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‘You are a hell of a sight more important to me. It was no big deal until you went missing tonight and, let me tell you, you’ve put me through complete hell in the space of a few hours!’
Pale and drawn, Ella slowly breathed in. ‘Have I really?’
‘Why didn’t you phone me from the hospital? You could have let me know what had happened, not cleared off in an air ambulance as if I didn’t exist!’ Aristandros launched at her, his strong bone-structure rigid beneath his bronzed skin. ‘Ianthe was out and I couldn’t get hold of her, so I had no idea an emergency had come up. All the domestic staff knew was that you had gone off somewhere with her. I was worried about you—’
‘Why? What could possibly have happened to me on the island?’ Ella couldn’t believe she was managing to stay so calm.
Aristandros glowered at her as if that was a very stupid question. ‘You could have had an accident. I knew something must have gone badly wrong when you didn’t show up at the opera house, because you’re usually very reliable.’
‘Oh…’
‘And then Yannis phoned after you had left the hospital to rave about how wonderful you had been with his daughter, and I began to understand what had happened. But you never arrived at Drakon’s house because he checked.’
‘Drakon’s house? Why would I have arrived there?’ Ella questioned uncertainly.
‘That’s where you sent your dress.’
‘Ianthe organised that.’ Ella hesitated. ‘I assumed it had been sent to the villa outside Athens.’
‘Ianthe knew I had a bunch of guests staying there this week, so she wouldn’t have sent it there.’
‘Guests?’ Ella echoed weakly.
‘I understand that you may have met one of them,’ Aristandros pointed out with laden emphasis.
Suddenly the atmosphere was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.
Ella was very still and she stood very straight. ‘Is that what you call the young woman I met—a guest?’
‘So you did rise—or should I say sink—to the worst possible conclusion,’ Aristandros gathered, his sensual mouth compressed into a grim line of disapproval. ‘Eda is my niece, the daughter of my father’s youngest sister.’
Her stress level rising as his explanation gathered pace, Ella’s brow had indented. ‘Are you saying Eda was the girl I ran into? And that she’s a relative of yours? If that’s true, why was she in the master-bedroom en suite?’
‘I have no idea. Her parents left her at the villa while they attended the opera because she refused to go. She’s something of a handful, and fairly spoilt. Maybe she was trying out the facilities or just exploring while she had the house to herself. How should I know?’
Ella was mentally running through the explanation to see if it could fit what she had seen.
‘You can ask her when you meet her tomorrow.’
‘I’m going to meet her?’ Ella framed uncertainly.
‘I’m throwing a party on the island for my relatives tomorrow.’
As Ella began to hope that she had totally misinterpreted the girl’s presence at the villa, her legs seemed to go hollow, and her head swam. That physical weakness was her body’s response to the powerful rush of relief assailing her. ‘Oh, my goodness,’ she framed. ‘I thought…’
Aristandros reached for her hands and pulled her closer. His dark-golden eyes were raw with reproach. ‘Yes, you immediately assumed that I was shagging a sixteen-year-old behind your back!’
‘She’s only sixteen?’ Ella mumbled, clinging to his hands to stay upright while she acknowledged that the girl had indeed looked very young.
‘I prefer rather more mature specimens of womanhood, khriso mou,’ Aristandros spelt out levelly. ‘Although that does make me wonder why I’m with you, because sometimes you seem to react more like an impulsive airhead of a teenager than the intelligent adult I know you to be.’
A flood of hot moisture engulfed her eyes in a tide, and she blinked repeatedly while staring down at their still-linked hands. ‘Her underwear was lying on the bedroom floor. She was only wearing a towel. I did think you must have been with her…’
‘No.’ His handsome jaw clenched. ‘For that matter, I haven’t been with anyone else since you came back into my life.’
Ella was so relieved by that admission that a sob escaped her. ‘But that agreement said—’
‘That was just me acting like a gorilla and beating my chest to ensure you had some healthy respect for me,’ Aristandros admitted, gripping her hands so tightly in his that she was convinced they would go entirely numb. ‘I’d like to go home now. I appreciate that it’s late, but the helicopter is standing by at the airport, and I very much want to get back to the island tonight.’
