Wedding Party Collection: Here Comes The Groom. Rebecca Winters

her down the hall with his arm around her shoulders. The familiar smell of the soap he’d used in the shower assailed her again. He was clean-shaven tonight. Dimitrios had to be the most gorgeous man alive. How comical she must look standing next to him!

      The strange glance Ananke flashed her when they got in the back of the limousine verified Alex’s opinion of herself. But Leon’s eyes were kind as they rested on her.

      “Good evening, Ms. Hamilton.”

      “I’m so glad to see you again, Leon. Since the other day I’ve wanted to apologize to you for anything I said that upset you.”

      He shook his head. “No, no. I was the idiot. We don’t need to talk about it again.” Just then he sounded and acted very much like Dimitrios.

      His mother chose that moment to say something to her brother-in-law.

      “Speak English, Ananke.”

      “It’s my opinion you should stay home from the party, Dimitrios. You should never have left your bed yesterday.”

      “I agree with you, Mrs. Pandakis,” Alex inserted. “Considering the fact that we still have work to do this evening after dinner, I don’t think he should stay long. Not when he’s still feeling light-headed.”

      “Then it’s settled,” his nephew declared with surprising finality. “We will eat quickly and leave.”

      “Thank you all for deciding for me.”

      Dimitrios’s wry comment prompted Alex to mutter, “Someone has to.”

      “I’ll make it a short night on one condition.”

      “What’s that?” Ananke asked the question foremost on Alex’s mind.

      “After Ms. Hamilton went to all the trouble of having a costume made for me, I want the family to see Leon model it before he wears it in the parade tomorrow.”

      “I’d be happy to do that, Uncle, but it’s too late now. We’ll be at the villa in a moment.”

      Alex darted her host a sideward glance and caught a gleam in his eye. “As it happens, I asked Nicholas to put it in the trunk.”

      Leon wouldn’t be able to wiggle out of it now.

      Pleased to see Dimitrios’s tactics working where his nephew was concerned, Alex turned her head and looked out the window.

      They’d been passing through another beautiful residential area of the city. As they turned into a private drive lined with cars, she caught sight of a pastel villa built along neoclassical lines. It looked even larger and more imposing than the one they’d just come from.

      Mrs. Landau had once confided to Alex that even if Spiros headed the Pandakis family and had four sons to help run the company, his brother’s son, Dimitrios, was the driving force.

      True to her prediction, after Spiros’s death there really wasn’t a transfer of power because Dimitrios was already the natural leader to whom the entire family and business magnates deferred.

      It would be interesting to see if, after all Dimitrios had done to let Leon make his own decisions about life, his nephew ended up showing the same spark of business genius as his illustrious uncle. Stranger things had happened.

      For Ananke’s sake, Alex hoped her son would marry and have children. The other woman was suffering. Her husband had been dead too many years for her to be actively grieving. Alex surmised that her pain stemmed from another source. She also had the impression Leon wasn’t the sole cause of it.

      “We’ve arrived,” Dimitrios whispered against her ear. She knew it was accidental, but his lips grazed her lobe. His touch sent tiny ripples of delight through her system.

      “Leon?” he called to his nephew. “I’ll help your mother inside while you take the garment bag and get ready.”

      “Yes, Uncle.”

      Alex struggled not to smile. Leon wasn’t used to Dimitrios making demands, but as far as she was concerned, it was exactly what he needed.

      Within minutes both Alex and Ananke flanked Dimitrios as they made their way around the side of the villa to a terrace where a large crowd was gathered. Alex counted at least thirty beautifully dressed family members.

      Spiros’s sons were all married with children, some of whom looked to be in their teens. Coupled with staff loading food on the tables placed around the ornate gardens, it made an impressive sight.

      “Dimitrios!” someone cried in delight.

      “Don’t move from my side,” he cautioned her.