Page 24 of Greek’s Christmas Heir

ANAX’SISLANDWASlike something out of a dream.

There had once been an old fishing village on one end of the bright little spit of land in the middle of the raucously blue sea. All that were left were the remains of colorful buildings, picturesque and lonely at once. The sands were blinding white and olives grew on the trees. There was an old temple in a forgotten grove, barely more than rubble and the hint of offerings long past.

On the other end of the island stood Anax’s house. From a distance it looked like its own small village, with different levels and buildings scattered over a hill, with trees and views to spare. Whitewashed walls, red tiled roofs. Closer in, it was clear that all the buildings were connected by walkways and pools, patios and terraces and balconies to let the sky and sea in. The fall sun was warm and bright, pouring over everything, and flowers still grew.

It was objectively lovely, no question.

Constance hated it.

“Maria will stay with you,” Anax had told her on the first day when she had been certain she would never sleep again, and had gone back into the stateroom to be with Natalia, shooing Maria away. She and her daughter had slept curled up with each other on the surprisingly comfortable bed, but that had been its own problem, because landing on the island in the glare of a new morning had seemed...impossible.

She’d pinched herself, certain she was still asleep in her bed back home.

But she’d been all too wide awake. Alert enough to look around her in a mix of wonder and anxiety, especially when the sprawling house came into view. She had visited whole towns in Iowa that were less expansive than Anax’s house. This singular house in his vast portfolio, as he and his sister had been at such pains to tell her.

She had, accordingly, refused to comment on it. She had refused to acknowledge the sheer scale and glory of the place. After all, she reminded herself, she didn’t want to be here. It didn’t matter how pretty it was.

But when Anax told her, in his peremptory fashion, that Maria would be staying with her here, she laughed.

“You mean the spy who stayed in my house?” She did not look at the other woman as they all stood there in the shade of an outdoor space that flowed from eternity pool to sitting area to another sitting area inside actual walls. Maybe it was the Greek version of a front hall, she’d thought. How could anyone tell when everything, everywhere, was soflowy? “The woman who I thought was a friend? An ally, at the very least? No. Maria will not be staying. Not within my sight.”

But when Anax’s plane took off again, Maria stayed behind on the island all the same.

Constance told herself it was just as well to know precisely where she stood. To fully apprehend the shape of things, no matter how bracing it might have been.

“I’m sorry if you hate me,” the other woman had said, though she had not looked sorry to Constance’s eye. Or not sorry enough. “I love Natalia. And I think of the two of us as friends, too.” She sighed. “But you must understand that Mr. Ignatios changed my life. He personally helped me out of a very bad situation and he helped my family climb out of a particular sort of hole, and I...” Maria squared her shoulders. “There’s nothing I would not do for him.”

And Constance could think of a lot of responses she could give to that, but she remembered her grandmother’s sage advice.

Confrontations are for people who don’t know the joy of a long-held grudge,Dorothy had always proclaimed.

Constance decided she, too, could choose the sharp joy of her people.“Natalia loves you,” she replied coolly. “And now I know you. I only wish you’d given me that courtesy from the start.”

And to her credit, Maria did flush slightly at that.

Which was as close to an apology as she was likely to get.

Then there was nothing to do but...settle into this dream she couldn’t wake up from. After an admittedly self-pitying day—okay, two—Constance told herself, briskly, to get ahold of herself. It would be much like it had been these last ten months. She would focus on Natalia. Only now she would do it entirely without friends or even her nosy neighbors, trapped on an island she couldn’t even swim away from if she’d wanted to.

The astonishing luxury that assaulted her at every turn might be a hurdle, she’d thought, but she’d handle it.

But the first thing that was different, immediately, was that Anax was back the next night. Constance had assumed that she wouldn’t see him for weeks, the way it had always been before. She would have time to...prepare.

That was what was needed when it came to Anax, she told herself.Adequate preparation.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she walked out onto the patio where her meals were served, complete with lanterns hanging from above, heaters should the balmy night grow cold, and a soft, admittedly beautiful view over the length of the island to the sea. She’d had to accept, reluctantly, that there was something to the wholeseasidething after all. But she had come prepared for more oceanic beauty, not the more masculine beauty of Anax. She frowned at him, because that was better than being flustered. “I thought you had important, billionaire things to do that would keep you chained to your desk. Doing them.”

“Athens is not far.” He lifted a brow, indicating that she must have done something with her face. “By helicopter, it is more or less an hour. I will be here whenever I wish.”

They gazed at each other as the lanterns glowed and the stars above outshone them all.

“How wonderful,” Constance said. It was not wonderful at all.

She skipped dinner and ate crackers in her room.

But it was a good reminder, she told herself sternly later that night, that she was not the sort of woman who wafted about from fainting couch to chaise, in a thousand pieces while her life did as it pleased around her. What she needed to do was spend less time contemplating the ocean and more time plotting her escape.

Yet that was a bit trickier than it should have been. It was one thing to imagine whatshecould do, if necessary, but she had to consider doing it with Natalia and that changed every far-fetched plan she came up with.

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