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CHAPTER SEVEN

‘FROM A PRACTICAL point of view, I’ve been up to my throat in wedding arrangements for the past few weeks, so I know exactly what I’m doing and who to contact,’ Marina proffered as she sat beside Grace in the back of Leo’s opulent limousine an hour later.

‘But there isn’t enough time to organise anything fancy.’

‘When a man is as rich as Leo is, there are always people willing to meet a challenge for a substantial bonus,’ the brunette told her drily.

‘But why should you help us?’ Grace asked baldly, no longer able to swallow back that burning and obvious question.

‘I have my pride. First and foremost, I would prefer our friends to believe that the break-up was amicable rather than inspire a pity party,’ Marina fielded wryly. ‘I’ve also since had a radical rethink about my own future. Yesterday when I went to meet you I was fighting to preserve the status quo but, having cooled down, I’m now more inclined to think that Leo and I were just treading water and never meant to be. My father is deeply disappointed that he’s not getting his dream whiz-kid son-in-law but I’m afraid I want to do what’s right for me.’

‘You’re being very understanding.’

Marina laughed. ‘Not as understanding as you probably think. To be frank, I have someone else in my life too and I believe that eventually Zack will make me happier than Leo ever would have done.’

Grace absorbed that unexpected admission without visible reaction. Yet it was undeniably a relief for her to learn that the svelte brunette was not the innocent and cruelly betrayed fiancée Grace had initially assumed she was. ‘Even so, you and Leo still seem to be very close.’

‘But there was always a flaw in our relationship.’ Marina turned to look at Grace with a self-mocking light in her lively dark eyes. ‘Although most men consider me attractive Leo never wanted me the way he wanted you.’

‘I can’t believe that,’ Grace said uncomfortably, her face burning with sudden heat.

Marina grimaced. ‘It’s true and his detachment was bad for my ego. However, because we were friends from a young age, Leo believed we were an ideal match.’

‘But you must’ve loved Leo as well,’ Grace incised, cutting through the brunette’s frustratingly guarded comments.

‘Oh, yes, when I was younger I was absolutely mad about Leo! He was the full package—gorgeous, successful, strong—everything I wanted in a future husband,’ the other woman admitted with a rueful laugh. ‘Unfortunately, though, when it mattered I never made the girlfriend cut: Leo kept me firmly in the “friends” category. And when he suggested that we get married, I refused to listen to what he was saying and chose to assume that I meant more to him than he was willing to admit.’ Her expressive lips compressed. ‘Only I couldn’t have been more wrong. He didn’t mislead me, but any romantic feelings I once cherished for Leo were withered by his indifference.’

‘He hurt you and yet you’ve forgiven him,’ Grace commented in surprise.

Marina shrugged as she led the way into a designer bridal boutique. ‘Life’s too short for anything else. Just be sure you know what you’re getting into with Leo because I doubt very much that he’ll change.’

A small posse of assistants were waiting to greet them. Grace was extracted from her coat while Marina spoke to the designer, an effervescent blonde. Grace posed like a small statue while she was measured and wondered if she did have the slightest idea what she was getting into in choosing to marry Leo. Evidently he hadn’t ever been in love with Marina. Furthermore Marina had ultimately found someone else to love as well, which was what made it possible for the brunette to civilly accept the bride Leo was taking in her place.

‘Surely it doesn’t matter what I wear to a civil ceremony?’ Grace whispered to Marina.

‘It will be your first appearance as Leo’s wife and you’ll feel more confident if you’re properly turned out,’ Marina asserted sagely. ‘Being badly dressed won’t impress anyone.’

‘I don’t really care about impressing people,’ Grace admitted.

‘But in our world, whether you like it or not, appearances do matter,’ Marina traded without apology. The designer remarked that white and cream drained Grace of colour and tested less orthodox shades against her skin. Even Grace recognised the dress when it was held against her, an unconventional choice that provided an amazingly flattering background for her vibrant hair and pale complexion.

And as the seemingly endless day wore on with a lengthy trip to Harrods and the additional services of a very helpful fashion stylist, Grace discovered that she liked, possibly even loved, expensive, well-made clothes. Her fingers smoothed the softest cashmere, stroked silk and traced the delicate patterns of lace and exquisite embroidery. Astonishment and growing awe gripped her when those pricey designer garments shaped her figure and made her look so much better than she had ever dreamt she could look. When the overwhelming shopping experience was finally finished she slid her feet into comfy little pumps teamed with a short black skirt and a zingy sapphire-blue jacket and studied her sleek and elegant reflection in positive stupefaction. For the first time ever Grace thought she looked pretty and that maybe a spot of cosmetic enhancement would help even more.

‘Thanks for everything,’ she murmured with heartfelt gratitude to Marina, who had waved a magic wand over her like a fairy godmother bent on transforming Cinderella.

‘Tomorrow you hit the beauty salon for some treatments and you won’t be thanking me then. You haven’t ever even plucked your eyebrows, have you?’ the brunette prompted in a mixture of amusement and fascination.

Grace winced. ‘Is it that obvious?’

Marina laughed. ‘Comfort yourself with the knowledge that, in spite of your laissez-faire attitude in the grooming stakes, Leo admitted he couldn’t take his eyes off you the first time he saw you.’

‘He actually told you that?’ Grace prompted, colour flaring in her pale cheeks.

Marina nodded confirmation. ‘At least he was honest.’

Back at the hotel, Grace went straight up to the suite Leo was using. A stranger opened the door and two others were hovering round the desk at which Leo sat, his jacket off, his tie loosened, broad shoulder muscles flexing below a white silk shirt as he turned his head and stared fixedly at Grace where she hovered, uncertain of her welcome.

He sprang upright. ‘Marina did good,’ he quipped, brilliant dark golden eyes sliding over her slim figure in a look as physical as a touch. ‘In fact, she did brilliantly.’

‘She was a tremendous help.’ Grace’s colour was heightened by his scrutiny and the disturbing reaction of her body to that unashamedly sexual appraisal. Her nipples had prickled into taut sensitivity while a drenching pool of heat settled between her thighs. She was shaken by the intensity of her desire for him to reach out and touch her.

‘My staff...’ Leo introduced the three men before swiftly dismissing them. The trio swiftly gathered up laptops, briefcases and jackets and filed out. ‘I need to have a word with you about the guest list for the wedding,’ he told her levelly.

When asked earlier, Grace had put down Matt and her uncle’s family but could think of no one else to include and she studied him enquiringly.

‘I take it, then...that you’ve decided not to invite your father?’ Leo pressed, sharply disconcerting her.

‘How could I? I’ve never met him, n-never had any contact with him.’ In confusion and shock at the unexpected question, Grace stumbled over her words, wondering how he even knew that she had a father alive.

‘Never?’

‘Not since I was a baby anyway,’ she completed tersely. ‘Why are you asking? And how do you even know that I have a father living?’

‘I had your background investigated while I was waiting for you to get in touch with me,’ Leo confessed with a nonchalance that astounded her.

An angry flush illuminated her cheeks. ‘You did...what? You had me investigated? What gave you the right to go snooping into my background?’ Grace launched at him in a sudden fury.

‘I needed to know who you were and where you were from...in case you were pregnant,’ Leo responded levelly. ‘It’s standard business practice to check out people before you deal with them.’

‘But I wasn’t business and my life is private!’ Grace snapped back at him, outraged by his invasion of her privacy. ‘You had no right to pry!’

‘I may not have had an official right but I did have good reason to want to know exactly who Grace Donovan and her family were,’ Leo retorted unapologetically. ‘But to return to my original question—when I found out about your father, it wasn’t clear whether or not you had had any recent contact with him.’

Still furious with him, Grace clamped her lips into a tight line of control. ‘No, none and I don’t want any either!’

His stunning dark golden eyes narrowed in apparent surprise. ‘That seems a bit harsh in the circumstances.’

‘He let my mother down badly and I’m quite sure he could have traced me years ago if he’d had any real interest in finding me,’ Grace declared thinly.

‘Only that would have been a considerable challenge for him when your mother had already taken him to court for harassment, had threatened to accuse him of assault and then changed her name to shake him off.’

Sheer rage roared up through Grace’s rigid body like a forest fire running out of control. It convulsed her throat muscles, clenched her hands into fists and burned in her chest like the worst ever heartburn. She didn’t know what Leo was talking about; she truly didn’t have a clue! Wasn’t that the ultimate humiliation? How could it ever be right that Leo should know more about her past than she did? Harassment? Assault? Court cases?

Reading her shuttered and mutinous face and the pale sea-green eyes blazing at him, Leo returned to the desk and extracted a slim file from the drawer, which he settled on the desk top. ‘The investigation. Take it if you want it.’

Trembling with reaction, Grace studiously averted her eyes from the file, too proud to reach for it.

‘I didn’t intend to upset you, Grace. But naturally, I assumed that nothing in that file would come as a surprise to you...you were eleven years old when you lost your mother.’

Having Leo study her in that cool, even-tempered manner when she herself was so shaken up simply made Grace want to thump him hard. ‘You really do have no finer feelings, do you? You suddenly drag up my father and reveal that you know more about him than I do? Didn’t it occur to you that that was inexcusably thoughtless and cruel?’ she condemned with angry spirit.

‘I didn’t realise that it would still be such a sensitive subject for you. But you’re right—I should’ve done. I’m not particularly keen to discuss my own background,’ Leo conceded with a wry twist of his sensual mouth.

‘I have to go. I have an appointment to see my tutor in an hour,’ Grace fielded, spinning on her heel and walking fast out of the room before she exposed herself any more.

Leo lifted the investigation file and then slapped it back down hard on the desk in frustration. He had upset her and he hadn’t intended to do that. Grace was sensitive. Grace had hang-ups about her past. But didn’t he as well? And since when had he worried about such delicate details? Or reacted personally to someone else’s distress? The answer to that last question came back and chilled Leo to the marrow: not since he was a child struggling to comfort his distraught mother. Any desire to follow Grace and reason with her faded fast on that note.

Still struggling to master her powerful emotions, Grace leant back against the wall in the lift. What was it about Leo Zikos that brought her inner aggression out? The very first night she had met Leo she had resolved to be herself rather than act like the quieter, more malleable Grace she had learned to be to fit in with her uncle’s family. That version of Grace had never freely expressed herself or lost her temper and had certainly never shouted at anyone. So, what was happening to her now? She was unnerved by her own behaviour and by the sheer strength of the emotions taking her by storm. It was almost as though that one night of truly being herself with Leo had destroyed any hope of her either controlling or hiding her emotions again for ever. Suddenly she was feeling all sorts of things she didn’t want to feel.

Hell roast Leo for his interference, she thought in a simmering tempest of resentment. He had made her curious, made her burn to know what he knew about the father she barely remembered and that infuriated her when she had always contrived to keep her curiosity about her father at a manageable, unthreatening level. Now all of a sudden she was desperate to know everything there was to know. But that was yet another betrayal of her self-control, in short a weakness, and she refused to give way to it. After all, she knew everything she needed to know about her father. Those bare facts could only be interpreted in one way. Her father hadn’t cared enough to stay around. That was all she needed to know, she told herself impatiently.

She met with her tutor and her decision to take a year out from her studies was accepted. While she negotiated the stairs back down to the busy ground floor of the university building, Grace was thinking resolutely positive thoughts about the seed of life in her womb. She was facing huge changes in her life, but the sacrifices she was making and the adjustments that would follow would all benefit her baby, she told herself soothingly.

Marrying Leo would give Grace the precious gift of time. She would have time to come to terms with the prospect of motherhood and time to enjoy the first precious months of her baby’s life without the stress of wondering how she was to survive as a new mother. She would also have Leo’s support. Any male that keen to marry her for their baby’s sake would be a hands-on father and she very much wanted that male influence in her child’s life. She had never forgotten how much she herself had longed for a father as a little girl. In every possible way her life would be more settled when she returned to her studies the following year, she reflected with relief.

But as she went to bed that night her mind was still in turmoil over her personal, private reactions to Leo. Leo, always Leo, who had dominated her thoughts from the first moment she laid eyes on him. How had that happened? Grace had always prided herself on her discipline over her emotions but Leo Zikos had blasted through her defensive barriers like a blazing comet, awakening her to feelings and cravings that she had barely understood before. Was it infatuation? Was it simply sexual attraction? Or did her need to understand him, note his gifts as well as his flaws, indicate a deeper, more dangerous form of attachment? Theirs would be a marriage of convenience, after all, and even Marina had warned Grace not to expect more from Leo than he was already offering her.

But in the dark of the night Grace was facing an unsettling truth: she was beginning to fall in love with Leo, hopelessly, deeply in love with a male who had never uttered a word of interest relating to any connection with her more meaningful than sex. A male, moreover, who had virtually blackmailed her into marrying him and who, while declaring respect for fidelity, had still been rampantly unfaithful to his fiancée.