Chapter EIGHT
ARI MADE SURE his words left no room for doubt or ambiguity. Which was laughable, considering he was nowhere near as stalwart under the barrage of the emotions coursing through him.
He’d firmly believed he had regained some control after yesterday’s incident. It was the reason he’d called to discuss business with her. He’d been so certain, after seeing her in that bikini and not jumping on her like some hormone-riddled teenager, he could see Perla, be within touching distance of her without experiencing that unbridled depth of yearning that seemed to claw up from his very soul.
A soul he’d believed withered and charred after Sofia...after his father...
But now, with her seductive, addictive warmth so close, her husky voice seeming to caress him whenever she spoke, he knew resisting this insanity wouldn’t be as easy as he’d thought.
But resist he had to. The guilt that had ridden him from the very moment he’d slept with Perla still resided beneath his chest. It fought savagely with his intense attraction but it never went away...
I remind you of something in your past...
She had no idea how accurate that was.
‘Okay, I’ll honour my contract. But, um...do you think we can get out of here? The valet attendants are beginning to get frantic at the backed-up traffic.’
A quick look in the rear-view mirror confirmed her words. With a twist of the wheel and a foot on the accelerator, he squealed out of his hotel’s driveway and onto the freeway. The sound of the throaty engine drowned out his thoughts for the precious few seconds it took to regain a little bit of his control.
Masculine pleasure at the purr of the powerful engine beneath him soothed his turbulent pulse and he inhaled slowly.
Next to rowing, alone or with his brothers, powerful engines like these were his passion. Except he didn’t get to indulge enough. It was probably why he’d succumbed to temptation—
Stasi! Enough with the excuses. Perla had hit the nail on the head. They’d been weak with temptation and he’d succumbed. Not once but twice. The only way to avoid being no better than his father would be to make sure it didn’t happen again.
‘Ari, could you slow down a little, please?’
A quick glance showed her death grip on the bucket seat. He cursed under his breath and eased off the pedal. ‘My apologies.’
She nodded and her fingers relaxed. ‘What did you want to talk to me about?’ she asked as he signalled off Connecticut Avenue and slid to a stop in front of the Greek restaurant. Perla didn’t know it but it was one of his favourite restaurants outside of his homeland.
As they were led in, he found himself following the line of her body again. The way her black dress hugged her tight behind, the way her black wrap caressed her shoulders and her black heels made her legs go on for ever.
His thoughts screeched to a halt. She was wearing black again. And not just a touch here and there but black from head to toe...as if she was making a statement.
Was she?
‘You’re scowling again.’
They’d reached their table and she was already sitting down, while he stood beside it, arrested by his crazy thoughts. He gritted his teeth, pulled out his chair and sat down.
Business. Focus on business.
‘You asked what I wanted to talk to you about.’
She nodded as he beckoned the sommelier. She ordered a white wine spritzer and he a full-bodied claret. Once they were alone again, he took out his mini tablet and set it on the table between them. A few swipes and he had the page he was looking for.
‘My new resort and casino in Bermuda, set to open in two months.’
Her brow rose. ‘Another one?’ She leaned closer and swiped through the pictures. Slowly her mouth fell open. ‘It’s spectacular.’
He allowed himself a small smile. ‘I worked closely with the architects to achieve the results I wanted—a private resort which caters to extreme water sports lovers without taking anything away from the signature luxury casino.’
‘Water seems to be a major theme for you, doesn’t it? Eighty per cent of your portfolio is built on or around water.’
He was impressed that she’d done her homework. ‘I grew up around water and started rowing from a very early age.’
‘You rowed?’ she asked in surprise.
‘Competitively for six years, four of those with Sakis and two with Theo.’ It had been one of the few ways he and his brothers had coped with their shattered lives.
She played with the beads on her purse. ‘Did you win?’
‘Of course.’
She laughed, the sound so pure and delightful, his stomach clenched. ‘Of course. How many titles?’
‘Five that are worth mentioning. My mother has all my trophies from when I was a child.’
Her head tilted to one side, traces of laughter lingering in her eyes. ‘I can’t quite picture you as a child. You look as if you were born looking like you do now.’
Against his will, his smile widened. ‘For my mother’s sake, I’m glad that wasn’t the case.’
A sudden wave of anguish passed over her face, erasing the laughter. Then it was gone. Reaching out, she took a slice of bread from the basket the waiter had set between them and broke off a piece. ‘Is your mother still around?’
He tried not to let his mixed feelings about his mother show. ‘Yes. She lives at the family home in Athens.’
Curiosity built in her eyes. ‘Do you see her often?’
He shrugged. ‘When I’m in Greece. Which isn’t often enough, she tells me.’
‘Are you two close?’ He detected the faint longing in her voice and wondered at it. It suddenly struck him that, beyond the intense sexual pull and the actions of her dead husband, he didn’t know much about Perla Lowell.
‘We used to be. There was a time when I shared everything with her. She was my best friend and she encouraged my every dream. Then...my father happened.’
Her breath caught slightly. ‘He...happened?’
The usual fierce reluctance to revisit the past spiked through him, even though he’d been the one to open the door. Despite his reticence, he found himself nodding. ‘A few months before I turned eighteen, a journalist uncovered my father’s duplicitous life. Details of fraud, corruption, embezzlement all came to light.’ His insides twisted with remembered agony that he hoped his face didn’t reflect. ‘Overnight, our lives were turned upside down. I was working in one of my father’s companies and was in the office with my father when the fraud squad stormed the building.’
Her eyes widened. ‘That must have been very difficult to witness.’
‘It would’ve been if I hadn’t realised quickly that I would be busy trying to save my own skin.’
‘What? Why?’
For a moment, he considered not uttering the words. Considered hiding it from her the way he’d hidden this fact from his brothers, from his mother. Only a distant uncle knew what Ari had suffered, and Ari had made sure to enforce the attorney-client privilege that prevented his uncle from ever divulging the truth.
‘My father tried to shift some of the blame of his fraudulent activities onto me. He implicated me in a few of his bribery scams and tried to get me to take the fall so his charges could be lessened.’
Her eyes darkened with shock. ‘Oh, God! Why would he do that?’
‘I was his firstborn son, and had taken a keen interest in the business since I turned sixteen. I had a good head for figures and the authorities knew he’d been grooming me to eventually take over from him. Because I was still under eighteen when he was arrested he figured I would get off easily. For a short while the authorities believed him.’
Her eyes grew dark with sympathy. ‘That’s horrible. How did your brothers take it? Where was your mother?’
Unable to stop, his lips twisted as old wounds were ripped open. ‘Sakis and Theo didn’t know... I never told them.’
Her mouth dropped open. ‘You didn’t?’
He shrugged. ‘What good would it have done? By the time we were done with my father, enough devastation had been spread around. It was my duty to protect them from more hurt. Revealing that I possibly faced jail when they were counting on me was not an option.’
‘But...you’ve been carrying it for all this time...’
‘Human beings are predisposed to carrying a hell of a lot of baggage,’ he answered. ‘And I have very broad shoulders,’ he added, in the hope of lightening a suddenly heavy atmosphere. But her eyes only grew more solemn, as if she shared his pain, sympathised with his blighted past.
‘Broad shoulders or not, you shouldn’t have had to bear that on your own. Your mother...’
‘Retreated to our villa in Santorini and locked herself away. Her husband’s betrayal was too much for her. She couldn’t cope.’ He’d needed her more than ever in the darkest time of his life. And she’d abandoned him. Just as she’d abandoned Sakis and Theo when they’d needed her the most.
It had taken a long time for Ari to forgive her, a long time to get past his anger and bitterness at her weakness. But he’d learned to smother it. Because he’d needed to get past his personal devastation in order to take care of his brothers. To salvage the charred remains of the family business his father had decimated with his greed and carelessness.
He jerked as Perla’s hand touched his in gentle sympathy. ‘I’m sorry that happened to you.’
Sincerity blazed from her clear green eyes. Sincerity he wanted to take and wrap around his damaged heart. Instead, he forced himself to nod.
Slowly, he pulled his hand away.
Because, even in the midst of excruciating reminiscing, he could feel that pull again, that potent hunger that lurked like the sweetest siren call, ready to tempt him.
‘Why?’
Her fingers curled around her piece of bread. ‘Because...because no one deserves to go through what you did.’
Their drinks arrived and he took a healthy gulp of wine, exhaling in satisfaction as the fire in the alcohol temporarily replaced the fire of lust. ‘But I survived. Some would say I triumphed.’
‘But you’re still affected by it, aren’t you?’
He tensed. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Yesterday you didn’t want me to find out what your father had done. Clearly you’re still affected by what happened.’
‘Are we not all shaped by our pasts to some extent? You’re clearly steeped in the past and reacting to your own experiences.’
Her cheeks lost a bit of colour. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Yesterday you admitted your lack of judgement when it comes to dealing with people. I don’t need to be a genius to work out the root cause of it.’
Paling further, she shook her head. ‘I...I’m not...’
‘Tell me how you met Lowell?’ he asked before he could stop himself. ‘Of all the men you could’ve dated, why him?’
‘Because I didn’t have a crystal ball that could look into the future to see how things would turn out. And you say of all the men as if I had hundreds at my feet.’
He barely stopped himself from glancing up at her hair. The idea that no man had shown interest in her was laughable. ‘So he was the first man to show his interest?’ He tried to force a neutral tone and barely pulled it off.
‘He was charming; he paid me the right sort of attention...at the beginning. I believed I was making the right choice, that we had the same goals and that my feelings were reciprocated.’
Anger roiled through his belly. ‘Instead, he abandoned you shortly after you were married?’
Shocked eyes met his. ‘How did you know that?’
‘I’m a major shareholder in the company he tried to destroy. My brother dealt with the bulk of the investigation but I saw enough.’
Her gaze grew haunted, then it slid away and she reached for the glass of water. After a few sips she set the glass down. ‘So you know a great deal about me.’
‘Enough to know there are no mention of your parents anywhere on record. You take care of your in-laws but what about your own parents?’ he asked, eager to get away from the subject of dead spouses.
The earlier anguish he’d glimpsed returned. ‘I don’t have... I was placed in the foster system when I was one month old. My birth mother left me in front of the social security office with my first name and my date of birth pinned to my blanket. My birth date could be wrong because there was no birth certificate, although the doctors are fairly sure I was born in the month I was left but there were no hospital records so I don’t even know where I was born. So no, I have no record of who my parents are,’ she murmured in a voice ravaged with pain. ‘I’m the child no one wanted.’
His fingers tightened around his glass and he realised he was holding on tight so he wouldn’t reach out for her like she’d reached out for him.
Only he wanted to take her face between his hands and kiss away her pain. He wanted to rewind time, take a different track of conversation that was so far off what he’d come here for it was ludicrous. He should’ve stuck to business, facts, figures.
Not their painful personal pasts. And he should certainly not be sitting here, hanging onto that connection that stemmed from opening up and sharing his desolate history with her.
He wasn’t a sharer.
‘Perla—’
She forced a laugh. ‘How do we always end up on the personal when we vow never to again?’
‘We’re especially bad at pulling the forbidden out of each other.’
‘Or exceptionally good?’ she joked.
He stared at her. And just like that the madness descended again. He tried to shift away from it but it clawed into him, sank its merciless talons into his gut and held him down. Almost in slow motion, he watched her mouth part, her nostrils quiver delicately as she sucked in a desperate breath.
Theos!
She gave a distressed shake of her head and glanced down at the now powered down tablet. ‘The resort. We were discussing the resort,’ she said after clearing her throat.
He forced his mind on track. ‘Yes. I wanted to float the idea of you handling the pre-opening VIP events for the Bermuda resort on your own. If you agree to take on the task, you’ll have to work fast to organise it. The guests arrive at the resort at the end of next week.’
‘The pre-opening event is so your A-list clients can experience the resort and spread the word to their other A-list friends by the time the resort opens properly, correct?’
He nodded. ‘So it needs to be extra-special. Your input here in Washington has been invaluable and you can choose to stay here if you wish, but I think this is more along the lines of what you used to do in your previous position, only on a much larger scale?’
‘Yes, but I’ve never worked in such an exotic location before.’
‘This will be your chance to prove yourself then. I want to see how you fare spearheading a larger project.’ He sipped his wine—absently acknowledging he would have to abandon his beloved sports car in favour of another means of transport to return to the hotel—and watched her digest the information.
Slowly her stunning green eyes widened. ‘Spearheading? Are you serious?’
‘You can handpick your own team, hire and fire as you see fit. You’ll be provided with the initial list of attending guests but you can extend the list if you think you can handle it.’
‘You are serious!’ Shocked happiness erased the last evidence of her bleak foray into the past and, watching her, enchantment eased through him.
Examining himself closer, he realised he felt lighter than he had in a long while. He refused to believe unburdening his past to Perla had succeeded in lightening the heavy load of bitterness and pain, but he had no other explanation for it.
When he found himself smiling in reaction to her still stunned expression, something tugged hard in his chest. ‘Serious enough to promise a quick firing and slow roasting if you mess up my opening.’
She popped another piece of bread into her mouth. ‘Which is really no better than a slow firing and a quick roasting since both sound horrific.’
He laughed and saw her gaze linger on his face and her eyes darken a fraction.
No, he wasn’t going there. They were not going there.
He beckoned the hovering waiter and paused as Perla examined the menu. Slowly she pulled her lower lip into her mouth and pondered some more.
‘Can I help?’ he offered after several minutes.
She looked up in relief. ‘Would you? I never know what to order when I go to a restaurant and I always end up hating what I choose and coveting what’s on other people’s plates.’
‘I’ll order a variety of dishes and you can decide which ones you like and which ones you don’t.’
She smiled. ‘That works for me. Efharisto.’
He froze, the sound of his mother tongue so erotically charged coming from her that he forgot to breathe. ‘You’re learning Greek?’
‘I work for a Greek company. It seems wise to learn a few essential words like thank you and where the hell is the coffee? I find some of the pronunciations quite hard, though.’
‘Let me know what you have difficulty with and I’ll teach you.’ Again the words slipped out before he could stop them.
What in heaven’s name was wrong with him?
Mentally shaking his head, he recited the dishes he wanted prepared to the waiter and added a command for haste.
They discussed the Bermuda resort and her initial ideas. The passion she exhibited for business made him glad he’d offered her the chance. So much so, he slightly regretted it when their meal arrived and intruded on the atmosphere. Small platters of roasted vegetables, tenderly prepared meats served on a bed of traditional salad, hummus and oven-baked breads.
He watched her dig into the food with the same gusto she’d eaten that night at his apartment in London. Then, as now, he’d found her appetite refreshing.
Recalling her comment earlier about putting on weight, Ari’s gaze slid to her breasts. They looked slightly heavier, plumper than they had in London, and her cleavage seemed deeper.
Warmth rushed into his mouth that had nothing to do with the sumptuous textures of the food and everything to do with recalling the exquisite taste of her hard nipples on his tongue. He forced his gaze away. Only to snap it back to her when she made a sound of distress.
Her eyes had widened and she was reaching for her water. ‘Um...Ari...I don’t feel so good.’
Ari frowned and he jerked to his feet. ‘What’s wrong? What is it?’
She dropped her glass and water splashed across the table. In one move, he was by her side, pushing her chair back so he could take her face in his hands.
‘Perla?’
She jumped up and looked around wildly, drawing the attention of other diners. She must have spotted the signs for the lavatory because she grabbed her bag and lurched forward.
‘Excuse me.’ She clamped her hand over her mouth and fled.