Page 9 of Reclaimed By His Billion-Dollar Ring

Nikos stepped out of the hotel limo that had brought him to the Villa Petranakos in the upmarket suburb of Kifissia and glanced up with an expression of appreciation as his architect’s eye ran over it. These old mansions were worth preserving, and this one had been sympathetically restored, he could see.

The grand front doors were thrown open and Nikos strolled in, admiring the marbled interior as much as the exterior. But he was not here to admire an historic building. He was here for quite different reasons. A business association with Georgios Petranakos was potentially valuable. As the past had proved...

He slewed his mind away. Such barbed thoughts were not appropriate. His dark eyes veiled suddenly. Even though they came full circle to the present. To the other reason he was here today.

Will she be here too?

He couldn’t call it. As the daughter of one of Greece’s wealthiest men Calanthe would lead a hectic social life. She could be out and about right now...perhaps lunching with a lover—

The thought was a nail grating on a blackboard.

What did he know about her and the life she led now? Deliberately he had kept himself ignorant. Besides, he had had other things on his mind. Other priorities.

I made my choice at the time. Took the only choice that was right for me.

Took it? He had grabbed it with both hands.

He followed a manservant and was shown into a room opening off the spacious hall. Immediately, with a distinct kick to his pulse, he felt his eyes go straight to the woman standing by the window. Her stance was as stiff as it had been at her father’s party, her face as expressionless. And every bit as exquisitely beautiful...

Her hair was confined into a knot at the nape of her neck. There were stud pearls at her ears and a simple pearl rope around her neck, their colour matching the pale silk jersey top she was wearing. Her slender waist was belted, and she wore a thin, calf-length A-line skirt in soft dove-grey that went with her low-heeled shoes.

She did not move. And even though she was looking at him, she might as well have been made of marble.

Then his attention was called by her father, who was greeting him genially.

They took their places at the table. Nikos contented himself with merely nodding at Calanthe in a brief, civil gesture, murmuring a polite greeting, nothing more, and then looked across at his host as staff set the first course down, pouring wine and water for them all.

‘I hope you will tell me something of the history of this most impressive mansion,’ he said, with genuine appreciation in his voice. ‘It has been superbly restored.’

His host smiled warmly, launching into the requisite account. Calanthe, Nikos saw from the outset, remained completely silent, merely eating and sipping water, her wine untouched. Tension radiated from her.

It did not deter him. He knew the reason for it. His gaze rested on her, veiled but measuring. He could hardly have expected a warm welcome from her, but that would not stop him.

Not now that I have seen her again.

He felt that kick in his pulse again...knew that he would not resist it. Would instead indulge it...

And why not? Now I move in her circles...now I am no longer that penniless architecture student earning money during my vacations by doing back-breaking labour on a construction site... I have every right to make a move.

Memory played in his head, enticing and alluring. From the very first moment she’d looked up at him, startled, from that dusty excavation trench, and he’d seen the tell-tale dilation of her pupils which her prickly, snobbish rebuff of him had not been able to give the lie to, he’d felt that kick—and from then on he’d known he’d wanted her. Oh, she’d tried to hold him off—those snide put-downs had been meant to deter him—but he’d brushed them aside, knowing why she was sniping at him.

For the same reason she was now attempting to freeze him out.

If she were not reacting to me as I am to her she would not bother freezing me out.

His lidded eyes perused her as he gave half an ear to what her father was saying about the restoration of the villa.

And if I were not reacting to her as I am then I would not be bothering to waste any time on her.

Thoughts played in his head. Eight years ago it had ended. But now...?

Now we could be good together—again...

He realised his host had moved on to another subject and switched his full attention back to him.

‘You have soared high very swiftly,’ Georgios was now saying to Nikos with approval. ‘You are still a young man, but you have achieved a great deal for environmental sustainability with your innovative designs and construction methods.’ A shrewd glance came Nikos’s way. ‘It was perceptive of you to patent your materials and your method for low-energy concrete production.’

Nikos nodded, taking a mouthful of the excellent wine that had been served with the meal. Calanthe, he noticed, was still not drinking hers.

---