Page 47 of Vows of Revenge

‘He will,’ he said again.

CHAPTER TEN

KASSIA’SNERVESWEREstretched to breaking point. Oh, could she really go through with this? Inside she was trembling like a jelly. She had never enjoyed the times when her father summoned her, but she’d learnt to get through them with minimum stress. Simply by staying quiet and meek and docile, as she’d told Damos. By being as inconspicuous as possible.

But tonight...

Tonight was going to be totally different.

She felt her nerves jangle again as they made their way into the palatial lobby of the Viscari Athena. Given their early-evening arrival from the UK that day, Damos had booked them into a hotel that served the airport, to give Kassia the maximum time possible to get ready for the evening ahead. Even so, it had been a rush.

She’d had to shower, wash her hair, and then a hairstylist and beautician had arrived—Damos had seen to it—to style her hair, make up her face, do her nails, and then help her into the close-fitting bias-cut silvery dress she’d worn at the Viscari St James that unforgettable evening.

When she was finally ready, Damos’s eyes had lit up.

‘Sensational...’ he breathed. ‘Just sensational.’ He came forward to take her hands, press them in his. ‘Your father is going to bestunned!’ He raised each hand to his lips in turn, then lowered them, holding them warmly still. ‘Never,neveragain will he be able to say the slightest derisive thing about your looks! Every head will turn when they see you!’

They were turning now, Kassia could tell as, nerves pinched yet again, they crossed the foyer heading to the elevators. If it hadn’t been for Damos at her side, and her hand clutching the sleeve of his tuxedo, she would have cut and run. Not that running in these four-inch heels was possible...

But I won’t run—I won’t!

Resolve lifted her chin. All her adult life her father had disparaged her and belittled her for being plain and unlovely. Tonight she would show him.

It had been Damos’s idea, out by the loch.

‘It’s the perfect opportunity to show him how fantastic you can look!’

And she did look fantastic—she knew she did. Her father would have to acknowledge it. It would be impossible for him to deny it. All the same, she knew that even with her new confidence about her looks she wouldn’t have had the courage to look this incredibly glamorous for her father without Damos at her side.

As they stepped into the elevator she glanced at him, expecting to see a reassuring smile on his face for her. But he was looking ahead, not at her, and there seemed to be a tension across his shoulders. She wondered why...

Surely, she thought, he could not be apprehensive about turning up with her this evening? Whatever the reason her father wanted her to dine with him tonight, whoever he was entertaining, what did it matter if Damos was with her? They were a couple now—and it was something her father would have to accept.

Damos had said as much.

‘If your father is happy with my joining the party, then fine—but if not... Well, there’s no reason we need stay,’he had told her.‘We’ll have dinner together, by ourselves, and then why don’t we hit a nightspot? I can’t wait to start showing you off.’His voice had been warm.‘I want all of Athens to see you with me!’

The elevator was slowing, gliding to a halt. The doors were opening.

And now Damos did look at her. With her heels she was almost at his eye level, but not quite. Was it that slight angle that suddenly seemed to make his eyes look veiled...unreadable?

Then her nerves pinched again, and she tightened her grip on his sleeve.

He patted her hand briefly. ‘You can do this,’ he said, nodding at her.

She drew a breath, nodding wordlessly in reply and wondering, as they stepped out into the restaurant lobby, whether she had just imagined that she had heard him murmur, low and almost inaudibly, ‘So can I...’

Damos led her forward. His shoulders were as tense as steel. Doubt knifed through him, but he thrust it aside. No time for that now. Whatever questions he’d put to himself about what he was doing had been set aside.

Out by the loch, with Kassia telling him of her father’s summons, she had given him an opening he’d realised he could use. So she longed for her father not to deride her appearance as he habitually did? Well, tonight would be her chance. She would look as sensational at the Viscari Athena as she had at the Viscari St James.

And it’s what I want too.

It would play perfectly to his own agenda. With Kassia looking such a knockout there could be no mistaking his interest in her—his involvement with her. And Yorgos Andrakis and Cosmo Palandrou would not mistake it either...

On his sleeve, he felt Kassia’s fingers tighten. Well, there was no need. This would not take long. Oh, he’d told her that he’d be happy to join her father’s party, if invited—but that was not going to happen. His presence would most definitely not be welcome, he thought grimly.

No, he would be whisking Kassia away the moment Cosmo and Yorgos got the message. He’d made a reservation for himself and her, requesting a table far away from Yorgos Andrakis. As far as anyone else would see, he and Kassia would simply be greeting her father and his guest, then diningà deuxon their own. Reinforcing to all who saw them the fact that he and Kassia were together.

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