‘Dimitri—if I could have a word?’
Frowning at the unexpected interruption, he flicked his gaze from the financial report he was working on and glanced at his PA. ‘I asked not to be disturbed,’ he reminded her, impatience edging into his voice.
‘Yes, I’m sorry … but the young woman who arrived earlier and asked to see you is still here.’
He shrugged. ‘As I explained earlier, I don’t know Louise Frobisher. I’ve never heard of her before, and unless she can give a reason for her visit I suggest you call Security and have her escorted from the premises.’
Aletha Pagnotis read the warning signs that the head of Kalakos Shipping was becoming irritated. Nothing was more likely to trigger Dimitri’s temper than disruption to his routine. But running a billion-pound business empire must put huge demands on him, she conceded.
At thirty-three, Dimitri was one of the country’s most powerful businessmen. Even before he had taken up the reigns of Kalakos Shipping, after the death of his father, Dimitri had set up an internet company which specialised in selling designer goods to the rapidly expanding Asian market, and within only a few years he had become a self-made millionaire. His drive and determination were phenomenal, and his brilliance and ruthlessness in the boardroom legendary.
Aletha sometimes had the feeling that he was trying to prove something to his father, even though Kostas had been dead for three years. The rift between father and son had been public knowledge, and she had always thought it a pity that they had never resolved their differences.
Whatever was behind his motivation, Dimitri set himself a demanding work schedule, and paid his staff generous salaries to see to it that his life ran like clockwork. Ordinarily she would not have bothered him about a visitor who had turned up without an appointment and refused to explain why she wanted to see him. But beneath the Englishwoman Louise Frobisher’s quiet determination Aletha had sensed an air of desperation, which had prompted her to ignore Dimitri’s orders that he was not to be disturbed under any circumstances.
‘Miss Frobisher has asked me to tell you that you knew her several years ago by her nickname—Loulou. And that she wishes to discuss Eirenne.’
Aletha was sure she had repeated the message correctly, but now the words sounded rather ridiculous, and she braced herself for an explosion of Dimitri’s anger.
His eyes narrowed and he stared at her in silence for several seconds, before to her astonishment he said tersely, ‘Inform her that I can spare her precisely three minutes of my time and show her in.’
It was so quiet in the PA’s office that the ticking of the clock seemed to be in competition with the thud of Louise’s heart. The window offered a spectacular view over the city, but the Athens skyline did not hold her attention for long. Her nerves were frayed, and the sound of a door opening made her spin round as Aletha Pagnotis reappeared.
‘Mr Kalakos will see you very briefly,’ the PA said calmly. She was clearly intrigued by the situation but far too professional to reveal her curiosity. ‘Please come this way.’
Butterflies leapt in Louise’s stomach. If you act confident he won’t be able to intimidate you, she told herself. But the butterflies still danced, and her legs felt wobbly as she balanced on her four-inch heels and entered the lion’s den.
‘So, when did Loulou Hobbs become Louise Frobisher?’
Dimitri was seated behind a huge mahogany desk. He did not get to his feet when Louise walked in and his expression remained impassive, so that she had no idea what he was thinking, but he exuded an air of power and authority that she found daunting. Her brain also registered that he was utterly gorgeous, with his dark, Mediterranean colouring and sculpted features, and as she met his cool stare her heart jolted against her ribcage.
After his PA had slipped discreetly from the room Dimitri leaned back in his chair and surveyed Louise in a frank appraisal that brought a warm flush to her cheeks. She fought the urge to tug on the hem of her skirt to try and make it appear longer. It wasn’t even that short—only an inch or so above her knees, she reminded herself. But her elegant, sophisticated outfit, yes, a little bit provocative—chosen deliberately in the hope of boosting her self-confidence—was very different from the smart but practical navy suit she wore every day to the museum.
Unlike her mother, who had been an avid attention-seeker, Louise was quite happy to blend into the background. She wasn’t used to being looked at the way Dimitri was looking at her—as if she was an attractive woman and he was imagining her without any clothes on! Her face burned hotter. Of course he was not picturing her naked. That wasn’t a glint of sexual awareness in his olive-green eyes. It was just the sunlight slanting through the blinds and reflecting in his retinas.
He had found her attractive once before, whispered a voice in her head. And if she was absolutely honest hadn’t she chosen her outfit because she’d hoped to impress him—to show him what he had lost? Once he had told her she was beautiful. But that hadn’t been real, her common sense pointed out. It had been part of the cruel game he’d been playing with her, and the memories of what had happened between them on Eirenne were best left undisturbed.
‘Are you married? Is Frobisher your husband’s name?’
The curt questions took her by surprise. Dimitri’s face was still inscrutable but she suddenly sensed an inexplicable tension about him.
She shook her head. ‘No—I’m not married. I have always been Louise Frobisher. My mother called me by that silly nickname when I was younger, but I prefer to use my real name. And I was never Hobbs. I was given my father’s surname, even though Tina wasn’t married to him. They split up when I was a few months old and he refused to support her or me.’
Dimitri’s face hardened at the mention of her mother. ‘It doesn’t surprise me to hear that your father was one of a long list of Tina’s lovers. You’re lucky she even remembered his name.’
‘You’re hardly one to talk,’ Louise shot back, instantly defensive.
In truth Tina had not been the best parent in the world. Louise had spent much of her childhood dumped in various boarding schools, while her mother had flitted around Europe with whichever man she’d hooked up with at the time. But now Tina was ill, and it no longer mattered that as a child Louise had often felt she was a nuisance who disrupted her mother’s busy social life. Even in today’s world of advanced medical science the word cancer evoked a feeling of dread, and the prospect of losing her mother had made Louise realise how much she cared about her.
‘From what I’ve seen in media reports you relish being a billionaire playboy with an endless supply of beautiful mistresses. I accept that my mother isn’t perfect, but are you any better, Dimitri?’
‘I don’t break up marriages,’ he said harshly. ‘I’ve never stolen someone’s partner or wrecked a perfectly happy relationship. It is an irrefutable fact that your mother broke my mother’s heart.’
His bitter words hit Louise like bullets, and even though she had nothing to feel guilty about she wished for the millionth time that her mother had not had an affair with Kostas Kalakos.
‘It takes two people to make a relationship,’ she said quietly. ‘Your father chose to leave your mother for Tina …’
‘Only because she chased him relentlessly and seduced him with every trick in her no doubt extensive sexual repertoire.’ Dimitri’s voice dripped with contempt. ‘Tina Hobbs knew exactly who my father was when she “bumped into him” at a party in Monaco. It was not the chance meeting she convinced you it was. She knew Kostas would be there, and she managed to wangle an invitation to that party with the absolute intention of catching herself a rich lover.’
Dimitri’s nostrils flared as he sought to control the anger that still burned inside him whenever he thought of his father’s mistress. The first time he’d set eyes on Tina Hobbs he had seen her for what she was—an