AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eleanor hesitated and then spun round. She heard Jace draw a sharp breath and knew he could see what she had seen in the mirror. Her scar was even more noticeable now she had gained a light suntan, and it was a stark white line running down her spine.
‘The designer asked me to wear the dress because the huge press coverage of the party will be a promotional opportunity for the fashion house,’ she explained, her voice a shaky whisper in the silence, which stretched her nerves to breaking point. ‘I... I agreed if they would donate money to the Scoliosis Support charity. It’s a fantastic chance to bring public attention to the charity.’ She swallowed. ‘But now I’m not sure I can go through with it.’
Jace was so close behind her that she felt his warm breath stir the tendrils of hair that had escaped from her chignon and curled at her nape.
‘I think it is a wonderful thing for you to do, pouláki mou.’
The gentleness in his voice brought tears to Eleanor’s eyes. ‘You are the only person who has ever seen my scar, other than my first boyfriend when I was a teenager. What if other people have the same reaction as he did?’
‘In that case they would not be worthy to breathe the same air as you,’ Jace said fiercely. He sounded so protective, and her heart gave a jolt when she looked at their reflections in the mirror and saw admiration and something hotly possessive in his expression. This was the Jace who had made love to her on their honeymoon with a tender passion that had made her think he cared for her a little.
She gasped as he bent his head and pressed his mouth to her neck. He trailed his lips lower, following the line of her scar and restoring her confidence with each gentle kiss.
Lower and lower. Jace dropped onto his knees and continued his featherlight kisses down to where the scar ended at the base of her spine. With each kiss, the hurt and shame that Eleanor had felt at her first boyfriend’s reaction to her scar eased. She felt healed inside, just as her skin had healed on the outside and was not the raised, angry scar that had so appalled her when she had been a teenager. Now the scar was a thin white line. It was not pretty but, thanks to Jace, she felt proud that she bore the mark of a survivor.
His hands were on her hips and heat bloomed inside. Desire for him, only and always him. When he stood up, she leaned back against his chest while he nuzzled the sensitive place behind her ear.
‘You are beautiful, Eleanor,mou.’ He sounded very Greek and his gravelly voice rumbled through her. ‘But your beauty is not only skin-deep. You are beautiful in here—’ he rested his hand just beneath her breast ‘—in your heart. At the party I will be proud that you are my wife.’
He eased away from her and fastened the ruby necklace around her throat. The stones felt cool against her heated skin. She met his eyes in the mirror and saw the hunger she felt for him reflected in his glittering gaze.
‘Tonight I will make love to you while you are wearing the necklace and nothing else,’ he promised. His sexy smile stole her breath. ‘Hold that thought,omorfiá mou.’
Jace searched the crowded ballroom for Eleanor. One of the advantages of being so tall was that he could see above most people’s heads. He spotted her standing by a pillar, talking to her sister. Anticipation ran as hot as wildfire through him. The party would end at midnight. He checked his watch. Twenty minutes to go. Somehow, he would have to curb his impatience to take his wife home to bed for a little while longer.
She had been amazing tonight, and no one but him would have guessed that she’d felt nervous about wearing a dress that revealed her scoliosis scar. It had been Eleanor’s idea to pose for a photographer who had taken pictures of the backless dress. She had spoken honestly about the spinal condition she’d suffered from as a child, and the surgery to insert a titanium rod into her back, which had straightened her spine but left her with a forty-centimetre scar.
‘I hope that by telling my story and showing my scar, I can encourage other people who have suffered the trauma of major surgery to feel proud of their scars,’ Eleanor had told a journalist. She had looked at Jace and they’d shared a conspiratorial smile when she’d said, ‘Scars are the badges of a warrior.’
Emotions that he could no longer deny swirled inside Jace. He had kept away from Eleanor since they had returned from Africa, believing that her impact on him would fade if he did not see her or have sex with her. Work issues at Zagorakis Estates had given him a convenient excuse to remain in Thessaloniki, but he had found himself thinking about her all the time, and many nights he’d almost given into the temptation to leap into his car and drive to the villa at the Pangalos resort to claim his wife.
Their separation had not lessened his desire for her, and this weekend he’d moved back to the villa permanently, or at least until his marriage ended, Jace reminded himself, aware of an odd hollow feeling in his gut.
‘May I have the pleasure of this dance, Mrs Zagorakis?’ he murmured when he strode over to Eleanor and slipped his arm around her waist.
Her smile was like sunshine on a rainy day, and when he led her onto the dance floor and drew her close she fitted against him as if her body had been designed exclusively for his. Jace wondered if she could feel the urgent thud of his heart beneath her ear when she rested her head on his chest. The light from the glittering chandeliers above them brought out the myriad golden shades of her hair.Theos, he would write a sonnet next, he thought sardonically. But as they swayed together in time with the music, nothing existed but him and Eleanor, and Jace found himself wishing for things he’d told himself he would never want.
‘How is your sister?’ he murmured, more to break the dangerous spell that Eleanor was casting over him than any real interest in Lissa.‘I don’t know.’ A tiny frown wrinkled Eleanor’s brow. ‘She asked if Takis had been invited to the party and looked disappointed when I explained that he’d had to cancel at the last minute. And come to think of it, Takis said he couldn’t make it after I mentioned that Lissa was going to be here. But he is here. I’m sure I saw him standing by the bar. Do you think something is going on between them?’
Jace shrugged. ‘Takis told me his plans changed suddenly and he was able to come tonight. But as to a romance between him and your sister, I’m not so sure. Takis is a lone wolf.’
‘Like you?’ Eleanor suggested softly.
‘Mmm, but I’m not planning to spend tonight alone.’ His wife’s scarlet-glossed mouth was an irresistible temptation and he bent his head and kissed her, uncaring that they were in public.
Eleanor was tying him in knots, but Jace could not forget that her grandfather had ruined his father. Guilt twisted like a serpent inside him. His unexpected feelings for his wife felt like a terrible betrayal of his father and the suffering his parents had endured after Kostas had seized control of the Pangalos.
There had been a time when Jace had planned to avenge Dimitri’s death by taking the hotel from Eleanor. But he was shocked to realise that he did not care about the hotel or the feud. All he cared about was his wife’s uninhibited response when he kissed her, and the gut-wrenching tenderness of her touch when she cupped his cheek in her hand and looked into his eyes with her clear and gentle gaze, as if she understood the confusion in his heart.
CHAPTER NINE
BRIGHTSUNSHINEREFLECTEDoff the white walls of the master bedroom in the private villa at the Pangalos Beach Resort. Beyond the open bi-fold doors, the azure infinity pool seemed to merge with the cerulean sea and the cloudless blue sky, while the vivid pink bougainvillea climbing over the trellis on the balcony was a sight to behold.
Eleanor sat up in bed and linked her arms around her knees. She loved early mornings before the hotel complex stirred, when the stretch of golden sand beyond the villa was empty of people and sun loungers. Summer was drawing to an end, but the weather was still warm and settled and the hotel was fully booked.
She and Jace lived partly at his house in Thessaloniki to be near his mother, and partly at the villa on Sithonia. Eleanor had fallen in love with Greece. Who was she kidding? She would be happy living anywhere with Jace, she thought ruefully when he strolled out of the shower room that he had made his own, while she preferred the en suite bathroom, which had a luxurious free-standing bath.
She had realised lately that she could very easily fall in love with her husband, who this morning looked mouth-watering in an impeccably tailored grey suit, crisp white shirt and navy-blue silk tie. It was little things that made inroads on her heart. Like how Jace always woke first in the mornings and brought her a cup of her favourite English tea. Sometimes, when she was in a rush to get to work, she would skip breakfast, but at her office she would find that he’d arranged for yoghurt, fruit and freshly baked rolls to be delivered from the hotel’s kitchen.
