“I know how much you resented my responsibility from the moment I stepped off that plane. It doesn’t have to be like that anymore.”
Walking around the desk, he reached her side, and Leah fought the automatic impulse to step back, to keep some distance between them.
With his Greek-god good looks and smoldering arrogance, Stavros had always made her feel like the proverbial ugly duckling, made her feel even more awkward than she already had, surrounded by her grandfather’s high-class society friends.
It seemed like a thoroughly unwelcome awareness took the place of her anxiety now. The faint stubble on his tight cheeks, the perfectly etched curve of his mouth...
The collar of his dress shirt was open, showing his olive skin. Holding her breath in, she pulled her gaze to his.
Every nerve in her body thrummed as he neared her. At thirty-three, he was a decade older than her. So why couldn’t he have grown a paunch and become bald? Couldn’t fate or whatever it was up above give her a break at least in this?
Couldn’t he have been a little less gorgeous?
“If you have waited five years, what’s three more months for a divorce? Or is this Philip more than just a lawyer?”
“Philip is only a friend. And if you want to continue satisfying your twisted sense of duty...fine.”
Stavros watched in rising fascination as she closed her eyes and pulled in a long breath.
Shame filled him as he took in her slender frame. He hadn’t seen her once in five years. He hadn’t even made a call. Had just left her to Mrs. Kovlakis’s care.
It had been unbearable to even look at her after Calista’s death.
Theos, he had been so angry with her...
He had granted her request to apprentice at the fashion house, and yet, he hadn’t really done his duty, had he? Marrying her to protect her from fortune hunters that had always surrounded her like vultures, to protect her from her own reckless lifestyle, as he had promised Giannis, had only been the first step.
He had let grief and anger distract him. It had been easy to forget about her, easier even to tolerate her presence in his life from a distance.
A possession to safeguard?
She was right—it had gone on too long. He had resented his future with her for long enough.
“I’ve learned all I could at the fashion house. I have made some good contacts, and I would like to leave it now.”
Tension swathed him as she interrupted his thoughts. He should never have left her alone for so long, shouldn’t have given her this chance to go on the offensive.
“Leave and go where?”
“Ideally, I would love to go to New York City. But it—”
“New York and your inheritance—I can see where this is going.”
“—will be like starting all over,” she continued, glaring at him. “I have made some good contacts here—buyers at retail stores, models who like what I have come up with so far. So I decided against it. But I do need to take the next step now. The fashion industry moves so fast that waiting until the few people that like my designs forget me will harm any future I have in it.”
“What is the next step?”
Sudden energy filled her eyes. “I’m going to take a chance and start freelancing, do custom orders for now. Right now, I have interest from a woman who buys for a small retail store in London.”
“Going out on your own, especially in your field, is a risky venture. Shouldn’t you continue at the fashion house?”
“I have been making clothes all my life, Stavros. I have worked there for seven years and except for being allowed to give input on a senior designer’s creations, I don’t have any growth there.”
“But you don’t know anything about running a business.”
“You grew up on some itty-bitty farm and Dmitri...what was he...a drug runner or a pimp? I forget... The point is both of you knew less than squat when Giannis brought you here.”
He continued staring at her, his silence wreaking havoc on her breathing.
“I need to take this shot. And I need money up front for all the costs. I can’t access my trust fund unless you stop controlling it, unless you step down from your role as...”
“Ahhh...” He smirked and Leah wished she could get away with slapping the hateful man. But one wrong breath now and he would never listen to her again.
“That’s what this is all about. Money.”
“Yes, money,” she added, mimicking his sarcastic tone. Easy for him to look down upon her when he had gazillions of it. “Money that my father left me and has nothing to do with you or Giannis or my mother or the bloody Katrakis dynasty’s inheritance.”
“Fine.”
Was that it? So easy? Leah let out a long breath. Excitement fizzed through her. She would call her contact at the textile factory as soon as she got out. She would have to finalize and place orders for the raw materials, would have to hire someone to help with the sewing, would have to order equipment...
“Show me a proposal for this alleged business you want to start. If I find it sound,” he said, stressing how improbable he found the very idea, “I will invest in it myself.”
Anger and hurt ripped through Leah, leaving her trembling all over. Her chest was so tight that it was a miracle she could breathe.
She wanted to smash the expensive porcelain vase on the side table next to her, she wanted to let the scream building away in her chest loose, she wanted to...
“I don’t want your investment. I don’t want anything from you. I want my money. I want this...my career—I need this to be about me, Stavros, something I love doing, something I can take on without fear. Something I give all of myself to.”
“I should have made my intentions clearer to you far sooner. You were right, I shouldn’t have let it go on for so long. But now that you are here, I will correct the situation immediately.”
Her heart lurched into her throat, cutting off Leah’s breath. Whatever it was that he meant, it wasn’t going to be remotely what she wanted. “What do you mean?”
“When I gave my word to Giannis that I would protect you, even from yourself, I didn’t mean it temporarily, Leah. I meant the until death do us part. Whatever way that death might come for you. So let’s get two things straight.”
He looked like someone had carved his features in stone, removed every ounce of emotion from it. “This lawyer friend of yours... he should know better than to tangle with my wife.
“Secondly, you’ll move in with me.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it’s high time we started our life together.
“And as for your career, we will get a fashion house, London or Milan or Paris, whatever you choose, to launch a line for you. As my wife, you will lack for nothing.”
LAUNCH A LINE from a top design house in the world? Lack for nothing as his wife?
His wife?
He had to be joking; he had always liked making her miserable!
You cannot see that boy anymore, Leah...
No more trips to New York...