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‘Theos!Get in the damned car!’
Hailstones mixed with the rain lashed her skin. She saw Jace’s thunderous expression and decided that it was safer to obey him.
‘Put your seatbelt on,’ he growled when she had shut the door. Shivering, Eleanor complied, and Jace drove off. The smell of rain from her clothes and dripping-wet hair permeated the car and, looking down, she saw that her dress was clinging to her breasts. Conscious of Jace glancing at her, she folded her arms in front of her to hide her jutting nipples. He muttered something beneath his breath and switched on the car’s heater.
‘My car is not far from here,’ she told him stiffly.
‘There are reports of flash flooding on the highway, and you can’t make the two-hour journey back to Sithonia in wet clothes. I’ll take you to my house so that you can dry off.’ Without giving her a chance to argue, he continued, ‘Why did you run off like that when the storm was about to break?’
Eleanor wondered if he was referring to the weather phenomenon or the tempest that had brewed between them in his office. ‘I can’t marry you,’ she muttered.
‘Is that because you have a romantic ideal of what marriage should be?’
Stung by his cynicism, she said defensively, ‘I believe in marrying for love. My grandparents were married for fifty years before Nanna Francine died. My parents were happily married, and the only thing that made their deaths more bearable was knowing they were together at the end.’
She was aware of Jace’s brooding gaze on her before he turned his attention back to the road. The driving conditions were terrible, and the windscreen wipers could hardly cope with the heavy rain.
‘I remember you mentioned that your parents died in an accident when you were a child.’
‘They were on a second honeymoon to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. Someone noticed my mother get into difficulties while she was swimming in the sea. Dad went to help her, and they were both swept away by the strong current. Their bodies were found washed up on a beach two days later.’
‘It was tough to lose one parent when I was a teenager and I can only imagine how devastating it must have been when you were orphaned.’ The gruff sympathy in Jace’s voice curled around Eleanor’s heart.
‘Mark struggled the most to come to terms with what happened. He didn’t get on with my grandfather.’
‘But you did, presumably, and that’s why Kostas made you his heir.’
Eleanor sighed. ‘He was quite controlling, and my brother and sister were argumentative, so there were clashes. I think Pappoús liked me because I tended to agree with him to keep the peace.’
She had spent much of her childhood feeling that she was a disappointment to her parents because of her scoliosis. After they had died, she’d realised that she could win her grandfather’s approval and affection by being obedient and amenable.
Sometimes it felt as if she had spent her whole life trying to please people, Eleanor thought. It had not been her choice to be made her grandfather’s heir and have the responsibility of Gilpin Leisure thrust upon her. And now, to save the Pangalos and her brother, Jace had demanded that she must marry him. But it would be a fake marriage, just as their romance a year ago had been fake, on his side at least.
She was jolted from her thoughts when Jace drove through a set of cobalt-blue iron gates and stopped in front of a whitewashed villa, built in the Cycladic style synonymous with the architecture of the Aegean islands. Through the torrential rain, Eleanor saw that the house resembled a series of cubes with flat roofs and arched windows framed by shutters of brilliant blue.
‘The back of the house overlooks the sea, and on a clear day you can see the peninsular of Kassandra and beyond it, across the bay, Mount Olympus. But not today,’ Jace said with a grimace. He slipped off his jacket and draped it around Eleanor’s shoulders before he climbed out of the car and strode round to open the passenger door. Eleanor gasped as the wind whipped her breath away and drove stinging rain into her face. Jace caught hold of her hand and they ran towards the house.
When they were inside and Jace closed the front door the sound of the storm was muffled by the thick walls. Eleanor looked around the vast entrance hall with a white marble floor. Through an open door she could see a living room where a frail-looking woman was lying on a sofa.
‘Jace, thank goodness you are back,’ the woman spoke in Greek. ‘There are news reports that power lines and trees have been brought down by the gale.’ She noticed Eleanor. ‘Oh, you have brought a guest home.’
‘Stay where you are,’ Jace commanded as the woman attempted to stand up. He put his hand beneath Eleanor’s elbow and drew her forwards. ‘This is my mother, Iliana. Mamá, I’d like you to meet Eleanor Buchanan. She is English but she speaks Greek fluently.’
Eleanor felt self-conscious that she was still wearing Jace’s jacket around her shoulders, but at least it covered her dress, which was sticking to her body like a second skin. Jace’s shirt had taken the brunt of the rain and it clung to his torso so that his black chest hairs were visible through the damp silk.
She tore her gaze from him and stepped closer to the sofa.‘Kalispera,’she murmured as she shook hands with his mother. Iliana was painfully thin and the skin on her bony hand felt papery. The signs of illness were on her tired face, but her dark eyes gleamed with warmth and curiosity as she studied Eleanor.
‘You have a beautiful name.’
‘Thank you. My grandfather chose it.’ Eleanor froze and dared not glance at Jace, who had tensed when she’d unthinkingly mentioned her grandfather. There was no reason why she shouldn’t speak of Kostas Pangalos just because Jace had warned her not to, she told herself. She had only heard his version of an alleged feud between his father and her grandfather. But if therewasany truth in the story she did not wish to upset Jace’s fragile-looking mother.
Eleanor shivered, feeling chilled to the bone in her wet dress. Iliana immediately looked concerned. ‘You must go and get dry. Will you stay to dinner?’
‘Eleanor will have to spend the night here,’ Jace answered before she could speak, flashing the phone he held. ‘News reports say the storm is set to last until the morning.’ He placed his hand in the small of her back and steered her towards the door. ‘Come with me and I’ll find you something to wear.’
How had she ended up in the enemy’s camp? Eleanor wondered ruefully as she followed Jace up the grand staircase. He strode along the landing on the second floor and opened a door into a charming guest bedroom decorated in the same simple style as the rest of the house, with white walls and blue shutters at the windows.
‘The bathroom is through here.’ He opened another door into an en suite bathroom. ‘A shower will warm you up. I’ll take your clothes to be laundered.’
