Mediterranean Mavericks: Greeks. Кейт Хьюит
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СКАЧАТЬ hand away from him, she smiled to herself. “No matter what age, that day, she is the center of the whole universe for this one man…that day, it’s a new beginning, a fresh start, a promise she cherishes that her life will hold meaning to someone else. It’s the first day of a whole new way of life, of the most important, intimate relationship she’s ever going to have…and the wedding dress… it symbolizes all those hopes and dreams she’s ever cherished.”

      Sensing his stillness, she turned and saw the lacerating pity in his eyes.

      It was like the most vulnerable part of her, the part she even hid from herself, had been ripped open.

      Shutting her eyes to stop the heat building behind, she saw what he remembered.

      She had married in a ghastly cream silk dress that had been too tight on her chubby body. With a stone-faced Dmitri as witness while Giannis lay in a hospital bed. Drowning in guilt over Calista, numb that she always seemed to be saying goodbye to loved ones, terrified about what Stavros intended, and hating herself…

      That bleary day had been about punishment and penance, about duty and fear. Just as the moment after when he had pressed his mouth to hers, had been.

      Even then she had been eager for his kiss, had clung to him in her shame when he had put her away from him, and wiped his mouth.

      “At least, that’s the statement I want this collection to make, you know.” Her blasted voice wouldn’t stop quivering. “Like you said, it’s a career saturated with so many fresh faces that you can disappear in a second… You have to be able to put a new spin on your collection, present it almost like a story so that your consumers will fall in love with it, and that’s how—”

      Clasping her chin, he turned her toward him. From casual to a vehement intensity, his expression changed in mere seconds. “Don’t, agape mou.”

      Still, she tried to pretend. “You probably find this intensely boring.”

      “Do I not deserve the truth even in this, Leah?” Resting on his haunches in front of her seat, he took her hand in his. The tenderness in his gaze unraveled her defenses. “Do not lie about something that is so important to you, do not cheapen what truly comes from your heart. Not this…”

      “I…”

      “Did you once dream like this too? Was marriage that important to you?”

      Her throat raw, she nodded. “I believed in the sanctity of it once, yes. My father…I never knew my mother and I always used to get this sense that a part of him was gone with her. He loved me but his heart…it was with her. When you grow up seeing love like that, you believe in its power. You start hoping for it even when you know…” She shrugged, loath to betray herself even more.

      “I’m sorry for ruining your dreams, Leah,” he said with such withdrawal, that it was Leah who held onto him this time. “You were a dangerous combination of recklessness and… I had to protect you from fortune hunters and—”

      “Myself, of course.” But there was no real bite to her words.

      She could not lie and absolve him of any of it. Despite wanting to hate him, she even understood why he had done it, but his apology touched something inside her. “I wanted a lot of things. But life happened. I’ll be fine, Stavros.”

      He nodded and rose to his feet. “What will your collection be called?”

       “New beginnings.”

      “I do not know about dresses…” he said with such a straight face that she laughed, “but the passion I hear in your words, I am sure it will come through in what you do, ne?”

      “You think so?”

      “I believe that it will.”

      He said it with such confidence that a snippet of conversation she had heard between him and Giannis came back to her. Her grandfather had been asking Stavros about his contacts with major design houses and Stavros had been patiently explaining who would be open to launching a new label with a fresh designer.

      Pushing her chair back, she stood up, her stomach in knots. “Your belief in me is encouraging, but I can’t forever be ensconced safely in this world that Giannis and you have created for me. I can’t let you and him launch a label for me using your contacts and the might of…

      “If you meant your apology, if anything has changed in how you see me—” she could feel heat rising in her cheeks, but she continued stubbornly “—you’ll stop arranging my life in cahoots with him.”

      “He wants to do it for you because he cares—”

      “Becoming successful because I’m the Katrakis heiress or Stavros Sporades’s wife will forever ruin my joy in this. Will you do that to me again, Stavros?

      “Please… allow me the freedom to succeed or fail on my own merit. Tell Giannis to stop with this launching my label nonsense.”

      “If you haven’t realized it, your grandfather has a will of iron—”

      “And you can convince him that you could walk on water, so get him to back off.”

      Smiling, he nodded. “Anything else?”

      She hesitated, which in itself, held Stavros’s attention instantly.

      “After that imperious command, what can be so hard, Leah?”

      “I have been researching various fashion events and programs around the world and there’s one in Athens tomorrow night that caught my attention.”

      “Ahhh…that’s why the uncharacteristic call to my office.”

      She let his comment pass. “It’s like a co-op event, to be exact, an incubator for fashion design. No big labels or famous designers. Instead your… Helene and a group of fashion icons like her provide a stage for up-and-coming designers to showcase their talents. My application is ready. But I…”

      He waited patiently.

      “The entry fee is pretty hefty. Even with that, anyone who gets picked has to actually come with a recommendation from one of the event coordinators.”

      Wariness and pity filled his eyes and Leah blanched at it. “Helene is one of those rare women who won’t take you on to do me a favor, Leah. In fact, recommending you to her will only lessen your worth in her eyes.”

      She shook her head, wondering if he would always think her less than capable, less than what she was. Did she have anyone but herself to blame if he did?

       And why, in God’s name, did the thought hurt so much?

      “No, all I want is an introduction to her. My collection, at that point, will hopefully speak for me and garner her recommendation. Even if she doesn’t like it, I will still get some exposure to the industry folks.” Even as she confidently made her case, another tension filled her.

      Just admitting the fact that Helene knew Stavros in a way Leah never would, made her want to throw up.

      How could he mention the other woman so СКАЧАТЬ