Page 7 of Reunited By the Greek's Baby

‘Amazing. I can’t imagine someone like you being close to someone as nice as Simon.’

His jaw clenched so hard he reminded her of a chiselled marble statue of a warrior, ready for battle.

Except this man’s flesh was warm and hot, not cold marble. Her palms tingled at the phantom memory of his silky skin, tight over a body of hard-packed muscle and bone.

It was the final straw. She shot to her feet. ‘You can tell Simon I’m fine. I want you to leave.’

She hadn’t even finished speaking when he shook his head. ‘Not without an explanation.’

A red mist descended, blurring the edges of the room. Vaguely Isla realised this was bad for her blood pressure, but the nerve of the man, pushing into her world and making demands...

Suddenly the energy Isla hadn’t felt in weeks was running through her veins. She sparked with indignation and roaring fury. Disillusionment and despair melded with her lifelong sense of abandonment, the knowledge that she was always second best, never important enough to matter to anyone.

She should have known better than to believe she mattered to him, but she hadn’t been able to resist building up hopes. She’d let herself believe and the disillusionment was crippling after having let down her guard.

All that hurt erupted in one lava-hot, volcanic burst.

‘I don’t owe youanything, Theo Karalis.’ She spat the words so fast it was a wonder she didn’t stumble over them. ‘If you don’t leave immediately I’ll call the police and have you charged with harassment.’ She drew a deep breath, holding his blazing stare, then spoke slowly so he heard every word. ‘I have nothing to say to a murderer.’

CHAPTER TWO

LATETHATAFTERNOONTheo stared through the gloom at the glowing window of the craft shop. Bright colours beckoned in a display that mimicked a cosy fireside nook.

But it wasn’t really the shop he saw. It was Isla’s uptilted chin and crossed arms, rejecting him and signalling her need for protection. From him!

Her glacial stare as she’d warned him off, calling him a murderer...

Outrage pounded through him.

She didn’t mean it.

She couldn’t.

She knew he wasn’t a killer.

Yet he felt the slash to his gut as if she’d plunged a dagger into his belly. He’d assumed she still believed in his innocence. Understood he’dneverhurt her.

He’d faced many things lately, more dangerous and life-changing than an ex-lover’s disdain. Yet Isla’s reaction hit him profoundly. She’d turned to ice before him whereas once her blue-grey eyes had danced with warmth when they were together.

Her reaction unnerved him. He, who’d survived a stint in one of Greece’s toughest prisons. Who’d taken down one of the place’s most feared thugs when the man tried to kill him, no doubt on orders from Theo’s enemy, Spiro Stavroulis.

Stavroulis’s hatred Theo could understand, even if it was misplaced. But Isla’s reaction felt like personal betrayal.

There’d been no mistaking her scathing contempt. She’d looked like a stranger who believed the stories printed about him.

The press had taken Spiro’s lead and crucified Theo’s character, portraying him as reckless and violent, with a vendetta against Spiro’s grandson Costa who they made out to be an innocent. The story was that Theo had deliberately pushed Costa to his death down a flight of stairs. They weren’t interested in Theo’s innocence. Or that Costa had been deplorable and dangerous. Theo knew that too well from the way Costa had hurt his ex-girlfriend Toula, Theo’s stepsister.

A shudder racked him. This reminded him of those long nightmarish nights behind bars when he hadn’t let himself sleep properly lest his cellmate try to claim the money Stavroulis had offered to anyone who seriously injured Theo. Or killed him.

Compounding his fear had been the prison rumour that Stavroulis had vowed to get at Theo by harming those closest to him. Desperate, Theo had organised the best possible security for his family. Fortunatelythatrumour at least hadn’t been true. Stavroulis had standards and harming women was beyond them. But at the time it had spurred Theo to cut ties with Isla, keeping their connection secret so she wouldn’t become a target.

Isla and he hadn’t parted well so Theo hadn’t expected a warm welcome. Nothing about that time had been as he would have chosen it but he’d needed to protect her. She’d been so persistent, visiting the prison again and again, trying to see him. He’d taken that as proof that she believed him innocent. That had warmed him, despite knowing he couldn’t maintain the relationship they’d begun.

Petro, his professionally distrustful lawyer, had suggested her persistence proved only that she’d discovered Theo was rich and stuck by him hoping for largesse.

Theo stifled a bitter laugh. Whatever she felt now it wasn’t a desire for closeness.

Through the mayhem of his world disintegrating and the need to cut her loose, Isla’s belief in him had given him hope. Especially when the justice system tried to grind him to dust, thanks to Stavroulis’s powerful legal and political connections and his media outlets braying for Theo’s blood.

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