âYouâve bought a bank?â she repeated in disbelief.
âYes, Alice. I own it. You want to know why I didnât tell you that either? Habit, I guessâitâs become second nature to me to play down my wealth. It tends to attract the wrong kind of women.â
Didnât he realise that sheâd loved him when heâd had nothingâdid that count for nothing?
âYou didnât trust me enough to tell me something like that?â she questioned slowly. âLike I really would have cared about your money?â
âIt was a misjudgement,â he said heavily.
âToo right it was, Kyros. One misjudgement too many.â
âBut now that this is all out in the open,â he said slowly, âsurely you can see the benefits of our marriage?â
âYou mean our bizarre mockery of a marriage?â
He shook his dark head impatiently. âThink about it, Alice. I need a woman in my life,â he said deliberately. âAnd you fulfil my needs more than anyone else.â His voice softened. âYou always did. You get to enjoy all the things that my wealth can provide for you,â he said. âEvery day can be like it was yesterday. I have a boat we can sailâa plane we can fly. We can island-hop on one of my helicopters.â His lips curved into a smile. âThere will be no more scrimping and saving and making doâyou shall have whatever you want, Alice.â
Except the thing which most eluded herâhis love.
CHAPTER ONE
SHE heard a car door slam, the crunch of gravel on the drive, and Alice tensed as the doorbell rang, sounding unnaturally loud as it echoed through the large house.
He was here.
Drawing a deep breath, she applied one final brush-stroke of Racy Red lipstick and then stepped back to survey her handiwork as a very different Alice stared back at her from the mirror.
Had fate stepped in to provide her with the kind of armour she suspected she might need to cope with seeing Kyros again? Normally, she would never have been wearing black satinâa dress so exquisitely fitted that it looked as if she had been poured into it. Nor silk stockings and a pair of killer heels, with their distinctive scarlet soles. The waterfall of glittering stones which dangled from her ears and lay clustered at her throat were not real, but at least they served a pur-poseâfor surely their dazzle would distract her ex-lover from looking too closely into her eyes and seeing her troubled thoughts.
She wanted him to look at her and think: Alice looks wonderful, and she wanted him to look at her and think: What a fool I was to let her go. Wasnât that what every woman would want in the same situation? That a man who had walked away from their love affair so carelessly because she wasnât Greek should feel a pang of regret?
The doorbell rang again.
âIâve only just got out of the bath!â yelled Kirsty from along the corridor, and Alice drew another breath. Please give me strength, she prayed as she went to answer it.
âAll right!â she called. âIâm coming!â
Her progress downstairs in the too-high heels was slow but her heart was beating like a piston as she pulled open the front door and dazzling summer light flooded in to create an unmistakable silhouette of the man who was standing there. Aliceâs mouth dried. Her thoughts had been spinning round and round ever since his phone call. She had tried to imagine what he might look like nowâbut nothing could have prepared her for the heart-stopping reality of seeing Kyros Pavlidis for the first time in ten years.
He stood in the doorway, almost filling it with his powerful frame. Black jeans and a black T-shirt moulded his hard bodyâthe lean torso and the long, muscular legs.
Against the light she couldnât see his expressionânot at firstâonly the glitter in his jet-dark eyes. But as she became accustomed to the brightness every feature was revealed to her. The high slash of cheekbones, the aquiline noseâand the slightly forbidding mouth which so rarely softened. His face was as hard and as formidable as she rememberedâbut he was still devastatingly handsome.
She gripped the heavy oak of the door, afraid that she might crumple. Or show him that she still thought he was the most amazing man she had ever set eyes on. But hot on the heels of confusion came pride. Because this was the man who had hurt her. She had gone to him an innocent and been left a cynic whoâd stopped believing in love. So remember that.
âHello, Kyros,â she said calmly.
For a moment Kyros did not respond as fury, disbelief and pure sexual hunger flooded through his veins in quick succession. His assessment of her had been rapid. No wedding ring. No man hovering curiously in the background, monitoring the mystery caller. And the clothes of a whore!
His lips curved in a mixture of distaste and appreciation as he ran his eyes over a black satin dress that showed far too much of those long legs which used to wrap themselves so spectacularly around his neck. It clung to the swell of her breasts and shimmered down over that perfect derriere. How could she contemplate going out wearing something which would make every man with a pulse think what he was thinking right now? How much he wanted her.