Page 21 of Reclaimed By His Billion-Dollar Ring

She’d always moved easily between the two, depending on whether she was in the UK or in Athens. The only exception had been that fateful dig during her student days, when she had brought her UK self to Greece for the summer.

No wonder Nikos didn’t have any idea about whose daughter I was.

And she’d wanted to keep it that way. Hadn’t wanted her father’s wealth impacting on what she’d had with Nik that glorious summer. Complicating things...

Painful emotion plucked at her she watched Piraeus recede across the widening gap of sea, her mind going yet again to their picnic at Cape Sounion. Her expression hardened. Nikos had claimed that what had been between them had been nothing more than a summer romance. Never intended to last. And that that was why it had ended the way it had.

She felt herself waver. Almost...almost...she could believe him.

Her mouth twisted.

Except that she knew otherwise. Bitterly, savagely knew otherwise...

Restlessly, she moved away from the rail, heading for a seating area. Had she been wise to go to Sounion with Nik? Yes, she’d been able to let rip at him, make it clear she wanted nothing more to do with him. But just seeing him, spending time in his company, however tense, had made her ultra-aware of him all over again—of his sheer masculinity, of how strong the magnetism was that he somehow exerted over her.

And she’d been made aware of more than that. Made aware of that pang of sympathy that had smote her as he’d told her about the sad fate of his parents. She’d seen him as a little boy, bereft and orphaned, being taken in by his grandmother to grow up with her.

She pulled her thoughts away. She didn’t want to think of Nikos like that. Deserving her sympathy. It was as if she was letting her guard down about him, and she could not risk that. Could not risk it at all.

Since that day at Sounion she’d come to terms with Nik’s return to Greece. Had decided she would put the past behind her, but would not let Nik back into her life. That would be an act of insanity...

Had he accepted that whatever it was he wanted of her now—all that he had said to her at Sounion—was impossible? Perhaps he had. It was over ten days since then, and he’d made no attempt to see her again or ask her out.

She was relieved—of course she was. What else should she be? No other emotion was permissible. Her father, too, had said nothing, and she was relieved at that, too. She did not want him thinking of Nik as any possible kind of suitor.

I don’t want to have to tell him who Nik is—who he once was. He’s clearly made no connection, and I don’t want him to.

No, the past had to stay in the past. That was the only way she could cope with the present.

And the only way I can cope with having seen Nik again is by not seeing him!

That was the safest way. To wait it out until he left Athens and she was safe from the danger of running into him again. It was her major reason for looking forward to the coming weekend villa party—it would get her out of the city...help get Nik out of her head.

Determinedly, she sat herself down on one of the benches on the cooler, more shady side of the deck, extracting from her bag one of the specialist art history journals she subscribed to, intending to while away the ferry crossing.

She had barely opened it when a shadow fell over her. She glanced up.

Froze.

It was Nik.

Shock was stark in her face. Nik saw it instantly. More than shock. Dismay. And something more than that. The flash in her eyes told him that all her anger, all her rejection of him, all her scathing repudiation, all her blanking of him...all of that was a lie.

He felt a tight, justified stab of satisfaction.

He sat down opposite her.

‘What the hell,’ she spat at him, ‘are you doing here?’

He crossed one leg over the other in a leisurely, relaxed fashion.

‘The same as you are. Heading for the Volous party.’

‘You don’t know Marina Volous!’

‘No, I know her husband. A business association... He’s in finance, as I’m sure you know, and a useful contact. He invited me. Tell me something...’ his tone changed ‘...why are you travelling on the public ferry and not taking one of the private transfers laid on for guests?’

There was an edge in his voice—he could hear it. Knew why it was there.

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