if she should run, and keep on running. Walking through to the lounge, she dropped her coat on the couch and went to pour herself a brandy. She needed it. His presence had been a shock. She had never expected to see him again after the divorce. After all, she thought, lips twisting, why would he come back when he had already got everything he wanted?
Once she had believed she was the embodiment of the sentiment in those three words, but she had only been his tool. He had made his plans like a general. All the soft words and loving looks, right down to the vows they had exchanged, everything had been designed with one purpose—to get him within sight of his goal.
She hadn’t known anybody could pretend like that. She had loved him, and she had believed he loved her. Her mouth twisted. But that was what she had been supposed to think. Her naïveté was like a scourge to her already lacerated soul. She had been a young twenty-one to his vastly more experienced twenty-nine. He couldn’t have known for certain that she would fall in love with him, only that he knew enough about women to be able to make it a distinct possibility.
Shivering, Alix curled up in an armchair. Pierce had been right about her love life. She didn’t have one, and was there really any wonder? What she had suffered at his hands had made her fear the fire like any sane person. Never again would she trust any man with her happiness. Oh, she had men who were friends, and whom she sometimes dated, but although she knew some of them would like to deepen the relationship she had always been careful to keep them at a distance.
Her friends had stopped asking her why she had changed so after her return from America when she had stonewalled every question. Though they still tried to pair her up, it was half-hearted at best, and they obeyed her unspoken wish for privacy.
She closed her eyes. Stopping questions was one thing, stopping memories was something else. In the beginning they had been her scourge to remind her of what must never happen again. The scenes had been played over one by one, but although they had haunted her, waking and sleeping, for the past five years, the intervals between had lengthened. She hadn’t thought of him for a long time, but tonight everything returned with a vengeance.
Pierce had been so clever, manipulating her into believing what she wanted to believe—that he loved her. Only he hadn’t. That had been made manifestly obvious to her in one short hour. He had acted out his part with such consummate skill that it wasn’t till the morning after the wedding that she discovered the man she had married was nothing but a sham.
On the day that should have been the beginning of their life together she had finally met the real Pierce Martineau...
CHAPTER TWO
IT HAD been a hard day at work. Not that Alix minded hard work at all. She was coming to the end of a six-month exchange, and finding out how a sister company worked would surely put her in good stead for her return to England, now only a few weeks away, where she would take up her job as a junior executive in the publishing business her father had built up. However, her new friends socialised at night with just the same energy as they used during the working day, and she wasn’t quite used to partying to all hours. Which was why she was feeling tired, and why she was thankful that tonight she had already arranged a visit to the theatre with some friends of her father’s.
The play was excellent, and she was discussing it enthusiastically in the foyer during the first break when she felt eyes on her. It was an uncanny sensation, raising the hairs on her flesh, and it was almost as if those unknown eyes were compelling her to turn around. Which she did because she couldn’t help herself, eyes scanning the crowd for mere seconds before they locked with eyes of such a vivid blue, they seemed to spear her to her soul. Her lips parted on a silent gasp as she seemed unable to tear her gaze away from the man who stood mere yards away. In those seconds something elemental flew between them, then someone claimed his attention, and she was released.
Instantly Alix turned away, but a stronger compulsion had her looking back over her shoulder. She was aware of her heart galloping madly and unconsciously pressed a hand to her throat. He was still talking, and she could only see his profile, but even that caused a jolt of awareness to lock her stomach muscles. He had to be the most handsome man she had ever seen. His suit fitted him like a glove, and as he was standing with his hands in his pockets the jacket was pushed back, and she had the perfect view of his long legs and muscular thighs. A wave of heat swept through her as her body responded in a way it never had before. Her blood seemed to sing and her mouth went dry. And as she raised stunned eyes she saw him excuse himself and begin to walk towards her.
For a second time she looked away, but the tension in her body alerted her to the exact moment he stopped beside her. Her brain had stopped functioning a long time ago, but she heard her companions greet him with pleasure. His reply was said in a deep, mellow voice that sent shivers up and down her spine. Then she heard her name, and had to pull herself together quickly.
‘Alix, we’d like you to meet a good friend of ours, Pierce Martineau,’ Robert Wells declared jovially. ‘This little lady is English, and the daughter of an old friend, Alix Petrakos.’
Automatically Alix held out her hand, knowing she must be staring helplessly up at him like an idiot. ‘How do you do?’ she greeted huskily, and felt the hand which had swallowed hers tighten fractionally. It was like touching a live wire, and she knew from his indrawn breath that he felt it too.
Pierce Martineau returned that stare silently for a moment, and Alix had the strangest feeling that he was shocked. Then he smiled and cleared his throat. ‘Forgive my rudeness, but I was quite bowled over by your accent. Add that to your beauty, and a mere male is helpless,’ he excused himself with lethal charm.
‘Careful, Alix, Pierce has quite a reputation!’ Olivia Wells warned with a laugh. ‘He’s the original wolf.’
Pierce seemed to release Alix’s hand reluctantly, his attention remaining on her even as he responded to the other woman. ‘Stop maligning me, Livvy, or you’ll scare her off.’
Delicate colour washed into Alix’s cheeks, as she licked her lips nervously, an act which his eyes followed minutely, their colour deepening dramatically. ‘I prefer to make my own judgements about people,’ she declared daringly, and watched his lips curve as he smiled.
‘I’m relieved to hear it,’ he said softly, making Alix feel as if they were the only two people in the room. ‘Petrakos? That sounds Greek, not English.’
‘My family came from Greece after the war. My mother’s English, and I was born there,’ she replied rather breathlessly, just as the bell went for the second act. Biting her lip, she realised they had to go, but the prospect of never seeing this man again made her feel cold inside.
His hand on her arm detained her. ‘May I take you to supper after the play?’
Her heart seemed to be lifted by wings of joy, and she was sure it must be mirrored on her face. Before it fell as she recalled she was the Wellses’ guest. ‘I’d like to, but we’ve already got a table booked.’
‘It seats four,’ Olivia observed wryly. ‘Join us, Pierce.’
‘It will be my pleasure,’ he accepted, all the while keeping his eyes on Alix, who felt she could drown in their fathomless depths. ‘Until later, then,’ he promised huskily, and with a last smile walked away.
‘Well!’ Olivia declared wonderingly. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen Pierce react like that before. You’ve certainly made a hit there, Alix.’
She certainly hoped so. Though she had never really
