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‘I don’t care what she said, hara mou. It didn’t happen. Ever,’ Leonidas said dryly.
‘Oh, my goodness.’ Maribel gazed wide-eyed back at him. ‘She let everyone think that you had been lovers.’
‘No doubt she liked the attention it brought her, but she didn’t appeal to me on that level.’
Maribel nodded like a marionette, because she could scarcely get her mind round the obvious fact that Leonidas had been more attracted to her than he had ever been to her beautiful cousin. ‘But…but why weren’t you attracted to her?’
‘She was good fun, but she was also neurotic and superficial.’ A frown line pleated his fine brows as if he was engaging in deeper thought as well. ‘To be blunt, I knew she wanted me. I assumed that that was why you said you weren’t interested when I kissed you—’
Maribel was bemused and momentarily lost. ‘Kissed…me…when?’
Leonidas shrugged. ‘When I was a student staying in Imogen’s house.’
‘You mean that was a genuine pass…not just some sort of a bad-boy joke?’ Maribel stammered, her mind leaping back almost seven years.
‘Is that what you thought?’ Leonidas gave her a wry look. ‘You pushed me away and it was the right thing to do. Back then, I would definitely have screwed up with you. I didn’t know what was going on inside my own head. Imogen would have got in the way as well. I realised even then that if she couldn’t have me, she didn’t want you to have me either.’
Maribel was hanging on his every word. Discovering that Leonidas had been attracted to her that far back, at the same time as she learnt that he had never wanted Imogen, transformed Maribel’s view of her entire relationship with him. Only now could she see that there had been a definite history between them before they had first shared a bed.
‘Remember the night I told you about my sister? That was when I realised that I wanted you because, afterwards, I didn’t know what I had been doing there in your room talking about all that personal stuff—’
‘Drunk and in Greek,’ Maribel slotted in helplessly.
‘But I’d never done anything like that before with a woman.’ Leonidas mimicked an uneasy masculine shiver. ‘It…it disturbed me that you had this mental pull on me that I couldn’t explain. It was too deep and I wasn’t ready for anything deep at the time.’
‘I know,’ Maribel said feelingly, but the joy was rising steadily inside her, as she would never again have to feel as though she was second-best to her cousin. Imogen had lied about the level of her involvement with Leonidas—which didn’t really surprise Maribel when she thought about it.
‘Imogen told me you cared about me and it was supposed to be a joke,’ Leonidas confided, dark golden eyes resting tautly on her. ‘But I liked the idea and it drew me to you even more, kardoula mou.’
Her cheeks were a warm peach. Unsure what to say, she breathed, ‘But you were upset after Imogen’s funeral.’
‘At the waste of her life, yes. It took me back to when my mother and my sister died. I tried to help Imogen and I failed,’ Leonidas murmured gravely. ‘When she abandoned rehab, I turned my back on her because I refused to watch her die.’
‘You did your best and you weren’t the only one. Nothing worked,’ Maribel breathed with tears glistening in her blue eyes.
‘But you did watch over her and support her long after other people gave up on her. That level of loyalty and love is very rare. I recognised that, even if her family didn’t. When I saw you again at the funeral, nothing would have stopped me seeking you out.’
‘What are you saying?’ Maribel whispered.
‘That if it hadn’t been for your cousin, we would never have met. But once I met you, no other woman really had a chance with me because there was so much in you that I admired.’
‘Even if you weren’t quite ready for all that stuff you admired in me?’ Mirabel prompted unevenly.
‘Even then. You were clever and gutsy and not at all impressed by me or my money. Our first night together was very special—’
‘Special? All you did was ask for breakfast afterwards.’
Leonidas spread lean brown hands in an expressive gesture of reproach at that judgement. ‘Theos mou, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t even appreciate that anything needed to be said in that moment. I suppose I was out of my comfort zone. All I knew was that I was in a wonderful mood. I felt so natural with you. I was devastated when I came out of the shower and found an empty house!’ Leonidas admitted in a raw undertone. ‘No note, no phone call—nothing!’
