SECRETS AND LIES. They lurked in every corner of the dining room, taunting Ava while she forced herself to eat her lunch and attempted to make conversation with Giannis’s mother. It was an uphill task, for Filia was a discontented woman whose only pleasure in life, it seemed, was criticising her son.
Ava had no idea what the other woman had meant, or what Giannis was supposed to have told her. Perhaps it was something that would only be relevant if he truly intended to marry her—which, of course, he did not. She was trapped in a deception that would only end once he had secured his business deal with Stefanos Markou.
She glanced at him across the table and found he was watching her broodingly as if he was trying to fathom her out. Ava guiltily acknowledged that she had her own secrets. But why should she tell Giannis that her father was serving a prison sentence for armed robbery? In a few weeks’ time there might be a brief media frenzy when it was announced that the engagement between Greece’s golden boy and his English fiancée was over, but the paparazzi would quickly forget about her, as, no doubt, would Giannis.
She pulled her mind back to the conversation between Giannis and his mother. ‘I don’t know why you paid a fortune for a holiday to the Maldives,’ Filia said sharply. ‘You know I dislike long-haul flights.’
‘It is hardly any longer than the flight time to New York,’ Giannis pointed out mildly. ‘I bid for the trip at a charity auction because I hoped you would enjoy a spa break in an exotic location.’
His mother sniffed and turned to Ava. ‘I was surprised when Giannis told me that the two of you are engaged to be married. He has never mentioned you before.’
Ava felt heat spread over her cheeks. ‘It was a whirlwind courtship,’ she murmured.
Filia gave her a speculative look. ‘My son is a very wealthy man. Can I ask why you agreed to marry him?’
‘Mitera!’ Giannis frowned at his mother but she was unabashed.
‘It is a reasonable question to ask.’ She turned her sharp black eyes back to Ava. ‘Well?’
Ava said the only thing she could say. ‘I...love him.’ Her voice sounded strangely husky and she did not dare look across the table at Giannis. One lie always led to another lie, she thought bleakly. But she must have sounded convincing because his mother gave her a searching look and then nodded.
‘Good,’ Filia said. ‘Love and trust are vital to a successful marriage.’
Ava gave a quiet sigh of relief when Giannis came to her rescue and asked his mother about her trip to New York. Evidently it had been a disaster, for which she blamed him. The five-star hotel where he had arranged for her to stay had, according to Filia, been atrocious. ‘Rude staff, and the bed had a lumpy mattress.’
‘I am sorry you were disappointed,’ he told his mother with commendable patience. Ava glanced at him, telling herself that if he looked amused by her lie about being in love with him she would empty the water jug over his head, and never mind what conclusion his mother might draw.
He met her gaze across the table and the gleam in his dark eyes made her tremble as a shocking realisation dawned on her. It couldn’t be true, she assured herself frantically. But the erratic thud of her heart betrayed her. Had she managed to sound convincing to his mother because she was actually falling in love with Giannis?
* * *
The helicopter swooped low over the sea and Ava felt her stomach drop. She did not realise that her swift intake of breath had been audible, but Giannis looked up from his laptop. He was seated opposite her in the helicopter’s luxurious cabin and leaned forwards to take her hand in his warm grasp.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said reassuringly. ‘Vasilis is a good pilot. We will be landing in a few minutes. Stefanos’s private island, Gaia, is below us now.’
She nodded and turned her head to look out of the window at the pine tree covered island, edged by golden beaches and set in an azure sea. It was easier to let Giannis think she was nervous of flying in the helicopter. She certainly could not tell him of her terrifying suspicion, which might explain the nauseous feeling she’d experienced for the past few days.
She’d put her queasiness down to some prawns she’d eaten at a restaurant a few evenings before. But while she had packed her suitcase this morning she’d found the packet of tampons she had brought to Spetses with her in the expectation that she would need them.
Her period was only a couple of days late, Ava tried to reassure herself. But a doom-laden voice in her head reminded her that she was never late. Her mind argued that Giannis had used a condom every time they’d had sex. Even when he’d followed her into the shower cubicle and stood behind her so that she had felt his arousal press against her bottom, he had been prepared. She could not be pregnant. Probably her churning stomach and uncomfortably sensitive breasts were signs that her period was about to start.
She sighed. Her mood swings were another indication that she was worrying unnecessarily. When the helicopter had taken off from Spetses she had been thankful that her oversized sunglasses hid her tears. Ava knew she was unlikely to ever return to the island. Giannis had said that they would go to his apartment in Athens after meeting Stefanos Markou and he would arrange for his private jet to fly her back to London.
Apart from the awkward lunch with Giannis’s mother, the past two weeks that they had spent at Villa Delphine had been like a wonderful dream where each perfect day rolled into the next, and every night Giannis had made love to her and their wildfire passion blazed out of control. But since Ava had woken early that morning, feeling horribly sick, and crept silently into the bathroom so as not to wake him, her insides had been knotted with dread.
The helicopter landed and Giannis climbed out and offered Ava his hand to assist her down the steps. ‘You are still pale,’ he said, frowning as he studied her.
‘I’m nervous,’ she admitted. ‘Your hope of buying Markou Shipping is the reason we have spent the last month pretending to be engaged, but what if Stefanos guesses that I am your fake fiancée?’
‘Why should he? People tend to believe what they see. That is why conmen are sometimes able to persuade elderly ladies to hand over their life savings.’
Her father had been the cleverest conman of all, Ava thought bitterly. He had fooled his own wife and children with his affable charm. Suddenly she could not wait for the deception she was playing with Giannis to be over. But then her relationship with him would finish—unless her suspicion, and a pregnancy test when she had a chance to buy one, proved positive. The knot of dread in her stomach tightened.
As they walked across the lawn towards a sprawling villa, Giannis slid his arm around her waist and urged her forwards to meet the grey-haired man waiting for them on the terrace. Stefanos Markou shook Giannis’s hand before he turned to Ava.
‘I admit I was surprised when Giannis announced his decision to marry. But now that I have met you, Ava, I understand why he is in a hurry to make you his wife.’ Stefanos smiled. ‘My wife read in a magazine that you are planning a Christmas wedding.’
‘Christmas is more than two months away and I don’t think I can wait that long,’ Giannis murmured. Ava’s heart gave a familiar flip when he looked down at her with a tender expression in his eyes that her common sense told her was not real. He was a brilliant actor, she reminded herself, but her mouth curved of its own accord into an unconsciously wistful smile.
Stefanos laughed. ‘The other bidders who want to buy Markou Shipping are already here. So, let us get down to business, Giannis, while Ava talks of wedding dresses with my wife and daughters.’
He led them into the villa and introduced Ava to his wife, Maria, and his three daughters, who between them had seven children of their own—all girls. Stefanos sighed. ‘It seems that I am not destined to have a grandson to pass Markou Shipping on to. Unfortunately my only nephew is a