Page 18 of Husband for the Holidays

“Please don’t.” She put up a hand, sounding appalled. “I didn’t come here expecting anything more than a friendly catch up.”

“Why is that?”

“Because we’re strangers,” she stated. “You don’t owe me anything.”

Like hell. He rejected that remark at such a base level he was insulted she would even say it aloud.

“Ilias bailed out my grandfather’s company when we were still at university. Did you know that?”

“No. I mean, I remember him saying you had to quit school early because your grandfather was ill. And I know that you came to New York that time because you were squaring up with him on some old business.” A blush crept into her cheeks and her gaze skittered away from his as she referenced that day by the Christmas tree. “Ilias never implied it was a big deal, though.”

“It was a very big deal.” Konstantin tried to ignore the sexual awareness that ignited within him each time he saw her react to him. “My grandfather became ill and I wasn’t fully prepared to take over. Things were a mess. Vultures were circling. If not for Ilias, I would have lost everything.”

“I doubt that.” A smile flickered across her lips. “He always spoke about you as being very intelligent and ambitious. He admired you.”

Konstantin couldn’t help a reflexive frown at that, not caring for the pitch of emotion it caused within him: pain, loss,moreguilt that he had ignored his obligations to Ilias’s family.

“The point I’m making is that I remain in his debt.” He was embarrassed that he had allowed himself to believe that paying off the financial side of things had been enough.

Eloise regarded him solemnly. “Ilias was never one to keep a score sheet. You know that.”

“But he had a strong sense of right and wrong. What is happening to you is wrong.” It made him livid.

It didn’t sound as though Antoine was violent, the way Konstantin’s father had been, but his controlling, bullyish behavior was all too familiar. And Antoine’s neglect of Eloise looked an awful lot like the way his own grandfather had ignored his daughter’s plight, leaving her in the hands of a monster.

“If Ilias were alive today, you would be well taken care of.” Konstantin had no doubt in that. “What if something happens to your mother? Who inherits the Drakos fortune?Antoine?”

“Probably.” She sighed as though that were something she couldn’t bear thinking about. Then she sent him a beseeching look. “This isn’t about the money, though. I honestly don’t care if I have to work grubby jobs and live with a roommate. I need my mother in my life. She’s all I have. I don’t want to hurt her, or see her hurt, or get hurt myself. And I don’t see any way that I can intervene in her marriage without that happening.”

“So you intend to continue tolerating this?”

“What are my options?” She threw up her hands. “Either she stays with a man who wants to push me to the periphery of her life, or I start a war with him that tears Mom and meI apart, anyway. How would I even go about extricating him? Claim that she wasn’t competent when she put him in charge? He’s her husband. Calling her state of mind into question would only bolster his position as custodian of her money. Even if I somehow pried him from her life, then what? I’m the one who broke up her relationshipsagain. Believe me, I spend every day trying to find a good way out of this and there is none.”

“I don’t accept that.” He understood that relationships could be complicated. It was another reason he avoided them, but it was very clear to him that he couldn’t allow things to go on as they were. “I’ll take you to Nice. I want to meet this man.”

“Why? There’s no point,” she protested.

“There are many points. You want to see your mother, don’t you? For Christmas?”

“That’s so unfair, it’s cruel,” she said with a wounded pang in her voice. “Of course, I want to see her. But she already told me she’s going away. Antoine booked it,” she added sullenly. “I think he did it to keep me from asking to come home, but maybe I’m being paranoid.”

“Where are they going?”

“Como, I think. It’s a house party. They’re leaving after their own party on Friday.”

“Which means she’s in Nice until Friday. Come with me or don’t, but I intend to see for myself what kind of situation she’s in.”

“I can’t—I have to work my shift.” She sent an anxious look at the clock. “I can’t leave town without covering my share of rent. My roommate will get kicked out and it will be my fault.”

“Your sense of responsibility would be commendable, Eloise, if you weren’t clinging to such a sinking ship. Please,” he said with deep irony. “Since it’s my fault you lost your job, allow me to cover your rent.”

CHAPTER FIVE

BYTHETIMEthey were buckled into Konstantin’s private jet, Eloise’s roommate was sending her every Christmas emoji and a text.

Why did he send so much? Aren’t you coming back?

Eloise had run into their apartment to grab her passport and a quick bag to travel, but her roommate hadn’t been home. She’d been called to the trattoria to cover the shift Eloise was missing. Now she was fired from that job, too.

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