Chapter Eleven
DIDO RETURNED TO the bedroom from checking her sleeping daughter to discover Panos getting out of bed, naked.
Even after hours pursuing pleasure in his arms, first in the kitchen, then his bed and just half an hour ago in his black marble shower, she couldn’t drag her gaze from his nude splendour. Soft lamplight cast his body in shadowed bronze, defining every line and curve.
Part of her couldn’t believe she’d given herself to him. The other part couldn’t believe she’d forgotten how glorious he could make her feel.
She’d stumbled out of bed at the sound of her daughter mumbling, picked up by the baby monitor. At the time Dido had felt tired and sweetly sated, but now that tell-tale pulse quickened between her thighs as a wash of lush heat engulfed her.
She dragged her attention up to Panos’ questioning eyes. ‘She was just dreaming.’
He nodded and walked towards her. His long arms wrapped around her, drawing her against his muscled frame.
Dido knew she shouldn’t rest her head on his chest. Just as she knew she shouldn’t have fallen asleep in his arms. She feared developing a weakness for their easy intimacy.
Too late! Her body didn’t share her mind’s qualms. After years of loneliness, she ached for his touch. Resisting was impossible now.
She shifted closer, the scratchy hair on his chest teasing her cheek, the hot silky skin of his back inviting her hands to explore.
‘I woke and you were gone.’
Her brow wrinkled as she tried to decipher the emotion in his sleep-roughened voice.
Without thinking she turned her head and pressed a kiss to his chest. His arms tightened around her and it felt—as everything had done since they’d come together downstairs—just right.
As if all were well in the world. For a moment she was dragged back to those heady days when she’d felt they had a golden future. So long ago now.
It was an illusion conjured by sexual satisfaction and a temporary release of the screaming tension she’d endured so long.
He draped an arm around her shoulders. ‘Come on. I’ll feed you and we can talk.’
Her heart dipped. It was easier not to talk. They got on better when they communicated only with their bodies. Talking would only set them at odds again. Unless, excitement stirred, perhaps now he’d listen to her.
She let him usher her out of the room. ‘Only if you put on some clothes.’ It would be difficult enough to hold a sensible conversation without being distracted by that hard, chiselled body.
He chuckled as he led her away. Chuckled! ‘There was I hoping you’d be naked for our midnight feast.’
Dido snapped her mouth closed before she could blurt out that he’d already feasted on her naked body. The memory made her squirm in appreciation, diverting thoughts from what lay ahead.
Yet, not for long. Instinct told her this was make-or-break time. If he didn’t believe her now…
* * *
Panos filled her glass from the jug of iced water, watching as she ate. He’d never felt comfortable sharing a meal with someone who toyed with their food rather than consuming it.
He tried to imagine Dido so ill she lost weight rather than gained it as her pregnancy progressed. Cold skittered across his skin despite the warm night air.
How dangerous had her illness been? Her passing reference to depression and potential kidney problems horrified him.
Yet she looked the epitome of good health with her flushed skin and halo of shining dark curls.
She’d grabbed his discarded shirt when she went to Athena, rolling up the sleeves.
It looked far better on her than him, skimming her thighs and her unfettered breasts, reminding him with every exhalation that she was naked beneath it.
But it wasn’t just how she looked that affected him. He felt proprietorial and deeply satisfied at the thought of her wearing his clothes.
This was more than admiration for a sexy woman. He’d never felt this way.
Was this why he’d been having doubts about his earlier actions? Sex alone shouldn’t change things. Yet with Dido his certainties weren’t as certain as they’d once been.
Because, with her, he felt so much. Sexual arousal mingled with a desire for her company. Sharing time with her, caring for their daughter together, evoked emotions he barely recognised. Dredged up ancient yearnings. For connection. Family.
‘Aren’t you going to eat anything more?’
Clear green eyes held his and warmth washed through him. Far from sating his desire, the last few hours had ramped up his hunger for her.
His hunger and his curiosity. And his feelings.
‘Just pausing before I have seconds.’
Her huff of laughter danced across his skin, making him wish she laughed more often.
She used to, when you first met.
Why should she now? You’ve bullied and demanded, even if you also managed to seduce.
The Dido he’d known these past days didn’t match the grasping liar he’d despised for three years. Something was out of kilter. Physical compatibility didn’t prove moral fibre, but it was clear there was more to her than he’d thought.
More he should have found out about.
Panos dolloped some of Evadne’s special dip on his plate then reached for some prawns.
‘You said you hadn’t seen your half-siblings for a decade.
’ Across the small table he sensed her movements still and looked up to see her features frozen.
‘That doesn’t fit with what Charles Fitzallan-Jones told me just after we married. ’
Her cutlery clattered to the table. ‘You’re accusing me of lying again?’
Holding her gaze, he slowly shook his head. ‘No. I’m doing what I should have done years ago. Asking your side of the story.’
Even admitting that was a huge concession to a man who’d grown up as he had.
Forced to rely only on himself, burying emotions deep and guarding against revealing weakness because that was how people sneaked under your guard and made a fool of you.
Life had taught him not to trust and to cut from his life those who tried to manipulate him.
In the case of Dido, his reaction to her lies had been profound. Because he’d believed, before Fitzallan-Jones set him straight, that she was the one person who didn’t give a damn about his fortune. That she really cared.
She looked like she might shove her chair back and leave. Then she drew a shuddering breath and slumped back in her seat. It was only when she spoke that Panos released a breath he hadn’t known he held.
‘What do you want to know? We don’t get on. I saw them at my parents’ funeral and not since.’
‘Why don’t you get on?’
The woman he’d once known, the woman so popular today with both staff and kids, was more likely to keep a relationship with siblings than destroy it. He recalled her talking about the importance of family and how she missed her parents.
‘Does it matter?’
Panos took in the defensive way her arms wrapped around her ribs.
‘I think it does. That relationship was at the heart of why we broke up.’ He paused, searching for words, and leaned forward. ‘For Athena’s sake, it will be best if we’re honest with each other.’
‘Honest?’ This time her laugh held a jarring note.
He preferred the joy he’d seen shining in those bright eyes earlier. But this conversation was long overdue. He’d put it off because talking about that time still made him feel vulnerable.
She looked away as if beguiled by the faint moonlight glimmering on the sea. When she turned back it was as if a shutter had come down. Her expression was blank.
‘We were never close. Charlie and Felicity were my father’s children by his first marriage and are around a decade older than me. I only met his first wife twice. Cordelia was disapproving. She didn’t have time for people like us.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Cordelia came from a privileged family, titled and moneyed, though I gather the money had run out. My dad was a successful entrepreneur. When they split he married my mother who’d grown up without any sort of privilege apart from a loving family.
She had no prestigious connections. But they fell in love and were happy. ’
Panos saw her eyes shine and felt something give, deep inside.
‘Cordelia thought he’d come down in the world, marrying a working-class nonentity when he could have stayed with her.
’ That sounded like a quote. ‘Dad took a big financial hit in the divorce, settling the big London house and other assets on Cordelia and paying huge amounts for child support. But he was a good businessman and, despite the economic downturn, his company did well. He put aside a nest egg for me and Mum in case anything happened to him.’
Her voice wobbled. He wanted to reach for her but her next words stopped him.
‘The nest egg disappeared. Dad had left money to my half-siblings as well as me in his will but somehow when the estate was finalised there was precious little for me and everything passed to Charlie and Felicity. I was only seventeen. I didn’t understand the detail and Flavia was initially away overseas.
But I don’t think it would have mattered.
Cordelia and Charlie had close contacts in the legal firm that handled it all. ’
‘You’re saying they stole your inheritance? That the lawyers acted corruptly?’
She nodded. ‘It would have taken money to hire lawyers to challenge the disbursement. Flavia wanted to do that but I wasn’t handling my bereavement and she worried about me coping with a dragged out process. In the end we decided to make a clean break and move on with our lives.’
Her gaze captured his and pain thundered through him. Her pain. And his at seeing hers. Panos was appalled.
Three years ago he might have doubted her story without proof.
Though given his resources, it would be easy enough to check.
Yet now every instinct he possessed clamoured that she was telling the truth as she believed it.
He wanted to fold her close and comfort her. And track down those responsible.
‘I suppose you think it was weak just to walk away.’