When She Fell for the Billionaire(25)

The undercurrents were so thick she could swim in it.

“I’ll meet you at the function room in fifteen minutes,” Luca said in a bored tone.

“Make it ten.” The woman’s lips tightened fractionally, but her tone was glib when she said, “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend, Luca?” The woman did a quarter turn, glancing at him briefly.

Sabrina caught her breath as Luca deftly picked up her underwear from the floor just in time and jammed it inside the pocket of his pants.

“No,” he said without any inflection.

The woman’s laugh was brittle. “Markos’ atrocious manners is catching, I see.”

Luca just drank whatever liquor he had poured into his tumbler straight up.

Sabrina felt a pang of pity and embarrassment for the woman. She held out her hand. “Hello. I’m Sabrina Connelly.”

The woman pushed her sunglasses up her head. Sabrina reared back, startled. The woman caught her surprised reaction and her eyes hardened–one colored brown, and the other a startling blue. Sabrina knew even before she spoke what her family name would be. “Eleni Konstantinos.”

Eleni had mistakenly attributed her reaction to her mismatched eyes. She met Sabrina’s stare with an “I dare you to comment” expression. It smacked of someone who was used to receiving odd attention about her condition. Sabrina blinked, as if the action would reassure her her contacts were still in place.

“Eleni is Markos’ cousin,” Luca drawled. The odd glint in his eyes unsettled Sabrina.

“You know Markos?” Eleni frowned.

In a way. Sabrina shook her head, still reeling from the unexpected shock and evidence of their shared characteristic. She wanted to tell her what she came out here for but stopped herself just in time. “Is he already here? In Seirenada? Markos?”

Eleni’s perfectly arched brows met together in puzzlement at her eager question. Sabrina saw Luca’s body uncoiling from the bar, a palpable alertness emanating from him.

Before Eleni could answer, he cut in. “I was just sharing stories over lunch, about Markos and I, when we were brats around the island.”

“It must have been quite a cozy chat.” Eleni’s full lips pulled up in a stiff smile.

Sabrina flashed her one just as stiff. “Quite.”

“Lovely. We’ll have to have one too, then. Soon.” The invitation sounded more like a threat. “Any friend of Luca is a friend of mine.”

Over my dead body.

“It’s Sabrina’s first time in Seirenada.” Luca nursed his drink with one hand, his expression bland. He twirled the refilled liquid with a gentle rolling motion of his wrist that Sabrina found mesmerizing. "Her schedule will be tight since we’ll go around visiting all the nice little spots on the island.”

We are? Sabrina frowned at him. He smiled innocently.

“Well then. I must be off. Loads of things to do for the launch. I’ll see you in the conference room, Luca.” This time Eleni’s smile, though unsure, appeared to be the real thing as she glanced at Luca briefly.

Luca stirred from the bar and escorted Elena to the threshold of the door. She paused and spoke in Greek: “Your new plaything?”

Sabrina pretended not to understand. She’d learned the language two years ago since she had discovered secrets that had been kept from her for twenty-five years.

Luca’s answer in Greek was terse and painfully accurate. “She’s no one.”

Eleni slanted a calculating look in her direction and patted him on the cheek. Then she was gone, leaving only the hum of the air conditioning, a whiff of exotic perfume, and humiliating silence.

She’s no one. Sabrina’s hand on her bag fumbled. Shit! She had to get out of the room ASAP because this time, she actually felt her eyes smarting. All these years she had never felt the least bit like crying and in a span of less than thirty minutes, she actually had and was now in imminent danger of doing so again.

She was no one. The truth hit her like a brick on the head. She wasn’t anyone’s granddaughter anymore. She didn’t feel like a sister to her estranged siblings. And she felt like she hadn’t been anyone’s child for as long as she could remember. She had always been on the fringes. She was nobody’s girl. She marched to the door, focusing on her limbs. Luca was still standing beside it.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Leaving.”

“You can’t leave yet.”

“This no one is. Watch me.” Her voice had a slight tremor.

Luca cursed. “You speak Greek, too?”

She shook her head, avoiding his gaze. “Not fluently.”