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‘We don’t have anything. Sure, the sex is great—’ she stalled him before he could argue ‘—but it’s not enough for me. My very brief pregnancy made me realise that I was wrong to marry you. I was desperate to save my brother from prison, but the truth is that Mark has to seek professional help for his gambling addiction, and save himself. I love him, but I’m not responsible for him.’
Jace was startled by Eleanor’s serious tone and dropped his hand, allowing her to move away from him. ‘You said that our marriage is not enough for you, so what do you want?’ he asked gruffly.
‘Love.’ She met his frown with a rueful smile. ‘The one thing you will never feel for me because I am Kostas Pangalos’s granddaughter. But I deserve to be loved forme,’ she said with fierce pride. ‘Not held to account for a feud that happened when I was a child. I want to fall in love with a man who truly loves me. I want to stand in a church with him and proclaim our love in front of family and friends. And one day I hope that a positive result on a pregnancy test will fill me with joy rather than dread.’
‘You’re upset about losing the baby?’
She nodded. ‘But it wouldn’t have worked, both of us stuck in an unhappy marriage for the sake of our child.’
Jace watched her walk across the room and felt sick in the pit of his stomach when he realised that she actually meant it, and she was leaving him. Did she think he would chase after her, or beg her not to go? His jaw hardened. He did not need her. He had never needed any woman.
‘Where will you go?’ he demanded. Call her bluff, he thought grimly, and see how quickly she backtracked.
‘I’ve arranged to stay at an apartment in Thessaloniki. It’s near to the hospice so that I can go with you to visit your mother. I suggest we don’t tell her that we have broken up. She was so happy at the wedding and there is no need to upset her for the time she has left.’
‘Clearly you have thought this out,’ he drawled, glad of the white heat of his temper. But inside he felt icy-cold. ‘What about your responsibilities managing the hotel?’
‘I’ve asked the deputy manager to stand in for me. Ultimately, I expect you will want to appoint a manager to work alongside you, as...as we used to do’ Her voice shook, but she quickly recovered. She halted next to the dressing table and took a pen out of her handbag, scrawled something on a piece of paper and held it out to him.
Jace took it and his heart crashed into his ribs as he stared at Eleanor’s signature on the original prenuptial agreement which gave him one hundred per cent ownership of the Pangalos. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m giving you the only thing you really want.’ Her sad smile wrecked him. ‘You’ve won, Jace.’
CHAPTER TEN
‘TIKANEIS,MAMÁ?’Jace murmured as he leaned over the bed and kissed his mother’s cheek. Every day he asked her how she was, but every day she looked thinner and frailer and his eyes told him that her life was fading.
Iliana’s eyes fluttered open and she smiled. ‘I wasn’t expecting you. Eleanor said that you were working late.’
‘I came here straight from the office.’ He did not admit that he put off returning to his empty house until as late as possible every evening. He had left the villa at the Pangalos resort the day after Eleanor had called time on their marriage. In Thessaloniki he was closer to the hospice where his mother was being cared for by the excellent staff.
On previous days Eleanor had met him in the hospice’s car park, and they had visited his mother together. Somehow, they had put on a show of being lovestruck newlyweds, but he’d felt Eleanor’s fingers tremble when he held her hand like lovers did, and when she had leaned close to him and rested her head on his shoulder he’d been unable to control his pounding heart.
Jace had assured himself that if he gave her space she would see sense and want to resume their marriage. He’d had several erotic fantasies in which Eleanor tried to persuade him to take her back. Invariably this had involved her taking her clothes off and begging him to make love to her, and of course he had relented and taken her to bed because sex with her was the best he’d ever had.
He bent his head towards his mother to catch what she was saying. ‘You just missed your wife. She told me she was going home to cook your favourite dinner.’
Jace appreciated Eleanor’s tactful lie. Memories swamped his mind of when they had prepared evening meals together at the villa on Sithonia. His culinary skills stopped at omelettes, but Eleanor enjoyed cooking and she had pottered about the kitchen, stirring ingredients in various saucepans, or stepped into the garden to pick fresh herbs for a salad dressing while he sat on a stool, drinking a glass of good red wine and slicing up tomatoes or zucchini when required.
And they had talked—about issues at the hotel, ideas for his property development business, a film they’d watched the previous night. He missed the easy companionship they’d shared. Hell, he missedher.
‘Eleanor is a lovely girl with a kind heart,’ his mother murmured. ‘Kostas’s granddaughter does not take after him.’
Jace stiffened. His mother’s voice was weak, and he wondered if he had heard her correctly. ‘How did you find out?’
She gave him a gentle smile. ‘I recognised her on that first evening when you brought her to the house during the storm. There was a photograph of Kostas’s family in the newspaper when he died. I believe it was a surprise that he had put Eleanor in charge of his hotel business.’
Jace let out his breath slowly. ‘I didn’t tell you who Eleanor was because I thought you might be upset that I had married the granddaughter of the man responsible for my father’s death.’
‘Eleanor cannot be held responsible for Kostas’s actions.’ Iliana closed her eyes and Jace thought she had fallen asleep, but then she said softly, ‘I have been thinking about what happened to Dimitri.’
‘Don’t upset yourself,’ Jace urged. ‘Nothing can change the past.’
‘But my perception of events has changed. Your father loved me, and he adored you. We tried for many years to have a child, and when you were born Dimitri wept tears of joy as he held his son in his arms.’
Iliana’s eyes flew open and she said in a stronger voice, ‘Your father would not have chosen to leave you, Jace. It is true that he was devastated when his best friend betrayed him. For a long time I blamed Kostas. But I believe in my heart that Dimitri fell to his death by accident. His eyesight was poor, and many times I warned him against walking on the clifftop.’
Jace felt a lump in his throat when he saw a tear trickle down his mother’s sallow cheek. She held out her bony hand and he carefully clasped her fingers. Her breathing was shallow. Her gaze held his, and her tender smile was weary. ‘Your father loved you,’ she whispered. ‘Dimitri was the love of my life and he would be as glad as I am that you have found your for ever love with Eleanor.’
