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Interest burned bright in Chloe’s emerald gaze. “How young?”
“Nineteen.”
“How old was she?” Chloe asked, proving an insight he didn’t expect.
“Twenty-seven.” And Shannon had had an entire universe worth more experience than he had with sex and the male-female thing.
He’d avoided it because of what he’d seen in his parents’ marriages, so he’d been entirely unprepared for a piranha like Shannon to come into his life.
Chloe stopped eating, fiddling with her silverware instead. “How long did it last?”
“Long enough for her to gather enough inside information so her father could steal a multimillion-dollar deal out from under me.” Long enough for him to tell Shannon that he loved her and wanted to be together always.
Even then, he’d been jaded about marriage, so when she’d broached the subject, he’d said they didn’t need legal bindings to know what they were to each other. It had been all romance at the time, only later had he given thanks for that one small foresight.
“I … oh …” Chloe frowned, her eyes troubled. “It wasn’t like that with us.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“No, of course not. I didn’t try to get any deals for my father.”
“You got him a lot of cash.”
“That was your idea … yours and his. I wasn’t even brought in until the deal between you two was negotiated.”
“True.” He frowned, annoyed by the fact that their discussion had already gone off script to what he’d planned. “We got sidetracked rather spectacularly earlier. You never answered my question.”
For several seconds Chloe looked confused, but then her expression cleared, only to turn into a frown. “You mean why I’d asked to meet with you? Are you still pretending not to know?”
“It is no pretense. You have agreed that you’ve changed, implied there is no love lost between you and your father, and yet here you are.”
“Because my sister asked me to fall at your feet in supplication. And because her husband begged me to save my sister.” Chloe shrugged her thin shoulders. “I don’t think I have that power, but I’ll try.”
The image her words evoked made his slacks uncomfortably tight, but he merely said, “For the sake of your family’s fortune.”
Now was not the time to be sidetracked by sexual innuendo or fantasizing.
“For the sake of my family, or at least the ones that still matter to me,” Chloe said with conviction. “But Rhea also reminded me of the hundreds of people employed by Dioletis Industries. I can’t turn my back on all those families without at least asking you to show a little mercy.”
Her expression indicated she had little hope in the success of her request, but that it was important enough to her to try. That was easy to believe. Even in their first meeting, Chloe had evinced concern for the employees of her father’s company. No doubt their welfare had been one of the screws her father had turned five years ago.
And Rhea was using it again now, to great effect.
Ariston was tempted to shake his ex-wife and demand if she didn’t realize she was being used again. However, he had his own plans and they didn’t include pointing out weaknesses he wanted to exploit as well.
“This is about the rumors circulating that I plan to offload my stock in Dioletis Industries.”
The privately held company had gone public the year before in a bid to save it. It might have worked if Ariston hadn’t been working behind the scenes, but as it stood the company wavered precariously on the precipice of bankruptcy. It would take only a simple shove on the right leverage point to push it over, and Ariston held that leverage.
In more ways than one, the most obvious being his chunk of stock that if he unloaded onto the market in one big block would devalue the rest until the company’s viability would be placed in question. At that point, its creditors would have no choice other than to demand bankruptcy proceedings.
Particularly those under Ariston’s financial umbrella. The Spiridakou name was no longer on all of the company’s concerns and that worked well for Ariston in times like these.
“Partly.” She sighed and looked away, a telling response.
Ah, so, as he’d expected and hoped, the Dioletis family wanted more from him than his promise to hold on to his stock.
Finally the script was going according to plan. “Mercy has no place in business. Surely your father taught you that.”
“I don’t share my father’s views and particularly not in that regard.” Chloe glared at him, clearly offended.
He almost smiled. This was turning out to be almost too easy. “If I don’t sell my shares, the company as it stands will only stay afloat another year, maybe two at the most.”
