Expectant Bride

But the first stab of self-loathing still escaped and pierced deep long before she reached Athens. Ellie wasn't used to making mistakes. In fact, Ellie was very cautious, particularly with men. So when the events of the previous thirty-six hours flashed before her, she could not begin to credit her own foolish wanton behaviour. Before long she decided that she had got exactly what she deserved. She had invited all that pain and humiliation.

When had she contrived to forget that she was with the same modest guy who had announced earlier in the day that he could 'persuade' her to belong to him? She shivered be¬neath the sting of that memory. It was even more of a hard lesson to acknowledge that she had actually felt close to a male capable of misjudging her to such an extent. He hadn't even listened to her attempt to defend herself.

What did she want with somebody that stupid and preju¬diced anyway? The trouble was, nothing had ever hurt Ellie so much in five long years...

CHAPTER FIVE

ELLIE rearranged the book display in the window for the second time that day.

'Cup of tea, Ellie?' Horace Barry suggested.

It was a lashing wet day and there wasn't a customer in the shop. Ellie focused on her elderly employer, the kindly concern visible in his lined features, and forced a strained smile. 'Lovely... thanks.'

Grateful that the older man would never dream of asking I prying questions, Ellie stood behind the counter sipping her tea and watching the rain stream down the window and the door. She had been back home for two days, but what had happened on the island of Chindos haunted her more with every passing hour. How could she have been such an idiot?

Sex was a dangerous fire to play with; she had always known that. She had always believed that physical intimacy belonged in stable relationships. It was humiliating to accept that she had recklessly gone to bed with a man she had known for little more than a day. She had had a choice and, relying on feelings rather than intelligence, she had made the wrong choice. She should have kept Dio Alexiakis at arm's length. And if that little accident with contraception which Dio had mentioned with such supreme cool had conse¬quences, she would have nobody to blame but herself, she reflected fearfully.

Mr Barry went home early. Just before closing time, a delivery man arrived with a large bouquet. 'Miss Eleanor Morgan?'

'I don't think I'm the Eleanor Morgan you're looking for,' Ellie told him drily, never having received flowers in her life, and certainly not an enormous bunch of costly white roses. "This is the address.'

Her heart beating very fast as she thought of the only person she knew who could afford such a gesture, Ellie signed for the bouquet and tore the accompanying card out of the envelope. Three words. 'From the goat-herd.'

Ellie turned white, and then furious pink. She tore the card into pieces as small as confetti and tossed them in the bin below the counter.

Evidently the roses were Die's idea of an apology. Her soft full mouth compressed. Had he somehow established that she wasn't the source of the information leak? Someone else must have rammed that reality down his arrogant throat, Ellie decided bleakly. Certainly Dio himself hadn't cherished the slightest doubt of her guilt. No, Dio had had no trouble what¬soever believing that the sneaky little cleaner had lied to him, deceived him and finally betrayed his precious plans. She hoped he's lost a mint of money on the deal going wrong. He deserved to.

The phone rang. She answered it.

'I'd like to speak to Ellie...'

Ellie froze at the startling familiarity of Dio's rich, dark drawl.

Silence filled with static buzzed on the line.

'What do you want?' she enquired curtly.

‘I’ll be back in London by nine this evening. I want to see you.'

'Nothing doing," Ellie said after a truly staggered pause in which to absorb that smooth announcement of intent.

'Ellie...' Dio breathed, and the way he said her name made her clench the phone so tight that her fingers ached.

'Is Meg still employed?' she demanded brittly. 'Yes.'

'Fine...' Ellie released her pent-up breath in a jerky exhalation of relief. 'I presume that means that I can have my job back too?'

'We'll discuss that later—'

'Dio, we are never going to meet again in this lifetime,' Ellie asserted, her temper steadily climbing. 'All I've got to say to you I can say now. You owe me my job back!'

'I can find you alternative employment—'

'Look, what's it to you if I'm working on level eight?' Ellie raked down the line at him with furious resentment. 'You think I'm going to gossip about you with the women I work with? You've just got to be joking! Electric shock treat¬ment wouldn't drag a confession from me!'

'We'll talk about it this evening.'

‘I’m not seeing you again. I don't want to see you again! You're trying to bully me and I'm not having it. If you don't let me go back to work, I'll go to an employment tribunal with a complaint of unfair dismissal. I know my rights, Dio.' 'Ellie, you just said that electric shock treatment wouldn't drag a confession from you,' Dio reminded her in a madden¬ingly lazy drawl. 'It wouldn't work to be that sensitive with a tribunal.'