Irresistible Greeks Collection. Кэрол Мортимер
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where Xenon is?’ she asked casually.
‘Sure. He’s in Hollywood. It’s the tenth anniversary of My Crazy Greek Father coming up and there are loads of celebrations planned.’
Lexi chewed on her thumbnail. Athens would have been simpler and London simpler still. Hollywood seemed like a scary kind of place and one she’d moved on from a long time ago. And could she really risk making a transatlantic flight on the evidence of a single fact which might no longer mean anything?
She felt the twist of pain in her heart.
Could she risk not doing it?
With Jason sleeping soundly in the spare room, she tossed and turned all night, trying to reinforce all the reasons why it was best to leave things as they were. But the morning brought with it nothing but a burning certainty that she couldn’t let matters rest.
‘How long are you staying?’ she asked Jason.
He shrugged. ‘That depends how long you’ll have me. I’m not due back in Athens for a couple of weeks.’
She tossed him a spare set of keys. ‘Stay as long as you like. I have to go away for a few days.’
She could see the look of gratitude on his face and she guessed her offer was yet another mark of his successful rehabilitation. She would never have allowed him the freedom of her house before now.
She hadn’t booked a flight in a long time—actually, when she stopped to think about it, she’d never booked a flight for herself. Her management had always done it when she was in The Lollipops and when she’d been with Xenon, his private jet had always been at her disposal.
It was a fiddly business but she sorted out her ticket and all the entry requirements she needed to get into the US, and three days later her plane passed the giant Lego-like skyscrapers of Los Angeles, before coming in to land.
The palms of her hands were clammy and her stomach was tying itself up in knots. She hadn’t told Jason she was coming here and she certainly hadn’t warned Xenon of her plans. She wanted to see the expression on his face when he saw her again. She was scared that his love for her might have died. She was scared that he might now have considered himself lucky to have escaped from the prospect of a childless marriage.
She knew he always stayed at the hotel on Wilshire Boulevard owned by his friend Zak Constantinides, but, of course, all that could have changed. These days he might have changed his allegiance to one of the newer, trendier places on Sunset Boulevard, which she’d discovered on the Internet. Nevertheless, she’d booked into Zak’s hotel, even if the room rates had made her eyes water.
She waited until she had taken her bags upstairs before she dialled Xenon’s number and her heart started pounding when he picked it up on the third ring.
‘Lex,’ he said, his voice sardonic and not particularly welcoming. ‘This is a surprise.’
‘Yes, I realise that. I want to... I wondered if we could have a talk.’
‘I got the distinct impression we’d said everything there was to say.’
There was no softening in his voice. Not a single hint that he was pleased to hear from her. She sensed that he wasn’t going to make this easy for her. She was going to have to face the fact that it might be too late. Please, God, let it not be too late. ‘Could we?’ she persisted.
‘Go ahead. Talk. I’m not stopping you.’
‘I meant face to face.’
‘You might have a little difficulty with that one. I’m in Hollywood.’
‘So am I.’
A brief silence followed.
‘What did you say?’
‘I’m in Hollywood. Actually, I’m in Zak’s hotel and I’m wondering if you are, too. Jason told me you were over here, so I made a stab at guessing where you’d be staying.’
‘Presidential suite,’ he snapped and cut the connection.
Lexi told herself she should have waited before calling him. She should at least have given herself time to wash the long flight out of her system. As it was, there was barely time to splash cold water on her face and brush her hair into some kind of order before she took the lift up to the penthouse suite.
The door was on the latch and she pushed it open.
‘Xenon?’
‘I’m in here.’
She followed the direction of the voice, her heart clenching at the sound of his forbidding tone. She told herself it was probably too late. Of course it was too late.
He was standing in the sumptuous main reception area—all glowing shades of gold and claret. Tulips the colour of burgundy added to the almost medieval feel of the room and, in complete contrast, Xenon added a note of dark formality. He was wearing a black tuxedo and the exquisite suit made Lexi feel like the hired help in her jeans and T-shirt.
But his blue eyes were cold and he made a rather ostentatious show of glancing at his wristwatch. ‘You have half an hour before I’m due at a reception downtown,’ he said. ‘So you’d better get a move on.’
Suddenly she didn’t know where to begin. She wondered if she’d pushed him too far.
‘Jason came to see me.’
‘I thought he might once the harvest was over.’
She sucked in her lips. ‘He told me what happened.’
‘Anything in particular?’ he enquired unhelpfully. ‘How good the grape yield was? How he seems to have fallen for one of the local women?’
‘He told me that he didn’t come to you, asking for your help,’ she whispered. ‘That you went and found him out and offered it and I was wondering...’ She cleared her throat. ‘I was wondering just why you did that.’
But if she was hoping for a softening of his obdurate features, she was in for a disappointment because the only reaction she got was the contemptuous curve of his lips.
‘I think we both know exactly why I did it, Lexi. I wanted a legitimate way back into your life. I wanted to give our relationship one last go. Which I did. And I found out what I needed to know. It’s over. We’re over—we both know that. So why are you here?’
She wanted to curl up and die because the expression in his eyes was so cold. She’d never seen him look like that before and she felt the chill whisper of foreboding.
‘Because...’ She sucked in a deep breath. ‘Because finding that out...discovering that it wasn’t just some random act that brought you back into my life, well, that made a difference. It made me realise how important our marriage was to you. It made me examine what I was doing. It made me realise what I was about to throw away.’
He shook his dark head, tugging at his black bow tie as if he was impatient to be away. ‘You’re just focusing on a detail,’ he said. ‘Not on what is important. And what’s important is that you don’t want to make a life with me on any terms—you told me that yourself. But it’s okay. I’ll survive, Lex. We’ll both survive.’
‘But I don’t know if I will.’ Her voice sounded as light as a feather. ‘Because surviving doesn’t sound like a good way to live. Not when I consider the alternative. I meant it when I said that I love you, Xenon—I’ve never really stopped, even though I’ve tried hard enough. If you want the truth—my life has been...well, awful without you. And if you’re prepared—I mean, really prepared—to accept a marriage without children, then you only have to say the word. Just say the word, my darling, and I’ll be back in your arms so quick you won’t even have time to blink.’
His mouth tightened as he looked at her and she was aware of the ice which had hardened his cobalt eyes. ‘Get out,’ he said and turned his back on her as if he found the view outside the window