Forgiven but Not Forgotten?

Telling himself he was being ridiculous, he went to her room and opened the door, almost steeling himself for her scent. It lingered only faintly, but it was enough to have heat building low in his pelvis. He cursed her ghostly presence again. He was about to walk out when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye and walked towards the dressing area.

He couldn’t be certain, but it looked as if every single piece of clothing he’d bought her was still there, neatly hung up or folded away. The long pink chiffon gown. The black dress she’d worn that first night, which had ended up on the floor of the foyer as he’d taken her up against the front door with all the finesse of a rutting bull… Andreas flushed.

The clothes would have been worth a fortune, if she had felt inclined to sell them, but they were here. Something very alien gripped Andreas and he strode out and into his study. Already he could see the safe door open and all of the jewellery gone.

He didn’t like his momentary suspicion that perhaps she’d left the jewellery too. Some last second attack of conscience, because… Why? he mocked himself. Because she’d come to feel something for you?

Andreas pushed aside the rogue thought, not liking how it made him break out in a cold sweat. He sat down and picked up his phone. He had to know for sure.

‘Yes, Mr Xenakis. She came that morning, as you’d arranged, and handed back every item of jewellery. We exchanged it all for a very fair price. She was a pleasant young lady.’

Andreas did not want to get into a conversation about how Siena DePiero could turn on the charm when it suited her, and he was about to put the phone down when the man on the other end said, ‘Actually…there was one item she wanted to keep. Ah… Let me see…’

He was clearly looking at some list, and Andreas bit down on his impatience. He really didn’t want to hear about which emerald bracelet Siena had—

‘Ah, yes. Here it is.’

The man interrupted his train of thought.

‘She wanted to keep the gold birdcage necklace by Angel Parnassus, and she was very insistent that she pay for it out of her own money. Everything else was cashed.’

Andreas muttered his thanks and put the phone down. As soon as Siena had singled out that understated necklace it had made him nervous, and he didn’t like to be reminded of that now—of that elusive sensation that he’d missed something.

With a curse, Andreas stood up and went to his room to change for the reception of a wedding that he was invited to that evening in one of his London hotels.

His brief interlude with Siena DePiero was over, and he didn’t really care why she had wanted to hang onto some relatively inexpensive piece of gold. Nor did he want to dwell on the fact that she was out there, somewhere in the city, living off his money and undoubtedly seducing the next billionaire stupid enough to fall under her spell.

A sudden vivid image of her with Rafaele Falcone made Andreas feel as if something had just punched him in the gut, and he had to breathe deeply to ease the sensation.

Curse her to hell. He was done with her for good, and soon the bad taste left in his mouth would fade. If she was with Rafaele Falcone he was welcome to her.

* * *

Siena turned away from another group of wedding guests who had barely looked at her as they’d helped themselves to some of the hors d’oeuvres she was offering from a silver tray. She welcomed the anonymity. She’d had this job for two weeks now, and she knew how lucky she was to have found another job so easily.

Every penny that had come from the sale of the jewellery from Andreas had gone straight to cover Serena’s fees. She’d spent an emotional afternoon with her sister, assuring her that she would be okay, and in that moment Siena had had no regrets about what she had done.

It was when she lay in bed at night, in a similarly dingy apartment to her last one, or took the bone-rattling bus journey to work every day that she felt acute regret for deceiving Andreas all over again. She’d never forget the way he’d looked at her that last evening, or the painful reunion with her brother. Something she hadn’t yet divulged to Serena.

Siena was making a beeline towards another group of guests in their finery when one of the men turned slightly to speak to a man at his side. Siena stopped in her tracks just feet away. Her belly plummeted. It couldn’t be. The universe couldn’t be so cruel.

But apparently the universe could be that cruel. Andreas Xenakis glanced momentarily in her direction and Siena saw the shock of recognition cross his features.

She immediately turned on the spot and walked quickly away, assuring herself a little hysterically that he wouldn’t have recognised her. He would thhink he was mistaken because he would have assumed she’d be on a yacht, sunning herself in the Mediterranean, spending the money she’d received.

But even as she thought that she knew it was too good to be true. A heavy hand fell on her shoulder and she was whirled around so fast that the tray flew out of her hands, landing upside down on the plush and very expensive carpet nearby.

Siena immediately jerked free and bent down to pick up the tray and limit the damage, terrified her stern boss might have seen. Andreas bent down too, and Siena hissed at him, hating the way her heart was threatening to jump free of her chest, ‘Please just leave me alone. I can’t afford to lose this job.’

‘And why,’ he asked with deceptive mildness, ‘would that be, when only weeks ago you cashed in a small fortune? No one could have run through it that quickly.’

Siena finished putting the last of the ruined canapés on the tray and lifted it up again. She looked at Andreas and hated how shaky she felt. ‘Just pretend you haven’t seen me. Please. If I’d had any idea you’d be a guest here…’

‘Mr Xenakis, is everything all right?’

‘No, it’s not all right,’ Andreas snapped at Siena’s boss, who blanched.

Siena went hot with embarrassment. People were looking at them now, interested in whatever it was that had taken Andreas Xenakis’s attention. The sense of déjà-vu as Siena remembered how she’d first seen him again was not welcome.