The Greek's Blackmailed Mistress (The Billionaire's Blackmailed Mistress) by Lynne Graham

Author:Lynne Graham [Graham, Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2018-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

NOTHING COULD HAVE prepared Elvi for the startling effect of Xan’s mother, Ariadne, whose temperament was so very different from her only child’s.

A helicopter had delivered Xan and Elvi to the huge sprawling white villa that overlooked a wooded cove on the island of Thira. As she climbed out a small woman accompanied by a pack of dogs stood up from a seat on the wide front terrace and came hurrying down the steps to eagerly greet them, dogs leaping and bouncing in concert. And from that moment, Elvi doubted that even Xan had managed to get a word in edgeways, for Ariadne talked in a constant stream, hopping confusingly from one topic to the next. She spoke fluent English, however, relieving Elvi’s main fear that Xan would be the only person around who understood her, and the older woman was both friendly and welcoming.

On the way through the opulent house, Elvi received a stream of information. Ariadne’s mother had been English and Ariadne did not normally live in the big villa, having her own home in the village by the harbour. But when Xan entertained the wider family, Ariadne always acted as his hostess.

‘First wife seniority!’ Ariadne joked. ‘Xan doesn’t like his stepmothers much but he accepts his brothers and sisters and, naturally, Delphina wanted her wedding staged here and her brother doing the service—’

‘Her brother’s a priest?’

‘Lukas is a Greek Orthodox priest and Tobias, the other son, is gay. Not that I’m criticising, but Xan did turn out more conventional than his brothers,’ Ariadne proclaimed with pride. ‘And it goes without saying that he’s the cleverest. Delphina’s a dear, you’ll love her. She and Takis fell in love at school, almost like Helios and me... Xan’s father, you know. But of course, Helios and I didn’t attend the same school. I was the village doctor’s daughter and we met when he went fishing. Like Xan, Helios was gorgeous.’ Ariadne loosed an extravagant sigh as if she was looking back in time before continuing briskly, ‘But he was also weak and unreliable and quite unable to keep his trousers zipped. Not very good at making money either. By the time Helios passed he had even mortgaged this house. Xan rescued all of us from penury.’

‘Xan’s...’ Elvi hesitated as the eyes of Xan’s mother locked with fixed attention to her face. ‘He’s quite a character,’ she pronounced lamely.

The older woman showed the way into a bedroom where confusion seemed to have broken out between two maids over Elvi’s luggage. Ariadne smiled even wider and rested a supervisory hand on Elvi’s arm to guide her away from the small domestic dispute they had interrupted. ‘Do you know how many years I’ve been waiting for my son to bring a woman home with him?’ she asked earnestly.

‘Oh...’ Elvi reddened. ‘Xan and I are not...er, serious or anything like that,’ she hastened to declare.

‘Xan doesn’t know how to do serious. Not after witnessing the sort of shenanigans he grew up with in this house.

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