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‘Where have you been?’ Lissa yawned and sounded uninterested. She did not wait for Eleanor to reply. ‘There’s a guy here to see you. He didn’t give his name, but he said that he’s involved with a hotel chain in Greece called Poseidon...or Perseus. Something like that.’
Eleanor’s heart had stopped when Lissa mentioned Greece. ‘I’ve heard of Perseus Hotels,’ she said flatly. Fifteen months ago Takis Samaras had been very keen to buy the Pangalos, but now she knew that he had been sent by Jace. ‘Did Mary give any more details about this man?’ She was surprised that her secretary hadn’t asked the visitor to make an appointment.
Lissa shook her head and her platinum blonde bob swirled around her face. ‘He didn’t go into the hotel. He came to the house.’ She grimaced. ‘The doorbell woke me up. He insisted that he has something important to discuss with you and he’s waiting in the sitting room.’
Eleanor shrugged. ‘I have an idea what he wants, but he’s wasting his time. It was Pappoús’s wish that the Pangalos remains in the family’s ownership.’
‘And of course you would never go against his wishes,’ Lissa mocked. ‘Even when we were children you were always boringly well-behaved. I guess that’s why Pappoús made you his heir.’
‘I take my responsibility for Gilpin Leisure seriously, but it doesn’t mean that I’m boring,’ Eleanor muttered, stung by her sister’s comment.
Lissa’s brows rose. ‘You dress like a nun, you hardly ever go out, and you haven’t had a serious relationship in living memory.’
Eleanor bit her lip. For the brief time she’d been dating Jace, her sister had been in California, trying to launch an acting career. Lissa’s dig about her clothes was unfair. She glanced down at her black pencil skirt, white blouse and black cardigan, teamed with low-heeled black court shoes. ‘I have to dress smartly for work,’ she defended herself.
‘Take my advice and ditch the cardigan,’ Lissa told her. ‘The Greek guy is a hunk and he’s not likely to take an interest in you when you’re dressed like his mother.’
‘I don’t want him to take an interest in me.’ God forbid, Eleanor thought with a shudder. One devious Greek was enough. Jace had broken her heart and she would never be idiotic enough to trust a man ever again.
She finished her coffee and walked down the hallway, but hesitated outside the sitting room. A year ago she had felt utterly humiliated when she’d overheard Jace state the real reason he had asked her to marry him. If he had sent his friend to Oxford for a second time to try to persuade her to sell the Pangalos, she would let Takis know that he’d had a wasted journey.
Eleanor opened the sitting room door and her eyes flew to the tall, imposing figure standing facing the window, silhouetted against the brightness outside. He had haunted her dreams too often, and she instantly recognised the breadth of his shoulders and the arrogant tilt of his head.
‘You?’Her breath was squeezed out of her lungs and she clung to the door handle as her legs turned to jelly.
Jace Zagorakis turned around and Eleanor’s heart stopped beating as she stared at his chiselled features that were imprinted on her psyche. He was still sinfully beautiful, but his face seemed harder, the high cheekbones sharper, giving him a predatory look that made her heart slam against her ribcage.
From across the room his eyes appeared to be black, but she knew that they were the colour of bittersweet chocolate and fringed by impossibly long black lashes. His thick, dark brown hair was stylishly groomed but curled rebelliously over his collar, and his facial stubble did not disguise the uncompromising set of his square jaw.
Eleanor’s gaze was drawn to his mouth that curved in a sardonic smile as if he were amused by her startled reaction to him. What had he expected? she wondered. Had he thought that she would be pleased to see him?
For months after she’d fled from his hotel suite in Paris, she had hoped he would come after her and explain that it had all been a misunderstanding, and he was really in love with her. But he hadn’t contacted her in a year and her misery had turned to anger and disillusionment. She was tempted to run away from the man who had treated her with such callous disregard. But Eleanor Buchanan was not a coward and she uncurled her fingers from the door handle and lifted her chin as she walked further into the room.
‘This is a surprise, Jace. Although I can’t say it’s a pleasant one.’ She was pleased that she sounded composed even though her heart was thumping.
He strolled towards her, but to her relief he halted several feet away. An amused smile still played on his lips, but his eyes resting on her face were watchful.
‘I recall a time when you were pleased to see me, Eleanor,’ he drawled. His gravelly voice with its discernible Greek accent was deliciously sexy and Eleanor could not control a quiver of response to his raw masculinity.
She flushed, remembering that when they had been dating and Jace had come to Oxford to visit her, she had run into his arms, eager for his kiss. She had been like an exuberant puppy wagging its tail for its master’s attention, she thought with embarrassment.
‘Why are you here?’ she demanded.
His brows rose at her abrupt tone. ‘I want to talk to you.’
‘I’m busy. If you have something important to discuss, I suggest you speak to my secretary to arrange an appointment.’ She glared at him, her anger mounting. How dare he walk back into her life as if nothing had happened? ‘You lost the right to want anything from me after what you did.’
Jace’s dark eyes flashed, but Eleanor sensed the effort he made to control his temper. ‘What did I do?’ he asked mildly.
‘Don’t pretend you don’t know. Iheardyou.’ Her voice shook with emotions she was desperate to hide from him. ‘I came to your hotel room in Paris and overheard you talking on your phone to Takis Samaras. You told him that you planned to marry me because you wanted my grandfather’s hotel.’
‘So it was you who left a box of pastries,’ Jace murmured. His eyes searched her face intently, as if he were trying to read her thoughts. ‘And you listened in on my private conversation. Was that the reason you ran out on me without telling me you were leaving? You switched off your phone and I had no way of knowing if you were safe.’
‘Like you cared,’ she mocked. ‘Of course it’s why I left. Do you think I would have stayed and pretended that everything was all right between us after I’d discovered that you didn’t...that you don’t...?’ She broke off and bit down hard on her lip so that she tasted blood.
‘I don’t what?’ he prompted.
Eleanor closed her eyes and when she opened them again he was still there in front of her, not a figment of her imagination but a living, breathing, impossibly handsome man who had never given a damn about her.
