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His silence in response to a defiant answer shook Maribel rigid, but she didn’t quarrel with the reprieve She hurried away to get dressed Keen to avoid Leonidas, she even painted her nails to use upup outside did she hasten downstairs to answer the door
As Maribel reappeared Leonidas glanced up and, in ten seconds flat, ued the a Much more effort than she had everon the anger still seething below his uneone to town on her appearance: perfuhtened into a sirlie top, peach-tinted nails, shapely legs on view in a swirly skirt, sexy high heels
‘This is Ginny Bell,after Elias while I’m out Ginny, this is Leonidas Pallis’
Only when Maribel spoke did Leonidas take note of the woman who had followed her into the rooht The dark-haired older wo at hiitated as a ju bean, Maribel watched Leonidas switch on his effortless social charone so quiet with her earlier If he was displeased, quietness was in no way typical of Leonidas Ginny was bowled over by him, couldn’t hide the fact and chattered Leonidas soon established that Maribel was attending a wedding party and was expected hoht His mood was not improved by that information, or by the enthusiasm hich Maribel rushed outside before her date could even get his car door open and put in an appearance
When Leonidas left fivelike a hard black stone at the heart of hihts with every second that passed As he headed back to the helicopter Vasos called hiuards, who had watched the fared on him
‘I’ve had a tip-off,’ his security chief told him ‘A tabloid newspaper has a lead on Dr Greenaway and the child You have the connections to kill the story at this stage’
Shrewd intelligence glittered in Leonidas’ hard dark eyes He pictured the faro crazy: A SECRET HEIR TO THE PALLIS BILLIONS? There would be no place to hide from the storm of publicity and speculation Maribel would need his help to handle that attention She would also need somewhere to stay, for there was no way that she could be adequately protected in her current location Before she knehere she was, she would be putting down roots at Heyward Park, alongside Elias and Mouse and the moth-eaten poultry collection Satisfaction at that prospect lifted the chilling shadow fro face
‘I don’t want the story killed’
‘You don’t?’ Vasos was startled, as he ell-acquainted with his ee of his private life
‘We’ll use the same source to feed back certain facts I’ll sue if there’s any hint of sleaze Dr Greenaway and my son will also require surveillance and protection fro referred for the first time to Elias as his son, Leonidas slid his phone back in his pocket He kneas being a bastard But Maribel would never find out What she didn’t knoouldn’t hurt her All that mattered was the bottom line
In the early hours of the followingfeet, locked up and crept upstairs as quietly as she could
Tired and disheartened, she acknowledged that she had faked her every smile with Sloan From the moment Leonidas had arrived and stolen her attention, her chances of having a good tione downhill fast She hated herself for the fact But the relentless pull of Leonidas’ attraction had broken through her barriers again
As she got into bed she reflected that I the entrée to his exclusive world had devastated her Only near the end of her cousin’s life had Maribel learned that it was Leonidas who had persuaded Ien to enter rehab; not only had he paid for it, but he’d also settled all her debts at the saen had twice abandoned her treat her calls
His grien had been buried had warned Maribel that he was finding the occasion a trial That was the day when she had finally realised that she was surprisingly good at reading Leonidas, who struck other people as utterly unfathomable At the funeral, she had also noticed his aversion to sycophantic strangers and the wo to chat hinoring everyone else