“Oh, dear.” Pandora drew her own conclusions. “Your poor sister, married to a brute.”
“He doesn’t beat her. It’s nothing like that.”
“Oh?” This time her tone was loaded with curiosity.
But Zac shook his head. “I don’t want to think about my brother-in-law. Especially not on my wedding day. He makes me angry.”
“We don’t want that.” Pandora rested a hand on his arm. “You tell me about it when you’re ready.”
“You are the perfect wife,” Zac breathed and brushed a row of kisses across the exposed crest of her shoulder, causing the man and woman approaching the table to tease him mercilessly. A camera flashed. Pandora jumped.
“Don’t worry,” Zac murmured close to her ear. “Everyone here tonight has been invited—and vetted. There are no members of the press, only family and friends. Oh, and one professional photographer with a spotless reputation for discretion, who will capture memories of the occasion for us to enjoy.”
The press? Pandora’s stomach balled at the thought. She hadn’t even considered them, with their avid hunger for pictures of her and Zac together.
During the interminable dinner that followed, cameras continued to flash while Zac introduced her to wave upon wave of strangers. Celebrities, business acquaintances, distant cousins, hobbling great-uncles. She could see the curiosity in the women’s eyes, sense the men’s speculation. Why had Zac Kyriakos, given all the choice in the world, married a little nobody from New Zealand? It was a question which Pandora asked herself repeatedly but couldn’t answer. At last she pushed away the nagging feeling that there was something she was missing and let Zac hold her close while he continued to introduce her to their guests.
The first waltz was over.
Pandora stared at the flushed stranger with the sparkling silver eyes in the mirror. Looking away, she picked up a jug and poured herself a glass of chilled water and drank greedily. She’d slipped away to check that her makeup was still intact … to make sure it would withstand the army of cameras that flashed like streaks of lightning across the crowded dance floor, capturing endless images of her and Zac as they circulated the room.
Stroking mascara onto her lashes, Pandora admitted to herself that she found the whole situation overwhelming. How could she explain that despite the enormously rich trust fund that she would come into when she was twenty-five, she found the glamour of Zac’s world—with its famous faces, the constant stares and the unrelenting glare of the cameras—unnerving?
With a sigh, she dropped the tube into her bag and zipped it shut. A last sip of water, then she made her way back to the noise and bright lights and glitz.
“Pandora, over here,” Zac called to her. His height made him easy to find and Pandora threaded her way through the crowd.
“This is my theos Costas—my uncle, my mother’s brother.” Zac introduced her to the man at his side.
Pandora smiled at the older man. Cheery blue eyes twinkled down at her as he took her hand in his.
“The pleasure is all mine.” He lifted her fingers to his lips and brushed a gallant kiss across the tips.
“My uncle is a renowned ladies’ man, so take care.” Zac laughed, his fondness for the older man evident. “I don’t know how Aunt Sophia puts up with it.”
Zac’s uncle shrugged. “She knows she’s the one I love.” The simple words tugged at Pandora’s heart. “You have already met my son.”
Pandora struggled to think who Costas’s son might be.
“Dimitri.”
“Oh, yes.” Relief filtered through her. Zac’s cousin. “He’s the lawyer who drew up the prenuptial and the koum—” she stumbled over the unfamiliar word “—best man,” she amended, “who held the crowns over our heads during the ceremony.”
“Koumbaro,” Zac corrected.
“Yes, koumbaro,” she echoed the Greek word. Zac had explained that, as koumbaro, Dimitri would be godfather to their first child—one day. A wholly unfamiliar feminine quiver shot through her at the thought of a little boy with eyes like Zac. But first she wanted to spend a couple of years alone with her new husband.
“You learn our customs quickly.” Costas looked satisfied. “It has been overwhelming? Meeting so many new people?”
She nodded, grateful for his understanding.
“You can call me Theos—uncle—like Zac does.”
“Thank you, Theos. Zac speaks of you often.” Pandora knew Zac’s uncle had been a father figure to Zac during his teens. A lawyer by profession, Costas had taken an active role on the board of Kyriakos Shipping even though, as Zac’s maternal uncle, he was not a Kyriakos himself. Only when Zac had gained control of the board had his uncle resigned to put all his energy back into his law firm, which he now ran with his daughter, Stacy, and his son, Dimitri. Dimitri ran the Athens office with his father, while Stacy worked in the London office, she recalled. Pandora remembered the respect and love with which Zac had spoken of his uncle during their long nightly transworld calls. “I’m so pleased to meet you,” she said.
“We will talk more tomorrow,” Theos Costas said. He clapped Zac on the shoulder. “Now, my boy, it is time to go dance with your bride.”
“Hey, Zac, it’s your turn to dance.”
The call interrupted Pandora from asking what Costas meant by talking more tomorrow. She glanced around and saw two men approaching, grinning widely.
“Come, Zacharias.”
Zac threw Pandora a rueful glance. “I was hoping to escape this.”
“Not a chance.” The taller of the men chuckled, his hawklike features alight with good humour.
Zac sighed dramatically. “Pandora, meet Tariq and Angelo—more of my cousins.”
Pandora examined them with interest. Zac had spoken about both men with affection and admiration. When his grandfather, Socrates, had died, each of his three grandsons had inherited a sizeable part of his fortune. As the only son of the only son, Zac had inherited the biggest share. But Tariq and Angelo had been well provided for—as had Zac’s sister.
Looking from one man to the other, Pandora could discern small similarities. Not only in the family resemblance in the cast of their features but also in the air of command each of the three radiated.
“Welcome to the family.” It was Angelo who spoke. He had piercing eyes, the colour of the sea, and a crop of golden hair.
Pandora smiled. “Thank you.”
Then Tariq took her by the shoulders and bestowed a kiss on each cheek. “Bring your husband and come and visit Zayad.”
Give us some time alone first,” Zac growled. “We’ll visit in a couple of months.”
Tariq grinned. “Take your time. Now you better go dance.”
Zac whisked her off into a large adjoining room where the ensemble was now playing Greek music and guests swayed in seemingly never-ending counterclockwise spirals. At their appearance a shout went up.
“Zac, here, join in.”
Dimitri beckoned to them.
An opening appeared in the hands. Zac pulled Pandora forward. Then they were part of the swaying, shuffling mass. For the first few minutes it was as if she had two left feet, and she struggled to find the steps to the dance, frowning as she watched Zac’s feet beside her. Right step, cross, right foot point to the back, forward, shuffle and a little hop.
Suddenly the rhythm came, fitting to the strum of the bouzouki on the bandstand. Euphoria