The Greek's Surprise Christmas Bride / Proof Of Their One-Night Passion. Louise Fuller
way out of that unanswerable question by shrugging a broad shoulder, but his expression was grim, belying that show of casual acceptance. ‘It’s how the marriages in my family have always worked. Marriage is for children, inheritance, property protection. It’s got very little to do with sex.’
Letty blinked. ‘Maybe for very rich people,’ she qualified uneasily and then she finally wondered in dawning dismay if possibly he was into some sort of kink that the average wife was unlikely to deliver. That prospect hadn’t occurred to her before but, the more she thought about it, the more she thought that to be a possible explanation for his instinctive mental separation of sex and marriage.
After all, there had to be some very good reason why he thought that way. Ancestors with mistresses being an accepted way of life for the men? The stepmother from hell? The stepmother who had been his father’s mistress? An unrepentantly unfaithful father, who must have hurt his mother? Wasn’t that a more probable truth? That Leo suffered from that clichéd view of women as either angels or whores? A belief system that had been born in the early death of his mother and the arrival of a shamelessly unscrupulous stepmother?
‘I know you don’t understand my attitude,’ Leo commented, startling her with that perception. ‘We’ll discuss it over dinner tonight.’
Letty was disconcerted by that suggestion, not having expected Leo to be so open on such topics. Ironically, in spite of her curiosity, she was in no hurry to hear his views, preferring to stuff the whole thorny question of his marital infidelity under a large mental rock and leave it buried there. What she didn’t know couldn’t unsettle her, after all. Ignorance would be preferable.
They arrived at the hotel. Letty drank champagne, greeted a never-ending line of guests, exchanged pleasantries and smiled. Her aunt, Elexis, her grandfather’s daughter, cornered Letty when she emerged from the cloakroom after a quick touch-up of her make-up. Elexis was as thin as a playing card and a very attractive woman with a chic blonde bob.
‘You look very like photos I’ve seen of your father, Julian,’ the blonde commented on the subject of her late half-brother. ‘Did you ever even get to meet him?’
Letty chose to ignore the rather offensive tone of that question.
‘Several times when I was a child. My mother had an on-off relationship with him in the early years, before she realised that he would never settle down and stay clean,’ Letty admitted quietly. ‘But he was her first love and it was hard for her to step away from him.’
‘You sound like a romantic. Leo won’t like that,’ Isidore’s daughter proclaimed.
Letty simply smiled. ‘I believe that you’re getting married in the spring,’ she said, keen to change the subject because she felt a little awkward about the fact that Leo had, years earlier, considered marrying Elexis.
‘Yes, I can’t wait. Anatole adores me,’ Elexis told her smugly. ‘You see, I wanted more from Leo than he was willing to give me. I wanted fidelity and I know for a fact that he’s not willing to pledge that.’
‘How do you know?’ Letty asked in as mild a tone as she could manage.
‘His current mistress is a guest at your wedding…and you didn’t know?’ Elexis queried in unkind surprise. ‘Mariana Santos—that’s her over there with the lady in the lime-green hat. Mariana, Spain’s most acclaimed supermodel.’
‘Fancy that…’ Letty said noncommittally, determined not to react although she had felt the blood draining out of her face as her aunt spoke. Even before the brittle blonde had dropped her bombshell about Leo’s mistress, Letty had suspected from her tart defensive tone that Elexis had wanted Leo much more than he had ever wanted her and that her ego had been stung by his walking away from her. The blonde’s final words made that reality clear.
As Elexis drifted off, seemingly happy to have stuck the knife in Leo’s bride, Letty’s attention strayed towards Mariana Santos, a gorgeous brunette with a curvier figure than was usual for a model, her hourglass shape artfully revealed by a turquoise dress with a plunging neckline. Her tummy curdled and she glanced away, annoyed that Leo could be that insensitive. If Elexis knew the identity of his current lover, others had to know as well and it was disrespectful, at the very least, to include such a woman on the guest list. It was not that she felt jealous or possessive of Leo, Letty assured herself as she lifted her chin, a combative glint in her green eyes, it was simply a question of what was right and appropriate.
She looked away from the voluptuous model again, reminding herself that Leo’s sex life was none of her business. Even so, the awareness that he had invited his lover to their wedding stung like salt on an open wound. Get over yourself, she told herself sternly. The wedding ring on her finger had never been intended as a promise that Leo belonged to her in any way. Their marriage was a fake steadily turning into a farce, she ruminated. So far, she had met Leo’s infatuated stepmother, the jealous and spiteful Elexis and now she had Mariana Santos covertly sending the bridegroom a look of burning longing.
Leo had a toxic effect on women, she decided. A little taste of Leo and it seemed women tended to become strongly attached to him and then pine for him. Her nose wrinkled and she thanked her lucky stars that she was not so easily impressed. If that was true, why was she stressing about his obvious compelling attraction in the eyes of other women? It shouldn’t bother her, should it? She should be able to ignore those other women and not care. Letty swallowed hard, unable to fathom her own reactions and annoyed that the indifference she needed to project towards Leo with regard to his extra-marital interests was nowhere to be found. If she was annoyed, why was she annoyed?
That thorny question occupied her brain throughout the reception that followed. It swept her through the wedding speeches and her mother’s brief tribute, which brought tears to her daughter’s eyes. She strayed into a polite conversation with Leo’s father, Panos, and her own grandfather, who it seemed was in a rather glum mood because Leo had recently uncovered some financial irregularities within his company, which Isidore felt he should’ve discovered for himself.
‘Leo’s got fantastic financial ability,’ Panos Romanos contended with a clear pride in his son’s abilities that warmed Letty towards the older man.
‘Oh, I’m not denying that,’ Isidore responded. ‘Our businesses couldn’t be in stronger hands than his.’
Leo spanned a lean hand across Letty’s stiff spine. ‘It’s time for us to open the dancing,’ he murmured softly in her ear. ‘One more hour and then we’re out of here.’
Letty twisted her head, eyes wide with surprise. ‘Only an hour… Where are we going?’
‘Ios…the island,’ Leo told her as he urged her on to the dance floor, wondering why she was pulling back from him to ensure a large space separated them.
‘But we can’t both leave the children!’ Letty exclaimed.
‘They’re coming too,’ Leo soothed, long brown fingers smoothing down her arms in a curiously caressing motion that sent the oddest little shiver shooting down her taut spinal cord. ‘The kids, the nannies, the whole shebang… Happy now?’
‘But I didn’t do any packing for them and they probably need new clothes and—’ she began in bemusement.
‘That’s why I employ staff. It’s all taken care of for us,’ Leo soothed, lowering his dark head, tawny eyes ablaze with gold below the lights, enhanced by the black lace frame of his lashes. ‘And once we arrive I will finally have you all to myself, yineka mou.’
Letty stared up at him in confusion, questioning why he would make such a statement and ducking her head to peer around him to see if there was someone nearby for whom he might be putting on an act. Why else would he say such a thing? Coincidentally, Mariana Santos was only a couple of feet away, dancing in the arms of another man, and Letty received a frozen look from the brunette, who had clearly been watching the bridal couple closely. Of course she was, Letty reflected ruefully. Leo was much more Mariana’s property than he would ever