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PROLOGUE
ASHAFTOFevening sunlight slanting through the window struck the enormous diamond on Eleanor’s finger. Set on a platinum band, the square diamond sparkled with fiery brilliance as she held her hand out in front of her to admire the ring. Earlier in the day she’d gasped when Jace had opened a small velvet box to reveal an engagement ring.
They had been walking beside the Seine in Paris when he’d halted and turned to her. ‘Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife,pouláki mou?’ he had asked her softly.
For a few seconds Eleanor had been too shocked to reply, wondering if she had misunderstood him. Jace Zagorakis was a gorgeous Greek god and it seemed impossible that he had proposed marriage toher—ordinary Eleanor Buchanan. It was the stuff of fairy tales.
‘Do you really want to marry me?’ she’d stammered.
‘I do.’ His sexy smile had sent her heart shooting towards the stratosphere.
‘In that case,yes,’ she’d said joyfully, blinking back tears of happiness as he slid the ring onto her finger. ‘Oh, Jace, I love you so much,’ she’d murmured when he drew her into his arms. ‘Of course I’ll marry you.’
‘Good.’ There had been satisfaction in his voice before he’d claimed her lips in a kiss that left her breathless. ‘I would prefer a small wedding as soon as it can be arranged. There is no reason to wait and I am impatient to make you my bride.’
Eleanor had felt as if she were walking on air when they’d spent the afternoon strolling through the Tuileries Garden before heading back to their hotel in sight of the Eiffel Tower. She had returned to her own room to change for dinner.
Now she used the key card Jace had given her and entered his suite. There was no sign of him, but she was early and perhaps he was still dressing, or in the shower. Heat spread over her face as her imagination ran riot, fuelled by memories of his powerfully muscular physique when he had worn a pair of swim shorts on a yacht cruising around the northern Aegean islands two months ago.
Eleanor had been wildly attracted to him on the cruise and over the course of the following weeks, when he had flown to England from his home in Thessaloniki regularly to visit her, she had fallen in love with him. Incredibly, it seemed that Jace shared her feelings.
Crossing the lounge, she saw that the dining table was laid for an intimate dinner. There was a bottle of champagne on ice and a centrepiece of exquisite red roses. The flowers’ heady perfume filled the air. Red roses for love. Eleanor’s heart skipped a beat at the thought that Jace must have ordered the roses when he’d arranged for a celebration dinner to be served in his suite.
She placed the box of Greek pastries that she’d ordered, knowing they were his favourite, on the table. This was her first visit to Paris. When they had arrived that morning, before taking her sightseeing Jace had led her to a Greek café where they had been served tiny cups of strong black coffee and honey cakes. Eleanor had been amused to discover that ultra-sophisticated and frankly enigmatic business tycoon Jace Zagorakis had a weakness for sweet pastries.There were many more things she had yet to learn about her future husband, she mused. No doubt her grandfather would have advised against rushing into marriage after a whirlwind romance. But Kostas had died six months ago and, although Eleanor missed him, she felt a sense of freedom that she had not experienced while Pappoús had been the head of the family. Not that there were many members of her family left. Just her brother and sister, who resented that Kostas had named her his heir to the hotel business, Gilpin Leisure.
With a faint sigh, Eleanor dismissed thoughts of her problematic siblings. Today was the most wonderful day of her life and she was cocooned in a bubble of happiness. Glancing across the room, she saw through an open door a bedroom with a four-poster bed. Her heart gave a lurch of nervous anticipation. Tonight she planned to sleep with Jace, but it would be her first sexual experience. He was unaware that she was a virgin and she hoped he would not be disappointed.
When he kissed her the passion between them was electrifying, she reminded herself. Jace had awoken her desires, but he had been patient and not rushed her into sex. Now, though, she was eager to give herself to him and show her love for him with her body as well as her heart.
The prospect of losing her virginity did not worry Eleanor, but her old insecurities surfaced at the idea of being naked in front of Jace. He was bound to notice the scar on her back. It ran from the base of her neck all the way down her spine, the result of an operation when she was thirteen to correct a curvature of her spine. The condition, called scoliosis, had required surgery, where two titanium rods and numerous screws had been inserted in her back.
The surgery had been successful but she’d struggled with body image issues, especially when she had started dating, and a boyfriend had reacted with horror to her scar. Self-consciousness about her body was one reason why she had avoided serious relationships. Jace had broken through her reserve, but on the boat in Greece she’d worn a high-neck swimsuit or covered up with a sarong.
Her pulse leapt when she heard his gravelly, accented voice. The voile curtain across the open glass doors moved in the breeze and she glimpsed his tall figure standing on the suite’s private balcony. He was holding his phone in front of him and Eleanor realised that he was on a video call.
‘Takis, did you receive my message?’
‘I certainly did,’ replied a disembodied male voice. ‘I assume the announcement that you are engaged is a joke, seeing how you have always maintained that you are a die-hard bachelor with an aversion to marriage.’
‘The situation is not as it seems,’ Jace drawled.
Eleanor had started to walk back across the room, intending to wait out in the corridor until Jace had finished his conversation. But she hesitated, puzzled by his cynical tone. The two men were talking in Greek, which she spoke fluently, having been taught it by her grandfather.
‘So, you are actually engaged to Eleanor Buchanan.’ The man on the phone, Takis, sounded shocked. ‘Even though she is the granddaughter of Kostas Pangalos, who you despised when he was alive.’
‘My hatred of Kostas has not lessened since his death,’ Jace said in a harsh voice that Eleanor had never heard from him before.
She felt a sensation like an ice cube sliding down her spine. Her conscience urged her to leave. Jace wasn’t expecting her to arrive for another ten minutes and she should respect his privacy. But her feet were welded to the floor when Takis spoke again.
‘For years you’ve told me how Kostas swindled your father out of his share of their hotel, and Dimitri was financially ruined. So why on earth would you marry your enemy’s granddaughter?’ Takis sounded incredulous.
‘You know I tried to buy the Pangalos, before Kostas died, but he rejected my offer. When I heard that he’d left Eleanor in charge of Gilpin Leisure, I did not know if she was aware of the feud that had existed between my father and her grandfather,’ Jace said in a grim tone. ‘That’s why I asked you to approach her and try to persuade her to sell the Pangalos hotel.’
‘Having met Eleanor, I’ll admit I’m surprised by your choice of bride,’ Takis murmured. ‘I mean she is charming and pretty in an understated way, but she’s not the sex bomb type you usually go for. Her party-loving sister, on the other hand, is stunning, from photos I’ve seen of her in the media.’
Jace laughed, but it wasn’t his warm, sensual laugh that had attracted Eleanor to him when she’d first met him in Greece. He sounded cold and cynical.
‘It’s true that Eleanor is not an eye-catching peacock like her showy sister. She is more of an unremarkable sparrow. But my engagement to her is not a love-match.’
