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‘Demetri?’ she asked, looking towards Leo Souvakis, her tongue lingering sensually at the corner of her mouth. ‘But I understood he wasn’t expected home until the end of the week.’
‘He can’t wait to see you, Ari,’ declared Maria Souvakis warmly. ‘Why don’t you go to meet him? I’m sure Leo will excuse you.’
Before Ariadne could get out of her chair, however, Demetri’s father intervened. ‘It could be Vasilis, Maria. Theo Vasilis,’ he added, for Jane’s benefit. ‘Demetri’s assistant. I asked him to send me some figures earlier in the day. Perhaps he has decided to deliver them himself.’
‘I think not.’
As Maria attempted to assure her husband that Demetri’s assistant would never use one of the company’s helicopters for his own use, Jane swallowed convulsively. Dear God, Demetri couldn’t be here, could he? He’d promised…
But what had he promised? she asked herself. Only that he’d keep out of her way. He’d said nothing about staying away from the island. It was his home, after all, and Ariadne was here.
‘Hardly his own use, my dear,’ Leo was saying now, reaching for his cane and getting up from his seat at the head of the table. He tilted his head and Jane realised the noise had ceased. ‘It seems he has landed. I will go and wait for him on the terrace.’
‘I can go—’ began Ariadne, but Demetri’s father merely waved her offer away.
‘You go into the salon with the others, my dear,’ he said charmingly. ‘Enjoy your coffee. If it is Demetri, I would prefer a few moments with him alone.’ He paused. ‘Company matters, katalavenis? You understand?’
Looking from Ariadne to her mother-in-law, Jane couldn’t tell which of them was the most put out by his words. ‘You’re supposed to take things easy!’ exclaimed Maria sharply, but Leo only raised a finger to his lips.
‘And I will,’ he promised, making for the door. ‘After I have spoken with my son.’
‘And why can’t Demetri speak to you in your study?’ demanded Maria, going after him. ‘Just because she is here does not mean that Demetri cannot enter his own home.’
‘Jane. Her name is Jane,’ said Leo tersely, his dark eyes, so like his eldest son’s, flashing his displeasure. ‘See to the coffee, vineka. I will not be long.’
He left the room without another word and for a moment there was silence in the room. Then, seizing her chance, Jane pushed back her chair and got to her feet. ‘If you’ll excuse me, Maria, I’d like to go to my room now. It’s been a long day and I still have unpacking to attend to.’
Yeah, right. One haversack containing a couple of dresses, some shorts and tank-tops and underwear would take all of five minutes to unpack. But Demetri’s mother wasn’t to know that, even if Ariadne knew what she’d brought with her from the ferry.
‘Kala—well, if you are sure?’
Jane was sure Maria—and Ariadne for that matter—couldn’t believe their luck. ‘I’m sure,’ she said, managing a smile for Demetri’s brothers. ‘It’s been nice to see you again, Stefan,’ Yanis.’ Nice! She cringed at the word. ‘If I don’t see you again, thank you for making me feel so welcome.’
Leo had just reached the outer door when she entered the hall. Taking off her sandals so as not to attract his attention, she hurried across to the stairs and climbed swiftly to the upper floor. She was breathing rather unevenly, as much from nerves as exertion, when she reached the landing, and she paused for a moment to look down into the hall.
But when she heard the unmistakable sound of men’s voices, she panicked. Hurrying across the landing, she hastily let herself into her room. The last thing she wanted was for Demetri to think she was eager to see him again. If she did decide to tell him about the baby, he mustn’t think she expected him to change his mind about the divorce. Nothing had changed. He was still a lying bastard. After the way he’d behaved in London, she owed him nothing.
Moving across to the windows, drawn by a faint illumination, she saw the underwater lights gleaming in the pool below. She and Demetri used to swim there after dark when the rest of the household was sleeping, she remembered unwillingly. How horrified Maria would have been if she’d seen her precious son and his wife playing there in the nude.
Making love…
The images wouldn’t go away, and leaving the window, she walked into the bedroom. She found someone had closed the window and switched on lamps at either side of the huge bed. The bed had been turned down, too, Egyptian sheets very white in the lamplight. And someone had also unpacked her haversack, hanging her other dress in the armoire and folding everything else into the drawers of the chest nearby.
