Greek’s Shotgun Wedding (The Diamandis Heirs #1)

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

E LECTRA D IAMANDIS TWITCHED the Elizabethan stand-up collar of Gigi’s wedding dress straight and stepped back, beaming with satisfaction. ‘You look beautiful, Gigi. You have classic taste.’

Gigi flushed. No, she didn’t, she had simply fallen in love after trying on a welter of big bouffant dresses that swallowed her small stature alive. And the one she had chosen was a simple sheath with long sleeves, an upstanding beaded decorative collar and a narrow skirt that flattered her height and shape. The bodice was beaded with intricate rose designs. The costly fabric was pure silk with the weight to drop into elegant folds. And the colour was pure white because Electra had had very firm ideas about what even Jace’s pregnant bride should wear and it hadn’t been the ivory tint that Gigi had initially assumed would be expected of her.

Yes, the past two weeks had been a breathtaking whirl of surprises, shocks and constant activity, all shared with Jace’s family while her future husband stayed safe from the bridal madness on the other side of the world. Evander and Electra had taken her to a designer salon to choose her gown. The wedding would take place on the island of Faros at the Diamandis home.

Humphrey the tortoise now rejoiced in a purpose-built cave and pond complex in the garden. He was living the life of one in a million tortoises and the perfect life for a very lazy one. Snowy was enjoying an equally fabulous existence in Electra’s private quarters being hand-fed nuts and he was slowly beginning to speak. Retrieved from the yacht, her own pets were revelling in luxury as well. Currently, Tilly was sunbathing indolently out on the balcony beyond the bedroom. Mo and Hoppy were curled up together in a corner, having greeted Gigi’s return with rapture and shared her bed ever since.

Her otherwise empty bed. She had not seen Jace since that last day in London and she was not quite sure that she believed that genuinely urgent business had demanded his long absence. She blamed herself, she totally blamed herself for exploding their developing relationship. She had wanted more than he was offering her, so much more , she conceded sadly, the sort of stuff a guy couldn’t give if he wasn’t in love. And Jace was not in love with her. She had come to terms with that, she reminded herself doggedly. They had very good reasons to marry for their child’s benefit, not least the loving support of Jace’s immediate family.

It had been a shock to arrive on Faros and discover that everybody already knew that she was carrying Jace’s baby. He had told the lot of them, demonstrating a lack of discretion that had astounded Gigi. Electra, Evander and Marcus, however, could hardly contain their delight over the news, which she had to admit had been heartwarming in a manner to which she was unaccustomed for she had yet to share that same news with her own Greek relatives. Jace might hail from a dysfunctional background but the family who had stood by him at the age of six were still fully present for him...and very supportive of his bride-to-be. She was deeply grateful for that family warmth and unquestioning acceptance that had never come her way before.

She had chosen to invite her Greek family to her wedding. Leaving them out would only have hurt and offended her father. Achilleus, her stepmother, Katerina, and her half-brothers had travelled to Faros on Sea King to meet Jace’s family. Understandably, they had been overwhelmed by the experience of the yacht, the house’s grandeur and their welcoming hosts. Katerina had tactfully sidestepped the invite to help dress Gigi for her big day, recognising that she and her stepdaughter didn’t yet stand on such close terms, and that thoughtfulness had convinced Gigi that she had made the right decision. Besides, the attitude of her father’s wife had been so much warmer and friendlier than Gigi had dimly assumed it would be that she was now pretty certain that that relationship was set to improve.

As for the fuss over Gigi’s career having to be put on hold for her pregnancy—that had turned out to be a silly storm in a teacup, a storm that Gigi now very much regretted setting off with Jace by being too precious and pessimistic. The day after she had freaked out in the wake of the obstetrician’s advice, she had gone to see one of her former professors at university. And the truth was that, yes, she would have to take extra care, glove up, be cautious, but in a small animal practice there was no reason why she shouldn’t work as late into her pregnancy as she chose to do. Given that safety procedures and risk assessments were respected, she would be fine.

‘That’s marvellous,’ Jace had pronounced flatly when she had apologetically shared that welcome clarification with him on the phone. ‘We’ll use the yacht as a base so that you can remain close to Rhodes.’

And now into the bargain she had been invited to become one of the directors on the board of the charity that ran the animal shelter because of Jace’s massive donation to their funds. In short, in the space of weeks, her life had evolved to an extent that she could never have foreseen while she was over in London. Indeed, life would have been perfect if she were not still cherishing such very strong feelings for Jace. After all, other people seemed to manage detached, unemotional relationships with partners. Why couldn’t she be the same?

Why did she have to miss Jace every hour of every day? Why did she shiver just hearing his voice on the phone? Why did she lie in bed wishing he were with her with every fibre of her being? All that excess feeling in Jace’s direction worried Gigi. Where had that inner intensity been hidden for the twenty-three years that had preceded Jace’s appearance in her life? Now she was subject to emotions that felt too powerful to suppress or fully control. And in the future she would need to control her possessive, almost obsessive love for Jace. How loyal would he be behind closed doors to a wife he didn’t love? He was twenty-eight, not fifty-eight, nowhere near any nominal age when sexual temptation might be deemed to be a little less potent.

Early on the morning of her wedding day, Gigi anchored a small hand to her father’s arm as they stood at the foot of the aisle in the church.

His brother, Nic, by his side, Jace awaited her at the altar. He was tall, dark, startlingly handsome in profile. She could see that his hair had grown and started to curl again since their last meeting and a helpless smile put to flight her anxious expression because he looked so much more familiar: he looked like her Jace again. In almost the same moment, primed by the swelling notes of the organ music, Jace swung fully round and dazzling jewelled eyes locked to her as she moved towards him.

In the candlelit interior, Gigi took his breath away in that dress with diamonds sparkling in her hair and her ears. It had been the longest two weeks of Jace’s life but suddenly it all seemed worth it. The dramas, the misunderstandings, the uncharacteristic restraint of having to bite his tongue. It had all been for the greater good to bring them to this moment when the future opened up and enclosed them both. Looking at Gigi, he decided it was definitely worth it. They might still have a load of issues to work through, but he knew he wanted her as his wife more than he wanted anything else in the world.

Gigi drowned in the burning intensity of Jace’s appraisal. A full body shiver of awareness racked her slender body. That raw, seething intensity that was uniquely Jace got to her every time. For a timeless moment, all her worries disappeared, and it was just her and him, the packed church surrounding them forgotten.

‘You look stunning,’ Jace informed her before the priest began to speak.

A faint flush of warmth infiltrated Gigi’s exposed skin. Her heart hammered, her pulses quickened and she snatched in a faint steadying breath. She felt her nipples prickle and push against the boned bodice of her dress, felt the tightening inner muscles clench in her pelvis. Embarrassment gripped her as she fought to concentrate on the ceremony. Some minutes later, she looked down in faint consternation at the wedding ring that Jace eased onto her finger because, for an instant, it didn’t seem possible that they could be married. Only as Jace helped her to slide a heavier version of her ring over his knuckle did it dawn on her that in this, at least, it was real. For better or for worse and certainly on paper, they were now husband and wife.

As they climbed into the waiting vintage car, which was festooned in flowers, Jace curved an arm to her spine and whispered, ‘It feels like a hundred years since I was with you in London.’

For a split second, Gigi was tempted to quip that she was sure that he had been glad to have an excuse to escape a woman ready to call him a coward for his reluctance to be honest about how he truly felt about her. But with hindsight, everything that had happened between them had since mysteriously taken on a different guise. Why trash what they could have in favour of what she couldn’t have? If a guy didn’t love her, forcing him to admit that and admit that he didn’t really want to be married to her would only create tension and bad feeling. Why on earth would she do that to them both?

So, it sucked to be her, to love and not be loved in return, but she wasn’t the first woman to be in that position and definitely wouldn’t be the last. She was more intelligent than that, she told herself fiercely. Perhaps it would be wiser to put the past behind her and focus on the future, focus on what she did have, rather than what she didn’t.

‘I missed you,’ she conceded ruefully. ‘But your family have been amazing.’

‘What about your own? Make sure I meet them all at the reception,’ Jace urged her. ‘Have you confronted your father with those letters yet?’

‘No, not yet.’ Gigi frowned. ‘I want to talk to him about that when we’re somewhere private and I haven’t had that chance yet. I’m not planning to confront him either...he hasn’t done anything wrong—’

‘Except withhold the truth about his relationship with your mother,’ Jace reminded her drily.

‘Mum did that first. I’ll find the right time to talk to him and return those letters,’ Gigi declared with confidence. ‘But it won’t be today at our wedding.’

‘And not for the next couple of weeks either,’ Jace forecast as he handed her out of the car outside the Diamandis house. ‘We’re honeymooning in Oman. Evander and Marcus are loaning us their holiday retreat in Muscat but we’ll only be using it as a base. We’ll be travelling around.’

‘I wasn’t expecting a honeymoon. I haven’t asked to take any more time off,’ Gigi muttered, her eyes wide with dismay.

‘I organised it for you. Almost two weeks ago, I spoke to your boss and arranged for the shelter to retain your replacement until you return. You need a holiday, Gigi. As long as your work is covered, you’re free as a bird.’

They moved indoors through the surge of bustling catering staff and walked out back to a shaded terrace where cold drinks were brought to them. Gigi started rising from her seat again to greet their arriving guests in the hall but Jace planted a staying hand on her knee. ‘My family will handle them. We can enjoy five minutes alone,’ he told her as he placed a jewellery box on her lap. ‘Wedding gift.’

‘You’ve already given me far more than you need to,’ Gigi protested, colour lashing her cheeks as she thought of the entire wardrobe of clothes for all seasons that had crammed the dressing room upstairs. ‘I mean, for goodness’ sake, I’m wearing your grandmother’s tiara, your mother’s diamond earrings—’

‘Those are family jewels. This is a personal gift from me to you,’ Jace specified.

Gigi opened the box and lifted out a shimmering pendant. A diamond-studded wolfhound with golden eyes met her startled gaze.

‘But for Mo, we wouldn’t have met.’ Striking green eyes levelly held her thoroughly disconcerted ones as he removed the item from her grasp and urged her to lower her head so that he could place it round her neck.

‘Our first meeting wasn’t exactly romantic,’ Gigi protested even while she cherished the sheer shock value of Jace doing such a thing. He wasn’t that type of guy, she could have sworn that he was not, yet...?

‘But you warmed up to me,’ Jace pointed out with a charismatic smile.

‘An icicle would warm up to you,’ Gigi mumbled, slender fingertips caressing the wolfhound pendant, but there was no hiding it: she was touched and impressed by a romantic gesture she had not expected from the once scarily honest male she had just married. ‘It’s absolutely gorgeous—’

‘A perfect match for my absolutely gorgeous bride.’ Jace sprang upright, offering her his arm. ‘It’s time for us to go public again. Shall we?’

The bridal celebrations and the crowds of guests swiftly engulfed them. As Jace finally guided her to the top table in the huge ballroom, one of his hands spanned her waist to ease her close. Bending his dark head, he ravished her parted lips slowly and thoroughly with his and whispered huskily, ‘I can’t wait until we’re alone...only a few hours to get through now.’

As his lean, muscular body brushed against hers, her own blood ran hotly through her veins because she could feel him even now hard and ready through the fine layers of fabric separating them. Cheeks warm, she sat down, her knees no longer willing to hold her upright. Desire was spreading pulses of mortifying need through her entire body. She might get mad at him, he might often annoy her with what he said and what he did not say, but she never ever stopped wanting him back. Even though they still had a lot of undercurrents to steer safely across, she was determined not to think about them on their wedding day.

Polished, professional entertainment had been organised for the reception. Once they had eaten, Jace guided her round, ensuring that they spoke to all the guests and spending time with her father and half-brothers in particular. She could see that he found it a strain to exchange pleasantries with his own relatives, who had ignored him virtually until the very day of his father’s death. She stepped in for him whenever she could, forcing herself to be a brighter, funnier and more outgoing person than she actually was, and it embarrassed her to appreciate just how much she wanted to protect him. Even when he was older, more sophisticated and a million times richer than she was? Yes, she acknowledged, even then. Where Jace was concerned there was a soft spot inside her that she couldn’t harden.

Jace watched his cousins gather round Gigi on the dance floor, espied the spite glinting in Seraphina’s hard eyes and narrowing them as she moved in Gigi’s direction. He strode into the crush to steal his bride back to himself. He was damned if he would stand back and allow Gigi to suffer for one of his mistakes.

‘Keep your distance from Seraphina,’ he warned her soft and low as he steered her away from that group.

‘I’ve already learned that lesson,’ she admitted ruefully. ‘She’s a viper. What on earth did you do to her?’

‘I’ll tell you, only not here and now. But I will not tolerate her anywhere near us if she makes the mistake of targeting my wife with her nonsense.’

Gigi’s eyes brightened at that possessive designation. ‘I can look after myself, Jace.’

‘But you shouldn’t have to,’ he responded in a tone of finality, his clean jaw line hardening with resolve. ‘Particularly not when in any of the homes that we now share.’

‘Gosh, you’re being very inclusive all of a sudden,’ Gigi murmured with a helpless giggle at the prospect of being included in the ownership of more than one home. ‘How many properties do you own?’

‘Six that I actually use, mostly inherited like the London apartment. My father hated hotels.’

Her fingers laced into the springy dark luxuriance of his hair, dallied there and spread to the base of his skull to draw him down to her.

‘No,’ Jace told her succinctly. ‘If you touch me, I’ll do something indecent in public, so play safe and don’t touch me.’

Pink and roused more than she liked by the hard slide of his body against hers, Gigi broke his embrace to step back from him. As she crossed the floor to speak to Electra, where she sat with her closest friends in a quieter corner, Evander Diamandis came to a halt in front of her and kissed her on both cheeks with enthusiasm. Gripping both her hands, he smiled down at her. ‘Thank you for making Jace happy—’

‘No,’ she demurred. ‘Let me thank you, your mother and Marcus for making me so very welcome.’

She had barely exchanged more than a few words with Jace’s grandmother before Jace was ushering her away again and urging her to change for their flight. ‘We’re leaving now ?’ she carolled in surprise.

‘We’re spending our wedding night in Oman.’

Jace practically lifted her out of the SUV at the end of the long, potholed track.

The ultra-modern villa was well lit. He walked her into a sleek entrance hall that opened into an even more elegant and contemporary living space. An ice bucket complete with champagne and two goblets awaited them. Jace strode through to the kitchen and dug into the fridge to produce orange juice for Gigi.

‘You’ve been here before,’ she guessed as she sipped the refreshing drink.

‘Several times when I was a teenager and adventuring was still in my blood. While Evander and Marcus played golf, I went off exploring.’ As she set her empty glass down, he swooped on her to scoop her up into his arms. ‘Right now, all I want is to explore you—’

‘Just when I was about to ask you about Seraphina—’

Jace groaned out loud as he carried her up a flight of shallow steps and into a cool spacious bedroom decorated in warm creams spiced with subtle hints of jazzy orange and turquoise. ‘It’s a sad little story of immaturity. I was eighteen and drunk. She was twenty-two. I spent the night with her. The following day her father visited Evander and Marcus. He accused me of taking advantage of her and demanded that I marry her—’

‘What?’ Gigi exclaimed in surprise. ‘You were only a teenager and she was older than you were!’

‘It was completely casual but I did make the mistake of crossing those boundaries. It was a set-up, of course. I was supposed to marry her to protect her reputation but, to be frank, she was no more an innocent than I was.’

‘Oh, dear...she told me that you were hers first .’

‘No, I was fifteen the first time I dallied with a lady.’ Jace rolled his eyes in acknowledgement. ‘And you’re my one and only relationship.’

‘And I got pregnant,’ she sighed as she kicked off her shoes.

‘No, we got pregnant,’ Jace countered, dropping down beside her on his knees and pulling her into his arms. ‘It does take two, you know...’

His warm mouth came down on hers with the kind of hunger that sizzled through her every nerve ending. Lean hands extracted her from her vest top and skimmed off her cropped linen trousers at speed, her lingerie vanishing at a similar pace. With an identical sense of freedom, she stripped off his shirt, stretching up to smooth reverent hands up over his muscular hair-roughened torso before he vaulted off the bed to peel off his chinos and his boxers.

He returned to her, a vision of bronzed masculine perfection and potent arousal, and kissed her breathless, clever fingers toying with the achingly sensitive peaks of her swollen breasts. ‘Two weeks is too long for us to be apart—’

‘It wasn’t my choice,’ she reminded him, slender fingers tracing the velvet smooth thrust of his erection.

‘I thought it was best to let the dust settle—’ But Jace gritted his teeth, knowing that he’d been craven when he had refused to admit that the baby announcement had knocked him for six, only he still did not feel up to the challenge of admitting that. Particularly not if Gigi might assume that he, who had once been rejected by his parents, was in some way now rejecting their child, because that was untrue.

‘Never let the sun go down on a row,’ she retorted in disagreement, silky, streaky strands of hair brushing his thighs as she bent her head to tease him with her mouth.

‘I believed I was making the wisest move—’

‘Well, when would you ever tell me or yourself that you’d been stupid?’ Gigi jibed as his hips arched up to her and an almost soundless groan was dredged from him.

‘Can’t take that amount of torment, not right now,’ Jace growled, suddenly hauling her up to him and rolling over to settle between her spread thighs. As she closed her legs round him in instant welcome, he tilted her back and surged against her tender cleft, discovering the warm wet heat of her and sending a current of electrifying anticipation through her quivering length.

‘Exquisite...’ He pushed inside her with a hushed groan of appreciation and angled his lean hips. Pleasure shimmied through her in heady waves as he stretched her inner walls with delicious force and friction. She flung her head back, her heart rate escalating as he began to move. The excitement began to climb, perspiration dampening her skin as she gripped him. A blinding wave of hunger powered her as he hammered into her at speed and the wild soaring excitement took over for endless moments. The intensity he induced sent her into an explosive, gasping climax that wrung her out.

‘Sublime,’ Jace pronounced, holding her close, his heart still racing against hers in the languorous aftermath. ‘But for the record, I don’t make stupid decisions—’

‘Talk about it in the morning,’ she whispered in cowardice, burying her hot face in the hollow of his shoulder and heaving an exhausted sigh.

‘I was about to suggest a shower—’

‘You get frisky in showers...wake me up at dawn,’ she mumbled, feeling inexplicably secure and happy again.

In the morning, she wakened alone, however, which left her free to wash and dry her hair and slip into a blue and white sundress in honour of the scorching sunlight arrowing through the windows. Barefoot, she padded out to the outdoor terrace she had noted in the moonlight the night before and only then registered that it led out onto a clifftop platform suspended over the sea and the beach far below. There, Jace awaited her, a colourful breakfast already laid out in readiness for her.

‘Wow,’ she breathed in respect of that spectacular view of the Indian ocean, sunlight glimmering over turquoise seas that washed the edge of the long white beach.

‘This is why the parents bought this place, plus Evander likes to golf and Marcus likes to sunbathe. I, however, simply want to spend time with you,’ Jace murmured, closing a hand over hers as she dropped down beside him on the comfortable upholstered built-in seating.

‘Where are the staff?’

‘Maryam comes in at mealtimes only, unless we request otherwise—’

‘And your security team?’

‘In the housing at the foot of the lane. You should eat. We’re leaving soon.’

Gigi poured her tea, sipped it, savouring the refreshment, grateful that the occasional bouts of nausea she suffered were still controllable as long as she ate little and often. ‘Are we going to talk about stuff?’ she asked stiffly, mentally bracing herself for that challenge.

‘No. We’re going to settle into being married first...and your objective is to learn how to relax and rely on me. You’ve lived through two frantic weeks of wedding excitement and naturally you’re tired. Let me do the worrying for once,’ he urged lazily, his thumb stroking the sensitive inside of her wrist.

Gigi breathed in deep. She did not rely on a man, never had, never would. She liked everything deep and hidden unearthed and out on the surface for her perusal. She wanted to know exactly how Jace felt about being married to her and a prospective father. But, being Jace, he had cut her off at the knees before she even gave her opinion. And what he wanted was crystal clear. There was to be no talking, no honest exchange of feelings and views or, indeed, any discussion about where their convenient marriage was even expected to go.

Her teeth gritted together. She cast him a glance that involuntarily lingered. In a white linen shirt, emerald eyes glittering, blue-black hair catching the sunlight, his lean dark classic features were breathtakingly handsome. Add in all the rest of him, the perfect physique, the little devil of teasing amusement that often danced in those eyes and the undeniable charisma he emanated, and he was a major challenge.

He was telling her to act like one half of a couple and she didn’t know how to do that, didn’t know how she was supposed to give him her trust when she already loved him. After all, give him trust as well and he would own her, hurt her with his indifference, his rich-boy polished wit and tantalising bedroom expertise.

‘I’d just like to talk to you...in private,’ Gigi told Achilleus Georgiou almost a month later.

‘On the yacht?’ Achilleus asked. ‘Why not come to the restaurant and we’ll sit in the courtyard and chat?’

‘The yacht will be more private. Tomorrow? Around eleven? It’s my day off.’ Cramming her phone back into the pocket of her lab coat, Gigi made that decision for the older man and heaved a sigh. It was time to return her father’s letters to him and hopefully that would finally open a line of communication between them and encourage her father to be honest.

It was the end of her second week back to work. Oman had been an amazing experience. They had travelled into the dramatic Jebel Akhdar mountains, dined on the edge of a magnificent canyon with the rugged mountains all around them, toured ancient tombs and forts and wandered through a deserted ghost village. Understanding her fascination and the reality that she had not travelled anything like as widely as he had done, Jace had promised to bring her back in the spring when the damask roses would be in bloom and the air would be full of their perfume. She had laughed and reminded him that she would be too close to having their child to fly anywhere.

There had also been lazy days on the beach with intimate dinners on the terrace. They had explored the walled old city of Muscat, sampled spices in the souqs and admired the sunlit ambience of the low white buildings with their ornamental Portuguese-influenced balconies. For the first time in her life that she could remember, she had totally relaxed, allowing Jace to take care of everything. And, given that freedom to manoeuvre and plan and organise, Jace had been in his element.

Their dinner had been served one evening by a campfire in the Wahiba Sands and it had been a magical experience. She had even tried to sleep under the stars before grumpily surrendering to her aches and pains and clambering back into the top-of-the-line air-conditioned RV Jace had hired for the occasion. He had laughed but she had still enjoyed the splendid tawny sunset that had rewarded their stay over breakfast. Jace had ruled out a camel ride or even a trip in an SUV through the dunes as too great a hazard for her in her pregnant state. His endless caution on her behalf had annoyed her once or twice because throughout their honeymoon he had treated her as though she were a fragile piece of china liable to break if allowed to overtax herself. Fortunately for her, he had not carried that approach into the bedroom with her. It was mortifying too that she had allowed Jace to ignore the issues between them but thinking about them only upset her.

A dreamy smile and a flush on her cheeks as she recalled that powerful passion of his, Gigi took her time tidying up her paperwork while Ioanna cast her knowing looks.

‘What?’ she finally paused to ask the nurse.

‘You are just so in love with your husband...it’s touching,’ she opined with an apologetic smile. ‘I don’t know how you bring yourself to leave him every day.’

‘Because he’s working too,’ Gigi pointed out wryly.

And had she got in the way of his work, he’d have driven her up the wall with his limitless energy. Round the clock, she had decided, Jace was best kept busy and occupied. If only she had that luxury, she reflected ruefully. No, she reminded herself dully, from now on, thanks to her pregnant state, she would only be working part-time hours. The arrangements were already in place.

Her new obstetrician in Rhodes town, a grounded, sensible woman, had warned her the week before that her blood pressure was dangerously high. She was to have less work and stress, more rest and daily walking and swimming exercise to try and bring the reading down to a safer level and lower the risks for her child and herself. All of a sudden, Gigi’s pregnancy was dominating her life.

Only that morning, Jace had accompanied her to her most recent medical appointment, and she had had an ultrasound that had revealed the gender of their child. She was having a little girl. The joy of that discovery had been laced with anxiety for Gigi because now she knew that she could not have blind confidence in her own health. Jace had been delighted.

‘She’ll take some looking after,’ he had remarked thoughtfully. ‘She’ll be the first heiress in the Diamandis family for several generations.’

Jace had made not one single comment when she was advised that only part-time work was viable for her until her blood pressure reduced. And if that didn’t work, even more far-reaching changes of lifestyle would be required from her. Her soft mouth compressed and downcurved.

The dogs greeted her the instant she stepped off the launch because they sat down there awaiting her return every afternoon. Jace stepped out of the lift as she was halfway up the first flight of stairs. ‘Lift...’ he stressed gently. ‘You’re supposed to be taking it easy and four flights of stairs isn’t easy.’

With bad grace and feeling rather like a dog who had pulled rudely on her leash only to be yanked back into line, Gigi retreated back down the stairs and joined him in the lift. As always, he looked amazing, black curls tousled by the breeze, compelling green eyes lighting up his lean, bronzed face, raw energy still emanating from him even after hours of business calls and meetings. And Gigi? She felt utterly drained, her hair descending untidily round her cheeks from her once elegant updo, her face bare of make-up, mud on her jeans from an over-enthusiastic cocker spaniel.

‘Time for a drink,’ Jace announced, shepherding her into the main saloon, where she flopped down like a legless puppet into a comfortable armchair. ‘You’re exhausted.’

‘Was that a criticism?’ Gigi hated the sharp edge that had entered her voice.

‘An observation.’ Jace slotted a moisture-beaded juice drink into her hand and settled a couple of glossy brochures down on the occasional table beside her.

‘What are these?’

‘Houses for sale on Rhodes. There’s another one available but it’s not officially on the market yet,’ he volunteered. ‘We need a home base other than the yacht.’

In silence, Gigi leafed through the small selection of very large, luxury homes on offer. ‘We’re perfectly comfortable here—’

‘ Sea King isn’t a long-term solution. Not for us or the animals. And I assume you want to remain close to your father and brothers and the shelter, of course. We can continue to spend weekends on Faros but it wouldn’t be feasible to live there. It’s too far to commute—’

Gigi breathed in deep. ‘Is it worth going to the hassle of buying and furnishing a house on a permanent basis?’ she heard herself ask and, indeed, the question almost leapt off her tongue and it sounded a little tart. ‘I mean...how long will our marriage last?’

The instant she said it, she regretted it and a chill ran down her spine. Jace stilled and studied her in apparent astonishment. ‘I haven’t got a crystal ball but—’

‘I’m sure that you could give me an estimate.’ Gigi was wondering what devil had got into her or if her outspoken tongue was simply a horrible eruption of the insecurities she struggled with on a daily basis. After all, Jace had refused to address her right to know how he felt about her and their child. She had been fretting about that since before their wedding. It was time he answered some of her questions.

Jace’s lean, hard-boned features were pale and taut. He expelled his breath in a stark hiss. ‘I’ve always hoped that you would at least stay with me until after our child is born but—’

Gigi rose immediately upright, marvelling that she could stand when she felt as though he had plunged a knife into her chest. ‘Perfect, we don’t need to be looking at houses, then!’

‘Even if we were to separate, Gigi, you and our child will need a proper home to live in on the island,’ Jace asserted flatly.

Squashed flat by the lowering awareness that he had already calculated the practicalities of them separating, Gigi walked out of the room without looking at him again. Of course, of course, why hadn’t she guessed what Jace intended all along? A marriage to legitimise their child and see it born and then soon after they would part, still being civil and friendly to co-parent. All of a sudden everything made so much more sense.

This had been his plan all along. This was why he had been willing to sacrifice his freedom, why he had been so impossibly delightful and soothing from the outset. Jace had always seen his escape on a not too far distant horizon. Anyone could contrive to make the best of a situation if it was only going to last for the duration of a single pregnancy. And, naturally, he hadn’t wanted to make a point of saying that at the same time as he persuaded her to marry him. She suspected that he hadn’t wanted his family to know that truth either.

Left alone, Jace downed two whiskies in record time. He had closed her out to keep his own emotions under control. He had withdrawn and she had noticed that he wasn’t fully present or honest with her any more. Of course she had. How could he ever admit that he was terrified of losing her? Since the day she had married him, she had always had one foot out of the door.

And that was why he should not have mentioned the houses. Not when he knew that she was still agonising over having to accept working only part-time. Yet it was only for a few months. And how was he to straighten her out when she was supposed to be staying calm and resting as much as possible? He wasn’t a miracle worker. Gigi seethed with emotion under her tranquil, collected surface but she didn’t share her innermost worries with him...or trust him...or rely on him. So, what else wasn’t new?