absorbed in thinking about Jamie, was unaware of anyone approaching until he spoke and then she jumped, spinning around in shock.
‘I’m sorry,’ she stammered, half rising as he emerged to stand in front of her. ‘I didn’t hear you coming.’
She felt her skin start to prickle with a mixture of fear and awareness as she took him in.
The full force of his male beauty hit her like a sledgehammer. He was more bronzed than his brother and vibrated with a powerful masculine attraction that Michael somehow lacked. The light of day did nothing to diminish the impression. If anything, he seemed more imposing with the harsh early sun accentuating his strong, hard features and those cold, fathomless eyes that were now boring into her with as little warmth as they had done the night before.
‘I have never developed the habit of sleeping in,’ Theo drawled, ‘even when I am taking time off work. And neither, I gather, have you. I could not help but notice that you were making a phone call.’
‘You mean you were spying on me?’ Abby asked, wondering wildly how long he had been standing behind her before making his presence known. Had he overheard her conversation? She and Michael had agreed that they wouldn’t mention Jamie just yet. One step at a time, he had said, and step one would be to introduce her to his family.
For different reasons, Abby knew that it would be a huge mistake to breathe a word about her son to the man carefully and insolently looking down at her.
‘Now I find that a very odd remark,’ Theo said speculatively. She had looked young and vulnerable last night, in her baby-pink dress, and she still looked young and vulnerable now, even though she was in figure-hugging faded cropped jeans and a T-shirt that barely skimmed her top half, leaving a slither of flat stomach visible. Her hair, he could now see, was a streaky blonde colour, the sort that most women would pay to attain, though he doubted she had been one of them. Young, vulnerable and one hundred per cent natural. Vital ingredients when it came to trapping a man, because what man could resist the charm of the untouched?
‘Why do you imagine that I would be spying on you?’ he asked. ‘Surely that would imply that I might think you have something to hide. And you haven’t, have you…?’
Abby felt telltale colour spread slowly across her cheeks. She was sitting bolt upright; their eyes locked together and she opened her mouth to laugh off his remark but nothing emerged for what seemed like the longest time.
Something to hide. Where to begin? she could have asked. The thought that he might find out anything at all made her skin crawl.
‘I should be going back in,’ she finally said, standing up on trembling legs.
‘Why? No one will get up for at least another hour or so. I’m about to have a swim. Why don’t you join me?’ Theo could have kicked himself. The first rule of making the kill was to avoid scaring off the prey. So what did he do? Jump right in and start with the accusations.
‘Join you?’ Abby asked, aghast. ‘No, really, it’s very kind of you to offer but I’ll leave you in peace…’ She took a couple of steps backwards, and then he smiled. It was a smile of such devastating charm that it almost knocked her sideways.
‘I am a man who finds peace very hard to deal with,’ he murmured persuasively. ‘Is that very sad, do you think?’
‘Yes, yes I do, actually,’ Abby replied breathlessly, and he frowned.
‘Why?’
‘I’ve got to go.’
‘You can’t possibly. It would be cruel of you to call me sad and then run away without bothering to elaborate on it.’
‘Oh, no, I didn’t mean…what I meant was…’
‘Go and get your swimsuit. We can finish this conversation in the pool. Or perhaps you would be happier just to sit by the side of the pool while I swim? Hmm?’
‘Yes! I mean…no!’
‘Besides,’ Theo said lazily, ‘Michael would like us to get to know one another, I am sure. He and I may not have grown up together in the normal fashion, what with me being sent to board from thirteen, but we are still close. He would be appalled if he thought that I…intimidated you…’
CHAPTER TWO
OF COURSE, that was what did it.
The implication that he intimidated her, that she wanted to run away from him.
Abigail thought of herself as something of a fighter. She had brought up Jamie on her own, had gone through the entire pregnancy without the support of anyone, and had been almost mortally wounded by the spectacular collapse of her relationship with her son’s father. She herself had no parents on whom to fall back and no handy network of caring relatives who could rush to her clarion call when she needed them. The only two weapons in her armoury had been her resolve to bring this baby into the world and her determination to give him all the love she was capable of giving.
To have Theo Toyas insinuate that she was running scared was like a red cloth to a bull.
Michael, as she expected, was soundly asleep when she quietly entered the bedroom to get her hat, her sun-cream and her book. The restaurant and nightclub business meant that he kept unsocial hours and could never resist the temptation to lie in whenever he could. She decided against breaking into his deep slumber for the second time to tell him where she was going, and instead headed back out towards the pool.
Just as Theo had predicted, no one was as yet up.
An hour ago it would have sent her into a tailspin to think that she was going to be alone with the man, who she was beginning to think of as a bully whatever Michael had to say on the subject, but now she strode out with the bit very firmly between her teeth.
It was to find him already in the pool, cutting through the water with the fluidity of a fish. She watched for a few minutes, fascinated by the movement of muscle, and then slowly walked towards one of the sun loungers.
She tried to take in the breathtaking view, to relish the illusion of the pool leading straight out on to the horizon, but time and again she found herself staring at the body scything through the water until finally she stuck her hat on and relaxed back, linking her fingers lightly together.
This time she was aware of his approach even though her eyes were closed. She heard him emerge from the pool and then the slap of his feet as he dragged a chair over to her and sat down.
‘I didn’t think that you would take up my invitation to join me,’ Theo said, looking down at her, at that slither of pale skin where her top ended and her jeans began. Her breasts were two small mounds pushing against the thin cotton of her T-shirt.
‘Why shouldn’t I? Besides, you’re right; Michael would want us to be friends or at least to make an effort to be amicable.’
Women didn’t usually view him as an object of dislike with whom effort was needed to be amicable but he let it go.
‘Is this your first visit to Greece?’ he asked instead, keeping his voice even. Her eyes were still closed and he found himself looking, unobserved, at those small, rounded breasts. A handful, no more. With some effort he looked away.
Abby
