The Greek Wedding She Never Had, page 8
On the passenger seat of his car was a bouquet of pink roses that he had impulsively bought at the airport for Eleanor. Jace never did anything by impulse. He planned every aspect of his life with calculated detachment, and in the past when he’d given flowers to a lover his PA had ordered them from a florist.
He frowned as he recalled his conversation with Eleanor’s sister when he’d arrived at Francine’s hotel. Lissa had looked at him curiously. ‘Eleanor has gone to a balloon event with her friend Nigel and she left me in charge of the hotel for the weekend. I’m going to be the General Manager of Francine’s after my sister marries you and moves to Greece,’ Lissa had said with pride in her voice.
Perhaps Lissa Buchanan wasn’t as superficial as his first opinion of her, Jace had mused before he’d dismissed Eleanor’s sister from his mind. He hadn’t understood what Lissa had meant by a balloon event, but as he drove across the field he saw that people were grouped around hot-air balloons which were being inflated. He had no idea why Eleanor had got up at the crack of dawn to watch balloons. More to the point, what was the exact nature of her relationship with ‘her friend’ who she planned to spend the weekend with? Jace wondered as he parked the car and strolled over to some people.
‘Sure, Eleanor is here with Nigel. They never miss a club event,’ someone told Jace, pointing to a blue and white balloon.
He headed across the field in the direction of the group standing around a wicker basket attached to a striped balloon. His steps slowed when he spotted Eleanor and he felt an inexplicable tug in his chest as he studied her. She was delectable in tight-fitting jeans and a bubblegum-pink tee shirt that moulded her high, firm breasts. Her hair was caught in a loose knot on top of her head and she looked natural and wholesome, and at the same time achingly desirable.
Jace’s attention had been riveted on Eleanor, but he shifted his gaze to the lanky guy with hair flopping into his eyes who she was with. Eleanor was smiling as she chatted animatedly to the guy. Suddenly she threw her arms around his neck and the two of them hugged.
Jace was unprepared for the sensation of an iron band wrapping around his chest and squeezing the air out of his lungs. A lead weight dropped into his stomach and there was a bitter taste in his mouth. He might have suspected that what he was feeling was jealousy if the idea wasn’t laughable. Since Katerina had shown her true colours many years ago, he hadn’t allowed himself to get close to any woman on an emotional level and he kept his affairs purely physical.
Eleanor had been different. Their courtship had been gentle but with simmering chemistry below the surface. Jace acknowledged that it was not surprising if she had replaced him in her affections with a new boyfriend. But seeing her wrapped around Mr Floppy-Hair infuriated him. She had agreed to marry him, and part of the deal was that neither of them would stray outside of the marriage.
Jace dismissed as irrelevant the fact that Eleanor was not his wife yet. Their wedding was in a week’s time. He had put a diamond the size of a rock on her finger, and he had every right to demand to know what the hell was going on.
He strode across the dew-damp grass, frowning as he watched Eleanor climb into the basket, above which the balloon was now inflated. The guy she had been hugging climbed into the basket with her.
‘Jace!’ Her eyes widened when she saw him. ‘What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you to come to Oxford.’
‘Evidently not,’ he drawled, looking pointedly from Eleanor to her companion.
‘This is Nigel.’ She looked puzzled when Jace hooked his leg over the side of the wicker basket. ‘You can’t come in. There is only room for two people.’
‘In that case one of us will have to get out.’ He glowered at the other man.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Nigel said hurriedly and climbed out of the basket.
Jace decided that if looks could kill, the glare Eleanor directed at him would make him a dead man.
‘What was that about?’ she demanded frostily.
His eyes narrowed on her flushed cheeks and his body reacted predictably to the sight of her breasts rising and falling swiftly beneath her tight tee shirt. ‘Is Mr Floppy your lover?’
‘Mr Flop...? Oh, you mean Nigel. He’s a friend, nothing more.’
‘You were plastered all over him.’
Her breath hissed between her teeth. ‘He had just told me that his wife is expecting their first baby after several years of trying to get pregnant. I’m really happy for Nigel and Clare. How dare you behave like a possessive jerk?’
Jace was intrigued by Eleanor’s outburst of temper. A year ago she had kept her passionate nature hidden from him, or maybe he had not taken the time to discover the real woman behind her rather bland shell. There was nothing bland about her now, he brooded, his eyes fixed on her moist lips as her tongue darted over them.
‘Eleanor, are you ready to launch?’ Nigel called out.
‘Ready,’ Eleanor shouted above the noise of the burner that was shooting flames into the mouth of the canopy.
Jace tensed when he realised that the balloon was rising into the air and the crew had let go of the ropes which had secured the basket to the ground. ‘Do you actually mean to go up in this thing?’ He watched Eleanor fiddling with the burner equipment. ‘Surely we need someone with us who knows what they’re doing?’
‘I do know what I’m doing. I’m a qualified balloon pilot.’
‘You?’
‘Why are you so shocked?’
He blew out a breath. ‘I didn’t know you were a fan of dangerous sports.’
‘Ballooning isn’t dangerous when it’s done properly.’ She held his gaze and Jace looked away first when she said drily, ‘You never really knew me.’
After a moment, Eleanor said, ‘I gained my balloon pilot’s licence a while ago. The weather is unpredictable in England, so I went to a flight training school in Turkey and did a crash course.’
The ground was a long way down. Jace took a deep breath. ‘That’s not funny.’
‘What? Oh, sorry, no pun intended.’ She stared at him. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I’m not a fan of heights,’ he gritted, his jaw clenched.
‘But you own your own jet and regularly fly across the world for business.’
‘I trust my pilot.’
‘Well, like it or not, you’ll have to trust me. I’m going to turn the burner off now that we have reached the right altitude.’
The silence that enveloped them was like nothing Jace had ever experienced before. ‘Look at the view,’ Eleanor urged him. ‘Isn’t it incredible?’
The Oxfordshire countryside was spread beneath them, a patchwork of fields criss-crossed with green hedges and the silver glint of the river. But Jace still felt ill at ease. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Wherever the wind takes us. There is no way of steering the balloon. The only control the pilot has is altitude. We’ll go higher if I turn the burner on to heat the air inside the canopy, and when we land I’ll open a vent to allow the air to escape from the balloon so that I can control the rate of descent.’
Jace was captivated by Eleanor’s enthusiasm. ‘I love ballooning because every flight is an adventure,’ she told him. ‘One day I hope to fly over the African plains. I’ve heard that the views of the wildlife on the Serengeti from a balloon are amazing.’
‘And for an adrenalin junkie there is the added risk of landing next to an irate lion,’ Jace said sardonically. When he’d met Eleanor fifteen months ago he had thought she was sweet and charming, but adventurous was not an adjective he would have used to describe her. ‘What made you decide to train as a balloon pilot?’
‘You did,’ she said quietly.
He frowned. ‘How so?’
‘You made me feel like I was worthless. I needed to prove to myself that I deserved better than to be a pawn in your revenge.’
Jace swore. ‘I never thought you were worthless.’
Eleanor turned away from him and curled her hands over the edges of the basket. ‘Pappoús introduced me to ballooning. He had a friend who was a pilot and used to take me for flights.’ Her voice cracked. ‘I loved my grandfather and I foolishly fell in love with you. But you are as ruthless as you have told me Pappoús was.’
‘Theos! I am nothing like Kostas.’ Jace’s nostrils flared as he sought to control his anger. But guilt curdled in his belly when he forced himself to scrutinise his behaviour. He had betrayed Eleanor’s trust. Even worse, he had justified his actions by telling himself that in a war there were always innocent casualties. Hurting Eleanor’s feelings had been the price he’d been prepared to pay to seize control of the Pangalos and destroy Kostas’s legacy. Grimacing, Jace acknowledged that he could not change what he had done in the past. But he owed Eleanor his honesty before she married him.
The soundless flight of the balloon was surreal, and the air smelled crisp and clean when Jace inhaled deeply. There was something magical about drifting across the endless blue sky.
Freedom.
He remembered what it had felt like to be denied his freedom. Sometimes in his dreams he heard the sound of the warders’ keys when the prisoners had been locked in the cells every evening. Each morning had begun with the cells being unlocked, surly men shuffling out into the corridors, the stench of sweat and the clang of metal doors.
‘When I was younger, I spent two years in prison,’ he said abruptly.
Eleanor stared at him. ‘What did you do?’
‘I was found guilty of grievous assault.’ Jace waited for her to make a comment, but her silence gave no clue to her thoughts. He continued tensely, ‘It’s true that I punched someone. But I acted to defend Takis when I saw that his assailant had a knife.’
‘Was the Takis you tried to protect the same Takis Samaras who you sent to persuade me to sell the Pangalos?’
Jace nodded. ‘We go back a long way, and we’re as close as brothers.’ He rubbed his hand around the back of his neck to ease the knot of tension. He did not know how he had expected Eleanor to react. She was clearly curious, and he wanted to unburden himself of the secret he had kept from her.
‘When my father died, he left debts which my mother had to pay off. Although she had helped him run the hotel, she lacked any formal qualifications and could only get low paid work. I quit school to get a job so I could help to support us.’
‘Iliana told me that you pretended to be older than your age so that foremen would take you on as a labourer,’ Eleanor murmured.
‘I met Takis on a building site. He was young like me, and had left home to escape his abusive father. We went out one night and were set on by a group of youths. Running away seemed our best option as we were outnumbered, but Takis tripped over. I went back for him and saw the knife, so I punched the guy who was about to use it.’
‘I don’t understand why you were sent to prison for trying to protect your friend.’
‘The assailant fell backwards when I punched him and hit his head on the pavement. He was knocked unconscious and slipped into a coma.’ Jace grimaced. ‘I felt really bad about what I’d done. I hadn’t meant to cause serious injury. But the young thug who had attacked Takis came from a wealthy family and his father paid witnesses to say that I had started the fight.’
‘What about the knife? Surely it was evidence that you had acted in defence?’
‘According to the witnesses’ statements there was no knife. It was mine and Takis’s word against theirs, and in court no one believed us.’
‘So you went to prison.’
‘Takis took care of my mother while I served my sentence, and some time later I heard that the guy I’d punched had made a full recovery. I shared my cell with a British man who was serving time for embezzlement. He taught me to speak English, so at least the two years were not completely wasted,’ Jace said wryly. ‘When I was released from prison I got a job with a building firm and fell for the boss’s daughter.’ He gave a cynical laugh. ‘Katerina refused to marry me after I told her I’d been to prison.’
‘Oh, Jace,’ Eleanor said softly.
His eyes narrowed as he tried to gauge what was going on behind her serene face. Was she judging him? ‘I have no way of proving that my version of what happened is the truth. Takis will back me up, of course, but I realise you might not believe me.’
‘I believe you.’ She shrugged. ‘There’s no reason for you to lie. You don’t care what I think of you. Even if you had committed a crime and deserved to go to prison, it would not change my decision. I have no choice but to marry you to clear my brother’s debts. What made you tell me?’
‘Our wedding is likely to be of public interest in Greece, and it’s possible a journalist might dig up the story. I wanted you to hear it from me first.’
Jace exhaled heavily. ‘I admit that I withheld my real reason for asking you to marry me a year ago,’ he said gruffly. Remorse tugged in his chest as he accepted that he had hurt her. She had wanted Prince Charming, but Jace knew he was just an ordinary man with flaws. He could never have lived up to Eleanor’s expectations of a fairy tale romance, but now at least she understood that they both had something to gain from marrying.
‘Let’s agree to be honest with each other for the duration of our marriage,’ he murmured. The woman he had met a year ago had been uncomplicated and he could not believe that Eleanor had secrets. Although finding out that she was a balloon pilot had been unexpected. Jace acknowledged that he had jumped to conclusions about her friend Nigel. ‘Is there anything you want to tell me?’
‘Like what?’ She sounded oddly defensive and turned around to activate the burner so that their conversation could not continue over the noise of the flames.
When it was quiet again Jace said casually, ‘Do you have any other extreme hobbies—cage diving with sharks, perhaps?’ Was it his imagination, or did she relax when she realised that he was teasing her?
‘No, nothing like that. I don’t have any secrets.’ Eleanor’s gaze slid away from him and he was certain she had lied.
* * *
At Jace’s house in Thessaloniki, Eleanor was preparing for her wedding. ‘There, that’s the last one.’ Her sister huffed out a breath. ‘Your husband is going to curse when he has to undo all the tiny buttons down the back of your dress.’ Lissa stepped to one side, leaving Eleanor’s reflection in the mirror. ‘I hate to say I told you so, but I knew you would look stunning in a dress that shows off your sexy figure.’
Eleanor forced a smile. She had to admit that the wedding dress her sister had picked out suited her curvy shape. Made of white silk overlaid with lace, the dress’s low-cut neckline pushed her breasts high and emphasised her narrow waist and the contours of her hips before the skirt flared down to the floor. Intricate lace detailing on the back of the bodice hid her scar, and a row of pearl buttons ran from the base of her neck all the way down the dress.
In the rush to choose a dress and shoes, as well as pack up her life to move to Greece, she hadn’t considered the problem of unfastening the buttons so that she could take the wedding gown off. Her sister’s assumption that Jace would undress her made Eleanor feel sick with nerves.
She had denied she had any secrets, but if they spent their wedding night together he would discover her physical imperfection. Jace might be so appalled when he saw the scar on her back that perhaps he wouldn’t stick around to find out she was a virgin. Memories of her first boyfriend’s horrified reaction to her scar twisted the knot of tension in the pit of Eleanor’s stomach even tighter.
‘Hey, where have you gone?’ Lissa asked softly. ‘You’re not supposed to look sad on the most romantic day of your life.’
‘I...’ Eleanor broke off. Part of her wanted to confide in her sister and explain that romance wasn’t on the cards in her marriage. She had become much closer to Lissa recently, but the memory of the conversation she’d overheard when Jace had likened her sister to a beautiful peacock and her to a dull sparrow still rankled.
‘You must wish that Mum and Dad were here,’ Lissa murmured. ‘It’s a pity that Mark couldn’t make it to the wedding, but hopefully he will get the help he needs at the rehabilitation clinic in Ireland.’ She squeezed Eleanor’s hand. ‘I’m glad we’ve got each other.’
‘So am I.’ Eleanor blinked back tears, hating herself for her silly jealousy of her sister. ‘You look lovely.’ Lissa’s bridesmaid’s dress was cornflower-blue, the same colour as her eyes, and her pale blonde bob framed her striking features.
Lissa grinned. ‘I hope the best man thinks so.’
‘He is Jace’s best friend, Takis Samaras.’
‘Takis...what a hunk. I’m going to flirt shamelessly with him at the reception.’ Lissa walked over to the dressing table and opened a box from which she carefully lifted out a bouquet of palest pink roses. ‘From your fiancé,’ she said as she gave the bouquet to Eleanor. ‘We had better go. The car is waiting.’
The rosebuds were beginning to unfurl and release their exquisite perfume. Eleanor swallowed the lump in her throat and reminded herself that Jace had sent her the bouquet for no other reason than he wanted to convince the guests, especially his mother, that their wedding was a love match.
But she must not forget that their marriage was a business deal. The previous day she had signed a prenuptial agreement which specified that the Pangalos Beach Resort would become a shared marital asset. In the event of a divorce, both parties would receive a fifty per cent share of the hotel. A second document stated that the entirety of Mark Buchanan’s debt to Jace would be cancelled when Eleanor became Mrs Zagorakis.
Everyone was happy, or so it would appear. If the bride’s heart felt as if it were breaking when she walked into the Town Hall where the groom was waiting, none of the guests who saw Eleanor’s serene smile would have guessed.
