Page 90 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

CHAPTER TWO

At first glance, the bar had appeared to be a rectangular room with timber walls and windows on one side that looked out onto a busy, restaurant precinct street.

But with Jane’s acceptance of sharing a drink with him, Zeus had nodded swiftly, put a hand in the small of her back and guided her away from the bar and through the crowd, towards a wide set of doors she hadn’t initially noticed.

‘It’s more private in here,’ he said, leaning down closer to her ear when he spoke, because it was loud, and the warmth of his breath made her whole-body tingle. She forced herself to focus, to regain control of her wayward senses.

‘All the better to hear me with?’

‘Hear you, see you…’

‘Blow my house down?’ she couldn’t resist volleying back.

‘As you said, we’ll see,’ he promised, and the words were so unmistakably sensual that her whole body seemed to catch fire.

The hand in the small of her back was warm and he moved it a little upwards.

She glanced at him then, at the exact moment his eyes dropped to her lips, and she felt as though the world had stopped spinning.

They stood perfectly still, in the middle of the private area of the bar.

Jane was dimly aware of a few other tables of guests, but she couldn’t properly register them, nor hear anything other than a general din of noise.

In the centre of her mind, and in every peripheral space as well, there was only Zeus.

‘I—’ She sought to fill the silence, to blot out the awareness that was humming through her, because this was supposed to be a ruse, and she was meant to be playing the part of someone like her mother.

Beautiful, sophisticated, wealthy and with a casual attitude to sex and relationships.

Instead, she found herself slipping back into her real self, into Jane Fisher, virtually orphaned, unloved, bullied as a child, broken-hearted at seventeen and afterwards, terrified of and turned off by sex.

Those wounds had cut deep, and now, opposite Zeus, she felt a bundle of insecurities.

‘Come and sit with me, Jane,’ he said, but there was almost a hint of resignation in his tone. Of something that didn’t, in fact, make sense. Until she remembered that if she were faux husband hunting, then he was doing the same: looking for a woman he could con into marriage.

Resignation, because he didn’t want to marry.

Resignation, because he needed to flirt with someone until they couldn’t say no to his charms and would agree to anything he proposed.

Resignation, because this was all fake—for him, absolutely—and he almost couldn’t be bothered with it. But for the trillion-dollar empire he viewed solely as his birthright, what wouldn’t he do?

Love for Lottie had Jane straightening her spine, and finally, she was in control again, able to tamp down on the fast-moving current of sexual attraction and focus on the end goal. Distract, distract, distract. Thwart, thwart, thwart.

This wasn’t a big deal. Men like Zeus were so used to thinking they could take whatever they wanted, regardless of who got hurt. Well, it was past time for him to learn his lesson, and Jane would relish giving it to him.

‘Where?’ She made a show of blinking up at him, her own long lashes flicking against the softness of her cheeks.

He gestured towards a booth in the corner, dimly lit and private.

Her heart trembled despite her assertion moments ago that she was back in charge. But she didn’t convey a hint of her doubt. Instead, she turned on her stiletto heel and walked steadily towards the booth, sliding all the way along, into the corner.

It was only when she sat down that she realised he hadn’t brought their drinks with them, and her throat was parched and her nerves in desperate need of stilling.

No matter—almost seconds later, with a flick of his fingers, a bartender appeared.

‘What will you have?’

‘I—was fine with the champagne in there,’ Jane pointed out.

‘Champagne,’ he said, then turned to face her, placing his elbow on the table and his other arm along the back of the banquette seat, so he effectively caged her in the breadth of his body.

After Steven, Jane had been terrified of dominant men.

She’d tried dating a few times, but had gravitated towards slim, slight cerebral types.

Men who couldn’t hurt her. Men she could defend herself against. Zeus certainly didn’t fit that mould, and yet she wasn’t afraid.

At least, she wasn’t afraid of him. The fear that was trembling at the base of her spine had more to do with the force of want pulsating inside her.

She stared across at him, half wanting to back out of this—even when she knew she never could.

‘You’re buying another bottle?’

‘You want more?’

‘There’s a bottle open on the bar in there.’

‘Would you like me to go and get it?’

‘It just seems a little wasteful.’

‘I’m not bothered.’

She didn’t act quickly enough to suppress her sneer. Yes, she’d known men like him before. So carelessly wealthy, so utterly taking their ridiculous bank balances for granted. They never realised what a difference that money could make to the less fortunate.

The waiter returned with a champagne bottle and two glasses. When he went to open it in front of them, Zeus took the bottle and waved the server away in that manner of his that was pure ‘I am king, hear me command.’

‘Well, Zeus,’ she drawled as he uncorked the champagne and poured two glasses. ‘Tell me about yourself.’

He quirked a teasing expression in her direction, then lifted his glass in a silent salute. She reached for her own, clinking them together.

‘To new friends,’ he murmured.

‘And old ones,’ she added, thinking of Lottie like a touchstone now, aware that she had to focus on her loyalty to the other woman so as not to quit this hare-brained scheme.

He dipped his head once, apparently accepting her amendment, then took a sip. ‘What would you like to know?’

‘Do you work near here?’

‘Yes.’

Her lips flickered into a smile, then tightened when he glanced down, his eyes staring at her mouth in a way that made them tingle. The room was not warm, and yet Jane’s body was. She felt awash with heat and sipped the ice-cold champagne gratefully.

‘Where?’

‘Two blocks away.’

Jane rolled her eyes at his vagueness. ‘What do you do?’

‘I’m in a family business.’

‘How quaint,’ she responded, intentionally goading him. ‘Do you work with your parents?’

‘My father retired five years ago,’ he said. ‘And my mother died in the spring.’

Jane’s grip on her champagne flute almost faltered. She’d known that, though she’d temporarily forgotten. The way he said it pulled hard on her heart.

‘I’m sorry.’ The response was dragged from deep within her. She reached out and put a hand on his knee, surprising herself with the need to offer comfort. ‘That must have been very hard.’

He nodded once, sipped his champagne, looking away, and Jane could have cursed. She wished she hadn’t seen this side of him, this glimpse of humanity, because it would have been easier to ensure she didn’t feel anything for Zeus as humanising as pity.

He was someone she had to bait into a fake relationship, and in order to achieve that, she had to continue to regard him as her best friend’s nemesis and nothing more.

That was easy when he was flirting like it was a professional sport, and looking at her in the same way those other men in the bar had.

But when he said something so intimate, how could she not soften, just a little? Just for a moment?

‘What brings you to Athens?’

The change of subject was swift and slightly disconcerting, because she was still wrapped up in sympathy and softness for him, whereas Zeus had regrouped alarmingly fast. She tried to keep up, but took a sip of champagne just to help settle those frustratingly discordant nerves.

‘How do you know I don’t live here?’ she asked, stalling for time.

‘You’ve never heard of me,’ he pointed out.

‘Okay, buster. Spill. You’re obviously famous or something,’ she said, glad to turn the tables and redirect conversation back to him.

‘Not famous,’ he disputed. ‘But locally known.’

‘Because you have the kind of eyes a woman could lose herself in?’ She couldn’t resist teasing, enjoying the way those dark eyes flashed to hers with speculation and heat.

His laugh was unsettling, though, because it shook her to her core right when she had thought she was back in control.

‘Because my family has been based here for hundreds of years, run businesses out of Athens that are known all over the world.’

‘You’re Zeus Papandreo,’ she said, glad she could at least get that out in the open, as it made her feel like less of a liar.

‘Guilty as charged.’

‘But you’re not guilty,’ she murmured. ‘You’re proud.’

‘Yes.’

Anger fired inside her. Proud because he was a Papandreo.

Proud because he belonged to that family.

With no notion of the dark side of the moon, of what it had been like for Lottie to grow up shunned and hidden, with the ignominy of her conception and birth hanging over her head as though she were some dirty secret.

‘I can understand why,’ Jane muttered, wishing she were a slightly better liar, because she couldn’t quite flatten the contempt from her tone, and Zeus was so perceptive, she was almost certain he caught it.

She expelled a breath and forced a smile, trying again. ‘Your family’s success is remarkable.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s easy to be successful when you have a legacy like this behind you.’

More anger whipped inside her. Not only had this man grown up with everything at his fingertips that should have been Lottie’s, he was also clearly moving the pieces in his life to marry, swiftly, to further deny Lottie what should now be hers.