Chapter Thirteen
THE LOOK FROM every employee Draco passed the next morning as he made his way up to his office made it clear that the incident with Diego Guardiola had already got out.
His gut instinct proved right when he entered the boardroom and found he didn’t have to tell his directors that the deal with Diego was a non-starter.
It took everything he had not to look at Athena, sitting where she always sat in meetings, in the corner of the room with a bottle of water in one hand and a notepad and pen she wouldn’t use in the other.
Growth had always been his business mantra.
He actively encouraged innovation and lateral thinking amongst his staff and welcomed debate because only by debate could bad ideas be discarded and good ones develop and flourish.
He allowed no political bias or personal preferences sway decisions on what was developed or who they collaborated with.
It was a rare occasion that he walked from a deal that could make him money, the last time being four years earlier when he’d caught the figurehead of the company he was looking to go into business with snorting cocaine off a keyring at eleven in the morning.
His gut had already been telling him there was something off about the man and that incident had solidified his instinct.
And so walking away from a business deal that, if it had reached its full potential, could have added billions to Manolis Technology was as shocking to his staff as if he’d announced that everyone was being made redundant.
His obvious bad mood meant no one spoke up to question this or ask what had gone wrong, but they filed out of the boardroom at the end of the meeting muttering between themselves.
‘You look like you need coffee.’
He closed his eyes before bringing a tight smile to his face and turning to Athena, who’d moved next to him. ‘A coffee would be great, thanks.’
With the utmost discretion, she stroked his hand with her little finger before darting towards Grace, who was reading something on her phone, saying, ‘I’m making coffee, Grace. Want one?’
His PA looked up with a tired smile. ‘Please.’
To his puzzlement, Athena then put an arm around her recent enemy for a quick hug and squeezed her hand as if in sympathy before disappearing from the boardroom.
About to ask Grace if she was okay, he stopped himself. He had enough going on in his head without adding Grace’s potential problems to it. That enough was Athena.
She hadn’t just infected his life but his mind. Everything he was feeling for her…it was all wrong.
He’d never lied to himself that what they were sharing wasn’t serious, had never lied to himself that what he felt for her wasn’t more than he’d felt for another before, but what they’d shared in his bed had blown more than his mind.
He’d lost control with her.
She’d slipped into his veins and if he didn’t get her out, soon he would bleed only Athena and then he risked the potential of losing everything.
He’d walked away from a deal for her. Thrown potential billions away for her.
It was as if some kind of madness was swallowing him and if he didn’t act fast it would consume him.
The tiny heat of sensation on his hand where her little finger had touched it… He rubbed his thumb over it as if it could erase the sensation and said, ‘Grace, call the flight crew and tell them we’re flying back to Athens this afternoon.’
‘But we’re not due to leave until—’
‘It’s not up for discussion,’ he snapped. ‘Just do it. I want to be in the air no later than six—make sure Theodore and Stav are packed and ready to leave on time, and call Wanda and tell her to pack Athena’s stuff and arrange for it to be couriered to the airfield.’
‘Whose room shall I tell her to take it from?’
It took a beat for him to understand what his PA had just said. ‘If you repeat anything like that to anyone else, you’re fired.’
‘Do it,’ she snapped back, her bottom lip trembling. ‘It will save me quitting.’
‘You even think of quitting on me then I really will fire you.’
She spun on her heel and stomped out of the boardroom, throwing, ‘You’re an arsehole,’ over her shoulder.
Clenching his teeth, he grabbed his hair and pulled air in through his nose and swore under his breath. Not only did he have Athena to deal with, but he now had a moody PA to deal with too.
When the cat’s away, the mice will play, and with Draco holing himself up in meetings he didn’t feel the need to force her to sit through, Athena decided to play.
For five minutes. That was how long it took for guilt to kick in, especially as Draco must now deem her responsible enough to be left unsupervised, and so she got her head down and did the translation work Grace had given her.
It was boring but it made her feel useful and that she was playing her part, and it helped time speed along a little quicker until Draco got out of his boring meetings.
Her translation work done, she left the office to give it to Grace and found her putting her coat on. ‘Where are you going?’
‘To the hotel to pack. Are you done with those documents?’
‘Yes. Why are you packing? Are you moving to a new hotel?’
‘No, we’re flying back to Greece in a few hours. That was quick work, thank you—I was going to get one of the team to scan it for me, but I can take it with me.’
‘You’re welcome, and since when are we flying back to Greece?’
‘Since His Highness decreed it.’
‘Why?’
‘He didn’t see fit to tell me—hasn’t he mentioned it to you either?’
‘No…do I need to go…’ she stopped herself saying home by the skin of her teeth ‘…and pack too?’
‘Wanda’s getting your luggage together.’ Grace planted a kiss on Athena’s cheek. ‘I need to go. See you on the plane.’
Athena watched Grace bustle to the elevator with a mixture of warmth fizzing through her veins at the affectionate kiss—no one ever gave her affectionate kisses—and a sense of trepidation swirling in her belly.
She’d woken to Draco’s sleepy kisses, shared a shower with him and some rather more energetic kisses…
and other things…had dressed in front of him, dried her hair and made-up her face in front of him, had shared her first coffee of the day and a light breakfast with him, had travelled to work with his hand holding hers and not once had he even hinted that he was planning to cut their stay in California short.
By the time they landed in Athens, Athena’s trepidation had turned into full-blown fear.
The flight home had been much like the flight out, with long meetings at the conference table and plenty of food served at regular intervals.
Everyone had retired to their sleep pods earlier in the journey, and though Draco welcomed her silent presence into his narrow bed and cupped her breast as he’d spooned himself into her and his erection had rested against her pyjama-clad buttocks, she’d sensed a distance that had never been there before.
She’d been unable to sleep, fully aware that he was awake, too, and that something was on his mind.
She had the awful feeling that something was her.
The journey from the airport was a reverse of the journey out, too, and it was at Athena’s apartment that the driver made his first stop. With Grace sharing the ride with them, she could do nothing but wish them both a goodnight.
‘Enjoy the rest of your weekend,’ Grace said.
‘You too,’ she whispered before pulling herself together and brightly adding, ‘I’m looking forward to a lot of sleep!’
As soon as she was safe inside her apartment, she sent Draco a message:
Do you want to come back to mine once you’ve dropped Grace off? x
His reply took too long to come.
I’ll be with you in twenty minutes.
There was no kiss.
Draco took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. One short ring.
The door opened so quickly she must have been standing on the other side, waiting for him.
One look at Athena’s face and the way she was holding herself told him she’d guessed what he was going to say.
Her chin lifted and then she stood aside to let him through.
‘Coffee?’ she asked when they stepped into her open-plan living area that somehow seemed to have shrunk since he’d last stood in it.
‘No. But thank you.’ He attempted some brevity. ‘I can feel jetlag coming on so caffeine probably isn’t the best thing to feed it.’
She didn’t smile. ‘You’re ending it, aren’t you.’
He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. There was no beating about the bush with Athena.
He would not allow himself to think that her directness was one of the many things he adored about her.
He was firm in his mind that they had to end their affair now, and would not allow himself to be diverted by rogue thoughts and feelings.
He’d already succumbed to weakness on the plane when he’d held her in his arms that one last time.
‘We both knew it wouldn’t be for ever.’
‘Can you at least look at me while you’re dumping me?’
‘I’m not…’ He shook his head and locked his stare back onto hers. ‘We both knew before we started that it wouldn’t be for ever.’
‘I know. You don’t have to repeat yourself. You’ve had your fun with me and now we’re back on home soil you want to walk away.’
Her brittleness struck him like a slap. A brittle Athena meant she was hurting, and it hurt his heart to see the flicker of pain in her eyes, but it was a pain that reinforced that he was doing the right thing by ending it now. The way she’d made love to him that last night…
He wasn’t the only one who’d got in over his head with their affair.
‘You know it isn’t like that.’
Athena just stared at him. The beats of her heart, strangely calm since he’d given the short, sharp ring of her doorbell that had confirmed her deepest fears, were getting quicker and weightier.