‘If ever it feels right and appropriate…please tell her I’ve never forgotten her and that I’ll always love her.’
Draco’s driver opened the door for him. He put a foot out of the car and then stopped. His front door opened, his butler welcoming him home.
He put his foot back in the car. ‘Take me to The Playroom.’
The Playroom was one of the most popular nightclubs in Athens. Draco had learned recently that its biggest rival was owned by Alexis Tsaliki. Gut instinct told him Athena would avoid her brother’s club, even though he was with the rest of their family in Sephone, preparing for his child’s christening.
The Tsalikis had gone away en masse on Athena’s birthday for a weekend of family celebrations she was excluded from.
Assuming she would be in the VIP section, he checked that out first, but there was no sign of her. Beer in hand, he stood at the curved balustrade that overlooked the main dancefloor below. It was packed, dancing bodies everywhere.
‘Draco!’ A hand slammed into his back. It was Tobias, one of his closest friends and partner in a number of business ventures. ‘What are you doing here? I didn’t think clubbing was your thing?’
Draco had been clubbing a few times over the years but he found it such a waste of his time that he’d stopped bothering. ‘A spur-of-the-moment thing.’
‘Come and join us—I’m with the usual crowd.’
Still scanning the dancefloor below, he said, ‘Another time.’
‘Who are you looking for?’
He mentally braced himself before saying, ‘Athena Tsaliki.’
Tobias laughed. ‘I didn’t know you were that desperate.’
For some inexplicable reason, Draco’s immediate instinct was to punch his friend in the face. Possibly he would have done if Tobias hadn’t then followed with, ‘There she is. At two-o’clock.’
Draco looked to two-o’clock and a moment later spotted her and, now that he’d seen her, couldn’t understand how he’d missed her, considering she was the only person there wearing a short sleeveless canary-yellow jumpsuit and thigh-high pink stiletto boots. Her dance moves had what could only be described as a frantic quality, her long blonde hair flying in all directions, arms waving, slender body slinking, twisting and shaking, oblivious to the other dancers surrounding her.
He’d seen her dance before, but it hadn’t been like this, and he had to swallow a ragged breath into his lungs. If his mother’s tale wasn’t so fresh in his mind, he would be thinking Athena’s moves her usual attention-seeking abandon but with added zest. He wouldn’t be seeing the desperate unhappiness behind it. But he could see it, and seeing it meant it was all he could see.
The track she was dancing to changed. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and wound through the other dancing bodies to head towards the bar…which was when Draco realised he wasn’t the only man to have noticed her. Falling in step behind her, two men whose body language set Draco’s antennae to immediate alert.
From Draco’s vantage point, he saw them join her at the bar, flanking her, and start talking to her. A moment later, one of them shouted their order to the bartender. Three bottles were placed before them. The man who’d bought the drinks said something that made her turn and lean into him as if to hear more clearly. Whatever he said made her laugh, even as she shook her head and took an unsteady step back, and while all this was happening, the other man dropped something into one of the bottles, swirled it quickly, and then, when she turned back to him, handed it to her.
Draco’s blood turned to ice, his body recognising what he’d just witnessed a split second before his brain did.
The three of them clinked their bottles together. Athena brought her bottle to her lips and drank deeply.
Fuck…
This was the best night ever! Athena’s new friends were amazing. She was having the best time. Who cared that her family had all forgotten her birthday? Not her! Who cared that Lucie still hated her? Not her! Who cared that the only birthday messages she’d received were from online retailers she’d given her birthdate to? Not her! She’d received loads of discount codes from them, so that was something to celebrate and made up for not having a birthday cake, plus she’d managed to wangle her way into The Playroom for free on the back of it being her birthday and got her first drink free too! Oh, and she’d just been bought a drink by her new friends!
She took another sip of her beer. Her brain was starting to feel fuzzy. She must have drunk more than she’d realised. Time to stop. After all, she didn’t have her driver to get her home. She didn’thavea driver any more! Or bodyguards! Alexis had taken them away from her as part of his drive to turn her into a responsible, self-sufficient adult, and being a responsible, self-sufficient adult meant she had to get herself home. She would take the Metro…
What time was it? Not wanting to miss the last train back, she looked at her watch, accidentally elbowing one of her lovely new friends. He put his arm around her waist to keep her steady.
She really must have drunk more than she’d thought because she couldn’t read the hands on her watch.
Twisting round to shout, ‘What’s the time?’ in her new friend’s ear, she didn’t like it when he tightened his hold around her. Didn’t like it at all. Didn’t like the feel of his body pressed to hers or the smell of beer on his breath or the smell of his aftershave. In fact, she found it repulsive. The only man’s smell she liked was Draco’s. She liked that very much. She liked him, even though he was a bastard and made her do stuff like work. But he made her coffee. Every morning. She didn’t even think he spat in it! And he made sure she ate lunch, going so far as to have Grace, his senior PA whose nose had been so pushed out of joint by Athena sharing his office, deliver fresh food to her desk. He made sure, too, that she was safe in her apartment after work each day before telling his driver to leave. She would close her front door and he’d still be there, and then when she looked out of the window he’d be gone.
Her new friend still had hold of her. ‘Let me go,’ she said…slurred. He couldn’t have heard her. She tried to repeat herself, but the connection between her brain and mouth had become alarmingly disjointed.
Her other new friend took her hand. She tried to pull it out of his hold but his grip was too tight, and she became aware that her feet were moving, that she was being dragged away…
Panic and confusion gripping her, she looked around wildly…tried to look around… The world was starting to blur and spin around her.
She needed help, but the disjoint between her brain and mouth prevented her from calling out. The panic accelerated and she blinked hard to clear her vision, to keep hold of herself.
