Forgiven but Not Forgotten?

Andreas nodded. ‘It’s a charity ball. I instructed my secretary to go to the apartment and pack some clothes, get your passport.’

At times like this it still stunned Siena how much power Andreas had.

They hadn’t been to many functions in the last few weeks, but then Andreas said, with an edge to his voice, ‘My youngest sister has just had a new baby. I promised my parents we’d call for lunch on Sunday before going home.’

Siena tamped down the flutters in her belly when he said ‘we’. ‘Oh?’ she said, in a carefully neutral voice. ‘That sounds nice.’

She avoided Andreas’s eyes, not wanting him to remember how he’d reacted when she’d asked him about his family before. Not wanting to remind him of before at all.

* * *

The following evening, in the ballroom of the hotel where they were staying, Andreas looked at Siena weaving through the crowd as she came back from the ladies’ room. The ache that seemed to have set up residence in his gut intensified. She was wearing the black dress she’d worn on their first night out—except this time her face wasn’t a mask of faint hauteur and she wore only the gold birdcage necklace.

It was so obvious now that she’d put on a monumental act when she’d been with him for that week. Uncomfortably he had to concede the many signs had given her away, if he’d cared to investigate them at the time. Her antipathy for the jewellery, her visible reluctance at being on the social scene, which he’d put down to embarrassment but which he now knew went deeper. Her innocence. Both physically and actually.

When Andreas thought of her father, he wanted to throttle the man.

And even though her brother was a billionaire she hadn’t attempted to go to him for a hand-out.

Siena’s make-up was as subtle as ever, and yet she outshone every woman in the room. She glowed. She saw him in the crowd and she smiled—a small, private smile. Andreas wanted to smile back—he could feel the warmth rising up within him, something deeper than mere lust and desire—but something held him back. That ache inside him was unyielding.

He saw Siena’s smile falter slightly and fade. Her eyes dropped and Andreas felt inexplicably as if he was losing something. Someone waving caught his eye and he looked over to see a familiar face with relief. He welcomed the distraction from thinking too much about the way Siena made him feel.

When she arrived by his side, however, he couldn’t stop himself from snaking an arm around her, relishing her proximity. His. It beat like a tattoo in his blood.

Belying his turbulent emotions, he said, ‘How would you like to meet the designer of your necklace? She’s the wife of a friend of mine and they’re just across the room.’

Siena’s hand flew to the gold chain and she looked up, eyes wide and bright. ‘Really? Angel Parnassus is here? I’d love to meet her!’

As Andreas led Siena by the hand through the crowd he pushed down the way her simple joy at meeting a mere jewellery designer made something inside him weaken. Things might have changed but the essentials were the same. Siena was with him only until he could let her go…and that day would come. Soon.

CHAPTER TEN

ANDREAS HAD ORGANISED a helicopter to take them from Athens on Sunday to a small landing pad near his parents’ town. Siena couldn’t stop the flutters of apprehension in her belly, and wasn’t unaware of Andreas’s almost tangible tension.

A four-wheel drive vehicle was waiting for them at the landing pad and soon they were driving out and ascending what looked like a mountain.

Curiously, Siena asked, ‘How often do you come home?’

Andreas’s profile was remote. ‘Not often enough for my mother.’

Siena smiled but Andreas didn’t. She couldn’t understand his reluctance to come home. If she’d come from a family like his she didn’t think she’d ever have left…

She could see a town now, colourful and perched precariously on a hill above them. ‘Is that it?’

‘Yes,’ Andreas answered.

When they drove in Siena looked around with interest. It looked modestly prosperous—wide clean streets, people walking around browsing market stalls and colourful shops. They looked friendly and happy. Siena could see a lot of construction work going on and had an instinct that Andreas was involved, for all his apparent reluctance to come home.

They drove up through winding streets until they emerged into a beautifully picturesque square with a medieval church and very old trees.

Andreas came to a stop and Siena opened her seat belt, saying, ‘This is beautiful.’

‘You can see all the way to Athens on a clear day.’

‘I can believe that,’ Siena breathed, taking in the stunning view.

Andreas got out and she followed suit, and suddenly from around the corner came a screaming gaggle of children. They swarmed all over Andreas, and Siena’s heart twisted at seeing him lift a little one high in the air with a huge smile on his face.