Page 5 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
‘Zeus promised to give me something,’ she heard herself say as though from afar. ‘And Arista knew about it, although she didn’t know what it was. I’d thought she was being kind in telling me about the safe a few days ago, but I can see now she was really manipulating me into revealing the information she needed about your wedding.’
Xander’s steps froze, even as he continued to speak in a tone that was almost casual. It was never a good sign when he became still.
‘Did Arista tell you what she planned to do with the information?’
‘She didn’t say much at all,’ Pandora murmured, her mind whirring through the facts that she had collected since that fateful mistake. She mentally sorted through relevant and irrelevant points, finally grasping the most pertinent one. ‘But she booked a flight to Athens the following afternoon.’
‘So she went to visit Eros personally. Well, he is her son...’ Xander mused, the harsh laugh that escaped his throat in the darkness sounding even more ominous.
‘Would Arista truly go to such lengths just to ruin your wedding day?’ Pandora asked, needing to break the tense silence that had engulfed the space. The small echoing chamber with its flickering lights and dusty shelving was setting her entire body on edge.
Xander’s sigh was part growl. ‘Sadly, I have more than enough knowledge of what Arista is capable of. Her hatred of me has always defied all bounds and she’d want Eros to profit from my loss.’ He turned away and began pacing the length of the safe in a way she had come to know very well.
Xander Mytikas was not just angry...he was furious.
‘It seems my father was feeling extra charitable on his deathbed. What was it that he promised you from in here? Money? Jewels? Priceless art?’
Pandora stared back at him, feeling her insides tighten with the effort not to defend herself. She had no way of knowing for sure if Xander had also known about the blackmailing of her mother. And even if he didn’t, she couldn’t be certain that he wouldn’t use the information against Rosaline just as his father had. It was too big a risk to confide in him, and so she remained silent, shrugging one shoulder and praying her act worked.
‘You have to know that anything you took from this house, whether it was promised to you or not, would be theft.’
‘I am not a criminal,’ she said with conviction, feeling the force of those words burn her throat. He felt it too, judging by the widening of his eyes.
‘Strong words for a woman who was just caught breaking and entering. Add that to breaking my non-disclosure agreement and helping Arista to make my bride run away, I’d say you’re pretty far on the other side of the law right now.’
She closed her eyes, feeling the words catch in her throat even as she tried to find a way to explain. But there was no easy way to tell him that she had been blackmailed by Zeus for the past six months without revealing her mother’s misdeeds. No way to get herself out of this mess without potentially throwing her mother’s entire career into chaos.
She felt the world narrow around her, bringing the sound of her own breathing painfully into focus. Breathing that sounded far too shallow and far too rapid to be quite right. Warm palms settled upon both of her shoulders, pulling her back into the present with a jolt.
‘Relax, Quinn. Breathe for me.’
Xander’s face was a blur of shadows, but somehow she could sense his eyes on her. Without looking away, she obeyed. Air filled her lungs until the tight sensation in her chest fell away, leaving her shivering with reaction. It was the strangest feeling, because she’d been so sure she’d been about to lose control.
She shook off the swirling in her stomach, like swooping butterflies, and determinedly stared at a point across the dimly lit room, far away from Xander. She needed to avoid this ridiculous effect his touch seemed to have on her if she had any hope of speaking coherently and making him listen to her.
Pandora bit her lower lip, looking back into the dancing flames of his gaze. ‘I swear, Xander, I had no idea that Arista planned to ruin the wedding.’
‘What on earth did you think she would do with the information you gave her?’
‘I don’t usually know what people’s intentions are until after the fact.’
To her surprise he didn’t scoff at her words or disregard them, he simply stared at her in that discomfiting way of his, as though he could see right through to every thought in her head.
He folded his arms across his chest. ‘The fact of the matter is, you did break a legal agreement. You betrayed my trust based on smooth lies from Arista Theodorou. And now...it seems it was all for nothing.’
The words hung in the air, laced with some tense emotion that deepened the furrow between his brows. Pandora nodded once finding her voice had failed her.
She didn’t know what she had expected of this moment, if he’d ever found out an inkling of the truth. But seeing him turn away from her, tension in every muscle in his body, made the shame burn even deeper in her gut.
She had almost told Xander about Arista on Thursday night as they’d finished up a midnight conference meeting with their team in Osaka, who were out there struggling to close a crucial deal with the Tanaka Corporation. Her fluency in both Mandarin and Japanese had been Zeus’s front for hiring her to become a part of his top-floor team. She had been his gift to Xander once he’d arrived from Europe, his very own Asian market specialist, privy to every call and email since he’d taken over operations in New York. Only she knew that she had been placed in such close proximity to Xander so she could act as Zeus’s own personal spy on his oldest son while the old man was forced to convalesce in his big mansion.
‘I can help you find Priya. I can explain,’ she offered in what she hoped was a helpful tone. ‘Perhaps it was just a simple case of the bridal jitters.’
Pandora could hardly believe the unravelling figure before her was actually the same perfectly polished automaton she’d strived to impress over the past few months. His dark hair was ruffled from agitated fingers and he had evidently pulled off the black tie at some point. Now the collar of his shirt lay wide open revealing a tanned, toned triangle of skin with just a hint of curling hair.
‘You have no idea what all this means, do you?’ His voice was a sudden ominous growl that seemed to scrape along her skin, agitating the burning guilt. She felt her own patience snap, her teeth gritting together painfully as she spoke.
‘Perhaps I would know if you would damn well tell me.’
