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‘I needed the press to have a photograph of us together. I needed us to be seen as a couple,’ he growled through clenched teeth, the answers insipid and unsatisfying even to his own ears. ‘It needed to seem natural. It had to be perfect.’
‘But you didn’t have to lie to me. You didn’t need to set up some silly game just to get me to...’ She seemed unable to bring the words to lips that he’d so thoroughly kissed. He watched her bring herself under control, tried to avoid the way her chest pressed against the silk lining of the dress as she levelled her breathing.
‘No more lies, Loukis. I won’t be lied to again.’
And something in her tone spoke of more than just his actions that evening. Something deeper and darker. But he refused to delve into it, no matter how much he might want to ask who had hurt her. He had done enough for now.
CHAPTER SIX
LOUKISRANAweary hand through his hair as his eyes focused on the bright laptop screen glowing like some unworldly portal in the dark room. He checked the time on the watch on his wrist. Two forty-five in the morning. Anger was keeping him awake. Anger, frustration and an unhealthy dose of discomfort swirled in his empty stomach. He now regretted not touching any of the delicious morsels that had been presented to him and Célia earlier in the restaurant.
In the car on the way home, he had messaged his housekeeper and given her a few days off, realising that there was no earthly way he could make good on his demand that Célia share his bed.
He might be many things, but crass was not one of them.
A few days would give them time to...adjust to one another. But by the time Annabelle was safely back from Texas and away from the clutches of his mother, there would most definitely have to be a united front.
He checked his watch again. Time had slowed to almost imperceptible increments as he waited for the moment when he could video call his sister. And after that, he would collapse into one of the spare rooms upstairs and hope that sleep would somehow dull the way that the evening loomed in his mind. It had taken on a technicolour quality, the vivid slash of Célia’s red lipstick, the forest-green silks of her dress, the impact of their kiss still vibrating through him like earthquake tremors long after the fact.
He didn’t regret his decisions that evening. The paparazzo was as necessary as getting to know and getting used to Célia. But just when their game had turned from one of necessity to one of expectation, want even, he couldn’t tell. And even now he wondered at the answer to the question he had not had time to ask her. What Célia would have saved in the fire.
The screen of his laptop changed as Annabelle’s video call appeared, the sudden pings echoing loudly, intrusively in the quiet estate. He grabbed a quick mouthful of cold coffee and accepted the call.
‘Hey, Nanny,’ he said, using the nickname they’d had for the last three years. Where or how it had come about forgotten beneath the impact of those first few months. ‘Have a Texan accent yet?’
Her face filled the screen, bright, shining and happy. She was clutching a bright, torrid-pink fluffy bear, and Loukis’s first thought was,And so it begins. The buying of Annabelle’s affection would have been Meredith’s first and obvious move.
‘Don’t be silly,’ she laughed.
‘And who have you got there?’
‘His name’s Jameson.’
‘Jameson? That’s an interesting name. I like his fur.’
Célia woke up, startled and unable to tell where she was or what had woken her. Her heart was pounding and a thin sheen of salty dampness was rapidly drying in the cool room. Loukis. The photographer. The kiss... All these things seemed to crash down in her mind.
It needed to seem natural. It needed to be perfect.
The word had sliced through her like a knife.Perfect.It had been too close. Too reminiscent of Marc, of her father. It was supposed to be different with Loukis. They had an agreement. She knew the terms. And now he did too.No more lies.She just had to hope that she could live up to her end of the bargain. To be the one thing that she had failed at before. To be...perfect.
Her mouth was bone-dry and she knew she’d not be able to go back to sleep now. She shrugged on her new silk robe and, on bare feet, made her way towards the staircase that led downstairs.
A sound pulled her up short. Startling and rich, Loukis’s laughter cut through her. It was conspiratorial in a way that made her jealous. Perhaps he was on the phone to his lover. And she suddenly felt horrified. They’d never talked about that, and why wouldn’t he have one? He was clearly a deeply sensual man—but he’d kissed her? She rubbed her forehead, her thoughts chaotic after an unsettled brief bite of sleep.
In a fit of unfamiliar pique, she continued down the stairs, not disguising her footfalls on the cool marble. She rounded the bottom of the staircase and saw Loukis through the doorway to the living room, illuminated in the darkness by a shaft of light from his laptop screen.
The moment she heard Annabelle’s voice echo through the speakers, she felt guilty. Guilty and intrusive. She made to retreat, but the move must have caught his eye, because Loukis looked up, a smile lighting his features momentarily. And then, as if he too remembered how they had left things, how she had stormed off to the room and slammed the door shut on him as if she were a child, the brightness of his smile dimmed.
‘Who’s that?’ she heard Annabelle demand. Almost reluctantly he beckoned her over and Célia, unable to refuse the command, went to stand behind where Loukis sat so that she could see the screen.
‘Bonsoir,ma chérie,’Célia greeted the ten-year-old, expecting and receiving the peal of giggles that the girl emitted.
‘She calls me Cherry,’ she cried to Loukis in delight.
‘You’re getting quite the collection of names, Nanny. I hope you can keep track of them,’ Loukis said, jokingly chiding.
‘Mummy calls me Annabelle, though.’
