Chapter Three
CHAPTER THREE
‘W HAT THE HELL is going on? Where is Leander?’ Kate demanded as she drew a still reeling Helena away from the reception. The loud voices of guests could still be heard at a painful volume to Helena’s sensitive ears. But the small cloakroom was thankfully quiet and empty of guests, who were being distracted with canapés and chilled glasses of champagne.
She felt... She shook her head, still trying to rid herself of the humiliation that had stung her cheeks irrevocably with shame. She had wanted Leo to kiss her. With an old familiar need that had filled her senses and overwhelmed all rational thought, she had wanted him to kiss her and, as if unable to bear even the smallest of touches, he’d only made it look like he’d kissed his bride.
‘Helena? Are you okay?’ Kate tried again, pulling Helena around to face her. ‘You’re beginning to worry me.’
Helena was worried too. She pressed her fingers to her lips, hoping to feel something other than Leo’s thumbprint there. A shudder rippled through her. Disgust, she told herself. Anger.
‘Helena!’ Kate cried, finally pulling her back to her senses.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m... Leander’s gone,’ she admitted helplessly, without realising that Kate had somehow recognised that the man standing at the top of the aisle had been the wrong Liassidis.
‘I know that. But where?’ she demanded.
‘That’s what I’d like to know,’ Leo said, standing across the threshold as if as reluctant to enter as she was to have him there. As it was, he filled the doorframe of the small cloakroom, stifling the air and making Helena feel claustrophobic.
Kate glared at him. ‘Actually, that’s not important right now. Are you okay?’ Kate demanded of Helena.
Being cut off by a complete stranger, being told that what he said wasn’t important, left an almost comical look of shock across Leo’s features and Helena enjoyed every single moment of it. Bastard. It was the least he deserved.
‘Yes, I’m okay,’ she told Kate. ‘I don’t know where Leander is, but Leo is going to stand in for him while he’s away.’
‘Away? This isn’t making any sense, Helena.’ Kate’s pretty features scrunched in confusion.
‘He just said that something came up and that he’d be back by the end of the honeymoon,’ Helena explained.
‘That’s it? He didn’t say anything else to you?’
‘It wasn’t said to Helena, it was left on my—’
‘Well, we have to find him,’ Kate announced, cutting off Leo once again.
Leo’s response was a glare that would have felled many a man, but Helena’s best friend couldn’t care less.
‘Do you know where he’d go?’ Kate asked Helena.
‘Why would she know where—’ Leo tried before Helena cut him off this time.
‘He could be anywhere, but I’d imagine he’s in one of his properties. He’s probably thinking that there are too many for us to check them all. But I need him. He needs to be here,’ Helena said desperately.
‘I’ll find him, Helena. I promise,’ Kate swore, the look in her eyes telling Helena that Kate knew how much this meant to her. So much was on the line—and just because Leo had promised to cover for his twin didn’t mean that he’d actually be able to pull this off. If people found out—the press even—it would be a nightmare of unholy proportions.
‘My jet will be at your disposal,’ Leo informed them.
Kate looked at him blankly. ‘Is that supposed to impress me?’
Leo glared at her. ‘I don’t like you,’ he said boldly.
‘That’s okay, I don’t like you either,’ Kate replied, turning back to Helena. ‘If you can give me a list of his properties, I’ll take the jet and find him. I’ll go now.’
‘No. Not yet. You’re supposed to be giving a toast. If you disappear it would look like something’s wrong,’ Helena said, thinking through the rest of the reception. All she had to do was get through the next few hours and then, when she got to the villa on the Mani Peninsula that Leander had booked for their honeymoon, she could breathe, think and plan.
She had this. She would get through this and get what she needed, because she was a Hadden. She was her father’s daughter and people counted on her. Incendia counted on her. She wouldn’t let them down.
Kate nodded in understanding. ‘What about after the toasts?’ she offered and Helena agreed.
Helena desperately didn’t want Kate to go. As the only person who knew the whole truth about why she needed the money, who knew how much it had hurt to discover that someone had abused the charity that had meant so much to her in such a way, who had taken advantage of her new appointment to do so, Kate being away at a time that she most needed her would be terrible.
‘Just think of it as practice for Borneo,’ Kate replied, alluding to the fact that her best friend was finally achieving her dreams, having secured a permanent position as a vet at an orangutan sanctuary in the Southeast Asia island. Just the thought of her friend being so far away caused a pang of hurt to unfurl within her. But she pushed it aside. Kate had wanted this for so long.
‘Okay, but if you don’t find him in three days, that’s it. You’ve got too much to do before Borneo and I can’t let you mess it up.’
Kate gave her the dazzling smile that soothed her more than Helena could say. ‘It’s all done! I’m ready. Packed and everything. And don’t worry. I’ll probably find him hiding out at the first place I look.’
Leo had taken out his phone and was typing away. Both of the women looked at him expectantly—and when he looked up, he simply stared back at them blankly.
‘Do I have permission to speak now?’ he asked drily.
‘Don’t sulk,’ Kate replied. ‘It will give you wrinkles.’
Leo’s eyes flashed, but Helena cut off whatever he was about to say with a question.
‘Is the jet nearby?’
‘Yes,’ he replied, frustration clearly still simmering in his gaze. He turned to Kate, handing her a card, both reluctantly and resentfully. ‘Give this to the pilot and crew. They’ll help you with whatever you need, they’ll take you wherever you need to go. Just...be nice, okay?’
Kate flashed him a sugary smile. ‘I am nice,’ she replied sincerely. ‘To those who deserve it,’ she said, before slipping out of the cloakroom and back to the reception.
Helena didn’t bother hiding the smirk on her lips. It was nice to see someone put Leonidas Liassidis in his place for once. Especially as she couldn’t do it herself. No matter what she felt towards the man, she needed him. At least until Leander returned.
‘What did you tell her about me?’ Leo demanded.
‘Nothing but the truth,’ Helena replied tartly, before slipping past him to follow Kate back to the reception.
Leo was getting a headache. Sitting at the head of the top table next to Helena, the sunlight bouncing off starched white linen, glistening glass and pristine silverware combined with the noise from the guests made him grimace.
‘Could you at least try to smile?’ Helena whispered angrily.
‘It’s a little hard to find something to smile about at this present moment,’ he whispered back.
‘Just think of all those shares you’re getting at a bargain price,’ Helena hissed through gritted teeth and, much to his surprise, he did actually smile. Something that seemed only to anger Helena more. So much so he could have sworn he heard a growl coming from her, which in turn only made him smile more and her scowl.
Looking out across the room, he could have counted the number of people he recognised on one hand. He had become such a stranger in his twin brother’s life that the only people he knew were the bride and his own parents. Not that he cared. If these people valued his brother in spite of his selfishness and his ability to betray in a heartbeat, then more fool them.
Because wasn’t this the ultimate betrayal? Not even turning up to his own wedding.
A wedding Leander had agreed to only to help Helena access her inheritance.
He was stopped from following that chain of thought by the way that Helena was craning her head to search the room.
‘Is something wrong?’ he asked.
‘No, I just...’ Her voice trailed off when her eyes settled and a small hopeful smile crossed her features. Her hand rose in a half wave, as if unsure how it would be received, and when he turned to look he found Gwen, acknowledging her daughter with a barely cracked smile.
He watched, leashing an old familiar anger as Gwen leaned to say something to her companion—her second husband, he presumed, the one she’d married about a year after her debacle with Liassidis Shipping. The man—John, if he remembered rightly—was something in banking.
As she came to greet her daughter, Leo was struck by the impression of seeing Helena in thirty years’ time. Blonde hair adeptly highlighted with elegant silver streaks. High cheekbones and a strong jawline that had resisted age’s pull. Gwen Hadden was slightly smaller than Helena, who had inherited her height from her father, but the poise was inherent to both women.
‘Darling,’ Gwen said levelly. ‘The dress looks beautiful,’ she went on with no tone of warmth in her voice at all, ‘despite being from such a relatively new designer.’
Helena gazed carefully back at her mother, as if waiting.
‘But really, having Kate dressed in gold,’ Gwen added. Leo was surprised to feel the scold in her words. And Helena, who had been so fiery, who had been so full of life demanding he increase his offer for her shares, biting back a hurt Gwen must have been able to see.
‘I’m so pleased that you and John could make it,’ Helena said with a sincerity that seemed wasted on the woman.
Leo looked back to where John remained at the table, still eating his starter and engaged in conversation with another guest.
‘Well, it did interrupt his golfing holiday, but he’ll make up the time later. Will we be seeing you at drinks in October?’
Helena blinked. ‘I’m not quite sure yet—the end of the year is a busy time at work.’
‘Well, it would be good to see you there,’ Gwen said before turning her attention onto him.
‘Leander,’ Gwen finally acknowledged.
Helena placed her hand on his, and to the world it would look like the affectionate connection between a newly married couple. Obviously, they couldn’t see the crescent moons digging into his palms from her nails. He managed to keep the smile on his face despite the scratch of pain.
He nodded in return, suddenly unwilling to risk opening his mouth.
Gwen turned back to Helena one last time and Leo thought he saw the shadow of emotion flicker in her gaze.
‘Your father...’ She stopped, pressing her mouth into a firm line before pushing on. ‘He would have been happy today,’ she said, nodding to herself as if she had done some great maternal duty.
And, for just a moment, the years dropped away, the arguments, the feuds, the recriminations, and Helena was a little girl again, looking for her parents’ approval. He saw it in the sheen across her eyes.
It was enough, Helena told herself through the dull ache that edged her breathing. It was more than she’d expected, she reasoned, and then told herself off for being silly. She had to remind herself that this wasn’t a real wedding. It shouldn’t mean anything to her that her father had joked about joining the families together. And she shouldn’t be wishing for more than her mother was capable of giving.
Helena watched Gwen return to her table before daring to cast a look at Leo, whose expression was unfathomable. It was, she realised, the first time he’d seen her mother since the argument between them that had resulted in Gwen quitting and selling her Liassidis Shipping shares back to the company.
He reached for his wine glass and took a healthy mouthful as she remembered the awful heated words from that night. The ones that had excommunicated her and her mother from the lives of all but one of the Liassidis family.
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘I want you to go back in time and not have done it in the first place!’
‘Don’t be so juvenile, Leo.’
‘I want— the board wants—you to sell back your shares and leave Liassidis Shipping completely. And then? I want never to see you again.’
More words and more anger had filled the room that night, all of which had been shocking to the sixteen-year-old, already grieving Helena, so much so that she rarely thought about it. Leander had been the only member of the Liassidises to keep in touch with her afterwards. Helena had sometimes wondered if it had started to spite Leo, but theirs was a true friendship, a bond that had strengthened into one of love. Just not that kind of love.
In her heart, she’d always believed that Leander and Kate would make the perfect couple but, despite all her best intentions to get the two together, they had only met last week when she and Kate had travelled to Greece for the wedding.
But they’d had such a great week together, Helena thought. So she couldn’t understand what had caused Leander to disappear. It hurt that he’d not been able to tell her. Leander was her friend, one she loved like a brother. Yet, instead, he’d chosen to rely on the person he hadn’t spoken to for five years.
‘And now we welcome Mr and Mrs Liassidis to the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife!’ exclaimed the wedding planner, pulling her awkwardly back to the present.
Leo had stood and was gesturing her towards the dance floor and suddenly she wanted to be anywhere but here. She didn’t care about the money, she didn’t care if she failed as the charity’s CEO. She just couldn’t be this close to Leonidas Liassidis, who had made it painfully clear how much he disliked even the thought of touching her.
But she didn’t have a choice.
They approached the dance floor as the opening bars of At Last by Etta James played out across the reception hall and she determined to get through it without incident. But when she placed her hand in his and he slipped his arm around her waist, his palm splaying delicately at her back, a shiver rippled through her. He couldn’t have missed it, yet his focus was firmly, almost disdainfully, on the guests.
And, just like that, she was a fifteen-year-old girl again and he was the older boy she had a crush on. The one whose girlfriend had spat venom and caused her friend to become a cold stranger. One who couldn’t bear to even look at her.
‘And you thought I was going to be the one having trouble keeping up this fa?ade,’ he whispered and it was all the warning she got before he pulled her against his chest, much to the tittering delight of the guests watching.
Her breasts pushed against his firm chest, the outline of his body indelibly inked on her skin, the heat of his palm on her back pressing her gently against him, keeping her there even if she could have pulled herself back.
How could her body betray her so? Her pulse leapt to his touch, arousal filling her core with an ache that was indecent. She leaned back to glare up at him but was struck by the unflinching intensity in his gaze. His eyes glowed, shards of gold pulsing deep within the rich mahogany of his gaze.
Could it be that he felt it too? The wicked energy in the air between them. The want .
In response to the shift in their positions, his hand curved around her ribcage, the tips of his fingers perilously close to the underside of her breast. She felt the flush of heat on her cheeks and hoped that no one could see as he bent his head to the shell of her ear.
‘Just think of all the money I’m going to give you,’ he whispered, returning her earlier taunt back to her. And, just like that, whatever sweet heat had built in her body flamed to ash. He had misread her body’s reaction as anger? Had she been fool enough to misread his anger as something else entirely?
Perhaps it was better that way, because he was right. She did need to think of the money he was going to give her. Money that she would use to save the charity that had once saved her. She used that thought to give her strength. She needed to get access to those shares. And to do that she needed this marriage to seem real.
Leo clenched his jaw, bracing against the impact of soft, warm hands on his body. He might not remember the last time he’d held a woman like this, but he knew it hadn’t felt so...incendiary.
He’d not quite been able to give his trust to another woman after the breakdown of his engagement to Mina, but that hadn’t stopped him from engaging in mutually pleasurable affairs with women who valued discretion and honesty.
Helena was as far from those two things as he could imagine. But as she pressed one hand against his heart and raised the other to curl her fingers in his hair, his body didn’t care that it was a calculated move for appearances’ sake.
And his mind and heart wrestled between pulling her closer and pushing her away.
He risked a glance down at her, a flash of silver catching his attention. He nearly tripped when he caught sight of the silver necklace Helena wore.
‘Leo...’ Helena whispered, her grip tightening on his hand.
Pasting on a bright smile for the guests, he shrugged and twirled her away from him and back to buy his racing thoughts some time to calm.
‘What is it?’ Helena asked, settling back into the rhythm of the music, her face flushed from the dance.
‘I’m surprised you’re wearing that today.’
Helena’s gaze snapped back to his, holding just a little too long before she looked away, cutting him off before he could discern her thoughts.
‘My necklace? Why wouldn’t I? It was a gift. From Leander.’
From Leander?
And, just like that, he remembered. He remembered how his brother, at home during one of his rare visits since he’d left, had ended up claiming responsibility for the Christmas present he’d bought the fifteen-year-old Helena all those years ago.
The box, with the inscription ‘From L’, had contained a simple peony pendant that Leo had bought her, because they were her favourite flower. But on that last Christmas they’d all spent together—before her father had passed, before Gwen had nearly ruined their company—the argument he’d had with Mina had made it impossible for him to claim responsibility for it.
While everyone had oohed and ahhed over the pretty pendant Helena had received, Mina had already been fuming—smarting over the fact that the small blue box he’d given her contained earrings rather than the engagement ring she’d been expecting. She would have made a scene of epic proportions if she’d discovered that it was he who had bought the necklace for Helena. And in what had perhaps been their last moment of twin sense, Leander had stepped in to help him and taken credit for the present.
‘It’s a peony,’ Helena explained, as if he didn’t already know.
‘Mmm,’ was all Leo was capable of replying. It was something he’d completely forgotten about.
‘Something old,’ Helena continued. ‘I guess blue is the feeling I got when Leander didn’t appear and “new” would be you? Or would you be borrowed?’ Helena said, smiling sadly.
‘Borrowed would be the shares,’ he snapped, feeling utterly thrown by the memories beginning to resurface.
‘Of course,’ Helena replied, fake smile back in place, while her eyes glowed with accusations and recriminations. ‘Because you insist on conveniently forgetting that my father helped Giorgos not only found Liassidis Shipping, but also broker many of the deals that made it an international success in the first place. Your revisionist history wouldn’t account for that, would it?’ she demanded hotly through her teeth.
‘Revisionist history?’ he demanded, intensely disliking how well her verbal blow had struck.
As the song drew to an end, Helena’s fingers tightened at his neck. The smile trembled for just a second before firming.
‘We’re done here,’ Helena promised and slipped from his embrace, waving to the guests as she exited the reception through a door where Kate waited anxiously.
He was left for a moment, standing in the middle of an empty dance floor, one hundred and fifty pairs of eyes on him and none meaning a single thing to him.
‘Be me.’
Leo forced a broad smile to his lips, took a comically dramatic bow and returned to the table, needing as much space from Helena as she apparently needed from him.
The whirr of the helicopter blades filled Helena’s ears and she welcomed it. Welcomed the way it blocked out her chaotic thoughts and filled the silence that had descended over Leo the moment they had left the reception.
Helena had bid a tearful goodbye to Kate, unsure whether she’d get to see her best friend again before she travelled to Borneo and hating that the parting had been so focused on Leander.
God, she hoped that Kate would find him. Being around Leo was stressful enough. Every time she looked at him, all she could think of was how he was all but blackmailing her for her shares. If she hadn’t been so desperate there was no way she’d have ever agreed to such a low price. Not as a grieving daughter and not as a grown businesswoman.
‘We’re coming in to land,’ informed the pilot on the open channel in the headsets.
Helena nodded to show her understanding. She’d warned Leo already not to say anything revealing on the open channel—the pilot knew Leander well—and Leo had apparently taken that to heart by not saying a single thing. Instead, he’d spent the entire journey looking out of the window, his expression grimly guarded.
They came to land on the small helipad at the back of the beautiful Mani Peninsula villa. Their suitcases had been sent ahead earlier that morning so their belongings would be waiting for them, and all Helena could think about was getting out of her dress. It was beautiful, quite possibly the most exquisite thing she’d ever worn, but it was too much now.
The co-pilot slipped out from the front of the helicopter and slid the door open for her, holding out his hand. Helena gratefully took it, wanting to leave Leo in the damn machine to fly off God knew—or cared—where.
Kate was gone, Leander was gone, and she was alone with the bastard who had bartered her inheritance for a pittance.
Now that the guests were far behind her, now that the stress of the day was nearly done, she could barely keep the tears back as she hurried towards the villa Leander had booked with her in mind.
‘It will be our refuge for the week. Here you can finally let go and just be yourself.’
But it wasn’t. It wasn’t a refuge but a prison, and she couldn’t let go at all—not even for one second. Because Leonidas Liassidis would be there, waiting around every corner.
‘Where are you going?’ Leo asked, his tone unusually blank.
She felt his gaze on her as she grabbed the bottle of champagne from where it had been placed in an ice bucket by the open front door.
‘To bed. Alone. With this,’ she said, holding up the green bottle, purposely keeping her back to him as the first tear rolled down her cheek.