by Lucy Gordon;Sarah Morgan;Robyn Donald;Lucy Monroe;Lee Wilkinson;Kate Walker
Eleni looked away. ‘He hadn’t given her the diamond and that meant a lot to me. I was worried that the relationship might be more than a fling but Nikos proved otherwise. He played the girl at her own game. Pretended to be attracted to her, wooed her away from his father. If nothing else, his success in that direction proved what Nikos had always believed—that she was never really interested in Aristotle, only in his money. She was more than happy to switch to Nikos. It helped me to know that she hadn’t been left broken-hearted.’
Somehow, Angie made her lips form the question that was on her mind. ‘Was she really that scheming?’
‘Unfortunately, yes. And then she had that terrible accident. I’m sure Nikos has told you, although he hates to be reminded of it—he feels responsible, even though he wasn’t there.’
In a daze of horror, Angie closed her fingers around the seat of the chair. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The day before she died, he’d told her that their relationship was over. She was upset and angry. She turned up at his house but he was at a meeting in his offices in town. The staff saw that she was drunk and called him but by the time he arrived at the house she was dead and the police were there.’
‘She fell from the balcony.’
Eleni closed her eyes. ‘Fortunately no blame attached to Nikos because he wasn’t even there, but he just hated the scandal that erupted. As usual, he was desperate to protect Ariadne and me. He took all the flak. Aristotle’s name wasn’t even mentioned and it’s all thanks to him.’
‘Yes.’ Angie’s lips were stiff and her gaze slid to Nikos, who was lifting Ariadne out of the water and swinging her round.
‘So now you understand why I so badly wanted him to find a nice girl. He’s always been cynical about women—I suppose that comes from watching his father go from one affair to another. But after that girl died—’
Angie sat in frozen stillness, her stomach churning alarmingly. Nikos hadn’t played a game with her sister. He’d been protecting his mother and his little sister. From Tiffany.
A vile, terrible sickness rose inside her.
‘Are you all right?’ Eleni glanced at her with concern in her eyes. ‘You look very pale.’
‘I have a headache.’ Feeling dangerously light-headed, Angie stood up suddenly and her chair scraped the terrace. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to lie down.’
‘Of course. It’s probably the sun. You have such lovely fair skin you must be careful not to burn.’ Eleni reached out and caught her hand. ‘I’ve been talking too much. I hope I haven’t upset you.’
‘No.’ Angie managed a smile that she hoped was reassuring. ‘I’m fine. Really.’
She hurried into the villa, took the stairs and just made it into their bathroom before she was violently sick.
‘Meu Dios, what is wrong with you? You are ill?’ A harsh male voice came from directly behind her and she gave a groan and sank on to the bathroom floor, her arms wrapped round her waist.
‘Not now, Nikos—I need privacy.’
‘You look as though you need a doctor.’
‘I’m fine, really.’
‘Fine doesn’t run from the terrace as if being chased by a wild animal. Fine isn’t being violently sick.’ His tone grim, he reached down and lifted her, placing her gently on the seat in the corner of the bathroom. Then he held a towel under the tap and gently wiped her face and mouth. ‘Lie down on the bed and I will call the doctor. Is it the heat? Were you outside without a hat?’
She shook her head, wondering why his sudden attentiveness should be so painful to bear. But she knew the answer to that, of course. She knew now that she was here under false pretences. She’d forced him into marriage as a punishment and yet she’d just discovered that he hadn’t ever committed the crime of which she’d accused him.
No wonder he’d been so angry with her.
No wonder he’d shown such contempt towards Tiffany.
Cursing softly in Greek, he swung her into his arms and carried her through to the bedroom. Laying her carefully in the middle of the bed, he picked up the phone and barked a series of orders. Moments later there was a tap on the door and two of his staff entered, carrying trays loaded with iced drinks and assorted delicacies.
‘You’re probably not eating enough.’ His voice was gruff as he poured her a cup of tea. ‘Try one of these pastries. They’re good.’
‘I couldn’t eat a thing. Honestly.’ At that precise moment in time, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to eat again. Her stomach was churning alarmingly and her head was beginning to throb.
He dismissed the staff with an impatient wave of his bronzed hand and sat down on the bed. His handsome features were serious. ‘Tell me what is wrong.’
She felt numb with shock. ‘Your mother—’
‘My mother upset you?’ His brows came together in a frown and she shook her head quickly.
‘No. At least, yes, but it wasn’t her fault.’ Her eyes filled and she raised her head, plucking up courage to look at him. ‘She told me, Nikos. She told me everything.’
Chapter Ten
HE STARED at her for a long moment, his powerful body unnaturally still. ‘What do you mean by “everything”?’
Angie swallowed. ‘I mean that she told me that Tiffany had an affair with your father.’ She could hardly bring herself to say the words. ‘I had no idea.’
‘No one knew. I made sure of it. My father’s behaviour has caused more than enough distress to this family in the past. My mother and Ariadne didn’t need more.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
He shrugged, his expression cold and remote. ‘Had you known the truth, you would have gone to the press. The last time my mother read the details of my father’s infidelities in her daily newspaper, she tried to take her own life. My sister, my fourteen-year-old sister, found her mother lying on the carpet in a pool of her own vomit, empty bottles of tablets by her side, newspapers open at the pages that reported my father’s latest indiscretion. Unfortunately that particular girl saw an alternative way to make money and supplied the press with no end of sordid details, most of which were false.’
Angie closed her eyes at the vision his words created. So that was why he hated the media. Not because he was worried about his own image. ‘Your mother tried to kill herself—’
‘That’s right. Her marriage to my father has been punctuated by misery but such a public humiliation was too much for her. You can see now, perhaps, why I wished to restore the diamond to my family with the minimum of fuss.’
She could see everything. And she felt dreadful. ‘Whatever you may think of me, I wouldn’t have gone to the press—’
‘Wouldn’t you?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘The first time we met you talked about having read about me in newspapers. You clearly had no understanding of how destructive the media can be. And at the time you hated me enough to do anything—enough to force me into marriage. Why wouldn’t you have sold your story to the media?’
‘But if you’d told me the truth about Tiffany—’
‘You would never have believed me. You’d made up your mind that I was an evil seducer who had set out to ruin your sister, and in a way you were right.’ He stood up then and walked over to the window, keeping his back to her. ‘It’s true that I set out to take her away from my father. It’s also true that I broke off the relationship and that she died falling from my balcony. The only thing that wasn’t true was your assessment of her feelings for me. She was never in love with me. We never even spent a night together.’
Angie stared at him. ‘What are you saying? That you never—’
‘I’m saying that I never had sex with your sister. I had no wish to sleep with my father’s ex-mistress.’
He hadn’t slept with her sister.
It shouldn’t have mattered but it did. She felt relieved but she knew that such a sentiment was entirely misplaced. ‘Did she love your father?’
‘What do you think?’ He turne
d to face her and she looked away rather than meet the hard cynicism in his eyes.
‘And I suppose she didn’t love you either—’
‘I think she loved the idea of the position and the money,’ Nikos said wearily, ‘but I have to admit I didn’t know she was expecting marriage until you showed me that text. My intention was simply to draw her away from my father.’
‘Oh, God, was she really that desperate?’ Her voice cracked and she covered her face with her hands. ‘It’s all my fault.’
‘How is it your fault?’
‘I should have tried harder with her. I should have insisted that she change her lifestyle. I should have refused to let her push me away—’
‘You would have had no influence over your sister.’ His tone cold, he walked over to the table and poured himself a glass of water. ‘Despite her young age, she was a hard, calculating woman, driven by greed and lacking in morals.’
Angie subdued her natural instinct to defend her sister. How could she defend the indefensible? How could she defend someone she’d clearly never known? ‘She was young.’ She swallowed painfully. ‘Perhaps I could have influenced her if I’d tried harder.’
He gave a humourless laugh. ‘I think not. Your sister made a career choice and no one was going to shift her from her chosen path.’
‘What do you mean, “a career choice”?’
‘To marry a rich man.’ He drank the water and put the glass down on the tray with exaggerated care. ‘Unfortunately for my family, she targeted my father. When we first met, you said that Tiffany should never have moved in the same circles as my family and in a way you were right. We never would have met her had she not made a determined effort. Before my father there was another man—a millionaire shrewder than my father. He refused to play the game she wanted so she then threw herself in my father’s path and pursued him like the predator she was. She played the part of the vulnerable, innocent female extremely effectively. He didn’t stand a chance.’
‘Please—’ Angie covered her ears with her hands, unable to listen to any more. ‘Oh, God, I can’t believe I’m hearing this. Why didn’t you tell me this before? Why?’
‘I’ve already told you. You would never have believed me. You would have gone straight to the press. And this time my mother might have succeeded.’
Her eyes met his and she knew that he was remembering all the times that he’d told her that he wasn’t responsible for her sister’s death, that he’d never intended to marry her. ‘I wouldn’t have gone to the press,’ she whispered finally, ‘but you’re right that I wouldn’t have believed you. I didn’t know any of those things about her and I was upset. I loved her so much and I missed her and—’ she closed her eyes and ran a hand over her face ‘—and I was angry. Too angry to listen. I didn’t want to part with the jewel because she’d worn it. I couldn’t bear the fact that you didn’t seem to care.’
He nodded. ‘I can understand that. But I was angry too. Angry that you always seemed to be excusing her behaviour. That you seemed to approve of the person she was.’
‘I knew she was flighty and fun-loving. I didn’t know her as a predator. I still can’t—’ Angie broke off and licked dry lips. ‘Your mother has no idea who I am. It would shatter her if she found out that your father gave the jewel to Tiffany and she’d be horrified if she knew the truth of our marriage.’
‘She isn’t going to find out that my father gave your sister the jewel. She would attribute a false significance to an act that was nothing more than an impulsive, foolish gesture. As far as my mother is aware, the jewel has been safely in my keeping for the past six months and I am married to the bride of my choice.’
‘But it’s not true, is it?’ Angie’s voice was agonized as her brain sifted through the facts. ‘I’m not the bride of your choice. We both know that I’m the last woman you would have chosen to marry. We’re totally wrong for each other. And this isn’t some stranger we’re talking about who threatened the security of your family, this was my sister. I have to tell your mother the truth. I have to explain about Tiffany—apologise if I can—make amends—’
And yet how could she possibly make amends when she was part of the problem? When she was the reason that Nikos was now married to a woman he didn’t love and never would?
There was a long throbbing silence while he stared at her. ‘You will not raise the subject with my mother. To do so would reveal that my father gave the necklace to your sister and I won’t allow you to cause her such unnecessary distress.’
Angie sank her head on to her hands. ‘Why didn’t you argue with me? What possessed you to agree to marry me? Nobody makes you do anything you don’t want to do. You’re ruthless, single-minded and totally focused on what you want. Why did you say yes to me?’
‘I needed the jewel and I needed it quickly.’
‘You could have used lawyers—’
‘And that would have attracted the attention of the press, which was the one thing I had to avoid. I see no benefit at all in this line of conversation. The past cannot be changed however much we might wish that it could be.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I need to join my mother and sister or they will start asking questions that I have no intention of answering. Do you promise me that you won’t raise the matter of your relationship to Tiffany with my mother? When the time is right I will explain that you are her sister and that we met when I went to London to meet her family and offer condolences. It’s the truth, after all.’
What could she say? She nodded silently, swamped by a guilt so enormous that she couldn’t think straight. ‘If that’s what you want.’
‘It is. You look white and exhausted.’ He strode towards the door. ‘Go to bed. I’ll have dinner sent up on a tray and I’ll try and persuade my family that they really don’t want to spend the night here.’
‘Wait—’ Feeling wrung out and suddenly frantic to make it up to him in some way, she slid off the bed and walked across to him. ‘We have to be able to do something to retrieve the situation. I’ll give you a divorce.’
He stared down at her, a muscle flickering in his lean jaw. ‘It is as I said before. Unfortunately my lawyers are the best. The agreement we both signed is watertight. Whether you like it or not, we are married, agape mou, for better or for worse, for the period of two years, just as you stipulated. To the outside world we are now married and I, for one, have no desire to see yet more scandal and speculation attached to my family.’ His eyes held hers and she shifted uncomfortably.
This was the part where she was supposed to say that he could see other women. But she couldn’t bring herself to say the words and suddenly she knew why.
She couldn’t say the words because she didn’t want him to see other women.
Not because she wanted to punish him, but because she loved him.
She really, really loved him.
The sudden knowledge pinned her to the spot and she didn’t utter a word as he gave her a searching, slightly impatient look and then left the room, closing the door behind him, leaving her to wallow in the knowledge that she’d never really known anything about her sister.
And neither had she known anything about herself.
Until now.
She spent a sleepless night alone in their room, wondering where Nikos was sleeping. Wondering what he was thinking. Now that she knew the truth about Tiffany, she felt deeply ashamed and hideously guilty. Her beliefs about him and her beliefs about herself and her sister had been brutally destroyed, leaving her with no safe foundations on which to build a future.
She’d failed Tiffany and she’d treated Nikos incredibly badly.
Lost in contemplation of how she might begin to right some of the wrongs that her family had done him, it took a few moments for her to realise that he was standing by the bed. One glance at his unshaven jaw and tired eyes told her that wherever he’d spent the night, it hadn’t been anywhere comfortable.
‘I came to apologise for my behaviour last night.’
/> She stared at him blankly. ‘Your behaviour? What do you have to apologise for?’
‘I laid all the blame at your sister’s door but the truth was that my father was also responsible for what happened.’ His broad shoulders rigid with tension, he cursed softly and paced across the room, keeping his back to her. ‘My father has always had a problem with fidelity. Your sister was not his first affair.’
‘What my sister did was very wrong.’
‘But she had targeted other men before and they had refused her. Seen her for what she was.’ He turned to face her. ‘My father could have done the same.’
Confronted by this alien picture of her sister, Angie tried not to flinch. ‘You have nothing to apologise for. I’m the one who should be apologizing, both for Tiffany and myself.’
He gave a faint smile and dragged a hand through his hair. ‘Apologising is a new experience for me and I’m not sure that I’m enjoying it, so why don’t we both agree just to forget the past behaviour of our various relatives and move on from here?’
Move on? How could they possibly move on when she’d forced him into a marriage that was abhorrent to him?
She gave a weak smile. ‘Of course.’
He stared at her for a moment as if there was something else he wanted to say and then he gave a soft curse and glanced towards the door. ‘I have to go. I have a meeting in Athens and my pilot is waiting.’
‘Of course.’ Couldn’t she think of something more original to say? They’d been getting on well, but suddenly her brain couldn’t move past the fact that he was only in this marriage because of her. ‘Have a good day.’
He hesitated a moment longer and then gave her a brief nod and left the room.
Angie flopped back against the pillow, a feeling of despair mingling with guilt. It didn’t matter how she looked at things, there was no escaping the fact that she wasn’t the wife he would have chosen.
He returned later that evening and they ate dinner on the terrace overlooking the private beach. The night was warm and candles flickered on the table between them, creating an air of intimacy that she found almost painful.