The Santorini Bride

She was a little upset herself. She didn’t like to think there were women who would try to trick a man into marriage like that. And she couldn’t imagine anyone being stupid enough to try it on a hard case like Theo Savas.

“So, um, how did you…find out?”

“I’m not an idiot,” he snapped. “I take precautions. But there is always the remote chance something could have happened, so I said we’d wait.”

“Wait?”

He nodded. “And see. I mean, it was going to be obvious if she was pregnant pretty soon, wasn’t it? She wasn’t happy. She wailed a lot. Accused me of being heartless.”

Martha could imagine.

“I didn’t give a damn.”

Martha could imagine that, too.

“But when she saw I meant it, that I was not going to marry her unless she produced a real obvious pregnancy, she suddenly ‘discovered’—” Theo’s lip curled on the word “—she was only late, that she wasn’t pregnant at all.” He snorted in disbelief. “It was on account of all the stress of wondering where our relationship was going, she said.” He gave a cynical shake of his head. “It wasn’t going anywhere,” he said flatly. “And it still isn’t. And you, Ms. Antonides, are going to make sure of it.”

“I’m not—”

“You are. You’re going to stay right here—” he hit the word with both feet, making it clear that he meant not only the house, but his bedroom “—and make sure Agnetta—and Cassandra—know I have a woman in my life.”

“But you—”

“You want a place to stay. You can stay here—as long as Agnetta and Cassie stay. As my very devoted girlfriend. Got it?” Theo’s black eyes fixed on her with a hard look that dared her to disagree.

Martha didn’t. Her thoughts were in a whirl. She couldn’t change her ticket. It had nearly wiped out her savings as it was. Only by booking her return for three weeks hence had she been able to cut the cost a little. Paying for a room for three weeks was out of the question.

Now she wouldn’t have to—if she agreed to stay here in the house.

“Here?” she said warily. “In this house?”

“In this room,” Theo clarified.

Which meant, in his bed.

There was only one bed in the room. She looked at it now. Theo’s gaze followed hers. It was a big bed with crisp white sheets and a Mediterranean-blue coverlet.

As if he read the direction of her thoughts, he began, “I don’t expect—”

But Martha was getting an idea of her own. “Those magazine articles—” she began, heart quickening.

“What about them?” Theo snapped.

“Were they true?”

“What?” He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.

“I was just wondering how they knew?” she gave him a speculative look. “I mean, did they do research? Ask women? How did they decide you were the world’s sexiest sailor?”

“How the hell should I know!” Theo threw his hands in the air. “Are you insane?”

Maybe, Martha thought. But she didn’t intend to admit it. She chewed her lip, thoughts roiling, making her brain buzz.

“You don’t have to worry about it,” Theo said abruptly. “I expect you to stay in my room and sleep in my bed. But I don’t expect you to—” He broke off, and Martha was surprised to see something that might have been a flush climb up his neck.

She cocked her head. “Have a no-strings affair with you?”

He nodded curtly.

“What if I want one?”

Jaw dropping, he stared at her. “What!”

“I said, what if I want one,” Martha repeated brazenly. “If you’re the world’s sexiest sailor, if hordes of women are, by your own testimony, trying to get into your bed, well, why shouldn’t I want in, too. I’d be a fool not to.”

He shook his head. “You are nuts.”

“Maybe I am,” she said recklessly. “So what? What’s it to you? You don’t want to get involved with me. Fine. I don’t want to get involved with you, either. No relationship, like you said. Just fun and games, that’s all. I’m on the pill. So, no consequences. So—” she lifted her chin in determined challenge “—why not?”

Theo Savas didn’t say a word. He just stared at her.

In the face of his unrelenting stupefied silence, Martha found her bravado cracking.

Was she that unappealing? Was she so appallingly awful that he couldn’t even imagine making love. Having sex, she corrected herself quickly—with her?

Now she was the one who felt hot blood rise in her cheeks. They burned fiercely, but she’d said the words so she made herself stand her ground.

What else, after all, could she do? She couldn’t afford to leave.

“Those are my terms,” she said baldly. “Take them or leave them.”

Still he didn’t speak for so long that she considered picking up the lamp and bashing him over the head with it. Then at last he flexed his shoulders and straightened just a little.

“Let me get this straight.” His voice was a drawl now. “I let you stay here for the week and in exchange you want a no-strings affair?”

“That’s right,” Martha said firmly. “Except I want to stay three weeks.”

A dark masculine eyebrow hiked into the fringe of his hair.

“It’s the least you can do. I told you. My flight leaves in three weeks. I want to stay that long. And,” she added recklessly, “I want some mind-blowing sex in the meantime.”

Thank God her vigilant parents, her overprotective brothers and all the other guardians of her virtue couldn’t hear her now!

But she almost wished bloody Julian could! He was the reason she was saying this. He had driven her to it.

But she knew it wasn’t just about Julian. It was about her, too.

She was twenty-four years old, but she’d been cosseted, protected and coddled her entire life. And everything in that life had, until yesterday, gone according to plan.