LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER ONE

      ‘YOU SHOULD BE resting, not worrying about me.’ Theo Savas paced across the theatre foyer, working to keep his concern inaudible. He’d lived with his grandfather since he was ten and this was the first time in the last twenty years the old man had directly referenced something so personal. Revoking this rule wasn’t just unsettling, it was unsafe. ‘You’ve just come through a major operation—’

      ‘And that’s given me the opportunity to think. It’s time, Theodoros. Your birthday is only a few weeks away.’

      The lights above Theo flickered, signalling it was time for guests to take their seats, but he couldn’t end this call without steering Dimitri back to unconcerned calm.

      ‘Are you suggesting I’m getting old?’ His joke was weak but he’d try anything to defuse his grandfather’s escalating anxiety. Except anxiety was infectious and the vibes coming through the phone were making Theo’s own muscles tense. That was in addition to the latent strain of the actual topic. ‘There’s plenty of time—’

      ‘At this rate I’ll never meet my great-grandchildren—’

      ‘You’re not about to die,’ Theo interrupted. He’d ensured Dimitri had been seen by the best specialists and they’d insisted that with quality rest Dimitri should recover well. ‘You’ve years left in you.’

      ‘I’m serious. You need to settle down…’

      ‘And I will,’ Theo reassured him softly and rolled his shoulders.

      He ached to resist Dimitri’s attempt to add yet another burden of responsibility, yet he couldn’t brush him off.

      Distantly he watched the ushers guide the last arriving theatregoers towards the doors. He needed to move if he was going to make it in there. He stepped forward but a whirlwind of a woman swept in front of him, cutting him off. The tall, slender tornado didn’t stop to say sorry, indeed she didn’t even see him screech to a halt to stop himself smacking into her. She just kept searching her cavernous handbag while racing towards the usher.

      ‘How about Eleni Doukas? She’s beautiful.’

      Theo inwardly shuddered. Was Dimitri suggesting a woman for him?

      ‘Don’t you like very beautiful women?’ Dimitri added.

      Theo bit back a grimace. Sure, he liked women—beauty being only one of their attractions. But most women he met wanted vastly more than what he was prepared to give.

      ‘Or Angelica.’ His grandfather offered another contender for his consideration. ‘She would be suitable. You’ve not seen her in years.’

      Theo had reasons for that. Ironically they were the exact reasons his grandfather would probably welcome. Cultured, well-educated, perfectly connected Angelica had made it clear she’d accept marriage and produce four children while turning a blind eye to extra-marital affairs. But Theo would never be unfaithful and he’d never accept infidelity from his wife either. He knew too well the blisters, welts and scars that such affairs inflicted. The fact was that while Angelica had offered herself as the ultimate convenient wife, while it was the sort of arrangement Theo ought to accept, and while it was certainly what those in his milieu expected him to accept, the prospect of any matrimonial arrangement at all appalled him.

      But Dimitri didn’t need to know that.

      ‘It has been a while…’ Theo murmured, agreeing in order to soothe.

      His gaze locked on the scene unfolding outside the theatre door. The blind-haste brunette was still rummaging in her bag. Unlike most of the women present, she wasn’t wearing a shimmering gown. Instead black slim trousers encased her long, long legs. He focused on her feet and saw black flats—so, unaided by towering heels, that striking height was all her own? Interest rippled through him like the faintest breeze bringing relief on a hot summer’s noon. She wore a black wool cardigan beneath which a grey blouse was buttoned to the neck. The dull combination gave nothing away of her figure, other than that she was slender. But it was her expression that pushed him closer.

      She was still searching through her bag while casting desperate glances at the unmoved usher and as Theo neared he heard her talking endlessly in a hushed, frantic whisper. Was she trying to buy time? Faking her way in? She was doing a good job because she tugged something even in Theo’s safely entombed heart. Her eyes glimmered with suspicious brightness and her cheeks paled as the doors further along from hers were shut.

      ‘If not Angelica—’

      ‘Arrange it,’ Theo decisively interrupted Dimitri. The thought of some possible bride parade was crazy, but he’d consent just to give Dimitri something to look forward to.

      He walked towards the pair standing at the last open door to the theatre. The woman had whitened beyond pale and interesting. Any more loss of blood and she’d faint. The honest entreaty in her expression lanced through him. Not faking. Mortified.

      ‘Introduce me to your three top picks,’ he authorised his grandfather.

      ‘You’re serious?’ Dimitri wheezed.

      ‘Yes.’ Theo sighed, serious about meeting them, but not about marrying any. ‘You’re tired and worrying.’ And the old man was bored with being bedridden. At the very least this would give him something satisfactory to think about for the rest of the evening. ‘Make the arrangements.’

      If it would settle the old man’s pulse, then he’d handle a couple of weekends being polite to houseguests. The nurse had warned his grandfather might experience a period of feeling low—apparently it sometimes followed lifesaving surgery. Theo would do almost anything to lift his spirits.

      ‘I’m flying home first thing so I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon,’ he said. ‘We’ll talk more about it then, I promise. I need to work now.’

      ‘Good, Theodoros,’ his grandfather muttered huskily. ‘Thank you.’

      Theo

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