Selene was welded to the spot—and not just by the shock of that unexpected revelation and by the pain she saw in his face. It was the first time she’d seen him display any real human emotion. ‘I—I didn’t know.’
‘Well, now you do.’ His tone was flat. His expression blank.
‘There have always been women, of course. Before his marriage and afterwards.’ She said the words to herself as much as him. ‘It was one of the things I hated most—that my mother just accepted it as part of her marriage. I wanted her to have more self-respect, but she was dazzled by him to begin with and then ground down by him. He sucked the personality from her.’
‘Yes. That’s how he operates.’
‘It’s driven by insecurity.’ She saw it clearly now and wondered why she hadn’t before. ‘He doesn’t believe someone will stay with him if they can leave, so he stops them leaving. He makes them feel weak. As if they can’t survive without him.’ And suddenly she knew and the realisation made her feel sick. ‘There was a woman—a woman who was in love with him years before my mother ever came on the scene—and she drowned on the rocks off Antaxos.’
He released her suddenly. ‘We never knew if it was an accident or if she jumped.’
Without waiting for her to respond he strode away from her, leaving Selene staring after him in appalled silence.
Your father ruined my father.
The woman who had drowned was his mother.
‘Stefan, wait—Stefan.’ But her voice was lost in the crowd and he was already out of sight, his long, powerful stride eating up the ground as he walked out of her life, leaving her with nothing but the knowledge she’d been terribly, horribly wrong about him.
CHAPTER NINE
STEFAN sat sprawled in his chair at the head of the table, his features stony as he listened to his executives discussing a business issue that should have interested him but didn’t. His mind was preoccupied with memories he himself had unlocked. It was like ripping open an old wound, tearing through healing tissue and exposing raw flesh. It wasn’t just pain, it was screaming agony. But worse than that was the thought of Selene struggling on her own, looking over her shoulder all the time, never able to relax and just enjoy her new life.
Despite the efficient air-conditioning, sweat beaded on his brow.
As well as watching Selene they’d been watching Antaxos but her father hadn’t shown his face since their encounter on that day.
What the hell had possessed him to get involved with Stavros Antaxos’s daughter? It was a decision that had ‘trouble’ written all over it.
‘Stefan—?’
Hearing his name, he glanced up and saw Maria in the doorway.
It was unheard of for her to interrupt him in a meeting and Stefan rose to his feet in a cold panic. He told himself that Takis would not have let anything happen to Selene, but still his limbs shook as he walked to the door.
‘What’s wrong? Have you heard from her?’ His voice trailed off as he saw Selene standing in his office, the sun sending silver lights shimmering through her newly shorn hair. She wore a simple cotton strap top and a pair of shorts that revealed endless length of tanned leg.
Tears streaked her pretty face.
His world tilted. ‘Theé mou, what has happened?’ He was across the room in two strides, his hands on her arms. ‘Has he found you? If he’s threatened you in some way then I’ll—’
‘He hasn’t threatened me. I haven’t seen him.’ She choked out the words. Sniffed. ‘Nothing like that.’
‘Then what the hell is wrong? Tell me.’
The quiet click of the door told him that Maria had left the room, which meant that he was alone with someone who repeatedly made him feel as if he were poised on the top of a slippery slope about to plunge to his doom.
‘I was so wrong about you and I’m sorry.’ Her eyes lifted to his. ‘I—This is all my fault. After I met you that night and you were so nice to me I built you up in my head as some sort of hero. I thought about you all the time, I dreamed about you, and then I met you and you were this amazing guy—’ Her voice cracked. ‘And we had that night, and it was fun, and you were so incredibly sexy, and being in your bed was—well, I just—I never thought anything could feel like that—’
‘You need to breathe, koukla mou.’
‘No, I need to tell you this because I feel horrible and I’m not going to stop feeling horrible until I’ve said what I have to say and you have to listen.’
‘I’m listening,’ Stefan assured her, ‘but I need you to calm down. I thought you only cried when you were happy?’
‘Turns out that’s another thing I was wrong about. But mostly I was wrong about you. I was so panicked when I saw those photos, and you were so unconcerned about it I assumed you were responsible. I didn’t even think about it from your point of view. Of course you didn’t know about my father. Why would you? And I was so used to playing my part in this so-called happy family that I didn’t even know how to tell someone that it was all fake.’
‘None of this matters now. It’s fine.’