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Her father turned away from Lysander's steady, unperturbed gaze, turning his look of disapproval on her. "You knew we were expecting you at our table," he hissed in an undertone.
"If you will excuse us," Lysander said to her father as if he hadn't spoken and subtly shifted his body forward.
Now, if he didn't want to create a scene, her father was the one who had no choice but to move.
"Rowan," he barked as she followed Lysander.
"Do not acknowledge him," Lysander instructed, his voice loud enough to carry, his arm dropping around her waist. "If he cannot speak to you in a polite tone, he won't be speaking to you at all."
Rowan couldn't remember the last time someone had taken umbrage on her behalf like that, much less publicly stood up for her.
Lysander did not allow the server to pull out Rowan's chair, insisting on doing it himself. Once she was seated, he introduced her to the others at their table.
"My mother, you know," he said. "This is her companion, Garret Landry."
"That sounds like an English name," Rowan said after the usualpleasure to meet you.
"American," Mr. Landry said with a smile that he turned on Iona. "Apparently like mother like son."
Iona's pleased expression showed how much she enjoyed the man saying that about her and Lysander. Rowan liked the comparison too. It implied that she and Lysander were a real couple.
Which they were, even if their time together had an as yet unspecified sell-by date.
Lysander continued his introductions his attitude that of a man both pleased by and proud of his companion.
Rowan learned that the rest of the table was made up of high-level managers in his company. Inviting them to share his table had been a nice thing to do.
Buying the table cost six figures. She knew because the Andinos bought one each year. However, her father-in-law used his tickets to curry favor with other tycoons and their wives. Her own father had to reimburse Baptiste for his and her mother's tickets, if he wanted to sit at the table with them.
Lysander could have used the gala as an opportunity to gain kudos with business associates too, but he opted to give his management team the chance to make connections at the prestigious event.
Which showed just how confident he was that they wouldn't leave his employment.
Time passed much faster than it usually did at events like this for Rowan. She liked Lysander's people and they liked the positive influence she had on him. More than one had remarked on how much more relaxed Lysander was with her there. One even said he'd been in a better mood since she'd moved into his villa.
"You knew I moved in?" she asked the man, and then turned to address Lysander. "You told them?"
"No." He frowned at his manager. "I am the same as I've always been."
"If you say so, boss," said one of the women at the table and then she smiled at Rowan. "The paparazzi have nothing on the office grapevine."
"They must not because news of my move hasn't made it into the papers yet." Rowan was fully expecting a distressed phone call from her mother when it did and a lecture from her father when he found out.
"After tonight, you can bet they'll be watching at the gate with their telephoto lenses and microphones, hoping to get a comment," the same woman said.
Rowan wasn't worried. She'd dealt with her share of the gossip press while married to Cyrus and more than when news of the divorce became public.
To avoid them, she'd spent a few months in the United States after filing for divorce in a state court. However, she had a job to do and a life to build as Rowan Johnson, not Andino, in Greece.
She'd returned to Athens months before the divorce was finalized and for a while the gutter media hounded her every step.
Lysander's security was pretty tight right now because of the threats made against him. The press would find her a lot harder to access than she had been after she moved into her apartment.
"Rowan will have security to run interference for her," Lysander said.
Was that one of the reasons he'd insisted on her having bodyguards?
"Good," the woman said.
