Bridal Bargains by Michelle Reid Page A

instinctively that something was wrong.
    ‘She’s worse, isn’t she?’ she said.
    ‘Fading fast,’ he grimaced—then added briskly, ‘So I have set her a task to do to keep her mind occupied. She is planning our wedding as we speak.’
    Startled, Claire straightened in the chair. ‘Our wedding?’ she repeated. ‘But I thought you wanted to present her with a
fait accompli
!’
    ‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘That would not have worked quite so successfully as the story I have now fed her.’
    ‘Which is—what?’ she demanded, only managing to keep her angry voice down in respect of the sleeping Melanie.
    ‘That you are young and very beautiful …’
    Beautiful? Claire stared directly ahead and wondered how he could lie so glibly, because the one thing she wasn’t was beautiful! Passably attractive when at her best, she conceded. But nothing more than that.
    ‘I told her that we had shared a—liaison some time last year,’ he went on. ‘But because of your youth I broke it off, not knowing I was leaving you carrying my child …’
    Lie number two, she counted, and began to see for the first time what mire of deceit she was about to fall into.
    ‘But I could not get you out of my mind—which was why I found it so impossible to agree to marry another woman while I still wanted you. So I went to see you,’ he explained. ‘And as for the rest—’ he shrugged ‘—it tells itself.’
    It certainly did, Claire agreed, seeing herself as this tragic young woman who’d fallen for the big handsome Greek tycoon who was, by the sound of it, not far off his dotage.
    ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘the new slant I have put on our—story—’ he used the word dryly ‘—was done to serve a second purpose …’
    Now what? Claire wondered, feeling the fine hairs on the back of her neck begin to prickle warningly.
    ‘For this way you don’t have to
like
the fact that you are marrying me,’ he explained. ‘Being the arrogant dictator that everyone seems to think I am—including you—no one isgoing to question the idea that you have been—coerced into becoming my wife for the sake of our child. Which also means you get your own bedroom without tongues wagging,’ he pointed out. ‘While I must—earn your affections again.’
    ‘And thereby ends the tale when I eventually turn my back on you and walk away,’ Claire finished for him. ‘Not quite the stuff of a romantic novel, is it?’ she mocked.
    ‘Life rarely is,’ he drawled, sounding suddenly so cold that Claire couldn’t believe her ears! With one lightly mocking comment she seemed to have turned him to stone!
    Stiffly, he came to his feet. ‘We leave for Greece in the morning,’ he announced. ‘Now I have some work to do. So if you will excuse me …’ And, with a curt little bow, he was gone!
    What was all that about? Claire found herself wondering in blank bewilderment. And spent the next half an hour trawling over every single word they’d said to each other without coming up with a single thing which could have caused that kind of reaction!
    His grandmother: she finally decided to blame it on her. It had to be because he was worried about her.
    But deep down inside she somehow knew that wasn’t true.

CHAPTER FIVE
    T HEY flew out to Athens by private charter then transferred to a helicopter for the final leg of the journey. It was all very comfortable, a very trouble-free way to travel in fact.
    Claire was impressed—despite not wanting to be, for she still hadn’t forgiven Andreas for his sudden coldness the day before.
    Melanie was with them, which had surprised her rather. She had expected him to insist that the baby travel with Lefka and her family, who were to close up the London house before catching a later flight. But what really astonished her was the way Andreas took personal responsibility for the baby by seeing to her needs throughout the whole journey.
    He was more relaxed than she had ever seen him before. A bit quiet,