Quickly shaving, he avoided his own eyes in the mirror. He hurried out of his private bathroom, already late, trying to focus his mind only on the upcoming conference call—
Stavros stopped flat when he saw his wife waiting in the middle of his private office.
“Hello,” Holly said, gripping the handle of the baby stroller.
“Hello,” he replied, shocked. The one time she’d visited the Minos building since their marriage, he’d made sure he was too busy to talk to her.
Now, against his will, his eyes drank her in hungrily. Gone were the beige, baggy suits she’d worn as a secretary, and the casual jeans and sweater she’d worn in the Swiss chalet. Now she dressed like the wife of a billionaire CEO. She wore a sleek black cashmere jacket over a white button-down shirt, fitted black pants and knee-high black leather boots. Diamond studs sparkled in her ears. “What are you doing here, Holly?”
She ducked her head. “I was in the area. Nicole asked me out for coffee.” She gave a shy smile. “For obvious reasons.”
Obvious? How obvious? Then he remembered. “To thank you? So Oliver got the paperwork.”
“Paperwork?”
“For the ten million.”
Holly’s expression was blank. “What are you talking about?”
Stavros frowned. If his financial gift to his cousin wasn’t the obvious reason, what was? “The annuity I arranged.”
Her lips parted. “You’re giving Oliver money?”
“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “The contract is airtight. He just gets a million up front, and each year they remain married, he’ll get another. But only if Nicole signs a statement each year that he’s keeping her happy.”
Instead of looking reassured, she looked shocked. “You’re paying Oliver to stay married to my sister?”
“Just for the first ten years,” he said, confused. Why did Holly seem so upset? “I know you can’t be happy unless the people you love are happy, too. The money is a pittance. So I took care of it.”
Her face was incredulous. “And you think paying that—that gigolo to stay married to my sister will make her happy?”
“Doesn’t it?”
“Love is what makes a marriage! Not money!”
Stavros didn’t like where this conversation was going. His fear about making Holly love him, about breaking her heart and ruining her life, started pressing against him as heavily as an anvil. Folding his arms, he said tightly, “Fine. I’ll tell my lawyer to cancel the annuity. Is that all?”
“No, it’s not all!” Her lovely heart-shaped face was pale as she lifted her chin. “Why didn’t you come home last night?”
Her lips were pink and chapped, as if she’d chewed them for hours. Her green eyes were vulnerable, tro
ubled with shadows. Had he put those shadows there?
The thought of hurting her made him sick inside. It made him angry. He glared at her. “I’ve been closing an important deal. As you know. Which is what I need to be doing now. So if you’ll excuse me...”
But she blocked him with the stroller, where their baby was babbling and waving his pudgy arms. “And that’s all you have to say to me? After you were gone all night? Without a single message?”
A low Greek curse rose to his throat. It was all he could do to choke it back. “Holly, I’m working. I’m sorry I didn’t call. Now please let me go.”
She took a deep breath. “Stavros, we need to talk.”
But the last thing he wanted to do right now was talk to her. She was blocking him from where he needed to be. And if he stayed, he’d only be forced to say things that might hurt her.
Why couldn’t she take the hint that he didn’t want or deserve her love? Did he have to spell it out for her?
Stavros nodded scornfully toward the sofa where he’d slept a few uncomfortable hours. “What is it? Do you think I was here all night with some other woman, making hot, sweet love to her? You think I’m like all the other Minos men—after just a few weeks, I’m already bored of my wife?”
Her beautiful face went white, then red. She whispered, “You don’t have to be cruel.”