There was a note of interest in her voice. Spontaneous, unguarded.
‘They’re an extraordinary phenomenon of nature,’ said Angelos. ‘Rivers of ice moving so slowly, but so powerfully. Though in geological time they are rushing rapids compared with the growth and erosion of the mountains. Yet the Alps themselves are striplings—one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world.’
Thea listened, realising that Angelos seemed to have a real interest in what he was telling her. He went on, explaining about tectonic plates, volcanic activity and mountain-building, and at a pause found herself saying, ‘You know a great deal about it.’
His expression changed. ‘I once wanted to be a geologist,’ he said.
She stared. A geologist? Angelos Petrakos? Who could do anything he wanted?
‘So why didn’t you?’
‘It wasn’t possible,’ he said flatly. ‘Someone had to run the company my father had spent his life creating. It was my inheritance, and it was also my responsibility. I employ a lot of people whose livelihoods are in my hands. I can’t jaunt off to do what I want. Only sometimes—like now—I come here, to the mountains. On my own.’
He frowned, as if he’d just realised what he’d said. Because he wasn’t here on his own.
He didn’t bring women here. It was a place he kept solely for his own use. The place he came when he could let go—briefly—the multiple complex threads of Petrakos International to be here on his own, among the mountains.
And no woman that he knew would want to be here. Those he chose for his liaisons would never have been content to spend their time in this deserted place—spend their days walking the ridges and peaks and cols all day. Nor could he envisage a single one of them discussing tectonic plates with him.
His frown deepened.
‘Why have you an interest in geology?’ he asked abruptly.
‘Because I don’t know anything about it,’ she answered. ‘There’s still so much I don’t know—about so many things.’
He was looking at her, with that unreadable expression in his eyes that she often saw there.
‘“To be ignorant and uneducated is one thing,”’ she said. ‘“To want to remain so is another.”’
A glint showed in his eye. ‘A noble expression,’ he commented.
‘It’s what you said to me,’ she answered, ‘when I said I didn’t know anything about Monte Carlo except that it was full of rich people.’ She took a breath. ‘I resented it at the time, but afterwards I remembered it.’ She took a sip of her appelsaft. ‘It was true—resent it as I did. Only fools stay ignorant by choice. So I chose to learn, instead.’
‘You’ve learnt a great deal,’ he said. ‘You’ve changed almost beyond recognition. I don’t just mean your appearance, your accent. Its much more than that.’
She looked away. ‘You never knew me,’ she replied.
‘I knew enough.’ His voice was harsh suddenly.
Involuntarily her eyes went back to him. Clashed with his. Then, abruptly, his eyes were veiled, and when he spoke again his voice was milder.
‘And I still do.’
His voice was like silk across her skin.
Inside her ribs she could feel her heart give a sudden pulse. Danger pressed around her …
She felt it still, even after the meal had finished and they went into the lounge to have coffee served to them by Franz. As the manservant poured it out Angelos crossed to the well-stocked bookshelves behind the sofa in front of the hearth, and returned with a hefty atlas which he placed on the pine coffee table.
‘You wanted to understand tectonic plates, and the formation of the Alps and other mountain ranges?’ he said, settling himself down beside her and opening up the atlas.
Against her will, Thea found her interest outweighing her resistance to having Angelos Petrakos talk to her. Only as he used the illustrations and diagrams in the atlas to explain the complicated process she was disturbed by his physical proximity as he turned the pages. He was too close to her—far too close to her …
She felt her tension mount. Their bodies were almost within touching distance. As if he could feel it, he stopped talking, turning his head to hers. For an endless moment he looked at her.
Too close—too close! Far, far too close!
Her eyes flared in panic.