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recent employment in a craft shop.
‘You see, Callista,’ Xan murmured in the mildest of tones. ‘Some women do choose to work for a living.’
‘I would just have ignored her,’ Elvi whispered in reproof as they moved away.
‘I’m not a fan of turning the other cheek,’ Xan retorted crisply. ‘Callista lives off the rich men she sleeps with and she had no business sneering at you. It’s a wonder Delphina has turned out as well as she has.’
‘Sleeping with rich men to get by sounds very much like work to me,’ Elvi dared.
Xan froze and glanced down at her with a sudden frown.
‘Oh, I wasn’t getting at you,’ Elvi said with mock innocence. ‘After all, I did it to keep my mother out of prison and off drink, which is rather different.’
‘Skase!’ Xan shot down at her in a raw undertone.
‘Meaning?’
‘Shut up...drop the subject,’ Xan bit out furiously as he leant down to her level.
‘Well, you really can’t go around with that “one rule for me but a different rule for everyone else” take on everything,’ Elvi pointed out helplessly.
‘I can do whatever I like—’
‘And it’s thoroughly bad for you,’ Elvi told him firmly.
Xan swore under his breath, inflamed by her sheer nerve. Why didn’t she worry about offending him, as other women did? He stood by watching his mother introduce Elvi to his remaining sisters, noticing how animated the conversation between them all became. Of course, he should’ve expected that, he told himself calmingly. His sisters all lived in the real world, unlike his former stepmother, Callista. One sister was an engineer with her own company, another was a doctor, the third a happy housewife with four children, two of which were very cute five-year-old female twins. Another and stronger generation of his family, he labelled with satisfaction, for not one of his siblings exhibited the money-grabbing greed of his former stepmothers. Yes, he had bought them all houses and financed their business projects, but essentially his brothers and sisters were independent, falling back on his wealth only in times of misfortune.
They sat down to dinner. By that stage it was clear to Xan that Elvi had gone down like a prize trophy with his family because his mother was pumping her about her love of dogs, while the wretched untrained little beasts formed begging round their feet, and his sisters were chattering to Elvi as though she were one of the family. It was her friendly gene, Xan decided, only becoming perversely annoyed when Elvi disappeared off to see his mother’s latest craft project, which he knew would be an absolute disaster. Ariadne Ziakis might be the acclaimed author of several very weighty archaeology tomes and a professor in her university department, but she was not talented with her hands.
‘I was doing the stitch wrong!’ his mother proclaimed when she returned to the table to drink her coffee. ‘And this wonderful girl showed me how to do it and it was so easy when you know how...’
Ne...yes, Elvi went down with the family like award-winning chocolate.
Tobias, always timid, confided in Elvi about his latest relationship breakdown, when he could barely bring himself to acknowledge that he was gay to Xan’s face. Lukas pontificated happily about worldly indifference to the suffering of refugees and revealed that he had met the woman he hoped to marry. One sister revealed that she was pregnant again, another admitted to a serious boyfriend. Xan watched in silent astonishment while his family opened up to Elvi in a way they never did with him. Delphina related the entire story of her humdrum relationship with Takis in the kind of detail that would send most people to sleep, but Elvi listened as if she were hearing the most romantic story she had ever heard.
Maybe she genuinely did think that sort of stuff was romantic, Xan reflected in awe as not even a giggle escaped Elvi when she heard about Takis’s marriage proposal: harbour restaurant, family party, roses at the table, bended knee, so conventional Xan’s teeth hurt with saccharine overload just listening. Elvi was nice, he decided, in the most flexible interpretation of that overused word. People blossomed around her, drawn by her sincere interest, warmed by her kind and optimistic outlook on life. She was the absolute antithesis of him, Xan decided.
‘She’s adorable. Put a ring on her finger fast,’ his mother urged as she said goodnight to him.
‘She’s far too kind and caring for you,’ his eldest sister, the engineer, opined. ‘You’ll probably make her miserable.’
‘Oh, I just love Elvi.’ Delphina sighed blissfully, very much the lovestruck bride the night before her wedding.
‘Elvi would make a good wife,’ Lukas, the priest, told him staunchly. ‘She’s a godly woman.’
‘She’s a pet,’ Tobias pronounced with starry eyes as Xan identified Elvi by his mother’s side, down on her knees petting the scruffy dogs. ‘Such a good listener.’
Chilled by that amount of family enthusiasm, Xan accepted the accolades without comment and reclaimed Elvi from the pet contingent with difficulty. On the upper landing, she paused to study a portrait. ‘Is that your father?’
‘Yes,’ Xan confirmed, his attention locked to her rather than the painting. Her dress exposed her slender spine, where he already knew the soft, smooth skin felt like silk, and the fine fabric below her waist outlined the ripe, rounded swell of her bottom. His libido kicked in with lusty fervour and he coiled his hands into fists of restraint. Everything was going to be different this time, he assured himself. There would be no grabbing, no rushing, no cutting of sexual corners.
‘When did he die?’ she asked, still looking at the canvas.
‘Nine years ago.’
‘You do look very like him,’ Elvi conceded as she moved on, her heart skipping a beat as Xan closed his hand over hers, engulfing her smaller fingers.
‘Thankfully that resemblance is all we shared.’ Xan thrust wide the door of his bedroom and she brushed against him, her face turning up, her eyes blindingly blue and bright above her soft full mouth, and that view cut through his self-discipline like a knife through butter.
