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* * *
Across the ancient city the floodlit Parthenon blazed on the Acropolis. But Rosalie, standing on the balcony of Xandros’s apartment, her hands clutching the railing, was blind to it. Blind and deaf to everything except the thought pounding in her head like a merciless drum.
You have to tell him—you have to tell him.
She had to tell Xandros what her father had said. Threatened. Because it had been a threat—a stark and ruthless threat. No baby—no merger.
She felt her stomach clench.
We thought we were outmanoeuvring him...turning the tables on him. Now he’s turned them back on us!
The feeling of sick dismay that had filled her at her father’s words was there again, and she could not rid herself of it. How could she not dread having to tell Xandros...? Tell him that their marriage had been pointless all along. That the merger he wanted so badly was going to be impossible to achieve.
I have to tell him! But I can’t—not yet! Not tonight!
She wanted—craved—a little longer with him before she had to shatter his hopes. Just a little longer...
With a smothered cry, she wrenched herself away, hurrying indoors. Xandros would be home soon, and she had to change for the dinner dance they were going to tonight. She had another new evening gown to show off to him. She must look as beautiful as she always strove to look for him—had to see his eyes light and glint with admiration and desire...
Just give me tonight with him! I’ll tell him tomorrow—in the morning...
As though it might be easier then... When it was going to be the hardest thing in the world.
* * *
Xandros was leading her out onto the dance floor, taking her into his arms. Rosalie’s eyes clung to him. He was looking as superb as he always looked in black tie, and she knew by the expression in his eyes as he gazed down at her that she was spectacular, in a sumptuous off-the-shoulder gown in champagne satin, with diamond drops at her ears, her hair upswept into an elaborate style, her make-up full and dramatic.
All around were couples equally resplendent, and chandeliers glittered above them as Xandros swept her away into the dance. Rosalie clung to him as he whirled her around—a former Cinderella at yet another lavish ball, dancing the night away with the most handsome man in the room. Her very own prince... Living the high life. Living the dream...
But what was the dream? What would it be worth to me, all this lavish luxury, if I wasn’t here with Xandros?
She heard the question in her head as her gaze drank him in. Her fingers tightened on his sleeve as she leaned into his tall, hard body with unconscious closeness. She knew, without any shadow of a doubt, and with a catch in her heart that tightened the vice that had been squeezing around her ever since that ugly confrontation with her father, that without Xandros none of this glitter and glitz and luxury and wealth would be anything at all!
It’s Xandros I want—and I would want him even if we were living as simply as Maria and Panos do. It would be paradise enough because I would be with Xandros.
But what use was it, that searing self-knowledge?
It was true for her, not him!
She might want Xandros only for himself—not for the freedom from poverty he promised her, not for the taste of luxury she was enjoying in this time she had with him—but he saw it very differently.
The vice tightened around her heart again.
He wants me only as a gateway to his merger with my father’s business.
And if that gateway slammed shut Xandros would end their marriage. There would be no reason to continue it.
Unless...
As she gazed up at Xandros in the whirl of the dance she felt a rush of emotion so intense she could not bear it. Felt a temptation she could hardly dare give thought to. Yet it burned in her head...
What if I don’t tell Xandros? If I never tell him my father’s impossible demand?
The thought swirled through her as the music whirled them about—a thought that stung her conscience like a wasp.
I could do what my father wants—it would be so easy...
Since their honeymoon she had taken responsibility for contraception by going on the Pill. All she had to do was stop taking it...
