The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance. Annie West

horrible it must have been for him and his sisters to see their mother rejected and all of them excluded from everything they had become accustomed to believing was theirs. ‘Didn’t your grandfather intervene? You said he owned this island.’

      ‘He couldn’t disown his son though, and naturally he didn’t want to make an enemy of his new daughter-in-law. He does regret, however, that he didn’t do more to help my mother, but at the time he was really struggling to repair the damage Dmitri’s extravagance and marriage breakdown had already done to the family and the business.’

      ‘Did you have much contact with your father after the divorce?’ Billie asked.

      ‘No, after that one meeting, I only saw him one more time. Marianne very much resented the fact that he had had other children. Love,’ Gio breathed witheringly, ‘can be a very destructive emotion. My father destroyed his family in the name of love and my mother never recovered from the treatment she suffered at his hands.’

      Billie was thoughtful because she was finally seeing when Gio had reached the conclusion that the softer human emotions could be toxic. As a child, Gio had seen the consequences of what he believed to be love in all its selfish, dangerous glory when his father had sacrificed his family so that he could be with the woman he wanted.

      ‘You can’t say that a parent’s love for their child is destructive,’ she commented mildly. ‘Most people see it as supportive.’

      ‘A man of principle can do what he should do for his family without prating about love,’ Gio asserted with a slight shudder as he tightened his arms round her. ‘I don’t need to love you to look after you.’

      Billie’s eyes stung painfully. He, most certainly, hadn’t been looking after her when he had chosen to marry Calisto two years earlier but that was not a memory she wished to rouse. Instead she set down her glass and pillowed her head against his shoulder.

      ‘I suppose,’ Gio said, after a great deal of unusually introspective thought, ‘I do love Theo but it’s because he’s little and helpless. He’s got all the appeal of a puppy or a kitten. I took dozens of photos of him on my phone before I left Yorkshire and I couldn’t wait to see him again.’

      Billie thought it was sad that at that moment she envied her son for having that amount of pull with Gio after such a short acquaintance.

      ‘I couldn’t wait to see you either...as you know when I turned up today before you could even make it to the church,’ Gio confided, nuzzling his unshaven jaw line softly along the line of her creamy throat, feeling extraordinarily at peace for the first time in a very long time and wondering what it was about her that had that effect on him. ‘I don’t know why I did that. It was absolutely crazy.’

      ‘I didn’t mind,’ Billie interposed, squirming round in the circle of his arms to look down at him instead of up at the stars.

      His lean, strong face was still a touch bemused by his own behaviour that morning and it was obvious that he was still mulling that over. ‘You know, somewhere in the back of my mind, I honestly think I was afraid you mightn’t turn up at the church... Isn’t that insane?’

      If he had known how much she loved him, he would have known he was quite safe on that score, she reflected ruefully. No, no matter how mad she had been with him she would never have jilted him at the altar.

      * * *

      ‘My goodness, it’s a huge house,’ Billie breathed as the four-wheel drive parked outside a very large sprawling villa set high on the hillside and surrounded by glorious tropical gardens.

      ‘It has to be big for family get-togethers and it’s been extended by almost every generation since it was built.’ His tension pronounced enough to attract Billie’s notice, Gio sprang out and turned back to unstrap Theo from the car seat while Irene and Agata headed up the wide, shallow steps that led to a front door that already stood wide.

      The housekeeper hovering at the door fussed around them but Gio would not even linger long enough to perform an introduction and strode on past, knowing exactly where he was going and clearly determined not to be held back.

      ‘Gio!’ Billie exclaimed, hurrying out of breath in his wake. ‘If we’re going into a crowd, give me Theo. He can be awkward with strangers...’

      His stubborn jaw line clenching, Gio passed their son to Billie, who settled the toddler comfortably on her hip. ‘And smile, for goodness’ sake,’ she urged, troubled by the forbidding cast of his lean, darkly handsome features. ‘It doesn’t matter if your family aren’t too sure about me...you have to give them time...’

      The elegant reception room was in proportion with the house and very big and Billie was disconcerted to peer in the glass doors and see an absolute throng of people, both standing and seated, on the marble floor. Gio had a much bigger family than she had appreciated. As they entered the room every head turned towards them and Billie sucked in her tummy by breathing in deep and slow, striving to steady her nerves.

      ‘I asked you all here today to introduce you to my wife,’ Gio declared in the rushing silence, his dark deep drawl measured and carrying to every corner of the room. ‘This is Billie. We got married yesterday and—’

      A noise erupted from the far corner as an older man stood up and banged his walking cane loudly on the floor. His lined face rigid, he shot a stream of furious Greek at Gio. Gio grated something back and then closed an arm to Billie’s spine to thrust her back in the direction of the door. ‘We are leaving,’ he said curtly.

      ‘Oh, please, don’t go, Gio!’ A tall, shapely brunette was chasing after them. ‘I’m Sofia, Gio’s youngest sister. Gio, why on earth didn’t you tell us that you were getting married?’

      Billie stopped dead and swopped Theo to her other hip because he was getting heavy. ‘He didn’t tell any of you?’ She gasped in disbelief.

      ‘No, he said he had a surprise to share with us and that’s why we’re all here.’

      ‘We’re leaving, Billie,’ Gio reminded her doggedly.

      But Billie spun round before he could open the door and marched back into the room. ‘Gio should have told you that we were getting married. I had no idea—’

      ‘Billie,’ Gio cut in, clamping an imprisoning hand to her shoulder.

      ‘Well, I’m sorry to criticise you in front of your family but you really should have warned them. Obviously everybody’s in shock and people say things they don’t necessarily mean when you shock them,’ Billie pointed out, studying the fuming older man, who she suspected was Gio’s grandfather, Theon Letsos. ‘There’s no sense in storming out in a huff over it.’

      ‘I am not in a huff,’ Gio ground out between clenched teeth, outraged that she was defying his lead and his wishes with his own family.

      ‘Perhaps we could talk about this,’ the old man said gruffly, scanning Billie with astute dark eyes that reminded her strongly of Gio’s. ‘Your wife is correct. I spoke in haste and without thought.’

      ‘He insulted you,’ Gio bit out harshly.

      ‘That’s all right. I can only be offended if you abuse me in English,’ Billie declared forgivingly. ‘I don’t speak a word of Greek!’

      ‘Gio and his sisters attended English schools,’ the older man told her with a sudden smile. ‘Now come and sit down and tell me about yourself. I find it hard to stand for long.’

      In a state of disbelief, Gio found himself in the rare position of being assigned second string within his family as Billie, chattering away to his grandfather as though she had known him for years rather than seconds, walked slowly over to the closest seats available.

      ‘Forgive me for being so remiss in the courtesies,’ Theon murmured. ‘I am Gio’s grandfather, Theon Letsos.’

      ‘I’m Billie. It’s not short for anything.’

      ‘And