anyway?” she said eagerly.
“No. It will be better if I just get out of your life.”
And so he had.
He hadn’t seen Agnetta again—until this minute.
Now she smiled calculatingly at him over Cassie’s shoulders. “Such a wonderful suggestion your mother made,” she purred. “Come and spend a week here in our new house, she said to us. So kind. So sweet. And so nice of that girl to be here to let us in.”
Theo’s eyes narrowed. “What girl?”
“Marla? No, Martha,” Agnetta corrected herself. “The girl in the kitchen. She let us in. Helped us with our bags. Very helpful.”
“Was she?” Theo said through his teeth.
“Oh, yes,” Cassie agreed, beaming.
He’d kill her. Damn Martha Antonides! She knew he didn’t want anyone here! Especially not a pair of females who were setting their sights on him.
“She said she was sure you wouldn’t mind the intrusion, that that’s what family homes were for. To be shared,” Cassie reported.
“Did she?” The penny—hell, the whole damn national debt—dropped. Theo’s jaw came together with a snap. “Where is she?”
“Just making us a snack, she said,” Agnetta answered, turning to smile in the direction of the kitchen.
Theo turned, too, and was treated to the sight of Martha Antonides giving him a brilliant smile and waggling her fingers at him in a little wave.
If he could have killed her with a look, she’d have keeled over dead.
Instead she dared to sashay toward them, still all smiles, carrying a tray with bread and oil and canapes and olives.
“I knew you’d be thrilled to have company.” She met his gaze with a challenging one of her own as she held out the plate to Agnetta and Cassie. “It was so sweet of your mother to think of you here by yourself, with so much room available—and hospitality being the cornerstone of Greek culture.”
“Is it?” Theo’s tone was deadly. “I thought war was.”
Her expression grew suddenly wary, but almost immediately she seemed to regain her equilibrium.
“Both, I think,” she said, aiming a cheery smile at both Cassie and Agnetta. “Battling with your friends is almost as much fun as battling with your enemies, don’t you think?”
“I expect we’re going to find out.” Theo swept the plate from her hands and thrust it into Agnetta’s. “If I may have a word with you, Ms. Antonides?”
“I don’t think—”
“You don’t need to,” he informed her as he spun her into his arms, pulling her hard against him and moving her toward the bedroom.
“Mr. Savas! I’m not—”
“That’s what you think,” he cut her off. And as she began to protest again, he shut her up the only way he knew how.
He pressed his lips to hers, backed her down the short hall and into his bedroom where he kicked the door shut behind them and met her furious gaze with a satisfied smile. “All’s fair in love and war, sweetheart.”
CHAPTER TWO
“WHAT DO you think you’re doing?” Martha shoved away from him, her eyes wide and blazing with fury, her gaze flicking around her parents’ bedroom, looking anywhere, at anything—but him!
But while it had always been her parents’ bedroom, it wasn’t theirs any longer. That was obvious.
It was spartan, totally masculine, with stark white walls and sleek dark furniture, the only adornment two poster-size black-and-white photos of sailboats cutting through rough seas. The sort of room a man like Theo Savas would feel at home in. Clearly the room now belonged to the man who was glaring at her just as angrily as she was glaring at him.
“More to the point, Ms. Antonides,” he said through his teeth, “what the hell were you doing opening up my house to strangers?”
“They weren’t strangers to you,” Martha argued. She was still trying to catch her breath and calm her heart, which was slamming against the wall of her chest. She was also trying not to lick her lips, which were still throbbing from the press of his mouth. Despite her attempts to quell them or ignore them, her hormones were doing odd and completely unexpected things she’d never experienced before—certainly not when Julian had kissed her.
Good Lord! Even her ears seemed to be ringing. She mustered every ounce of sanity she could find.
“The girl—Cassandra—said your mother sent them. She said she was an old friend.” And from the look of things they could both be a good deal more as well. Did Theo Savas take lovers two at a time?
“To you they were strangers,” Theo bit out. “And they should have stayed that way. You know damn well I don’t want anyone here! I told you—”
“I know what you told me,” Martha said sharply. “But these weren’t groupies. They’re friends of your mother! If you don’t want them here, fine. Throw them out. Who cares? Just go out there and tell them to leave.”
Theo ground his teeth. “I can’t. And you know it.”
Martha raised her brows. “I do? Why?”
“Because you have a Greek mother, too. One that you don’t want to know you’re here. Am I right?” He gave her a knowing look.
Martha shrugged irritably. “That’s not the same.”
“It is the same. They meddle, mothers do. They think they know what’s best.” He cracked his knuckles and paced around the room.
Martha watched him curiously. “So…what’s best for you, according to your mother?” she asked at last.
He cracked his knuckles again. “A wife,” he muttered at last.
Martha grinned.
“It’s not funny.”
She wiped a hand over her mouth, taking the smile with it. “Of course not,” she intoned solemnly. But a corner of her mouth twitched anyway at the thought of Theo running scared of his mother’s machinations.
“She thinks it will get the groupies off my back if she provides me with other choices.” He scowled. “She’s wrong. Especially she’s wrong about that one.”
“Which one?” Martha didn’t think he’d looked particularly happy to see either of them.
“Agnetta.” Theo fairly spat the name.
“Ah.” Yes, there had been a bit of animosity on his part when he’d spied her, and Agnetta had definitely been the one who’d been startled to see her here. She’d demanded to
