Page 13 of The Greek Wedding She Never Had

Eleanor was so cold that her teeth chattered. ‘Do you need me to help you undress?’ Jace asked.

‘Pigs will fly before I’ll allow you to take my clothes off.’

His sexy grin stole her breath. She hated how her heart performed a somersault just because when Jace smiled he reminded her of the charismatic, irresistible man she had fallen in love with a year ago.

‘Keep telling yourself that,pouláki mou,’ he drawled.

‘Don’t call me that,’ she muttered. ‘I heard you say to Takis Samaras that my sister is a beautiful peacock, but you think I am an unremarkable sparrow. If Lissa had inherited the Pangalos, no doubt you would have been keen to marryher.’

Jace gave her a thoughtful look. ‘Your sister is attractive, and she seems to have made a career out of dating rich male celebrities. I have met dozens of Lissas, but I’ve never met anyone as unique or as beautiful as you.’

Eleanor shook her head. ‘You don’t have to try to win me over with pretty lies any more,’ she told him with quiet dignity before she walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

When she emerged from the shower ten minutes later and wrapped a towel tightly around her body before cautiously stepping into the bedroom, she discovered that Jace had left one of his shirts for her to wear. Her layered hairstyle took minutes to dry with a hairdryer. The shorter length was sexier than when she’d worn her hair in a schoolgirlish plait, Eleanor decided. Had that unconsciously been her aim when she’d decided on a makeover of her hair and clothes? she wondered. Had she hoped to make Jace sit up and notice her?

She studied her reflection in the mirror. The borrowed shirt came down to her mid-thigh and was just about presentable to wear to dinner. She grimaced at the hectic flush on her cheeks and her dilated pupils that were evidence of the effect Jace had on her. A knock on the door made her heart skip a beat, but she was greeted by a maid who had come to show her the way to the dining room.

Although it was early in the evening the storm had turned the sky as dark as night, and lamps had been switched on in the house. When Eleanor entered the dining room her gaze was immediately drawn to Jace. He had changed out of his wet clothes and looked divine in black jeans hugging his lean hips and a fine-knit black sweater that moulded the defined ridges of his abdominal muscles.

She forced herself to walk further into the room, conscious of his gaze roaming over her legs all the way down to her red stiletto heel shoes before moving up to the rest of her body. Could he tell that she was braless? She had draped her underwear over the heated towel rail while she showered, but only her knickers had dried enough to wear.

‘Like I said, uniquely beautiful,’ Jace murmured as he strolled towards her.

Eleanor opened her mouth to tell him tostop. How could he lie so glibly? Did he not possess an iota of compunction? But her angry words died before she uttered them when she recognised stark hunger in his eyes.

Desire. For her. A nerve flickered in his jaw and her heart pounded as she realised with a jolt of shock that he wasn’t pretending. Jace wanted her with the same fierce need that she felt for him. The knowledge restored a little of her pride. The glittering intensity in his gaze put them on an equal footing, and she could not restrain a shiver of reaction.

‘Do please come and sit down, Eleanor,’ Jace’s mother invited.

Belatedly, Eleanor realised that she and Jace were not alone. Snatching oxygen into her lungs, she whirled away from him at the same time as he stepped back from her and raked his fingers through his hair.

A maid arrived with a trolley and proceeded to serve dinner. Jace held out a chair for Eleanor and when she was seated he took his place at the head of the table. There were two bottles of wine on the table, a red and a white. He half filled his mother’s glass with white wine and poured Eleanor a glass of Pinot Noir. Her eyes met his, and she told herself not to read anything into the fact that he had remembered she did not like white wine.

Across the table his mother gave her a curious look. ‘Have you known my son long?’

‘Um...’

‘Eleanor and I met more than a year ago,’ Jace murmured when she hesitated.

‘A year! Well, I am delighted to finally be introduced to you.’ Iliana gave a rueful smile when Eleanor’s eyes rested on a large purple bruise on her face. ‘I tripped over in the garden while I was trying to prune the bougainvillea,’ she explained. ‘Unfortunately, I’m not as agile as I used to be.’

‘I employ a gardener so that you can sit and enjoy the garden,’ Jace admonished his mother gently.

‘I like to do what I can. But I am embarrassed to admit that I called Jace at his office this afternoon and cried like a baby,’ Iliana told Eleanor.

She darted a look at Jace. Had he been unable to keep her appointment time because he’d been comforting his mother after her accident? His closed expression gave nothing away. She looked down at her plate of moussaka. The food was delicious but she barely noticed what she was eating, feeling guilty when she remembered how she had stormed out of his office, convinced that he’d been toying with her like a cat with a mouse.

‘I saw on the news programme that the storm caused a tidal surge and many properties on the coast have been damaged,’ Iliana commented.

Eleanor’s heart sank. The last thing she needed was a pile more bills if the hotel had suffered damage.

‘I hope your accommodation hasn’t been affected. Are you staying in Thessaloniki?’

‘No, on Sithonia, at the...um... Pangalos Beach Resort.’ Eleanor dared not look at Jace after she had spoken unthinkingly again.

Iliana’s expression was wistful. ‘I have not been there for many years, but I’ve heard that the facilities are excellent. My husband used to partly own the hotel, and we lived there until Dimitri’s business partner cheated us out of our livelihood.’

‘Goodness, what happened?’ Eleanor feigned surprise and ignored Jace’s warning stare.

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