What the Greek Can't Resist

She’d long ago harboured hopes that someone would look at her like that. She’d foolishly believed that someone would be Morgan. Instead, he’d married her and blackmailed her into deceit and humiliation.

As an orphan, tossed from foster home to foster home all her childhood, she’d learned to mask the raw pain and despair of being the odd child that nobody wanted. But the hollow feeling in her belly had never gone away.

Meeting Morgan and suddenly finding herself the sole focus of his charm and wit had tricked her naïve self into believing she’d finally found someone who loved and cared for her, not out of duty, or because the state was paying them to do so, but because she was worth loving.

He’d roughly pulled the wool from her eyes within days of their wedding. But, even then, she’d foolishly believed she could salvage something from the only steady relationship she’d ever known. But weeks had dragged into months and months into years and by the time she’d accepted that she’d once again been cast aside, like a broken toy no one wanted to play with, it’d been too late to leave.

Her shaky breath drew glances from Sakis and Brianna but she couldn’t look them in the face. She’d revealed so much already. She feared opening her mouth would be catastrophic, especially as she could feel Sakis Pantelides’s keen gaze boring into her.

God, please don’t let him guess what I did with his brother.

‘I think it’s time we left Mrs Lowell in peace, Sakis,’ Brianna murmured.

Sakis nodded. ‘My lawyers will be in touch with the paperwork regarding your husband’s employment entitlements. But if you need anything in the meantime, please do not hesitate to get in touch.’

She glanced at him and immediately glanced away when his gaze narrowed.

He can’t know!

Panic clawed at her. Surely Arion hadn’t told him?

From the corner of her eye she saw Morgan’s parents heading towards them. Clearing her throat, she fought the panic and pasted a suitable smile on her face.

No matter what had gone on between Morgan and her, Terry and Sarah Lowell had welcomed her into their hearts. She couldn’t repay them with betrayal.

‘I appreciate it, Mr Pantelides. Have a safe journey back to London.’

She turned away, grateful for the distraction that Morgan’s wheelchair-bound mother brought to stop her wondering just what Sakis Pantelides knew about her carnal activities with his brother.

And she certainly couldn’t think about Arion Pantelides and the heat that rushed under her skin every time she relived what had happened in his hotel room three days ago.

What had happened between them was now firmly in the past. Never to be repeated. What she needed to concentrate on now was picking up the shattered pieces and commencing the uphill battle that was the rest of her life.

CHAPTER FOUR

Three months later.

PERLA LOOKED UP for the umpteenth time as the Pantelides Inc. reception phone rang. The superbly groomed receptionist answered in dulcet tones and sliced another cool look at Perla before turning away.

Her teeth gritted and for a second she fought the urge to march over to the desk and demand she call upstairs again and get her the meeting she’d come here for.

Instead, she smoothed her hand down the black pencil skirt she’d spent her dwindling funds on and forced herself to remain seated. She’d turned up with no prior appointment, but only because her phone calls and emails had gone unanswered. And, truth be told, she’d only been waiting an hour and a half.

But being in the architecturally imposing building that bore the Pantelides name made her nerves jangle with each heartbeat, despite chastising herself that the likelihood that Arion Pantelides was in residence was negligible.

As the head of Pantelides Luxe, the branch of the conglomerate that ran its luxury hotels and casinos around the world—yes, she’d researched him in a moment of madness—Arion Pantelides spent very little time in England. And even if he were here, she’d asked for an appointment with the head of HR in Sakis’s absence, not his brother.

So, really, there was no need for her to feel as if she were playing dare in an electric lightning storm.

Nevertheless, when the phone rang again, she held her breath. Expertly waxed eyebrows arched her way and a manicured hand motioned her forward.

Sighing her relief, Perla approached the desk as the receptionist hung up.

With another glance, which was now tinged with heavy speculation, the receptionist slid a visitor’s badge along with a short silver key across the sleek glass counter.

‘Please wear this at all times. Take the last lift on the right. Turn the key and press the button.’

Perla wanted to ask which floor she needed but she didn’t want to look a fool, so she nodded her thanks and walked on shaky feet to the lift.

As it turned out, there was only one button to press. After inserting the key, she stabbed the green button that simply read AP and held her breath as the doors slid smoothly shut.

Her trepidation rose along with her meagre breakfast as she was whisked up at warp speed.

She barely had time to swallow the sudden nausea that assailed her before the lift doors were sliding open again. She started to step out, then froze as ice washed over her.

Arion Pantelides stood before her, tall, breathtaking, imposing...and as granite-faced as he’d been on the day she’d buried Morgan.

Perla swallowed. And swallowed again before she could speak. ‘I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. I’m not here to see you. I came to see your brother, my late husband’s employer. Or, in his absence, I asked for the head of HR.’

‘Sakis isn’t here.’ He confirmed what she already knew. ‘He’s on an extended honeymoon.’ That voice, deep, husky, tinged with a haunting quality that she’d found intriguing since their first meeting, feathered along her nerves, sending her insides quaking with emotion so strong she wanted to take a step back from it.

Perla bit her lip. ‘Yes, I know he got married last month but I didn’t know he was still away... I was hoping he was back...’ She drifted to a stop, her gaze trying desperately not to stray over his hauntingly beautiful face. A face that had featured in her dreams more times than she cared to acknowledge even to herself.

‘He would’ve got married sooner. He delayed it because your husband’s involvement in the Pantelides oil tanker crash was still under investigation. It would’ve been in bad taste to celebrate what is supposed to be the happiest day of any man’s life with events like that hanging over everyone’s head.’

The veiled mockery in his tone made her hackles rise, but it was the memory of his blistering anger the last time they’d met that made her insides quake.

She sucked in a deep breath. ‘I apologise for the inconvenience—’

A slashing gesture with his hand stopped her words. ‘He’ll be back in two weeks. Feel free to come back then.’

The lift doors started to shut. Galvanised into action, she threw out a hand to stop it just as he did the same. Warm fingers grazed hers, sending electricity zapping through her. Perla jumped back and felt her heart thunder as she caught the look he levelled at her.

‘I’m...I’m afraid this can’t wait. Just point me in the direction of HR and I’ll be out of your hair...’

As if reminded of that part of her, he stepped back and his lazy gaze trailed upward to rest on the hair she’d pulled back into a tight bun. Once he’d looked his fill, those hazel eyes, whose mesmerising flecks she recalled so vividly, recaptured hers. ‘The whole HR team is on a day’s training in Paris.’