AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he married their bonds would be destroyed.
He breathed deeply, then nodded. ‘I can agree to that. But until then...’
‘Until then I am yours.’
CHAPTER NINE
HELIOS CLICKED ON Leander Soukis’s profile and stared hard at it. There was something about the young man’s chin and the colouring of his hair that reminded him of Amy, but that was the only resemblance he could see. How could Amy share half her DNA with this layabout? Amy was one of the hardest workers he’d ever met, which, in a palace and museum full of overachievers was saying something.
And how she could be from the loins of Neysa Soukis was beyond his comprehension. Helios had done his homework on Amy’s birth mother and what he had learned had not given him hope of a happy ending.
Neysa was a social climber. Approaching fifty, she still had a refined beauty. She had a rich older husband, who doted on her, and a comfortable lifestyle. Helios vaguely recalled meeting her husband at a palace function a few years back. Neysa had married him when she was twenty-one, less than two years after having Amy. Why she hadn’t confessed to having had a child he could only speculate upon, but his guess was that it had nothing to do with shame and everything to do with fear. No doubt she’d been scared of losing the wealth that came with her marriage.
Neysa had put money before her own flesh and blood. If Helios had his way Amy wouldn’t be allowed within a mile’s radius of the woman. But he understood how deep blood could go. That morning he’d met his nephew for the first time. He’d felt an instant thump in his heart.
This little boy, this walking, talking dark-haired creation was a part of him. His family. His bloodline. He was a Kalliakis, and Helios had felt the connection on an emotional level.
It might break her heart in the process, but Amy deserved to know her bloodline too.
Whether the Soukis family deserved her was another matter...
If they did break her heart he would be there to pick up the pieces and help her through it, just as Amy had been there with a comforting embrace whenever the pain of his grandfather’s illness had caught him in its grip.
Thinking quickly, Helios drafted a private message. If having a decree from the heir to the throne didn’t motivate Leander to bring his mother and half-sister together, nothing would.
* * *
‘Amy, you’re late for your meeting.’
‘What meeting?’ she asked Pedro in surprise, looking down at him from her position on a stepladder, from where she was adjusting the portraits lining the first exhibition room. She wanted them to be hung perfectly, not so much as a millimetre out of alignment.
The museum and the palace tours had been closed to visitors all week in order to prepare for the Gala. As a result the palace and its grounds were in a state of absolute frenzy, with helicopters landing on the palace helipad on a seemingly constant basis. And the Gala was still a day away!
She’d never known the palace to be such a hive of activity. There was a buzz about the place, and information and gossip were being dripped in from so many sources, including the more serious museum curators, whose heads were usually stuck in historical tomes, that it seemed like a spreading infection.
The Orchestre National de Paris had arrived to great fanfare, a world-famous circus troupe had been spotted lurking in the grounds, the gardens had been closed off to allow even more blooms to be planted... Everywhere Amy went something magical was occurring.
The exhibition was to all intents and purposes ready for the very exclusive private tour that would be conducted after the pre-Gala lunch. Another, less exclusive tour would take place on Sunday, and the museum and exhibition would open to the public on Monday. From then on it really would be all systems go. Ticket demand had exceeded expectations.
She wanted it to be perfect—not just because of her professional pride, but also for Helios, his grandfather and his brothers.
‘Your meeting with Helios,’ Pedro said. ‘He’s waiting for you in his private offices.’
‘Oh.’ She rubbed at her lips, avoiding Greta’s curious stare, willing them both not to notice the flames licking at her face.
Helios had been as good as his word. No one knew they were sharing a bed again, not even Greta. It wasn’t just guilt preventing Amy from confiding in her friend, but the feeling that what she and Helios had now was just too intimate to share.
‘Yes. Yes, I remember.’
Excusing herself politely, still not meeting their eyes, Amy hurried away. When she’d kissed Helios goodbye that morning, before coming to work, she’d assumed that he would be flat-out busy all day. His itinerary had given her a headache just looking at it. A frisson ran up her spine as she imagined what he might be wanting from her. She doubted very much that it had anything to do with the museum.
