by Lynne Graham
It no longer mattered to Ella that Aristandros had fenced her in with an outrageous legal agreement. She had signed up for the long haul and was beginning to dare to hope that he might have as well. She was happier with him than she had ever dreamt she could be. The gift of a grand piano had been his most well-received present to date, and she was able to play her music every day on a superb instrument with wonderful tone, and she was already looking forward to teaching Callie. But the piano was only one of a number of fabulous presents with which he had surprised her. She had acquired designer handbags, perfume, sundry outfits and a fantastic sculpture of a sylph-like dancer that he had said reminded him of her. As she did not have endless legs and a large bosom quite out of proportion to the rest of her body, she had decided to be flattered by the unlikely comparison.
Aristandros was now accustomed to seeing her without make-up or a fancy hair-do, but dressed instead in casual beach-wear or jeans, and none of it had put a single dent in her apparent desirability. Her mother and her twin siblings had visited, and he had taken her brothers—who were not the world’s most entertaining guys, out fishing and sailing without even being asked. She had been grateful, for her family now accepted their relationship, which made life a great deal smoother.
He had proved surprisingly understanding when she had been overjoyed after receiving a letter forwarded by Lily from Alister Marlow. As asked, Alister had notified the cleaner about the photo Ella had mislaid, and the small, faded snapshot of her late father had been found behind a piece of furniture. Ari had been sympathetic when he’d grasped that Ella had no memory of her father, who had died when she was only a baby. He, too, had been a doctor.
‘Is that why you went in for medicine?’ Aristandros had asked.
‘No, I wanted to be a doctor from quite a young age, and as I got older it appealed more and more. I loved the idea of being able to fix people’s bodies and solve their problems, but of course it’s only occasionally that straightforward.’
But, when it came to the lack of commitment in relationships that Ella saw as Ari’s most pressing problem, she convinced herself that she had the solution. If their sex life was good, Ari would surely have no reason to stray—but she despised herself for thinking that way and for being willing to accept those boundaries. Her pride told her she deserved more, but her brain told her that she already had as much as she could reasonably expect from Aristandros Xenakis in terms of attraction, attention and time. Even the newspapers were talking about what a quiet life he was leading of late.
In honour of the charity opera performance she was to attend that very evening, she had shopped for hours in Athens for a gorgeous dress and had promised to wear the sapphires with it. Aristandros had flown out the night before on a helicopter, and she was being picked up early evening. The beautician who worked on Hellenic Lady came to the house to do the honours, and Ella was admiring how well her hair looked when Ianthe, the housekeeper, came to her bedroom to tell her that Yannis Mitropoulos had phoned to ask if she would come and see his daughter who was pregnant and unwell.
Ella wasted no time in driving into the town to the surgery, with Ianthe in tow. Grigoria was a young first-time mother-to-be who was almost eight months’ pregnant with twins. Her husband was in the army and away from home. Grigoria was very nearly hysterical, and clung so tightly to Ella that she had to prise herself free to examine her patient. What she learned was not good. Grigoria’s blood pressure was sky high, and her hands and feet were swollen. Her condition was made more complex by the fact that she was a diabetic. Ella told Yannis that they needed the air ambulance, for she was convinced that his daughter was suffering from preeclampsia and needed urgent hospital treatment. It was a dangerous condition which would most likely only be cured by the delivery of the babies. She checked the records and rang the relevant hospital to forewarn them and get the advice of the gynaecologist on duty.
‘You’ll come with me?’ Grigoria pleaded, clutching at Ella’s arm frantically.
‘I would be very grateful if you would,’ Yannis added jerkily, tears in his eyes as he took her to one side and began to tell the very sad story of how his late wife had once gone on the same journey and, for possibly the same reason, and had died shortly after Grigoria’s birth.
His daughter’s state of mind was not helped by that inopportune recollection of her mother’s demise. Ianthe ventured to remind Ella of the opera engagement, and the reminder cleared Ella’s frown away; she was quick to work out how she could be in virtually two places at once, for both destinations were in the city. Determined to stay with Grigoria, Ella instructed the housekeeper to have her evening dress and jewellery delivered to Ari’s house in Athens where she would be able to change for the evening, having left the hospital.
The flight in the air ambulance to Athens was fraught and tense; Grigoria was suffering increasing pain, and was seriously ill. It was a great relief to reach the hospital. Ella, preoccupied with her patient’s condition, spared not a thought for her disrupted social arrangements until Grigoria’s twins, two little girls, were safely delivered by Caesarean section. Her anxiety about Grigoria soothed by the knowledge that the young woman was receiving the best possible treatment, Ella only then registered that she had not even tried to contact Aristandros to tell him where she was. In a passion of dismay that she had been so thoughtless in relation to an engagement which he had made clear was an important event, she texted fervent humble apologies to him. She wasted no time trying to explain what had happened, but instead promised to join him by the time of the intermission.
More precious time was wasted while she found a taxi willing to take her out of the city. She contacted Ianthe to check that the dress had been delivered. Reassured on that score, Ella began worrying about how Aristandros would react to her appearance just before the end of the evening. Her heart sank. He hadn’t responded to her text, which suggested to her that he was furious. Furthermore, she didn’t feel she could blame him, since he had always been meticulous about contacting her well in advance in similar situations. Also, telling him that she had simply forgotten about him and the opera date because of a medical emergency was scarcely likely to prove a comfort to a male accustomed to the very best treatment when it came to the female sex.
By the time the taxi trundled up the long driveway to the imposing villa, Ella was very tense, because she was running against the clock and not doing very well. She rang the bell and, after a few moments, the housekeeper appeared, and her look of consternation was sufficient to warn Ella that her arrival was unexpected. Ella hastened past the older woman with a muttered explanation and apology. She sped upstairs, where she assumed her evening gown awaited her. There was no sign of it in the master bedroom, but she stilled in surprise on the threshold when she saw the scattered pieces of female clothing littering the floor. She frowned at the sight of the frilly black-and-turquoise bra and matching knickers, and wondered who on earth they could belong to. Unfortunately, she did not have to wonder for long.
The mystery was immediately solved when the bathroom door opened and a breathtakingly lovely blonde appeared, wearing only a towel. It was difficult to say which of them was the most discomposed by the unexpected meeting.
‘Who are you? What are you doing in here?’ Ella heard herself demand.
Aqua-green eyes challenged her. ‘As I was here first, I could ask you the same thing.’
And, even as Ella parted her lips to speak again, a sick sensation took up residence in her tummy and perspiration beaded her brow. She wondered if she was the only woman in the world stupid enough to ask a beautiful half-naked woman what she was doing in her lover’s bedroom. After all, the answer was so obvious the question didn’t need asking. Striving to save a little dignity in a confrontation that had burst upon her with the abruptness of an earthquake, Ella retreated back to the doorway. She discovered that it was horrendously difficult for her to peel her stunned eyes from the blonde in the towel. A revolting, terrifying curiosity ha
d her staring, and striving not to make bland comparisons. Her mind marched on regardless: she herself was older, less exciting in the curves department and, although her skin was good, she knew it wasn’t quite as flawless. Rejecting those crazy, unsavoury evaluations, she spun on her heel and headed down the sweeping stairs at such a speed that she almost tripped over her own feet.
‘Dr Smithson.’ The housekeeper began speaking anxiously to Ella as she threw open the front door for herself, simply eager to be gone and leave the scene of her humiliation behind her. ‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t know you were coming.’
‘It’s okay. I’m fine,’ Ella burbled, not wishing to deal with the woman’s visible embarrassment. It was obvious that the housekeeper had a very good idea of what Ella had found upstairs. She just fled, hurrying down the drive as though a gale-force wind was powering her from behind. Her mind was a total blank. She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t know where she was going either. Shock had wiped her thoughts out, and fear of the pain of those thoughts was protecting her from them.
Aristandros had another woman. Well, whoopee, Ella—what were you expecting? Did you think he had signed a one-woman-only pledge just because he had taken up with you? It was not as if Aristandros had promised to be faithful. Indeed, he had gone to some trouble to declare that he was promising her no such thing in that wretched agreement. For all she knew he had a stable of other women stashed around the globe at his various properties or, indeed available to come at a call whenever he felt like a little variety.
Aristandros had gone into his Athens headquarters today, finished his day’s work during the afternoon and had then come home with or to the very beautiful blonde and gone to bed with her. The bed had been made again. So the very beautiful blonde was tidy as well as clean! She pictured Ari’s housekeeper telling him what had happened and flinched. Seeing a bus trundling along the road in the distance, she speeded up to reach the stop and flagged it down. It didn’t matter where it was going, just as long as it got her safely away from the vicinity of the villa where she might be seen. Her phone vibrated in her bag and she dug it out and, refusing to even look at the message, she switched it off. She wasn’t in any fit state to deal with Aristandros.
It was a warm, humid evening. Ella felt hot and her skin felt clammy, though her teeth kept on threatening to chatter in shock. She got on the bus and sat down at the back, her body lurching and swaying as the vehicle swung round corners. Why was she so shocked when Aristandros had only done what had always come naturally to him? Such a very beautiful girl, as well. If a man had always wanted the diversity and excitement of other sexual partners, he was unlikely to change. And no doubt, if she asked him, he would be honest with her about it.
Her mind went into free fall at the thought of him being that honest with her. Any admission of infidelity would cut like a knife and leave scars, haunting her for ever. But the images already tormenting her were no more comforting, she acknowledged wretchedly, for the idea of Ari in another woman’s arms was her worst nightmare and always had been. Now it had finally happened, she was reeling from the pain she was experiencing.
But wasn’t the extent of that pain her own fault, a self-induced punishment? What woman in her right mind would have fallen in love with Aristandros Xenakis and hoped for a happy ending? Countless women had tried and failed with him. Yet she was still crazy about him. She had held nothing back. In fact, a week ago, when she had watched Ari building a sandcastle with Callie—a real boy-toy skyscraper version of a sandcastle—she had wondered if she had made an appalling mistake when she’d turned his marriage proposal down seven years back. She had wondered if, against the odds, they might have found happiness together. She had known that although she loved her career and lived for its challenges it had never brought her the sheer, soaring happiness, excitement and contentment that he could just with his presence.
Her cheeks were wet with tears when she climbed off the bus at the terminal. What was she planning to do—run away and leave Callie behind? That option was absolutely out of the question. Hadn’t Ari already accused her of running away when anything upset her? Ella bristled at that recollection. But exactly what was she doing now? She couldn’t give up on Callie; she just couldn’t! Whatever happened, whatever else she had to bear, there was no way she could give up on the little girl she loved. At the same time, however, she needed a few hours’ grace to pull herself back together before she had to face Aristandros again. She decided that the wisest option was to find a hotel for the night.
She walked for ages before she came on a small establishment sited in a quiet street. Checking in, she was conscious of the receptionist’s swiftly veiled curiosity, and when she saw her reflection in the mirror in the en suite bathroom of her hotel room she grimaced in horrified embarrassment at the state of her face. Her mascara had run, and her eye shadow had smudged where she’d wiped her eyes, and her hair was all messy. She freshened up and then made herself switch her phone back on. She couldn’t stage a vanishing act for very long. She had also left Aristandros standing at the opera. Although that was the very least of what he deserved, it would have gone down like a lead balloon.
Her phone rang within seconds of being switched on.
‘Where the hell are you?’ Aristandros growled.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t make it, but I need some space tonight.’
‘No!’ It was thunderous. ‘No space allowed. Where are you?’
‘In a hotel, a little place, not one you’d know. I really do need to be alone for a while,’ Ella breathed flatly, wondering how she could possibly stand to be with him ever again, how she could ever contrive to live with him and the knowledge of his infidelity.
‘You’re not allowed to walk out on me under any circumstances,’ Aristandros intoned in a fierce undertone. ‘I will not tolerate it.’
‘I’m not walking out on you.’ Ella framed those words with a sob trapped in her throat.
‘Ella…’ he breathed huskily.
Ella cut the call before she could let her turbulent emotional mood betray her into revealing more than she should. But he would soon find out through his staff that she had met his trollop. No; where did she get off calling another woman a trollop just because she had slept with Ari? After all, she wasn’t married to him. He was still a free agent in the eyes of the world.
Tears choking her, Ella, her slender body trembling, sank down on the end of the bed. As she always feared, her love for Aristandros was tearing her apart at the seams, destroying her strength and self-esteem, when really the only person she ought to be thinking about was Callie, who was safely asleep in her cot and blissfully ignorant of the messes adults could make of their relationships. But Ella recognised at that moment that she had to find a way to sort this mess out, because it was unlikely that she could trust Aristandros to make that effort.
More than an hour later, she jumped in surprise when a knock sounded at her door. Glancing out through the peephole, she could see nothing but a large probably male shape and she opened the door on the chain.
CHAPTER TEN
‘OPEN the door, Ella,’ Aristandros instructed harshly.
Ella was shattered that he had found her so quickly. She shut the door, undid the chain and opened the door again. ‘How on earth did you know where I was?’
His tension palpable, Aristandros was staring at her, his brilliant dark gaze roving from the crown of her head down to her feet and swiftly back up again. ‘I have tracking devices in your mobile phone and your watch, so it was just a matter of switching on the surveillance equipment to locate you—’
Ella gaped at him aghast. ‘Tracking devices?’ she parrotted.
‘A precaution in case you were kidnapped, a standard security procedure,’ Aristandros proclaimed matter-of-factly. ‘I’m a very wealthy man, and it’s possible that someone could try to target you because of your connection to me.’
‘You fixed tracking devices on me?’ Ella condemned him in angry disbe
lief, still back at that first admission. ‘And you never said a word about it either.’
‘I didn’t want to make you nervous or scared. But I’m not going to apologise for it, either,’ Aristandros added in an aggressive undertone. ‘I needed to be sure you were as safe as I could make you. It’s my job to protect you.’
‘A tracking device,’ Ella muttered shakily. ‘Like I’m a possession…a stolen car or something.’
‘You are a hell of a sight more important to me. It was no big deal until you went missing tonight and, let me tell you, you’ve put me through complete hell in the space of a few hours!’
Pale and drawn, Ella slowly breathed in. ‘Have I really?’
‘Why didn’t you phone me from the hospital? You could have let me know what had happened, not cleared off in an air ambulance as if I didn’t exist!’ Aristandros launched at her, his strong bone-structure rigid beneath his bronzed skin. ‘Ianthe was out and I couldn’t get hold of her, so I had no idea an emergency had come up. All the domestic staff knew was that you had gone off somewhere with her. I was worried about you—’
‘Why? What could possibly have happened to me on the island?’ Ella couldn’t believe she was managing to stay so calm.
Aristandros glowered at her as if that was a very stupid question. ‘You could have had an accident. I knew something must have gone badly wrong when you didn’t show up at the opera house, because you’re usually very reliable.’
‘Oh…’
