Consequence of the Greek's Revenge

by Trish Morey

  ‘Ah,’ said Loukas with a smile of welcome, shedding his coat and scarf on the way into the office. ‘You’re back. How did the move go?’

  She kissed her mentor on the cheek, and gave him a quick hug, before she screwed up her nose. ‘You know what moving’s like.’ And then she found her own smile, because she knew something Loukas didn’t. ‘But it’s done, and I’m in, and it’s very comfortable too, I have to say.’

  He returned her smile, although there was concern too, adding creases to the corners of his eyes. He put a hand to her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. ‘You are sure about this, are you? It just seems an odd choice after... Well, you know.’

  ‘I know.’ She licked her lips. ‘But Alexios is so excited about this baby.’

  And he cut me a deal... A deal he is already honouring.

  The speed with which he’d got to work had taken her by surprise. And why? To make her feel more indebted to him? Perhaps he thought that. Although right now the scoreboard was so heavily weighted the other way, she was hardly going to heap praise on the man simply for doing what he’d promised.

  The old professor nodded. ‘Well, after all you’ve been through, I just hope it works out or he’ll have me to deal with.’

  And Athena laughed for what felt like the first time in for ever, and gave her old friend’s shoulders a squeeze. ‘Where did you get up to yesterday?’ she asked him. Their jointly authored paper on the shipwreck find was due for submission to the archaeological magazine by the end of the week.

  Loukas flicked open reading glasses from his pocket and fossicked around on his desk until he found what he was looking for. ‘I like the changes you made,’ he said. ‘Once they’re input, I think it’s ready to send off. It should come out in their next edition.’

  ‘So soon? Fantastic.’

  ‘And I’ve had confirmation from the museum that we can use their amphitheatre to formally present the find to the public at the same time.’

  ‘Oh, that’s wonderful,’ Athena said, knowing it would be the perfect venue and occasion to announce the new wing at the same time.

  Loukas would get such a buzz out of that.

  And that alone was enough to ensure she did her utmost to ensure her arrangement with Alexios worked.

  * * *

  Watching Alexios in action, dealing with a boardroom table full of politicians and bureaucrats, was like watching a master playing chess. Athena sat alongside him after she’d detailed the scale and importance of the discovery and others of the professor’s career span, watching their faces, heads bobbing, pens flying, as he outlined the plans for the new wing. Of course, the ‘free money’ aspect was more than attractive, government funding being in such short supply, but it was the way he handled the problems the officials raised that impressed.

  A new car park to replace the one over-built by the new wing? Not a problem. There would be multistorey car parking underneath, Alexios told them, with a new sculpture garden in the leftover space.

  Troubles coping with increased visitor flows? Not an issue, not once the new state-of-the-art ticketing system was installed.

  Problem after problem was countered, until in the end the group looked around at each other and thanked Alexios and Athena for coming, and said the group would deliberate and make their decision known soon.

  ‘You were good,’ she said, a huge understatement, once they got outside. ‘Very good.’ It was no wonder the man was so successful. He could negotiate the leg off a chair and get paid for his trouble.

  ‘Don’t forget your part,’ he acknowledged. ‘You had them eating out of your hand with your presentation. They can already see the hordes of paying visitors rushing through the doors.’

  She blinked. All she’d done was speak from the heart. It was so much easier to do that when it involved her work. So much safer. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘And after all, we are offering them a fistful of euros.’

  Now she was really surprised. ‘We?’

  ‘Well, we are more or less in this conspiracy together.’ And he followed it with an almost smile.

  Whoa! She had to look away. The last thing she wanted to do was to put her guard down and to start falling for Alexios all over again. He’d dumped her once before when she’d outlived her use-by date, hadn’t he? She had no doubt he could do it again. Probably was already planning it. For after the baby was born? Cast her out, her use to him as an incubator of his child negated?

  After all, she’d trusted him once before and look how that had ended. She’d never be foolish enough to trust him again.

  He glanced at his watch. ‘Have you got time for a quick bite of lunch?’

  She bit her lip, confused by the mixed messages, baffled by her own conflicting emotions. ‘I’m not sure...’

  ‘It won’t take long.’

  His phone buzzed. He checked the caller, raised his eyebrows at her and answered. ‘Ne?’ She held her breath as he kept his eyes on hers, watched his lips turn into a smile. ‘Efharisto poli,’ he said, and nodded at her as he terminated the call.

  She put her hand over her mouth, almost afraid to ask. ‘That was them?’

  He nodded.

  ‘And... They approved it?’

  ‘They approved it.’

  And Athena squealed and threw herself into Alexios’s arms. It took a mere moment, the press of her body against his, the scent of him curling into her senses, the feel of his big hands at her back, to realise the mistake she’d made.

  She gave a little cough as she eased away, head down, unable to look him in the eyes. ‘That’s great,’ she said, shoving her hands in her coat pockets so they wouldn’t get her in trouble again. ‘Really great.’

  ‘So...’ he said. ‘Lunch?’

  Given she’d just made a complete fool of herself, she wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but after his support for the new wing it would have been churlish to say no. ‘A quick bite, then, sure.’

  A stiff wind had picked up, convincing leaves to part company with their trees, and rain down in flurries on the pedestrians and traffic below. Alexios took her arm, as if he thought she might blow away with them. Her whole body tingled with the proximity, and with the heat she could feel through the fabric of their coats. He felt solid and strong and she so wished he didn’t, but she still left it there.

  If only to analyse the feeling and work out how she could let it happen. This was Alexios, the man who had betrayed her.

  The man she hated.

  But he was also Alexios, the father of her child.

  The man she’d once loved.

  And she’d never felt more confused in her life.

  * * *

  ‘How was your check-up?’ asked Loukas, when she got back to the office.

  She smiled at the little white lie she’d had to tell him, and at a secret wish that was fast becoming a reality. ‘Brilliant,’ she said. ‘Couldn’t be better.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  IT WAS INCREASINGLY hard for Athena to remain completely aloof from Alexios after that. There were plans to be drawn up, plans he’d asked her to be involved with as specialist adviser to the architects, and he was always seeking her advice about one thing or another, more often than not acting on it. The edges of her resentment began to fray, the hatred she’d felt for him after his betrayal becoming diluted. This was a different Alexios, one who listened and who treated her as an equal—at least on this one project.

  Meals were more often shared now than not. Conversations were less snippy, the new wing providing a neutral topic for discussion, and interactions were civilised. Even Alexios’s attempts to micromanage her pregnancy had ceased.

  But in some ways that just made living with Alexios harder. There was an underlying sizzle of electricity that seemed to crackle in the air every time they were together, every time their eyes met, every time h
e smiled.

  But she wouldn’t make the mistake of touching him again. Control was her shield. She was merely the mother of his child, was her mantra.

  And every day, her baby grew and her body changed, her belly now sporting a discernible baby bump, the curve low and round, which was beginning to present a problem...

  She was in her bedroom trying on clothes, but nothing in her dressing room fitted properly. She had nothing suitable to wear to the gala announcement, which was in two days’ time.

  Nothing from her old wardrobe was anywhere near dressy enough, and the beaded silver gown that hung in her closet and that she’d worn to dinner with Alexios that night—the night he’d said she looked like a mermaid and she’d ended up sprawled on his office desk—was now too tight. There was no way she could squeeze her breasts into the bodice, the skirt stuck over her hips. That was a good thing, she told herself as she battled to undo the zipper the scant few inches she’d managed to pull it up. She didn’t need a memory like that in her head while she wore it. Besides, that had been the night before everything had gone pear-shaped.

  The zipper was stuck. She’d tried to force it too high. Damn. She twisted and pulled for another five minutes and only managed to snag the fabric further. Double damn.

  Alexios arriving home and calling out a greeting was the icing on the cake. ‘Where are you?’ he called.

  She sighed. She had no choice. She was going to have to ask for his help. ‘In my dressing room. I’m stuck.’

  His voice came closer, from her bedroom this time. ‘Can I come in?’

  ‘You’ll have to. I can’t get out of this dress.’

  She crossed her arms over her chest to at least keep that covered as he appeared through the door. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Trying to find something to wear to the gala. But nothing fits and now the zipper’s stuck.’ She swallowed. ‘Can you help?’

  If he said no, she was stuck. But if he said yes...

  There was a spark in his eyes that lit a flame that warned her that maybe this wasn’t a good idea, that maybe, if she just persisted with the zipper for a little while longer—‘Of course,’ he said, coming closer, and if she wasn’t mistaken his voice had gone down an octave, his words strumming a silken strand of web that vibrated between them.

  At the last moment she turned around. Closed her eyes. Held her breath.

  She felt his fingers brush her skin in the small of her back and her thighs clenched tight against the sensations stirring between.

  ‘Isn’t this the dress you wore—?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Wow,’ he said, and she could feel him tugging at the zipper, feel his warm breath on her skin. Her feet wanted to run. Away. Anywhere. Oh, God.

  ‘It’s amazing what a difference an inch or so makes,’ she said, trying to sound unaffected and as if she weren’t vibrating so hard with nervous tension she would any moment melt into a puddle on the floor.

  ‘I had no idea.’

  ‘How’s that zip coming?’ There was no concealing the note of panic in her voice this time. Her entire naked back was bared to him and she could just about feel his eyes raking over her skin, taking inventory of any changes.

  ‘It’s tricky,’ he said, and she got the impression he was in no hurry, that he was enjoying the task much more than he should have been. ‘I don’t want to tear the fabric.’

  ‘Forget the fabric!’

  ‘Hold on.’ There was unexpected humour in his voice but thankfully a tiny movement in the zipper, his warm fingers placed either side of her spine as he encouraged it free. ‘There you go,’ he said, sliding it down. Way down.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, clutching the gown to her as she spun around and out of his reach before he got a view of what little underwear she was wearing. ‘I appreciate it.’ She was breathing hard now, waiting, but infuriatingly the man didn’t seem the least inclined to go.

  ‘Athena,’ he said, his voice a low growl that purred down her spine, and she noticed the spark in his eyes had combusted into a slow-burning flame.

  She shook her head. ‘No,’ she warned, even as every cell in her body screamed yes.

  He rose to his feet, the excruciatingly long, slow way, his heated eyes imploring. She knew what she would get if she said yes. She knew what he promised. Exquisite pleasure and sexual, sensual gratification, her every carnal desire satisfied, her every now aching nerve ending instead lit up with pleasure.

  But she knew what it would cost her too. It had taken the best part of two months to put herself back together last time, and she was still fragile. She couldn’t go through that one more time. She couldn’t be abandoned again.

  ‘You had your chance with me,’ she said. ‘And then you betrayed me and you tossed me to the wolves. I won’t let you do that to me again.’

  She might as well have thrown a bucket of icy water at him, the change so dramatic, so complete, a cold mask freezing his features, the flames in his dark eyes extinguished.

  ‘Excuse me,’ he said. And he left her alone.

  She sagged bonelessly into a chair, breathless and panting. She’d told him when she’d agreed to this deal that she wouldn’t sleep with him, but now she didn’t trust herself to believe it.

  She didn’t leave her room for a long while, using the time to sort her clothes, packing away those that were already too small. She’d have to go shopping soon to buy some more essentials but where she was going to find a gown at short notice, she didn’t know. She’d have to try to get out in her lunch hour tomorrow.

  She heard voices outside. Women’s voices amidst Alexios’s deep tones, and then came another knock on her door. ‘I have the designer, Katerina Kolvosky, here with some assistants. She’s brought you some gowns to try on.’

  A woman glided in, age indeterminate though exquisitely groomed, full of smiles and congratulations as she and her attendants buzzed around Athena with tape measures and pots of herbal tea, while racks of designer gowns were wheeled in.

  ‘Come, come,’ Madame Kolvosky said, ‘take your clothes off, my dear. We need to get to work.’

  Two hours and two dozen dresses later, Athena’s head was spinning, but she had a dress to wear to the gala. A dress the rose-gold colour of orichalcum itself, that paid homage to the ancient world, gathered over one shoulder and at the waist before falling in graceful pleats to the floor. A dress that was modest but feminine, that neither hid nor accentuated her baby bump. It was perfect.

  And when Madame Kolvosky and her team had finished accessorising and clucked and tutted and wheeled their way out, and she took herself to the kitchen to fix something to eat, she saw Alexios emerging from the pool, his chest heaving, as if he’d just spent the last two hours swimming laps.

  ‘Did you find something?’ he said, from the door to the deck.

  ‘Yes. I did. Thank you.’

  He shook his head, shaking droplets from his hair, droplets that landed on his shoulders and arms and combined with others to form little rivulets that trailed down his muscled flesh. ‘Don’t thank me. Consider it an apology. For earlier.’

  ‘Oh.’ She swallowed, reminded of the feel of his fingers in the low of her back and the gathering heat between her thighs at his touch. How long could she keep this up, denying her body what it craved when she knew that, if she only asked...? ‘Apology accepted in that case.’ And because he was standing there with only a thin band of black fabric between them with a dozen beguiling rivulets heading south towards it, she fled.

  * * *

  He watched her go, wishing things could be different. Knowing they couldn’t. He liked having her here. The baby had given him a reason to seek her out—an excuse—but it wasn’t the baby he spent his nights thinking about. It was Athena, lying in the bed in the neighbouring room.

  Did she think about him when she was lying in her bed? Did sh
e remember their lovemaking as vividly as he did? Did she long for his touch the way he longed for hers?

  It had been both heaven and hell to touch her.

  Her skin had glowed like satin in the dressing room lighting, and felt like silk. He’d felt her beating heart under his fingers, and he’d wanted to circle his hands around her hips and pull her close so she might hear his.

  But she’d pushed him away. Of course, she had.

  He’d hurt her. As good as crucified her. He’d used her and betrayed her for his own ends. The sins of the father... That had been his justification. His excuse.

  But she’d been an innocent all along. Guilty of nothing more than being the daughter of a man he’d sworn to get even with.

  What kind of man did that make him? When all was said and done, was he any better than her father?

  Was it any wonder she didn’t trust him now? That she rejected his advances?

  He burned for her. Dreamt about her. Was tortured by not being able to touch her every single day.

  So how was this arrangement to share his apartment and live together supposed to work? Because it turned out she’d been right all along. There was no easy way to do this.

  * * *

  The archaeological magazine had a big splash on the discovery of the shipwreck and its precious cargo, not only publishing the paper, but photographs of the team on site, and of Athena and Loukas with the stack of orichalcum ingots recovered. Before long, the article had been syndicated to a dozen online news agencies and flashed around the world.

  Athena was already in a sparkling mood before she hit the hairdresser, her hair styled into a regal up-do, her make up bolder, more striking, than she’d ever usually wear, but when she donned the gown and shoes, it all went together perfectly.

  ‘You look like a goddess,’ declared Alexios when she appeared, and the heated look in his eyes made her toes curl. She felt like a goddess, or as close as she would ever get, and nothing was going to spoil her good mood, not when the best was yet to come.

  The big space was set up like a ballroom, with round tables for dining set between exhibits, a podium at one end and a dance floor. A string quartet played chamber music to one side as the guests entered and mingled.