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‘Dimitri’s partner, Kostas Pangalos, wanted to sell the Pangorakis,’ Iliana explained. ‘My husband could just about afford to buy the other fifty per cent, but Kostas claimed that he had done more to make the hotel successful. In court, his lawyers persuaded the judge to award Kostas two-thirds of the business and Dimitri was only given one third.’
Iliana sighed. ‘The decision gave control of the hotel to Kostas and he bought my husband out. It was heartbreaking to have to leave our home and the hotel that we loved and where Jace had lived his whole life. We opened another hotel, but Dimitri’s heart was not in it. He was deeply upset that the man he had considered to be his best friend had turned on him. But I was not so surprised. I always thought that beneath Kostas’s charming manner he was utterly ruthless.’
‘I suppose it’s necessary to be fairly ruthless to be successful in business,’ Eleanor murmured. She felt sick at hearing what her grandfather had done, but she had no reason to disbelieve Jace’s mother.
‘Kostas destroyed my husband,’ Iliana said flatly. ‘Our second hotel did not do well and, in desperation, Dimitri asked his old friend for a loan. Kostas could afford it. His wife had inherited a top hotel in England and the Pangalos, as he renamed our hotel, was making a fortune. But he turned Dimitri’s request down and we were declared bankrupt. Soon after, my husband took his own life.’
‘We don’t know that for sure, Mamá,’ Jace said softly. ‘The inquest was inconclusive, and it could have been an accident.’
Iliana shook her head. ‘Your father did not stumble and fall off the cliff. His heart was broken, and Kostas Pangalos was responsible for his death as much as if he had pushed Dimitri over the edge.’
CHAPTER FOUR
JACESTOODINthe orangery and watched the rain lash against the glass. He had not switched on the lamps and the room was illuminated sporadically when the moon appeared from behind clouds scudding across the night sky.
He sipped his whisky. Listening to his mother’s account of how Kostas had destroyed his father had reinforced Jace’s determination to claim his family’s rightful share of the Pangalos. But he had taken no pleasure in Eleanor’s obvious shock. She had managed to hide her distress from his mother, but not from him. He’d heard a tremor in her voice when immediately after dinner she’d made an excuse that she had a headache before going to her room.
Lying did not come naturally to Eleanor, Jace brooded. She was the most guileless and honest person he had ever met. He remembered her shy smile a year ago when she’d confessed that she had fallen in love with him. Instead of feeling triumphant that his plan to claim the hotel was coming to fruition, he had admired her bravery and felt uncomfortable with himself.
But when he’d kissed her and passion had exploded between them he had told himself that Eleanor had mistaken lust for a deeper emotion. Now he believed her when she said she hated him. It was an inescapable fact that if she had not discovered his motive for proposing to her in Paris he would have married her for the Pangalos.
A faint sound from behind him made Jace turn his head and he watched Eleanor walk barefoot into the orangery. She did not notice him standing in the shadows as she crossed to the window and stared out at the dark garden. His gaze lingered on her delectable curves, which he could make out beneath his borrowed shirt, and his body clenched hard as desire ran like wildfire through his veins. Where once her sensual allure had been muted, her transformation into a sexy siren evoked a throb of need that centred in his groin.
‘Headache gone?’ he murmured.
She spun round and he heard her swiftly indrawn breath. ‘I didn’t see you there.’
‘I guessed as much,’ Jace said wryly. ‘You made it clear when you disappeared after dinner that you would rather spend time with the devil than with me.’
‘I couldn’t sleep.’ She turned away from him and hugged her arms around her body. ‘I’m sorry for what my grandfather did to your family.’ Her voice sounded raw, as if she had swallowed broken glass. ‘Pappoús...’ She swallowed audibly. ‘When I was growing up, I thought he was firm but fair and... I loved him. But now I wonder if I ever knew him. The man who treated me kindly was the same man who cheated your father.’ She drew in a ragged breath. ‘I understand now why you must hate me.’
‘I don’t hate you,’ Jace growled. ‘I hated Kostas and I want my father’s rightful share of the Pangalos, but I wish you hadn’t been caught up in an old feud between our families that had nothing to do with you.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me when we first met?’ Eleanor jerked her head in his direction and her eyes flashed in the darkness.
‘I couldn’t risk it. Kostas had chosen you as his heir, but I knew nothing about you. You might have been as ruthless as your grandfather and refused to hand over my father’s share of the hotel.’
‘So you deliberately set out to make me fall in love with you.’ She bit her lip. ‘Your treatment of me was as cruel as anything Pappoús did.’
‘Kostas destroyed my family,’ Jace growled angrily. His blissful childhood with his parents had ended abruptly when they were forced to leave the hotel and they had been homeless and without hope. Life had been different after that, as his father struggled with depression and his mother had scrubbed floors for a pittance. Jace had spent years plotting and planning to destroy Kostas, but now the old man was dead and he had left his granddaughter to succeed him.
A year ago Jace had been prepared to destroy Eleanor, but his conscience pricked that she had not deserved what he had done to her. Only now did he acknowledge how cruelly he had betrayed her. Without conscious thought, he strode across the room and halted in front of her. The seductive fragrance of her perfume assailed his senses and his gut clenched.
‘You ripped my heart out and made a fool of me, and I will never forgive you,’ she whispered.
He swore when he glimpsed the shimmer of tears in her eyes. In the near darkness, with the storm still raging outside, he sensed that her emotions were heightened, as were his. Jace was strongly tempted to kiss the stubborn line of Eleanor’s mouth until her lips softened. But giving in to his clamouring libido would complicate the situation even more, he reminded himself.
‘I don’t need your forgiveness,’ he told her curtly. ‘All I want is your signature on a marriage certificate.’
‘You can’t be serious about wanting to marry me when there is so much animosity between us. You could have any woman you want.’ Eleanor blushed when Jace raised his brows. ‘Don’t be coy,’ she muttered. ‘You know you’re a catch.’
‘Money tends to do that,’ he said drily.
‘I’m sure you are well aware of the effect you have on the female sex.’
‘I’m interested to know what effect I have on you.’
She met his gaze steadily and Jace experienced the unfamiliar sensation of being judged and found wanting. ‘I think you are beautiful but flawed,’ Eleanor told him. ‘I’ve seen inside your soul and there’s nothing there but an empty void.’
