Emma Darcy - Irresistible Greeks - Red-Hot and Rich - His Reputation Precedes Him / An Offer She Can't Refuse / Pretender to the Throne

Markos looked at Eva searchingly when she unlocked and opened the door, her gaze quizzical as she stepped out into the carpeted area where ladies usually freshened up. It was now empty of all but the two of them. Deliberately so, Markos having turned several of those ladies away before he stepped into the room and locked the door behind him to prevent anyone else from entering.

‘You really shouldn’t be in here.’ Eva gave a derisive shake of her head as she moved past him to one of the porcelain sinks to wash her hands and face before filling and drinking a glass of water. Her face was still that sickly grey colour.

He raised dark brows. ‘You are obviously unwell.’

‘That’s still no reason—’

‘The door is locked, and I will go where I want whenever I deem it necessary,’ Markos declared harshly.

Eva gave a pained wince. He now appeared every inch the arrogantly forceful Markos Lyonedes, joint owner of Lyonedes Enterprises. ‘And you deemed it necessary tonight to lock the two of us in a ladies’ powder room in my ex-father-in-law’s home?’

His jaw tightened. ‘Yes.’

That was what Eva had thought he would say. And he was right, of course; she could imagine nothing worse than that anyone else should witness her humiliating reaction to being introduced to Jack’s very pregnant second wife. It was enough that Markos must now be wondering why she had reacted so strongly…

She took another sip of water and deliberately avoided meeting Markos’s gaze in the mirror above the sink. ‘I’m sorry about this. I suddenly felt ill—I must have eaten something earlier that disagreed with me.’

‘Or met someone…?’ he suggested dryly.

Eva gave a humourless smile. ‘Or met someone,’ she acknowledged self-derisively.

Even in her distress Eva couldn’t help noticing how out of place Markos looked in this ultra-feminine room, with its rose and green floral wallpaper. Even the soaps next to the sinks were the same deep rose colour, and several bottles of expensive perfume and pale pink towel ling squares were arranged neatly on the onyx marble top. There were also two comfortable chairs covered in rose-coloured velvet.

‘Could we possibly leave now, do you think?’

He nodded tersely. ‘I have already asked for the car to be brought round.’

Eva’s tensed shoulders slumped with relief. ‘Have I mentioned before how wonderful you are?’

‘I do not believe so,’ Markos answered dryly. ‘But I will be happy for you to tell me so once we are well away from here.’ His face darkened grimly.

Eva couldn’t even begin to imagine how awkward this situation was for Markos. How awful to have brought her here, expecting to spend a pleasant evening at the home of a business colleague, only to learn that business colleague was in fact Eva’s ex-father-in-law—and, even worse, that her ex-husband was also here with his second and very pregnant wife…

‘Markos, I really am sorry.’

‘As I said, we will talk about this once we are well away from here.’ He continued to frown grimly as he took a firm grip of her elbow to hold her firmly at his side as he unlocked the door. ‘We will leave now.’

She blinked. ‘Without saying goodbye?’

Markos nodded abruptly. ‘Without speaking to anyone.’

Eva sensed the anger burning beneath the surface of Markos’s outwardly calm demeanour as they stepped out into the huge hallway, but she didn’t know him well enough yet to know who that anger was directed at: this uncomfortable situation or her.

‘Markos—’

‘Ah, there you are, angel. Feeling better…?’

Eva’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of Jack’s voice. Markos’s fingers squeezed her elbow reassuringly before the two of them turned to face the other man in the otherwise deserted vestibule of the entrance hall. Eva breathed an inward sigh of relief as she saw Jack was alone; she wasn’t sure she could bear to see the pregnant Yvette again this evening.

‘Markos and I are leaving now,’ she said coolly.

Jack raised blond brows. ‘You only just got here.’

‘And now we are leaving,’ Markos bit out coldly. ‘Please inform your father than I will telephone and speak with him some time next week.’

The other man’s cheeks became slightly flushed. He obviously resented Markos’s authoritative tone. ‘It would be more polite if you were to tell him that yourself.’

‘As I am sure you are only too well aware, the current situation is beyond politeness.’ Markos looked at the other man with coldly glittering eyes.

‘Markos—’

‘Stay out of this, angel!’

Markos released Eva’s arm and strode quickly across the hallway until he stood only inches away from the other man. He was slightly taller than Jack Cabot Grey. He was not touching him, but was still intimidating nonetheless.

‘Her name is Eva. And you will not speak to her in that way. Ever again! Do I make myself clear?’ he grated softly.

The other man’s jaw tightened. ‘You can’t just come into my father’s home and threaten me—’

‘I believe I just did,’ Markos purred softly. Dangerously.

‘I call her angel because her name is Ev- angel -ine.’ Jack Cabot Grey met his gaze challengingly for several seconds before those deep blue eyes slid away and he instead looked at Eva. ‘It would seem that your marriage to me gave you a taste for powerful men, angel,’ he drawled insultingly.

Markos drew in his breath sharply. ‘You—’

‘I only see one man who fits that description, Jack,’ Eva cut in scathingly. ‘And it isn’t you!’

‘Why, you little—’ Jack Cabot Grey broke off warily as Markos placed a hand against his chest.

‘I believe I have warned you never, ever to insult Eva in my presence again,’ he reminded him in an icily soft voice.

‘What on earth is going on here?’

Eva turned a stricken face to see her ex-father-in-law, Jonathan Cabot Grey, stride forcefully into the vestibule.

Shrewd blue eyes narrowed on his son and Markos Lyonedes as they faced each other challengingly. ‘Is there a problem…?’

Markos gave Jack Cabot Grey one last contemptuous glance before slowly stepping away from him to stroll back to Eva’s side. He faced his host. ‘Eva and I were just leaving.’

‘So soon?’

Markos might have been more impressed with the older man’s attempt at regret if he hadn’t seen the look of relief in Jonathan’s eyes before it was quickly masked by polite query. It was a politeness Markos was too displeased to indulge at this moment.

‘I am of the opinion that it would have been better if we had left some time ago,’ he said dismissively, giving Jonathan a disapproving look as he took a hold of Eva’s arm, his mouth tightening with displeasure when he realised she was trembling again as she leant into his side.

What could have happened between Eva and Jack Cabot Grey in the past to have caused this severe reaction in her? For her to be physically ill just from seeing him again?

Except…

Unexpected as it might have been, it hadn’t been seeing Jack Cabot Grey which had made Eva ill. That had only happened when the other man’s second wife had joined them.

Was it because Eva still had feelings for the man, and the existence of that second wife now made reconciliation impossible?

Her scathing attitude towards her ex-husband whenever she spoke to him would seem to imply otherwise. And yet… There was no denying that something had made Eva ill just a short time ago. The same something that was still causing her to tremble.

Markos had no idea what Eva was reacting to any longer, and that irritated him as much as everything else about this evening displeased him; he had believed earlier that they were coming to know each other, to like each other—and now this!