The Greek Tycoon's Achilles Heel Read Free Page A

Lysandros.’
    Stavros nodded. ‘Yes, but I gather she became too “emotional”, started expecting too much, so he dropped the husband a hint to rein her in if he knew what was good for him.’
    ‘Surely even Lysandros wouldn’t be so cruel, so cold-blooded—’
    ‘That’s exactly what he is, and in our hearts we all know it,’ Stavros said flatly.
    ‘I wonder about his heart,’ she mused.
    ‘He doesn’t have one, which is why he keeps people at a distance.’
    As the car turned out of the gate Stavros couldn’t resist looking back to the house. Lysandros stood there at the window, watching the world with a brooding air, as though it was his personal property and he had yet to decide how to manage it.
    He remained there until the car had vanished through the gates, then turned back into the room, trying to clear his mind. The conversation had disturbed him and that must be quickly remedied. Luckily an urgent call came through from his manager at the port of Piraeus, to say that they were threatened with union trouble. Lysandros gave him a series of curt orders and promised to be there the next day.
    Today he would attend Homer Lukas’s wedding as an honoured guest. He would shake his rival’s hand, show honour to the bride, and the watching crowds would sigh with disappointment not to see them at each other’s throats, personally as well as professionally.
    Now, more than ever, his father’s advice rang in his head.
    ‘Never, never let them know what you’re thinking.’
    He’d learned that lesson well and, with its aid, he would spend today with a smile on his face, concealing the hatred that consumed him.
    At last it was time for his chauffeur to take him to the Lukas estate. Soon he could see Homer’s ‘Parthenon’, in which the wedding was to take place, and it loomed up high, proclaiming the residence of a wealthy and influential man.
    A fake, he thought grimly. No more authentic than the other ‘Greek setting’ in Las Vegas.
    His thoughts went back to a time that felt like another world and through his mind danced the girl on the roof, skinny, ordinary, yet with an outspoken innocence that had both exasperated and charmed him. And at the last moment, when she’d opened her arms to him, offering a comfort he’d found nowhere else in the world and he’d almost—
    He slammed his mind shut. It was the only way to deal with weakness.
    He wondered how she’d come to be one of the wedding party; probably the daughter of one of Estelle Radnor’s numerous secretaries.
    She might be here today, but it was probably better not to meet again after so long. Time was never kind. The years would have turned her into a dull wife with several children and a faithless husband. Where once she had sparkled, now she would probably seethe.
    Nor had he himself been improved by time, he knew. A heaviness had settled over him, different from the raging grief that had possessed him in those days. That had been a matter of the heart and he’d dealt with it suitably, setting it aside, focusing on his head, where all sensible action took place.
    He’d done what was right and wise, yet he had an uneasy feeling that if he met her now she would look right through him—and disapprove.
    At last they arrived. As he got out of his car and looked around he had to admit that Homer had spent money to great effect. The great temple to the goddess Athena had been recreated much as the original must have looked when it was new. The building was about seventy metres by thirty, the roof held aloft by elegant columns. Marvellous statues abounded, but the greatest of all was the forty-foot statue of Athena, which had mysteriously developed the face of Estelle Radnor.
    He grimaced, wondering how long it would be before he could decently depart.
    But, before he could start his social duties, his cellphone shrilled. It was a text message.
    I’m sorry about what I said. I was upset. You seemed to be pulling away when we’d been