Chapter Two
Ari
I stare out over the calm waters of the Old Harbor. Esja’s snow-covered, flat top looms in the distance. Boats put in and out of the harbor, ferrying fishermen and optimistic tourists armed with cameras, hoping for a glimpse of a humpback whale.
A sight as familiar to me as my own name. It eases some of the tension in my neck. Tension created by a woman I should have left in my past. A woman who thwarted my one attempt at salvaging any blood family I had left.
A woman whose memory has haunted me ever since I woke up to find her gone, except for the scent of jasmine lingering on her pillow.
Hiring her was best for AuraGeothermal. Not hiring her would have been giving her power, allowing one fleeting night to take precedence over the future of a company my grandfather built from the ground up.
When negotiations with Hellas came to a screeching halt, I reached out to my contacts, who all recommended Diana’s firm.
And the firm recommended Diana. They confirmed everything Liam had bragged about during our dinner from hell three months ago—her graduate degree from Georgetown, the diverse range of companies she’d worked for, and most importantly, she’d worked with a Greek client last year and a shipping firm the year before that.
Her background check had come up clean. So, too, had the investigation I’d ordered for my own edification.
Diana North was a well-respected professional with an exemplary work record, no financial issues, and an apartment in New York’s SoHo District.
Aside from a boyfriend in college, she’d had no serious relationships since college.
There’d been no hint of a romance with anyone.
Including my half brother, Liam.
Grief punches through my defenses, tightens my gut a second before I wrestle it back under control. Four years, I’d been searching. Searching for a brother my bastard of a father had told me died with my mom during birth. And when I’d finally found him, I’d allowed myself a cautious flare of hope.
One that was snuffed out when Liam had walked into the restaurant in New York with Diana on his arm and his ring on her finger.
I slip my hands into my pockets. Curl them into fists.
My brother spent the second half of his childhood suffering in foster care.
He’d had the benefit of loving adoptive parents the first ten years of his life and a peaceful, middle-class life.
But that had been yanked from him by a distracted driver blazing through a stop sign, leaving him alone, penniless, shifted from home to home while I lived in luxury, traveled the world, had access to the best education, cars, clothes, and homes money could buy.
I earned my place at AuraGeothermal, but money helped get me there.
Liam had scrounged and clawed his way to success.
He should never have had to fight those battles. We should have been equals.
Instead, I had everything. He had nothing.
Yet I sat across from him the night we first met, coveting the woman he proposed to hours after she snuck out of my hotel room.
Their engagement may be over, but the guilt lingers.
I wanted to tell him. So many times, I picked up the phone to call, text.
I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t ruin his happiness to assuage my own conscience.
I don’t know who disgusts me more: Diana for lying and coming between my brother and me, or myself for still wanting her.
Seeing her in the lobby of the airport had sliced at me, a deep stab I hadn’t anticipated.
She’d walked down the crowded hall, one hand wrapped around the strap of her bag and the other tucked in her pocket, eyes drinking in everything around her.
That glimpse of her amber gaze had catapulted me back to a gallery on a late summer afternoon and my first sight of a stunning woman in front of a painting of ballet dancers.
Unlike the other visitors posing for pictures or glancing at the art before moving on to the next, she’d stood just a few feet away, arms crossed over her chest, naked grief written on her face. A grief I’d felt in my bones.
And then she’d turned. Turned and given me a slow, shy smile that had bolted through me like lightning.
Not just heat, although there’d been plenty of that.
There’d been something else beneath the desire, something deep.
A recognition, a connection to someone who had experienced, and survived, loss.
I turn away from the window and stalk to my desk. No more thoughts of that night. Our meeting at the airport had been the first test. If she had tried to flirt, to tease or seduce, I’d have sent her back to New York on the first available flight. But she’d passed with flying colors.
I glance back out over the harbor. This is the best thing for AuraGeothermal. It’s good for me, too, a chance to regain control and prove to myself, and Diana, what happened between us was nothing more than basic lust.
Once that’s dealt with, I’ll reach out to Liam. Explain, apologize, and hopefully build a relationship with the only blood family I have left.
My intercom buzzes.
“Sir, Miss North is here.”
My pulse remains steady, my focus fixed on the task at hand.
“Send her in.”
I move back to the window, my back to the door. The door swings in on a soft sigh, followed by a quiet click as it closes.
“Hello, Mr. Valdasson.”
I steel myself against the sound of her voice, warm and rich, with that faint smokiness that ensnared me the first time we spoke.
I slowly turn to face her. She’s changed out of the striped T-shirt, leggings, and black jacket she had on at the airport.
Now she’s sporting cream-colored pants, a mint-colored jacket, and a darker green silk shirt underneath.
Her thick, dark hair is pulled into a loose bun at the nape of her neck.
Every inch the professional as she walks into my office, a brown leather briefcase in hand and a tan jacket draped over one arm.
The only thing she kept on is a small silver bracelet with what looks like a heart dangling from it.
Counting this moment, I’ve seen Diana in person four times.
Yet I know the shape of her face, from the slightly rounded chin I kissed to the defined jaw I grazed with my teeth.
I know the cupid’s bow in the middle of her full lips, the long column of her neck I teased with my tongue as she arched beneath me.
I know her body in a way I’ve never known another woman’s.
Gue, I hate us both for that.
“I’m meeting with Georgios Xenakis and his team tomorrow morning.”
She blinks. “Then, we better get to work.” She motions toward a round table on the far side of my office. “May I?”
At my nod, she walks across my office. Confident, collected. She pulls a laptop and a notebook out of her briefcase before taking a seat. She looks up at me, her face schooled into a friendly, polite expression, ready to work.
“Tell me about your project.”
I sit across from her.
“AuraGeothermal is already a leading authority in geothermal energy production. We provide a substantial portion of the energy used to produce our country’s electricity through four plants in Iceland.”
Her lips curve into a slight smile. “Something to be proud of.”
Some of my tension eases. If she can see what this company means to our country, what it means to the employees who have given AuraGeothermal years of their lives, then perhaps this can be salvaged.
“It is. But the demand for green energy solutions is growing. We have an opportunity to meet this need and invest in other avenues.”
“Potentially a lot of profit.”
My fingers tighten on the armrest of my chair. “Along with long-term sustainability for AuraGeothermal, more jobs, and economic benefits for my country.”
Diana jots something down in her notebook. “And part of this plan includes generating green hydrogen, converting into ammonia for transportation via Hellas Shipping to the Port of Piraeus in Greece, then changing it back into hydrogen before distributing it across Europe.”
“Yes.”
She flips back a few pages, studies her notes. “But negotiations have soured. You’ve invited Xenakis here as a last attempt to salvage the deal, including inviting him to your company’s annual conservation gala.”
“Yes.”
A suggestion made by one of my executives.
It wasn’t a bad idea. I’d say it was even a good one, if Xenakis was the kind of man to be swayed by how much a company invested in its community.
But given that most of our conversations have revolved around profit margins and expenses, I don’t think he gives a damn about the impact AuraGeothermal has on the environment.
Her eyes flick up to me. “You think Georgios Xenakis is being unreasonable with his requests.”
“No.”
Confusion clouds her gaze. “Oh?”
“I know he’s being unreasonable.”
“Ar…” She pauses. “Mr. Valdasson, I’ve read over everything you shared with me. While Mr. Xenakis has a different way of communicating, his request to manage the shipping timelines and be involved in setting the price are reasonable requests.”
I bite back a scathing retort, one that would have insulted not only Georgios Xenakis and his over-the-top verbosity, but Diana’s ability to perform the basic functions of the job I’m paying her a substantial amount of money to do.
But I’m not going to let anger guide my actions. I don’t need to give in to emotions. Not when the facts are clear.
“Are you aware of the history of AuraGeothermal?”
She nods. “Founded in 1965 by your grandfather. The role of CEO was handed over to your father, Gunnar Helgisson, in the early nineties. You successfully completed a takeover of the company four years ago.”
“Takeover is a kind word.” I lean back in my chair. “A professional term that doesn’t touch on the near loss of something vital to our economy. It would have left hundreds of people stranded without jobs and Iceland at the mercy of international interests.”