Why? Why was he so angry and possessive? Because she was his wife?
Wife in name only, he told himself fiercely. And tonight, he would finally get his revenge. Once she saw her old love, she would remember everything. He would see her face crumple when she realized how she’d been caught.
“Talos!” The hostess, a thirtysomething socialite married to a Greek tycoon three times her age, came forward to greet him with a big smile. “What a wonderful surprise, darling! Your assistant sent your regrets. And—” She looked at Eve and her eyes went wide. “Oh my goodness. Eve Craig. I didn’t expect—I never thought you might—”
“Is Skinner here?” Talos interrupted.
The woman had been staring at Eve in consternation, but now she whirled to face Talos, biting her lip. “I heard you were in Australia. I never would have invited him otherwise,” she implored. “Please, darling, I don’t want trouble!”
“Don’t worry, Agata,” he replied, gritting his teeth into a smile. “We’re just going to have a bit of a chat.”
She exhaled. “I’ll hold you to that.” She eyed Eve, then as photographers came close to take their picture, put her arm around her and smiled before giving her an air kiss. “I didn’t realize you and Talos were still an item, Eve darling.”
“We are,” Eve replied coldly, then folded her arms as she waited for Talos.
Clenching his jaw, he looked downstairs over the railing. The cavernous white stone building was decorated with candles and modern-day icons looking up mournfully from gilded frames. All of the international party set was here to celebrate Agata’s twenty-ninth birthday—her third such party, if he recalled correctly. Suddenly, across the room, past the dance floor and the colorfully painted wooden bar with Agata’s handselected shirtless bartenders, Talos saw his rival—Jake Skinner.
Talos glanced quickly at Eve, waiting for her to see the tall American tycoon. Instead, she was staring up at him with an angry frown, searing him with her violetblue eyes.
“Enjoying yourself?” she said acidly. “Is this why you married me? So you could parade me at parties like your little doll?”
“I can do whatever I want with you,” he said coldly.
Cupping her bare arm, he steered her down the stairs and straight across the room to Jake Skinner. With a flicker of his eyes, Talos looked between them, waiting for recognition to cross Eve’s beautiful face at the sight of the man she’d dated before Talos. The man who held her loyalty. The man she loved.
Whirling around, the rugged American playboy nearly gasped at the sight of Talos. He looked around nervously for the exits. “Xenakis, it’s a public place. Don’t even think about—”
“Relax. I’m here to enjoy myself.”
Skinner visibly exhaled.
“No hard feelings, right?” he said in a jocular voice. “I only gave that document to the press because it seemed as if you were breaking the law.”
That, plus he’d hoped to gain massive profit for his own shareholders, Talos thought. He bared his teeth into a smile. “Of course, I understand. For all you knew, I might have been guilty. And no one—” he looked down at Eve “—should remain unpunished for their crimes.”
Eve’s brow furrowed as she stared up at him, as if trying to understand the meaning beneath his words. She didn’t seem to have any interest in Jake Skinner whatsoever.
Why wasn’t this working? Skinner was the love of her life. He had to be. There could be no other reason for her cold-blooded betrayal of him in June. So why wasn’t she reacting at the sight of him? Why wasn’t she crying out his name, gasping out her sudden memory, turning to Talos in horror and realizing she’d been irrevocably caught?
Clenching his jaw, Talos turned to give his rival a hard smile. “And just to show you there’s no hard feelings, Skinner, here?
??s a little peace offering.”
He shoved Eve toward him. She stumbled in surprise, nearly tripping on her six-inch stiletto heels.
The American’s jaw dropped, and his voice hit a high octave as he gasped, “Your peace offering is—Eve?”
“Forget it, you bastard,” Eve said furiously, whirling back to face Talos. “I won’t do it. I won’t even dance with him—”
“You will.”
She sucked in her breath, and for a moment he thought she meant to slap his face.
Then she straightened her spine with graceful dignity.
“What a lovely idea,” she said coldly, turning to Skinner with a smile on her scarlet lips. “Shall we dance?”
“Yes,” the man breathed. “Oh, yes.”