A Perfect Man: International Billionaires IV: The Greeks (3 page)

But he didn’t feel like laughing. He felt like shouting. Yelling. Taking her in his big hand and squishing her.

“There will be no squashing.” He gave her his smile as a present. A poison present. “And no more yelling.”

His completely calm reaction, exactly as it had a month ago, made the woman even more spiteful. “You are a miserable human being.”

“Who is going to be your fiancé for several months.” His smile held.

“No.”

Sighing, he turned and walked back to the steel table. The dusting of flour mixed with sugar gave the table a glistening sheen. Once more, it astounded him this woman baked sweets. How ironic.

With his back to her, he slipped his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out the antique silver box his grandmother had given him when he’d turned eighteen.

He placed it right in the middle of a small mound of sugar.

Then turned to meet her glare.

“You know where I live, don’t you?” He propped himself on the table, his hands gripping the edge. “Of course you do. You dropped Melanie off a time or two.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’ll give you until tomorrow night.”

“Give me?” Her round face went rigid with rejection.

“I’ll expect you at my apartment when I get home from work.” He ignored her gasp of umbrage and strolled to the door. There wasn’t much more to say. Sophia was nothing if not smart, and after she got over her fit and called her lawyer, she’d figure it out.

She was stuck being his fiancée. For as long as he demanded.

“I’ll send out a press release on our engagement so the news will hit the papers the morning after you move in.” He opened the door and the cold October wind whipped into the room. He glanced back to see she hadn’t moved. “That will give you time to alert Melanie.”

“You know what?” Her short, stout body tightened with frustration, and her stubby little hands fisted at her side. “I’m going to tell Melanie—”

“You will tell Melanie—” he stopped in the doorway and turned “—we are in love.”

That same undignified sound erupted from her throat.

“You will tell everyone we’re in love.”

“You are a rotten human being.”

“And Sophia…” He let his gaze roll over her in clear male dismissal, something he’d never done and would never do to another woman. “Even when I decide to dispose of you—”

“You are beyond despicable.” Her arms wrapped around her pudgy body in an attempt to protect herself from his inspection, yet her eyes shot fiery darts of rebellion.

“You’re never going to let on about our deal.”

“I don’t do deals with rotten, despicable men.”

He didn’t care what she thought of him. What he did care about was that she was put properly into her place. The place he wanted her to be. “One. Two. Three. Three promises I expect you to keep.”

She glanced at the long fingers he held up and grimaced as if there was something disgusting about his hand. More likely it was his demands, but he didn’t care.

“Wear the ring, Sophia.” He gestured to the shiny silver box sitting on the shiny silver table. “All the time.”

S
ophie stared
at her three friends, buddies since college. Jade was laughing, the beads in her cornrows sparkling in the overhead light. Samantha grinned back at her, the soft suede of her usual fashionista dress falling off one shoulder. Melanie, perched on one of the cushioned chairs surrounding their table, scrolled through her texts. All of them, of course, had responded to her MUST meet request.

No one missed a MUST meeting unless they were dead.

This particular MUST meet invitation had been issued by text at three a.m. this morning. A long conversation with her lawyer had been followed by a long glare out her apartment window before she’d plopped into bed to stew over her options.

Sure, she could go to the tabloids, her lawyer had said, and make Mr. Stravoudas even angrier. And yes, certainly, she could try and reach the emir herself, but the likelihood of reaching him was slim and his believing her story even slimmer. Possibly she could win an outright battle in front of the zoning board, yet why take the chance?

After rolling around, sleepless for hours, she’d finally capitulated to the obvious. The manipulative, slimy, horrible, pompous, arrogant, sneaky jackass was going to get his way.

She had no choice.

Thus the three a.m. text.

Which, of course, had set off a series of reply texting that had gone on most of the day until they’d all arrived here at the bar a few minutes ago.

No, she wasn’t in the hospital. No, no one had died. No, she just needed to meet.

To tell them that—

“Here you are, ladies.” The tall, lanky waiter swung a tray filled with tall, ornate glasses in front of him. “Four buttercups. Your usual.”

“Yum,” Sam hummed.

“Precisely what I need after a long day fighting off the rest of the traders.” Jade grinned as she took her first sip, leaving red lipstick in her wake.

“Okay, Soph.” Melanie set her slim cell phone down by the frosted candle sitting in the middle of the gleaming rosewood table they’d managed to snag at their favorite hangout, Ghee. The basement bar was dark and snug, paneled wood delicately painted with tree trunks lined the walls, making a girl feel like she’d wandered into a magic forest. “What’s going on?”

“Whatever it is, it has to be something huuuuge.” Sam’s blonde brows drew in. “When was the last time she called a MUST meet?”

“Eons.” Mel’s gaze never wavered from Sophie’s face.

“Eons for you, maybe.” Jade waved her hand, brilliant red fingernails flashing. “Admit it, Mel. You’ve called more MUST meetings in the last year than—”

“I had a lot going on.” The blonde beauty smiled as if it had been a dance in the park.

Samantha chuckled. “All of it cleaned up very efficiently by Sophie.”

“That’s what she does best for her friends.”

“I’m not the clean-up crew.”

Her three friends looked at her and then laughed.

“Do you remember when our little friend ran off my Derek?” Jade snorted.

“He was, what?” Mel tapped a finger on her elegant chin. “Six-foot-five?”

“He was a professional basketball player.” Jade eyed a chip on her fingernail. “Try over seven feet.”

“He was a jerk.”

“Yes, yes, Soph.” Her friend turned and gave her a blinding smile. “He was and you made me realize that.”

“You’re my friend.” She’d do anything for any of them. Including running off myriad asshats. Her dad claimed she’d inherited her mother’s Irish radar. The radar that buzzed every time a jerk entered its vicinity.

“Thank God I found Antony.” Jade signaled the waiter for another round.

“Antony is perfect for you.”

“Yes.” Her friend laughed. “You said that the first moment you met him, Soph.”

“I remember the last time.” Sam broke into the conversation, her crisp, piping voice cutting through the noisy crowd surrounding them. “When she split with that guy about a year and a half ago, Soph called a MUST meet. What was his name?”

“Chad.” Her hand curled into a fist and the movement made her remember what she had been forced to put on her finger and what she’d been hiding under the table since she’d gotten here. “His name was Chad.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jade made a face. “The guy who complained about your bedtimes. As if you could dance all night and then bake early in the morning. The loser.”

“He wasn’t a loser.”

“He was a loser for you.” Melanie swung her long, curly hair over one shoulder as if whisking every one of Sophie’s previous loser boyfriends away. “He was a great guy, but for someone else. You need someone stronger.”

Her three girlfriends nodded in concert. As if this was some new news flying through their conversation.

It wasn’t.

She hadn’t agreed the first time it was said and she didn’t agree now. The men she chose to date were the men she liked. Quiet, thoughtful men. Men who listened to her opinions. Men who didn’t get in her way.

The ring around her finger seemed to tighten on her skin like a knot of weeds cutting into her circulation.

“At this point, girlfriends,” Jade pursed her lips in mock distress, “I’d be happy to see Miss S with any man at all.”

“I’m busy.”

“You’ve always been busy,” her friend retorted. “I have never known you not to be busy.”

“I’m super busy.” She pressed her other hand on her finger, trying to relieve the tight pressure. She was busy, yes, and soon she was going to be even busier. Wouldn’t you know Mr. Suave-and-Smug would pick the busiest time of her year to demand his due.

“All work and no play make for a very unhappy girl,” Sam chimed in. “Even if I have one hundred book proposals to go through at the end of the day, I always find the time to be with my guy.”

Her guy being Tom, the nicest, sweetest, most patient man on earth. Who didn’t mind that Sam’s job as a junior editor meant he often climbed into bed with her—and her books. They’d met at a bookstore. Since Sam spent a lot of her spare time at bookstores, this came as no surprise.

Perhaps she should hang out at bookstores more often. Maybe she might find a nice, amiable guy who wouldn’t mind that she had to go to bed at nine p.m. every night and had to rise before the crack of dawn. She should look into bookstores as soon as she had some spare time.

The tip of her ring finger began to throb as if something was stopping the blood from arriving.

“I did try to arrange a date for Sophie with Alex’s best friend,” Mel said. Her voice didn’t hitch over
his
name and the realization gave Soph a moment of happiness. She’d done the right thing. However, was Mel going to continue to agree with that after she spilled her ugly news? “But Sophie thought he was a workaholic.”

Jade’s white teeth flashed. “Sophie is a workaholic.”

“I am not.” Well, kinda, for now. Still, her business was just taking off. So she had to be.

“What was his name?” Sam slid her finger along her glass, her gaze focused. “Henry.”

“Right, Henry,” Mel confirmed.

This was all decidedly horrible. Every one of her friends had been drawn into Alexander the Great’s orbit. He’d invited them to his city-famous happy hours. Introducing them to his staff, he’d managed to fashion a little tribe of devotees to the Perfect Couple. Even Antony and Tom, after being wined and dined at his Hampton estate this August, had announced Mr. Suave-and-Slick was a fantastic guy. It was as if he’d spun a web of lies and deceit and slinky charm around her life. Just by itself, having to play his stupid game, would have been bad enough. But having to play his pawn in front of every one of her best friends made her heart burn.

Come to think of it…

Her middle knuckle on her fourth finger burned as if it were blistering. She was absolutely positive it had swollen to the size of a donut. She didn’t dare glance down, though. The movement might draw her friends’ attention to what she definitely didn’t want to show them.

Maybe she was allergic to his ring.

Maybe she’d have to take it off and keep it off for good.

Maybe she’d have to get a doctor to sign off on this strange allergic reaction so Mr. Suave-and-Snotty couldn’t object.

Maybe—

“S?” Melanie leaned over and put a long-fingered, gentle hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”

Immediately, her other two friends frowned in concern.

“Sophie!” Sam cried. “You look as white as death.”

“Here we’ve been rattling on,” Jade crossed her arms in self-disgust, “and our poor Soph is obviously in distress.”

What their poor Soph was in was a tub of hot water that was getting hotter and hotter, and she couldn’t jump out. She was going to have to do this and somehow make them believe—

Her hand shot out from underneath the table, the ring blazing its presence on what appeared like her completely normal finger. Her hand slammed down in the middle of the table making the warm, bright candle wobble and the tall, ornate glasses shiver.

A hush fell over them, filled only by the chatter of the groups scattered around the busy bar and the low jazz music wailing in the background.

“That looks familiar.” There was a cool clip to Melanie’s voice.

“Very familiar.”

“Yes, I would agree.”

All three heads glanced back at Sophie’s face in disbelief.

“I’m engaged.”

“I can see that.” Melanie tipped her head back down to the ring. “To—”

“Alexander.”

“Would that be Alexander Stravoudas?” Sam frowned.

“Correct.” Before they noticed her hand was now shaking, Sophie stuffed it beneath the table again.

“The Alexander Stravoudas our other girlfriend was engaged to less than six weeks ago?” Jade arched a black brow.

“Yes.” She was never going to pull this off. She wasn’t a liar like
he
was. She couldn’t manufacture emotion to get ahead or get her way.

This was awful.

Horrible.

Stunned silence fell over the table one more time. Perhaps she’d get lucky and explode into a million bits and disappear in a cloud of smoke because she truly couldn’t think of one single thing to say. Tiny, blasts of thought zipped around in her brain. She’d lose every one of her friends. She’d end up all alone. She’d never earn their respect again.

He’d
done this to her.

The toxic, tyrannical toad.

Now not only her finger burned. Her entire body boiled in a mix of anger, misery, and fear.

Then, then Mel laughed.

Mel was all that was gracious and elegant. She was beautiful and lovely and never had a hair out of place. To Sophie, she was the epitome of what a lady should be.

Except for her laugh.

To be kind, it was rather horsy. And loud. And not ladylike in the slightest.

“Oh, man,” Sam murmured.

“Oh, Lord,” Jade muttered.

“Oh, crud.” Sophie put her forehead on the table. “Mel’s gone crazy with anger.”

Another peal of laughter rolled around the bar.

“She looks pretty happy to me,” Sam said.

“This is not an upset Mel I see here,” Jade contributed.

“She’ll never forgive me.” She closed her eyes and dreamed she’d walked away into the magic forest surrounding them, never to be seen again.

“I’m not crazy.” Melanie’s hand came down on Sophie’s head. “I’m also not mad at you.”

“You should be.”

“No.” The long-fingered hand smoothed through her ponytail. “You didn’t like Alex at all when you convinced me he was wrong for me.”

“But—”

“And you were right.” The hand brushed along her shoulder. “Alex was a rebound. Jack’s the right guy.”

“But—”

“I know I’ve said it before,” her friend continued past her objection. “Yet it bears repeating. I really appreciate it that you took care of breaking it off with Alex. He’s too charming when he gets determined and I might have fallen for his pitch.”

“Our Sophie was well aware of that.” Jade gave her a wry smile. “Which is why she volunteered to do the dirty deed.”

Sam chuckled. “Our tiny friend can be fierce when she needs to be.”

While their compliments warmed her, she still hadn’t stated what needed to be said. “But—”

“Anyway, knowing my friend as I do, I have to assume something magic happened in the last month.” Mel sighed, a bittersweet sound. “And, well, Alex can be magic.”

At that absurd statement, Sophie popped her head up. “He’s not magic in any way,” she blurted. “He’s the most—”

“This is amazing.” Jade jumped to her feet and danced around her chair, her stilettos clicking on the hardwood floor.

“This is fantastic.” Sam hooted and lifted her glass in a cheer.

Melanie’s blue eyes were soft. “I’m happy for you, Soph. I never thought of you two together, but now that I do, it’s perfect.”

“Yep. You got that right.” Jade bent forward, her black eyes sparkling. “Alex Stravoudas is the absolutely, positively perfect man for you.”

Oh. God. She suddenly wished they’d all been pissed at her instead of this. This reaction made her seethe. “I don’t think—”

“He isn’t going to take any guff from you.” Her friend tapped a long red fingernail on her nose, making her want to scratch it. “He’s not going to roll over like the rest of your losers. He’s bold and strong, exactly like you.”

“They weren’t los—”

“This is like a romantic fairy tale,” Sam cooed, her eyes dreamy. “I think it’s enchanting.”

“Sophie.” Mel’s mouth compressed and she lurched over to wrap her long arms around her. “Don’t look like that. We’re very happy for you. It’s going to be wonderful.”

No. It wasn’t. It was going to be awful. Horrible.

And it was all because of
him.