AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Yes, he told me.’ Her voice softened. ‘You were very young?’
‘She died giving birth to me,’ said Stavros, and her heart went out to him as she heard the empti- ness and confusion in his voice. ‘I don’t think my father ever got over it, really—even when he re- married—no, especially when he remarried. So Tino became like father and mother to me. He was only twelve.’ He hesitated, the hero-worship there for her to hear as plain as day itself. ‘Don’t make the mistake, will you, Jade, of thinking that the harsh exterior you see is all there is?’
Jade said nothing, just stared at Stavros sadly. If only he knew. He was romantically, foolishly labouring under the misapprehension that she and Constantine were marrying for love. She might be in love, she realised with a sinking resignation but he certainly wasn’t.
Stavros cut into her thoughts. ‘What time do you want to leave?’
‘Leave?’ she echoed in confusion.
‘Sure. He’s left the car and the driver at your disposal.’
‘What for?’ Jade blinked, then remembered how he’d flipped because she’d trailed around London on her own yesterday, on the Tube. Perhaps he meant that she should play the tourist again.
And then another thought occurred to her, a thought which, surprisingly, she found infinitely more disturbing. What if Constantine had come to his senses after their night spent together—wouldn’t that explain his hurried departure? Perhaps now that he’d had a night of passion with her he had slaked the lust he felt for her, and had decided to call the whole thing off. And perhaps the car was there to take her home to her flat, and out of his life forever.
Stavros cleared his throat. ‘He said you should go and choose your wedding-gown. It’s tomorrow, isn’t it?’
Bang went her theory, and, infuriatingly, her heart accelerated! ‘Oh, did he?’
‘Mmm. You don’t sound overjoyed.’ Stavros eyed her speculatively. ‘What’s the matter? He’s a good catch, my brother. Don’t you know how many women have wanted to marry him?’
‘I can imagine,’ answered Jade acidly, then, seeing Stavros’s almost hurt look of bemusement, she relented—it wasn’t his fault that his brother was such a ruthless swine, after all!
Stavros frowned. ‘You know that he hasn’t in- vited our stepmother or her daughter?’ He paused, and a fleeting narrow-eyed look crossed his face, making him look uncannily like his big brother.
Jade nodded. ‘He told me.’
‘Do you know why?’
Yes, she knew. Because they were just going through the motions of a wedding, that’s all—so why make it a farce by inviting all his relatives?
Stavros frowned. ‘Marina—that’s our step- mother—she won’t particularly care one way or the other, but Eleni, that’s her daughter—she’s going to go absolutely crazy. She thinks the world of Tino.’ He stared at Jade. ‘Can’t you make h
im invite her?’
‘I don’t think I can, Stavros.’ She didn’t imagine that it was possible to make Constantine do any- thing which he didn’t want to.
Yet it seemed that he still wanted the wedding to go ahead, even if it was going to be a small and rather hushed-up affair, and if that was the case then she needed a dress to wear. A woman had her pride, after all!
So Jade spent the day being ferried round dif- ferent shops in the low, sleek car—watching people peer into the interior whenever it stopped at traffic lights, obviously hoping to see someone famous. Sorry to disappoint you, she thought wryly, as she leant back against the soft, luxurious leather. She really could get used to this kind of life, she de- cided regretfully, remembering her own rainswept waits at bus-stops.
In the end she bought a cream linen dress with a matching hat, which looked stunning without breaking the bank, since she determinedly refused every one of Constantine’s charge cards which Stavros tried to press into her hand.
‘Take them,’ he insisted.
‘I don’t want them.’
Stavros shook his head mournfully. ‘He’ll be mad.’
Good! ‘That’s not my problem,’ she shrugged.
‘Maybe that’s what he likes about you—that you make him so mad!’
If only he knew, mused Jade as she walked back through the revolving doors of the Granchester, purchases in hand.
Constantine was in their suite, and to Jade’s quickly stifled dismay she noted that his face was unwelcoming and tense as she appeared in the doorway. She didn’t know what she had expected after she had given herself to him so passionately last night, but it was certainly not this cold and intimidating face he presented. He gave her a brief, terse nod, but that was it. No smile, no kiss, no embrace, nothing to let on how close she thought they’d been during the night. But perhaps that closeness had all been in her naive and fevered im- agination. She was relatively innocent; he was not. The kind of rapturous response which she’d dem- onstrated as he’d made such superb love to her was probably par for the course where he was con- cerned. How many women had sobbed out their pleasure in his arms and had their tears wiped away with his supposedly tender kisses? she wondered painfully.
‘I have the licence,’ he announced dispassion- ately. ‘We marry tomorrow.’
