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“I am an adult?”
“I just said that.”
“You think there is something wrong with me coming to you for help?” she asked, sounding and looking hurt.
He manfully ignored the pain in her voice and her gaze and gave a small sigh. “Not wrong, precisely, simply not appropriate.”
“Why would it be inappropriate for me to come to the man I—to my best friend for help?”
“As I said, you are an—”
“Adult,” she said, interrupting. “Yes, I heard that part. But even adults sometimes need help.”
“So what exactly do you need help with?”
“I wish I knew why you are acting so weird,” she said, instead of answering, her eyes suspiciously moist.
Do not cry, he silently begged her. This was difficult enough.
“I’m sorry you think my behavior is abnormal, but I assure you everything is fine.” Or as fine as it could be with him lusting after his brother’s intended fiancée.
“Okay. If you say so. I guess that’s good. I…um…”
Again he waited without comment.
Finally she continued. “My father. He invited me to his office to talk. I thought he was going to offer me a job.”
“He did not?” Spiros asked, genuinely surprised and more than a little relieved that she had come about something so mundane.
Not about the kiss. Not about emotions and desires that had no place in their lives.
He could fix this easily. He would talk to Dimitri about offering her a job.
“No,” Phoebe replied. “He said he had something more important to discuss.” Phoebe’s eyes glistened with unmistakable tears now. “He’s broke, Spiros…on the verge of losing the company.”
He had not realized things had got so bad. His grandfather had said nothing. But then since the night his grandfather had extracted that promise from Dimitri to set a wedding date, Spiros had been avoiding them both. “Your father is a strong businessman. I am sure something can be done.”
“He won’t take the company public.”
“Naturally not.”
Phoebe made a rude sound that implied she did not agree with his or her father’s views on that particular topic. “There is only one other way to raise the sort of funds he needs to save it.”
“As I said, he is a smart man. I am not surprised he has already discovered a way out.”
Phoebe shook her head, her obvious distress once again nearly breaking his determination not to touch her.
“What has you so upset?” he asked instead, unable to help himself.
“It’s the way he’s seen fit to fix the problem.” She took a deep breath that came back out in a short sob. “He wants to sell me.”
“What?” Spiros yelled.
“To your brother. I…I can’t do it, Spiros. Not after our kiss.”
Spiros’s agile brain whirled with the implications of what Phoebe was saying. Apparently her marriage to Dimitri played some role in saving Leonides Enterprises. And she had a problem with that because of their kiss. He could not allow that to remain an issue.
It was all so damn complicated. But he had to do the right thing. And there was only one right thing here, wasn’t there?
