Page 42 of Reclaimed By His Billion-Dollar Ring

A sense of achievement so intense it filled him completely.

It was like déjà vu, Calanthe thought as she sat down at the table in the restaurant she’d stipulated. But this time she wasn’t going to be sideswiped. For a start, she was at the restaurant first. Secondly, she was well briefed this time around.

As Nikos would discover.

She ordered an elderflower spritzer from the hovering waiter, who was being very attentive, knowing she was the daughter of one of their most regular patrons, and then settled back to watch for Nikos’s arrival.

He turned up dead on time, making straight for her table, wearing the same darkly formidable charcoal business suit and grey tie as he had the previous night. It had the same impact on her—the one she didn’t want it to have but could not prevent. She felt her hands clench in her lap. Well, she must, that was all. Too much depended on it.

An image hung in her mind of the way her father had reached for her hand last night, his frailty tugging at her, her love for him squeezing her heart.

Nikos sat himself down, smiled pleasantly at her, greeted her civilly. But his expression was unreadable. The waiter was there again, and Calanthe noted that Nikos had ordered a martini. Dry—but potent. It gave her the slight sense of an edge over him. An edge she would need, she knew.

For the next few minutes there was the business of menus, and ordering, and iced water, and bread rolls, but finally they were left to themselves. It was a relatively early lunch, so the restaurant was quiet.

Nikos glanced at her. ‘Why this particular restaurant?’ he asked. ‘I’d have happily come out to Kifissia...met you somewhere there.’

It was a leading question, and Calanthe acknowledged it.

‘It was the most convenient,’ she said. ‘I’ve just spent the morning with my father’s financial director.’

If Nikos was surprised, he hid it.

‘He seems a sound man,’ he commented.

She knew he’d already met the man, and that her father had introduced him to several of the other senior directors. Nikos would have wanted to meet the executive team—there was no way he could step into Georgios’s shoes on any other terms. He would have to show himself to be approving of the calibre of the senior executives, and, indeed, agree to co-operate with them.

Calanthe nodded. She knew her father’s FD personally, as a frequent dinner guest with his wife, along with several other board members. But her meeting with him that morning had been of a specific nature. So had her conversation with her father earlier that day.

‘I’ve also talked to my father,’ she said now. She looked straight across at Nikos. ‘I wanted to be sure I understand exactly the terms on which you will be taking the burden of running his company from him—and,’ she added pointedly, ‘what his senior team think of it. Also, crucially...’ she held Nikos’s unrevealing gaze ‘...what they think of you.’

Nikos’s martini arrived, and he took a ruminative sip as the waiter glided away.

‘And...?’ he posed to Calanthe.

She took a breath. ‘It seems both my father’s notion, and you yourself, are deemed sound,’ she said.

‘I’m glad to see you reassured,’ Nikos said.

His voice was smooth. Too smooth for her liking.

She took a mouthful of her spritzer, for her mouth was suddenly dry. She was doing her level best to be Little Miss Cool, but her senses kept trying to distract her. Kept trying to get her gaze to fix on just what it was about him that seemed to quicken the blood in her veins, make her heart beat faster. But she had to stay cool.

‘However, I did tell my father, and his senior team, that if we go ahead with my father’s plan I will join the board.’

Nikos stilled. She saw it. Felt it giving her an edge again. He hadn’t seen that coming.

‘I may not be a born businesswoman, but I won’t totally abstain from any degree of responsibility or commitment. I want a seat on the board, so that I am involved in some capacity. My father and his team have no objection,’ she said pointedly.

She watched Nikos pick up his martini again, revolve the glass slowly in his fingers.

‘You want to keep an eye on me?’ he said.

She nodded. Because you’ve got previous, Nik...

He cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘Any other Ts and Cs on your list?’

For a second, Calanthe could not stop her expression hardening. Yes, she had some more—but she would not disclose them now. Not yet. Not till the time was right.

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