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Married For The Greek's Convenience
Michelle Smart
Vows never broken…He was the man she never wanted to see again… Exclusive matchmaker Elizabeth Young cannot believe it when Xander Trakas storms back into her life, announcing that their disastrous marriage was never annulled!His was the bed she never thought she’d share again… It would be so easy to surrender to the fire that still flickers between them, but can Elizabeth risk giving her heart to formidable Greek again?His was the ring she never thought she’d wear again… With guardianship of Xander’s precious nephew at stake, Elizabeth just can’t refuse her husband’s demand!Book 4 in the Brides for Billionaires quartet
Vows never broken...
He was the man she never wanted to see again... Exclusive matchmaker Elizabeth Young cannot believe it when Xander Trakas storms back into her life, announcing that their disastrous marriage was never annulled!
His was the bed she never thought she’d share again... It would be so easy to surrender to the fire that still flickers between them, but can Elizabeth risk giving her heart to the formidable Greek again?
His was the ring she never thought she’d wear again... With guardianship of Xander’s precious nephew at stake, Elizabeth just can’t refuse her husband’s demand!
�Using your ex-wife to find you a new wife is one thing, but conducting the preliminary interviews on the very island where we met and married screams of insensitivity. You have the money and the resources to travel anywhere your heart desires, so why here? Is it to rub my nose in it?’
When Elizabeth finally looked at Xander he was staring at her with a look she couldn’t interpret.
�I have a number of reasons.’
She forced herself to remain poised. If he wanted to play mind games he could play them on his own. She was here to do a job and nothing else. �Tell me what kind of woman you have in mind to marry.’
Elizabeth waited for him to answer but his gaze remained on her...the same unfathomable expression stayed on his gorgeous face.
Uncertainty crept up her spine. The way he was looking at her...
Xander took a mouthful of his drink and set the glass steadily on the table.
�I don’t need you to find me a wife, Elizabeth. I already have one.’ He leaned forward and lowered his voice. �Our marriage was never annulled. We’re still married.’
Brides for Billionaires (#u38623b7b-9958-53da-ab3c-95efb4f64650)
Meet the world’s ultimate unattainable men…
Four titans of industry and power—Benjamin Carter, Dante Mancini, Zayn Al-Ghamdi and Xander Trakas—are in complete control of every aspect of their exclusive world... Until one catastrophic newspaper article forces them to take drastic action!
Now these gorgeous billionaires need one thing: willing women on their arms and wearing their rings! Women falling at their feet is normal, but these bachelors need the right women to stand by their sides. And for that they need billionaire matchmaker Elizabeth Young.
This is the opportunity of a lifetime for Elizabeth, so she won’t turn down the challenge of finding just the right match for these formidable tycoons. But Elizabeth has a secret that could complicate things for one of the bachelors...
Find out what happens in:
Married for the Tycoon’s Empire by Abby Green
Married for the Italian’s Heir by Rachael Thomas
Married for the Sheikh’s Duty by Tara Pammi
Married for the Greek’s Convenience by Michelle Smart
Available now!
Married for the Greek’s Convenience
Michelle Smart
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
MICHELLE SMART’s love affair with books started when she was a baby, when she would cuddle them in her cot. A voracious reader of all genres, she found her love of romance established when she stumbled across her first Mills & Boon book at the age of twelve. She’s been reading them—and writing them—ever since. Michelle lives in Northamptonshire with her husband and two young smarties.
Books by Michelle Smart
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
Claiming His Christmas ConsequenceThe Russian’s Ultimatum The Rings That BindThe Perfect Cazorla Wife
Wedlocked!
Wedded, Bedded, Betrayed
The Kalliakis Crown
Talos Claims His VirginTheseus Discovers His Heir Helios Crowns His Mistress
Society Weddings
The Greek’s Pregnant Bride
The Irresistible Sicilians
What a Sicilian Husband Wants The Sicilian’s Unexpected DutyTaming the Notorious Sicilian
Visit the Author Profile page at
millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
Contents
Cover (#ue5e14705-d58a-5a3f-ac99-0be23e50134c)
Back Cover Text (#u63c40adc-3812-5734-b09c-41388dbe0dc1)
Introduction (#uc7dc9b67-aa77-580c-b936-f51deda66195)
Brides for Billionaires (#uf04f9e16-0fe8-5107-adb2-9634b5b811d8)
Title Page (#u93aacc4c-0d6a-596c-b297-c0bc7729d038)
About the Author (#uabb195b5-c88a-548d-b04e-2e1e2fcbf84c)
CHAPTER ONE (#ud8bf383d-9b63-58c2-92af-96e42fe88aad)
CHAPTER TWO (#ueac8e54f-0ac0-5963-ac3d-c8bd020edfbe)
CHAPTER THREE (#u35ddbf93-8ac7-5c65-aba7-e814572772dd)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u40d2306c-185d-5243-a381-ff147f6b658a)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u38623b7b-9958-53da-ab3c-95efb4f64650)
IF XANDER TRAKAS had thought his week couldn’t get any worse, this was the nail in the coffin to finish him off.
His American lawyer, a thorough man if ever there was one, had confirmed that Xander’s marriage to Elizabeth Young was indeed registered with all the relevant jurisdictions and authorities. However, there was no evidence of their annulment.
They were still married.
He grabbed the back of his neck and rubbed it hard, breathing deeply.
The whole Celebrity Spy! scandal was the mess that just kept giving. What had started as a relatively small teaser promising to reveal the �juiciest and most scandalous details’ about the world’s most eligible and debauched bachelors had grown into the scandal of the decade. And to think he had dismissed that initial teaser... Yes, he was considered one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, but debauched? He’d heard plenty of lewd stories about his new brothers in arms over the years. Compared to them he was practically a virgin.
Okay, that might be a notion too far, but a few monogamous affairs throughout the years had nothing on the legendary exploits of Dante Mancini, Benjamin Carter or Sheikh Zayn Al-Ghamdi.
The subsequent articles, not just in Celebrity Spy! but in its rival tabloids and websites the world over, had painted a picture of himself he simply did not recognise. Three of his ex-lovers had sold him out, embellishing and sensationalising what, to him, had been perfectly normal healthy affairs. Half a dozen women he struggled to remember even meeting had sold tales of their nights together. It was complete rubbish.
Strangely enough, the only woman from his past he hadn’t worried about selling her soul for a piece of gold was the woman he’d made the mistake of marrying a decade ago.
All it needed was for one tenacious reporter to go digging through the court records and his marriage would be there for the world to see. It wouldn’t take them long to put two and two together and see that while his jilted Greek fiancée had been falling apart at the seams, he’d been romancing and marrying an American beauty, oblivious to the destruction he’d left behind.
He’d never spoken of his marriage to Elizabeth. Not to anyone. Not his parents. Not his friends.
They’d never lived as man and wife. They’d met, married and gone their separate ways in a mad two-week period on the honeymooner’s paradise of St Francis.
But their separate ways did not include the annulment Elizabeth had sworn—with an uncouth curse thrown at him for good measure—she would obtain.
The last time he’d seen her had been in their hotel villa. She’d had tears streaming down her shell-shocked face.
Did she know their annulment had been denied? Did the billionaire matchmaker know she was the legal wife of a billionaire herself? It beggared belief that she didn’t know, but in all their years apart she’d never reached out to him, not once.
And he’d never reached out to her. He’d pushed her face from his mind almost completely.
He would have to tread carefully.
The report he’d had compiled on her had revealed a different woman from the one he’d known then. She was no longer a carefree nineteen-year-old who lived for nothing more than to feel the wind in her hair and the sun on her face. In the decade since they’d gone their separate ways she’d built a new and successful life for herself.
His phone vibrated, breaking through his thoughts. Hoping it would be his lawyer, who he’d ordered to find out exactly why their annulment had failed, he only just stopped himself pressing the accept button in time. The caller was his father, someone he was not in the mood to speak to.
Xander couldn’t face another argument. The daily calls from Greece were becoming increasingly fractious, from both sides. Late last night, his sister-in-law had been admitted into hospital with alcohol poisoning. Liver failure had been diagnosed. Unless Xander’s brother stopped shovelling drugs into his system, his body would be the next to break down.
All of this would have been difficult enough to cope with without having to deal with the major press intrusion the Celebrity Spy! scandal had unleashed.
Tonight he needed to keep himself together and his head straight. He would return home first thing in the morning but for now he had the annual gala for the Hope Foundation, the main charity he supported, to attend. The press would be out in force. All four of the men in the eye of the scandal would be under the same roof for the first time. They all supported this charity, and evidence was growing that it was now suffering because of its association with them.
Although their businesses lay in different fields, they’d been rivals for years. All four of them were strong, ultra-wealthy men with hard noses for business. There had been nothing friendly about their interactions. Tonight, he suspected they would have to find a way to breach their usual silent antagonism.
All four of them were feeling the pressure. They were in the eye of the storm and the sooner they found their way out of it, the better.
Two weeks later
Elizabeth Young stepped into her West Village apartment with a very real sense of relief. After a week away in Rome, she welcomed the return to the space she called home.
She loved her apartment, set in the heart of New York’s oldest district. While it wasn’t the largest piece of real estate around—she earned excellent money but not that excellent—she had never lived with such contentment anywhere else.
For perhaps the dozenth time since she’d landed at JFK, she checked her cell phone, telling herself it was concern for Piper that had her looking and not the looming possibility of her ex-husband getting in touch.
It was hearing Piper vocalise his name that had her so on edge. The beautiful Australian had been openly prying her with questions. Elizabeth didn’t blame her. In Piper’s shoes she would have been curious too. Three of the men implicated in the Celebrity Spy! scandal had called on her services so it was only natural the fourth would require her assistance too.
Dante did say Xander must call you too.
Were those Piper’s words? They had definitely been something along those lines and had forced Elizabeth to confront what she had spent almost a fortnight in denial about.
Benjamin, Zayn and Dante had all said they’d been recommended to her by Xander. He’d passed her details to them.
She had no idea how her ex-husband knew what she did for a living or how he’d got her details. Leviathan Solutions was run in utter secrecy on a strict word-of-mouth basis.
She assured herself that just because he’d recommended her to the other men it didn’t mean he required her services for himself. His situation was different from the others. Timos SE had been solely owned by the Trakas family for generations.
As a company, it owned countless beauty and clothing lines that were sold around the world. Their customer base couldn’t care less about the scandal. They had no shareholders to pacify or stock markets to tumble from. Xander didn’t need to marry to preserve a family image...
In those first few raw days after he’d dumped her, she’d lived in a cold uncomprehending fog. She would wake hoping it had all been a bad dream and stretch her fingers out, hoping to find him there.
On the fourth day she’d checked her cell phone for the hundredth time, praying for word from him. At that exact same moment her mother had walked into her room. Elizabeth had looked from the cell in her hand to the woman who’d raised her, and the rose-coloured glasses she’d worn all her life had slipped off.
Romance and everlasting love were myths. Her parents were prime examples of this truth and she’d been a naïve idiot to think she would be any different.
From that moment her life changed. Everything.
Over the subsequent years she’d refused to think of the man who’d broken her heart. As far as she’d been concerned, he didn’t exist, which worked for three years until she stumbled on a profile article about the newly appointed head of Timos SE, Xander Trakas. Xander had managed the seemingly impossible and broken into the American market.
Reading it, she’d learned exactly how wealthy he and the Trakas family were, and how powerful; on a par with the Onassis family. It was through this article she’d learned about Ana Soukis. His childhood sweetheart. Xander and Ana had been going to marry but Ana had tragically died in a car accident before they could exchange their vows.
Xander had been twenty when Ana died. The same age he’d been when he’d married her, the lying, cheating dirtbag.
Either he’d married Elizabeth when he was engaged to another woman or he’d married her when he should have been grieving the love of his life.
She’d burnt the article and thanked her lucky stars the lying, cheating scumbag had dumped her before it had been too late to get an annulment. She didn’t think she would have been able to handle a divorce.
As much as she’d hated herself for doing it, she’d kept an eye out for his name over the years. Xander had never remarried. And why should he? He had women falling off his arm; even more women than she had thought possible if one believed Celebrity Spy!
Of all the men in the eye of the scandal’s storm, Xander was the least affected. He had no need to find a wife.
She shouldn’t be thinking of him, she told herself crossly, slipping into her bathroom and putting the plug in the tub.
After a fourteen-hour flight she felt grubby and completely out of sorts.
If Piper hadn’t said what she had, Elizabeth wouldn’t even be thinking of him.
Determined to shove him from her mind, she thought of Piper instead and wished with all her heart she could warn her away from Dante. Elizabeth hadn’t matched them together. Their marriage was being born from a one-night stand that had resulted in a pregnancy. Elizabeth’s services had been required only to make the poor woman over and turn her into a shining, sparkly wife who would look good on Dante’s arm.
If she’d been asked to match Dante with anyone, Piper would have been the last woman on the list. She was much too sweet and naïve for the world she was being thrust into.
Just as she, Elizabeth, had once been too sweet and naГЇve.
She stripped naked and stepped into the steaming, frothy water, then lay back and closed her eyes.
Her cell rang.
Every atom in her body froze. Including her brain.
Then her heart kick-started, hammering against her ribs as if demanding attention.
Breathing deeply and keeping her eyes squeezed shut, Elizabeth did something she had never done before and ignored it.
Eventually it rang off to voicemail.
A short vibration a moment later told her the caller had left a message.
She opened her eyes and gazed up at the white ceiling she had painted herself, and willed her body into calm.
It didn’t have to be him. It could have been anyone. Her clients were the richest of the rich and not used to waiting for anyone. Most had no concept of personal space or personal time, not when it came to anyone but themselves. To them, she was employed to do a job and if they wanted to call her at ten p.m. on a Friday evening then she should damn well be available to take the call.
She would check the message when she got out and call whoever it was back. Her business was her baby and the one thing in her life she was proud of. She’d built it up from scratch and...
The cell rang out again.
This time her heart flew up her throat. She turned her head to stare at it. She’d placed it on the small ledge where she always put it, within arm’s reach. The screen was flashing in time to the ring.
Before she could galvanise herself to do anything, it went through to voicemail again.
Within ten seconds it started ringing again.
A surge of adrenaline propelled her up. She wiped her hand on the towel on the sink then snatched the phone. It wasn’t a number she recognised.
Her heart now gearing itself to fly out of her mouth, she put the cell to her ear.
�Hello?’ she said tremulously.
�Elizabeth?’
Hearing Xander’s deep voice in her ear was as shocking as if she’d plunged herself into a bucket of ice. Her body reacted as if she had, the phone slipping from her rigid fingers and landing with a splash in the water between her legs.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, her blood pressure almost back to normal, her body dry and cocooned in a thick towelling robe, Elizabeth unplugged her hairdryer, which she’d blasted at the SIM card she’d yanked out of her sopping phone. Still cursing herself for her stupidity and hoping the damage was minimal, she inserted the SIM card into her old phone, which she’d dug out of a drawer.
It took three nail-biting minutes before she could confirm the switchover had been successful and that all her contacts had been saved. Unfortunately there was no way to track Xander’s number on the old cell, but intuition told her it wouldn’t be long before she heard from him again, and this time she would be prepared.
Her intuition was correct.
Her old cell still had everything set up on it, including emails. A message pinged into her inbox.
Elizabeth, it’s Xander. I assume you’re having issues with your phone. Here’s my number. Call me as soon as possible.
Her first impulse was to burst into tears but, before they could be unleashed, anger so strong it burned flushed through her and dried the unshed tears in an instant.
So he was going to follow in the footsteps of his fellow Casanovas and employ her.
The nerve of him. The crassness. The complete lack of sensitivity.
What did he need a wife for?
As tempting as it was to fire an angry email back and tell him in graphic detail what he could do with his order to call him back as soon as possible, she held herself back.
Xander had left her ten years ago. If she were rude or ignored him it would imply that she was still angry with him, which in turn would imply she had never gotten over him, which in itself was ridiculous. She was simply tired and overwrought after a busy few weeks.
She would prove she didn’t have any residual feelings for him.
She stood in front of her bedroom mirror and counted to thirty, then keyed in the number. It was answered on the first ring.
�Thanks for calling me back.’
His businesslike tone echoed into her ear.
Keeping her focus on her reflection, Elizabeth fixed a smile to her face so her complete lack of residual feelings for him echoed down the line. �No problem. My apologies for earlier. I dropped my cell phone in Rome and it’s been playing up since.’ The lie fell smoothly from her tongue. Her voice sounded as friendly as she wanted it to be.
�Is it liable to cut out again?’
�No. I’m back home and have switched to my old one.’
�Good.’ Without any pause he added, �I need to see you.’
�Okay.’ She dragged the word out to stop herself from screaming at him and then hurtling the cell down the toilet. Still smiling, she said, �Do you have a particular date in mind?’ If she could get out of this she would but her company—her very reputation—was built on her personal touch. She brought her own unique take to matchmaking and it was hugely successful. The staff she employed were for technical and clerical support only.
�I’m flying to your part of the world shortly. Are you available to meet tomorrow?’
Xander lived on a Greek island. Elizabeth made some swift calculations. It had to be almost six a.m. there. What time did the man get up?
Then she remembered the news stories. He probably hadn’t gone to bed yet.
Or was he speaking to her from his bed? Did he have a woman asleep beside him at that very moment?
�Elizabeth?’
Swallowing back the sick feeling roiling in her stomach, she thought of her upcoming schedule. �When you say tomorrow...?’
�Saturday. I should land around three p.m. Eastern time.’
�I have a lunch appointment tomorrow.’
�So you can do the afternoon.’ It was a statement not a question and it set panic clawing through her.
�I’m free for the whole of Sunday,’ she said, jumping at the chance to delay the meeting, even if only by a day. �Do you know where my office is?’
�We won’t be meeting there. I need you to fly out to meet me.’
Prickles made a slow crawl up her spine but she kept her tone breezy. �Meet you where?’
�St Francis.’
All the air seemed to knock itself out of her lungs and the smile fell from her face.
�There won’t be time to get my jet to New York to collect you, so I’ll charter one to fly you over when your appointment’s finished,’ he continued. �Pack an overnight bag and keep Sunday clear for me.’
She couldn’t speak. Her brain had gone cold, her knees weakening enough that she shuffled back and sank onto the edge of her bed.
�Is there a problem, Elizabeth?’ There was a hint of challenge in his businesslike tone.
She covered her mouth to hide the sound of herself clearing her throat, then said, �There’s no problem at all. I’ll meet wherever it’s most convenient for you.’
�St Francis is where it’s convenient for me.’
�Are you aware I require a down payment of a quarter of my fee for overseas trips?’ She strove to keep her voice composed and her breathing even.
�Message me your banking details and the amount, and I’ll get it paid.’
Before she could think let alone voice any objection, he said, �That’s everything settled, then. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
And then the line went dead.
She pulled the phone away from her ear and gazed at it as if it might suddenly bite.
Had that really just happened?
Billionaires throwing their weight around was nothing new. She was used to acting on their whims and fancies, had once conducted an interview with a client in a luxury Saharan Bedouin tent less than twelve hours after his initial call. To reach billionaire status required a ruthlessness mere mortals struggled to achieve. They weren’t all bad people by any means but they were used to getting their own way and working to their own agenda, and she was used to complying with their whims. It was one of the reasons she’d become such a hit in their world.
Her conversation with Xander was a variety of one she’d held dozens of times with other clients. It hadn’t been anything special. They were strangers who happened to have been married once and spent a grand total of fourteen days together. He clearly had no residual feelings for her, just as she had none for him.
It was the destination of St Francis that had thrown her into a funk.
Of all the places in the world, why there? Why?
It couldn’t be coincidence that her ex-husband had chosen the very island where they’d met, married and separated to employ her services in finding him a new wife.
* * *
Xander disconnected the call and sighed heavily. He walked to his window and looked out over the Aegean, where the sun’s first rays bounced on the horizon between the lightening sky and the still dark sea.
That was a call he’d hoped to not have to make. After the furious row with his parents that had gone on into the early hours, he’d come to the conclusion he had no other choice.
For his nephew’s sake he needed a wife and he needed one now. It was sheer chance that he already had one.
All he had to do was convince Elizabeth to go along with it. After the way he’d ended things between them all those years ago, he knew he had a fight on his hands to get it. He could handle it. He was used to battles. Every day of his life was one.
He’d heard her sharp inhalation when he’d mentioned their destination. He’d deliberately kept their conversation short and to the point so she wouldn’t have time to object. He would not give her the time or place to reject his proposal.
Elizabeth wasn’t the girl he’d fallen for all those years ago who wore her heart on her sleeve and her emotions on her face. She’d matured into a discreet, professional woman with a cool analytical head.
She would need that cool head if she were to make the correct decision and agree to be his wife again.
CHAPTER TWO (#u38623b7b-9958-53da-ab3c-95efb4f64650)
THE PRIVATE JET Xander had chartered for her circled St Francis’s small airport. Elizabeth gripped the hand rest. It wasn’t fear of landing that made her knuckles whiten but fear of what the evening would bring.
She’d had one night to dream up something inventive to get out of it; family emergency, car accident, diabetic coma... She’d rejected every one of them.
When all was said and done, this was her job. Her services were discreet and known only to a select few, but those select few inhabited their own world. All it would take was one whisper of unprofessionalism or unreliability and the reputation she’d spent eight years building up would be smashed down.
The Xander she’d known didn’t exist. All she knew of the real Xander was his reputation, and that was of a man who didn’t suffer fools. If he had any affection left for her he wouldn’t have insisted they meet at St Francis.
She’d loved him once, with the whole of her heart. The morning she’d packed her suitcase full of excitement at the thought of flying to Diadonus, the island he lived on, to meet his family and begin their new life together, he’d pulled the rug out from under her. He’d told her that he’d made a mistake; that he didn’t love her, his family would hate her and he’d be returning to Diadonus alone.
Her lungs and stomach contracted into balls as the pain of that moment hit her afresh. But she would give anything to live it again, so she could keep her composure and not have his last memory of her being one where she could hardly breathe through the tears.
In their short time together on this island she would show nothing but her professional face. She would be polite and friendly. She would treat him exactly as she would any other client. She would smile and pretend he wasn’t a lying cheat who’d broken her heart.
The jet landed smoothly but that didn’t stop the nausea increasing. She hadn’t been this nervous since she’d walked out of her home and into the big wide world alone and unsupported.
The early evening sun still blazed over the pristine airport, casting the ground and small white terminal in a golden haze. She stepped off the jet, holding tightly to her carry-on case, purse and laptop bag. After the freezing New York temperatures, the warmth was welcome.
Before she’d travelled to St Francis, Elizabeth had never left the States, had hardly left New York. Then her granny had died and left some money for her only grandchild, her will stipulating clearly that she wanted Elizabeth to use some of it �to get out of this darn country and see something of the world’.
Her granny would be delighted to know Elizabeth’s work took her all over the world. And of all the places she’d been, this exclusive Caribbean island remained in her mind as the most beautiful place on earth...but the memory was tainted. It was as if the fine white sand had become tiny shards of glass and the clear blue Caribbean Sea, so enticing and welcoming, filled with poison.
An official in a golf buggy greeted her, gave her passport a cursory glance and whisked her off to the car park.
A rugged black four-by-four gleamed beside the terminal wall. At their approach, the driver got out, the setting sun enveloping him in the same haze as the surroundings.
Her heart leapt and her throat closed. It was Xander.
He strode towards her, his long legs covered by a pair of tan chinos, a short-sleeved pale blue shirt stretched across his honed torso, the brown hair she remembered as rumpled now cropped with a slight quiff at the front.
Her grip on her case tightened. He reached them, nodded at the driver and then fixed the sparkling blue eyes she’d once gazed into without blinking for what had seemed like hours on her...
Her insides turned to jelly. From deep in her chest a swell erupted; that awful need to burst into tears and sob. Where it came from she didn’t know, but she controlled it. She’d known this wouldn’t be easy and, she told herself, this would be the worst of it. That first time seeing and speaking to him again. That was always going to be the worst part and no amount of preparation could mitigate it.
�Elizabeth,’ he said by way of greeting, stretching out a hand.
She’d always loved how he pronounced her name. Her mother always affected an English accent when she said it. Her father always addressed her as Lizzy but she suspected that had always been to needle her mother. From Xander’s wide, generous mouth, her name rolled like a caress.
There was nothing wide or generous about his mouth now, fixed as it was in a tight line.
Plastering the brightest, most toothsome smile she could muster to her face, she released her hold on the case and accepted his hand. �It’s great to see you again.’
His lips curved into a taut smile. �You’re looking well.’
�Thank you.’ Still holding his hand, she used it for support to climb out of the golf buggy, pretending that every inch of her skin hadn’t started dancing at his touch.
He was as tall as she remembered but the years had given an added hardness to his physique and he’d gained an overall edginess she didn’t remember from before. The sparkle that had always been in his eyes was muted and faint lines had appeared on his face, yet somehow he was even better looking than he’d been a decade ago.
So gorgeous had he been that when he’d approached her on her arrival at La Maison Blanc Hotel and insisted on helping her with her luggage, she’d assumed he worked for the hotel. In hindsight, that he’d been wearing a pair of swim shorts and had had a towel slung over his shoulder should have been a giveaway that he was a guest rather than a hotel porter. That, and the fact the other porters had been wearing navy blue uniforms, right down to the silly hats they were forced to wear. Xander’s brown hair had been damp from a swim in the sea.
It had taken her a good ten minutes—enough time to check in and find her room—before she’d realised the drop-dead gorgeous young man with the infectious smile, sparkling blue eyes and a deep rich accent to die for wasn’t an employee but a fellow guest, and that he was helping her because he was interested in her. In her!
They’d arranged to meet at the pool bar an hour later. By the time she’d unpacked and changed she’d convinced herself she’d dreamt him up. But there he had been, exactly where he’d promised. Two cocktails later and she’d learned he was Greek, twenty years old, and a single traveller like herself. Dreamer that she was, she’d been convinced fate had brought them together.
�Is this everything you’ve brought with you?’ Xander asked, taking in the physical changes time had brought on his wife. He’d known she would have changed over the years but he hadn’t expected it to be quite so profound.
Ten years ago she’d had the rounded features of a young woman. Now she was leaner, her cheekbones more defined. Large dark glasses stopped him seeing her eyes but she had a polish to her, a sophistication far removed from the wide-eyed ingénue who had captured his attention from the very first glance. That Elizabeth had been a fresh-faced open book.
This Elizabeth, the rampant curls he remembered straightened and glossed into long, tumbling waves, was professional and collected. She was dressed in slim-fitting dark grey jeans with studs across the pockets, and a fitted white shirt, which together emphasised her litheness. She could be anywhere, at a semiformal business meeting or out with friends for lunch. She was the perfect chameleon. Her looks were too striking for people not to look twice at her but she would fit in perfectly wherever she happened to be.
He carried her case to his Jeep. Elizabeth easily kept pace with him. He’d forgotten how long her legs were, and lengthened further by a pair of simple yet sexy black heels.
She was sexy. The way she carried herself. Her confidence. She was dazzling.
He pulled the passenger door open and waited until she’d taken her seat before closing it. Through the slight breeze he caught her delicate scent, which put the frangipani and butterfly jasmine St Francis was famed for to shame.
�I’ve booked us a table at a restaurant on LuLu Beach,’ he said as he drove them out of the small airport, which mostly consisted of a landing strip and a pristine white hut. St Francis was one of the smaller Caribbean islands and had a colourful beauty that was world renowned. Not for nothing was it known as a honeymooner’s paradise.
He’d chosen St Francis for a myriad reasons. It hadn’t occurred to him that being on the island again would unsettle him so much. Sitting next to Elizabeth only unsettled him further, something he should have anticipated.
�Sounds good,’ she said in the same easy tone she’d greeted him with. Yet, despite her friendliness, he detected a frost around her.
He could be imagining it, he supposed, but he doubted it. Meeting an ex wasn’t normally a big deal but what he and Elizabeth had shared had been different from all his other relationships.
His honesty when he’d left her had verged on brutal but he’d known it was necessary. If he’d strung it out it would have hurt her a lot more.
Had she kept quiet about their annulment’s failure as a means of punishing him; to make a bigamist of him if he’d married again? Had she spent a decade quietly biding her time for revenge?
Or did she genuinely not know they were still married?
He would learn the truth soon enough. Either way, a clean break had been the right thing to do and he had no regrets on that front. He’d disconnected the call from his mother and looked at the woman he’d married five days before and understood what a terrible mistake he’d made. His world was cut-throat and ruthless. If a woman raised in it like Ana couldn’t cope, what chance would a dreamer like Elizabeth have? She would never have been accepted or fitted into it.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the LuLu Beach restaurant.
A waitress led them out to the terrace and to a table overlooking the beach. They sat opposite each other, both getting a good view of the tranquil surf lapping at the fine white sand like a loving puppy.
�Water for me,’ Elizabeth said when asked what she wanted to drink.
�Water?’ Xander queried.
�Water.’
He shrugged and turned to the waitress. �One water and one bottle of beer.’
Once they were alone again he openly studied Elizabeth. The setting sun made the honey of her hair look like spun gold. �You look as though life has treated you well.’
He wished she would take those damned sunglasses off so he could see her eyes and gauge what she was really thinking. The sun was now set so low its glare reflected directly off them.
* * *
�Thanks.’ Elizabeth resisted the urge to say she knew life had been treating him well. After all, Xander’s life had been all over the news and Internet for weeks.
She took a breath to calm the unexpected rage shooting through her.
Xander was her client and her clients’ private lives were none of her concern. The salacious stories about the other three men hadn’t bothered her in the slightest and she would not allow the burn that ravaged her brain whenever she imagined Xander acting out some of the described racier acts to cloud her judgement or control her emotions.
She’d thought she was prepared for this and for seeing him again but the racing of her heart and the dampness of her palms proved it to be a lie. She could have had a month to prepare and she still wouldn’t have been ready.
The waitress returned with their drinks then pulled her notepad out to take their food order. Elizabeth ordered the Yellowfin Tuna Tartare appetiser. She wasn’t hungry but it would be good to have something to nibble on, a distraction. Like most of the restaurants on the island, LuLu’s menu was a mixture of French and Creole. She’d adored the fusion when she’d been here before. She’d actively avoided both since. She’d avoided anything that would bring the memories back.
�Why did you want to meet here?’ she asked, glad the sun was still strong enough to warrant keeping her shades on. She’d read once the eyes were the gateway to one’s true emotions. She couldn’t bear to think of Xander looking into hers and seeing the pain all the bittersweet memories were evoking.
�It bothers you?’
�It bothers my pride. I have no issue finding a life partner for you but I do think you could have shown some sensitivity and chosen somewhere neutral for us to meet.’
�I don’t require a life partner. I require a wife.’
�Is that not the same thing?’
�A life partner suggests permanency. I only need a temporary wife.’
Removing her professional notebook from her bag, Elizabeth wrote �temporary marriage’ in it and circled it so heavily the nib of her pen bent.
Determined as she was to keep things on a professional footing, she couldn’t help but say, �Using your ex-wife to find you a new wife is one thing, but conducting the preliminary interview on the very island we met and married screams insensitive jerk to me. You have the money and resources to travel anywhere your heart desires so why here? Was it to rub my nose in it?’
When she finally looked at him, he was staring at her with a look she couldn’t interpret.
�I had a number of reasons.’
She forced herself to remain poised. If he wanted to play mind games he could play them on his own. She was here to do a job and nothing else. �Tell me what kind of woman you have in mind to marry. Are there any turn-offs I need to avoid, like smokers or bearded ladies?’
Or five-foot-eight blondes with a pedigree your mother wouldn’t approve of.
She wished she had a chain-smoker with the world’s worst halitosis on her books to fix him up with.
Elizabeth waited for him to answer but his gaze remained on her, the same unfathomable expression on his gorgeous face.
Uncertainty crept up her spine. The way he was looking at her...
He took a swig of his beer then set the bottle steadily on the table.
�I don’t need you to find me a wife, Elizabeth. I already have one.’ He leaned forward and lowered his voice. �There is no easy way for me to say this but you’re still my wife. Our marriage was never annulled. We’re still married.’
* * *
Xander watched the blood drain from Elizabeth’s face.
Long moments passed before she gave a quick shake of her head and finally removed her shades.
The dazzling amber eyes Xander had never forgotten finally met his, flecks of gold and red firing at him, disbelief resonating. Not even a professional actress could fake shock that well. It put the last of his doubts to rest. She hadn’t known.
Although the compression in his chest loosened a little at this, it made no difference to how things needed to proceed.
�Elizabeth?’
Her throat moved. Her words came out in a croak. �Our marriage was annulled.’
�Our annulment was rejected by the judge at the last hurdle.’
Blinking rapidly, she put her sunglasses back on and pushed them up to sit atop her head. �You’re not joking, are you?’
He shook his head and watched her slump in her chair.
She inhaled heavily. �I don’t get it.’
Xander had a two-week heads up on it and he still didn’t understand. �Did you ever receive official confirmation?’
Her eyes were wide and bewildered before she put her elbows on the table and rubbed at her forehead. �I received confirmation of the paperwork. I remember that. I remember it saying it would be rubber-stamped within a month, or whatever the time frame was.’ She looked back at him. �It was ten years ago. I don’t remember all the details.’
�But you don’t remember receiving the official annulment?’
�I...’ She slumped some more. �I moved out.’
�Moved out from where?’
�My mother’s. I left home soon after I received the confirmation letter. Mom was supposed to forward all my mail to me but she didn’t. I ended up having to redirect it myself.’ She straightened and let out a forced shaky laugh, muttering, �I can’t believe her.’
Their marriage had been too short-lived to get to the �meet the parent’ stage. They’d both been so wrapped up in each other they’d hardly spoken of their families. All he’d known of hers was that her parents were divorced and she was an only child. She’d taken a vacation to St Francis on the back of an inheritance she’d received from her paternal grandmother.
Elizabeth shook her head, trying to clear it of all the noise crowding in it. She felt as if she could explode. She shoved her chair back and got to her feet. �I need to walk.’
He stayed seated, a set look on his handsome face, his blue eyes turning to steel as they held hers. �You can walk later. Right now we need to talk.’
Her stomach clenched and there was a moment she feared she would bring up the morsel of food she’d managed to eat since their phone call the evening before.
Being with Xander again was a thousand times harder than she’d imagined and learning they were still married...
It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t.
Yet somehow it was.
Swallowing a ragged breath, she sat back down heavily.
The sun had almost set, its orange crescent gleaming over the horizon, the sky a deep blue shining with stars peeking out and waving at them. Such a beautiful sight and one that felt sacrilegious with all the turmoil Xander had just thrown her into.
Their food was brought to them. Xander had ordered monkfish fillets. The delicious scent from it turned her stomach.
Elizabeth looked at her tuna tartare, beautifully presented with an avocado salad, and knew she wouldn’t be able to manage even a bite of it.
�Why was the annulment denied?’ she asked, trying frantically to get a grip on herself.
�The judge determined there were “no unknown facts from either party” and that “no law had been broken” so there was nothing to justify it.’
�But we were only married for five days.’
He sighed. �Another judge would probably have rubber-stamped it without any issue. We were unlucky that ours landed on the desk of a judge who took issue with it. We’ll never know his real reasons why—he passed away four years ago. How did you not know the annulment was declined?’
�I never received the letter.’ Her mother had probably thrown it away unopened in a fit of pique.
�You’ve already said that, but why didn’t you chase it? It seems strange that you didn’t call or do something to find out where the confirmation was.’
�The same could be said for you,’ she retorted, removing her gaze from the sunset to look at him. �Didn’t you think you would receive something too?’
�Hardly. I live on the other side of the world. You said you would handle it. As I recall, you insisted.’
�How long have you known?’ she asked tightly.
�Just over two weeks.’
She clenched her fists to stop herself from lashing out at him. �You’ve waited that long to tell me?’
�I was trying to work out the best way forward. I only looked into it because I was hoping to bury the annulment so the press wouldn’t find out.’
�Why would you do that?’
�The press are digging into every aspect of my life. I knew it would only be a matter of time before they stumbled onto it. I thought it best to bury it completely before they found it and used it as additional ammunition to hit me with. My family don’t know about us...’
�You never got round to telling them? What a surprise.’ She didn’t bother hiding her sarcasm. My family will never approve of or accept you.
She hadn’t told her own family either but that had been for entirely different reasons. She hadn’t been ashamed of Xander. She’d just been too humiliated and heartbroken to speak of it. She couldn’t have endured hearing her mother’s condemnation and her father’s fake concern on top, then the fights as they tried to find ways to blame the other for it. Because it was always about them, never about her.
�Things are hard for us at the moment without having to deal with all the press intrusion,’ he said.
�Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?’ He’d been engaged to another woman. He’d used her and lied to her and then dumped her in the cruellest way possible.
�You’re not supposed to feel anything. I’m just telling you how it is.’
�But you had to fly me all this way to tell me? You could have told me in New York—you could have told me anywhere. It seems particularly cruel to bring me to the island we were married on just to discuss our divorce. Well, you have nothing to worry about. I have more to lose than you if our marriage comes out and I want it buried just as much as you...’
�If I wanted a divorce I would have been in touch two weeks ago.’
Shaking off the fresh dread crawling up her spine at his words, Elizabeth said tightly, �You went through the court records specifically to bury our marriage.’
�That was my original intention,’ he agreed easily although his eyes remained hard. �Learning we were still married changed things.’
The dread had lodged into her throat, suffocating her vocal cords so all she could do was plead with her eyes. Don’t say it. Whatever you do, don’t say it.
�I need us to rekindle our marriage.’
CHAPTER THREE (#u38623b7b-9958-53da-ab3c-95efb4f64650)
HIS MEANING HIT Elizabeth immediately, no initial instant of uncomprehending shock, no moment of bewilderment. �Not in a million years.’
�You’re a matchmaker, Elizabeth,’ he said calmly. �You arrange marriages...’
�For other people,’ she interjected.
�I want to employ you to rekindle ours. It won’t be for ever, a few months at the most.’
A passing waiter noticed they hadn’t touched their food. �Is everything all right? Can I get you anything?’
�I’d like a cab to the airport,’ Elizabeth said.
Bemusement spread over the waiter’s face. �The airport’s closed now.’
She’d completely forgotten flights were forbidden on or off the island after sundown.
�We’ll have two coffees,’ Xander cut in smoothly while she eyed him furiously.
�Cappuccino, latte...?’
�Two filter coffees will be fine.’
As the waiter drifted back inside, Elizabeth leaned forward and glared at Xander. �Is that why you brought me here? So I couldn’t escape?’
�Partly. I had a number of reasons.’
�Well, guess what? I don’t care what your reasons are. Keeping me here overnight isn’t going to change my mind so you’ve lucked out there. I’m not doing it. Period.’
If he was perturbed by her vehemence, he didn’t show it. Xander was treating the bombshell he’d just thrown at her as dispassionately as if he were conducting a business deal. She could be anyone to him, whereas for Elizabeth...
He had once been her world. Being with him again brought everything back. All of it. The delirious happiness followed by pain so sharp she had never allowed herself to get close to feeling either emotion again. They went hand in glove. If she hadn’t known the joy she would never have suffered so much in the aftermath.
But it hadn’t killed her. It had made her stronger and she would hold on to that strength.
�You don’t even need a wife,’ she said in a much calmer tone than the explosion her tongue wanted to fire. �Your business has been completely unaffected by the Celebrity Spy! scandal...’
�It has nothing to do with my business.’
The waiter wandered back to them with their coffees, eyeing their still untouched plates with obvious confusion.
Once alone again, Xander stirred a spoonful of brown sugar into his cup and then fixed his eyes on her. �My sister-in-law is an alcoholic. She’s recently been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. If she doesn’t stop drinking she will be dead within five years.’
�You’re talking about Katerina?’ Elizabeth asked, shocked at this revelation.
His brow furrowed. �You remember her name?’
Feeling her body heat under his narrow-eyed scrutiny, she took a hasty sip of her coffee.
How embarrassing to remember the name of a woman she’d never met who had probably been mentioned only the once, and in passing at that. But she remembered every conversation between them, had committed to memory the names of his family members. She’d looked forward to meeting them and being a part of their lives.
�Yes. I’m talking about Katerina,’ Xander continued when Elizabeth didn’t bother to answer his question. �I don’t know what will happen to her or if she will be able to stop drinking. I just don’t know. But what happened to her has acted as a wake-up call to my brother. I have been begging him for years to get help for his addictions.’ He gave a small tight smile. �Yanis’s poison of choice is cocaine, but he’s not fussy. If it comes in white powder form he’ll snort it. If it comes in liquid form he’ll inject it.’
Now he reached for his coffee and cradled the cup in the same manner Elizabeth was cradling hers.
�Yanis admitted himself into a specialist lockdown facility in America ten days ago.’
The facility in Arizona was supposed to be one of the best in the world. Xander hoped with all his heart it could help his brother. If not...
He didn’t want to witness his brother’s coffin being lowered into the cold ground. He’d watched Ana’s body be lowered and the grief and guilt had almost sliced him in two. He couldn’t go through the same with his own flesh and blood, the only adult in his family he felt any affection for.
�That’s good,’ Elizabeth said in a softer tone. The stoniness of her eyes had softened a little too.
�It is. Very much so. He’ll be in rehab for around two months. As Katerina is unlikely to leave hospital any time soon and will not be in a position to look after their son, Yanis left Loukas in my care.’
�Loukas is your nephew?’
Xander nodded. �He’s eight. Despite all the crap he’s had to put up with, he’s a great kid.’ And now he’d come to the real reason he needed her. �My parents have hired a lawyer to go for custody of him.’
Elizabeth’s brows drew together. �Custody of Loukas?’
�Yes. Full custody. They’re saying Yanis and Katerina are unfit parents.’
He could see her brain whirling before she tentatively said, �Is giving them custody really a bad thing? What, with the way your brother and Katerina are...?’
�It is the worst thing,’ he stated flatly. �My brother, when he’s not high, is a good father. He’s doing everything he can to straighten himself out so he can care properly for his son. My parents have made this move knowing full well that neither Yanis nor Katerina are in a position to fight it, so I must fight on their behalf.’
�But...’
�Elizabeth, I will not allow my parents to take custody of him. I wouldn’t allow it even on a temporary basis.’
�Where’s Loukas now?’
�At my home. I have a court order granting me temporary custody for two more weeks and then there will be another hearing. Now they know they’re fighting me, my parents will go for the jugular. They will paint me as an unfit guardian too.’
�Why?’
�To stop me from winning. This scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time. It’s painting me as someone debauched and without any morals. The only way I’ll be able to convince the court to let me keep guardianship of Loukas and fight Yanis’s corner is if I can prove I have a stable home for him, and that’s why I need us to rekindle our marriage. Having you as my wife will prove I’m a stable influence and kill my parents’ plans.’
�It’s that simple?’
�Sure.’ He took a sip of his coffee. �My country is still inherently conservative with a bias towards female carers. With you as my wife, they will see two people able to care for Loukas until his parents are well enough to take him back. If my parents get custody, they will never give him back.’
Her eyes clouded. �Are they really likely to do that?’
�Without doubt. My family has been at war for years and my parents think they finally have a chance of winning a battle.’
Elizabeth removed her shades from the top of her head and folded the bows, her eyes distant, not looking at him, clearly weighing up everything he’d just shared.
�It really is quite simple,’ he said. �You and I announce our marriage to the world and stay together long enough for Yanis to get straight. With any luck, Katerina will make the road to recovery too.’
�And what if Yanis gets straight but then relapses?’ she challenged. �Will I be expected to act as your wife again?’
He shook his head. �As soon as he’s released from his facility, I’ll get the steps put in place that I am to be Loukas’s legal guardian in the absence of his parents. You and I will stay married until this has been done. Yanis will agree. If we’d known our parents would take this action we would have done it before but neither of us imagined even they would stoop so low. They hardly know Loukas.’
They should have imagined it, Xander thought grimly. His parents were a law unto themselves. They treated family life as they treated business: as a sport in which there could only be one winner.
�As I said, it’s a simple matter of us rekindling our marriage. I appreciate it’s asking a lot of you...’
�A lot?’ she exclaimed, blinking furiously. �My business will be finished. Everything I’ve worked for...gone. It works on discretion, remember? And what about the rest of my life?’
�What life, Elizabeth? All you do is work.’
At the darkening of her features, he figured he might as well get everything out in the open and deal with it all in one go. �I had you investigated. There’s no significant other in your life. You have some friends you socialise with occasionally and you take yoga classes when time allows, but there is nothing else. So tell me, what will you be giving up to help me?’
Now her face was ablaze with outraged colour. �You went digging into my life? Well, that explains how you discovered Leviathan Solutions.’
He was unrepentant. �I learned about your business when searching for our annulment. I had a deeper search made to be sure you had nothing in your past that could be used to paint you as an unsuitable guardian for Loukas.’
As it was, his investigations hadn’t revealed anything. If she had skeletons in her closet, they were tucked too far out of reach for discovery. If she’d dated anyone unsavoury, that was hidden away too. Indeed, he hadn’t found evidence of a link with anyone, not even a fling, never mind anything approaching a committed relationship. Whatever relationships she’d had in the past decade, they’d been conducted discreetly and that was all that mattered.
�I don’t care what excuses you make, that’s a gross invasion of my privacy,’ she raged. �It’s inexcusable.’
�If you were in my position you would have done the same.’
�If I were in your position I wouldn’t need to—your private life is splattered on the front page of every red top for the whole world to see.’
�I can assure you the vast majority of it is highly exaggerated, the rest of it lies,’ he said icily.
�Of course it is.’ Her sarcasm was delivered with extra bitterness.
His temper rising, Xander finished his coffee and carefully set the cup on the table before pointing to the beach. �Do you see the man with the camera round his neck?’
She followed his gaze.
�That man is a paparazzo, tipped off by my assistant that we’re here.’
Her face contorted into such anger she looked ready to explode.
�He has your name. He knows about Leviathan Solutions and the service you provide. He knows we’re married. What the story that accompanies his pictures tells is for you to decide.’
Elizabeth listened to Xander’s words and knew her world was crumbling around her.
He’d set her up.
Whatever happened between them, pictures of one of the Casanovas from the Celebrity Spy! scandal pictured in a Caribbean paradise with a woman purported to be his wife would beam around the world. It would be headline news.
�I can’t believe you would do this.’ She was so angry she could hardly breathe. �You say your parents have stooped low...you are exactly like them.’
He was unrepentant. �I regret I’ve had to take these steps but everything I’m doing is for my nephew. If you say no to my proposal I have nothing left to play. I have nothing left to lose. My reputation can’t be damaged any more than it already has been. Say yes and you’ll be financially set for life. Thirty million dollars for you, and I’ll pay off your staff too.’
Elizabeth listened with the feeling of talons being dragged over her skin and her head swimming in cold sludge.
Her business was finished. Her life—everything she’d built for herself—was over.
Once the world learned she was married to this Casanova and her face graced the front pages of all the glossies and all the major Internet search engines, no one would be able to risk using her discreet services any more.
As if on cue, the photographer put the camera to his eye and fired off a ream of shots of them.
She took a long breath and rose from the table, pulling herself to her full height. �I would have agreed to do it without the threats and blackmail.’
�I couldn’t take the risk you would say no. I haven’t seen you in ten years. For all I knew you were holding a grudge against me. I had to consider if you’d deliberately withheld the failure of our annulment as a weapon to use against me when a time came that suited you.’
�What? How could you think such a thing?’ She shook her head, trying to comprehend it. Ten years ago she’d laid herself bare to him, in all senses, and he thought her capable of something like that?
�Manipulation is a common thing in my world. I can count the number of people I trust on two fingers.’
�Well, you’ve certainly mastered the art of manipulation yourself,’ she said bitterly. Where was the man she’d married? That man had been nothing like this.
A pulse throbbed in his jaw. �I am trying to protect my nephew.’
�When adults go to war it’s always the child who suffers the most.’ She knew that better than anyone. �I would never stand by and let it happen if there was something I could do about it. You didn’t need to go to such grotesque lengths for my help. You didn’t need to make me hate you more than I already do.’
�I’m sure the thirty million I’m offering will sweeten the pill.’
�No amount of money will recompense for the loss of my business and the invasion of my privacy.’
�You want more money?’
She caught the sneer on his lips, which only fuelled her fury further. �Don’t try and make me out to be a money-grabber,’ she snapped. �If you hadn’t given Celebrity Spy! so much gossip to shout about, you wouldn’t be in this mess and you wouldn’t need me to get you out of it—your moral fibre wouldn’t even be a matter of discussion. Your parents wouldn’t be able to paint you as an unfit guardian.’
Another flash of anger resonated from his eyes but his lips formed into a taut smile. �Your opinion of my character means nothing to me. All I want is your agreement. Do I have it?’
�I don’t have any damn choice.’
�I’m pleased you can see that.’
�But let’s get one thing straight. Our marriage will be as short as possible and strictly platonic.’
The pulse in his jawline throbbed harder. �Married couples in my family share adjoining rooms. It’s an arrangement that will suit us.’
�Good. And any adjoining door will have a lock.’
�Yes.’ His eyes glinted through the darkness, impossible to read. He got to his feet and pulled some notes from his wallet. �It’s time to go—we have a hotel to check into.’
�We?’
�Yes, kardia mou,’ he said with a mocking smile. �We are setting the seeds for the rekindling of our marriage. We have been pictured dining together. That photographer has been given the name of our hotel. I guarantee you he has a scooter in easy reach for him to rush there and meet us. Come the morning, the world will know we have spent the night together. All that will be left for us to do is make a statement, which I have already prepared.’
�My God, you’ve planned everything.’
�You don’t get to my position without forward thinking.’
�Really? I could have sworn you’d got to your position through a fate of birth.’
It gave fleeting satisfaction to see his face darken at that comment.
�But really, Xander, is this necessary? Do you really think your parents are going to be fooled by us getting back together when they didn’t even know I existed? Don’t you think they’ll find it convenient?’
When he replied his voice was tightly controlled. �It’s not my parents we need to convince, it’s the judge, and, unless you want to forfeit the money, I suggest you make it very convincing.’
* * *
�You have got to be kidding me.’ Elizabeth’s voice was flat but her amber eyes blasted incredulity and fury right at him.
Xander brought the car to a stop at the front of La Maison Blanc Hotel. �Is there a problem?’
�Why here?’
�Because it’s fitting. This is where we married and now it’s where we’re rekindling our marriage.’
�And to hell with my feelings, eh?’ She shook her head with loathing. �Just when I didn’t think it was possible to hate you more...’
�Hate me as much as you want in private, but in public...’ He nodded at the scooter that had come to a screech at the hotel’s entrance.
She sucked in her cheeks and contemplated the photographer, whose camera was still around his neck. �This is pointless. No one’s going to believe we’re for real, especially not a judge. I hate you. And you never even mentioned me to your family or...’
�I never mentioned you to anyone because the topic was too painful,’ he cut in smoothly. �We never wanted to part but we were too young at the time and we knew it would never work. You called me when the scandal first erupted to offer your support. My world was falling apart around me and you were there for me.’
He stretched out a hand to touch her face. The soft, almost translucent skin still felt like satin to his touch. Before she could flinch away he wound his fingers round the back of her head and gathered a large mass of her thick hair into his fist. He wondered what had happened to her curls. He’d adored the shaggy mop of hair she’d sported a decade ago.
�It was in the course of one of our discussions that we realised our annulment had never gone through and we were still married.’ He leaned closer and studied the soft kissable lips that were pressed tightly together sucking in the rounded cheekbones.
Did those lips still taste the same? Would they still fit to his as if they’d been moulded specially?
She’d stopped breathing. Her eyes had widened, her face a frozen mask.
Still gazing at her mouth, resisting the urge to run a finger over it, he continued, �It was also through the course of our talks on the phone that I remembered how special you were to me and all my old feelings for you came back. I convinced you to meet me here because I wanted to see if the old magic was still alive. We realised how much we still loved each other and decided that we’d both matured enough to make our marriage work.’
He released his hold on her hair and let his fingers drift down the slender neck he had once kissed every part of, and felt the tiniest of shivers under his fingers.
Her eyes were wide and stark on his.
A long-forgotten memory sluiced him; their first time together, her dreamy pleasure, her soft moans...
The flash of the photographer’s camera cut through the moment and pulled him back to the present.
He removed his hand from her neck.
Elizabeth might have an allure that sang to his senses but this was one relationship he had no intention of taking to the bedroom. Things were going to be difficult enough between them without throwing sex into the mix.
It gave him no pleasure to threaten and blackmail her but he couldn’t afford to give her a way out. Loukas was all he cared about and he would do whatever it took to keep his nephew out of his parents’ clutches, even if it meant destroying the woman he had once thought himself in love with.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u38623b7b-9958-53da-ab3c-95efb4f64650)
�OH, THAT IS very clever,’ Elizabeth whispered after a long pause during which her breathing deepened. �Machiavelli would be proud.’
Xander didn’t say a word. What could he say?
It wasn’t for ever, he told himself in mitigation. A few months of her life at the most, and he would pay her handsomely for it.
�Just tell me how you plan to explain Ana.’
His stomach lurched. �You know about her?’
Throughout the years, whenever an unguarded moment found him thinking of Elizabeth, he would wonder if she’d learned of Ana. He’d never spoken of Ana to the press but occasionally an article would appear that mentioned his tragic fiancée.
When Xander had ended his engagement, he hadn’t hung around to deal with the fallout. He’d been sick of everything: his family, her family... He’d needed a break from it all. And so he’d found himself in St Francis, where he’d met Elizabeth.
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