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Resolution filled her. She was here for Ari—that was all, and that was what she must remember. Nothing else.
She kept her mind focussed on that resolution as, deliberately trying to divert her mind from the tormenting channels it was running in so fixedly, she occupied herself in catching up with her correspondence—including the large number of postcards she had bought on Maxos. Writing them did her good—it reminded her of the world far beyond Sospiris, touching essential base with her real life.
She ought to go down for nursery tea, she knew, but she was too chary of Tina’s astute eyes. Surely it must be branded across her forehead just what she had gone and done? No, Ari had his playmate. He would not notice his aunt’s absence particularly, and she had already said she had a migraine. She had better make the most of it and keep to her room. Hiding.
She knew that was what she was doing but she needed to do it. Strengthen her resolve. Prepare her mental barriers.
And pray they would hold.
Nikos strolled along the corridor, his mood enjoyably anticipatory. It had been annoying to discover, on emerging from his office for his mother’s pre-prandial drinks, that Ann was apparently in her room with a migraine, and was not coming down to dinner. Damn—evidently Ann had indeed understood the need for discretion. If he’d only known sooner she was in her room, and not with Ari, he could easily have slipped along there at some point. He’d had to endure a dinner without her that had seemed to go on for ever until now, pleading some late night work he had to attend to, he could head straight for Ann’s room.
Outside her door, he knocked briefly, then walked in. Already he was eager for her—the beach chalet seemed far too long ago.
His eyes went to her immediately. She was in bed waiting for him, idly flicking through an English language magazine.
‘Kalispera, Ann,’ he said, as he walked into the room.
The magazine dropped as if it were a hot stone, and her head snapped up. Shock emptied her face. He strolled across the room and sat down on the bed.
‘I’m sorry you’ve had to wait for me—I only learnt at dinner that you were keeping to your room. I’d been working till then. My apologies.’ He leant forward, unable to resist the pleasure of making skin contact, drawing the back of his hand down her cheek.
She jerked, as if an electric shock had gone through her. Nikos smiled. That was good. Responsive.
Just the way he wanted her.
Then, as if his touch had thrown a switch, she spoke.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing here?’ Her voice was half a croak, half a whisper.
He gave a low laugh. ‘Don’t panic. I’ve been very discreet, the way I told you we would need to be.’
‘Discreet.’ She said the word as if it were an expletive.
He gave a shrug. ‘It’s inconvenient, yes, but there it is. My mother has certain codes of behaviour, and I would not wish to breach them openly.’
Even as he spoke he was conscious of a sense of discomfort. He did not relish this aspect of the business—but it was for his mother’s sake in the long run that he made Ann Turner his mistress and got her greedy claws out of the Theakis family by putting her beyond the pale of his mother’s misplaced forbearance of her.
‘Inconvenient—’ Her voice was hollow now, and she was staring at him with a peculiar expression in her face.
‘Ann,’ he said, making his tone temporising, ‘for the time being it’s unavoidable. But as soon as Tina’s wedding is over I’ll take you to Athens and—’
‘Take me to Athens?’ Her voice had changed to incomprehension.
It started to irritate Nikos. Why did she have to repeat everything he said to her?
‘Well, Athens first, and then wherever you’d like to go—though of course I’d have to fit any vacation around my obligations to business, alas. But all the same—’
He never finished his sentence.
Her face snapped shut. Like a door closing. Shutting him out. Very decidedly out.
‘I,’ she bit out, and her eyes were hard suddenly—like stones, ‘am not going anywhere with you. I am not—’ she made the emphasis as if it was a razor slicing down ‘—going to have some hole and corner affair with you! Get out—get out of my room, right now!’
His eyes flashed impatiently. ‘Ann—enough. We’ve been through this little farce once already today. I don’t appreciate games—especially when they’ve already been played out. It’s going to be difficult enough as it is, finding time together, without you doing your pointless denial routine. So—’
He didn’t get any further. She was scrambling out of bed, the other side from him. Immediately Nikos’s eyes went to her body, its slender form outlined beneath the diaphanous nightgown by the lamp from her bedside, to the tender mounds of her breasts, the slender wand of her waist and the graceful swell of her hips with the darkened vee between the perfect column of her thighs, all barely veiled by the translucent fabric. He felt himself respond—Theos, she was so beautiful! Desire surged through him. He wanted her—was hungry for her, could not wait for her.
‘Ann—’ Her name came, husked, raw. He started to move, levering off the bed, heading round its foot towards her, to reach her, touch her, to fold her to him, feel that beautiful, arousing body in his arms, that sweet, honeyed mouth opening to his …
And then, to his disbelief, even as his eyes devoured her she gave a little cry and hurled herself into the en suite bathroom. Nikos heard the frantic turning of the key in the lock, and then there was silence. For a long, incredulous moment he could only stare at the locked door.
Anger surged through him. Anger, disbelief—and intense, obliterating frustration.
Then, like a zombie, he walked out of the room.
Still not believing what had just happened.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘OH, ARI, THAT’S very good. Well done!’
Ann was on the terrace outside the nursery, shaded from the sun by an awning. Ari was colouring a drawing of his beloved trains.
‘Why not write their names under the picture?’ said Ann. She started to write a dotted outline that Ari could use to trace the shapes of the letters. Tina looked up from where she was checking off ‘Things to do’ for her wedding.
‘You know about children, don’t you? Using dots for letters?’ she observed.
Ann smiled. ‘It’s a good way to get them to control the shape, I think.’ She watched attentively as Ari started to write. It was good to be here with him. Good to be with the lively little boy who was the whole purpose of her presence here at the Theakis villa. The sole purpose.
A purpose which did not include providing on-tap sex for Nikos Theakis whenever he felt like waltzing into her bedroom! No, she mustn’t remember that—and she mustn’t let in, not even by a hair’s breadth, the emotions that went with the memory. She must just shut it out. Ruthlessly. With an impermeable seal.
Nikos had used the term ‘denial’ and she clung to it. Yes, denial was exactly what she had to do. Deny everything. Deny she had ever felt such insane weakness for the man. Deny she could still, if for a moment she allowed it, feel the haunting echo of his touch, his caresses, his intoxicating invasion … possession.
Her eyes hardened. Possession. Yes, that was a good word. As in helping himself to her. Just because she was convenient—handy. Deliberately she let her hackles bristle. Nikos Theakis was a man so arrogant that he actually thought he could just help himself to sex with her! It didn’t even bother him that he held her in total contempt for having taken his money from him! A chilling thought went through her. Was it because of what he thought of her that he also thought he could just help himself to her body? Was it because he held her in such contempt that he saw no problem with casually seducing her?
A shadow seemed to fall across her, making her shiver inwardly. To be held in such contempt that he thought he could use her sexually for his fleeting convenience …
‘Kyria Ann?’
She surfaced from her dark cogitations to find one of the maids hovering.
‘Please come …’ said the girl in hesitant English.
Wondering why, but getting to her feet all the same, nodding to Tina and murmuring to Ari that she would be back soon, Ann followed the maid back indoors. Did Mrs Theakis want to see her? But the room she was shown into was not Sophia Theakis’ sitting room.
It was Nikos Theakis’s office. And seated at the desk, the flickering computer screen to his side, his planed face illuminated through the half-closed slats of the Venetian blinds at the window, was Nikos.
Too late she made the realisation as she stepped inside. The maid closed the door behind her. Too late she instantly turned to leave.
‘Don’t bolt, Ann. I have something to say to you. Sit down.’
The voice was clipped and impersonal.
She looked across at him. He was formally dressed in a business suit. She hadn’t seen him so formal since they had arrived. And she had forgotten just how formidable he could look—every inch the captain of industry, born to give orders and have them obeyed by a host of minions doing his bidding.
Well, she wasn’t one of them! Automatically she felt her hackles rise, and she stiffened.
‘There’s nothing I want to hear from you,’ she said tersely.
Something flickered in his darkly veiled eyes, and she felt a shimmer go through her.
He did not reply, instead sliding open a drawer in the desk and removing an object. It was long and slim. He placed it at the front of the desk, facing her.
‘This, Ann,’ he said, and his eyes did not change expression, ‘is yours.’
Warily, as if it might be a loaded gun, she reached for it. What was it? And why was Nikos telling her it was hers? She picked it up and realised that it was a case of some kind. It could be a case for spectacles, or a pen. But why should that make it hers?
She opened the case.
And stared disbelievingly.
A ribbon of white fire glittered in the dim light.
‘What is this?’ Ann heard her own voice speaking.
‘A diamond necklace. Whilst I appreciate you prefer to operate on a cash basis, that is not something I am prepared to do in these circumstances. But you are welcome to see the receipt for the necklace—to know how much I consider you are worth. You can be flattered, Ann—it’s a considerable amount.’
She dragged her eyes from the necklace, glittering against the dark velvet of the interior of the jewel case. She looked at him. There was a glitter in his eyes too, as if reflecting the diamonds he was offering her. She felt an emotion spear through her. She did not know its name—only that it was powerful. Very powerful.
‘You see …’ said Nikos, and he shifted very slightly in his seat, the hand that was resting on the polished mahogany surface of his desk flexing minutely. His eyes with that dark glitter were still resting on her. ‘I have decided to cut to the chase. As a businessman I apply the motivations that are sufficient for each transaction to succeed. Your motivation, Ann, is consistent—money. Money is what drives your actions—whether it is giving up your sister’s child, or giving up your invaluable time to come to Sospiris. And therefore I apply it now to this transaction—albeit in a form that is, let us say, an alternative to cash. So—’ he took a sharp intake of breath ‘—now that we have successfully concluded this transaction, you must excuse me. I am leaving for Athens shortly. But I will be back later tonight. Wear the necklace when I come to you, Ann.’ He paused, and the dark glitter intensified. ‘Just the necklace.’
She went on standing there, immobile, incapable of moving, incapable of anything except feeling the emotion spearing through her. Then, from somewhere, she found her voice.
‘You think a diamond necklace will get you into my bed?’
She said it flatly, getting the words out past the emotion that was seizing on them even as she spoke them.
‘Why not? Your track record shows you are very amenable to such an approach to life.’ There was a twist to his mouth as he answered her, his voice terse.
It made the emotion spear deeper into her. Her eyes went to the necklace again—the necklace Nikos was offering her in exchange for sex. Emotion bit again—a different one. One that seemed to touch the very quick of her. But she must not allow that emotion—only the other one, which was as sharp as the point of a spear.
Her eyes pulled away, back to the man sitting in his handmade suit at his antique desk, rich and powerful and arrogant. The man who had kissed her deeply, caressed the intimacies of her body, who had melded his body with hers, who had transported her to an ecstasy she had never known existed.
Who was offering her a diamond necklace for sex …
Carefully, very carefully, she snapped shut the lid of the box and placed it back in front of him.
‘I am not,’ she said, ‘a whore.’
His expression did not change. ‘Your sister,’ he said softly—so softly that it raised the hairs on the back of her neck—’possessed at least one virtue. She did not try and disguise the truth about herself. But you, Ann—you are a hypocrite. Worse even than your sister. Your sister sold her body—you, you sold your own flesh and blood. You sold her child.’ His gaze seared her. ‘So do not stand there and attempt to look virtuous or insulted—’ each word dripped from him with acid contempt ‘—because I’m offering you what your sister was happy enough to take from any man she could persuade to make a similar offer!’
Like a floodgate breaking, emotion surged in Ann. Powerful and overpowering.
‘Don’t speak of Carla like that! And take your diamonds and choke on them!’
She whirled around, blind with fury.
How she got out of there she didn’t know, but the moment she was in the corridor all she could do was stand there, shaking. Then, looking wildly around her, she plunged through the villa until she found her own bedroom, and there, safe in its sanctuary, she threw herself down on her bed.
Hot, hard tears convulsed in her throat. Fevered and furious. Choking her as they racked her. Face down on her pillow she cried tears for Carla, dead in her grave, whom even death could not save from the vile insults of Nikos Theakis—
a man who could take a woman to ecstasy, a paradise of the senses, and yet think her nothing more than a whore …
It was like acid poured on a wound, burning and biting into raw flesh.
She fisted her hands, pushing herself up on her elbows, neck straining, staring at the headboard, tears staining her cheeks.
Why—why should she be reacting like this? She’d known Nikos despised her for what she had done—and she had already castigated herself for succumbing to a man who could still take a woman to bed that he thought so contemptuously of.
And yet this was different. Offering her a diamond necklace, in exchange for her body. Expecting her to accept it.
And why? Because it brought home to her the brutal reality of it—that was all she was to Nikos Theakis. Nothing more.
Rage, convulsing and blinding, shook through her. But beneath the rage was another emotion. The one she had felt reach the very quick of her. The one that brought not fury but something quite different. That made her want to curl up into a ball and clasp her arms around her, as if to stanch a wound.
A wound that had gone much, much deeper than should ever be possible.
Nikos sat at his desk. He hadn’t moved a muscle since she’d gone storming out of his office.
Without the diamond necklace.
He shifted his eyes so they rested on the jewel case.
Why hadn’t she taken it?
It didn’t make sense.. Everything he knew about her—everything she had proved to him—had told him that she would snatch the necklace from his hand as eagerly as she’d taken his cheques.
Even more eagerly.
The expression in his eyes changed minutely. After all, it was not as if she had found being in his bed repulsive …
But it was a mistake to admit any thoughts about Ann Turner in his bed. Immediately, hungrily, appetite leapt within him. It had been twenty-four long, deprived hours since he had taken her to the beach chalet, and his body was protesting the absence of a repeat encounter. It had protested quite enough last night, when he had been left unsatisfied, thwarted. But then at least he had had the prospect of remedying the situation by dint of the means he’d just put into play.
Cutting to the chase had been exactly what he’d intended. No more prevaricating, manipulating games from Ann Turner. Just cutting to the chase and giving her exactly what she was so obviously angling for—what was so obviously the reason behind all her ploys of denial and evasion. Because what other reason could there be for her evasion of him? Her denial of her response to him? He only had to touch her for her to light up like a flame—and, Theos mou, it was the same for him! One touch from her and he wanted her instantly—totally.
The way he did right now.
He shifted restlessly, his thoughts biting with a poisonous mix of frustration and incomprehension.
Why had she refused the necklace? What did she think she was going to achieve by refusing it?
His mouth thinned. Well, there was one thing she was going to achieve, that was for sure.
He seized up the house phone. As Yannis answered, Nikos barked down it, ‘Phone Kyria Constantis and inform her that she is invited to dine here tonight.’ Then he put the receiver down. He glowered darkly into the space in front of the desk, where Ann Turner had refused to take the necklace.
So she didn’t want the necklace, and she didn’t want him. His mouth tightened even more. There were plenty of women who did want him. And tonight Ann Turner would get an eyeful of one of them.
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