Chapter Ten #2
They shook hands and Baros’s wife—Maria—engaged Hope in small talk. Hope was surprised to find that the couple seemed to be more down to earth than she’d expected. Maria was telling her about their family, six children.
‘Six?’ Hope repeated.
Maria nodded, smiling. ‘Six. A lot of years were a blur, I won’t lie. And that was with help. But they’re all grown now and they all work in some aspect of the family business.’
Hope smiled and confided, ‘That’s amazing. I’ve always wanted a big family. I was…alone. No siblings.’ She didn’t need to go into the gritty details.
The woman touched her arm. ‘Oh, my dear, you poor thing.’
Hope forced a smile. ‘It was what it was.’
Maria slid a glance to Axel. ‘Well, I must admit I’m pleasantly surprised. Whenever we’ve met Axel before, he always seemed so driven, like a lone wolf, and that makes my husband nervous because a lone wolf has nothing to lose.’
Hope jumped to Axel’s defence. ‘Oh, but Drakos Solutions is everything to him. It’s his life’s work to build it up for the next generation.’
‘Is that right?’
The woman looked at Hope with interest and Hope swallowed, wondering if she’d said too much. She vowed to keep her mouth closed now and let the other woman do the talking.
* * *
Axel was talking to the man who he had wanted this one-on-one with for weeks and weeks and yet he wasn’t fully focused when he should be.
He was aware of Hope beside him talking to Damian’s wife.
He was aware of the man’s wife smiling and looking at him and he was wondering if Hope was OK, or freaked out or—
‘I can understand why you’re distracted. She’s lovely and…not your usual type.’
Axel looked at Baros. He’d literally zoned out. The man was talking about Hope. Axel said, ‘Yes, I know.’
An assistant or aide stepped forward and spoke discreetly into Baros’s ear and the man said, ‘If you’ll excuse me, Axel, there’s someone I need to speak to, but let’s pick up this conversation again, hm? Can you come out to the island this weekend? You and Hope?’
This was it. He’d done it. Managed to convince the man that he was worth doing business with. Axel waited for the rush of triumph but once again it didn’t come. Or not as he’d imagined.
‘We’d love to.’
‘Love to what?’ Hope said from beside him as she and Baros’s wife rejoined the conversation. Axel searched for Hope’s hand, finding it. Instantly he felt something inside him ease.
‘We’ve been invited to Damian’s island this weekend.’
Hope managed to keep her expression blasé but he’d noticed the slight widening of her eyes. She smiled. ‘That sounds wonderful.’
‘Lovely,’ exclaimed Maria. ‘You’ll get to meet some of our grandchildren.’
The couple moved off seamlessly to talk to the next people and Hope turned to Axel and looked up. ‘Does that mean what I think it means?’
With Hope by his side, Axel did feel a surge of exuberance and picked her up and spun her around. She looped her hands around his neck and giggled. She said, ‘I guess that means yes.’
The fact that he’d needed Hope to feel that sense of accomplishment was something he pushed aside. He put her down and took her hand, lifting it to his mouth. ‘Thank you.’
Hope smiled. ‘I didn’t do anything. I think he always wanted to do business with you but apparently he saw you as a lone wolf, with nothing to lose. But, as I assured his wife, the business is your life’s work, it’s everything to you. Literally everything.’
Literally everything. Axel looked down at Hope. Her assertion struck a discordant note inside him, even as he said, ‘Yes, it is.’
* * *
The fact that Axel didn’t contradict Hope made her deflate a little. She was thrilled that the meeting, brief as it had been, had gone so well. But the thought of carrying on the charade of the relationship into a much more intimate setting made her nervous.
Axel grabbed a couple of drinks from a passing waiter and handed Hope one.
She took a sip of the sparkling wine, wrinkling her nose at the bubbles.
Would she ever learn not to do that? Axel led her out to where a jazz band was playing music on a large terrace.
Some couples were dancing. Dusk was falling over the ancient city and it was magical.
She had to soak this up—she wouldn’t see such a rarefied view again.
Axel sat down on a wide lawn chair and pulled her down into his lap. It felt so easy. And for a second Hope could almost pretend that this was real. But it wasn’t.
She said, ‘They seem like a nice couple. I have to admit I feel a bit bad about misleading them into thinking we’re really together.’
‘We are together.’
A splinter drove into Hope’s heart. ‘You know what I mean.’
Axel raised a brow at her. ‘Why do you think Damian Baros is so successful? He didn’t get to where he is by playing nice. He’s as ruthless as the rest of them when he wants to be.’
‘So he wouldn’t hesitate to do the same if he was in your shoes?’
‘Not for a second.’
‘How do you think he’ll react when he finds out we’re not together?’
Axel shrugged. ‘I don’t really care once we’ve signed a deal.’
Another splinter in Hope’s heart. ‘I guess it won’t really matter because you will be with someone else soon enough.’ She really hoped she didn’t sound self-pitying when she said that.