‘No!’ she shouted, then spun back to face him. ‘No.’
‘Isn’t it better than having him pay the money?’
‘He owes me,’ she snapped. ‘After what he put me through, I have no conscience issues with him paying for my mother’s medical expenses. If I’d had a better lawyer before we got married, I would have been entitled to far more in our prenup. But—’ She lifted a hand, to silence whatever he’d been about to say. ‘I am keeping a tab of everything he’s spent, since our divorce, and I intend to pay him back, when I can afford to.’
Nikos’s expression grew more thunderous by the second. ‘So you would rather let that low-life pay, than me?’
‘This isn’t about you,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I mean, it is. But your money isn’t relevant to me. Besides, there’s more at stake.’
He crossed his arms over his broad chest, staring her down.
‘Early on in our marriage, before I knew what he was like, I told him about my father. His gambling. James has made it abundantly clear that if I don’t abide by the terms of our agreement, he’ll go to the press with a tell-all story.’
‘Who would care?’
‘My father,’ she whispered.
‘Your father is dead.’
‘Yes, but his legacy, his family’s legacy…it means something. I loved him, Nikos.’ She bit back a sob. ‘I can’t let this be what he’s remembered for.’
Nikos’s jaw moved as he ground his teeth together.
‘This is a disaster,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I should never have let this happen. You should never have come here.’
‘I had no way of knowing you had entered into this deal with your ex-husband.’
‘No, but…’ She tapered off, struck by the fairness of his words. She moved back to the edge of the bed and sat down again, dropping her head into her hands. ‘He’s going to be so angry.’
‘Yes,’ Nikos said, moving to stand in front of her. ‘He sounds like the kind of prick whose tiny ego would be wounded by this.’
She almost smiled at the description but, in truth, her insides were in too much turmoil.
‘Nikos,’ she groaned. ‘You need to leave. If any of the hotel staff saw you come in here and decide to make a quick buck, it’s just going to go from bad to worse. I might be able to explain away the lunch…’
‘But not the lobby,’ he reminded her grimly.
She closed her eyes, remembering the way they’d seemingly embraced for minutes, bodies melded together in an undeniably intimate fashion.
‘No,’ she whispered.
‘Then you can’t cross your fingers and hope he won’t find out. He’ll see the photos.’
She worried her lower lip between her teeth, anxiety spiralling through her.
‘The world will see the photos, and your name will be linked to his. It’s impossible to avoid, I’m afraid.’
Her gut rolled, because he was right.
‘You have two options, Genevieve.’
‘Really? I feel like I have zero options.’
He crouched down in front of her. ‘Don’t do that.’
She blinked at him.
‘Don’t give up. You survived being capsized during a brutal storm then hiked for miles in the pouring rain, scaling cliff faces in a dark, unfamiliar forest. Not to mention two nights in a cabin with me. You are a fighter. Don’t let that piece of shit make you forget it.’
