‘Right back to when you thumped Peter Richards from the year above, for lobbing that conker at me!’
‘Yeah, and then he thumped me back. I can still remember the nosebleed.’ He gave a rueful laugh. ‘Well, I always was foolhardy. Weighing in to fight the big, bad guys.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I’d better go. The tube will be shutting down soon.’
‘You can stay the night if you want.’
He shook his head. ‘No, I’ll make a dawn getaway tomorrow morning. Be in Devon by mid-morning.’
She saw him to the door. Her smile was strained by then, but she kept it pinned to her face.
Only when he had gone did it crumple into little pieces.
Theo eased his dinner jacket over his shoulders. He was due at the opera within the hour, and he still had some phone calls to put in to the States. Not that he was eager to get to the opera, either. Or, indeed, to escort Christina Poussos there. But it was a gala of some kind, and she wanted to show off—and show him off, too, at her side.
His face tightened as he checked his dress tie and slid his wallet into his tuxedo. He’d take her back to her own apartment afterwards. He had no intention of bringing her back here, either, to the Theakis mansion, or to his office penthouse.
Above all, not there.
He hadn’t used it much recently. It was a damn nuisance that it was part of the Theakis HQ or he’d have sold it straight away. He must buy another city apartment. It might not be as convenient as the one at his HQ, but it would have fewer…. associations.
It was irritating that he could not dispose of this mansion, either. But it had been the Theakis family residence for too long for him to sell. Even so, he was spending less and less time there.
He’d already sold another property he possessed. One with a sea view.
And far, far too many memories…
He picked up his mobile and headed downstairs. Christina wanted him to arrive early, to collect her from her apartment, but he did not intend to do so. She would want sex, and he was not intending to oblige her. He was not in the mood for sex.
These days he was seldom in the mood for sex.
And when he was it was definitely not Christina that he wanted.
Or any other suitable woman.
He stalked across the wide hallway and into his study, shutting the door with unnecessary force. Then he started to make his calls.
He needed something to divert him. His mood was not good.
Damn her—damn her to hell…
Anger stabbed through him. She was nothing but a shameless, adulterous—
He cut the thought out of his head. He knew what she was—so what was the point of repeating it? She was out of his life now, and no power on earth could let her intrude again. She had been a mistake—a bad mistake. But that was hardly a reason for making a bad situation worse.
Deliberately, he conjured an image of Christina Poussos to his mind. She was chic, beautiful, desirable. Better still, she quite obviously wanted to restart their former affair—the one that had been interrupted when she’d decided to marry. But now she was back in circulation, her marriage over, and she was eager to show the world that she was still capable of picking the lovers she wanted. Well, maybe he would change his mind and oblige her after all. She had meant little to him the first time around, and she would mean less this time, but her advantage was that she was a known commodity. With Christina Poussos he knew exactly what he was getting.
Unlike—
He cut out again. Like a circuit breaker. A safety trip.
The ring tones on his phone ceased, and the voice of the person he was calling answered. He leant back in his chair and started to talk business.
Another safety trip. He needed a lot of them these days.
It was some twenty minutes later that the house phone went. It would be his chauffeur, reminding him they must set off or miss the start of the opera. That wouldn’t bother him, but it would put Christina in a sulk—she liked making a grand entrance. And since he wanted sex from her tonight he didn’t want to have to dispose of female sulks beforehand. Not that Christina would deny him her bed. She would be too triumphant to risk taking that tack. She knew all too well that there were any number of women who would follow her. There always had been. He’d always taken it for granted that since he was Theo Theaki
s he would never be short of willing females to interest him sexually. He was not conceited—merely realistic. It was not a big issue.
Nor was it a major concern in his life. His major concern was Theakis Corp, and ensuring that those in his employ kept their jobs. It was all too easy to see how danger could threaten—Aristides Fournatos was demonstration of that. Theo’s expression changed. Despite the disaster that his ill-judged marriage had proved, he did not regret it. He had done the right thing, he knew. Business was a close-knit affair, and mutual co-operation was mutually profitable. He had made substantial money from his investment in Fournatos, and honoured his father’s memory, as well, standing by one of his close friends.