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The Konstantos Marriage Demand
Kate Walker


The Greek’s ruthless reunion Sadie Carteret and Nikos Konstantos were once blissfully in love. They planned the wedding of the year, and that their union would create a powerful dynasty. But business and pleasure should never be mixed. Nikos was accused of scheming for Sadie’s money and title and was systematically destroyed by her family.The wedding was cancelled, the relationship in tatters. Now the ruthless billionaire has built himself back up from scratch. He will clear his name and demand what was rightfully his… Sadie must love, honour and…obey…









Excerpt


‘Sadie…’ Nikos said again, and at long last the finger that rested so lightly on her cheek moved softly.

And he bent his head to kiss her.

It felt as if it was the kiss she had been waiting for all her life. It was shocking, heart-stopping in its gentleness. Sadie’s fingers softened, her grip on the water glass loosening so that it fell to the floor. She vaguely heard the splash of water, the thud of the tumbler bouncing on the thick wool of the rug.

But after that she knew nothing else. Nothing but Nikos and the warmth of his body all around her. The strength of his arms as they gathered her close. The pressure of his mouth on hers and the magic it was working as he eased her lips open, slid his tongue along the edge and into the warm softness of her mouth.

She was drowning in a dark, heady world of sensuality, aware only of the responses of her body, following blindly where Nikos led. Her own hands lifted, arms winding around his neck, drawing his proud head down, taking the kiss into another dimension.

‘Nikos…’ She choked out his name, restless fingers clutching in his hair.

But the words died on her tongue, crushed back down her throat by the way that he suddenly stopped, his whole mood changing. The hands that had held her close were now moving her away from him, setting her aside with cold precision. And then, to her total consternation and horror, he pulled back the cuff of his shirt and checked his watch again.

‘Your time is almost up. You have just fifty seconds left,’ he declared with flat detachment, completely devoid of emotion. ‘Was there anything else you wanted to say before you leave?’


Kate Walker was born in Nottinghamshire, but as she grew up in Yorkshire she has always felt that her roots are there. She met her husband at university, and originally worked as a children’s librarian, but after the birth of her son she returned to her old childhood love of writing. When she’s not working, she divides her time between her family, their three cats, and her interests of embroidery, antiques, film and theatre, and, of course, reading. You can visit Kate at www.kate-walker.com





The Konstantos Marriage Demand


by




Kate Walker











www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk/)


For Abby Green with thanks for the inspiration over Kir Royales in the Shelbourne and for sharing Delphi Lodge




Chapter One


IN SPITE OF the driving rain that lashed her face, stinging her eyes and almost blinding her, Sadie had no trouble finding her way to the offices where she had an appointment first thing that morning. From the moment that she left the tube station and turned right it was as if her feet were taking her automatically along the route she needed, with no need to look where she was going.

But then of course she had been this way so many times before. In other days, some time ago perhaps, but often enough to know her way without thinking. Of course then she had been heading in this direction in such very different circumstances. In those days she would have arrived in a taxi, or perhaps a chauffeur-driven car, with a uniformed driver sliding the limousine to the edge of the kerb and opening the door for her. Then, the offices towards which she was heading had belonged to her father as the head of Carteret Incorporated. Now they were the UK headquarters of the man who had set out to ruin her family in revenge for the way he had been treated.

And who had succeeded far more than he had ever dreamed.

Burning tears mingled with the sting of the rain as Sadie forced her feet towards the huge plate glass doors that marked the entrance to the elegant building, blinding her so that she almost stumbled across the threshold. Bitter acid swirled in her stomach as the doors slid open and she recognised the way that the words Konstantos Corporation were now etched in big gold letters on the glass where once she had been able to see her father’s name—her family name—displayed so clearly.

Would she ever be able to come back here and not think of her father, dead and in his grave for over six months, while the man who had hated him enough to take everything he possessed from him now lorded it over the company that her great-grandfather had built up from nothing into the multimillion corporation it now was?

‘No!’ Drawing on all the determination she possessed, Sadie shook her head, sending her sleek dark hair flying, her green eyes dark with resolve, as she stepped into the wide, marble-floored foyer. Her black patent high-heeled shoes made a clipped, decisive sound as she made her way across to the pale wood reception desk.

‘No!’ she muttered under her breath again.

No way was she going to let cruel memories of the past destroy her now. She couldn’t let them take away the hard-won strength she had drawn on to get herself here. The resolve that was holding her upright and, she prayed, stopping her legs from shaking, her knees from giving way beneath her. She had come here today because it was her last—her only chance. She had to brave the lion in his den and ask him—beg him—to give them this one small reprieve. Without it the thought of the consequences was impossible to bear. For herself, her mother and her small brother. She couldn’t let anything get in the way of that.

‘I have an appointment with Mr Konstantos,’ she told the smartly dressed young woman behind the reception desk. ‘With—Mr Nikos Konstantos.’

She prayed that no tremor in her voice gave away how difficult she had found it to say the name—his name. The name of the man she had once loved almost to the point of madness. The name she had once believed would be hers too for the rest of her life—until she had realised that she was just being used as a pawn in a very nasty power game. A cruel game of revenge and retribution. A settling of scores from wounds that had originally been inflicted long ago and had been many, bitter years festering viciously, until they had poisoned so many lives. Her own amongst them.

‘And your name is?’ the receptionist enquired.

‘Carter,’ Sadie supplied, hoping that the sudden dropping of her green eyes to examine some non-existent spot on one of her hands didn’t betray how difficult she had found it to come out with the lie. ‘S-Sandie Carter.’

She had had to resort to the subterfuge of a false name, she acknowledged inwardly, a nasty taste in her mouth at having been reduced to it. She knew only too well that if she had tried to gain an appointment with him under her real identity then Nikos Konstantos would never even have given her a moment’s consideration. Her request to see him would have been refused with cold-blooded arrogance and unyielding rejection. Her attempt to contact him would have been squashed dead under his arrogant heel before it had even struggled into life and she would be back where she had been at the start of this week: lost, desperate, penniless, and without a hope in the world.

She didn’t have much of a hope now, but at least the receptionist was checking through a list of names and times on her computer, smiling her satisfaction as she found the fictitious one that Sadie had given her, and making a swift click with her mouse as she checked it off.

‘You’re a little early…’

‘Not to worry—I can wait…’ Sadie put in hastily, knowing only too well that ‘a little early’ was a major understatement. She was way too early—by more than half an hour. But nervousness and a real fear that she might have backed out of this if she hadn’t left home just as soon as she was ready had pushed her out of the door well before the time needed for her journey.

‘No need,’ the other woman assured her. ‘Mr Konstantos’s first appointment cancelled, so he can see you straight away.’

‘Thank you,’Sadie managed, because it was all she could say.

She’d committed herself to this interview and she had to go through with it. But now that the time had come she felt sick at just the thought of confronting Nikos here, in what had once been her family’s offices. What had possessed her to do this? To think that she could cope with seeing Nikos for the first time in five years, and come back into the building that did so much to emphasise how far her family’s fortunes had fallen—both at the same time.

‘I think perhaps…’ she began again, her already shaky courage deserting her, meaning to say that she’d changed her mind—she had another appointment, or her mother had just called…anything to give her an excuse to leave, get out of here now. To run and hide before she had to come face to face with…

‘Mr Konstantos…’

The receptionist’s tone, her sudden change of expression, would have alerted Sadie to just what was happening even without the use of that emotive name. The other woman’s eyes had widened, her gaze going straight to a point over Sadie’s shoulder, behind her back. And the expression in it, as in the way she had said the name—that name—told Sadie without another word needing to be spoken just who had come up behind her, silent as a hunting jungle cat, and possibly just as deadly.

‘Has my ten-o’clock appointment arrived?’

‘She’s right here…’

The receptionist smiled as she indicated Sadie standing before her desk, and she clearly thought that Sadie would smile back. Smile and turn. Possibly say hello or some such.

But Sadie knew that she couldn’t move. Her legs seemed to have frozen to the spot. Her mind too had iced up, leaving her incapable of registering a single thought other than the fact that he was behind her.

That Nikos Konstantos was right behind her. And that at any moment he would see her and realise who she was.

It was the voice that had done it. Just those few words in those deep, sensually husky tones had short-circuited her brain waves, making it impossible to think of anything but the shivering sensations that ran up and down her spine. Once she had heard that voice whisper to her in the darkness, murmuring sounds of delight and promising her the very best—the world—the future. And, entranced by that sexy accent, lost in the world of sensuality that just being with him had always created around her, she had foolishly, naively believed in every word.

Every lying word.

‘Mrs Carter?’

Her silence had gone on too long. It had had the opposite effect to the one she had hoped for. What she had really wanted was to become invisible. Or for the beautiful marble floor to open up so that she could fall right through, out of sight. But instead, by standing still and silent, she had puzzled and confused the other woman so that she frowned in faint enquiry, making a slight nod of her head to draw Sadie’s attention to the man behind her.

A man who couldn’t possibly be unaware of the way she was standing there, stiff and awkward and with blatant disregard for normal polite behaviour.

‘This is Mrs Carter…’ The receptionist tried again. ‘Your ten o’clock…’

She had to move; she had no choice. Any more delay and she would raise all his suspicions, put him on edge. Drawing on all her strength and squaring her shoulders, Sadie snatched in a deep, sharp breath and turned on her heel. The effort she put into the movement made it far too strong, too wild, so that she whirled round, almost spinning out of control as she came suddenly face to face with the man she had once believed she was destined to marry.

He recognised her instantly, of course. No matter how much she might have changed over the past five years—and she had changed—she knew that. She had to have changed. There was no way she could still be the younger, more relaxed, far happier Sadie who had first met Nikos. But there was no doubt, no hesitation in his recognition of her. She saw the way that his face changed, the sudden tightening of his mouth, the flare of something wild and dangerous in his eyes, and her blood ran cold inside her veins at the sight.

‘You!’ he said, and that was all. The one word was riddled with all the disgust, contempt and obvious hatred that he felt for her, making her shiver inwardly in fearful response.

‘Me,’ she managed, sheer nerves making her tone inappropriately flippant, so that she saw the way that anger snapped his dark straight brows together in an ominous glare. ‘Hello, Nikos.’

‘My office—now,’ he said, and spun on his heel, striding away across the foyer, never once looking back, and obviously believing that she would follow. That she would have no option but to obey the harshly muttered command he had flung at her.

And really, she did have no option. It was either that or leave, with her mission unaccomplished. And now that she had braved the lion in his den, surely she had the worst over with?

Or did she? It was true that she’d been pushed into this meeting she’d been dreading, but she had had no time to prepare, or even to think about what she was going to say. And she had hoped to approach Nikos as calmly and quietly as possible. Instead she had done just the opposite.

She’d knocked him off balance too, and he was angry as a result. Coldly furious.

It was there in every inch of his long, powerful body as he strode across the foyer towards the lifts. It stiffened the straight spine, tightened the powerful shoulders and held his dark head so arrogantly high that she felt it gave him an even more impressive height than usual.

It was impossible not to reflect on the sheer impact of that stunning frame, the width of chest, narrow sexy hips and long, long legs. She had rarely seen him quite so formally dressed when she had known him before, and the effect of the severely tailored outfit was to turn him into a distant, unapproachable figure. Deep inside there was an ache in her heart at the memory of the younger, warmer, kinder Nikos.

At least he had seemed warmer and kinder then. It was only later that she had discovered the truth about how he really was.

‘Are you coming?’

The sharp question dragged her back to the present with a jolt. Warm and kind were not the words to use about Nikos now. In fact, in everything about him he was the exact opposite. As he stood just inside the lift, one long finger jammed hard on the button that held the door open, he directed a cold, icy glare at her face that had her jumping into action fast, almost scurrying the last few steps into the compartment and huddling back against the wall.

Nikos’s only response was a sharp movement that released the button, letting the door slide to, shutting them in.

‘I…’ Sadie tried, but another of those arctic glares froze the words on her tongue.

She had forgotten how deep a bronze his eyes could be in certain lights. In others they could be almost molten gold, the colour of the purest honey and just as sweet—or they had been once upon a time. There was nothing sweet in the look he turned on her now, nothing to melt the knot of ice that seemed to have clenched around her stomach, twisting it brutally until she felt raw and nauseous deep inside.

And Nikos clearly had no intention of even attempting to lighten the atmosphere or to make her feel any better. Instead he simply leaned back against the wall of the compartment, folding his strong arms across the width of his chest as he subjected her to the sort of savage scrutiny that made her feel as if the burn of his gaze might actually shrivel her where she stood. Why she didn’t just collapse into a pile of ashes under it she didn’t know. Instead, she shifted awkwardly from one foot to another then, unable to bear the terrible silence any longer, forced herself to try again.

‘I—I can explain…’ was all she managed, before he made a slicing, brutal gesture with his hand that cut off all attempt at speech.

‘In my office.’

It was tossed at her, almost flung into her face, no hint of expression or trace of warmth on his features. His expression was a stone wall, no light in his eyes, his jaw set and hard.

‘But I…’ she tried again.

‘In my office,’ he repeated, and his tone left her in no doubt that he would brook no argument so there was no use in even trying.

Besides, the confined space of the lift was too small, too claustrophobic for her to want to risk confronting him while she was trapped there. She might have been prepared to face him in his office—in more civilised surroundings—but not here, not now. Not like this.

And, seeing the burn of icy anger in those golden eyes, she felt a shiver creep across her skin at the thought that civilised no longer seemed an appropriate word to describe Nikos Konstantos, either.

‘In your office, then,’ she muttered, determined not to let him have the last word, and the glance she turned in his direction had the flash of defiance in its green depths.

That glance challenged him to take things further, Nikos acknowledged grimly as he adjusted his broad shoulders against the mirrored wall of the lift. But if she knew just what sort of taking it further was actually in his thoughts then he suspected that she would back down pretty hastily. Back down and back away.

It was what he should do too. The back away part at least. He should back away, back off, get his thoughts under control. He had been rocked, knocked mentally off balance by the speed and intensity of his response to discovering that she was in the building. That his ten-o’clock appointment was actually with none other than Sadie Carteret.

With the woman who had once taken him for a fool, used him, fleeced him, damn nearly been the death of his father, and then walked out on him on what had been supposed to be their wedding day. Bile rose in his throat at just the thought. The memory should have been enough to blast his mind with black hatred, drive any more basic, more masculine response right out of it.

But instead it was desire that had hit. No—give it its proper name—it had been lust. Pure, driven, primitive male lust. Though of course there had been nothing at all pure about the thoughts that had sizzled through his mind. And that had been from only seeing her from the back.

He had taken one look at the tall, slender frame of the woman in front of him, gaze lingering on the swell of her hips, the pert bottom under the clinging navy blue skirt. The contrast between the very feminine curves and the surprisingly matronly clothing, the soft flesh pushing against the restricting material, had had a sensual kick that had made his head spin and he had known that he was resolved to get to know this Sandie Carter well—very well—as swiftly as possible.

But then she had turned and he had seen that she was not Sandie Carter at all but Sadie Carteret, the woman who had torn his world apart five years before and was now, it seemed, back in his life.

For what?

‘I suppose things will be more private there,’ she added now, smoothing a hand over her hair and then, more revealingly, down the sides of her hips, as if wiping away some nervous perspiration from her palms and fingers.

She was not as much in control as she wanted to appear and that suited him fine. He wanted her off balance, on edge with her guard down. That way she might let slip the truth about what she was after. Because she was after something—she had to be.

‘And you’d prefer to continue this interview in private?’

‘Wouldn’t you?’

It was another challenge, one that brought her head up, green eyes flashing, her neat chin lifting high.

‘That is why you want to continue things in your office, isn’t it?’

‘I prefer not to have the whole world knowing my business.’

He’d had enough of that when she’d swept into his life like a whirlwind and stormed out again, leaving everything turned upside down and inside out. It had been bad enough that the financial newspapers had delighted in reporting the downfall of the Konstantos business empire with barely disguised glee, but the memory of his personal humiliation at the hands of the gossip columns and the paparazzi made acid burn in his stomach as the bitter taste of hatred filled his mouth.

‘Me too.’

Something in his words or his tone had hit home, making her change her stance and drop her eyes suddenly, looking down at the floor.

So did she have something to hide? Something she would prefer the papers never got their hands on? Something he could use to bring her down as low as she had brought him? A rich sense of satisfaction ran darkly through his blood at the thought.

‘Then in this at least we are in agreement.’

And he would have to control his need to know more, to understand just why she was here. To stamp down on the sudden rush of anticipation that was almost like an electrical charge along his senses. A call to battle and a challenge to be met. Once they were inside his office things would be different. Then he would get the truth from her.

Although the fact was that he already largely suspected he knew what that truth would be. Deep down he knew just why she was here because there really could only be one answer to that question.

She had to be here for money.

What else would bring her here, knocking at his door? That was what she would have most need of after all. When he’d brought her father down, he’d destroyed her luxurious way of life too. And now that Edwin Carteret was dead, there was no one else she could turn to.

But she must be desperate to think of asking him for help. Just how desperate she’d shown by lying about her name. She’d known that there was no way that Sadie Carteret would ever have been allowed to set foot over the threshold.

So why was he taking her up to his office instead of having Security eject her—forcibly, if needed—from the building?

He wasn’t prepared to admit even to himself that the decision had anything to do with the instant physical response he’d felt in the first moments when he’d seen her. And now, in this small compartment, with the tall, slender lines of her body, the sleek, shining mane of dark hair and the porcelain smooth pallor of her skin repeated over and over in the multitude of reflections in the walled mirrors, it was so much worse to handle. The scent of her skin came to him on a waft of air with each movement she made, and when she shook back that smooth bell of hair it was mixed with a soft, herbal essence that made his head and his thoughts spin. Primitive hunger clawed at him deep inside, and the clutch of desire that twisted low down made him shift uncomfortably, needing to ease the discomfort.

Thankfully at that moment the lift came to a halt and the heavy metal doors slid open on to the grey carpeted corridor that led to his office. Deliberately Nikos stood back and gestured to indicate that Sadie should precede him, refusing to allow himself to look anywhere but at the top of her shining dark-haired head as she moved past.

‘Left,’ he said sharply, then swallowed down the rest of the directions as to how to reach his office. Because of course she didn’t need them. She knew the way to what had once been her father’s office probably better than he did, and she was already heading in that direction without any help from him.

She’d made a faux pas there, Sadie admitted to herself. She’d probably infuriated him by not standing back and waiting for directions but setting out at once in the right direction. But she’d just turned to the left automatically, following her path from so many other times in the past. She could only be grateful for the fact that walking ahead of Nikos gave her a moment or two to adjust her expression unseen, to control the sudden waver in her composure, the instinctive tightening of her mouth at the faint shiver that ran down her spine.

She had to remember that she no longer belonged here. That she wasn’t on her home territory but in Nikos’s domain. This was where he belonged now, where he ruled like some king of ancient Greece, absolute monarch of all he surveyed.

Absolute monarch—and possibly a tyrant too? She didn’t know what Nikos was like as a boss, but he had to be a ruthless and highly efficient one. It had only taken him five short years to turn round the fortunes of the Konstantos Corporation from the weakened position in which his father’s wild gambling on the stock exchange had left it. He’d turned the tables on her father, exacting a brutal revenge for the way Edwin had treated him in the past.

‘I’m sorry…’

Carefully she adjusted her pace so that she was no longer leading but had made space for Nikos to walk alongside her, take the lead if he preferred. But he didn’t take advantage of the change. Instead he stayed just behind her, a dark, looming shape at her right shoulder. Impossible to see. Impossible to judge his mood.

He was so close that she could almost feel the heat of his body reaching out to her. The scent of some cool, crisp aftershave tantalised her nostrils with thoughts of the ozone tang of the clear blue sea off the shores of the private island that the Konstantos family had once owned. That island had been part of the property empire Edwin had taken from them, so she supposed that it must now be once more back in Nikos’s hands—unless her father had sold it on to someone else.

Her conscience gave an uncomfortable little twist at the thought, knowing how much Nikos had loved that island. It had meant as much to him as Thorn Trees, the old house that had been part of her family for so long, meant to her mother. So surely he would understand why she had come here today.

‘Here…’

The touch of Nikos’s hand on her arm to bring her to a halt outside a door was soft and swift, barely there and then gone again, but all the same the faint brush of his fingers against her elbow sizzled right the way through to her skin underneath the fine navy wool, making her almost stumble in reaction. She had known that touch in the past, had felt it so intimately on her body, on her hungry flesh without any barrier of clothes. She’d felt his touch, his caress, his kiss along every yearning inch of her, and now, like a violin fine-tuned to a maestro’s hand, she felt herself quiver deep inside in shivering response as much to her memories as to the heat of his hand that barely reached her in reality.

‘I know!’

Unease pushed the words from her, as she faked impatience and irritation as an excuse to snatch her arm away from his hand as she twisted the door handle with unnecessary force and wrenched it open.

‘Of course you do.’ Nikos’s response was darkly cynical, the rough edge to his voice a warning that she had overstepped the mark as he reached a long arm across her shoulder and pushed at the door. ‘But allow me…’

Could the words be any more pointed? Could he make it any plainer that he was emphasising the fact that he owned this place now? That he, and not she, was in the position of power. Very definitely in charge.

And she would do well to remember that, Sadie told herself, pulling her scurrying thoughts back under control, forcing herself to take a couple of deep, calming breaths and remind herself just why she was here. She needed Nikos on her side and she would be foolish to anger and alienate him before she had even had a chance to put her case.

‘Thank you.’

Somehow she managed to make it polite, careful. Not quite the polite, submissive murmur she suspected would be more politic, but politic was beyond her. Her heart was pounding, ragged and uneven, so that her breath was jerky and raw. Tension, she told herself. Pure, unadulterated tension. She was nervous about what was coming, fearful about what she had to say and the way he might receive it.

It couldn’t be anything else, she told herself. It had to be that, could only be that. She wasn’t going to let it be anything else that was affecting her in this way. But with the heady scent of clean male skin in her nostrils, the brush of his hand along her neck as he reached for the door, the memory of those long ago sensual touches and caresses coming so very close to the surface of her mind, she knew that something else was knocking her dangerously off balance. Something she didn’t want to look at too closely for fear of what she might find.

‘Come in.’

Nikos was still keeping to that excessively polite tone, the one that warned her that she was in the presence of real danger. That she was trapped with a dark and menacing predator, one that had simply been biding its time before it decided to turn and pounce. And once inside this office, in the privacy that he had declared he was determined on, with no one close at hand to hear or to intervene should she need them, that surely would be the moment that he finally resolved to attack.

That thought made her legs suddenly weak as cotton wool beneath her as she stumbled into the room, coming halfway across the office before they gave up completely and brought her to nervous halt, not knowing what to do next. And as she stood there, her thoughts whirling, trying to find some way of beginning, an opening that would start her off on the path to saying what she had come to say, the words to ask for what she needed so badly, she felt Nikos brush past her. He strode towards the big desk that dominated the room, his movements brusque and controlled, his long body held taut with some ruthlessly restrained emotion. And it was as he swung round to face her that she saw the dark expression etched onto his stunning features and felt her heart lurch painfully just once, before it plummeted downwards to somewhere beneath the soles of her neat patent court shoes.

Anger. The whole set of his face was tight with icy fury, his golden eyes blazing with it. Away from public scrutiny, from everyone else who might see them together, hear what he had to say, he had thrown off the careful veneer of civilised, cultured politeness. The real Nikos—dark, primitive and very, very angry—was exposed in total clarity, without any pretence to mute the shocking impact of the rage that gripped him. A rage that was directed straight at her.

The predator had decided to pounce—and this time he was very definitely going in for the kill.




Chapter Two


‘YOU LIED!’ NIKOS said, flinging the accusation at her almost as soon as the door had swung closed behind her, shutting them in together. ‘You lied about who you were—gave a false name.’

‘Of course I did!’

Sadie prayed that the control she was forcing into her voice kept it steady. She hoped that she had at least held it down so that it didn’t go soaring up too high under the influence of the panic that was tying her insides into tight, painful knots.

‘I had to. What else could I do? If I’d given my real name then there’s no way you would have ever agreed to see me, would you?’

‘You’re damn right I wouldn’t. You wouldn’t have got across the threshold. But the fact remains that you are here—and that you lied in order to get here. Which means that you have something you want to say. Something that is important enough for you to use that lie in order to get to say it. So what is that, I wonder?’

The look he turned on her seemed to sear right through her, the blaze of his eyes so intense that Sadie almost expected to see her clothes scorch and burn along the path that it traced over her body.

Nikos was behind his desk, and he leaned forward to stab one long finger down on a button by his phone. Sadie heard a woman’s voice, faintly blurred by the nervous buzzing in her head, respond almost immediately.

‘No calls.’ It was a command, and clearly one he meant to have obeyed. ‘And no interruptions. I am not to be disturbed until I say.’

And if the secretary or PA goes against those instruction, then she’s a braver woman than I am, Sadie told herself. But the next moment any other thoughts fled from her mind as Nikos nodded his satisfaction and turned his attention back to her.

‘So why are you here?’

‘I…’

Faced with that arctic glare, the ferocious bite of his demand, Sadie found that in that moment she couldn’t actually recall precisely why she was there, let alone form her response into any sort of coherent argument. One that might actually impress him, persuade him on to her side when she knew that he was guaranteed to take the opposite stance, simply because he was who he was and she was the one doing the asking.

She was suddenly very glad of the expanse of polished wood of his desk that came between them, acting as a barrier between the powerful dynamic force that was Nikos Konstantos.

It was totally irrational, but when he glowered at her like that she suddenly felt as if the room had shrunk, as if the walls had moved inwards, the ceiling coming down, contracting the space around her until she felt it hard to breathe. She felt trapped, confined in a room that had suddenly become too small to hold them both.

She had been shut in with him in the lift, in a far smaller space, but somehow, contradictorily, this seemed so much worse. Now Nikos seemed so much bigger, so much more powerful, dominating the space in which he stood and holding her captive simply by the pure force of his presence.

Or was it about the room? Because it was the office that had once been her father’s? But there was no sign at all of the previous occupant. Every last trace of anything that was personal to Edwin had been removed and replaced with something much more modern, more stylish—and much more expensive. Even in the good days of Carteret Incorporated the office had never looked like this.

The heavy, dark desk and chairs had all been removed and replaced by modern furniture in a pale wood. Thick golden rugs covered the floor, and in the window area there was a comfortable-looking settee and armchairs for relaxing.

It spoke of Nikos Konstantos of Konstantos Corporation. The man who had taken everything her father had thrown at him and refused to go down under it. He had seen everything his own father had worked for snatched away, had stared bankruptcy and total ruin in the face and still come out fighting. And in five short years he had built up his business empire to what it had once been—and then outstripped that. The Konstantos Corporation was bigger, stronger, richer than it had ever been. And it had swallowed up Carteret Incorporated and absorbed it whole on its way to the top.

And Nikos was the Konstantos Corporation.

As she hesitated, Nikos shot back the cuff on his immaculate white shirt and glanced swiftly and pointedly at his watch.

‘You have five minutes to explain yourself—and that is more than you would have had if I’d known it was you,’ he stated curtly. ‘Five minutes. No more.’

Which was guaranteed to dry Sadie’s tongue, make it feel as if it was sticking to the roof of her mouth, and no matter how hard she swallowed, she couldn’t quite force herself to speak.

‘Could—could we sit down?’ she tried, looking longingly at the cream cushions on the padded chairs. Perhaps with her attention taken off the need to concentrate on keeping her legs from shaking so that she could stay upright she might manage to put her thoughts—and the necessary arguments to convince him—into some sort of coherent order.

Sitting down was the last thing Nikos had in mind. He had no intention of letting her get settled, allowing her to stay a moment longer than he had to. Just seeing her here like this was making him feel as if the room was suddenly at the centre of a wild and dangerous hurricane, with the day he had been living being picked up and whirled around, turned inside out.

And the sound of her voice was raking up memories he had pushed to the back of his mind for so long. He wanted them to stay there. He had never wanted to speak to Sadie Carteret ever again.

‘Tell him to go away, Daddy.’

The words she had tossed down the staircase at him, the last words he had ever heard her speak on the day that had been the worst day of his life, came back to haunt him, making savage anger flare like rocket fire inside his head.

‘Tell him the only interest he had for me was his money, and now that he has none I never want to see him again.’

And he had never wanted to see her, Nikos acknowledged, his whole body taut with rejection of her presence in his life once more. The disturbing tug of sensuality he had felt in the lift had evaporated, he was thankful to find. The memory of her callous rejection, the cold tight voice in which she’d flung it at him, not even bothering to come downstairs and tell him face to face, had driven that away, leaving behind just a cold savagery of hatred.

The sooner she said what she had to say and got out of here, the better.

‘Five minutes,’ he repeated with deadly emphasis. ‘And then I get Security to escort you out. You’ve wasted one of them already.’

‘I wanted to talk to you about buying Thorn Trees!’

That got his attention. His dark head went back, eyes narrowing sharply.

‘Buying? What is this? Have you suddenly come into a fortune?’

Belatedly Sadie realised her mistake. Nerves had got the better of her and she’d blurted out the first thing that came into her mind.

‘No—of course not.’

‘I didn’t mean buy—I could never afford that. I just…’

The sudden drop of those bronze eyes down to the gold watch on his wrist, watching the second hand tick by, incensed her, pushing her into rash, unguarded speech.

‘Damn you, you took everything we had. Every last thing my father had owned—except for this. I just hoped that I might be able to rent it from you.’

‘Rent?’

Her antagonism had been a mistake, sparking off an answering anger in Nikos, one that tightened every muscle in his face, thinning his lips to a hard, tight line.

‘That house is a handsome property in a prime position in London. With some restoration—a lot of restoration, admittedly—it would sell for a couple of million—maybe more. Why should I want to rent it out to you?’

‘Because I need it.’

Because my mother’s happiness—possibly even her sanity—her life—might depend on it. But Sadie wasn’t quite ready to expose every last detail of the worries that had driven her to come here today to plead with him. Not with Nikos standing there, dark and imposing, arms now folded across the width of his chest, jaw clamped tight, eyes as cold as golden ice, looking for all the world like the judge in some criminal court. And one who was just about to put the black cap on his head, ready to pronounce the sentence of execution.

Besides, her mother had already lost so very much. She wouldn’t deprive her of the last shreds of her dignity, her privacy, unless she really had no choice.

‘As you’ve admitted, it needs a great deal of restoration. There’s no way you would be able to get the market value for it right now.’

‘And no way I can get the necessary renovations done with you and your mother there. I thought I’d given instructions to my solicitor…’

‘You did.’

Oh, he had. She knew that only too well. The letter advising her family that Nikos Konstantos now owned Thorn Trees and that they should vacate the house by the end of the month had arrived a few days before. It had only been by a stroke of luck that Sadie had managed to intercept the envelope before her mother had shown any interest in the post. That way she had succeeded in keeping the bad news from Sarah for a while at least.

But not for good. Within twenty-four hours, her mother had somehow found the envelope and read its contents. Her panicked reaction had been everything Sadie had anticipated—and most dreaded. It was the final straw that had pushed her into action, bringing her to the realisation that there was only one way she could hope to handle this and that that was by going to see Nikos himself, appealing directly to his better nature in the hope that he would help them, let them stay at least until things improved just a little.

Not that Nikos, as he was now, looked as if he had a better nature at all. His face was set and stony, his eyes like glowing flints.

‘Your solicitor did exactly as you told him—don’t worry about that.’

‘Then you know what I have planned for the house. And it does not include a couple of sitting tenants.’

‘But we don’t have anywhere to go.’

‘Find somewhere.’

Could his voice get any more brutal, any more unyielding? There wasn’t even a flicker of emotion in it, nothing she could hope to appeal to. And what made it so much worse was the way a memory danced in front of her eyes. An image of the same man but five years younger. And so unlike the cold-faced monster who seemed intent on glaring her into submission that he looked like someone else entirely.

She’d loved that other man. Loved him so much she’d broken her own heart rather than break his. Only to find that in the end he hadn’t had a heart to break.

A terrible sense of loss stabbed at her and she felt bitter tears burn at the back of her eyes. She only managed to hold them back by sheer force of will.

‘It isn’t as easy as that,’ she managed, her voice rough and uneven. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, the economy…’

She swallowed down the last of the sentence, knowing that finishing it would only give him more ammunition to use against her. Of course he knew all about the economy, and the way things had changed so dramatically in a couple of years or so. It was what he had used against Edwin, manipulating the wild fluctuations in the stock market to his personal advantage and against the man he had hated so bitterly.

‘I thought that you had a business of your own,’ Nikos said now.

‘A small one.’

And one that wasn’t doing very well at all, Sadie acknowledged privately. With things as tight as they were for most people, no one was indulging in the luxury of having a wedding planner organise their ‘big day’. She hadn’t had an enquiry in weeks—and as for bookings, well, the last she’d had had cancelled the next month.

‘Then get yourself another house. There are plenty on the market.’

‘I can’t afford—’

‘Can’t afford a smaller house but yet you want me to rent you Thorn Trees? Have you thought about this? About the sort of rent that can be asked for a place like that?’

‘Yes, I’ve thought about it.’

And had quailed inside at the realisation of the fact that just the rent on her family home would probably be far more than she could possibly manage to rake together every month.

‘Or did you perhaps think that I might be a soft touch and give it to you for—what is that you say—mate’s rates?’

The slang term sounded weird on his tongue, his accent suddenly seeming so much thicker than before, mangling the words until they were almost incomprehensible. But even more disturbing was the knowledge that there was no way at all that they applied to the relationship between herself and Nikos. Whatever else they had been, they had never been ‘mates’. Never truly friends or anything like it. Hot, passionate lovers, fiancés, prospective bride and groom—or at least that was what had been intended.

Or had it? She had been overjoyed to accept Nikos’s proposal. Had looked forward to her wedding day with joyful anticipation and had wept out her devastated heart when she had been forced to cancel it. But what she had thought had been a broken heart had been as nothing when compared to the misery she had endured later, when she had learned the truth about what Nikos had really been planning.

The shattering of her dreams had coincided with such a major crisis in her family life that she had barely known what she was doing from day to day. In the end she had resorted to the policy of least resistance, letting her father dictate everything she did, the way she behaved. He had written the script for those appalling days and she had followed it exactly. At least that way her mother had been safe, and Edwin Carteret had made sure that Nikos had failed in his attempts to get back into her life, to try and see Sadie—and no doubt hurt her even more.

‘I…’

‘Get yourself another house, Sadie,’ Nikos commanded. ‘Nothing else is on offer.’

‘I don’t want another house—I want…’

I want Thorn Trees was all she had to say. And then he would ask her why.

And if she answered with the truth, how would he react? Would he sympathise, as the Nikos she’d thought she had known all those years ago would have sympathised? Or would the Nikos he was now see yet another opportunity to further deepen his revenge against the family who had ruined his father and taken almost everything from him?

Not knowing whether telling him the truth would help or simply put another weapon into his hands, she swallowed hard against the uncomfortable dryness of her throat.

‘Look…’

Her voice croaked embarrassingly.

‘Do you think I could have a coffee or something? Even some water?’

Seeing the look he gave her, she felt her heart clench at the savage contempt that burned in his eyes.

‘Of course not,’ she commented bitterly. ‘That would eat into the paltry five minutes you’ve allotted me. It’s all right.’

Despair blurred her eyes, tiredness making the room seem to swing round her. Why didn’t she just admit defeat, give up and go home? But the memory of her mother’s face as she’d left the house was there, urging her to try again. Sarah needed a home and so did little George. And right now Sadie was their only chance of keeping the house.

‘Here…’

The abrupt word made her start, jump back slightly. Nikos sounded suddenly so very close. Disturbingly so. She blinked hard to clear her vision and found herself staring at a glass filled with water, bubbles rising inside, beads of moisture sliding down the sides. Feeling as she did, it had the effect of discovering a cool oasis in the centre of a blazing desert.

‘Thank you.’ It was genuinely grateful.

Reaching out a hand to take the glass from him, she misjudged the distance, the right approach, and found that although she aimed to grasp it at the base, well below his hand, in fact she closed her fingers over his, feeling their strong warmth in contrast to the cold hardness of the glass.

‘I’m sorry!’

A sensation like the shock from a bolt of lightning shot up all the nerves in her arm, so that she wanted to snatch her hand away, and yet at the same time it seemed that the sudden heat had welded their fingers together, so she couldn’t peel hers away without a terrible effort.

Nikos seemed to have no such problem, though his eyes held hers, darkly mesmeric, as he adjusted his hold on the glass, eased his hand away, waiting just a moment to make sure that she had a good grip before he finally let his arm drop to his side.

Still with their eyes locked together, Sadie lifted the glass of water to her parched lips, swallowed a mouthful, finding it suddenly intensely difficult to force the cool liquid past the disturbing knot that seemed to have closed off her throat.

She wished he would look away, and yet at the same time she knew that she would feel lost and strangely bereft if he did.

‘Thank…’

Her voice failed her, seeming to shrivel in the heat of that intent gaze. Something had happened to his eyes, so that the colour of the iris seemed to have disappeared and there were just the deep dark pools of his widened pupils, edged only at the rim with burning molten bronze.

Almost snatching at the glass, she drank again, gulping down water that did nothing to cool the sudden heat that had flooded her body or ease the sudden heavy pounding of her heart.

‘Thank you.’

At least her voice sounded stronger now, without that appalling crack in the middle that gave away far too much of what she was feeling.

She held out the glass to him, expecting him to take it back, check his watch again to see just how long of her allotted time she had left. But instead, to her total shock, he ignored the gesture and, extending one long, tanned finger, reached out to touch it to her cheek just below the corner of her right eye. Instinctively Sadie flinched and would have backed away, but once more something in that intent expression caught and held her frozen where she was.

‘Tears?’ he said on a softly spoken note of blank disbelief. ‘Tears—for a house!’

Tears?

Sadie’s hand flew up to her face, the backs of her fingers brushing her cheek to discover the shocking truth of his words. Tears that she had been totally unaware of having shed had slipped onto her skin, moistening her eyelashes. But even as she recognised that they were there, she looked deep into Nikos’s darkly assessing gaze and knew a terrible sense of despair as she acknowledged that he couldn’t be more wrong about the reason why they were there.

‘Not just a house.’

Had she said the words aloud or just heard them inside her head? She couldn’t tell, only knew that they blazed so hard they seemed to be etched into her thoughts in letters of fire.

Not just the house—not even though it was the home that she loved, that her mother needed. It wasn’t anything to do with Thorn Trees or even her angry frustration at not being able to persuade Nikos round to her way of thinking that was twisting a brutal knife in her devastated heart. Instead it was the sudden terrible sense of loss that she’d known in the moment she’d looked into Nikos’s eyes as he came close to her.

She’d armoured herself against this meeting. Told herself that what she had once felt for him was all over, that time had healed the scars and put a distance between her and the love she had once felt for this man. That his final betrayal and the way he had behaved since, the terrible revenge he had exacted so cold-bloodedly, had left her immune to him, not even hatred surviving of the onslaught of feelings she had been through.

But if this was immunity, then she would hate to have to try and face a fully developed fever! Her whole body was fizzing with awareness, coming to burning life in response to just that one, tiny touch.

No—not just the touch. She was responding to the look in his darkened eyes, the scent of his skin, the sound of his voice, even of his soft breathing, his very presence. Everything about him made her burn as if she stood in the direct line of the sun. And yet, contradictorily, it held her frozen to the spot, unable to move or look away. And hunger, dark and disturbing physical craving, throbbed like a heavy pulse in her blood.

‘It’s not just a house,’ she tried again, hoping to stir him into movement, away from her.

But it seemed that Nikos too had fallen under something of the same spell. After that one harsh question he stood as transfixed as her. His eyes locked with hers, his burning gaze so fixed, so unwavering that it seemed he barely even blinked. And Sadie sensed rather than actually saw the way his long tanned throat moved as he swallowed deeply.

‘Sadie…’ he said at last, his voice seeming to be becoming unravelled at the edges.

And the sound of her name on his lips had the effect of stabbing a stiletto dagger right into the centre of her heart, so that it jolted once, violently, then started pattering rapidly, high up in her throat, making it so very difficult to breathe naturally. His accent had deepened shockingly on the sound, making it raw and rough, disturbingly like the times that she heard him speak her name in the burn of passion, deep in the darkness of the night.

Memory dried her mouth again and nervously she licked her lips to ease the sensation. The water seemed to have done nothing at all to ease her thirst, or if it had then the moisture had evaporated in the heat that his touch had sent rushing through her.

‘Sadie…’ Nikos said again, and at long last the finger that rested so lightly on her cheek moved softly.

But not to move away from her, not to break the contact with her skin. Instead, his touch simply shifted, adjusted slightly, smoothing down one side of her cheek to curl under the fine line of her jaw, lifting her chin. She heard his harshly indrawn breath, watched those heavy black eyelashes close slowly, then open again as the burning bronze of his gaze blazed into her.

And he bent his head to kiss her.

It felt as if she had been waiting for it for so long. As if it was the kiss she had been waiting for all her life. It was shocking, heart-stopping in its gentleness. In anyone else she might even have called it hesitancy, but there was nothing hesitant about Nikos’s taking of her mouth. It was slow, it was sensual, it was totally sure of what he was doing—the effect it was aiming for. It was pure seduction, aimed right at her libido and having exactly the effect that he wanted.

Sadie’s fingers softened, her grip on the water glass loosening so that it fell to the floor. She vaguely heard the splash of water, the thud of the tumbler bouncing on the thick wool of the rug.

But after that she knew nothing else. Nothing but Nikos and the warmth of his body all around her. The strength of his arms as they gathered her close. The pressure of his mouth on hers and the magic it was working as he eased her lips open, slid his tongue along the edge and into the warm softness of her mouth.

His hands slid up her back, into her hair, tangling in the dark silky strands. He twisted his fingers around them, using them to hold her head just where he wanted as he increased the pressure, forcing her to open to him even more.

She was drowning in a dark, heady world of sensuality. Lost to reality and aware only of the responses of her body, following blindly where Nikos led. She was soft and malleable in his hands, unable to think for herself or find any trace of will to call her own. Her own hands lifted, arms winding themselves around his neck, drawing his proud head down even closer, taking the kiss into another dimension, another stage of hungry sensuality.

‘Nikos…’ she murmured against his cheek as he turned his head, his wicked, beguiling mouth finding the fine, taut line of her throat and kissing his way down it to the spot where her pulse throbbed frantically at the base of her neck.

When his warm lips pressed against the tiny point, she felt her breath catch in her throat, the electric shocks of response sparking its way along every nerve, flashing down to pool in liquid heat in the most intimate spot low in her body, between her legs. Restlessly, she moved against him, pressing her body close to the hardness of his and feeling the heated swelling of the erection that marked his undisguised response to her. That pressure was what she wanted. That and more—so much more—and it was obvious that Nikos felt the same as one large hard hand came down to curve over her buttocks, bringing her into even more intimate contact and holding her there.

‘Nikos…’ Once more she choked out his name, restless fingers clutching in his hair, pressing against his scalp, holding him against her.

It seemed that the heat of their bodies had melted her bones, so that she swayed against him on unsteady legs. She heard his breath hiss in sharply between his teeth, and the hand that had been in her hair released her to slide, hot and sensuous, down to her ribcage to cup the side of her breast, his thumb stroking tormentingly over her nipple, bringing it to springing, tightened life underneath the cotton of her blouse. Sadie’s own breath caught in her throat, making her gasp in shocked delight and wriggle even closer, pressing her sensitised flesh against the heat of his palm.

‘Yes, Nikos, yes. This—’

But the words died on her tongue, crushed back down her throat by the way that he suddenly stopped, his whole mood changing.

‘No!’

His body stiffened, the dark head going back violently to look down at her with a new and devastating hostility, brutal rejection blazing in his eyes.

‘No!’ he said again, more forcefully this time.

The hands that had held her close were now moving her away from him, setting her aside with cold precision. The fingers that had tangled in her hair were tugged free with a speed and roughness that brought pinpricks of tears to her eyes, though she was too stunned, too bewildered by the sudden change in mood to have even the energy needed to let them fall.

She couldn’t find the strength to speak, either. Shock deprived her of her voice, so that even though she opened her mouth twice to try to protest she had to close it again when all she managed was an embarrassing croak. Stunned, she could only stand and watch in blank bewilderment as Nikos adjusted the fit of his jacket that her clutching fingers had knocked askew, smoothed his hands over his hair to bring it back into sleek order rather than the wayward tangle she had made of it.

And then, to her total consternation and horror, he actually checked his watch once again.

‘Your time is almost up. You have just fifty seconds left,’ he declared with flat detachment, completely devoid of emotion. ‘Was there anything else that you wanted to say before you leave?’




Chapter Three


HE SHOULD NEVER have touched her, Nikos told himself. Never been such a damn fool as to bridge the gap between them, do something as crazy as to put his finger on her face, feel the softness of her skin underneath his.

He should never have let himself get close enough to her to catch the scent of her skin, the clean softness of her hair.

Just a couple of steps forward was all it had taken. And, with the electrical sting of response to the moment their hands had touched around the glass still sizzling up his arm, he had already been halfway towards the madness of arousal that she had always been able to spark in him so instantly in the past.

And still could, damn it, it seemed.

He had spent the last five years trying to put her part in his life behind him, out of his mind. He had managed to get the taste of her out of his mouth and now it was right back there, sensual, intoxicating, driving him insane.

He had to be insane. How the hell else could he have let her get to him so far, so fast?

One touch and he had been right there, back in the maelstrom of searing hunger that tightened his throat, made his heart pound in his chest, made him hot and hard and hungry in the space of a single devastating heartbeat.

Just the feel of the soft flesh of her cheek under his fingertip had brought a memory, fast and dangerous as a bolt of lightning, of the way it had felt to have her naked, all that softness underneath him, warm and willing, yearning for his touch, his caress…opening to him…

Thee mou, no! He was not going down that dangerous path again, sensually enticing though it was.

‘I repeat,’ he said, injecting every ounce of control he possessed into the ruthless command of his voice, ‘is there anything else that you want to say before you leave?’

Was there anything?

Sadie felt as if her head was spinning, reeling as if from the force of a sudden fierce blow.

Her shocked, numbed brain wouldn’t focus, and all she could think of was the feeling of Nikos’s arms around her, the pressure of his body against hers. Her heart was still thudding ferociously and the taste of him was still on her lips. And deep in her body the yearning hunger that had uncoiled in those few fraught, dangerous moments was still burning, still stinging at her senses and making her feel miserably restless with unfulfilled need.

The clamour of every aroused cell made her feel as if she was being assailed by some appalling fever. One that had her burning up in one moment and then shivering in wretched cold the next.

‘Well?’

Nikos’s tone was harshly impatient, and damn him if he didn’t flick another glance at that hateful watch, driving home his message without needing to say another word.

‘I…’

Still unable to collect her thoughts, Sadie resorted to desperate measures, giving her head a rough little shake in an attempt to clear it. The movement caught Nikos’s attention, making him frown ominously.

‘And what does that mean?’ he questioned sharply. ‘Is it supposed to be no, you have nothing more to say? Or no, you have no plans to leave? Because I can tell you that you may not have plans—but I certainly do. I have another appointment in fifteen minutes, and a business lunch and an afternoon conference call after that. I don’t have time to waste standing here, waiting for you to make up your mind and realise that you’ve had your chance—you made your plea and you lost.’

‘Lost?’ Sadie echoed dejectedly, recollection of why she was here coming back to her in full—and leaving her feeling worse than ever at the realisation that Nikos was dismissing her for good, with no chance at all of saving their home for her family.

‘There is no way that I am going to sell you Thorn Trees,’ she heard him say now, confirming her worst suspicions. ‘Or rent it to you. My plans for the house remain just as they were when you—’

‘Oh, please!’ Sadie broke in on him, the thought of going home and telling her mother that she had failed driving her to one last desperate attempt to get him to show some compassion. ‘Please don’t say that! You have to understand—there has to be something I can do for you.’

‘And what makes you think that? What the devil could I want from you? Believe me, there is nothing—’

‘But there must be!’

‘Nothing.’

His tone warned her not to argue further. And the way he raked both hands through his hair, pushing it back into its sleek control, spoke of a ruthless determination to be back on track, ready for the next move, that next appointment. This one was over and he was done with her.

‘But that—what happened just now—surely…?’

Her words died as she looked into his face and his expression told her the terrible truth.

‘What happened just now?’ Nikos echoed cynically, his burning gaze searing over her from the top of her ruffled dark head to the toes of her black patent shoes.

The look of dark contempt that filled it made her shiver, feeling as if a much needed protective layer of skin had been stripped from her body, leaving her raw and exposed, frighteningly vulnerable.

‘And what makes you think that what just happened had anything to do with anything?’

‘But—you…I thought…’

Her tongue seemed to tangle up on itself, tying itself in knots so that she couldn’t get the words out.

‘You thought…?’ Nikos prompted harshly when she fought with herself, trying to speak.

‘I thought that that—that when you…’

When you kissed me. She just couldn’t make herself say it. She knew that she would give herself away if she did. She had thought—had hoped—that the way he had kissed her so passionately meant that he still felt some trace of something for her. That, if nothing else, at least he was still attracted to her. And she had little doubt that that hope, that illusion—because his face made it plain it was an illusion—would show in her voice if she said anything more.

‘When I kissed you?’ Nikos drawled mockingly. ‘Is that what you mean? So tell me, my sweet Sadie, just what did you think was happening? What do you think that was?’

‘I—’ Sadie tried to begin, but he ignored her stuttering attempt at speech and talked across her quite deliberately.

‘Did you think it was warmth? Was that it? Or perhaps affection? Or perhaps…’

He actually had the nerve to stop, appear to consider, even look suitably surprised, when deep down inside she knew damn well that the brute wasn’t surprised at all but had been aiming for this right from the start.

‘Thee mou, you didn’t think it was love, did you?’

If she’d found it hard to speak before, then now Sadie found it absolutely impossible. She could feel the hot colour flaring in her cheeks and knew that her furiously embarrassed reaction had given her away completely.

‘Then I’m sorry—’

‘No, you’re not!’ Sadie broke in, finding her voice at last in the strength of the wave of anger that swept over her. ‘You’re not sorry at all. And I know it wasn’t—wasn’t anything like love.’

It couldn’t have been. There was no way anyone could switch on love like that and then immediately turn it off right away.

‘It certainly wasn’t,’ Nikos confirmed coldly.

‘So what was it?’

Cruelty? Deliberate manipulation? Some sort of hateful test?

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Nikos questioned softly. ‘I couldn’t help myself.’

He’d shocked her there. It wasn’t at all the answer she’d expected. But he’d anticipated her response and knew that he had her when her head went back in amazement, green eyes opening wide. A smile that did nothing to light up his face and had no effect at all on the coldness of his eyes flickered across his beautiful mouth as he noted her response.

He paused just long enough for his words to sink in and hit home before moving in for the kill.

‘Lust will do that,’ he declared, making sure that his words were totally clear. ‘You always spoke to my most basic masculine nature—my libido—you still do. I find it hard to keep my hands off you.’

‘Is that supposed to be a compliment? Because if it is you need to work on your technique.’

But Sadie’s sarcasm, her attempt to hit back, simply bounced off Nikos’s impenetrable hide without, apparently, even leaving a mark.

‘Lust I can handle,’ he went on, as if she had never spoken. ‘It’s something I can decide to indulge or not as I choose.’

‘And you—decided to indulge it just now when you pawed me—’

‘Not pawed, Sadie,’ Nikos corrected, shaking his head almost as if in sorrow at her interpretation of his actions. ‘I do not paw women. And if I had then you would not have responded as you did.’

‘I—’ Sadie tried to protest, but the sudden rush of confidence to speak seemed to have deserted her.

‘If you want the truth,’ Nikos continued, ‘I wanted to know if you tasted the same. And you do.’

‘Taste?’

It was the last thing she had expected.

‘You still taste exactly the same.’

Nikos’s mouth twisted on the words.

‘I may not have recognised it before, but I see what it is now—the taste of lies and deceit—the taste of betrayal.’

Sadie flinched inwardly as he flung the words in her face. She wished she could deny them, throw her refutation right back into his dark, contemptuous face. But how could she when deep down she knew that they were nothing but the truth? She’d been forced to betray him, but he had planned his own betrayal with cold-blooded cruelty and with no one twisting his arm up behind his back—emotionally, at least. It had all been precisely what he had wanted all along.

‘It wasn’t exactly as you think. But I don’t suppose you want to hear about that, do you?’

‘You’re damn right I don’t. In fact, I do not want to hear another single word from you.’

‘But the house…’ Despair forced her to say it, pushing the words from her mouth when she just wanted to keep quiet and get out of there with some shreds of dignity intact. But she had her mother and her little brother to think of, and she couldn’t let them down.

‘Gamoto!’ Nikos flung up his hands in a gesture of total exasperation. ‘How many times do I have to tell you that I will not sell you Thorn Trees? Nor will I rent it to you—not at any price. Not if you were the last person on earth.’

‘But there must be some arrangement we can come to! Surely there’s something I can do—anything…’

The words shrivelled and died when she saw the fiendish light in his eyes and knew that she had made a terrible mistake.

‘And exactly what sort of services did you have in mind? What exactly are you offering…?’

‘Not that! Never!’ Sadie flung at him, seeing the way his dark and cruel mind was going. ‘If you really think that I’d sell myself…I’d rather die!’

‘That was not the impression you were giving a few minutes ago,’ Nikos returned, his voice sounding soft and silky but with an effect as brutal as a sharp stiletto sliding in between her ribs to stab at her heart. ‘Then it was Oh, Nikos—yes, Nikos…’

‘And you fell for it, didn’t you?’

The words had flashed from her mouth before she had time to consider if they were wise or even safe. She only knew that she couldn’t take any more of this black mockery. Of the appalling insults he was tossing in her direction with almost every word that came out of his mouth.

‘You really thought that all you had to do was to touch me—kiss me—and I would be putty in your hands.’

‘You were. That is exactly how you behaved.’

‘I made it seem as if I was but you’re pretty easy to fool. All I had to do was to let you cop a feel…’

The way that his black brows snapped together in a furious frown made her heart lurch in panic, cutting her words off short. Deciding hastily that it was probably safer not to think about the real reason why he looked so furious, instead she opted for a less contentious option and flashed him a mocking smile.

‘Ask someone to translate,’ she suggested wickedly.

‘No translation necessary, believe me,’ Nikos flung back, cold as ice. ‘None at all. But if you think that that was what was happening then you are the one in need of an interpretation. And a reality check.’

‘Oh, yes?’

‘Oh, yes. If you think that all it takes is a flash of those stunning green eyes or a wiggle of your sexy little behind, then you really don’t know me at all.’

‘It felt—’ Sadie began, but Nikos cut in on her, bringing one long-fingered hand down in a slashing gesture to emphasise his interruption.

‘I was fool enough to go that way once before and I have no intention of ever putting my head into the noose all over again.’

‘And you’ve made us pay for it ever since!’

Sadie was beginning to feel as if she was on some dangerous emotional rollercoaster. And it was all her own fault. After all she’d started this, with the pretence that she’d only been playing him along.

Playing him along—hah! That would be the day. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but the truth was that she had been putty in his hands. One kiss, one caress, and she had lost all grip on her sanity and been spun into a world of hot sensation and even hotter need. At least she had had the sense to realise that those casually tossed compliments—stunning green eyes and sexy little behind, indeed!—were not meant at all. They were just the practised flattery of a consummate womaniser. He probably rolled them out to whichever woman he happened to be with, changing the colour of their eyes where appropriate of course.

‘You’ve had five years of taking your revenge. Haven’t you done enough, had enough?’

‘If you want the truth, then the answer is no,’

It was a flat, hard statement, his tone as harshly unyielding as his face, and when she looked into the deep pools of his eyes she saw no spark of warmth, no hint of humanity. Instead they were as cold and unresponsive as ice, his opaque, blanked-off stare shocking and frightening.




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