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them as long as she could.
    Cass didn’t deserve to have her wedding overshadowed by a situation that should never have arisen. With that one crazy urge to slap Ari with the truth in Dubai … but the damage was done and somehow Tina had to contain it. At least until after the wedding.
    With the whole family’s attention drawn to them, she forced herself to smile at Ari. ‘Yes, very kind.’
    ‘Cassandra mentioned you’ll be staying at the El Greco resort,’ he said, arrogantly confident of her agreement to the plan. ‘I’ll contact you there, make arrangements.’
    ‘Fine! Thank you.’
    With that settled, conversation picked up around the table again and Theo plied Ari with questions about Santorini, which were answered with obvious good humour.
    Tina didn’t have to say anything. She sat in brooding silence, hating Ari Zavros for his facile charm, hating herself for being such a stupid blabbermouth, gearing herself up to tolerate what had to be tolerated and savagely vowing that Ari would not get everything his own way.
    Eventually Cass and George excused themselves from the party, saying they needed to catch up on some sleep. To Tina’s huge relief, Ari stood up to take his leave, as well. She rose from her chair as he offered his hand which she had to be civil enough to take in front of company.
    He actually had the gall to enclose her hand with both of his with a show of enthusiastic pleasure. ‘Thank you for trusting me with Theo’s birthday, Christina.’
    ‘Oh, I’m sure I can trust you to give the best of yourself, Ari,’ she answered sweetly, before softly adding with a touch of acid mockery, ‘For a limited time.’
    Which told him straight out how very little she trusted him.
    He might have won Theo over—for a day—but he’d won nothing from her.
    ‘We shall see,’ he repeated with that same arrogant confidence.
    General goodnights were exchanged and finally he was gone.
    But he’d left his presence behind with her mother raving on about him and Theo equally delighted with the nice man.
    No relief from the trap.
    Tina had the wretched feeling there never would be.

CHAPTER FOUR
    M AXIMUS Zavros sat under the vine-covered pergola at one end of the vast patio which overlooked the Aegean Sea. It was where he habitually had breakfast and where he expected his son to join him whenever Ari was home. Today was no exception. However he was taking no pleasure in his surroundings and none in his son, which was obvious from the dark glower of disapproval he directed at Ari the moment he emerged from the house.
    ‘So, you come home without a woman to marry again!’ He folded the newspaper he’d been reading and smacked it down on the table in exasperation. ‘Your cousin, George, is two years younger than you. He does not have your engaging looks. He does not have your wealth. Yet he can win himself a wife who will grace the rest of his life.’ He threw out a gesture of frustration. ‘What is the problem with you?’
    ‘Maybe I missed a boat I should have taken,’ Ari tossed at his father as he pulled out a chair and sat down, facing him across the table.
    ‘What is that supposed to mean?’
    Ari poured himself a glass of orange juice. This was going to be a long conversation and his throat was already dry. He took a long sip, then answered, ‘It means I’ve met the woman I must marry but I let her go six years ago and somehow I have to win her again. Which is going to prove difficult because she’s very hostile to me.’
    ‘Hostile? Why hostile? You were taught to have more finesse than to leave any woman hostile. And why must you marry her? To saddle yourself with a sourpuss will not generate a happy life. I credited you with more good sense than that, Ari.’
    ‘I left her pregnant. Unknowingly, I assure you. She gave birth to a son who is now five years old.’
    ‘A son! A grandson!’ The tirade was instantly diverted. His father ruminated over this totally unanticipated piece of