Page 1 of Greek's Temporary Cinderella

CHAPTER ONE

LEANDROS KASTELLANOS NODDED at familiar faces, exchanging civil pleasantries as he made away across the crowded function room at this top Athens hotel, popular with those wanting to throw a lavish party, as was the case tonight. All around, Athens high society was mingling and enjoying itself, the men all in tuxes, as was he himself, and the women all in evening gowns, glittering with jewels.

He was here only because he’d returned unexpectedly early from a business trip to New York, and out of civility to his hosts, the parents of the newly engaged couple whose betrothal party this was.

His expression tightened. He wished the couple well—but not all engagements led to a happy-ever-after marriage...

He should know...

No! He pulled his thoughts back sharply. No point remembering his own disastrous engagement. It had been six long years ago—in the past. A past he had no interest in revisiting. He was no longer the fool he’d been at twenty-six, swept away on a tide of romance. Blinding himself to the true nature of the woman he had fallen so hard for.

Until he’d seen her true nature for himself—had his face slammed into it.

It wasn’t me she loved—it was the Kastellanos money. And if that wasn’t going to be coming her way—well, she was off. Dumping me faster than you could say—as his father had spelt out to her—disinherited.

The realisation had been brutal.

My faithless fiancée.

Bitterness filled him. So much for love.

Hadn’t his father warned him? And been proved right?

Now, though, the Kastellanos millions were all his anyway. His father’s untimely death three years ago had left him one of the richest men in Greece—and the most eligible. But marriage was not on his agenda; he stuck to the kind of passing liaisons in which he had indulged in his youth—before he had been beguiled by the oh-so-deceptive and deceiving ingénue beauty of the woman who had proved so faithless.

The function room opened on to a spacious roof terrace, set up for dancing later on. On impulse, he stepped out, wanting to clear his unwelcome thoughts, his toxic memories. The ever-present illuminated Parthenon was visible atop the distant Acropolis and the festoons of hanging lamps around the dance floor cast a soft glow.

The scent of flowers from all the lavishly filled planters at the perimeter of the terrace caught at him.

And one more thing caught at him.

On the far side of the terrace, half in shadow, against the dark foliage, was the pale, slender outline of a woman.

For a second—an instant—time ceased. Then it crashed and crushed him.

Eliana saw him. Saw him step through onto the deserted terrace.

Cold dismay seared through her.

Oh, dear God in heaven, no, no, no!

She’d been deeply reluctant to show up here at all—to show up anywhere in Athens!—but Chloe had been adamant.

‘You can’t hide for ever, Elli—please, please come!’

With deep misgivings she had agreed only when Chloe had sworn that even though her future in-laws, long-standing friends of the Kastellanos family, had invited him, he would not—could not—be there tonight! He was in New York, safely across an ocean.

That, and only that, had persuaded Eliana to show up, out of loyalty to her old school friend. Not that she’d kept in touch much with Chloe since her own marriage—even less since the shocking ending of that marriage.

Arriving tonight, seeing all those faces—many still familiar—she’d felt her nerves get the better of her, and she’d bolted out to the sanctuary of the deserted terrace.

No sanctuary at all—the very opposite.

She felt her lungs turn to stone. He was here—less than ten metres away from her. Imposing upon her consciousness as if he’d been ringed in fire.

The last man in the entire world she could bear to see.

On whom she had not set eyes for six long years—

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