When, and for how long, had Eva been married? Why had the marriage ended? Who had ended it? Eva or Jonathan Cabot Grey’s son? And if it was the latter, did she still love the man who had once been her husband?
He drew in a ragged breath. ‘Eva, what—’
‘Hello, angel.’
Markos found himself as irritated at hearing Eva addressed as ‘angel’ by another man as he had been the previous week when Glen Asher had called her ‘baby’. But even without Eva’s hand tightening to a painful grip on Markos’s arm at the first sound of that man’s voice, a single glance at the man standing behind her would have immediately identified him as being Jonathan Cabot Grey’s son.
The hair was golden-blond, where Jonathan’s was turning silver-grey, but other than that the family resemblance was unmistakable: blue eyes in similar boyishly handsome faces, both men lean and elegant in black tailored evening clothes.
There was no doubt in Markos’s mind that this was the man who had once been Eva’s husband.
This was what Jonathan had been going to warn her about a few minutes ago, Eva realised numbly, even as the full force of Jack’s presence hit her with the force of a blow.
He shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t even be in the States. He had moved to France over a year ago, when he’d taken over the Paris offices of Cabot Grey Enterprises.
Yet it was most definitely him standing just behind her. Even if Eva hadn’t known his voice as well as she knew her own, there was no one else on earth who called her ‘angel’.
What was she supposed to do now? What was the protocol for introducing your ex-husband to the man you were now…now what? She couldn’t claim to be dating Markos when this was the first evening they had gone out together, but she knew they weren’t only business acquaintances. So what were they?
Well, she
had better make her mind up—and soon—because the three of them couldn’t continue standing in this frozen tableau for much longer.
‘Angel?’ Jack prompted dryly, obviously coming to the same conclusion.
Eva gave a pained wince as once again he used the name he had once affectionately called her by. A long time ago. A lifetime ago. A different lifetime ago…
She drew in a deep breath and finally looked up into Markos’s rigidly set features. He stared past her at the other man with eyes as hard as the emeralds they resembled, his mouth thinned, jaw tight.
His harshly etched features softened slightly as he finally looked down and saw her expression of mute appeal. ‘Introduce us, will you?’ he prompted huskily even as his arm moved possessively about her waist.
The gentleness of Markos’s tone, and that supportive arm about her waist, instantly reassured Eva that whatever his inner feelings were about this strange situation Markos was there for her now—even if the warning gleam in his eyes also told her that he would expect answers to his numerous questions once they were alone.
Eva turned slowly to face Jack, her expression deliberately non-committal as she took in the subtle changes in his appearance since the two of them had faced each other across a divorce court.
He was now in his mid-thirties, and there were touches of grey at Jack’s temples that hadn’t been there three years ago. His face was thinner too, with lines etched beside his nose and mouth. Other than that he was still as lean and boyishly handsome as he had always been, and looking every inch the wealthy Cabot Grey heir in his tailored black evening suit and snowy white shirt.
‘Markos, this is Jonathan Cabot Grey Junior.’ She made the introduction stiffly. ‘Jack—Markos Lyonedes.’
Eva knew there was just a hint of satisfaction in her clipped tone as she stated Markos’s name. Understandably so, she inwardly defended herself, when the last time she and Jack had spoken for any length of time he had taken great pleasure in telling her all of her faults.
Jack’s eyes widened in obvious surprise as the other man’s identity registered. ‘Mr Lyonedes,’ he greeted him smoothly as the two men shook hands.
‘Cabot Grey.’ Markos coolly returned both the handshake and greeting.
‘Please call me Jack,’ the other man invited lightly, the smile fading from those narrowed blue eyes as he turned to look critically at Eva. ‘You’re looking well, angel.’
‘Eva looks beautiful,’ Markos corrected coldly.
Eva’s continued tension against his encircling arm left him in no doubt that this was the man who had somehow succeeded in convincing Eva that she was neither beautiful nor sexy. The very same man who had once been her husband.
Markos wondered under what circumstances Jack Cabot Grey could have made those hurtful and demeaning comments to Eva. Obviously they had not been happy ones, or the two would not now be divorced.
‘That’s what I meant, of course,’ Jack Cabot Grey agreed, with the same smooth charm as his father.
‘I’m afraid Jack and I are well past the stage of being insincerely polite to each other, Markos,’ Eva dismissed with noticeable brittleness. ‘Speaking of which—shouldn’t you be cosying up to your father’s other guests rather than wasting your practised charm on the uncharmable?’ She raised mocking brows and looked challengingly at her ex-husband.
The hardening of those deep blue eyes was Jack Cabot Grey’s only noticeable reaction to the taunt. ‘I believe Mr Lyonedes is one of my father’s guests…?’