while her mouth ran dry at the impact of his gaze. ‘Beatriz…’
‘I’m taking the children to the beach. You should come with us. Nectarios is surprised that you’ve already gone back to work.’
‘I don’t do kids and beaches,’ Sergios replied with a suggestive wince at the prospect of such a family outing.
Bee threw back her slim shoulders and spoke her mind, ‘Then it’s time you learned. Those kids need you…they need a father as well as a mother.’
‘I don’t know how to be a father. I never had one of my own—’
‘That doesn’t mean you can’t do better for your cousin’s children,’ Bee cut in, immediately dismissing his argument in a manner that made his stubborn jaw line clench. ‘Even an occasional father is better than no father at all. My father wasn’t interested in me and I’ve felt that lack all my life.’
Under attack for his views, Sergios had sprung upright. He shrugged a broad shoulder and raked an impatient hand through his hair. His wide sensual mouth had taken on a sardonic curve. ‘Beatriz—’
‘No, don’t you dare try to shut me up because I’m saying things you don’t want to hear!’ Beatriz shot back at him in annoyance. ‘Even if you can only bring yourself to give the kids an hour once a week it would be better than no time at all. One hour, Sergios, that’s all I’m asking for and then you can forget about them again.’
Sergios studied her grimly. ‘I’ve told you how I feel. I married you so that you could take care of them.’
‘Was that our “deal”?’ Bee queried in a tone of scorn. ‘I was just wondering. As you’ve already changed the terms on my side of the fence, why do you have to be so inflexible when it comes to your own?’
Sergios raised a brow. ‘If I come to the beach will you share a room without further argument?’
Bee sighed in frustration. ‘Relationships don’t work like deals.’
‘Don’t they? Are you saying that you don’t believe in give and take?’
‘Of course, I do but I don’t want to give or take sex like it’s some sort of service or currency,’ Bee told him with vehement distaste.
‘Sex and money make the world go round,’ Sergios jibed.
‘I’m better than that—I’m worth more than that and so should you be. We’re not animals or sex workers.’
Her love of frankness was peppered with an unexpected penchant for drama that amused him and he marvelled that he could ever have considered her plain or willing to please. With those vivid green eyes, that perfect skin and ripe pink mouth she was the very striking image of natural beauty. He could still barely believe that she was the only woman he had ever met to have refused him. While rejection might gall him her unattainability was a huge turn-on for him as well and when she had admitted she was a virgin he had understood her reluctance a great deal better and valued her all the more.
Recognising the tension in the atmosphere, Bee stiffened. He gave a look, just a look from his smouldering dark golden eyes and her nipples tightened, her tummy flipped and moist heat surged between her thighs. Colouring, she hastily fixed her eyes elsewhere, outraged that she could have so little control over her own body.
‘All right,’ she said abruptly, spinning back to deal him a withering look that almost made him laugh. ‘If you do the hour a week with the children without complaining, I won’t argue about sharing a room any more. Over breakfast I realised that your grandfather doesn’t miss a trick and he is suspicious.’
‘I said a long time ago that I would never marry again and he knows me well. Naturally he’s sceptical about our marriage.’
‘See you down at the beach,’ Bee responded a touch sourly, for she was not pleased that she had had to give way on the bedroom issue. Unfortunately her previous attempts to persuade Sergio to get involved with his cousin’s children had proved fruitless and if there was anything she could do to improve that situation she felt she had to make the most of the opportunity.
Karen was on duty and the children were already dressed in their swimming togs while a beach bag packed with toys and drinks awaited her. Paris led the way down through the shady belt of pine forest to the crisp white sand. They were peering into a rock pool when Sergios arrived. Wearing denim cut-offs with an unbuttoned shirt and displaying a flat and corrugated muscular six-pack that took Bee’s breath away, Sergios strode across the sand to join them. The boys made a beeline for him, touchingly eager for his attention. Paris chattered about boy things like dead crabs, sharks and fishing while Bee held Milo and Eleni’s hands to prevent them from crowding Sergios. She paddled with the toddlers in the whispering surf to amuse them. When Paris began building a sandcastle, Milo and Eleni ran back to join their brother.
