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She sat, compelled by the intensity of his gaze and his sheer force of will.
‘What I am offering is a straightforward deal. Marry me and your brother’s slate is wiped clean, plus I will pay all the Pangalos’s outstanding bills. A prenuptial agreement will make us joint owners of the hotel and, after my mother dies, we will divorce and each receive a fifty per cent share of the business.’
‘It’s a crazy idea,’ Eleanor muttered. She’d be even crazier to contemplate agreeing to Jace’s suggestion.
‘There is one other thing. My mother must not find out that you are Kostas’s granddaughter. She knows nothing about you. Your mother took your English father’s name on their marriage and there is no reason why you would be associated with the name Pangalos.’
Eleanor frowned. ‘Are you saying you would want your mother to think we had married for conventional reasons? I’m sure you could convince her that you are in love. After all, you fooled me,’ she reminded him curtly. ‘But I loathe you, and I’ll never be able to pretend that you are the man of my dreams.’
She jumped up again and walked quickly towards the door. But Jace moved with the deadly speed of a panther and clamped his hand over hers on the door handle.
‘Is there a man in your life who is responsible for the change in your appearance? Do you dress to please a lover?’ His cool voice belied the blistering intensity in his gaze as he stared down at her from the advantage of his superior height.
‘I dress to please myself,’ she snapped. Her breath snagged in her throat as she breathed in his seductive male scent: spicy cologne mixed with something indefinable and uniquely Jace. ‘My private life is my own affair but if, for argument’s sake, I said that I have a boyfriend, you would presumably drop the idea of us marrying.’
‘Not necessarily. I foresee that we would both have a certain amount of freedom within the marriage, but I’d expect you to be discreet, as I will be.’
Tears stung Eleanor’s eyes, but she willed herself not to cry in front of Jace. She’d thought that he could not hurt her more than he’d already done, but she had been wrong. His detachment was a painful reminder that he had only pretended to desire her a year ago. But, in a strange way, knowing what he really thought of her would make her even more determined to ignore her sexual attraction to him—ifshe agreed to his outrageous marriage demand.
‘So I would be your wife in name only?’ she clarified.
‘The extent of our relationship will be up to you, and I will abide by your decision.’
In other words he could take her or leave her. She was mortified by the thought that if she indicated she wanted their marriage to include sex, Jace might force himself to make love to her.
‘I imagine your boyfriend was public school educated and has a job in the City, or perhaps he is a historian studying for a doctorate at one of Oxford University’s illustrious colleges,’ Jace drawled. ‘But aboywill not satisfy your passionate nature,omorfiá mou.’
‘You really are a jerk,’ she spat, scarlet-faced. ‘If you remember, I speak Greek and I know you don’t think much of my looks. Save your false flattery for someone who is foolish enough to believe a word that comes out of your mouth.’
She hated him with every fibre of her being, but her treacherous body hadn’t got the message. Eleanor could not prevent her gaze from focusing on his mouth, which he had used with such exquisite effect when he’d kissed her.
And not just on her lips. She remembered his mouth on her breasts, his wicked tongue teasing her nipples before he closed his lips around one turgid peak and then the other, making her tremble with needs that only Jace had ever aroused. Now she understood that his caresses had been part of his campaign to trick her into marriage, but even knowing the extent of his duplicity did not douse the fire inside her.
Jace’s eyes glittered with anger and something else that made Eleanor’s pulse accelerate when he released his grip on her fingers curled around the door handle and slid his hand beneath her chin.
‘Do you think I am pretending now?’ he growled. His free hand captured hers and held it against his chest so that she felt the hard thud of his heart.
The warmth of his body through his shirt evoked a flood of heat between her thighs. Her bra felt too tight, her nipples scraping against the lace cups. But she couldn’t—wouldn’t—surrender to his expert seduction again.
‘It was all a game to you,’ she choked.
‘This was real.’ His stark voice sent a shiver through her. She watched his head descend and knew she should move away from him. But another instinct as old as the story of Eve kept her standing there, waiting, willing him to close the gap between them and claim her mouth with his.
Her lips unconsciously parted and she heard his breathing quicken. The air was heavy with sexual tension. But could she believe the hunger in Jace’s eyes, or was it a continuation of the cruel game he’d started a year ago?
From outside, a clap of thunder shook the windows and shattered the fraught silence in the room. Eleanor blinked and realised that it was almost dark in Jace’s office. A sudden white flash of lightning momentarily illuminated his tall figure, but his expression was hidden from her and he was a stranger.
With a low cry, she snatched her hand from his silk shirt stretched across his chest. ‘I won’t marry you.I won’t. You can have fifty per cent of the Pangalos, and I’ll appoint a new manager to take Mark’s place so that I never have to see you again.’
This time when she grabbed the handle and opened the door, he did not try to stop her from leaving. She fought the urge to run along the corridor to the lift. When she stepped inside, before the doors closed, she looked back towards Jace’s office and felt no surprise that he had not followed her. All he wanted was part ownership of the Pangalos, but she would not sign over the deeds until she had it in black and white that he would cancel her brother’s debts.
To avoid the complicated one-way traffic system in Thessaloniki, Eleanor had parked her car a few streets away from Zagorakis Estates’ office building. Thunder rumbled overhead as she hurried along the pavement where café owners were scrambling to carry chairs and tables inside before the furniture was blown over by the ferocious wind. Towering dark clouds obliterated the sun and the sky had turned a strange sulphur-yellow colour.
The rain started with the suddenness of a tap being turned on, and within minutes she was soaked to the skin. Cursing her high heels, she kicked off her shoes and carried them in her hand as she ran along the street. A sleek silver sports car drew up alongside her and the window slid down. Eleanor glanced at Jace behind the wheel and ran faster.
‘Eleanor, get in the car.’ He swore and drove on past her, stopping at a junction directly in her path. He leaned across and opened the passenger door.
‘Go away!’ Eleanor shouted at him over the howl of the wind.
