CHAPTER FIVE.

'what do you mean, we didn't have to get married? "

Kate finished tossing the salad, glad that it was Mrs Vincent's day off and

that she wasn't around to hear this conversation, not that they'd have been

having it if she had been, of course."Just what I said. You jumped the gun. Marina wasn't a prospective AlexakisBride." She gave Damon a bright smile which brought her a glower in return.

"How do you know?"

"Your mother said."

"You asked her? " Well, sort of. Not precisely," Kate added quickly when

Damon looked as if he might explode.

"She was discussing all the er things she hoped you would find in the woman

you married. And then she said she was happy you'd found them in me." Sheoffered this last a bit hesitantly.Damon didn't say anything. He leaned against the kitchen counter, eyeing her narrowly.

"Sheer didn't think you were paying attention when she talked about what youneeded in a bride. And she's glad you did."Damon muttered something under his breath."And Marina?" he prompted when she didn't add anything else.Kate set the salad on the table and took the steaks out of the broiler."Marina was urn sort of a er prod, as it were.""Prod!""To stimulate your thinking."

The'muttering became more furious. Kate was glad it was in Greek. She didn't think she wanted to know what he was saying.

"Sit down," she said.

"We can eat."Damon sat, but he didn't eat. He picked up his knife and stabbed his steak.He watched the juices ooze all over the plate. Then he pulled out the knifeand stabbed it again.

"So," Kate said, 'we can get an annulment if you want. "Damon's head jerked up. His gaze was as sharp as the knife."The h.e.l.l we will!"Taken aback, Kate scowled."But if you don't actually need to be married to me. . .1 mean, I won't hold you to it--I mean, on account of Jeffrey and all."

She'd given it considerable thought on the way home in the taxi this

afternoon, and as tempting as it would be to hold him to his part of the bargain, she decided that it was only fair to let him go.

She could handle Jeffrey and her father, especially now that she had another

abortive marriage under her belt, and Damon certainly wouldn't damage her

business at this point.

"Jeffrey h.e.l.l! This has nothing to do with Jeffrey." Damon was looking at her, outraged.

"Do you honestly think we're going to get an annulment now" Do you have any idea what my mother would think if we did? "

"Oh," Kate said, considering it.

"Yes, oh," Damon said with scathing mockery.

"Well, it was really pretty idiotic," Kate retorted, stung.

"Which makes you as big an idiot as I am."Kate muttered under her breath. It wasn't exactly polite of him to mentionit, but it didn't surprise her. "So what do you suggest?"

Damon stabbed the steak one more time.

"I suggest we go have our honeymoon in the Bahamas."

Be flexible, Kate always told her mother's helpers. Roll with the punches.

Good advice in the face of two-year-olds throwing temper tantrums and

capricious society mamas. Not bad when one found oneself confronted with a

scowling, grouchy Greek husband, either.

Kate had done her best, despite feeling equal parts guilty and foolish, to face the honeymoon prospect with equanimity. Damon had been alternately brusque, silent and sulky.

Considering that his nights on the floor might be causing some of it, Kate offered to go out and get him a fold-up mattress. He practically bit her head off.

"I was only trying to help," she protested.

"That's not the kind of help I need," Damon snarled, and stalked out.

The rest of their encounters hadn't been much better. She hoped that once

they got away from work and family, things would improve.

"Damon loves Buccaneer's Cay," Helena had told her at their fateful lunch.

"It will be the best possible place for you to go."

But now, as the plane dipped low over the turquoise waters just beyond the

Atlantic coast of tiny Buccaneer's Cay, Kate wasn't sure about that.

Certainly Damon didn't look pleased. He'd played the cheerful bridegroom that morning at the airport until his mother and sisters had disappeared,

then he'd pulled a sheaf of papers out of his carry-on bag and proceeded to ignore Kate for the rest of the time.

Kate had attempted a couple of conversational gambits, but when they both met

with monosyllabic replies

he gave up. Be that way, then, she thought, you old rouch.However bad the situation was, she couldn't help feeling an inkling ofexcitement, a tremor of eagerness to see this new and wondrous land. Shefully intended to enjoy herself. What Damon did was his problem.

The plane banked and came across the island, allowing a clear view of the narrow sand beach and the string of houses that dotted the jungle behind it.

"Which house is it?" Kate asked.

Damon glanced up briefly and pointed.

"There."

She picked out a two storey, tangerine-coloured tucco building with stone fireplaces, tall shuttered windows , and wide verandas, tucked among the trees. There were two or three smaller buildings nearby.

Sheds or caretaker's cottages, no doubt.

"It's lovely," Kate said.

Damon went back to his papers.

They didn't land on Buccaneer's Cay itself. The airstrip was on a larger

island nearby. A taxi and the boat would take them at last to the landing at

Buccaneer's Cay.

She had learned that from Helena, too. Damon didn't say a word. Not until they finally crossed the bay and the boat docked at the custom's house.

There they found themselves hailed by a burly black man, and Damon put away his papers and broke into a grin.

"Joe!"

It was the first smile Kate had seen on him all week.

"Hey, mon, good to see you. You down early this year." Joe shook Damon's hand.

"An' with a pretty lady.""I'm on my honeymoon."Joe's eyes bugged. Then he clapped Damon on the "houlder and pumped his hand."You sure are! A nighty pretty lady!" He laughed, then stopped and gave Kate a friendly, but clearly a.s.sessing look. The Alexakis Bride! " he said after a moment.

"Yes, sir. Your mother done good.""My mother had nothing to do with it."Joe looked momentarily taken aback as he led them to the moke. He started to say something, but didn't. "Ah. Like that, is it?" He winked at Kate.

"You must be a pretty special lady."

For the thousandth time Kate wished she weren't there under false pretences.