Chapter Two #2
Finally getting her legs to work, she moved to one side and gestured to the open doorway. ‘You were on your way out, Mr Diamandis. Please, don’t let me keep you.’
Her excessively polite tone was meant to draw a line under the conversation. The sooner he left, the better. She needed time to regroup before meeting Chiara and her fiancé.
He peered at her under lowered brows. ‘You’re staying here?’
‘I am. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m meeting someone.’
His eyes widened and for the first time she read something other than surprise and anger on his features. His expression was tight and, she guessed, fiercely controlled. Impenetrable.
He said something under his breath in what sounded like Greek. A long, machine-gun-fast stream of syllables that sounded like swearing. Fortunately she didn’t understand the language.
She gave up waiting for him to leave. Clutching her tablet to her chest, she stepped around him and into the restaurant.
The place was empty and she made her way to the table she’d shared yesterday with Chiara. It had a view over the pool and the lagoon beyond and Dido told herself that if she sat staring at the water, it would soothe her.
Fat chance! But she had to try. She couldn’t let Panos Diamandis distract her from her job.
Dido took a seat and opened her notes, schooling her features to look unperturbed.
She had no idea if it worked, but after another minute she felt a change in the atmosphere, as if a threatening thunderstorm had dissipated, and knew that he’d left the room.
She just hoped she had time to pull herself together in time for her meeting.
But mere minutes later she saw Chiara approaching through the garden beside the pool. She wore a wide smile that made Dido suspect her reunion with her fiancé last night had been very satisfying. But where was her man?
Her pulse quickened as someone approached Chiara. A tall, broad-shouldered man who was all too familiar. Instead of stepping aside and letting Chiara pass, he stopped and said something.
And Chiara rose on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek! Her hand, with its massive engagement ring, clutched his forearm as she leaned into him.
* * *
Dido’s heart stopped. They stood so near they only needed to whisper. So close it was clear they weren’t strangers.
There was only one other possibility. That Panos Diamandis was Chiara’s mystery fiancé.
Dido grabbed the edge of the table in a death grip as the world turned upside down. She felt herself sway in her seat as Chiara glanced towards the building. Panos shook his head and said something that claimed the other woman’s attention again.
He couldn’t be Chiara’s fiancé! It was impossible.
Her mind boggled at the implications.
Dido shoved her chair back and rose, head spinning and knees wobbling. Sheer desperation kept her upright.
She couldn’t sit here. She needed to pull herself together and think.
Keeping her spine erect, Dido hurried to the restroom, then every muscle and sinew liquefied. She stumbled to a cubicle, locked herself in and slumped down, head in her hands.
Deep slow breaths, in through her nose and out through her mouth. They didn’t help.
The whole situation was…she didn’t have words. Appalling. Unbelievable.
She shook her head. That went nowhere near it.
How long she sat there, she didn’t know. But finally she realised she had to move. She staggered out to wash her hands and wet a hand towel to dampen her neck, barely noticing the water stains dripping down her shirt.
She caught sight of her ravaged expression in the mirror, eyes huge and mouth slack, and looked away.
What to do?
There’s no choice. You have to tell her. Horrible as it will be, there’s no other way.
Not letting herself think about what would happen after she spoke to Chiara, and the implications for her job, Dido finally opened the door and stepped out into the hushed corridor.
A shadow moved in her peripheral vision, a long, lean body straightening from against the wall.
She should have known he wouldn’t let her be.
Dido knew he was an arrogant sod but surely he didn’t think he could get away with this? Beneath her shock and dismay a tiny kernel of bright anger burst into flickering heat. She welcomed it for she felt cold to the bone.
‘What the hell possessed you to come here and try meddling in my affairs?’ he snarled in a dark undertone. ‘No, don’t tell me, the fee was too good to resist, wasn’t it? It’s all about the money. You’re nothing if not predictable.’
Dido swung around and met his hostile stare. Despite his chilling sarcasm, his eyes burned and for a stupefied moment she recalled another sort of heat in his gaze. A glowing heat that bathed her in delicious warmth and happiness.
‘You’re green around the gills and you look like the slightest breeze would flatten you. What’s wrong?’ He scowled. ‘Are you pregnant?’
That snapped her out of her nausea. The irony of him questioning her about that! Her stomach still churned but she felt stronger by the moment. This was his fault, not hers. Even so, her throat was so tight it was hard to form a riposte.
‘Who is he, the unlucky guy?’ He loomed closer, his contemptuous expression too close for comfort. ‘Another rich man? Or have you set your sights lower? Have you stopped playing out of your league—’
His head jerked as her palm connected with his cheek.
Dido had never slapped anyone and was surprised how much it hurt. She cradled her burning hand against her chest and watched his cheek turn a dull red. She wished the sight made her feel better but it didn’t.
He didn’t move, just stood there, eyes narrowed as if daring her to do it again. He was so close she saw the sprinkling of gold dust in his dark eyes that had once so fascinated her.
Her pulse throbbed through her palm and she had the crazy notion, as she saw the tic of his pulse at his temple, that their hearts thrummed in sync.
Danger, danger, danger!
Dido was the one to move, stepping away from him. Instantly he countered, blocking her way.
‘Where are you going?’
Strange. He sounded only mildly curious, as if she hadn’t just hit him.
Her chin came up and she smoothed a shaky hand down her damp shirt. ‘To talk to Chiara. We have a meeting, remember?’
He shook his head. ‘You really think I’m going to let you near her?’
‘It’s not a matter of you letting me. I’m here to do a job.’
‘You can’t seriously believe I’d let you have a role in this wedding.’
Dido’s hands found her hips. ‘I’m here at Chiara’s invitation. I don’t take orders from you.’
As if any of that mattered now!
When he said nothing her eyes rounded, suspicion rising. He couldn’t be that brazen, could he?
Then she remembered how callously and completely he’d cut her off without a second hearing three years before, without a chance to counter his accusations. Panos Diamandis operated as if the normal rules didn’t apply to him. Her mind boggled at the idea he might try to bury the truth now.
‘Are you going to tell your fiancée or shall I?’
He looked down his perfectly straight nose at her. ‘Tell her what?’
His face shuttered as if he had no idea what she was talking about, but his haughty attitude didn’t scare her.
Dido’s voice was saccharine. ‘The only thing that matters. That you and I are married.’