One Summer Night: An Indecent Proposition / Beholden to the Throne / Hers For One Night Only?

‘For what?’

‘For what I did.’ Everything that had been so beautiful had been turned around and it all seemed sullied and sordid now. ‘I thought … I never thought he hated Nico. It was not about being disloyal.’

‘Charlotte.’ Constantine was kind. ‘What happened between you and Zander is not Nico’s business, or mine.’

‘It has become that though,’ Charlotte wept. ‘I really thought …’ But she could not divulge her dreams because they seemed so pathetic now, that with one look, with one kiss, he had whisked her away, had let her glimpse a world she did not know and now wished she never had.

‘Is Nico going to fire me?’

‘He wants to speak with you, he wants to know what was said, what Zander revealed. I doubt he could fire you for sleeping with someone.’ Constantine gave a wry smile. ‘My husband is many things, but he is never a hypocrite. He is cross,’ she admitted, ‘furious, but I think that is more aimed at his brother. As I pointed out to him when he told me what had happened, we were together the night we met—it was, in fact, my wedding night and Nico was not the groom …’ Charlotte blinked at the admission from Nico’s wife. ‘I know how devastating they can be, how irresistible Nico was to me. I am not here to judge you, I just want to know you are okay.’

‘I will be,’ Charlotte said, for she was certainly not okay now. She tried to scan her future for a time when this would not hurt so much, but Zander had changed it for ever. ‘If I had thought, for even a second, that he was not looking forward to meeting Nico … Why would he hate him? It’s not as if Nico was raised by his parents. Nico was the one that was sold …’

‘Roula, their mother, she was not stable …’ Constantine paused. Charlotte could see the other woman was uncomfortable discussing this, for though Charlotte had been privy to certain information, emotion had always been left out, only names and facts had been given by Nico. ‘Or that is what we have been told. She left the father and worked the streets … The Eliadeses desperately wanted a baby …’ Constantine screwed her eyes closed, and it was clear that she hated discussing this. ‘Alexandros, I mean Zander, was raised by his father. It would seem …’ Charlotte closed her eyes as Constantine spoke on and she recalled Zander telling her that his time in Xanos had not all been happy. ‘He was not a good man, he was a cruel man, in fact.’

‘If that was the case, why would she leave Zander with him?’

‘That is what we are trying to find out. There are so many questions, which is why we are searching for her. But Zander has run true to form, it would seem—like father, like son.’

Charlotte’s eyes opened at the rare bitterness in Constantine’s voice and though she was hurting, bleeding inside, even though she had nothing to base it on, something within her rose to defend him. ‘You can’t say that.’

‘Oh, but I can,’ Constantine flared. ‘He has done nothing to prove otherwise. Cruel seems a very good word to describe him to me. He has bought up the homes on the island for a pittance and now, till he is ready to bulldoze them, he rents them out for a small fortune, at least it is a fortune to the locals. He’s building a nightclub and there is talk of a casino, yet he does not give the locals the work. He wants my husband and son to leave Xanos, and will do anything to engineer it, even ruin the rest of the island just to get his way.’

‘It’s business,’ Charlotte attempted. ‘Maybe when he has calmed down … It must have been unnerving to finally meet his twin.’

‘He has no nerves to unnerve’ was Constantine’s swift response. Was that pity in her eyes as she looked at Charlotte? ‘How can you defend him after what he just did to you? If it is only in business that he is cruel, what does that make you?’

Her words were like a slap and Charlotte retracted as if hit.

‘I don’t want him to hurt you further, Charlotte, but he will if you let him.’

‘I won’t give him the opportunity.’ Of that she was sure, but still she knew her own mind, would not be silenced because it suited Constantine. ‘But you’re wrong, Constantine. If it comes down to like father like son, what does that make Nico?’

‘He was not raised by him.’

‘No, he was raised by a man who bought him, who lied even when confronted with the truth.’ This much at least Charlotte knew and she watched Constantine’s flushed, angry cheeks pale a little. ‘Zander is not all bad,’ Charlotte said. He couldn’t be. He simply could not be, for she remembered them walking on the beach. He was the only man to touch her soul. She remembered their day and she remembered his smile and the rare sound of his laughter. In a second, as she sat on the bed wounded with hurt, her heart forced recall, told her that despite evidence to the contrary, their time together, their day, their night had surely not all been contrived, had not all been a lie. Her heart told her so.

‘You need to be careful when dealing with him,’ Constantine warned.

‘I’m having no dealings with him,’ Charlotte replied, and then realised what Constantine was saying. ‘I still have a job?’ She thought of her mother, of all the balls she was juggling back home, and when Constantine hesitated, the surge of hope faded, but Constantine took her hands.

‘You have to do it, though. Nico needs you to stay here for a few days to go through his itinerary. He is heading back to the hospital soon to spend some time with his father, but though Zander has made things difficult, some things just can’t be put on hold. He wants to see you downstairs in the restaurant for a meeting. He wants to up the search for his mother and, no matter what, he wants that land.’

‘I can’t face Zander.’ Charlotte could not go out there—she simply could not go out there.

‘But face him you must.’ Constantine was resolute. It was her little family under attack from Zander after all and, as kind as she had been to Charlotte, on this there was no compromise. ‘You work for Nico—don’t forget that again.’

CHAPTER EIGHT (#ulink_bf8c0e32-3dfe-56ef-a77a-7b5c16ca8a9d)

‘CHARLOTTE, please …’

Just when her heart could surely not be more torn, she answered the phone to the sobs of her mother. ‘When are you coming to get me?’

Charlotte closed her eyes. ‘I’m at work, Mum.’

‘You said you’d never leave me.’

‘I’m sorry about this.’ A nurse came on the line. ‘We have a residents’ phone …’

‘Mum’s got my number in her diary.’ Charlotte closed her eyes. ‘Is she okay?’

‘She’s taking a little while to orientate, but most of the time she’s fine. It’s just every now and then she gets into a panic. It often happens with temporary residents. She’ll settle in in a couple of days.’

And then it would be time to take her home. Charlotte thought of the battle that lay ahead, of the increased confusion that awaited, of the impossibility of it all, but she could not think of that now. Getting through the morning was proving a difficult enough task, let alone looking to the future.

‘Can you put her back on to speak with me, please?’

Charlotte spoke with her mother for a few moments, reassuring Amanda that she was at work and that her stay at the home was only temporary, but the call depleted her already shot nerves.

Shaky hands applied lip gloss and she put drops in her swollen eyes. Charlotte was nervous and embarrassed to be facing Nico, but more than that dreaded that she might see Zander, and wondered how on earth she should react to him if she did. But surely he had checked out, Charlotte consoled herself. After all, he had said his piece to his brother, had made it clear that he would not be selling the land and wanted nothing to do with him whatsoever. What reason could he have to be here? She attempted to reassure herself, trying to ignore the fact that he practically owned the south of Xanos and had every reason to stay for a few days at the very least.

Somehow she had to tell Nico that she was not able to stay any longer on Xanos, that she had to get home. But how could she possibly assert herself after what had just taken place? Of all the stupid things to do with Zander, of all the blind, stupid things. Nico was hardly going to accept demands from her now when by her own actions she had suddenly become extremely dispensable.

Damn you, Zander!

It was a relief to be angry.

A welcome change from guilt and remorse and shame. In fact, so angry was Charlotte that as she stepped out of the lift and headed across the foyer to the restaurant, to the table where Nico waited, instead of burning in a blush when she saw Zander sitting on the other side of the restaurant, looking up from the paper he was reading and sipping on coffee as if he did not have a care, instead of looking hurriedly away, she positively glowered at him. Her anger forced her to hold her head high as she crossed the room and joined her boss.

Nico had ordered two coffees—a milky one for Charlotte and a short black for himself. He gave a very tight smile as she approached. ‘Well,’ Nico said as she took a seat at the table. ‘This is awkward.’ He was as direct as ever and so honest with the circumstances that it made her smile, even made her laugh just a little as Nico rolled his eyes, but her smile soon faded. ‘You should have told me you had spoken with Zander—you should have informed me that you had met him.’

‘I know,’ Charlotte said. ‘I tried.’

‘I know that you tried to call, and that you found out my father was ill.’ Nico stirred sugar into his coffee, but even as she entered into the most difficult of conversations, her shoulder was burning, for she could feel Zander watching them. ‘But, still, you should have said when you spoke with Constantine.’ She was shamed by the pity in Nico’s eyes now when he looked at her. ‘I could have warned you what he is like.’

‘You knew?’ She was determined not to cry, not in front of Nico and certainly not with Zander close by, but, damn it, it was hard to sit there and have it confirmed just how easily she had been used. ‘You knew that his intentions were not good?’

‘When you rang and said that the owner was coming, that Zander …’ Nico grimaced for it had been a painful realisation for him too. ‘I went and got the house deeds, saw his signature and, call it twin intuition, I knew there was trouble brewing. I knew that Zander knew who I was, that he was coming to confront me.’

‘I believed him when he said it would be a surprise.’

‘You listen only to me now,’ Nico warned. ‘Your loyalty is only to me.’

And she nodded, because it had to be now, because Zander had let her down so badly. All their time together had been a sham of his making.

‘What did he tell you?’ Nico asked. ‘Did he speak about our parents?’

‘No.’ She raked her mind back over their conversations, realised just how much he had avoided talking about himself. ‘He gave nothing away.’