Bride Behind The Billion-Dollar Veil. Clare Connelly

      ‘Fine.’ Alice checked everything was in order and without looking in Thanos’s direction—perhaps out of fear that she might not easily be able to look away again—she returned to her own desk.

      Not five minutes later, the lift doors pinged open and a man emerged. Older than Alice had expected, with a lined face and a kind smile, his hair was greying, his body a little stooped, dressed in a suit that looked bespoke with expensive leather shoes.

      ‘Stathakis?’ he said as he approached Alice’s desk.

      ‘This way, sir.’ She stood, gesturing towards Thanos’s office. At the door, she knocked twice and then pushed it inwards, stepping back to allow the older Greek man to precede her.

      From her vantage point, she saw the way Thanos’s body momentarily tensed and the determination she’d observed moments earlier was back, a palpable force in the room.

      Kosta spoke first, in Greek, and Thanos returned the greeting in their native tongue before switching to English.

      ‘Alice, my assistant, doesn’t speak Greek.’

      Kosta threw a look over his shoulder and then shrugged. ‘Perhaps you can tell me why I have been summoned here?’

      Even that was a telling statement. Thanos Stathakis had the power to summon just about anyone to his office, and it was a power he had flexed this morning.

      ‘You don’t know?’

      Kosta shrugged his shoulders. ‘I presume it has something to do with P & A?’

      Thanos’s stare was direct. ‘Yes.’ He gestured towards the table. ‘Please, take a seat.’

      The old man hesitated for a moment and then did as he’d been bid, moving to a chair on one side of the table and settling himself into it. Alice watched as he lifted the coffee to his lips, sipping it, then returning the cup to the saucer at the same time Thanos took a seat at the head of the table.

      ‘You’ve received my offer?’ That confidence was back, brimming and blinding. Alice stared covertly at Thanos as she settled herself at the end of the boardroom table, flipping her laptop open and pulling up a blank Word document to take notes.

      ‘My lawyer advised me of it,’ the older man remarked with another shrug of his shoulders, in what Alice was recognising as a trademark gesture.

      ‘And?’

      Kosta expelled a soft breath. ‘Did my silence not answer your question?’

      Alice jerked her gaze to Thanos on autopilot. He didn’t visibly react to Kosta’s question. ‘Silence can mean many things.’

      Kosta’s lips compressed. ‘Not in this instance.’

      ‘You want to sell.’ It was a question and yet Thanos delivered it more as a statement, one that was laced with iron.

      ‘To the right buyer, yes.’ Kosta took another sip of his coffee.

      Alice hovered her hands over the keyboard.

      ‘You are aware that your business contains part of my business?’

      Kosta’s eyes narrowed. ‘I bought Petó from you and your brother many years ago. Whatever claim you had to it transferred to me on that day.’

      From where Alice was sitting, she had a full view of the table. She saw the way Thanos moved his hand to beneath the table, and the way he squeezed his fist so tight his knuckles glowed white.

      ‘But you must dispose of your business,’ Thanos said slowly, carefully, with no hint of emotion in the words.

      ‘Why must I?’

      ‘Because you are not married, you have no children, no grandchildren, and because P & A is a family company. You will not list it publicly, nor would you wish it to be broken up and sold off after your death.’

      Alice bit down on her lip, sympathy for the older man rushing through her. How strange it must be to have someone refer to your mortality in such a cavalier fashion!

      ‘The fate of my company is not your concern.’

      Thanos’s eyes narrowed and Alice’s heart gave a little lurch. As handsome as he was at any time, like this—formidable and businesslike—he was impossibly fascinating.

      Thanos held Kosta’s gaze for a long moment, a muscle jerking in his jaw that only Alice was in a position to see. ‘Your profit has been down these past two years.’

      ‘It’s a tough economy.’

      ‘No, it isn’t,’ Thanos pushed ruthlessly. ‘You’re losing market share and you don’t know how to get it back.’

      Kosta’s eyes glinted. ‘You think I came here to be lectured?’

      Thanos didn’t apologise, nor did he back down. ‘I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. If you do not act now, your once great business will fade away into insignificance. Thousands of people will lose their jobs. All because you are too stubborn to see what you must do.’

      Kosta’s rejection of that assertion was obvious. ‘My business. My problem.’

      At this, Thanos straightened in his chair, his expression like flint. ‘I might have agreed to sell Petó to you, but I never stopped thinking of it as mine. You rolled it into your business, which means I care about your business too. Sell me P & A and I will ensure your legacy is safe.’

      Kosta let out a laugh of disbelief that had Alice slipping her gaze to focus on the older man’s face. ‘You think I would trust you with my company?’

      ‘Why should you not?’ It was a banal enough question, but Alice heard the undertone of steel and looked to Thanos once more. A tight smile was cracking his face but waves of anger were shifting off his frame.

      ‘Because you are your father’s son, and I will not have my family’s legacy dragged through the mud.’

      Alice sucked in a sharp breath, surprised at how offended she was by the scathing indictment. Thanos turned to face her, the noise apparently drawing his attention, and when their eyes locked, sympathy exploded inside her.

      ‘I know you are not like him,’ Kosta hastened to add, an apology inherent in the words. ‘You are different. But the potential for scandal is the same.’

      Thanos dipped his head forward, so Alice couldn’t see how he reacted to this explanation.

      ‘I cannot open my paper without seeing your photo,’ Kosta continued. ‘You drink too much, party too much, sleep with any woman who moves. Your reputation as the playboy prince of Europe is almost too mild for your excessive lifestyle.’

      Thanos lifted his head, his face like a mask of iron. ‘And what is my lifestyle to do with this? Do you think it affects my ability to run your company?’

      ‘I think there is no one better than you,’ Kosta contradicted. ‘You have a head for business that I have always admired. Even when you were still a boy, following after your grandfather, watching him as though he were an idol brought to life, you had more nous than he and I in our little fingers.’

      Alice wondered if Thanos felt pride then, if the compliment did anything to soften his response.

      ‘I learned from the best,’ Thanos conceded, finally.

      ‘Yes. Nicholas was one of the best men I have ever known.’ Kosta leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table. ‘I always respected him. Liked him. What your father did—’

      That same muscle twisted in Thanos’s cheek as he ground his teeth together. ‘Is not relevant. I made my peace with it a long time ago.’

      ‘Did you?’ Kosta’s look showed disbelief, but he didn’t pursue that line of questioning. He sipped his coffee.

      ‘Your grandfather