As she pressed her chin against Eva’s head, she met the ebony slice of Xanthos’s gaze over the softly tousled curls and a pang of something unknown tugged painfully inside her. Was that a warning she had read in his eyes? With an unexpectedly heavy heart, she handed the baby back to Emma and prepared to accompany the Constantinides family into the main lobby.
Most of the Granchester staff were lined up on either side of the Christmas tree to welcome their boss, and a teddy bear and toy drum were produced for Eva and Leo, to delighted squeals. Afterwards, they went to the hotel’s famous Garden Room, where tea was served. The courtyard outside was lit with hundreds of white lights, and tiny silvery stars were laced through the bare branches of the trees. In a far corner of the restaurant was a miniature battery-operated ice rink, on which tiny skaters in festive clothes of green and red whirled round and round. The two men took the children over for a closer look, while Bianca and Emma surveyed the glut of Christmas fare piled on the table with slight dismay, before ordering nothing stronger than ginger tea.
‘You have two very beautiful children,’ Bianca commented as the two women sat down.
Emma smiled. ‘They like you. You’re obviously a natural.’ Her voice was soft but when Bianca didn’t answer the unspoken question, she carried on speaking. ‘I gather you’ve just come through a pretty horrendous experience.’
Bianca nodded, because she could hardly confess that what had happened subsequently had been enough to erase the plane crash from her mind. ‘Yes, it was.’ She hesitated. ‘But Xanthos was absolutely amazing. I don’t know whether anyone else would have coped as well as he did.’
‘Mmm... I imagine he’d be a good person to have around in an emergency.’ Emma’s expression grew curious. ‘He said he met you in Monterosso, at your sister’s wedding.’
‘That’s right.’
Emma glanced across the room. ‘That man is a constant surprise. We had no idea he knew the King. But he certainly looks more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him.’ There was a pause. ‘You’re obviously very good for him, Bianca.’
Bianca wanted to beg the elegant blonde not to say things like that, because it sparked the kind of hope she wasn’t supposed to be entertaining. Hope for a future which could never be hers, with a man who wanted different things.
As Xanthos walked back across the restaurant with Zac and his children, he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from Bianca, who was sitting next to Emma and chatting easily to her—as if the two women had been friends for years. A sense of apprehension was rapidly building up inside him—yet another brick to add to his growing disquiet that here was a woman with the potential to destabilise him. He had watched the way she’d behaved with baby Eva—how her expression had grown tender and dreamy as she had cradled the little girl in her arms. That had been the clucky behaviour of a woman aware of her biological clock ticking—and whether or not that had been unconscious, he needed to heed the implicit warning in what he had seen. He had become so lost in her innocence, so bewitched by the wonder of her sexual awakening, that he had failed to look ahead. And he needed to.
They drank their tea and eventually rose to leave and, amid invitations to visit the Constantinides villa on Santorini any time they wanted a Greek vacation, he and Bianca returned to their suite.
‘Oh, they’re such a lovely family,’ she said, breaking the silence which had fallen during the elevator ride to the top of the hotel.
‘Yes,’ he agreed steadily. ‘They are.’
‘Do you see much of them?’
‘Not really. Our lives are very different now.’
But he could detect her sudden nervousness as they surveyed each other across the vastness of the luxurious suite, as if unsure of what to do next. Was that why she hurriedly walked over to the window, even though darkness had fallen?
‘Oh, look—it’s snowing,’ she said.
He could hear the rush of relief in her voice, though whether that was because she was a lover of snow, or because it gave her something to talk about other than the thing they most definitely weren’t talking about, he didn’t know. But Xanthos knew he couldn’t keep skating around the subject. Didn’t he have enough unspoken stuff on his mind already, without adding even more to the heap?
‘Bianca—’
She turned round and instantly he could sense that something had changed between them. Was it the tone of his voice which helped pave the way for that, or the way he let her name hang in the air—like a feather which was stubbornly refusing to float to the ground? Because suddenly he could see a different Bianca—a more brittle and watchful version of the woman who had given him her innocence. She was no longer the lover, eager to embrace her new-found sexuality. Her expression was cool and mildly questioning. He could imagine her adopting that look if she were dealing with a client in her lawyer’s practice, perhaps twirling a pen in between her long fingers as she prepared to take notes. And if now he wanted to wipe away all her sudden froideur with the urgent press of his lips—he realised that to do so would be self-indulgent.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said heavily. ‘But I can’t give you what you want.’
‘You can spare me the prepared speech, Xanthos.’ Her voice was quiet but her dignified smile touched something buried deep in his heart.
‘You don’t know what I was going to say.’
‘No, but I can probably guess. You were going to tell me there’s no future in this thing between us—or something along those lines.’ She shrugged. ‘But that’s okay, because to be honest—I agree.’
He frowned. ‘You do?’
She gave him a frowning look, as if he were being either dense or disingenuous, and he felt himself resenting her cool logic.
‘Of course I do. I’m not stupid. I may not be experienced with men but that doesn’t mean I can’t read the signs. What did you think I was going to do—pin you down for a date? Or demand that we start synchronising our diaries, even though I live in London and you live in New York?’
‘I saw the way you were with Zac and Emma’s children,’ he growled. ‘You want a family of your own one day—that much was obvious. You’d already told me that, but seeing you with Eva and Leo made me realise that carrying on would be crazy, because we want different things.’
‘I know that...’ she breathed, brushing her fingertips against the scarlet hem of her dress. ‘And, just for the record, I wasn’t expecting a relationship simply because you were the first man I had sex with. Believe it or not, I really am a modern woman—though, admittedly, a late starter. So why don’t we just agree to part on the most amicable of terms and enjoy the memory of what happened?’
And for the first time in as long as he could remember, Xanthos was completely lost for words.