personalities, Erin had known that marrying Cristo was the right step to take. Lorcan was already learning that when his father said no he meant it and Nuala’s tantrums had become less frequent. The first time she condescended to call Cristo, ‘Daddy’, he admitted to Erin that he felt as if he had won the lottery.
Her mother had travelled to Thesos in the company of Tom and Melissa. Sam had turned down his invitation but had sent a lavish present. The day before the wedding, Cristo had taken them all out sailing. He was a wonderful host and had been in the very best of moods. Erin had taken that as a compliment: Cristo was happy that they were getting married. And she had during the week that had passed learned to regret her request that they sleep apart until the ceremony. Intimacy brought a special closeness to their relationship and she missed it, disliking the new distance that her demand had wrought in Cristo. He was too careful to give her space. A couple of times she had lain awake into the early hours, her body taut with frustration and longing, trying to summon up the courage to go and join Cristo in the opulent master suite at the top of the stairs. Why was she still punishing herself for wanting him? Why had she let Sam’s sour suspicious comments make her doubt Cristo’s sincerity?
Cristo lifted her hand in the car on the way back to the house from the church and touched the shiny new platinum ring on her finger with approval. ‘Now you’re mine.’
‘That sounds exceedingly caveman-type basic,’ Erin remarked.
‘I suppose carrying you upstairs before we entertain our guests would be even more basic?’ Cristo rested scorching golden eyes on her face as she turned fire-engine red with sexual awareness and embarrassment.
‘You’re scaring me because I know you’re capable of behaving like that,’ she admitted ruefully.
‘I was pure caveman when I blackmailed you into meeting me in Italy,’ Cristo conceded with a sardonic laugh. ‘I do crazy things with you that I’ve never done with any other woman. Italy was supposed to be an exorcism—’
Erin gave him a blank look while trying not to picture how wickedly exciting it would be if Cristo was were to trail her straight off to his bedroom. That was the real problem. He might be pure caveman but on some level she liked that side of him and responded to it. There was something uniquely satisfying about knowing she was such an object of desire to him.
‘An exorcism?’ she repeated.
‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you and how incredible we were in bed. It infuriated me. I thought that if I saw you again, slept with you again I’d be disappointed and I could get you out of my system. My, didn’t that work well?’ he said with rich self-mockery. ‘Here we are just three weeks later and we’re married!’
‘Did you and Lisandra get married in the same church?’ Erin asked, no longer able to stifle her curiosity.
‘Of course not. We had a massive society wedding staged in Athens. Lisandra likes to make a big splash in public.’
‘But the church here and the simple service were lovely,’ Erin commented softly.
His handsome mouth twisted. ‘You and Lisandra are very different.’
Did he have regrets? A little ache set in somewhere in the region of Erin’s heart. Erin had seen photos of his ex-wife in glossy magazines and Lisandra was much more sophisticated than she was. Most people would reckon that Cristo had married ‘down’ in choosing Erin and when they realised that the twins were his they would put another construction altogether on their marriage. Did that matter to her? Was she too sensitive? Expediency, rather than love, made the world go round. She didn’t need him to love her. Evidently she didn’t have that essential spark that would inspire such feelings in him or he would have fallen in love with her when they were first together and everything was all shiny and new.
‘Visiting my mother in spite of what she did, allowing her to be present today and treating her like one of the family,’ Cristo specified wryly. ‘Lisandra would never have forgiven her.’
‘I haven’t forgiven Appollonia either.’
‘But you’re willing to try. I’m very grateful for that,’ Cristo told her quietly. ‘You had the opportunity to get your own back by excluding her from our lives but you didn’t take it. That was generous of you.’
‘She truly regrets what she did. We all make mistakes.’
Cristo grasped her hand, curved lean fingers to the side of her face and brought his mouth down on hers with a hungry urgency that sent pure energy winging through her trembling body. ‘I’m wrecking your make-up,’ he groaned against her sultry mouth.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Erin proclaimed breathlessly, looking up at him with starry eyes and a thundering heartbeat.
Cristo handed her a tissue for the lipstick he had smeared. ‘Our guests await us but first … I have a gift for you.’
He handed her a tiny jewellery box, which she flipped open. It contained a band of diamonds, an eternity ring. ‘Cristo, it’s beautiful but I haven’t got you anything.’
‘My gift is having you back in my bed again,’ he murmured lazily.
The burning intensity of the look that accompanied that statement was like a blowtorch. She tottered out of the car on wobbling knees, struggling to pin a social smile to her lips. He really really wanted her and that was good, a healthy sign for a very practical marriage, she told herself earnestly, striving hard to be sensible while she admired the new rings sparkling on her finger. Cristo for eternity would be paradise, she thought dizzily, barely able to credit that he was finally hers. She watched as the twins ran to him and he scooped them up in both arms in a movement that made Lorcan and Nuala break into fits of laughter.
‘He’s so good with them,’ her mother remarked approvingly from the front door that stood open. ‘I expect you’re planning on more children.’
‘Not at the minute,’ Erin told her mother frankly. ‘I think we’ll be getting used to being married for quite a while.’
‘Cristo looks happier and more relaxed than I’ve seen him in years,’ Vasos commented approvingly at her elbow. ‘You’re good for each other. I only wish that my wife’s interference hadn’t parted you when you should have stayed together.’
‘It’s water under the bridge now,’ Erin said lightly as she looked up at the older man.
‘I had an argument with my son when he said he couldn’t possibly take a honeymoon while my company was failing. Don’t worry,’ Vasos urged comfortably. ‘I soon talked sense into him. Of course you’re having a honeymoon.’
Erin swallowed uncomfortably. She knew how hard Cristo had worked in his efforts to support his father’s business, which had suffered badly in the difficult economic climate in Greece, but she also knew that Vasos’ stubborn independent streak had made it an almost impossible challenge. ‘He worries a lot about you.’
‘He’ll get over it,’ Vasos replied staunchly.
‘No, he won’t actually,’ she told him in a low voice. ‘He’ll feel like the worst failure if your business goes down. Why won’t you let Cristo help you?’
‘I could never accept money from Cristo.’
‘But
