Reunited By The Greek's Vows. Andie Brock
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Название: Reunited By The Greek's Vows

Автор: Andie Brock

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература

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isbn: 9781474087865

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СКАЧАТЬ And even though her heart had leapt at the sight of him—even though he had been the person Kate had wanted to see more than anyone else in the world, needed more than anyone else in the world—she had panicked.

      Hadn’t she expressly told him not to come? His arrival was going to cause nothing but trouble. And that trouble had started almost immediately.

      Within minutes her guilty secret had been exposed. Dropping his bag, Nikos had looked around the luxurious apartment with a puzzled expression on his face before pulling her into a stiff hug.

      With immaculate timing Fiona O’Connor had walked in at that precise moment, demanding to know who this person was. And as Nikos had stepped forward to offer his condolences, and to introduce himself as Kate’s fiancé, she had let out a little scream, her hand fluttering to her throat.

      Kate had had no choice but to try and do whatever she could to mitigate the damage, to calm Fiona down. Even though that had meant pushing Nikos away.

      And then, on that last evening—the evening of her father’s funeral—her whole shaky world had finally collapsed.

      When she’d been at her lowest ebb Nikos had turned on her, slashing through her battered defences, inflicting the sort of crippling pain from which there was no recovery...

      Turning on her side, Kate curled herself into a ball as the memory of how Nikos had looked tonight imprinted itself on her brain. Gone had been the laid-back guy she had once known, casually dressed in faded jeans slung low on his hips or board shorts frayed at the hems by the sun and the sea. Gone the mass of wind-blown dark curls. Now his hair was tamed, styled, carefully groomed like the rest of him. Now he wore a dinner suit with the easy confidence of a wealthy man, giving off an air of urbane arrogance that told the world he had made it, that life was his for the taking.

      Feeling a stab of pain, she buried her head in her pillow. Not for the first time she conceded that Nikos was the one man who had the wealth and the contacts to save her precious business. But there was no way she would ask him. She might only have a shred of pride left, but she was damned if she was going to give that shred to him. No, hell would freeze over before she ever went crawling to him.

       CHAPTER TWO

      NIKOS GAZED UP at KK Towers, an imposing glass-fronted building in Midtown Manhattan. He had been surprised to discover that the Kandy Kate headquarters were still located here. From what he’d heard, all the offices and apartments had been leased off, even if the premises still retained the KK name.

      Christened by Bernie O’Connor, it had been a glittering symbol of the power and success of the Kandy Kate empire, with its offices sprawling over several floors and the stunning penthouse apartment home to his adored family.

      He had never met Bernie, but he had obviously been an astute businessman—something that Nikos respected highly. To have made such a success of the Kandy Kate business in what had to be a very competitive market took intelligence and guts.

      It was a shame he hadn’t applied those same principles to his private life. From what Nikos could see, Bernie had made completely the wrong choice of wife.

      Fiona O’Connor was an arrogant snob—that much had been obvious from the start. Her rudeness Nikos might have accepted. After all, when they had met Fiona had been recently bereaved...he would have made allowances. He could even have excused her blatant hostility, given the circumstances. Particularly in light of the fact that Kate had conveniently forgotten to tell her mother of his existence. But the way she had looked at him with such abject horror—as if he was worse than nothing—that had got under his skin.

      And then there was Kate...

      Nikos held his jaw firm as he marched through the revolving doors into a light-filled vestibule. What right did he have to criticise Bernie O’Connor about his choice of partner when he had made the same mistake—with bells on? He too had fallen for totally the wrong woman.

      The ‘Kate effect’ had hit Nikos like a tornado. His golden rule of never getting emotionally involved with any woman had been smashed just like that. With a rush of wild exhilaration he had taken Kate’s hand and jumped off the edge of the cliff, self-preservation blown to the wind. Totally consumed by that all-powerful, all-consuming thing called love, he’d had no choice but to obey the fierce command of his heart.

      She had been beautiful, funny, clever...like no woman he had ever met before. The summer they had spent together in his home town of Agia Loukia, had been so special, so wonderful, that Nikos had assumed their joy would last for ever. And when Kate had accepted his proposal of marriage he had thought their future set, their happiness complete.

      But too late Nikos had realised that when you jumped off a cliff, at some point you had to come back down to earth. And the crash landing he and Kate had made had been spectacularly horrendous.

      Discovering that Kate had never told her parents about him—never even mentioned him—had been the first punch in the gut. No wonder she hadn’t wanted him to accompany her to New York when her father had been taken ill. No wonder she hadn’t wanted him at Bernie’s funeral.

      His first niggling thoughts that she might actually be ashamed of him had soon solidified into rock-hard certainty as Kate had continued to treat him with cold distance...holding him at arm’s length, pushing him away. Gone had been the warm and loving woman he had fallen in love with in Crete, to be replaced by someone he’d barely recognised—someone who had hardly been able to bring herself to look at him.

      Their final showdown had had an air of inevitability about it. But even so it had been far harder, far more painful than Nikos could ever have imagined. Discovering what Kate really thought of him, and the pitifully low opinion she had of him, had felt like a stab to the heart. It still did.

      But now it was time to expunge that memory. Now the tables had turned. Now Nikos intended to exact his revenge.

      The concierge behind the gleaming wooden desk indicated the elevator for Kandy Kate’s headquarters. Not the sleek, burnished gold affair at the end of the lobby, but a much smaller one, with an old-fashioned metal grid that you had to pull across manually. There was a moment’s hesitation after Nikos pressed the button, and then the elevator slowly ground its way down to what felt like the bowels of the earth.

      He had decided not to announce his arrival. He preferred to take his chances rather than give Kate the opportunity to disappear or prepare pretty lies. In his experience an element of surprise always worked in his favour.

      The Kandy Kate office was at the end of a long corridor, its name stuck on the middle panel of a half-glazed door. After a single sharp knock Nikos walked straight in.

      The room was small, gloomy and empty. There was no natural light, and a fluorescent strip bulb cast a depressingly cold glow over a cluttered desk, a couple of wooden chairs. A rustling noise to the left alerted him to another, smaller room, not much more than a cupboard. Someone of indeterminate age and sex was in there, squatting on the floor in front of an open filing cabinet drawer.

      ‘Hi!’ Nikos raised his voice as the person obviously hadn’t heard him. ‘I’m looking for Kate O’Connor.’

      He saw the figure go rigid. As it slowly moved to stand Nikos felt the breath catch in his throat. Of course. She still hadn’t turned around, but as she pulled out the buds in her ears, СКАЧАТЬ