“No. Because I understand,” he replied.
They turned out onto the coast road. To one side, the land fell away into the sea. While Sara gazed out at the spectacular scenery and foaming breakers, Leo maintained a tense silence. In his experience of women, she was unique. In a matter of days, she had caused him to think about his future in a completely different way. He had spent a long time that day in another call to his brother, discussing their next move. Athan was unconvinced about Leo’s latest idea, but he promised to get things moving at home.
All Leo had to do now was broach the subject with Sara. Knowing it could be the conversation that shattered their tentative new friendship, he dropped a first pebble into their companionable silence. “As you pulled out early from the last dinner we had together, I calculate my charity consultation account with you is still in credit, Sara.”
“I didn’t realise all this was still on a professional basis?”
“There’s no need to look so disappointed!” I could leave it at that, Leo thought. We could have a perfect evening, and I’d keep her friendship. That’s all I want. And besides, if anything goes wrong, or if Athan can’t manage his part in my miracle, I’d lose everything.
He saw her try to hide a squirm of distaste, and swallow before she could manage to go on. “Neither of us is looking forward to going back to our respective jobs, but if they need to be done then I’m a realist, Leo. Work is work, and bills need paying.”
“I know.”
She didn’t react to his comforting tone in the way he expected. Slumping back in her seat, she turned a look of disbelief on him. “How can a great, caring, intelligent guy like you abandon a career you were born to follow, to take up a position you don’t want?”
Leo took heart from her flattery, and smiled. “My relative Mihail wants to try his luck with a…takeover bid. That would be disastrous for all concerned. Especially my brother.”
“Now who’s letting their prejudices show?” He felt her scrutiny sharpen. Then she hitched a breath and said, “And you called me paranoid!”
He didn’t answer, but flicked on the car’s indicator with more force than he intended. As he parked at the restaurant, she twisted in her seat and put her hand on his arm to stop him getting out. “May I make a suggestion?”
“Can I stop you?”
“Nothing is worth all the trauma you’re putting yourself through. Not even family loyalty—and believe me, I’d kill to be part of something that inspires feelings like yours. Your talent is for caring. Your need to do that is more important than being head of some tin-pot organization.”
Leo moved under her gentle hand. How many sleepless hours had he spent thinking the same thing in the years since his older brother Zacari fell ill? “But I will always be the king,” he said in an unguarded flash.
She waved his words away. “No job title means anything if you can’t be true to yourself, Leo!”
That shocked him. Was it so obvious? He had to change the subject. “We’ve got time to check out the bar before dinner. I need to ask you something, and you’re going to need a drink first.”
“In view of all the calories I’m hoping to take in tonight, it had better be something non—alcoholic. I’ll stick to mineral water, please,” she said.
“Then brace yourself. It’s going to be an exciting evening.” Pulling away from her hand, he got out of the car.
Chapter Ten
The restaurant was in a converted stable block, built around a cobbled courtyard. Wisteria and ivy rambled over a pergola. Among the greenery, candles held in glass globes gave out a soft glow. Leo escorted Sara into the building, ducking to avoid the low lintel.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like something more exotic?”
She had been taking in every detail of the bar. Baskets of large ripe citrus fruit flanked a sophisticated juicer, like the one leased by Apis Concierge Solutions. “Go on, then. I’ll have a fresh St. Clement’s on ice, please. It’ll ease me back into my work routine.”
“We’re here to help you forget all that. Remember?” Leo ordered the same for himself.
“It’s tricky. For years ACS has been the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing that’s on my mind at night. Look where it’s got me.”
“I suspect they’ve done you a favor.” He ignored her scowl and went on, “You say this new board member is a smooth talker. You’re a proven success on the ground. So let him talk at the executive level, while you deal with the practical side. You’ll complement each other.”
Sara ran her fingers over a slight dent in her cheek. “History suggests otherwise. That’s why I started spending even more time at work, and away from home.”
“People who do that are usually compensating for a hellish private life.”
“I don’t have to do it any more. As I’ve said before, if I make a mistake, I learn from it and move on.”
“That’s why I want you to complete my consultation while we’re here,” Leo said.
Picking up their drinks himself rather than leaving them to be delivered by a waiter, he ambled outside to a secluded terrace at the back of the restaurant. Although it had a stunning view of a peaceful wooded valley, it was deserted. Sara walked to the low rail surrounding the paved area. Leo watched her from a distance, waiting for the perfect moment to speak.
He wanted her, but she couldn’t be allowed to want him. Sara was his perfect woman in every way but one. She wasn’t the Kharovan princess his culture demanded he should marry.
Leo had devised a compromise. Now he had to try it out on Sara. He’d run through all the options in his mind, but as Athan said, each was as mad and unworkable as the rest. Whatever happened, Leo was bound to lose Sara, the carefree woman he had spent so long unwinding. Once she understood his destiny, nothing would ever be the same again. If she didn’t walk out on him straight away, he would have to send her packing. It was the only way to save her.
I should have explained right at the start, but couldn’t imagine how. No relationship can survive a revelation like this. I’ve left it too long.
The silence was so deep, Sara heard Leo exhale. She wandered farther away from him, expecting him to shadow her. When he didn’t, she stopped to admire a terracotta planter of beautiful cream lilies. “Have you brought me out here because you didn’t want to be overheard?”
“Yes,” he said, but took his time in joining her. “I’ve been impressed from the start by all your many...assets, Sara.”
She waited for him to smile. When he didn’t, she glanced around. They were still alone on the terrace. Shapes moved around inside the restaurant, silhouetted in the windows, but no one in there was taking any notice of what might be going on out here. She sipped her drink. Leo was standing so close to her she could bask in his warmth. She thought back over the times they had shared over the past few days, and the all-too-brief occasion when he held her. Feeling the steady beat of his pulse against her body was an experience she wanted to relive, over and over again. She’d considered making the initial move, but inviting him to dinner on that first evening hadn’t met with his approval. Their kiss in Athens had been a delicious start, but so far Leo showed no sign of taking things any further. “Yes. I noticed,” she said.
He was holding his glass by the rim. As he swirled the contents around, he seemed to be paying more attention to his drink than to her. “I haven’t been entirely straight with you.”
She made a sinuous movement, drawing herself up to her full height.
“One of the many reasons I don’t want to take up my new position is that I’ll be expected to marry a suitable relative. And the sooner the better,” he went on.
Sara was an old hand at absorbing blows, but this one almost caught her out. She hadn’t been prepared for such a brutal end to their friendship. It took her a while to starch her expression into a brittle smile. “A doctor paddling in the shallow end of the gene pool? It’s no wonder you didn’t want the job.”
&
nbsp; He put his hand to his brow, then dragged it down over his face. “Yes. And it’s even worse than you think. My family shares a genetic condition that makes marrying even a distant relative inadvisable. But you may hold the solution to all my problems, Sara. You’re a dedicated hard worker who hasn’t been getting the recognition she deserves. You’re disillusioned with your current employers, so I want you to come and work for me on a special project. It calls for an extraordinary woman. I’ll never find a better candidate than you.”
His chest rose as he took a deep breath. Then he took another one. “I’ll go home and marry the woman selected for me, but it’ll be a legal contract and nothing more. Nothing...physical. Then, after a suitable interval, you’ll find me the perfect surrogate mother for my children.”
Sara’s mouth fell open with a mixture of shock and horror. She tried to find her voice. Agreeing to stand in for his PA was one thing, but this was ridiculous. All she could do was gesture, first at him, then at the heavens, in complete exasperation.
“I don’t need to remind you, this is a matter of the utmost confidentiality.”
When she found her voice, it was high and unsteady. “You are joking?”
“Not at all. It’s a compromise. My wife will be my social and political ally, while my children will be genetically healthy and raised by their natural mother.”
“That’s big of you!” she said with the shock of sarcasm. He rocked on his heels.
“She would be acknowledged as their nanny, of course. There could be no suggestion of her true role, beyond the nursery door. It’s not perfect, but it means I’d have a popular wife who’s prepared for that role, and healthy children as well. What matters to me is that they will be raised in a family setting, well away from the dangers of Kharovan life.”
“Kharova!” she exclaimed. “That place? I might have guessed. ACS almost lost a contract with them because of their prehistoric ideas. If you come from there, it’s no wonder you’ve dreamed up such a mad, Neanderthal notion!”
“I’m offering you the job of matchmaker because you’re the perfect woman for the job,” he continued with dogged patience. “And I like you, Sara. No, it’s more than that. I admire you.”
“Well, you’ve got a pretty funny way of showing it! So that’s what all this is about.” Her voice was cold. “The trips on your yacht, the sightseeing? The treats? All the time, you were softening me up so I’d run Operation Rent-a-Womb for you!”
“No! Not at all. I asked you to share all those things because I thought you’d enjoy them. As we spent time together, I became more and more sure of you. This scheme felt like a stroke of genius when I discussed it with Athan, but I respect your judgment. You hate the idea. Fine. I get it. Forget I ever said anything. Let’s move on.”
“No, Leo! No, I don’t think you do get it!” Sara blazed. “Can’t you see what you’ve done? You mentioned all this as casually as you invited me out to dinner! What sort of a man are you? Good grief—the sheer arrogant nerve! Just so your business carries on in a perfect, unbroken line! I thought you were the nicest guy I’d ever met, and all the time you were leading up to this!”
“That’s not true,” he said, which didn’t make her feel any better.
“I’m amazed you feel the need to get married at all, Leo, with all your go-ahead twenty-first-century ideas! Why not have yourself cloned instead? Yes—that’s a good idea,” she mocked, getting into her stride. “Shed a few cells, and once you’ve given them to someone else to worry about, you can get on with your life without a care in the world until Leo Gregoryan Mark Two is ready to take on the weight of responsibility. Imagine it! An endless procession of male heirs, all perfect copies of you, produced for no better reason than to shoulder your family’s burden down through history!” she raged.
“Okay—I said forget it!” he butted in as she paused to snatch a breath. “Trust you to bring an attitude like that to a professional consultation.”
That brought her up short. “Are you saying I’m bad tempered?”
“I couldn’t possibly comment.”
Her nostrils flared. “I’ll have you know, I haven’t got where I am today by not being able to fight my own corner, Leo Gregoryan.”
He took a measured sip of his drink. “I don’t doubt that.”
Sara was as tense as a bowstring, and breathing hard. She had to prove she could keep a grip on her anger.
“While you’re so busy ‘fighting your corner,’ don’t forget other people have feelings too. I know it’s a crazy idea. I’ve known it from the start, but I’ve run out of alternatives. That’s why I asked for your advice, not your judgment.”
Her lashes flickered. She could see it had taken him a lot to confide in her. Taking a few steadying breaths, she unclenched her fists. “I suppose you’re saying it’s a fine line between being assertive, and being a bully, Leo. I know, I know. I’m sorry”—she dashed a hand across her face in frustration—“but my father—whoever he was—shared your casual attitude to parenting. I can’t forget what a struggle my mom had when he left us in the lurch. That’s not happening to me, or anyone else if I can help it.”
“I lost my own mother because my father made the wrong choice of wife.”
There was such feeling in his voice that Sara managed to push her anger aside. “So you decided to hedge your bets,” she said into the quiet of the evening.
Leo made the sort of noise in the back of his throat that could have meant anything. Coming so close to the arrival of a waiter to invite them in to their table, he must have calculated it would put anyone off his trail. Anyone except Sara. “Okay. I get it,” she said.
He’s got a past with women, and it affecting his view of the future. That explains a lot, Sara thought. He wants the respectability of marriage without the pain of a real relationship. That’s why he’s no keener on getting close to somebody than I am.
She wondered why this didn’t feel like a good thing. It probably had a lot to do with Leo’s smile. She could take any amount of a smile like that, whatever mad ideas he came out with.
The air-conditioning was working almost too well as Leo escorted her to their table. As the waiter pulled out a chair for her, she gave a little shiver. Without a word, Leo had them moved to a table in an alcove where they were shielded from draughts as well as onlookers.
“I’m reconsidering my whole attitude to you,” she said as they chose what to order.
He lowered his menu. His face was serious, and his dark eyes held her gaze with intent.
“I think we’re too alike, Leo. I’d love to help you, because I can see you’re in a fix. I love challenges and—well, I love your company. That’s a big admission for me to make, believe me. I wouldn’t have told you if you hadn’t come up with that crackpot suggestion. It made me wonder if you’re any different from men who see me as nothing more than a means to an end.”
The waiter came to take their order. Half expecting Leo to play his part of man from a country where women did as they are told, Sara was flustered when he asked what she would like. On impulse, she ordered poached chicken with morels. Leo opted for the same, but he was more interested in her.
The moment the waiter left, Leo leaned forward to murmur a question so no one else would hear. “Is your knowledge of men so extensive you can tar us all with the same brush?”
Sara refused to raise her eyes to meet his. “You aren’t going to goad me into answering that.”
He was silent and still for so long, she couldn’t stand it. Raising her head as the waiter delivered their appetizers she braced herself to withstand his expression. She expected it to be smug with an air of we’ll see about that. Instead, he was investigating his tiny glass of iced soup. His face was a grim mask.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.”
He had to be lying. Sara put down her spoon. At the clink of silver against bone china, he looked up.
“Is there something wrong with your smoothie?” she p
rodded.
“No.”
“Then what is it? You’ve gone from being the man about town who rescues women, buys ice cream for children, and asks me to find him a surrogate for his child, to someone who acts like cold pea soup is the most absorbing thing on the planet. I can’t have scuppered all your plans so easily. There’s something else going on. What is it? Spill.”
Leo finished his appetizer, then aligned his spoon beside its empty glass before replying. “If this is the way you carry on over dinner, it’s no wonder men have trouble with you.”
“They don’t. I have trouble with them.”
“That’s a matter of opinion. I’m beginning to think it’s not so much a case of men not understanding you—I’m sure they understand you too well, Sara. You’d be an unbeatable threat to anyone who wanted to play the mediaeval despot. Alexander the Great? Phht! You could have driven off Genghis Khan and all his hordes.”
She compressed her face in a frown. A few days ago she would have been delighted to hear anyone say that about her. Now, she wasn’t so sure. She respected Leo, and liked him. For him of all people to describe her like that was a big wake-up call. She never appreciated those.
Picking up her spoon again, she started on her own appetizer.
“I recognize the signs, Sara. It’s how my older brother Zacari felt about me. He always wanted me to do things his way.”
“It’s a shame your brother’s not here now. He and I could have swapped notes.”
“Yes. You don’t know how much of a shame it is,” Leo said with feeling.
“It sounds like Zacari has made a better job of escaping from your family firm than you have.”
A nerve pulsed in his jaw. “You could say that. He died.”
Sara froze. The spoon fell from her fingers. “Leo! Oh, I’m so sorry. What an idiot I am, blundering on...”
He threw down his napkin, reached across the table and grabbed her fluttering hands. “Stop. You weren’t to know.”
His Majesty's Secret Passion Page 11
