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CHAPTER ONE

TINKLING LAUGHTER FLOATED fro with the expensive clink of the finest crystal The party was in full, elegant swing, and it made my stomach cramp and my heart race Could I really do this?

Yes, I could I had to, because the alternative was to scuttle back home to staid safety andin stasis, waiting and wondering

Admittedly in this moment I was sorely tempted to flee from this luxurious hotel in the most sophisticated square of Athens, back to the safety of A for too htened child I was a woman, after all—a e I was finally confronting my husband—but first I had to find him

I straightened own I’d purchased thatin one of Athens’s upscale boutiques The sales assistants had exchanged laughing looks as I’d stah e when it came to fashion or style, and they’d known, and had made sure I had known they’d known, as well

Now I caught sight of ilt ht ruby-red strapless goas outrageous or elegant Did it even suit me, with my brown hair, brown eyes? Miss Unremarkable, my husband once called me Not that I blamed him for it He’d wanted an unremarkable wife, someone ould make no splash, no deotfor three years But noanted soet it

I took a shaky breath, willing ot this far, hadn’t I? I’d taken a ferry from the remote island paradise where I’d spent my entire married life, and then a taxi from Piraeus to Athens I’d bookedwith the credit card while the receptionist looked on witheringly, and I’d h stilettos that made me wobble when I walked, but still

I’d ed it all—even if it had taken what felt like all e Life on A time since I’d been in the city, with all its traffic and rudeness and noise A long time since I’d faced my husband—a man I barely knew

Matteo Dias—one of the richest, most ruthless men in Europe, as well as one of its most notorious playboys And I was his wife

It seened, the vows I’d spoken I’d woken up everyfor the last three years on an island paradise, far fro of my former life in New York City, and practically had to pinch myself Is this real?

Until it hadn’t felt like enough

A flicker of apprehension rippled through reedy? Stupid? I had a lovely ho life—all of itmy brief, unfortunate stint in New York City Could I really ask for more? Demand it, even?

Resolve hardened inside htened ive up on the only real dream I’d ever had

Now, as I scanned the crowded ballroonise my husband in the flesh Of course I’d seen his photo in plenty of tabloids, almost always acco on his arm and poured into a dress

I’d read all the speculation concerning his whispered-aboutno wo the ruible bachelor was in fact secretly wed

Of course they were both right Matteo was married, but I hadn’t tamed him I haven’t even spoken to him All I knew about my husband of three years hat I’d read in the tabloids—that he was ruthless in ahly desired by almost all women

I’d studied his dark, closely cropped hair, those cold steel-grey eyes, his i physique I’d reether, it had felt as if he’d stolen the air froet to think

I told myself that couldn’t happen n

ow, because I very much needed to have all my wits about me But first I needed to find him

‘Miss, are you co in?’ A waiter, with a white cloth draped over one black-clad arne, raised his eyebrows at ly

I sed hard ‘Yes,’ I said, pitching ht as I could I was afraid I sounded a bit manic ‘Yes, I am’