EVE was casting spells in the garden. They wound around a tall, dark, idiot Englishman with no heart worth mentioning.
She wasn’t happy. Everyone in her grandfather’s house knew that she wasn’t happy. She’d rowed with Grandpa. No one had ever heard Eve row with her grandpa.
But, like the Englishman, she had come to realise that Theron Herakleides had no heart either. He’d let her down. When she’d needed his comfort and support more than she’d ever needed it, he had withdrawn both with an abruptness that shocked.
‘No, Eve,’ he said. ‘I will not let you do this.’
‘But you don’t have a say in the matter!’ she cried.
‘On this point I do,’ he insisted. ‘I gave you two weeks to come to your senses about that man. When you did nothing but claim how much you adored him, I gave in to your wishes, soft-hearted fool that I am, and went ahead with planning tonight’s party. You are not, therefore, going to make the Herakleides name look foolish, by cancelling at this late juncture!’
‘But I no longer have a man to become betrothed to!’
‘Then find one,’ he advised. ‘Or you will dance alone tonight, my precious,’ Theron coolly informed her, ‘with your honour lying on the floor by your pretty feet and the Herakleides pride lying beside it.’
‘You don’t mean it,’ she denounced.
But he did mean it. Which was why she was sitting in the garden wondering what she was supposed to do about a party she didn’t want, meant to celebrate a betrothal she didn’t want, to a man who wasn’t here to share either even if she did want him!
Where was he?
Her heart gave a little whimper. Was he with Leona right now, worshipping the unattainable, while her long-suffering husband played the grim chaperone—just to save face?
I hope they’ve had him thrown into a dungeon, she decided savagely. I hope they’ve cast him out into the desert with no food and water and definitely no tent!
But where was he? her stupid heart cried.
Today was Saturday. Yesterday she’d left a message on the answering machine in San Estéban asking him to call her. Couldn’t he have done that at least? He owed her that one small consideration for all the love she’d poured into him.
I want him back. I don’t want him back. She stood up, sat down again, let her hands wring together, looked down to find the thumb from the right hand rubbing anxiously at a finger on the left where Ethan’s ring used to be.
I miss it. I miss him. Come and get me, Ethan! Oh, good grief, she never knew anything could feel this wretched.
‘Eve…’
‘Go away, Grandpa.’ She didn’t want to speak to anyone.
‘There was a telephone call for you—’
‘From Ethan—?’ She shot eagerly back to her feet. Seeing the pity in her grandfather’s eyes made her wish the ground would open up and swallow her whole.
What have I let that man do to me?
‘It was Aidan Galloway,’ her grandpa told her. ‘He is on his way from the airport. I said you would be glad to see him.’
‘Why?’ Her green eyes began to spark with aggression. ‘Are you thinking that Aidan could stand in as substitute?’
It made her even angrier when he dared to laugh. ‘That is not a bad idea, sweetness,’ he mused lazily. ‘He will be here in a few minutes. I will leave you to put the suggestion to him.’ With that he strolled off, still grinning from ear to ear.
He was enjoying this, Eve realised. It amazed her that she hadn’t realised before what a twisted sense of humour her grandfather possessed. Her life was on the line here—her one hope at happiness—and he thought it was funny to watch her tear herself apart?
Theron did pause for a moment to wonder whether he should put her out of her misery and tell her what he already knew. He had been in touch with Victor Frayne about the Greek project. Victor Frayne had, in turn, told him about Ethan’s quick departure from Rahman.
If the man wasn’t coming to claim his granddaughter, then his name wasn’t Theron Herakleides. Keeping Eve unaware of this prediction was good for her character. Good things came too easily for Eve, he’d come to realise. She had sailed through her life without feeling the pangs that hunger breeds. She had wit, she had grace, she had charm and intelligence, and she knew how to use them all to reach her goals with ease. But love stood on its own as something that must be worked at if it was to develop into its fullest potential. Feeling the sharp-edged fear of losing love should make her appreciate and heed the fear of losing it again.
Why did he feel she needed to do that? Because Ethan Hayes was a man of hidden fibre, he’d discovered. To keep up with the sneaky devil she was going to have to learn dexterity and speed.
Ethan landed in Athens and had to utilise some dexterity and speed to get through an airport that the rest of the world had seemed to decide to use at the same time.
He managed to grab a taxi by jumping the queue with the help of a British fifty-pound note. The drive through the city set his teeth on edge. The heat, the crowded streets, the knowledge that he had taken a chance and come here directly from Rahman, instead of checking out San Estéban, all helping to play on his stress levels. So, by the time he passed through the gates of the Herakleides mansion, he was beginning to regret this madly impulsive decision to chase after Eve.
The taxi pulled to a halt in front of a stone-fronted residence built to emulate Greek classicism at its most grand. A maid opened the door to him, smiled in recognition of the times he had been here before. When he asked to see Eve, she offered to take his suit bag from him then directed him towards the garden at the rear of the house.
His heart began to pump with the adrenaline rush of relief because he now knew his instincts had not let him down and he had been right to miss out San Estéban to come straight here.
It was mid-afternoon and as he stepped out onto the wide stone-flagged terrace the air was just taking on the warm golden glow that reminded him of the Caribbean. Striding forward he paused at the head of a set of wide shallow steps which led down into the garden. Standing on a hill as the house did, the garden itself sloped away from him in a riot of summer colour, so from up here he should easily be able to pick out Eve.
He did so immediately. It would have been impossible not to do when she was wearing a hot-pink stretchy top with a short lavender skirt. She stood out in this garden of colour like the most exotic flower ever created. As his heart began to pound in response to wrapping all of that vivid colour to him and never letting go of it again, he saw her move, realised that she wasn’t alone, realised that she was also standing in the exact same spot he had seen her standing the last time he’d seen her here—and locked in the arms of the same man.
Aidan Galloway—she was locked in the arms of Aidan Galloway! Lightning was striking twice again, using a burning blast of cynical reality to hit him full in the face.
Aidan Galloway. It was a joke. He almost laughed. Only he didn’t feel like laughing. Turn, he told himself. Leave, he told himself. Get away from here before she sees you and knows what a bloody fool you’ve made of yourself.
‘Oh, Aidan,’ Eve sobbed into his shoulder. ‘I’ve made such a fool of myself!’
‘Join the club,’ Aidan said.
‘He isn’t going to come, and I’ve left this stupid message on his machine…’
‘Now it’s playing over and over in your head. I know.’ Aidan sighed. ‘Been there, done that, felt the agony.’
‘I hate Ethan Hayes.’ She sobbed into his shoulder.
‘I wish I could learn to hate Corin,’ Aidan murmured wistfully.
‘Oh.’ Eve touched his cheek. ‘Is she still—?’
‘Yes.’
Eve playing Eve, Ethan observed bitterly, as he watched her lift up her head and gaze into Galloway’s eyes.
He felt his muscles go into violent spasm, as a need to go down there and commit murder swelled in his chest. He was about to take his first step towards assuaging that desire when a hand touched him on the shoulder, making him spin round and almost explode all that violence on Theron Herakleides instead.
‘Come back inside, Mr Hayes,’ Eve’s grandfather said quietly.
‘That’s Aidan Galloway she’s with,’ he heard himself murmur hoarsely.
‘Yes, I know it is.’ Theron’s steely head nodded. ‘But angry men do not confront weaker men. So come inside,’ he repeated the invitation. ‘I have a matter I would like to discuss with you.’
Business, Ethan surmised, and shrugged the older man’s hand from his shoulder. ‘Keep your business proposals for someone else,’ he said. He had taken enough from other people trying to direct his life. ‘I’m leaving.’ And he turned to stride back into the house.
Theron followed. ‘Take care, Mr Hayes, what you say right now,’ he quietly advised. ‘For a man can still be chased through the courts here in Greece, for jilting his betrothed…’
There were several words used in that comment that stirred Ethan’s blood. Jilting, was one of them, he chose to challenge another one. ‘There was no betrothal,’ he coldly denied. It was all just an elaborate sham thought up by the manipulating witch wearing hot-pink.
‘How many witnesses do you think will I find in San Estéban who would be willing to swear the opposite to that?’
Ethan stopped walking, turned and looked at Eve’s grandfather, aware that there was still more to come.
‘Ah,’ Theron said. ‘I see you understand me. Then we will go in here and continue to discuss the small matter of a settlement…’
With that, Theron opened the door to his study and walked inside. After a small hesitation, Ethan followed him with the word settlement ringing warning bells in his head.
Theron’s study was furnished to suit the man’s big persona. Heavy furniture filled the floor space, heavy-framed portraits adorned the walls.
‘So,’ the big man began as he slotted himself behind his heavy oak desk. ‘Did you really think that you could send my granddaughter back to me like used and broken goods without paying a heavy price?’
Broken. That word made Ethan release a hard mocking laugh. There had been nothing broken about the woman he’d seen wrapped in the arms of another man. ‘Ask Aidan Galloway to pay the price,’ he suggested. ‘He has the money. You’ll struggle to get a penny out of me.’
‘Eve loves you.’
‘Hell, damn it!’ Ethan suddenly exploded spectacularly. ‘Open your eyes, Theron! Eve only loves the thrill of the chase!’
Through the fine silk drapes covering the opened French window of her grandfather’s study, Eve heard the deep rasping tones of Ethan’s voice, froze for a split second, then spun around to stare at the house.
‘Be assured that Aidan Galloway is more than willing to take your place tonight,’ Theron smoothly replied. ‘Oh, yes,’ he confirmed at Ethan’s sudden stillness. ‘Eve’s betrothal celebration will take place tonight whether or not it is you standing at her side. Eve is resigned to this. You’ve broken her heart, now she cares not about the man who will next share her bed.’
The words were used as well-aimed bullets that sank themselves deep into Ethan’s head. Was that what Eve was doing out there—seducing Aidan Galloway to take his place? More bells began ringing, a red tide of anger came flooding in. He was very intimate with Eve’s powers of persuasion. He knew only too well what it was like to fall into her sticky web.
‘What do you want from me, Theron?’ he demanded grimly.
‘I want you to honour those promises you made to me in the Caribbean,’ the big man said.
‘I’ll talk to her.’ It was Ethan’s only concession, though he was planning to do a lot more than just talk to Eve when he could get his hands on her. She played with men’s feelings. She walked all over their self-respect. She made love like a natural-born seducer and he was damned if any other man was going to know how good that felt.
‘Not without the right,’ Theron smoothly said.
Ethan glared at him. ‘Explain,’ he insisted.
Theron went one better and slid several documents across the top of his desk. ‘You know the score. Sign, and you can talk to my granddaughter. Don’t sign, and you can leave her to Aidan Galloway’s adequate care.’
Ah, Ethan thought. The contract to protect Theron’s precious money. He almost laughed in the old man’s face as he stepped up to the desk, picked up Theron’s handy pen, and scrawled his signature in the allotted space.
‘Now, if you will excuse me,’ he concluded coldly.
‘Don’t you think you should have read what it is you’ve just put your signature to? It is an unwise man who signs a document without first ensuring himself that he has not just signed his entire wealth away.’
Wealth, Ethan thought. ‘What wealth?’ he mocked. His wealth stood outside in the arms of another man.
His wealth, his woman—hell, he was right back on track again; he felt so much better for realising that.
‘You’re a liar, Hayes,’ Theron inserted, then suddenly let rip with a hearty laugh. ‘Do you think I would let you seduce my granddaughter into marriage without having you thoroughly checked out? You are a Caledonian Hayes of the merchant shipping line. Your grandfather sold up in the sixties and died in the eighties, leaving you so much money you could even afford to buy me out!’
‘Ah—my credentials,’ Ethan acknowledged and the depth of his cynicism played havoc with his face. ‘How long have you been planning this?’ he demanded.
‘Marrying you to my granddaughter? Two weeks ago you became worthy of consideration when my nephew, Leandros, let slip how much money you had invested in San Estéban,’ Theron replied. ‘A mere architect, no matter how gifted he is, could not earn that kind of money in a hundred years. I have an instinct for these things.’ With a smugness that said he was enjoying himself, Theron touched a finger to the end of his nose. ‘The nose twitched. So I decided to have you checked out for curiosity sake, you understand. And for Eve’s sake, of course.’
Glancing down at the document he had just put his signature to, Ethan began to wonder what he had signed away. ‘It won’t do you any good,’ he announced. ‘I live off my earned income. Any money my grandfather left me is tied up in trusts for any children I might have.’
‘Or my grandchildren.’ Theron nodded. ‘Exactly.’
So that was what this was all about. ‘Eve is up for sale to the man with the biggest return.’
From sitting there wallowing in his own self-satisfied smugness, Theron was suddenly launching to his feet in a towering rage. ‘Don’t speak about Eve in that tone!’ he bellowed. ‘It is okay for you with your hidden millions to stand here mocking me whose wealth is well documented. But place yourself in Eve’s shoes and tell me how she distinguishes between the man who will love her for herself and the one with love only for the money she will inherit one day!’
‘So you think that by finding her a husband who is wealthier than herself, you are safeguarding her against disillusionment and a broken heart?’ Ethan’s tone poured contempt all over that concept as his own fury rose to match the older man’s. ‘Money in the bank is no guarantee for love, Theron!’ he bit out furiously. ‘It’s just—money in the bank! I am as capable as the next man is of breaking her foolish, reckless heart!’
‘If you were the kind of man to do that, you would not be standing here arguing with me about this!’
‘She already thinks I’m in love with another woman!’ he threw at Theron. ‘Are you telling me that your investigation of me did not tell you that?’
‘If it didn’t, he knows now,’ another quieter, heart-piercingly level voice inserted.