needs. Eros would still have visiting rights though, and Teddy would learn to value his father and divide his loyalties as all children of parents who lived apart had to do. He would be fine, absolutely fine, she told herself bracingly.
‘This is very important to me,’ Eros intoned in the smouldering silence. ‘Why do I get the impression that you’re not even listening?’
Winnie faked a yawn with her hand. ‘I’m sorry. I’m very tired.’
It would be the first time a woman had fallen asleep on him, Eros reflected grimly, exasperated by her silence, her seeming refusal to make the smallest effort. What was the matter with her? This was not Winnie as he recalled her, but then she had walked out on him, become a mother alone, struggled to survive and the experience was bound to have changed her. Yet if they were to stay together, they had to find a bridge between the past and the present. Sex? He knew he couldn’t wait to have her under him again, over him, in front of him...just about any way he could have her.
No, that hadn’t changed, he acknowledged reluctantly, that raw driving hunger to possess that she incited and which he had never understood or accepted. It had hurt his pride, it had exasperated him with her, with himself because he distrusted anything he couldn’t control and he hadn’t been able to control the fierce need she provoked. Yet he had repeatedly tried to explain it to himself, talk himself out of those urges, constantly challenging himself with self-denial while he fought to get his discipline back.
Unarguably, however, the truth remained that Winnie sat there in an ugly cloaking black dress that revealed nothing of her very sensual curves and with only the smallest encouragement he would still have spread her across the table and fallen on her like a sex-starved animal.
‘YOU LOOK AMAZING!’ Vivi sighed as Winnie performed a twirl in front of the built-in cheval mirror on the wall of the luxury cabin.
It was a beautiful dress, fashioned of Venice lace and organza, cut to fit Winnie’s shapely figure like a glove. An enticing row of pearl buttons ran down her spine to her hip. The sweetheart neckline emphasised her sister’s curves while the mermaid style flared out from her knees with very real elegance and not with the kind of fullness of fabric that would have accentuated Winnie’s diminutive height.
‘We all do but, like all brides, Winnie takes the crown,’ Zoe murmured fondly. ‘I feel like pinching myself to see if this is real. Here we are on a fabulous yacht, cruising to our sister’s wedding on a private island... It’s like a dream or like suddenly being plunged into a movie.’
‘I wonder if you’ll feel quite so chirpy when it’s your wedding day,’ Vivi remarked with an edge of warning.
‘But we don’t have to worry about that. Grandad is going to whisk us all away again before we need to worry about consequences.’ Zoe’s bright confidence in Stamboulas Fotakis’s ability to work miracles was unconcealed. ‘Eros wanted to transport all of us to the island because he made the island a no-fly zone to keep the paparazzi from buzzing the wedding from above,’ she reminded her siblings. ‘And Grandad got around that change of plan by borrowing a pal’s massive yacht for the occasion.’
‘Yes, Grandad’s pretty wily,’ Winnie agreed, still studying her reflection, her heart beating so fast with nerves it felt as though it were thumping through her entire body like a ticking time bomb on countdown.
‘Pittee,’ Teddy told her, yanking on her gown for attention.
‘Pretty? That’s a new word. Wonder where he picked up that one,’ Vivi commented, snatching her nephew up into a hug. ‘No, you’re not allowed to touch Mama’s dress with those little hands, but I’m wearing black, so you can do all the grabbing you want round Aunt Zoe and me!’
Teddy giggled with delight as Vivi turned him upside down, swung him round and dumped him on the massive bed for a spot of tickling and the sort of rough play he adored. Winnie paced anxiously. Eros had visited them in London twice to see Teddy but Winnie hadn’t seen him since that tense and disturbing evening meal they had shared. She had been at work, for, although her grandfather and Eros had both scoffed at the idea of such dutiful behaviour, Winnie had worked out her notice, giving the restaurant owner time to find and engage her replacement.
The yacht was slowing down radically to enter the harbour and dock. When they disembarked they were heading straight to the church before moving up to the Nevrakis house on the hill for the reception. When it came to making the return trip to Athens, both Winnie and her sisters already had their instructions. All they had to do was slip away and walk back down to the little harbour, where the yacht would await their arrival. Teddy would be brought there in a separate manoeuvre. ‘Why not leave straight after the church ceremony?’ she had asked her grandfather. ‘Surely that would be easier.’
His answer had disturbed her.
‘I want my guests and his to see Nevrakis dance to my tune and then become the abandoned bridegroom on his wedding day,’ Stamboulas Fotakis had assured her with satisfaction.
Winnie had paled and instantly felt queasy because, strange as it might seem, that aspect of her grandfather’s plans hadn’t occurred to her. Worrying about how she and her son might get away again had consumed her and she had never paused to stop and think about what her unexpected vanishing act would actually mean to Eros or how it would affect him, beyond angering him, of course. And somehow, she didn’t know why, the concept of humiliating Eros in front of a crowd made her feel quite sick and ashamed. That kind of revenge wasn’t her style even if it was her aggressive grandad’s. She didn’t want to hurt Eros because he was her son’s father and insulting and injuring him could only damage an already strained relationship. Why hadn’t she thought of that issue sooner? Now it was too late, she conceded unhappily, hurriedly reminding herself of how ruthless Eros had been when he’d threatened her vulnerable sisters. Eros could look after himself perfectly well, she reasoned feverishly.
He wouldn’t walk away from Teddy but he would realise he had lost any power over her and her siblings. That was how it had to be. She didn’t have a choice just as her sisters didn’t have a choice. This was the price of saving the roof over their foster parents’ heads. Goodness knew, after all the good John and Liz had done for Winnie, Vivi and Zoe and so many other troubled and unhappy teenagers, the older couple deserved the sisters’ protection and the security of no longer having to fear the loss of their home. Even so, she was sad that she was getting married without the older couple’s presence and knew they had been disappointed. Unfortunately, not only would it have been very hard for either John or Liz to leave their foster children for a couple of days with their busy schedule, but also she couldn’t possibly tell them the truth, that it wasn’t a real or normal wedding. Saving John and Liz had entailed a lot of fibs and half-truths that still sat on Winnie’s conscience like lead weights.
‘It’s time.’ Their grandfather lodged in the doorway, ultrasmart in his tailored morning suit and cravat. ‘You look delightful, Winnie. Nevrakis will be disappointed when he realises that he doesn’t get to keep you or my great-grandson.’
Oxygen rattled in Winnie’s tight throat. ‘Eros is tough. He’ll get over it,’ she said flatly, thinking of the man who had moved on untouched by their broken relationship and the hurt inflicted on her. ‘He’s one of life’s survivors.’
‘As are you,’ Vivi reminded her as they walked out onto the deck and began the delicate operation
