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‘You are ready, Kyrie Santos?’
‘Yes. As ready as I’ll ever be.’
‘She is a good person, I think,’ Yiannis ventured. Yiannis had been with Alex for over a decade; he’d been there at the fire, had helped to drag him out. He was one of the few people Alex trusted implicitly, and he knew Milly better than Alex knew her himself.
‘Yes,’ Alex answered tersely as he thought of Milly, her shy smile, those pansy-brown eyes. ‘I think she is.’ Unlike him.
They did not speak again as Yiannis drove him the few kilometres to Saint Panormitis, the tiny little red-roofed chapel set among the rocky hills outside Halki, the barren sweep of land meeting the bright blue horizon.
It was a lonely place, yet no less beautiful for it, the chapel huddled among the scrub and brush, its whitewashed walls dazzling under the azure sky. No one was waiting outside save the priest and the witnesses, two of Alex’s staff in addition to Yiannis. He glanced around for Milly, but he couldn’t see her anywhere, and with a lurch of panic he wondered if she hadn’t turned up. What if she’d backed out at the last moment? He wouldn’t even blame her, not really. Five million euros wasn’t nearly the good deal she thought it was.
Yiannis touched his elbow. ‘Miss James has gone into Halki,’ he said quietly. ‘For flowers.’
Relief pulsed through Alex even as he realised he hadn’t considered any of the usual details involved in a wedding—flowers or a dress or the traditional party afterwards. Did Milly want those things? Should he have put some consideration into their business arrangement?
No, of course he shouldn’t have. Realisation jolted through him, strangely unwelcome. Of course they wouldn’t have those things. Why dress up what it was they had, put the plain truth in frills and lace? Milly had told him she was wary of love, cynical of romance, and he was the same. There was no need to pretend otherwise now, simply because they were making vows.
And then he turned and saw her. His heart seemed to stop in his chest as she crested the hill, her hair blowing loosely about her shoulders, a bouquet of tiny white star-like flowers and trailing ivy clasped in her hands. She wore a dress of ivory silk, the cut simple and lovely, with cap sleeves and an empire waist, the lace-edged hem brushing her ankles. Anna walked a little bit behind her, looking youthful and pretty in a pink sundress, and grinning with such obvious happiness that Alex felt jolted.
This almost felt like a real wedding. Which, of course, it was. And yet...he felt wrong-footed, wrong-hearted, as Milly walked towards him, a smile like a promise on her face, in her eyes. She was looking at him as if she felt something. She held out one slender hand, the other holding her bouquet.
‘Shall we walk in together?’
Alex stared at her helplessly, so surprised by this moment, by her and even by himself. It felt far too important, as well as too sweet. The cold business deal he’d imagined was morphing into something else entirely, a couple on a hill, holding hands and making promises.
Anna, he saw, was still beaming at them as if she thought they were truly a man and woman in love. And for a single, blazing second, Alex could almost imagine that they were. That this was simple. ‘All right,’ he said, and he tucked Milly’s hand into his, liking the feel of it there, snug and warm and safe.
Then together they walked into the little church.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SHE WAS MARRIED. Milly hadn’t actually spoken any vows or made any promises, but the Orthodox priest had spoken for them, and they’d exchange crowns of laurel and shared a common cup, traditions in the church that Milly didn’t completely understand but still seemed sacred.
She knew what they’d done was binding. She’d felt it in her soul, as if she’d just jumped off a cliff and now was soaring in the sky, unsure whether she’d continue to fly or plummet to the earth like Icarus with his waxen wings. How had Alex felt about the ceremony? When she’d looked into his eyes as they’d drunk from the same cup, she hadn’t been able to tell a thing.
He hadn’t spoken throughout the ceremony, and nor had she, but before they’d walked into the church, he’d almost looked...well, it was hard to know how he’d looked, considering how closed he was generally, but for a second he’d seemed...moved. And that had filled her with a sudden, buoyant hope that she was afraid to examine too closely. She wasn’t going to fall in love with him or anything stupid like that, just because he’d been a little bit nice to her. She was going to keep this businesslike, because that worked for them both.
And yet...that moment had given her pause. Made her wonder if this odd agreement could turn into something else, something more like friendship. She would never wish for more than that. She wouldn’t let herself.
Now they walked out of the church in silence, blinking in the bright sunlight, a married couple, although Milly still had no idea what their marriage was going to look like. Or their wedding night. The thought made her heart flutter with both anticipation and alarm.
As she stepped outside, it was so bright that she was blinded for a moment, but then she heard applause, and, when she finally blinked the world into focus, she saw a scattering of villagers on the rocky hillside, about two dozen men and women, all of them clap
ping, their gazes trained on Alex, their expressions strangely sober. She glanced back at Alex, and saw he looked as startled as she did.
Yiannis, his driver, said something to Alex in Greek, but Milly couldn’t make it out. She had no idea what was going on. Who were these people?
Then Alex spoke. ‘Efharisto,’ he said, a word Milly knew. Thank you. But then he said something else that she didn’t understand, and the villagers all started shaking their heads. Anna glanced at Milly in confusion, but she just shrugged. She had no idea what was happening, or who these people were. Did they know Alex simply because he had a villa on the island? It seemed deeper than that, their silent stares both compassionate and convicting, as well as weirdly intense.
‘Come on,’ Alex muttered. ‘Let’s get in the car.’
‘What about all these people...?’
‘They’ve got what they came for.’
She frowned. ‘And what was that?’
‘To see me.’
