Bride Behind The Billion-Dollar Veil

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 and I were from a different generation. Things were different. Our parents, and us, we valued family. Old-fashioned morals. We liked things to be respectable. A handshake was as good as a contract.’ Kosta shook his head and Alice saw a spark of longing in his eyes. ‘The world is different now. Perhaps I am a relic, with no place in it.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But if you think I’m going to see my company fall into the hands of a man who regards womanising as a sport, then you know nothing about what this business means.’

Thanos held Kosta’s gaze across the table. Neither man faltered and Alice felt as if she was intruding on a deeply personal moment.

‘No one will work harder for P & A than I will,’ Thanos promised, at length.

‘That may be so,’ Kosta agreed. ‘But I will not sell it to you.’

Alice swept her eyes shut for a moment, more invested in the outcome of this meeting than she would have thought possible.

‘I don’t intend to take no for an answer.’

‘You don’t like to hear no from anyone. It’s part of why you’ve been so successful in repairing the damage your father did. But that does not change my answer. I will not sell P & A to a man like you, Thanos Stathakis. Not for twice what you’re offering; not for anything. Not until you’ve grown up.’

Alice flicked through the pile of bills, a half-eaten sandwich to her left. Her credit card had very little available cash on it—it wouldn’t come close to paying off her mother’s latest hospitalisation.

Her heart squeezed as she remembered the sight of her mother being rushed through the corridors, the blood clot threatening her life, panic surging through Alice as she knew how close they were to the end.

But Jane Smart had defied all odds and survived—she remained in a coma, but she remained.

Alice flipped over to another bill, nausea filling her. It was too much. How could she ever manage to cover this?

She was so engrossed in her finances that she didn’t hear the door to Thanos’s office click open, nor did she hear his approach until he was practically on top of her.

Self-consciously, she laid her hand over the bills, aware that it barely covered the bright red paper demanding immediate payment.

‘Did you need something, sir?’

He didn’t correct her use of the formal title now. He was brooding. Thinking. Even more determined since Kosta had walked out of the office. ‘What did you think of Kosta Carinedes?’

Alice was surprised by the question. She sat back in her chair a little, momentarily forgetting about her bills, and her lunch. ‘In what way?’

‘In any way. Did you perceive he was serious in his reasons for not wanting to sell to me?’

Alice captured her lower lip with her teeth, gnawing on it thoughtfully. ‘I can’t see why he would lie,’ she said finally.

‘No, nor can I. After all, the price I’ve offered is above the market rate of the company. He’s a fool to walk away from it.’

‘Perhaps he doesn’t really want to sell?’

‘He knows he must.’ He shook his head, dragging a hand through his hair, throwing it into even greater disarray. ‘He’s just being stubborn.’

Alice nodded, turning back to her desk thoughtfully. After all, the older man had raised a valid point. Thanos had a reputation for seducing women left, right and centre. He was rarely without a date on his arm, and it didn’t seem to be the same woman for long. He partied non-stop, but what did that matter? Everything he touched in a commercial sense turned to gold. Surely that was more important when it came to handing a business over?

‘Maybe he’ll change his mind,’ she offered, lifting her gaze back to his face. He was staring out of the window, his expression unreadable.

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Then you’ll just have to change it for him,’ she said quietly, turning back to the bills, flicking to the next one with a frown on her face, unaware of the way his eyes swivelled to follow her.

Thanos regarded this mild-mannered assistant thoughtfully. She was plain-spoken and unaffected. Unlike most of the women he dealt with, she wasn’t going out of her way to flatter and please him. She was acting as though she barely noticed he was a man. It was unusual for him to come across a woman who didn’t respond in a certain way.

And it was fascinating.

She was pretty, he supposed, in an understated way—though she also went to very little effort with her appearance. Her suit was old and boxy, hiding any curves she might have beneath too much fabric. Her hair was silky and luscious, long, he suspected, though it was impossible to know as she wore it pinned in a sensible, low bun at the nape of her neck. In fact, everything about her was sensible. Plain. Businesslike.

His eyes dropped lower, to hands that were sorting through a pile of papers—red, with OVERDUE marked at the top. And despite his own monumental problems, curiosity lifted inside him.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

She looked at him with a slight frown on her face, almost as though she thought he might have left.

‘I’m catching up on some personal business. It’s my lunch break.’

He looked at his watch. ‘It’s the end of the day.’

‘I didn’t have time to have it any earlier.’ She said it as though she was worried he might be cross with her, as if she feared recriminations. That was unnecessary. Though she was only a temp, and he hadn’t been to the New York office for almost a year, Thanos knew that Alice worked harder than most of the permanent executive support team. Her security card was frequently the last one swiped out at the end of the evening, and oftentimes the first one to appear on the staff list.

She worked long hours and, though his workload was nothing if not exhausting, she’d somehow managed to keep his business and personal life running like a well-oiled machine.

If he needed his jet fuelled up, he emailed Alice. Gifts organised, Alice. Anything done with his apartments? Alice. She oversaw all aspects of his life and yet they were only today meeting for the first time.

And he knew nothing about her.

Why did that bother him? He couldn’t have said. Stathakis Corp employed thirty thousand people globally. One woman shouldn’t have interested him like this.

And yet, he found himself propping his hip on the edge of her desk, and looking at the bills with more interest. She shuffled them self-consciously.

So he knew one thing about her.

She was a poor money manager. She had to be, given what the temp rates were for an executive assistant at this level. Sure, there was agency commission to come out of her salary packet, but regardless of that, her rate was generous.

‘Did you need anything else, sir?’

She spoke without looking at him, but he detected a faint tremble in her fingertips as she filed the bills under some other papers, pointedly reaching for her sandwich.

He straightened, with a frown. ‘No.’ As he moved towards the door, his frown didn’t ease.

‘How long do you expect to be in New York?’