Page 47 of Reclaimed By His Billion-Dollar Ring

He drew another breath, keeping his eyes fixed on her. She could see that he wanted her to believe what he was saying.

‘Maybe you were reading more into it—it was your first romance, and I knew that. Yes, I regret that I left you so abruptly, but I’ve explained why. I had to get back to my grandmother. That was the reason I left the island.’

She shut her eyes as if to shut him out of existence. Shut out what he had just trotted out to her.

Then: ‘Don’t lie to me!’ The words were spat from her. Her hands clenched at her sides. A blinding pain came in her head, making her sway. ‘You didn’t leave the island because of your grandmother! You didn’t leave me because you thought it was just a summer romance!’

Her eyes narrowed to slits. The fury in her now possessed her utterly, in an overpowering tide that had been banked for eight long, endless years. She spoke again, every word deadly. Each one finding its mark.

‘You left me, Nikos,’ she said, ‘for one reason and one reason only.’

Her eyes were like knives. Stabbing right into him.

‘Because my father paid you to leave me.’

CHAPTER NINE

IT WAS SAID. Said in words that could never be unsaid. Words she had stored within herself all these years. That had eaten into her, eaten into the heart she had broken over him. Over a man who had taken her father’s money to walk out on her.

Pain twisted inside her like torsion in her guts. He was standing there, stock-still, the blood drained from his face.

She went on speaking, saying what had been buried in the deepest part of her for so long. ‘When did you find out who I was?’

Even now she dreaded the answer. Dreaded to hear that he had known all along. That he had seduced her knowingly...

Because if that were so then...

Then she would not even have those precious memories of their time together to cling to.

There was no expression in his face as he answered her. ‘When your father’s fixers arrived. Just before—just before I left you.’

His voice had no emotion in it—none. And then something dark and deadly flashed in his eyes.

‘Calanthe, for God’s sake—if you have known all along, why wait till now to throw it at me?’

The words broke from him, raw and uncomprehending.

Her face contorted. ‘Confront you with the ultimate humiliation a woman can endure?’ Her voice twisted and she had to force the words from her, each one burning like acid in her throat.

It hurts—oh, God, how it hurts! To know what he did... To know that money—my father’s money—was more important to him than I was! After all we had together! After he held me in his arms, kissed me, made love to me—laughed with me and held my hands. We were together, a couple, him and me...

But it had meant nothing at all to him.

Nothing.

All that had been important to him was the money her father had offered to get rid of him...

And he’d taken the money.

Condemning himself for ever.

She saw his expression tighten.

Words gritted from him. ‘I told your father’s fixers that you must never know—’

He broke off.

She could not bear to look at him. Could not bear it.

---