Bride Behind The Billion-Dollar Veil (Crazy Rich Greek Weddings Book 2) Read online

  Thanos had the distinctly unpleasant feeling he was being manipulated.

  ‘You knew? That it wasn’t real?’

  He shrugged unapologetically. ‘I suspected.’

  ‘Damn it.’ Thanos shook his head. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

  ‘Because I couldn’t be sure.’ He leaned forward. ‘You’re the best person to run P & A, just like you’ve said time and again. I bought the company to keep it safe; I’ve never really considered Petó mine. As for P & A, there’s no one else I’d rather pass it to.’

  Thanos’s breath hissed out of him with impatient frustration. ‘All of this could have been avoided...’

  ‘And you would have missed out on learning a very valuable lesson.’

  ‘Oh, yeah? What’s that? How to hurt innocent, beautiful, generous women?’

  ‘On love,’ Kosta corrected gently.

  Thanos stood up with disbelief. ‘You were, what? Trying to play matchmaker?’

  Kosta’s laugh was in complete contrast to the darkness swirling through Thanos. ‘I expected you would marry one of the party girls you’re usually seen with,’ Kosta corrected. ‘I thought it would at least slow you down, that it might give you a wake-up call to stop partying, if not to show you how meaningful it can be to share your life with someone.’

  ‘You were wrong on all counts!’

  ‘Yes, because you chose Alice, and she loves you, and I do not think for one moment her feelings aren’t mutual.’

  ‘How do you know she loves me?’ he muttered, wondering if they’d had some communication beyond what they’d shared on the island.

  ‘Only a fool wouldn’t have seen that,’ Kosta said softly.

  Thanos’s heart was churning inside him, because the older man had a fair point. Only a fool wouldn’t have seen... Had he realised and just refused to do anything about it?

  ‘I came here to sign those contracts,’ Thanos ground out, his heart banging so hard he thought it might burst right out of his chest.

  ‘And we will,’ Kosta promised. ‘But let me say this, first.’

  ‘I’m sick of talking about Alice,’ Thanos groaned.

  ‘Fine. This will be the end of it. Only, indulge an old man who liked and respected your grandfather; indulge an old man who likes you, Thanos, and doesn’t want you to throw your life away because of stupid, stubborn fear.’

  ‘Fear?’ Thanos shook his head in silent dispute of that.

  Kosta’s voice came out gently. ‘I know what it’s like to live without the person you love. I lost my son.’ His voice was just a hoarse whisper now, almost indiscernible above the distant rumbling of thunder and the crashing of the waves. ‘I lost my wife. Neither of these things I had a choice in, but you do. Alice is out there, and she loves you, and you love her. All you have to do is reach out and grab her with both hands, and you’re too damned afraid.’

  Thanos stopped fighting the truth. He stopped fighting. He turned to face Kosta, his skin pale beneath his caramel tan. ‘And what happens when she decides she doesn’t love me after all?’

  ‘And what happens if she doesn’t?’ Kosta threw back. ‘What happens if you are a man like me in fifty years’ time, staring out at the ocean and looking back on a lifetime of happiness and memories that you wouldn’t trade an entire fortune for?’

  Thanos listened to these words, his heart in his throat, Alice in his mind, and suddenly he felt it imperative to sign the papers and leave Kalatheros that had nothing to do with P & A and everything to do with somewhere else he desperately needed to be.

  * * *

  Running helped.

  Alice had never been much of an athlete.

  But after the grief and the depression and the desire to wallow had come a strange restlessness she hadn’t been able to burn off. It made her legs twitch at night, while lying in bed, and her brain run like a freight train at all hours, so she would wake up in the middle of the night and be wide awake with no hope of sleep or rest.

  She had a restlessness with nowhere to put her energy and so she’d taken up running. And not just running a little bit, either. She tried to do five miles morning and night.

  It helped.

  She didn’t sleep better but her body was weary, so that she could lie on the sofa with mind-numbing television on in the background and try not to think about what her life would be like if she hadn’t told Thanos how she felt.

  Would they still be married? Sleeping together every night, her body wrapped around his, the sound of the waves that surrounded Statherá Prásino whispering in her ear, filling her soul with the beats of happiness?

  Maybe.

  Maybe not.

  Maybe he would have sealed the deal with Kosta and put an end to things, finishing it because their marriage served no practical purpose.

  Her chest felt heavy and strange at the very idea of that, and she knew she’d done the right thing. It was so much better to have left rather than to have been asked to leave.

  She ran, one foot in front of the other, through Central Park then onto the busy streets surrounding it, weaving through people and bikes and cars and horse-drawn carriages stuffed with loud tourists; she ran with her head bent and her hair pulled into a plait, her earphones blocking out all the noise of the city she didn’t care to hear.

  And when she reached the foyer to the apartment he’d bought for her, which she’d eventually stopped fighting and accepted as a part of her life, she stopped running and pressed her hands to her knees, letting herself catch her breath for a few moments before she had to dredge up a smile and offer it to the doorman.

  After just a moment she straightened and nodded in his direction as he held the glass doors open for her. The foyer was a testament to white marble and glass. Even in her rubber-soled sport shoes, she couldn’t cross the space silently.

  She pulled her earphones out as she approached the lift, jabbing the button with more anger than it deserved. Her breathing was still rushed. The doors opened and she stepped inside. The doors slid shut, except right as they were almost closed, just an inch or so from meeting in the middle, a hand slid between them, to hold them open. Alice fumbled, reaching behind her for the panel, looking for the ‘door open’ button.

  It wasn’t necessary. The hand succeeded. The doors opened and seconds later, as if her dreams and mind and hopes and heart had conjured him, Thanos swept into the lift.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  SHE COULDN’T SPEAK.

  There were a thousand words rushing through her, begging to be spoken, but she couldn’t fumble her brain towards a single one of them in that second. She stared at him hungrily, her eyes refusing to obey and look away, her brain forgetting that he’d broken her heart and ceased to exist in her life, her heart chugging like a bouncing ball in her torso.

  And he stared right back, his expression, his beautiful eyes moving with urgency over her face, as though he could somehow catalogue everything she’d done and said and felt in the three and a half months since she’d left the island.

  She was in a state of shock, which was the only explanation for why it occurred to her to mind that she was wearing running gear, no make-up, and was covered in a sheen of perspiration from her exercise.

  The lift began to cruise upwards and it was just the jolt Alice needed.

  ‘Why are you here?’

  His eyes glittered with determination. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’

  Alice shook her head. ‘Not to me.’

  ‘I came to see you.’

  Her heart lurched. ‘Why?’

  There was a brief hesitation. ‘I have a favour to ask you.’

  Alice groaned. ‘A favour? Seriously?’

  He nodded. The lift doors opened and Alice glared at him, contemplating telling him to get lost. But she didn’t. She’d spent three and a half months wishing she could go back
in time and eat her confession, wishing she could have just a bit more time with him.

  She was furious with him. Furious with him for turning up in her apartment three and a half months after they’d last seen one another, blithely asking her for a favour.

  But she was also human, and completely in love with Thanos, and desperate for whatever crumb of time she could steal. Even knowing it was just a temporary reprieve, that her grief would be waiting for her, that her reality wasn’t any different.

  He cast an eye about the apartment as he entered. She didn’t offer him any refreshments. ‘What do you want?’

  Her tone was far from friendly.

  He didn’t react. ‘Kosta and I have signed the papers. He’s in New York and asked if you were free to meet for a drink tonight, to celebrate. Champagne at the Stathakis hotel.’

  Alice’s heart dropped into her toes. ‘Thanos,’ she whispered, shaking her head as tears filled her eyes. ‘You can’t be serious?’

  His expression was the most determined she’d ever seen it. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been more serious about anything in my entire life.’

  She spun away from him, swallowed desperately. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you agreed to this, and it’s not quite finished yet.’

  Alice groaned, shaking her head. ‘You said it was done.’

  ‘I was wrong.’

  Pain slashed through her.

  ‘It’s one hour,’ he promised softly.

  ‘One hour,’ she said with disbelief. He couldn’t understand her heartache, nor what he was asking of her. And yet...she thought of her mother and how well she was looking, of how her own life had changed since meeting Thanos, and she thought of the most important thing: none of this was his fault.

  He’d been honest with her, even when she’d fallen in love with him, he’d tried to establish boundaries to make that impossible.

  He hadn’t set out to hurt her.

  And she didn’t want to hurt him. He needed one last favour.

  With a sinking heart, and knowing how much this one hour would cost her, she found herself nodding. ‘Fine.’ Her voice was tremulous. ‘But then, that’s it. You go away again and forget I exist.’

  His eyes glittered. ‘Come to the hotel at six.’ He reached into the breast pocket of his suit, pulling out a plastic key card. ‘You remember the penthouse?’

  Reluctance was awash through her central nervous system. ‘Can’t we meet in the bar?’

  ‘No.’ His eyes flared. ‘You don’t think that might tip Kosta off? Besides, I have your ring and necklace. You should wear them.’

  * * *

  This was a mistake.

  Alice stared at her reflection in the mirrors outside the door to his penthouse, her body flashing with adrenaline as she studied her reflection.

  She’d chosen a simple black dress, knee-length, figure-hugging, modest yet flattering, and teamed it with shiny black stilettos, the red sole a perfect match for the lipstick she’d chosen. Her dark hair had been brushed until it shone and left loose, if only because she knew he loved it that way.

  Her fingers shook as she pulled the key card from her handbag. But before she could insert it into the door, she knocked, preferring not to just let herself in.

  When no one answered, she pressed the buzzer for the apartment and continued to wait.

  Still no answer.

  With a frown, she used the key card, and her frown didn’t lessen when she stepped into the suite to find it in complete darkness.

  ‘Thanos?’ she called out, reaching around for a light switch. When she flicked it on, she made an audible sound of surprise that ricocheted off the walls.

  ‘What the heck?’

  The entire apartment was blanketed in red rose petals.

  The entire apartment. It was like a red carpet, thick and luscious. She shook her head as she waded through them, her heart beating harder and faster, her mind unable to make any sense of it.

  ‘Thanos?’ Her voice was curt.

  And she understood why she felt annoyed.

  Because this didn’t make sense.

  And he shouldn’t be here.

  And this was too much.

  And, and, and... Her body’s defence mechanisms were firing to life, boarding up her too-soft heart, protecting her from the kinds of vulnerability that had led to her being hurt so badly.

  A noise sounded and she shifted her focus, gasping once more when she saw what was beyond the balcony doors.

  Candles.

  Hundreds of candles.

  Her heart slammed against her chest. She moved that way, closing her eyes as she stepped outside. Because there were roses there too, but long-stemmed red roses, so beautiful, so fragrant. She moved to one, feeling the petals, swallowing hard to clear the lump in her throat.

  She spun around, her eyes searching for Thanos, and finally she found him. Standing on the deck, wearing a dark suit with no tie and a button undone at his neck, his eyes on her with such an intensity that a trail of heat pooled in her abdomen and ran all the way through her.

  ‘I told Kosta the truth.’

  The words didn’t make sense. ‘What?’

  ‘I told him about us.’

  ‘Why?’ She shook her head. ‘I thought you wanted P & A?’

  ‘He’s selling it to me anyway.’

  ‘Oh.’ She exhaled. ‘Then why does he want to see me?’

  Thanos’s smile was just a twist of his lips. ‘He doesn’t.’

  ‘What?’ Nothing made sense and her blood was pounding so hard in her ears she could barely hear anything above it.

  ‘He’s not in New York. I made it up.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I wanted to see you.’

  She shook her head. ‘You saw me earlier.’

  ‘I wanted to see you properly. And for you to see me. Here. Like this.’ He waved a hand around, gesturing to the roses and candles.

  ‘What?’

  She grimaced, knowing she sounded as if she had about two active brain cells and barely able to care. ‘I don’t get it.’

  ‘I made a mistake.’

  ‘When?’

  He strode towards her and she clamped her mouth together, crossing her arms over her chest.

  ‘I made a mistake when I let you go. I made a mistake every day I didn’t look deep inside myself and see what was holding me back from you. I should never have let you leave.’

  Alice was completely shocked. ‘What?’

  ‘I made a—’

  ‘No.’ She lifted a finger to his lips, silencing him, her eyes huge and beseeching. ‘Don’t you dare.’

  Now it was Thanos’s turn to look confused.

  ‘Don’t you dare think you can turn up after all this time—over three months—and say anything that’s going to make this okay.’ She glared at him, anger—the sweet relief of anger—everything she needed. ‘Don’t you dare think you can ever say or do anything that will make this all right.’

  He lifted his hands and cupped her face, holding her still, holding her gently. ‘I’m so sorry I hurt you.’

  Except that.

  His words were like treacle on her spine. ‘Damn it.’ She bit down on her lip, closing her eyes, but it did nothing to stop the tears from squeezing out of the corners.

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t understand what we were. I’m sorry that you left and I felt like I’d been ripped into a thousand pieces and I still didn’t see why. I’m sorry that I have been missing you and pining for you and thinking of you every day and it still didn’t occur to me to realise that you have taken over my mind and soul in a way that is rare and beautiful and special.’

  She sobbed, shaking her head and not really even knowing why.

  ‘I’m sorry that I got so fixated on needing to control eve
ry single thing about us that I ruined it. I’m sorry that I hurt you, not once, but every single day that I stayed away. I’m sorry that I left you here thinking I don’t love you when the truth is you are every breath in my body.’

  She could barely breathe now, and her small sobs were little explosions firing from her.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he continued, his own voice heavy with emotion, ‘that I didn’t understand what love was, what true love is, because I have never felt it before. But I get it now. I see how it is the way we fit together, the way we are together, the way I feel because of you—the fact you make me want to be a better man, a better person, you make me want to deserve you. You make me happier than I’ve ever known possible. I am so head over heels in love with you, Kyria Stathakis, and all I want is to tell you this.’

  She blinked, her stomach rolling.

  ‘That’s not true,’ he amended quickly. ‘What I want is to make you my wife again, properly and for real. Not for show but because I do not want to go another day without you. What I want is to bring you back to the island, to have you at my side, not because we had a deal to fool a kind old man, or because I’m paying you, not because you are desperate for financial help and I offered that, but because you love me and I love you, and there is no way we should be anything other than together.’

  Alice sobbed, her shaking head turning into a nod and then nothing as she tried to compute what was happening.

  ‘I love you,’ he said simply, his hands framing her cheeks. ‘And if you tell me I have ruined this beyond repair, I will try to prove you wrong. I will do whatever I can to fix this, for as long as it takes. I will be here, waiting, hoping, needing you but knowing I lost any right to expect you could possibly love me the day I let you walk out of my life.’

  ‘Please don’t,’ she groaned, finally, tears in her voice. ‘Please, just...’

  ‘What?’ His voice was gravelled. ‘Tell me what I can do.’

  She lifted her hands to his chest, staring at her splayed fingers, her eyes wide. ‘I don’t understand.’ And she didn’t, but it didn’t stop her from believing and knowing. It didn’t stop her from trusting.