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‘You let me think that you were in love with me.’
‘Did I actually say so?’
She stared at him and he sensed the effort it took her to control her emotions. ‘No,’ she muttered at last. ‘I thought you were a prince. But I discovered that you are just a man, and not a nice one.’
‘What you felt was infatuation based on sexual attraction,’ he growled, trying to ignore the tug of remorse he felt when she brushed her hand across her eyes. ‘If you had married me, the Pangalos hotel would not be in its current dire financial situation.’
Eleanor shook her head. ‘I don’t believe you. If there was a problem my brother would have told me.’
‘Your brotheristhe problem.’ Jace’s patience evaporated. ‘Sit down, Eleanor, and listen to me. The Pangalos has huge debts and could be forced into insolvency.’
He had her attention now. She walked around the sofa and sat down on the end furthest away from him. ‘You’re lying. I spoke to Mark a few days ago and he told me that the hotel is fully booked for the rest of the summer.’
‘Most of the bookings are package deals bought through holiday companies, but you know as well as I do that the hotel won’t receive money for the rooms it lets out for several months. In the meantime the staff need to be paid and there are the running costs of the hotel. There is also an outstanding tax bill owed to the Greek government that your brother failed to pay. If the Pangalos is forced to declare bankruptcy, then you, as the director of Gilpin Leisure, will be legally required to close down the hotel and sell off its assets to pay back the creditors.’
Eleanor had paled while Jace spoke. She leapt to her feet. ‘What you have told me is a pack of lies. You can’t possibly know confidential financial details about the Pangalos.’
‘It would appear that I know more than you,’ Jace said drily. ‘I have a reliable source of information and I understand that when you inherited Gilpin Leisure you gave control of the Pangalos to your brother.’
‘Mark was devastated that my grandfather made me his successor. My brother is the oldest grandchild and it was assumed that he would inherit the company.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t know why Pappoús chose me. His decision caused a lot of resentment from my brother and sister towards me.’
‘Kostas wouldn’t have cared about that. He was first and foremost a ruthless businessman, and it’s my guess that he put you at the head of the company because you are more sensible than either of your siblings.’
‘By sensible I suppose you mean boring.’
‘I did not find you boring during our relationship,pouláki mou.’ His body stirred as he remembered the softness of her lips when he’d kissed her and how she had opened her mouth to the gentle pressure of his to allow his tongue access to her moist interior.
‘You likened me to a drab sparrow,’ she said flatly. ‘We didn’t have a relationship, but you fooled me into thinking that we did.’
Jace stood up and studied Eleanor’s shuttered expression. The woman he’d met fifteen months ago had been shy with him at first, but she had gradually opened up. There was a vulnerability about her now that smote his conscience. He had not intentionally set out to hurt her, and he regretted that it had happened. But he would not be swayed from his determination to take back the Pangalos hotel.
‘I suggest you contact your brother and ask him to explain the state of affairs. The only way you can save the Pangalos is if you find someone who will be willing to put money into the business. But it won’t be easy to persuade an investor to take on the hotel’s enormous debts. That’s why you need me. I am prepared to rescue the Pangalos in return for you giving me fifty per cent ownership of the hotel.’
Eleanor’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘You must be joking. I wouldn’t give you the time of day. Even if there is some truth in what you have told me, which I seriously doubt, I won’t allow your grubby hands anywhere near the hotel that meant so much to my grandfather.’
Jace controlled his temper with difficulty. ‘All I am asking is that you give back what should be mine. Your grandfather stole my father’s share of the Pangalos, and it is only fair that you should return it to me.’
‘Life isn’t fair. If it was, I wouldn’t have met you,’ Eleanor said coldly.
Her jibe stung. ‘You don’t mean that,’ Jace murmured. He watched Eleanor’s eyes widen when he stepped closer to her. The pulse at the base of her throat was beating erratically. ‘You can tell yourself that you hate me, but a year ago the passion was real for both of us.’
He wanted to kiss her one more time and taste her sweet breath in his mouth. When he lowered his face towards hers, he heard her catch her breath. For a split second Jace was tempted to forget about the feud between their families, which had nothing to do with him and Eleanor.
An image flashed into his mind of his father’s body sprawled at the bottom of the cliff. His sanity returned and he jerked his mouth away from the temptation of Eleanor’s lips.
‘Pappoús entrusted the Pangalos to me and I will never share it with you,’ she said tautly.
‘Never say never,’ Jace drawled. Eleanor would discover that she needed his help. But he had waited more than twenty years to avenge his father’s death, and he could wait a little longer. He took a business card from his wallet and held it out to her. She did not take it and he dropped it down on the coffee table. ‘When you call me and beg for my help, you had better hope that I will treat you more fairly than Kostas treated my father.’
CHAPTER TWO
‘MARK! THANKGOD!’Relief poured through Eleanor when her brother answered his phone. ‘Where are you? I’ve been so worried. You disappeared two days ago, and your phone was switched off.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’m at the Pangalos. The auditors have found discrepancies with the accounts.’
‘I know where you are. Lissa warned me that you left Oxford in a hurry to go to Greece. The truth is that I couldn’t face you, El.’
‘You spoke to Lissa but not to me?’ Eleanor tried to ignore a stab of jealousy that her brother and sister shared a bond which she was excluded from. It had been the same when they were growing up. She had been the awkward middle child—not bold and daring like Mark, and lacking Lissa’s precocious prettiness. Her scoliosis had set her further apart from her siblings and glamorous parents, and she had become more introverted and found solace in books.
‘I don’t understand what has been happening.’ She had felt guilty for sending the auditors to check over the Pangalos’s accounts after Jace had accused her brother of financial irregularities. Mark would be able to explain why money was missing, she assured herself. ‘It has been discovered that you transferred money out of the Pangalos’s account into your private bank account. The hotel owes money to many of its suppliers. There is an unpaid final tax demand and the staff haven’t been paid their salaries this month.’
