Reynolds? I’m Steven Holt,’ a sandy haired man greeted her when she emerged from the lift.
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr Holt,’ Tahlia returned the greeting with a nervous smile, hiding her surprise that the CEO had met her, rather than his secretary or a junior manager.
He made no further conversation as she followed him along the corridor, and her confusion increased when he ushered her into a room and quietly closed the door after her. She stared blankly at the solid wood. Was she supposed to sit here and wait for him to return? Tension knotted her stomach as she turned into the room, and her heart almost leapt from her chest when she caught sight of the man sitting behind the desk, his broad shoulders and the proud tilt of his head silhouetted against the bright sunshine pouring through the window.
‘Mr Savakis?’ She halted abruptly and stared at him, her pulse-rate accelerating as her eyes swept over his thick black hair and hard-boned handsome face, then lowered to his impeccably tailored jacket, blinding white shirt and navy silk tie. He was even more gorgeous than the man who had tormented her dreams: a suave, sophisticated billionaire businessman—but what business did he have here at Vantage Investments, with her?
Thanos was watching her impassively, his dark eyes cold and—the word filtered into Tahlia’s mind—pitiless. He made no response to her uncertain smile, simply dipped his head to indicate that she should sit down.
His silence unnerved her, and her voice was unnaturally high-pitched when she burst out, ‘I don’t understand. I’m here for private discussions with Mr Holt.’
‘Steven Holt is the chief executive of Vantage Investments, and in ordinary circumstances your discussions would have been with him,’ he told her coolly. ‘But these are not ordinary circumstances, Tahlia.’ For a split second emotion flared in his eyes, and Tahlia caught her breath at the look of simmering fury he directed at her before his lashes fell, masking his expression. ‘Vantage is a subsidiary company of Savakis Enterprises.’
‘I see,’ Tahlia said carefully, shaken by the look he had given her, and utterly bemused by it. ‘Then…you must know why I’m here?’
‘Oh, yes, Tahlia. I know exactly why you’re here,’ Thanos leaned back in his seat and brought the tips of his fingers together. He was a remote and forbidding figure, and he made no attempt to disguise the contempt in his eyes as he raked them over Tahlia’s designer suit. No wonder Reynolds Gems was in trouble if Tahlia paid herself a salary well above average to finance the luxurious lifestyle she obviously took for granted, he mused cynically.
‘You are hoping to persuade me to buy out your company and save it from bankruptcy. The same company that you assured me is an expanding operation with a dynamic management team,’ he said mockingly.
Tahlia felt her cheeks burn as she recalled her suggestion that he might consider allowing Reynolds Gems to sell their jewellery at his new hotel. Clearly he had never had any intention of taking the idea seriously. For some reason he had just been playing her along, and the knowledge sparked her temper.
‘Why didn’t you tell me of your connection with Vantage Investments, instead of letting me believe there might be a way to save Reynolds?’ she demanded angrily. ‘Did you enjoy making a fool of me?’
‘I admit I found the situation mildly amusing.’
The expression in his eyes chilled her to the bone. ‘But why?’she choked. ‘What have I ever done to—?’She broke off and stared at the photograph of a young woman that he had pushed across the desk—for a second her heart stopped beating.
‘I believe you have met my sister?’Thanos asked, in a dangerously soft tone.
‘I…’ Tahlia groped for words, her brain in freefall.
‘I imagine it was not a long meeting. And there would have been a certain awkwardness to the situation, seeing that you were in bed with Melina’s husband at the time. Of course my sister no longer looks as she does in that photo,’ Thanos went on, in the same chilling tone of barely suppressed aggression. ‘And it is unlikely she will ever dance again—which is a pity because, as you can see from the picture, she loved to dance.’
Tahlia could not formulate a reply as she stared at the photograph of the beautiful young woman whose face was so shockingly familiar. In the picture her dark hair was swept up into a chignon, rather than falling in a mass of curls around her shoulders as it had been on the night Tahlia had seen her, but there was no mistaking that this was James’s wife.
‘Melina was distraught after she caught you and Hamilton together. She fled from the hotel, and as she dashed across the road she was hit by a car,’Thanos said harshly. ‘Eyewitnesses said she was thrown at least twenty feet into the air before she hit the ground. She was in a coma for three weeks, both her legs were broken, and she suffered spinal damage.’ He ignored Tahlia’s horrified gasp and went on remorselessly, ‘For a while the doctors believed she would be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Thankfully her last round of surgery was successful, and she is having intensive physiotherapy to help her to walk, but she will never dance again,’ he finished grimly, a nerve flickering in his cheek as he picked up the photo of his sister and stared at it.
The silence in the room screamed with tension, until at last Tahlia forced herself to speak. ‘I…I didn’t know,’she whispered.
Thanos gave a savage laugh. ‘You mean you didn’t hear the ambulance sirens? Or you did hear them but you were not sufficiently interested to go and find out who had been injured? Presumably you and Hamilton continued with your sexual gymnastics after Melina left?’ he snarled contemptuously. ‘Neither of you had the decency to follow her, even though it must have been obvious—even to a heartless bitch like you—that she was devastated at finding the man she loved in bed with his whore.’
Tahlia bowed her head while Thanos’s savage fury crashed over her. His anger was no less than she deserved, she acknowledged sickly, and her mind relived that terrible night six months ago, which had started off so wonderfully.
She had felt excited and a little nervous when James had checked them in to the hotel he had booked for a romantic weekend.
‘Just one key?’she’d queried tremulously, her heart thumping.
‘One key, one room—one bed,’ he’d replied, with that disarming grin that melted her heart. ‘You know I love you, Tahlia,’ he had murmured when they’d reached their suite, and he had pulled her into his arms and kissed her. ‘And you love me—don’t you, baby? Making love is the next step in showing our love for each other.’
She had been unable to resist him: good-looking, easygoing James, who had swept her off her feet. She had been ready for them to become lovers, and when James had started to undress her she had not hidden her eagerness. But as they had tumbled onto the bed the door had burst open, and a woman had stumbled into the room.
She would never forget the look of shock on the woman’s face, the tears streaming down her cheeks and her voice crying brokenly, ‘How could you, James? How could you? I am your wife…’
‘I didn’t know about your sister’s accident,’ she insisted shakily, dragging her mind back to the present. ‘I left James almost immediately.’ After his sulky confirmation that, yes, he was married—‘but that’s no reason to get hysterical, Tahlia.’ ‘I ran down to my car, parked at the rear of the hotel. Melina must have run out of the front of the hotel, and I drove home along a different road. I don’t remember
