‘Because,’ she said, and it dawned on him that she was speaking as if she were talking to a particularly intellectually challenged pupil, ‘you said it to me yourself at Haughton, when you saw me running. You said, “You’re nothing like your stepsister Chloe.” You couldn’t have made it plainer. And you’re absolutely right—I am nothing at all like Chloe and I never have been. I accept that completely—I’ve no illusions about myself, believe me. I know exactly what I look like. That is why going to a ball, or anything resembling a ball, or any social gathering of any kind at all is anathema to me. The very thought of dressing up and trying to be...trying to be...trying to be anything like Chloe—’
There was a choking sound in her voice and she broke off. She felt as if the blood was curdling in her veins—as if Chloe herself were standing there, her mocking peal of derisive laughter lashing at her at the very thought of her going to a ball—and with Max Vasilikos of all men! Her eyes tightened shut again, screwing up in their sockets, and her fingers indented into the wood of the table as she gripped it. Then her eyes flew open again.
‘I know what I am. What I’ve always been. What I always will be. I’m pushing six foot tall, I’ve got size eight feet and I’ve got muscles that can bench fifty kilos. I’m like some gigantic elephant compared with Chloe.’
The misery and the self-loathing in her face was contorting her features. Consuming her. Across the table Max had sat back, gazing at her with a new expression on his face. Abruptly he spoke.
‘Tell me, do you think Chloe beautiful?’ There was a strange note in his voice. Enlightenment was dawning in him like a tsunami in slow motion. Was this what was screwing up Ellen Mountford?
Ellen stared. ‘What kind of question is that? Of course she is! She’s everything I’m not. She’s petite and incredibly slim, and she has a heart-shaped face and blue eyes and blonde hair.’
The new expression on Max’s face did not change. ‘And if I described her,’ he said carefully, his eyes not letting her go for an instant, ‘as...let’s see...like a scrawny chicken, what would you say?’ Deliberately he chose as harsh a term as she had used about herself to make his point.
She said nothing. Only stared at him, not understanding. Incapable of understanding, Max realised with dawning comprehension. He shook his head slightly. ‘You wouldn’t believe me, would you?’ His voice changed, becoming incisive, incontrovertible. ‘Do you not realise,’ he demanded, ‘that it is only you who thinks you are like an elephant?’
She stared at him. Her face was expressionless. Her voice as she answered him toneless. ‘Chloe thinks so too.’
She revels in thinking it. Taunts me endlessly. Is viciously gleeful about it. Goes on and on about it! Has tortured me ever since she and her vulture of a mother smashed my life to pieces—going on and on at me about how big I am, how heavy I am, how clumping and lumping and pathetically, pitifully plain and repulsive I am, how I’m just an embarrassing joke! Someone to laugh at and sneer at and look down on! Elephant Ellen...
Max made a sound in his throat and his dark eyes flashed. ‘And has it never dawned on you that Chloe, with her tiny size zero frame, would consider a greyhound to be the size of an elephant?’ He took a heavy breath and his eyes bored into her. Something in Greek escaped his lips.
Ellen could only stare at him, her face stricken at the ugly memory of Chloe’s years of merciless cruelty about her appearance.
‘I fully appreciate,’ he said, now speaking in English, spelling out each word carefully, emphatically, so that they would penetrate her skull, reach deep inside her where they needed to reach, ‘that for whatever reason—the fashion industry, the prevalence of eating disorders and God knows what else!—extreme thinness is currently regarded as beautiful. And I fully appreciate,’ he went on, not letting Ellen do anything except sit and stare at him with blank eyes full of helpless misery, ‘that Chloe happens to fit the current description of what makes for a “fashionable” figure. But—’
He held his hand up now, silencing any retort she might have been likely to make.
‘That is entirely and completely irrelevant. Because you, Ellen...’ He paused, and a new timbre suddenly underlaid his voice, resonating through words that echoed in the sudden shift in his expression. ‘You,’ he breathed, and his eyes were boring into hers, never letting them go for an instant, an iota, ‘have the body of a goddess. A goddess, Ellen.’
There was silence—complete silence. Max let his eyes rest on her, saying nothing more. Watching her react. It was like a slow-motion sequence in a movie. Red washed into her face like a tide, then drained out, leaving it white and stark. Her eyes distended, then shut like the shell of a clam.
‘Don’t,’ she said. ‘Please don’t.’
But he did. ‘The body of a goddess,’ he repeated. ‘Don’t tell me you don’t—because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen damn nearly all of it. And believe me...’
Suddenly his long, long lashes swept down over his dark, dark eyes and Ellen felt a kind of hollowing out in her stomach that had nothing to do with the tide of misery that had been drowning her and everything to do with the hot, humid memory of how she’d been wearing only a sports bra and brief shorts when he’d seen her out running that time.
‘I liked what I saw. I liked it, Ellen...’ and now there was a huskiness in his voice ‘...a lot.’
He shifted in his seat, relaxing now, his broad shoulders moulding the back of the chair, a smile starting to curve his mouth. ‘I’ve seen a lot of women with fantastic figures, Ellen—and my time with Tyla Brentley, especially when I was out in LA with her, supplied that amply!—so I promise you, you can trust my judgement on these matters. And you can trust my word, too.’
His expression changed, and so did his voice.
‘My word,’ he announced, ‘is that I will donate five thousand pounds to your city kids charity today if you will agree to the following. To put yourself into the hands of the team of stylists this afternoon and let them do whatever it is they do. When they’ve done it, if you still don’t want to come to the ball tonight I will let you off and double the five thousand pounds. If you do want to come, however, I’ll triple it.’ He gave a brief, slashing smile. ‘Deal?’ he posed.
Ellen stared back.
Five thousand pounds... Ten—because of course it would be ten! Of course she wouldn’t want to go to the ball tonight. No way on God’s earth would she volunteer for such an ordeal, however desperately she was scrubbed at by whatever professional make-up artists and the like he had lined up. Yet even as she made that mental averment she could still hear his voice echoing in her head.
The body of a goddess, Ellen.
She heard it, felt it—felt its power. Its temptation.
‘Well?’ he prompted.
He was holding his hand out across the table. His large, square, strong hand. Into which slowly—very slowly—her own hand seemed to be placing itself, though her head was still reeling with what he’d said to her.
‘Good,’ said Max. ‘So that’s all settled, then.’ Satisfaction was blatant in his voice. He sat back, withdrawing his hand, moving it towards the coffee pot and starting to pour. ‘Cream?’
