screamed through her as she sniffed and blew her nose over her breakfast in the dining room. She was a garish match for her elegantly furnished surroundings, clad as she was in comfy old pyjamas and a silky, boldly patterned kimono robe that had seen better days. She had left her fancy new wardrobe behind on Palos as a statement of rejection that she wanted Angel to notice. She had wanted him to appreciate that she didn’t need him or his money or those stupid designer clothes, even if that was a lie.
Her real problem, however, was that pain and hurt magnified everything and distorted logic. She had told Angel that she was leaving him because pride had demanded she act as though she were strong and decisive rather than betray the reality that she was broken up and confused and horribly hurt.
The thwack-thwack of a helicopter coming into land made her head ache even more and she gulped down more tea, desperate to soothe her ragged nerves. She heard the slam of the front door and she stiffened, her head jerking up as the dining-room door opened without warning and framed Angel’s tall, powerful form. She could not have been more appalled had he surprised her naked because she knew she looked like hell. Her eyes and nose were red, her hair was tangled.
‘Will you come into the drawing room?’ Angel asked grimly. ‘There’s someone here to see you.’
‘I’m not dressed,’ she protested stiltedly, her head lowering to hide her face as she stumbled upright, desperate to make a quick escape from his astute gaze.
‘You’ll do fine,’ Angel told her callously, dark eyes cold and treacherous as black ice.
‘I can’t see anyone looking like this,’ Merry argued vehemently, striving to leave the room and flee upstairs by sidestepping him, but she found him as immoveable in the doorway as a rock.
‘You’ll be in very good company. I swear she’s cried all the way from Greece,’ Angel informed her incomprehensibly, gripping her elbow with a firm hand and practically thrusting her into the room next door.
Merry’s feet froze to the floor when she saw the woman standing by the window. It was Roula, looking something less than her usually sophisticated and stylish self. Her ashen complexion only emphasised her swollen eyes and pink nose and she was convulsively shredding a tissue between her restive fingers.
‘I’m so...so sorry!’ she gasped, facing Merry. ‘I lied to you.’
Angel shot something at the other woman in irate Greek and she groaned and snapped something back, and then the door closed behind Merry and when she turned her head again, Angel was gone, leaving them alone.
‘You lied to me?’ Merry prompted in astonishment.
‘I was trying to frighten you off. I thought if you left him he might finally turn to me,’ Roula framed shakily, her voice hoarse with embarrassment and misery.
‘Oh,’ Merry mumbled rather blankly. ‘You’re not his mistress, then?’
‘No, that was nonsense,’ Roula framed hoarsely. ‘We’ve never had sex either. Angel’s never been interested in me that way, but because we were such good friends I thought if you broke up with him he would confide in me and maybe start seeing me in a different light. But it’s not going to happen. He said the idea of me and him ever being intimate was disgusting, incestuous. I wish I’d worked out that that’s how he saw me years ago. I’d have saved myself a lot of heartache.’
Merry experienced a very strong desire to pat the blonde’s shoulder to comfort her and had to fight the weird prompting off. She could see that the other woman felt humiliated and guilty and very sad. ‘Did Angel force you to come here and tell me this?’
‘Well, it wasn’t my idea, but he said I owed him and he was right. From the moment he told me that he was marrying you I was so jealous of you!’ Roula confessed with a sudden wrenching sob, clamping her hand to her mouth and getting herself back under control again before continuing, ‘Why you? I asked myself. Why not me? You worked for him and he never ever sleeps with his employees and yet he slept with you...and you’ve got a great figure and you’re very pretty but you’re not exactly supermodel material...and then you totally freak him out by having a baby and yet somehow he’s now crazy about the baby as well!’
‘Have you always been in love with him?’ Merry mumbled uncomfortably, grasping that, by Roula’s reckoning, Angel deciding to marry her qualified as an unbelievable and quite undeserved miracle.
‘When I was a teenager it was just a crush. He was my best friend. I knew all the rotten things Angelina has ever done to him and it broke my heart. I learned how to handle her to keep her out of his hair, to try and help him cope with her. That’s why she likes me, that’s why she decided that he should marry me if he ever married anyone. I’ve had other relationships, of course,’ Roula told her wryly. ‘But every time one broke down, I told myself it would’ve been different with Angel. He was my ideal, my Mr Right...at least he was until he dragged me onto that plane and shouted at me half the night!’
‘His temper’s rough,’ Merry conceded while frantically trying to work out how she had so badly misjudged the man whom she had married. It was obvious that Roula was now telling her the truth. Bitter jealousy had driven the blonde into an attempt to destroy Angel’s marriage.
‘And he’s like the elephant who never forgets when you cross him. He’ll never forgive me for causing all this trouble,’ Roula muttered with weary regret.
‘He’ll get over it,’ Molly said woodenly, wondering if he would ever forgive her either.
‘I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry,’ the blonde framed guiltily. ‘I know that’s not much consolation in the circumstances but I deeply regret lying to you. I didn’t think it through. I told myself you’d probably got deliberately pregnant and planned the whole thing to trap him. I could see he was happy on your wedding day but I wouldn’t admit that to myself and if anyone merits being happy, it’s Angel.’
‘I think we can forget about this now,’ Merry commented uncomfortably. ‘I can’t put my hand on my heart and say that I forgive you, but I am grateful you explained why you did it and I do understand.’
‘Fair enough,’ Roula sighed as she opened the door to leave.
Merry tensed when she saw Angel poised across the hall, straightening to his full predatory height, shrewd dark eyes scanning her like a radiation counter.
‘I told the truth,’ Roula told him flatly. ‘Can I leave now?’
‘You’re satisfied?’ Angel demanded of Merry.
She nodded in embarrassed confirmation.
‘I’ll have you returned to the airport,’ Angel informed Roula curtly.
Merry took advantage of his momentary inattention to head for the stairs at a very fast rate of knots. She wanted to splash her face, clean her teeth, brush her hair and ditch the pyjamas with the pink bunny rabbits on them. Then she would work out what she had to say to him to redress the damage she had done with her lack of faith. Possibly a spot of grovelling would be appropriate, obviously a heartfelt apology...
She was caught unprepared and halfway into a pair of jeans when Angel strode into the bedroom. He thrust the door shut, leant his long, lean frame sinuously back against it and studied her with brooding dark eyes.
‘I’m sorry... I’m really sorry,’ she muttered,
