Read Online Bound to the Greek by Kate Hewitt - Free Book Online

okay.
    She wasn’t even sure what was going to be okay: the party? The future? Something more nebulous that she couldn’t yet name? Eleanor had no answers.
    ‘They told me I’d find you here.’
    Eleanor tensed, all the loosely held parts of herself coming together in a cold, hard ball. She turned slowly around to survey Jace.
    He stood in the doorway, dressed in a navy suit and wool overcoat, a briefcase in one hand. His cheeks were reddened with cold, emphasising the silvery glint of his eyes and the inky blackness of his hair.
    ‘On the terrace?’ Eleanor said a bit stupidly, for despite her cool smile her mind seemed to have slowed down, only able to process how amazing he looked.
    Jace smiled crookedly. It reminded her of the way he used to smile, back when they were students. Lovers. He hadn’t smiled like that in the last week; all his smiles had been cold or calculated, a cruel curving of the lips. This one was real, lopsided, and yet somehow sad. The memories still lay between them, heavy and unspoken. Eleanor wondered if they would always be there. ‘Actually, in the restaurant. But the door was open, so I figured you came out for a breath of fresh air.’
    ‘Very fresh,’ Eleanor agreed, and Jace smiled again. Her heart turned right over, a flip-flop that was both exciting and a little alarming. She didn’t want to respond to him, not physically, not emotionally. She didn’t want to feel anything at all. Yet somehow, even now, after everything they’d been through, after everything she’d endured, she still did.
    He set his briefcase down by the door and joined her at the railing. ‘How’s it going?’
    ‘Good.’ She gave a quick little laugh; it sounded sharp. She knew what that laugh was: a defence mechanism. She inched away from him. ‘You haven’t been checking up on me all week. I expected an email or phone call to make sure the arrangements were
acceptable.’
Her emphasis on the word, Eleanor knew, sounded petty.
    ‘I thought it best,’ Jace said after a second’s hesitation, and Eleanor saw his fingers tighten on the railing.
    And before she could stop herself, Eleanor whispered, ‘Why didn’t you just get someone else, Jace?’ Her voice sounded little and lost.
    ‘I don’t know.’ He stared out at the frozen lake, his features harshening once more. ‘I didn’t want to walk away from you… like that.’
    Like before. Her heart turned over again. It was, she thought ruefully, as desperate and flailing as a dying fish. She averted her face as she replied, ‘It would have been easier.’
    Jace turned away from the railing and the lake, and Eleanor knew that the conversation—
that
conversation—was over. ‘It looks like you’ve done a fabulous job, at any rate,’ he said, his voice brisk and light. Eleanor felt equal and infuriating amounts of disappointment and relief. She really didn’t want to talk about the past, about
them,
yet here she was, ripping off scabs, opening wounds.
    ‘It’s cold out here.’ The lake, she saw, was now cloaked in darkness. Above the trees lights winked on in the elegant apartment buildings lining Fifth Avenue. ‘I should go back inside, check on the details before I return tomorrow.’
    ‘All right,’ Jace agreed, and he followed her back into the Lake Room. Eleanor didn’t look at him as she consulted her list, mindlessly scanning the endless items she’d assembled for the party. She felt rather than saw Jace, still standing by the door, watching her. Even though he stood halfway across the room, she imagined she could feel the heat emanating from his body, winding around her own heart and warming her from the inside.
    ‘There’s still a lot to do,’ she told him, her eyes fixedfirmly on her list. She felt a strange new tension crackling between them, snapping inside her. A sexual tension, and she wasn’t prepared for it. She’d spent ten years being angry at Jace Zervas; she wasn’t ready to feel anything else. She didn’t