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With something that was the very opposite of dismay...
And then Xandros was seizing her, dragging her into the room, holding her by her shoulders.
‘Rosalie? What the hell?’
She heard words breaking from him.
‘So that’s why there’s no trace of you here as a guest!’ He was staring at her, shock in his face. ‘How can you possibly be working here?’ he demanded.
‘They...they provide accommodation for housekeeping staff,’ she said falteringly. ‘I gave up my old bedsit when—’
He cut across her, an expletive breaking from him and then a volley of vehement Greek.
‘We have to talk,’ he said grimly.
He propelled her to the room’s armchair, pressing her down into it. Her legs were like jelly and she sank down heavily. It was as if a storm was breaking out in her head.
Xandros towered over her.
‘Why the hell did you leave Athens like that? Without talking to me first?’ he demanded.
His eyes were like black pits, his face stark.
‘To say what, Xandros?’ she cried in reply.
Her heart was hammering, each beat a blow hard enough to crush her to the ground.
It was unbearable to see him.
I thought I would never set eyes on him again.
Pain clutched at her at the thought—and at the reality of seeing him. Because there was no reason for him to have sought her! No point—no purpose.
No purpose in anything now except what she had to do now—what she was telling him, the words tearing from her.
‘It was obvious what I had to do. I had to set you free!’ She swallowed, and there was a razor blade in her throat, drawing blood. ‘Free to marry Ariadne.’ Her voice changed. ‘As you always wanted to.’
He was staring at her, his brows snapping together in an uncomprehending black frown. He lowered himself to the bed, leaning forward. In the low light his features seemed gaunt and strained, and tension racked his jacketless shoulders.
Helplessly, she let her eyes rest on the way his powerful chest moulded the fine material of his shirt... Then she dragged her pointless gaze away. He was gone from her—as distant as the stars in the sky. All she had to do now was tell him that she knew that, accepted it...
‘Your mother told me, Xandros!’ she said, her voice twisting painfully. ‘Told me what I had absolutely no idea of! That you and Ariadne were once engaged!’
‘My mother—’ His voice was bitter.
‘Xandros! Don’t blame her! I’m grateful to her—incredibly grateful! She was as kind as she could possibly have been about it! She was upset—I could see she was. Upset for me as well as upset because obviously the whole situation is a mess! An unholy, hideous mess!’ A cry broke from her. ‘If only you hadn’t given up on Ariadne! She’d have come back to you—as she has now—and then...then everything would have been all right.’
She took a gulping breath, leaning forward, willing him to hear her out. To know she was doing all she could to clear up that unholy, hideous mess. The mess that had Xandros married to one woman while another carried his child. The woman he had wanted to marry all along...
‘But it still will be all right,’ she said urgently now. ‘I’ll do everything I can to get our divorce through as fast as it can be done, I promise! And as for the pre-nup—of course I won’t be taking a penny from you!’ She swallowed. ‘Not now you don’t need me to get your merger with my father.’
Her face worked. She knew she had to say this, too. That it would make it easier for him in the long run.
‘There’s something I haven’t told you. I was... I was going to steel myself to do it, but I didn’t want to spoil that last weekend on Kallistris. My father cornered me in a café the day before and he told me...’ Her voice faltered, but she forced herself on. ‘He told me that he would not progress the merger until—’ Her voice cracked with the pain of it all and the bitter, bitter irony. ‘Until he knew that I was pregnant.’
She clenched her hands together, twisting her fingers tightly in her misery. She made herself meet those blank dark eyes that were resting on her with a weight she could not bear. Crushing the air in her lungs, making it impossible to speak. Yet speak she must. Her eyes were huge, imploring him to understand.
‘So, you see, Xandros...’ She faltered once more, and then went on—because what else was there to do now but play it out to the bitter end? Even though it was tearing her into ragged shreds. ‘When your mother told me about Ariadne... Well, it’s all worked out for the best, hasn’t it?’ Her voice flattened, and she forced herself on. ‘Everything has come together just the way you originally wanted! And for my father, too—so he won’t delay things any more. You’ll get your merger and you’ll get the wife you always planned to have—the one your mother wanted for you, who she said was ideally suited to you—and my father will get his Lakaris grandson. And you will also get the next Lakaris heir to continue your bloodline.’
