AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘No, I will not. Don’t keep telling me to calm down, as if you’re working on some telephone helpline.’
‘I realise you’re angry.’
‘Too damned right, I’m angry.’ Mia bit into a lip which, infuriatingly, kept wobbling. ‘In fact, I can never remember feeling this furious.’
Or betrayed. That was the worst bit. Once again, Theo had betrayed her by doing something which impacted deeply on her life, without any prior consultation. Yes, he might have brought delight to a dying man—but he had done so by placing her in an invidious position. And she couldn’t see how she was going to get out of it.
Yet hadn’t she betrayedherself—and in front of them all? Theo, her grandfather, and the one-eyed dog she’d found bleeding on the roadside all those years ago and which Theo had christened Lucky—saying how lucky the animal had been to have been rescued by her.
Mia huffed out another angry breath. When her estranged husband had pulled her into his arms and branded her lips with a fiery kiss intended for show hadn’t she responded as if he had just made the most romantic gesture in the world? She had practically swooned as his mouth had covered hers and she’d kissed him back with a hunger which had been building inside her all day. She’d heard the grunt of approval her grandfather had given—as if they had just demonstrated to his satisfaction that a reconciliation was definitely on the cards. They had pulled apart and for a moment she had just stood there, grinning stupidly, her face flushed with pleasure as Theo’s fingers curved possessively around her hip.
Had she learnednothing? Was she still that same woman so desperate for this man that she would accept whatever scraps he deigned to throw her way?
‘When you touched my arm when we first went in, was that touching little squeeze of comfort just for show too?’ she demanded. ‘Did you do it because you knew my grandfather was watching and would falsely interpret it as a sign of true affection?’
He flicked her a brief look. ‘You really think I’m that calculating?’
‘I don’t think it, Theo. I know it.’
His eyes returned to the road ahead. ‘Very well, Mia. Think the worst about me, if you must. You think I care?’
His arrogant query only increased her fury but Mia didn’t say another word for the rest of the drive home. She thought it unwise to give vent to her rage while he was driving and Theo seemed content to let her fume in silence. When he stopped the car in front of the house she went straight out into the garden to try to cool off, strangely confident he would follow her—which he did. And though she didn’twantto feel a spear of sexual excitement, she wasn’t going to deny the thrill it gave her to know that this devastatingly handsome man was pursuing her through the grounds of his property. Was that because, for the first time in their relationship, she felt as ifshewas the one with the power?
Her mind had been whirling with possibilities about where to have this very necessary confrontation. She didn’t want to go to the bedroom and she certainly wasn’t going to talk to him in the house, with Sofia and his maid hovering in the background. She didn’t want to be overheard, or disturbed.
Her footsteps were fast and so was the beat of her heart, but it was difficult to maintain a high level of outrage when everything looked so beautiful in the honeyed light of the setting sun. The approach of evening had made the perfume of the flowers even more pronounced, and the wide ribbon of sea looked as if it had been highlighted with strokes of glittering bronze. A sudden sense of melancholy cloaked her, as she acknowledged the beauty all around her. Why couldn’t she just sit down and enjoy the glory of her surroundings, as she used to do in the old days when she used to come to Greece during her summer holidays? Because everything had changed, that was why. For a start, she wasn’t on holiday. She was here on sufferance and Theo had lied to her. Those were the facts. Stark and unpalatable, but true. Again, she felt the wash of anger, but Mia waited until they were alone in a courtyard garden she’d noticed on her way back from the pool, as she steadied her breath for long enough to ensure that her words were coherent.
‘Why did you spring that on me, Theo?’ she demanded. ‘My grandfather didn’t even know I was coming, did he? I couldn’t believe it when I walked in and saw the shock and, yes, the horror on his face. I felt like I’d ambushed him, or something. Which I suppose, in a way, I had.’ She shook her head and felt the tickle of wayward curls brushing against her warm skin. ‘He hadn’t expressed any desire for some sort of reconciliation with me, had he? There was to be no touching deathbed conversion.’
There was silence.
‘Have you finished?’ he questioned quietly.
‘No, I haven’t finished! I haven’t even started, to be honest, except you probably wouldn’t recognise honesty if it came up and hit you in the face.’ She sucked in a shaky breath and suddenly she was afraid of doing something irreversible—like bursting into tears of disappointment and making him realise he still had the power to hurt her. Even now. ‘You told me a big fat lie, Theo,’ she whispered. ‘You brought me out here under false pretences and what I want to know is...why? I mean, what’s in it for you?’
‘You think that’s my only motivation?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Self-interest?’
‘I do, yes. Leopards don’t change their spots.’
Oddly frustrated by her negative assessment of him, Theo turned to look at a statue of a woman, into whose marble basket one of the gardeners must have placed a bright, pink bloom which was glowing in the fading light. Suddenly, a bird flew on top of the statue’s head and began to sing its heart out, and as the sweet notes penetrated his consciousness he felt as if he had just woken up from a long sleep.
When was the last time he had been in this part of the garden? he wondered, enjoying the violet and rose light which illuminated his surroundings and which made him feel as if he were standing in the middle of an oil painting. He frowned. He never really came here to enjoy the beauty or stop to reflect, did he? Just as he never used his pool for anything other than relentless, early-morning exercise. He had always been so driven. So determined never to take his foot off the accelerator. He had never really learned how to relax, or to enjoy the moment. He wondered what had made him think of that now.
Dragging his thoughts away from unwelcome reflection, he stared into the accusatory glitter of Mia’s blue eyes. ‘You want to hear my side of the story?’
She pursed her lips together before nodding, pushing away the tangle of her copper curls. ‘It would be a start,’ she conceded grudgingly.
He wished she wouldn’t do that with her lips because it made it difficult not to start thinking about kissing her again. Theo cleared his throat. ‘Let’s start with the land. I have no self-interest—certainly not of the monetary kind. I never have. The piece of coastline your father gifted to me on our wedding day is in your name. I signed it over to you the day after your somewhat...’ his mouth twisted mockingly ‘...abrupt departure.’
‘You mean...’ She stared at him. ‘It’s been mine all the time?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you didn’t bother telling me?’
‘Why should I?’ He gave a sardonic laugh. ‘You expected me to go chasing after you, did you, Mia? Pleading with you for your forgiveness? I thought you would return and when you didn’t...’ He shrugged, making out he hadn’t cared, when at the time he had. More than he’d thought possible. Yet her sustained absence had worked in his favour, or so he’d thought. He’d convinced himself she was nothing but a child—too scared to come back and face the music—and that he’d had a lucky escape. He felt as if her response had given him permission to go out and behave as he wanted to behave. Which he had done.
‘I felt pretty sure you wouldn’t come back if you thought the old man was going to reject you,’ he continued, fixing her with a piercing look. ‘Am I right?’
