Page 28 of The Konstantos Marriage Demand

‘I instructed my solicitor to send a letter this morning.’

‘But why?’

‘I told you. Your mother and brother played no part in what happened in the past. It would be inhuman to take revenge on a child.’

Which once again brought a shiver of apprehension at the thought that revenge was in his mind at all.

She was here to organise his wedding, wasn’t she?

‘And this is in return for my helping to plan and arrange your wedding?’

The bronze eyes that met her questioning glance were cool and opaque, all emotion blanked out so that there was nothing to read, nothing to give her any help.

Nothing to ease that cold edge of uncertainty that had shivered down her spine.

‘Our arrangement is that you will do a job for me. As long as you carry out that job to my satisfaction then your mother and brother will be able to stay in the house without harassment or upset. I have sent them a letter informing them of that.’

‘Thank you!’

After the fear and uncertainty of the moment she had left his office only the day before the rush of relief was so great that it pushed aside all sense of restraint, driving her into instinctive action without a thought of the consequences. With her phone still in her hand, she bent forward, lifting her face to press a swift, light-hearted kiss on Nikos’s lean cheek.

‘Thank you!’ she said again. Then froze as reaction hit home.

It had been meant to be light-hearted. Rationally, that was what she had told herself. But what thumped straight into her heart was a response that was very far from rational.

Just the scent of his body in her nostrils, the taste of his skin on her lips, the faint rasp of stubble breaking through the olive-toned flesh, went straight to her head like the most potent alcohol. Her mind swam, her vision blurring so that every other sense came into sharper focus. She couldn’t stop herself from letting her tongue slip out to experience, very softly, the faintly salt taste of his skin, knowing in that moment such a sudden rush of memories and sensations that she felt as if the plane they were in had hit sudden violent turbulence that swung them up and down and from side to side until she was dizzy with shock and sensation.

She wanted to press herself up against the hard strength of his body, wind her arms up and around his neck, fingers tangling in the jet silk of his hair. She wanted to turn her head just an inch or more, so that it met with the warm temptation of his lips. She longed to deepen the taste of him as their mouths joined, opened…

She knew her mistake even before the thoughts had fully formed in her mind. She felt his sudden tension, the stiffening of that long body, the way his jaw tightened until his whole face was just one rigid mask of rejection, so cold and unyielding that it was almost like kissing the carved, immobile face of some marble statue. She felt as if her mouth must be bruised by slamming up against it.

‘No!’

Nikos’s response was sharp and violent. The swift jerk of his head repulsed her foolish gesture, and he wrenched himself away from her with a force that had her almost losing her balance. Instinctively, her hand went out to grasp at Nikos’s arm for support, then immediately released it again as she felt the even more powerful rejection that stiffened it against her.

‘I’m sorry!’

Somehow she managed to stay upright. But the fight for equilibrium in her mind was harder won as she struggled with the terrible sense of loss that seared through her with the force of a lightning strike. She had forgotten that Nikos had told her he was marrying someone else, that he was committed to another woman. It was no wonder he had reacted so forcefully to her impulsive response.

‘That wasn’t any sort of come-on—truly it wasn’t. It was only a thank-you!’

Could the look he turned on her be any colder, any more distant? Was it possible that she could endure the icy contempt that seemed to strike with the force of an arctic blast and not shrivel under the force of it, crumpling where she sat?

‘It won’t happen again.’

‘You’re damned right it won’t happen again.’ Nikos turned on her in dark fury. ‘If you thought that you could win me round to giving you whatever you want by seducing me then you couldn’t be more wrong. I may have been caught that way before, but never again.’

‘You were caught?’ Sadie scorned. ‘In my opinion it was exactly the opposite way round! I was the one caught in your trap. The one you hunted down. You could never have been caught because I’m not sure you ever intended to marry me. You simply wanted to use me in your damned family feud with my father.’

‘Oh, I would have married you, all right,’ Nikos tossed back, the words hitting her like a slap in the face. ‘By then I was so completely obsessed with you that I would have done anything—however stupid—to have you in my bed. One night with you was not enough. Could never be enough. I would have put my head right back in the noose if only to have another one.’

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