Chapter Eight
Ava didn’t feel comfortable on the platform in the middle of the room with Maria and the dress designer, Dorothea Festa, staring at her. She felt foolish standing there in a slip while they measured her and talked in Italian behind her back. Never had she felt more out of place than this moment.
Not even two days ago, when they’d returned from the boat trip to find that Christos’s friends had arrived. Tristan and Guillermo had started bonding with her son, doing male things that had excluded her. But seeing Theo bloom under the male attention had soothed any jealousy she felt. Now she was in here, being fitted for a wedding dress worthy of a Theakis bride, while Theo was out near the pool with Tristan and Gui.
Christos was at the office, unable to take another day off even with his friends here. Her relationship with him had grown a little closer over the last few days, since their boat outing, but it was more the bond of parenting. Christos had backed her up against Ari when he had tried to have a nanny and private tutor brought in for Theo. He’d worked with Theo on basic Greek, and Theo had soaked up enough that he was now attending a day school in the village with other local children. Ava hadvolunteered to work in the classroom during the day. Her own rusty Greek was improving rapidly.
But their intimate relationship was at a standstill. She knew she was responsible for that by saying they shouldn’t have sex until they were married. Or maybe Christos had just lost interest in her. He was busy at work and stayed out late at night with his friends. Perhaps she was assigning too much importance to herself and the impact she wished she had on him.
“Ms. Monroe, please hold your arms out.”
Ava did as she was asked. The designer’s assistant put the tape measure around her chest and then her waist and hips. She glanced down at her body dispassionately. She’d lost all the weight she’d put on when she’d been pregnant with Theo, but her body would never be the same.
Even the designer seemed to notice this as she patted that little bit of a belly Ava hadn’t been able to get rid of.
“We can cover this with a full skirt,” Dorothea said.
“I don’t really want a full skirt,” Ava said.
“I’ll see what I can do. Will you be wearing a support garment underneath?” Dorothea asked.
“If I have to. Did you see the picture I cut out?” she asked.
“Yes. But that dress is too…common. I have some ideas that Mr. Theakis has approved.”
“Christos shouldn’t see the dress.”
“Mr. Ari Theakis,” Dorothea said turning back to Maria.
“Dorothea.”
The woman glanced back at her. “Yes?”
“I’m not wearing anything that Ari suggested. If you don’t think the dress I want is acceptable, I’m open to suggestions, but I will be making the final decision on the dress.”
She bit her lower lip. “Of course, Ms. Monroe. Let me go get my design book. I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t go to Ari,” Ava said.
But Dorothea ignored her as she walked out of the room. Ava glanced at Maria, who refused to look over at her. She knew that the other woman wasn’t going to side with her; she had her paycheck to think of. Dorthea’s assistant busied herself with papers, perhaps writing down Ava’s measurements.
Ava put on her robe and walked out of the second-floor sitting room where they were having the fitting. She wasn’t sure what to do. Was she really going to let Ari intimidate her into wearing a dress she didn’t want?
Someone cleared their throat behind her and she turned around. Guillermo. Gui. He was tall with a leonine mane of thick brown hair. His features weren’t classically handsome but his face wasn’t one you’d forget. He was tan with sunlines around his eyes and was a bit taller than Christos.
“Yes?”
“We’re ready to have lunch and Theo wondered if you’d have time to join us.”
She nodded. “Of course. Let me change and then I’ll join you—on the terrace?”
“Yes,” Gui said, but didn’t leave. “Is everything okay?”
She shrugged, not wanting to lie to the man; she’d made a promise to Christos and to herself to stop pretending about things that made her uncomfortable.
“Do you want to talk about it? I have three sisters and two sisters-in-law…”
She laughed a little at the way he said it. One of his sisters-in-law was the Infanta of Spain—the royal princess and heir to the Spanish throne. “So you’re used to listening to women’s secrets?”
