Beauty and the Greek by Kim Lawrence Page A

effect and made his mother look at Beth with increased interest.
    Managing to tear her gaze from the warmth in Theo’s eyes, Beth flashed a quick shy smile around the people sitting at the table.
    â€˜She can speak?’ Daria asked lightly
    Beth flashed him a look. ‘When I can get a word in edgeways.’
    At the sound of her low voice, Andreas, who had been staring at her with a puzzled expression, suddenly slapped the side of his head and exclaimed, ‘It’s my Beth!’ He blinked in an almost dazed fashion as his gaze slid from the top of her head to her designer-shod feet as he half rose to his feet before subsiding back into his chair. ‘What have you done to yourself?’
    Noticing for the first time the attention his comments had drawn, he gave a sheepish shrug and said, ‘Beth works for me.’ His glance slid to his brother. ‘I had no idea that you were…’ Andreas’s voice trailed away as once more his gaze made the journey from her toes to the top of her gleaming head. He swallowed hard and muttered something under his breath.
    A woman? Beth thought, her lips twisting into a small wry smile as she recalled Theo’s prediction that Andreas’s eyes would pop out of his head—they were!
    Mostly it was irritating when Theo was right but, on this occasion, she didn’t mind. It was soothing to her ego to be noticed.
    She was conscious she ought to be enjoying this moment of triumph more than she was but, for some bizarre reason, while the brother she had been crazy about for years was staring at her with open-mouthed appreciation, all she was conscious of was the tall brooding presence of the other brother standing silently beside her.
    â€˜Beth, this is my mother and her husband, Georgios.’ The thick-set man with grey-streaked hair and nice eyes smiled and got to his feet.
    Daria Carides smiled warmly and said, ‘Beth—what a charming name—come sit by me, dear.’
    Beth found herself looking to Theo for guidance. He nodded imperceptibly and, after a pause, she took the empty chair beside his mother. It said a lot for her state of mind that she was relieved when Theo sat in the chair beside her.
    The relief changed to something else when she felt his iron-hard thigh push close against her own. She felt no desire to examine this new feeling; instead, she shifted sideways in her seat to break the contact.
    Georgios Carides said something in Greek to Theo as he retook his own seat. Beth knew from odd comments that Andreas had let slip that he had a problem with the man his mother had married soon after the death of her first husband.
    Watching Theo’s relaxed manner as he laughed in response to his stepfather’s comment, it seemed that he did not share his brother’s reservations about the older man.
    â€˜Andreas you know, and, of course—’ Theo paused, his glance sweeping over the woman sitting beside Andreas, ‘—Ariana. You have met Beth?’
    Ariana delivered a practised smile but the barely repressed fury glowing in her blue eyes as they swept across Beth’s face sent a real bunny-boiler message.
    Beth smiled back, determined not to let the other woman know how spooked she was.
    Beth was far too practical to believe in premonitions of danger but she did not resist the protective arm that Theo placed around her shoulder. It was actually possible she might have leaned into him and it felt good when his thigh pressed once more into her own.
    â€˜So, Beth, my dear, how long have you two known one another?’ Daria flashed her elder son a teasing look and asked, ‘Was it love at first sight?’
    â€˜No, I thought he was the rudest, most arrogant man I had ever met.’
    â€˜And I thought she was a prudish prig.’
    Andreas, who had listened to this exchange with a petulant frown, shook his head. ‘Neither of you breathed a word; how long?’
    â€˜These things sometimes