Page 30 of Husband for the Holidays

Did the man think he was playing chess? And winning?

As they arrived into the dining room, and the butler transferred their drinks to the table, Konstantin saw how Antoine was continuing his puerile machinations. The seating arrangements were meant to put Edoardo between Eloise and her mother. Eloise was positioned at Antoine’s left, while Konstantin was supposed to sit across from her and closer to her mother’s end of the table.

As Konstantin seated Lilja, he ordered Edoardo, “Eloise can sit there. I’ll sit next to her.” He nodded at the chair closest to Lilja. Edoardo could visit Siberia on the other side of the table.

“Lilja prefers the proper etiquette of alternating ladies and gentleman,” Antoine told him with a patronizing smile.

“The women want to catch up so we’ll indulge them.” Konstantin could play the doting game, too.

Antoine looked to Edoardo, perhaps seeking an ally, but Edoardo was canny enough to see he had a decision to make: whether to stick with whatever Antoine had promised him or curry favor with the much bigger fish that was Konstantin Galanis for the bank that bore his family name.

Edoardo took the chair on the far side of the table.

The meal went on forever. Konstantin participated in the expected topics of sports and politics and business, all the while listening to Eloise deflect her mother’s probing inquiries about their relationship by asking after mutual acquaintances.

When Edoardo excused himself to make a call, and Lilja was busy relaying details of a play she’d seen recently, Antoine leaned toward Konstantin.

“What exactly is your intention here?” He flicked his gaze toward Eloise. “Is this a dalliance for your own entertainment? Because I have responsibilities where my wife’s daughter is concerned. There are things I won’t allow.”

Konstantin was rarely taken aback by the levels that a man could sink to, but he was genuinely astonished that Antoine would accuse him of being a womanizer. And was casting himself as the guardian best suited to protect her. Exactly how desperate was he to marry her to Edoardo?Why?

The women stopped speaking, sensing the change in temperature.

Edoardo returned with a polite, “I apologize—” He cut himself off as he came up against the wall of hostility between the men.

Antoine held Konstantin’s penetrating gaze and Konstantin wondered if the man was dangerously obtuse or simply too arrogant to see how far out of his league he was.

“A dalliance?” Konstantin repeated with disdain, abandoning good manners. “No. I don’t use women for entertainment. I certainly wouldn’t start with the sister of my best friend.”

“I’m sure Antoine didn’t mean to imply anything like that,” Eloise murmured in a soothing undertone. Her hand found his arm, trying to stay his temper.

He flashed her a glare of outrage because he had heard what he heard.

Anxiety pinched her mouth and there was a line of tension across her cheekbones that seemed to repeat what she had asked him in New York.

What are you going to do? Shatter her beliefs and force her to suffer yet another heartbreak? She would blame me.

He shot his attention to Lilja. She was staring into her plate, blinking back tears, seeming mortified that her luncheon had gone sour.

Look after your daughter, he wanted to shout at her. But hurting Lilja would hurt Eloise, and Lilja was not the villain here. Antoine was. Ilias would expect Konstantin to protect his family from such a man, but how?

The answer arrived the way intuition struck sometimes, when Konstantin saw the way forward long before he had worked through the logistics and reasoning behind it. If Konstantin were the fanciful type, he would say Ilias whispered the solution in his ear.

“My intention is to ask for your blessing, Lilja.” Konstantin was far too pleased with the choked noise that came out of Antoine. “Eloise and I are marrying.”

CHAPTER NINE

“KONSTANTIN,”ELOISEBREATHED,APPALLED.

“We weren’t planning to announce it today.” Konstantin rose and drew Eloise onto her feet and into his arms.

“No, we weren’t.” Her limbs didn’t feel connected to her body. She pressed weakly at his chest, but it took all her control to lock her knees rather than collapse in a heap.

“But look how happy this news makes your mother.”

Oh, that was just evil, stopping her protests in her throat.

“Oh, darling,” her mother said weepily, eyes bright with joy.

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