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Imogen would’ve laughed at the archaic concept, perhaps even pondered why a man as enlightened as Zeph Diamandis was agreeing to it, if she weren’t the one directly in the crosshairs of that agreement. If her family’s once thriving but now struggling company hadn’t been at serious risk, too.
That the Avalon deal had included its subsidiary, Callahan Shipping, had been a minor incentive, but an incentive nevertheless because, in one fell swoop, he’d been able to deliver the sucker punch every Callahan family member had been bracing for for almost two decades. Zeph had acquired Avalon, and with it her beloved company, the company she’d earned a business and marketing degree for and had poured blood, sweat and tears into, despite every single deprecatory put-down from her father.
And in the months before his disappearance, Diamandis Shipping had become one of the largest individually owned companies in the world, making her husband one of the wealthiest, most influential men on the planet.
Did he even realise how powerful he was? This man dressed in shorts and a T-shirt who was asking about her activities as anormalrun-of-the-mill husband who cared for his wife would?
Except there was nothing run-of-the-mill about the look he continued to level at her, the expectation of an answer heavy in the air and growing weightier by the second.
‘If you must know, I was out with your...with the company’s clients last night.’
His gaze raked over her once more, his nostrils flaring. ‘And are you in the habit of regularly entertaining these clients outside office hours?’
She shrugged. ‘Not often but...’ She stopped, a touch of anger and disconsolation riling her anew as she was reminded of why she’d needed to act out of the ordinary. ‘None of the other board members were available.’ A very convenient result of every last one of them scattering to their various plush villas and summer homes and leaving her to handle these particularly demanding clients.
‘And these clients, they were that important?’
‘So far they’ve been...challenging, but yes, they are.’ And the board had pulled rank over her, the youngest member, and despite her title as acting CEO in her husband’s absence, the one most responsible.
It hadn’t factored that she’d had a million other responsibilities to take care of. Plus a missing husband to find. They’d merely shrugged and told her if she cared that much about securing the Canadian brothers’ business then she needed to step up.
Zeph’s eyes narrowed as he no doubt attempted to read between the lines. Afraid that he’d do just that, that he’d see how much of a battle she’d had to fight to retain her seat on the all-male board, and how debasing she’d found their treatment of her, she rose and turned away, discarding the stilettos that were killing her feet before striding to the rail.
For several seconds, she let the sweet, mid-morning breeze wash over her. Then, when everything that had happened crowded in, reminding her that there were a million other things to take care of, least of which was announcing Zeph Diamandis’s return from the dead to the world, she squared her shoulders and turned.
Only to gasp when she found him behind her, hands shoved in his pockets as he watched her. ‘What...did you need something?’
‘Other than the full picture I suspect you’re not showing me?’ he rasped, one eyebrow quirked upward.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she hedged.
His lips pursed. ‘Of course you do but I’ll leave it alone, for now. Tell me, what was the outcome of this evening’s entertainment?’
She breathed a sigh of relief to answer straightforwardly, choosing to bat away the horrendous hours she’d spent socialising with the twin Canadian brothers who took theplay harderpart of the saying to a whole new level. ‘Somewhere around dawn, the terms of the deal were agreed. It’s with our lawyers right now. Pending a green light from them, we’ll sign a substantial supply contract with them later this week.’
Imogen wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Indifference? Apathy? That clinical coldness he used to address her with.
The mixture of pride and fury that flashed through his eyes threw her for a loop. Before she could query it, he was speaking. ‘While I congratulate you for getting the deal done—and I look forward to seeing the net result for myself—I find myself dissatisfied with the process.’
She shrugged, attempting not to take the criticism personally. ‘For success to be guaranteed, execution is everything,’ she muttered, still disturbed by his proximity and what it was doing to her equilibrium.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Sounds like a talking-head quote. Anyone you know?’
‘You. In aForbesmagazine article when you were named Man of the Year three years ago.’
Instead of basking in the accolade, as most would’ve, he sharpened his scrutiny even more. ‘Are you testing me,matia mou?’ he drawled. ‘Perhaps you hold your reservation about my memory loss?’
She hadn’t but, now he mentioned it, perhaps subconsciously she’d thrown his own words at him to attempt to elicit a response. Because an indifferent husband was one thing.
This new, equally enigmatic but emotionally expressive edition of Zephyr Diamandis was quite another.
Yiannis...no, Zeph—he needed to remember that he was no longer Yiannis the fisherman—watched her flush and do that gaze-avoiding thing that sent wariness shooting through him.
And yet it was that pink tongue slicking her lower lip that affected him more. Telling himself it was natural—after all, if they were married, the attraction was justified, wasn’t it?—didn’t quite ring true. Sure, he’d only just returned to this purported life he’d missed ten months of. And if the crew, who’d respectfully and almost reverently referred to him as Kyrios Diamandis were to be believed, he was their boss, the owner of this impressive vessel and a whole lot more assets in the great wide world.
But instinct blared wildly that he was missing a whole subset beneath the reality his mind was hiding from him. And in this moment, he couldn’t seem to see beyond that.
‘I don’t think we should have any...um...in-depth conversations until you’ve been checked out medically,’ she said, her glances starting out furtive, and then, as he watched her straighten her spine, meeting his boldly.
