The sound of a deep male voice outside the door made her heart leap into her throat. But when she stepped into the corridor it was not Alekos standing in front of the nurses’ station, arguing with a nurse and drawing attention from a crowd of curious onlookers.
‘I don’t care if my name is not on the visitor list,’ Lionel Kingsley said loudly. ‘Sara Lovejoy is my daughter and I have come to visit her.’ He glanced round and his expression became concerned when he saw her. ‘Sara, my dear, you should be resting.’ He spoke briefly on his mobile phone as he walked over to her and Sara hurriedly pulled him into her room and shut the door.
‘What are you doing here? There must be a dozen people who heard you say that I am your daughter.’ She bit her lip. ‘It’s probably already on social media and once the press get hold of the story it will be headline news, especially as there is speculation that you will be the new Home Secretary in the Cabinet reshuffle.’
‘None of that is important.’ Lionel swept her into a bear hug. ‘What matters is that you are safe and as well as can be expected after you nearly lost your life. Alekos phoned and told me what had happened, and how you lost your baby.’ He squeezed her so hard that she felt breathless. ‘I’m so sorry, Sara. For your loss, and also for my behaviour. Alekos used some very colourful language when he pointed out that I had failed you as a father twice. The first time by not being around when you were a child, and the second by not publicly acknowledging you as my daughter.’
‘He told you that?’ she said faintly.
‘And a lot more. He reminded me I was lucky to have a beautiful, compassionate and loyal daughter. When he told me how you had almost died I realised how stupid and selfish I had been. I should have welcomed you unreservedly, and I’m sorry I didn’t before now.’
‘But what about Charlotte and Freddie?’ Sara was reeling from hearing how Alekos had stood up for her to her father. ‘How do you think they will take the news that I am their sister?’
‘Why don’t you ask them? Or one of them, at least,’ Charlotte Kingsley said as she walked into the room. ‘Freddie is in America, but he said to tell you that he knows who you remind him of now.’ She smiled at Sara’s startled expression. ‘You and I do look remarkably alike and not only because we both have green eyes. All three of dad’s offspring take after his side of the family, and Freddie agrees with me that we can’t think of a nicer person to have as our sister.’
‘I thought you would hate me,’ Sara said unsteadily.
Charlotte clasped her hand. ‘Why would we hate you? Nothing that happened in the past is your fault. I’m sad that I didn’t know about you for twenty-five years, but now I hope you will be part of our family for ever...if you want to be.’
Sara glanced at her father. ‘Aren’t you worried that the scandal will affect your political career?’
Lionel shrugged. ‘These things often blow over. I behaved badly towards your mother and my wife many years ago and the person who suffered most was you. Far more important than my career is my determination to try and make amends and be the father I should have been to you when you were growing up. And I’d like to start by taking you to my home in Berkshire so that you can recuperate, but of course I’ll understand if you want to go home with Alekos.’
Her father looked puzzled. ‘Actually, I assumed Alekos would be here. I know he refused to leave your bedside while you were in intensive care. And when he came to see me yesterday to tell me what he thought of me for treating you badly, he looked like he’d been to hell and back. But it’s not surprising after he lost his child and could have lost you too. It’s obvious how much he cares for you.’
Sara sat down heavily on the chair and buried her face in her hands. She felt as if she was on an emotional roller coaster from her intense sadness at losing her baby and the shock of realising how close she had come to losing her own life. She had rejected Alekos without considering his feelings about the loss of their child. Although her pregnancy had been in the early stages, it was likely that the trauma had reminded him of losing his brother when he was a teenager.
A sob escaped her and she felt a hand patting her shoulder. Charlotte—her sister—she thought emotively, pushed some tissues into her hand. ‘Cry it out, Sara. You’ve been through a terrible experience and you need time to grieve for the baby.’
As Alekos did. But she knew he would bottle up his feelings like he had when Dimitri died. ‘I think I’ve made a terrible mistake,’ she choked. Alekos needed her but she had sent him away and her tears were for the baby, for her, but mainly for the man she would always love.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ALEKOS HAD SPENT his childhood at his parents’ house just outside Athens. As a boy he had spent hours playing on the private beach but after Dimitri died he had stopped going there.
He moved away from the window, where he had been watching huge waves crash onto the shore. The recent storm had made the sea angry and the heavy sky echoed his mood. He picked up his brother’s death certificate from the desk in his father’s study and read it once more before he looked at his mother.
‘Why didn’t you tell me Dimitri suffered a heart attack when he went swimming and that was why he drowned?’
‘You never wanted to talk about him. If his name was mentioned by anyone you would leave the room. Your father and I were advised not to push you to discuss the accident but to wait for you to bring up the subject.’
She sighed. ‘Dimitri was born with a small hole in his heart but later tests showed that the defect had healed by itself and it was not expected to cause problems as he grew up. Your brother was such a strong, athletic boy and your father and I more or less forgot that there had been the early problem. When we learned that Dimitri had suffered heart failure we felt guilty that we should have persuaded him to have more health checks. The reason why Dimitri drowned was something we could not bear to discuss with you and your sisters. Why does your brother’s cause of death matter now, so many years later?’
Alekos swallowed hard. ‘I believed for all those years that Dimitri took his own life. He was heartbroken when he found out his girlfriend had cheated on him and he told me he did not want to live without Nia.’
His mother frowned. ‘I remember he was upset over a girl. Your father had arranged for him to go and work in the Miami office for a few months to help him get over her. You were not at home on that last evening and so you did not see how excited Dimitri was about the trip to America.’ She looked intently at her youngest son. ‘I’m quite certain your brother knew he had everything to live for. He often went swimming at night and told me I worried too much when I asked him not to go into the sea alone.’
‘I blamed myself for not getting help for Dimitri after he told me he felt depressed,’ Alekos said gruffly. ‘I felt guilty that I hadn’t saved him. I missed him so much but I didn’t want to cry in front of anyone because I was fourteen, not a baby. The only way I could cope was by not talking about him.’ dpg
‘Dimitri’s death was fate,’ his mother said gently. ‘I wish I had known how you felt, but I’m afraid you take after your father in the respect of not discussing your feelings. Kostas believed he must be strong for the rest of the family, but losing Dimitri made him withdraw emotionally. I think he found it hard to show how much he loved you because he was afraid of losing another child and suffering the same pain and grief he’d felt when Dimitri died.’ She wiped away a tear. ‘Your father was very proud of you, you know. He admired your drive and determination to take GE forward.’
‘I wish I had known that Bampás approved of my ideas. I regret I didn’t talk about Dimitri with him. It might have helped both of us.’
His mother nodded. ‘Honesty and openness are important in a relationship and you should remember that when you marry Sara.’
Alekos’s jaw clenched. ‘Sara ended our engagement because I can’t give her what she wants.’
‘Sara does not strike me as someone who craves material possessions.’
<
br /> ‘She says she will only marry for love.’
‘Well, what other reason is there for marriage?’
He frowned. ‘I thought that you and Bampás had an arranged marriage?’
His mother laughed. ‘Our parents thought so too. But Kostas and I had met secretly and fallen in love, and we engineered our so-called arranged marriage. Love is the only reason to marry. Why is it a problem? You love Sara, don’t you?’
Alekos could not reply to his mother’s question, although he suspected the answer was somewhere in the mess of emotions that had replaced the cool logic which had served him perfectly well for two decades.
‘I understand why my father was scared to love after he lost a son,’ he said. His voice sounded as if it had scraped over rusty metal. He had a flashback to when he had been in the hospital waiting room, praying harder than he’d prayed in his life that Sara’s life would be saved. ‘Love can hurt,’ he said roughly.
‘But it can also bring the greatest joy,’ his mother said softly. ‘I am glad I was blessed with Dimitri and it was better to have him for twenty-one years than not to have known him and loved him. The pain I felt when he died was terrible, but the happiness he gave me in his short life was far greater.’
* * *
It was a wonderful party, and she was absolutely having a brilliant time, Sara told herself firmly. She looked around the ballroom of the five-star hotel in Mayfair and recognised numerous celebrities who, like her, had been invited to the birthday celebrations of a famous music producer.
Since the news that she was the daughter of Lionel Kingsley, MP, had made the headlines a month ago, she had been on the guest list at many top social events with her half-brother and half-sister. She loved being part of a family and while she was staying at her father’s beautiful house in Berkshire she’d grown close to Lionel, Charlotte and Freddie. They and her father had encouraged her to follow a different career path after she’d resigned from her position as Alekos’s PA. She had started an art foundation course at college and her plan to go to university to study for an art degree helped to take her mind off the trauma of the ectopic pregnancy.
Long walks in the countryside and the companionship of family mealtimes had gradually enabled her to come to terms with the loss of her baby, although there would always be a little ache in her heart for the child she would never know. Getting over Alekos had so far proved more difficult, especially when she had told her father and siblings that she had broken off her relationship with him and they had asked if she was sure she had done the right thing.
Well, she was sure now, she thought dismally. Photos of Alekos at a film premiere with a busty blonde wrapped around him had featured on the front pages of all the tabloids. She was furious with herself that she’d wasted time worrying about him. Why, she’d even phoned him to check if he was okay because it had been his baby too. He hadn’t answered her call or replied to the message she’d left him, and seeing the picture of him with his latest bimbo had forced her to accept that he had moved on with his life and she should do the same.
She was jolted from her thoughts by a sharp pain in her foot. ‘Sorry—again,’ the man she was dancing with said ruefully when she winced. ‘That must be the third time I’ve trodden on your toes.’
‘Fourth, actually.’
She hid her irritation with a smile. He had introduced himself as Daniel, ‘I’m doing a bit of modelling but I really want to be an actor,’ and he was very good-looking, although it was lucky he wasn’t hoping for a career as a dancer, she mused. Unfortunately, his good looks were wasted on her. She wished her heart did skip a beat when he pulled her closer, but she felt nothing. Although she managed to put on a cheerful front, she missed Alekos terribly and couldn’t stop thinking about him.
‘Is there a reason why the tall guy over there is staring at me as if he’s planning to murder me?’ Daniel murmured. ‘He’s coming this way and I get the feeling it’s time I made myself scarce.’
‘Which guy...?’ Sara felt her heart slam into her ribs when Alekos materialised at her side.
‘I advise you to find another woman to dance with,’ he growled to Daniel, who immediately dropped his hands from Sara as if she were highly contagious. But her attention wasn’t on Daniel. Alekos swamped all of her senses and he was the only man in the ballroom.
He looked utterly gorgeous dressed in slim black trousers and a black shirt open at the throat to reveal a sprinkling of curling chest hairs. His hair was ruffled as if he’d been running his fingers through it—or someone else had, Sara thought darkly, remembering the photos of him with the blonde who’d been stuck to him with superglue. Temper rescued her from the ignominy of drooling over him.
‘How dare you barge in and spoil my evening?’ she snapped.
‘I dare, Sara mou, because if I hadn’t persuaded your pretty boy dance partner to back off I would have throttled him with my bare hands.’ His dark eyes burned like hot embers and the tight grip of his hands on her waist warned her that he was furious. Well, that made two of them, she thought, glaring at him when she tried to pull away and he jerked her against his body. The feel of his hard thighs pressed close to hers was almost enough to make her melt.
‘I am definitely not your Sara. Will you let go of me? You’re making an exhibition of us.’
‘I haven’t even started,’ he warned. ‘You can walk out of the ballroom with me or I’ll carry you out.’
She snapped her teeth together as if she would like to bite him, but to safeguard her dignity she allowed him to steer her out of the ballroom and across the hotel foyer to the lifts. ‘Won’t your girlfriend mind? Don’t pretend you don’t know who I mean. You must have seen the picture on the front page of this morning’s papers of you and Miss Breast Implants.’
His puzzled expression cleared. ‘Oh, you mean Charlene.’
‘I don’t read gossip columns so I don’t know her name.’
‘Charlene McCuskey is the wife of Warren McCuskey, who I’m sure you recall is buying Artemis. They are in London so that Warren can finalise the purchase, but he has come down with a virus and so he asked me to escort Charlene to a film premiere, which I dutifully did before I took her back to their hotel. Unsurprisingly, she is devoted to her billionaire husband,’ he said sardonically.
‘Oh, I see,’ Sara muttered. Without fully realising what she was doing she’d followed Alekos into a lift, and as the doors closed and she was alone with him in the small space she had a horrible feeling that he saw way too much of her thoughts. ‘Where are you taking me?’
‘I’m staying at the hotel and we are going to my suite.’
‘I don’t want...’
‘We need to talk.’ Something in his expression made her heart give another painful jolt. The lift had mirrored walls, and her reflection showed her breasts rising and falling jerkily beneath her scarlet silk dress that she’d worn thinking the bright colour might lift her spirits. ‘You look beautiful,’ Alekos told her brusquely.
Her eyes flew to his face and after weeks of feeling nothing every nerve ending on her body was suddenly fiercely alive. The lift stopped, and as she followed him along the corridor and into his suite she wondered why she was putting herself through this. Seeing him again was going to make it so much harder to get over him.
‘Would you like a drink?’
It would give her something to do with her hands. When she nodded he walked over to the bar, poured a measure of cassis into two tall glasses and topped them up with champagne. Sara remembered they had drunk Kir Royale the night they had become lovers on the yacht in Monaco. It seemed a lifetime ago.
‘How are you?’
‘Good,’ she said huskily. It wasn’t true, but she was working on it. ‘It’s been great getting to know Charlotte and Freddie. I feel very lucky that they and my father are part of my life.’
‘I’m sure they feel lucky to have found you.’ There was an odd note in his voice and, like in the lift, the indefinable expression i
n his eyes stirred feelings inside her that she told herself she must not feel.
‘How about you?’ She hesitated. ‘I phoned you...but you didn’t call back.’
‘I was in Greece. I visited my mother and we talked about my brother.’ He indicated for Sara to sit down on a sofa but she felt too edgy to sit, and he remained standing too. ‘Dimitri died of a heart attack while he was swimming,’ he told her abruptly. ‘I finally read the coroner’s report. My parents had their reasons for not talking about the cause of his death and I never spoke about Dimitri because I tried to block out my grief.’
‘I’m glad you found out the truth at last and can stop blaming yourself,’ she said softly. ‘I hope you can put the past behind you and move on with your life.’
‘Do you include yourself in my past and hope I will forget about you?’
She swallowed. Alekos had moved without her being aware of him doing so and he was standing so close that she could see the tiny lines around his eyes that suggested he hadn’t been sleeping well. There were deeper grooves on either side of his mouth and she sensed he was as tense as she felt.
‘I guess we both need to move forwards,’ she said, aiming for a light tone. ‘Make a fresh start.’
‘What if I asked you to come back to me?’
Her heart missed a beat, but she shook her head. ‘I couldn’t be your PA now that we...’ she coloured ‘...now that we have had a personal association.’
‘A personal association?’ he said savagely. ‘Theos, Sara, we created a child together.’
‘A child you didn’t want. Any more than you wanted to marry me.’ She spun away from him, determined not to break down in front of him.
‘That’s not true on both counts. I did want to marry you. I didn’t respond to your phone call because when you went to stay with your father after you left hospital, I agreed with Lionel to give you some space. You needed to recover from the ectopic and spend time with your new family.’
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