It took enormous will power but Erin managed to restrain her temper and the urge to snap back at him because she knew that he was making valid points. ‘It’s not a decision I would make now. Unfortunately I liked Sally and believed she was a wonderful worker. I was naïve—I’ll admit that—’
‘Why the hell didn’t you consult me about it or at least approach someone with more experience for their opinion on what to do about her?’ Cristo demanded angrily. ‘At the very least, once you knew Sally was a thief, all her activities at work should have been checked out thoroughly and she should have been moved to a position where she had no access to products, account books or money.’
As he made those cogent decrees Erin lifted her head high, refusing to go into retreat. ‘You’re right but I thought I could deal with the situation on my own. I didn’t want you to think that I couldn’t cope. But I was hugely overworked and stressed at the time. I notice the current manager has a deputy and I saw at least two administrators in the general office. I didn’t have anyone but Sally to rely on.’
‘Then you should have asked for more help,’ Cristo fielded without hesitation.
‘My biggest mistake was accepting a position from someone I was involved with. I was too proud, too busy trying to impress you about what a great job I was doing. I didn’t have enough experienced staff around me and those that were there kept their distance because I was too close to the boss. I was very focused on building the business, bringing in more custom, increasing productivity. It made me far too dependent on Sally for support. I can see that now,’ Erin concluded that honest statement curtly.
‘At least you can now see what that inappropriate decision cost you. Sally didn’t hesitate when it came to setting you up to take the blame for her acts of fraud or when she got the chance to reap financial benefits from her disloyalty,’ Cristo pointed out.
‘Don’t forget that Sally Jennings fooled you as well. The role she played was very convincing,’ Erin reminded him tightly. ‘You didn’t smell a rat in her performance either.’
‘But I would have done had you tipped me off about her stealing. Right, we’ve aired this for long enough, subject closed,’ Cristo pronounced decisively.
‘Now that you’ve had your say and blamed me for everything?’ Erin countered tautly, amethyst eyes dark and unwittingly vulnerable, for that word, ‘incompetence’, had cut deep as a knife. ‘Was it too much for me to expect that after knowing me for a year you would question the idea that I might have been filling my pockets at your expense?’
‘After certain suspicions had been awakened and the man I saw in your hotel-room bed I will concede that I was predisposed to think the worst of you,’ Cristo derided, compressing his wide sensual mouth into a tough line. ‘What’s that cliché about the easiest explanation usually being the right one? In this case, the easiest explanation was the wrong one.’
Erin sank back down in her seat. ‘Am I finally getting a clean slate on the score of the one-night stand with the toy boy?’ she asked grittily. ‘Tom’s brother, Dennis, was only nineteen back then.’
‘That’s not quite so clear cut. My suspicions in that quarter were first awakened by other indications, which I will discuss with you when we get to the island,’ he added as her triangular face tensed into a frown of bemusement. ‘I am sincerely sorry that I misjudged you and that I didn’t dig a little deeper three years back.’
Erin said nothing. What other evidence of her infidelity did he imagine he had? She hadn’t a clue what he was talking about and had no time for more mysteries. In addition her mind was being bombarded with thoughts after that heated exchange of views. He had shot her down in flames and it rankled and that was precisely why she had not approached him for advice after she had caught Sally stealing. She had known he would take the toughest stance and would call in the police. She had feared that he would blame her for the inadequate security in the products store, which had made Sally’s thefts all too easy. If she was honest she had also worried about how she would cope without Sally at her elbow. My mistake, she acknowledged painfully. A wrong decision that had cost her more than she could ever have dreamt.
Cristo watched in frustration as Erin made a weak excuse and went off to join Jenny and the twins. It had been right to tell her the truth, he told himself angrily. He was damned if the fact that she was the mother of his
children would make him start lying just to please her! Did shooting from the hip mean he had also shot himself in the foot? Almost three years ago, he had not talked to Erin about important issues and this time around he was determined not to repeat that mistake. Blunt speech had to be better than minimal communication and misunderstandings, he decided impatiently.
Shielded by the need to keep the twins occupied for what remained of a journey that entailed a final helicopter flight to the island of Thesos, Erin licked her wounds in private. From the air she had a fantastic view of Cristo’s island. It was bigger than she had imagined and the southern end was heavily forested with pine trees. She spied a cluster of low-rise structures on what appeared to be a building site on the furthest coast and a picturesque little town by the harbour before the helicopter flew level again and began to swoop down over the tree tops to land.
Lorcan was asleep and Cristo hoisted his son out of Erin’s arms and carried him off. They had landed about twenty yards from a magnificent ultra-modern villa surrounded by terraces and balconies to take advantage of the land and sea views.
‘This all looks new,’ Erin remarked.
‘I demolished my parents’ house and had this one designed about three years ago. It made more sense than trying to renovate the old place,’ he commented casually.
Three years ago, while they had still been a couple, Erin had known nothing about his island or the new house he was having built. Not for the first time Erin appreciated that Cristo had shut her out of a large section of his life and she wondered why. Obviously he had never considered her important enough to include her in the Greek half of his existence, which encompassed home and family. And that, whether she liked it or not, hurt, most particularly when he had married a Greek woman within months of dumping Erin.
A short brunette with warm brown eyes was introduced as Androula, the housekeeper. Straight away Androula cooed over the children in their arms and hurried off to show Erin and Jenny to the rooms set aside for their use. Erin was taken aback to discover that Cristo had already had accommodation specially prepared for his son and daughter, each complete with small beds, appropriate decoration and an array of toys. Leaving the capable Jenny to put the drowsy children to bed, Erin explored her own room with its doors opening onto the terrace and superb view through the trees to a white beach and a turquoise sea over which the sun was sinking in a display of fiery splendour.
‘Will you be comfortable here?’
Erin spun to find Cristo behind her, poised between the French windows. ‘How could I fail to be? It’s the height of luxury,’ she said awkwardly.
Cristo searched her shuttered face and breathed almost roughly, ‘I was tough on you on the plane. I was angry that you let that scheming woman make you pay the price for her crimes.’
‘But at least that’s sorted out now. The rooms organised for the children are beautiful,’ she told him stiffly, suppressing the discomfiture she was still feeling. ‘You must have organised that almost as soon as you found out about them.’
Cristo inclined his dark head. ‘Yes, even before I asked you if they could visit Thesos. I still tend to act first and ask later.’
Not even questioning that arrogant assumption of power, Erin turned away and rested her elbows back on the low wall girding the terrace. She had intended to get her revenge on Cristo for what he had done to her in Italy, but it had gradually dawned on her that angering or hurting Cristo would most probably damage his relationship with their children. Their own relationship was irrevocably meshed with the ties and responsibilities of also being parents. And how, in conscience, could she take that risk of weakening those links?
‘You never ever told me that this place existed,’ she said.
‘What would have been the point if I wasn’t planning to bring you here?’ he murmured wryly. ‘When I was with you I wasn’t quite ready to move our affair on to the next stage. I was simply enjoying the place we had reached until it blew up in both our faces. I’m sorry.’
‘No need to apologise.’ Erin fought the just-slapped-in-the-face sensation of humiliation that his piece of plain speaking inspired and wondered why on earth he was suddenly telling her such things. In the past she had loved him and longed for a secure future with him but he had not felt the same. Why did that news still make her feel so gutted? That time was gone and she didn’t love him any longer. She just lusted after him, enjoyed his energising company, respected his business prowess, intelligence and strength of principle. Enumerating that unacceptably long list of his supposed attributes, Erin gritted her teeth together. Why was she doing this to herself? Dwelling on things that no longer had any place between them? She was the mother of his children and that was all.