Well, he would prove them wrong. Prove that he could achieve by his own efforts what they had denied him.
Making himself rich—vastly so—had proved him to be the son of his philandering Greek shipping magnate father, with as much spending power as the man who had disowned him. And his marriage, he had determined, would prove himself the son of his aristocratic, adulterous French mother, enabling him to move in the same elite social circles as she, even though he was nothing more than her unwanted bastard.
Abruptly he turned away, heading back inside. Such thoughts, such memories, were always toxic—always bitter.
Down below, Nadya emerged from the water, realised Nikos was no longer watching her and, with an angry pout, seized her wrap and glowered up at the deserted balcony.
* * *
Diana sat trying not to look bored as the after-dinner speaker droned on about capital markets and fiscal policies—matters she knew nothing about and cared less. But she was attending this City livery company’s formal dinner in one of London’s most historic buildings simply because her partner here was an old acquaintance—Toby Masterson. And he was someone she was considering marrying.
For Toby was rich—very rich—having inherited a merchant bank. Which meant he could amply fund Greymont’s restoration. He was also someone she would never fall in love with—and that was good. Diana’s clear grey eyes shadowed. Good because love was dangerous. It destroyed people’s happiness, ruined lives.
It had destroyed her father’s happiness when her mother had deserted her doting husband for a billionaire Australian media mogul, never to be seen again. At the age of ten Diana had learnt the danger of loving someone who might not return that love—whether it was the mother who’d abandoned her without a thought, or a man who might break her heart by not loving her, as her mother had broken her father’s heart.
She knew, sadly, how protective it had made him over her. She had lost her mother—he would not let her lose the home she loved so much, her beloved Greymont, the one place where she had felt safe after her mother’s desertion. Life could change traumatically—the mother she’d loved had abandoned her—but Greymont was a constant, there for ever. Her home for ever.
Guilt tinged her expression now. Her father had sacrificed his own chance of finding happiness in a second marriage in order to ensure that there would never be a son to take precedence over her, to ensure that she would inherit Greymont.
Yet if she were to pass Greymont on to her own children she must one day marry—and, whilst she would not risk her heart in love, surely she could find a man with whom she could be on friendly terms, sufficiently compatible to make enduring a lifetime with him not unpleasant, with both of them dedicated to preserving Greymont?
A nip of anxiety caught at her expression. The trouble was, she’d always assumed she would have plenty of time to select such a man. But now, with the dire financial situation she was facing, she needed a rich husband fast. Which meant she could not afford to be fussy.
Her eyes rested on Toby as he listened to the speaker and she felt her heart sink. Toby Masterson was amiable and good-natured—but, oh, he was desperately, desperately dull. And, whilst she would never risk marrying a man she might fall in love with, she did at least want a man with whom the business of conceiving a child would not be...repulsive.
She gave a silent shudder at the thought of Toby’s overweight body against hers, his pudgy features next to hers, trying not to be cruel, but knowing it would be gruelling for her to endure his clumsy embraces...
Could I endure that for years and years—decades?
The question hovered in her head, twisting and cringing.
She pulled her gaze away, not wanting to think such thoughts. Snapped her eyes out across the lofty banqueting hall, filled with damask-covered tables and a sea of city-folk in dinner jackets and women in evening gowns.
And suddenly, instead of a faceless mass of men in DJs, she saw that one of them had resolved into a single individual, at a table a little way away, sitting on the far side of it. A man whose dark, heavy-lidded gaze was fixed on her.
* * *
Nikos lounged back in his chair, long fingers curved around his brandy glass, indifferent to the after-dinner speaker who was telling him things about capital markets and fiscal policies that he knew already. Instead, his thoughts were about his personal life.
Who would he choose as his trophy wife? The woman who, now that he had achieved a vast wealth to rival that of his despised father, would be his means to achieve entry into the socially elite world of his aristocratic but heartless mother. Proving to himself, and to the world, and above all to the parents who had never cared about him, that their unwanted offspring had done fine—just fine—without them.
His brow furrowed. Marriage was supposed to be lifelong, but did he want that—even with a trophy wife? His affair with Nadya had lasted two years before boredom had set in. Would he want any longer in a marriage? Once he had got what a trophy wife offered him—his place in her world—he could do without her very well.
Certainly there would be no question of love in the relationship, for that was an emotion quite unknown to him. He had never loved Nadya, nor she him—they had merely been useful to each other. The foster couple paid to raise him had not loved him. They had not been unkind, merely uninterested, and he had no contact with them now. As for his birth parents... His mouth twisted, his eyes hardening. Had they considered their sordid adulterous affair to be about love?
He snapped his mind away. Went back to considering the question of his future trophy wife. First, though, he had to sever relations with Nadya, currently in New York at a fashion show. He would tell her tactfully, thanking her for the time they’d had together—which had been good, as he was the first to acknowledge—before she flew back. He would bestow upon her a lavish farewell gift—her favourite emeralds—and wish her well. Doubtless she was prepared for this moment, and would have his successor selected already.
Just as he was now planning to select the next woman in his life.
He eased his shoulders back in the chair, taking another mouthful of his cognac. He was here in London on business, attending this City function specifically for networking, and he let his dark gaze flicker out over the throng of diners, identifying those he wished to approach once the tedious after-dinner speaker was finally done.
He was on the point of lowering his brandy glass, when he halted. His gaze abruptly zeroed in on one face. A woman sitting a few tables away.
Until now his view of her had been obscured, but as other diners shifted to face the after-dinner speaker she had become visible.
His gaze narrowed assessingly. She was extraordinarily beautiful, in a style utterly removed from the fiery, dramatic features of Nadya. This woman was blonde, the hair drawn back into a French pleat as pale as her alabaster complexion, her face fine-boned, her eyes clear, wide-set, her perfect mouth enhanced with lip-gloss. She looked remote, her beauty frozen.
One phrase slid across his mind.