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Thiswas the Zeph she remembered. The terrifying Greek shipping tycoon and financier who could make grown men quake in their boots. Why that made something heavy inside her plummet, she refused to examine. ‘What reason would I have to lie to you?’
‘The same reason you’re holding yourself so stiffly. The reason everyone around here seems pleased to see me except you.’ Silk and danger. Those were the two components of his voice. And they sent a different shiver down her spine.
Because he’d spoken to her like that before his disappearance. Just her. No one else.
Whether he remembered it or not.
‘Would you care to elaborate as to why that is?’ he pressed.
She attempted a calm and composed shrug. ‘I’m concerned about your well-being. This must be all new and...different from what you’ve been used to these last ten months. Maybe you should rest?’
That devastating smile broke through again and everything inside her roused to rude life. ‘Again, I may not know myself as much as I’d wish to, but I’m confident I’m made of sterner stuff...dear wife.’ He drawled the last two words out, his eyes pinned on her face.
So he probably didn’t miss the unguarded gasp she tried to suppress. Then she rallied hard to get herself together. Answered the question still lingering in the air. ‘Titos, your pilot... I don’t speak Greek so I don’t know if he reminded you of your childhood together. I’m sure he can corroborate whatever you need to know.’
His gaze didn’t waver from her face for one instant. ‘He seems a good man, but I’m not getting best friend and confidant vibes from him,’ he replied.
And she couldn’t refute that.
Zeph Diamandis has always been a lone wolf, an apex predator who ruled his world alone and with a titanium fist. Sure, he had dozens of business acquaintances and alliances, but true, lifelong friends? She hadn’t come across a single one in the full year she’d been shoved into his orbit, then shackled to him in a game of pure retribution.
‘Your hesitation tells me I’m right,’ he drawled when she remained silent.
Immie cleared her throat. ‘Okay, yes... I mean, no, you weren’t best friends.’
‘Then I’m certain there was a reason for it.’
The thinly veiled question sent alarm through her. Because suddenly, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to provide him with vivid details of their relationships. Wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him that far from being a conventional married couple, they’d been enemies, thrown together by the Diamandis code for retribution he’d vowed never to waver from.
The wrongs her family had done his had left a trail of devastation it’d taken Zephyr’s father, then Zeph himself to right. And he’d risen from those ashes determined that a Callahan would pay.
That Callahan had been her.
He strode towards her, and she was reminded all over again—as if that phenomenon were ever far from her mind—how devastatingly handsome he was; how he could command a room without so much as speaking a word.
Even the wide, endless deck seemed like an enclosed cave as he pinned those laser-beam eyes on her. Eyes that made her intensely aware of every sensitive square inch of her skin. Aware of the tightening of her nipples and the sensitivity in her breasts.
What had he asked her again?
Friends. Relationships.
She licked her lips. ‘I know you want answers, and we’ll get around to it eventually—’
‘Ne, I want answers,’ he concurred, his Greek accent thickened. ‘And you can start by telling me where you were last night. What you were doing going out dressed like that when your husband was missing.’
‘Excuse me? How dare you?’ Affront was immediate—and welcomed. She could hang on to that, suppress the other sensations he triggered in her. Sensations that reminded her far too vividly that she was a woman. Albeit a woman with negligible sexual experience. Because she didn’t want to dwell on that hot, tight space between her legs that grew hotter with every scent of him she took into her nostrils, every glimpse of those sensual lips. Every ripple of those thick muscles. Every time her gaze fell on his callused hands and she imagined them on her body, deliciously chafing in their caresses.
‘I’m not criticising your choice of attire, although I must admit to feeling a little...disgruntled that other men get to enjoy the sight of those spectacular legs.’
Her mouth dropped open in shock. Then she snapped it shut. ‘Then...why? Because you...you sound...jealous.’ The notion was absurd to speak aloud. Just as absurd as the spiky little thrill it sent through her!
‘Do I? Is that as new a phenomenon as wanting to know my wife’s whereabouts?’
As quickly as her ire had risen, it dissipated. Because again, he’d knocked the wind out of her with this staggering observation. The Zephyr Diamandis she knew hadn’t exhibited an iota of emotion towards her, jealousy or otherwise.
Hell, she’d have been lucky if he’d shown anything other than stone-cold indifference. All he’d wanted was the convenient respectability of marriage to secure the biggest deal of his life—the acquisition of the multibillion-dollar conglomerate that was Avalon Inc.
Imogen wasn’t sure how her father had known the ins and outs of the Diamandis negotiations with Avalon, or especially how he’d found out that Philip Avalon, the ninety-year-old magnate who had finally agreed to sell his company, had had one ultimate condition before agreeing to the deal with Zephyr. That the man acquiring his beloved company not be a ‘philandering womaniser with more money than sense and no ties to keep him in line’.
