Page 56 of The Konstantos Marriage Demand

The swift, sharp inclination of his dark head to one side was Nikos’s silent acknowledgement that she was on the right track. But it still didn’t make any sense that she could see.

‘But I don’t understand—why would that help me twist your arm over Thorn Trees?’

‘Because we had been seen together. Because it was assumed—implied—that our relationship was back on.’

‘But it isn’t—wasn’t…’

Which did she mean? Which was right? She really didn’t know.

‘We knew that. No one else. And not knowing that, how would it have looked if it became known that I had taken possession of Thorn Trees after all. That I had thrown my fiancée’s mother and little brother out of their home? Perhaps out of spite for the fact that you had refused to get back with me again…’

‘You think that I would have used this picture as some sort of moral blackmail—a bargaining tool to get what I wanted?’

‘Why not? It is a technique worthy of your father at his best—or do I mean his worst? He would be proud of you, Sadie mou. You have clearly learned a great deal from him.’

‘I’ve learned nothing!’

Raising her voice like this was probably a big mistake, but to be honest she didn’t really care. She wanted to make her point as emphatically as she could.

‘I’ve learned nothing from my father—and I wouldn’t want to! The cold-blooded way he went about everything appalled me. I hated it. My father thought he could run people’s lives—rather like you, in fact. It made my life a misery—my mother’s too—and everyone else’s around us!’

‘And you expect me to believe that?’

‘Do you know what?’

Sadie flung up her arms now, in a gesture that was very similar to the one that Nikos had used a few moments earlier—and expressing the same sort of exasperation.

‘I don’t really care! You’re so obviously dead set against me—and so convinced that you’re damn well right—it seems to me there’s very little point in even trying to explain. I’m never going to persuade you of anything else. So I might as well just stop trying.’

And she’d have to admit that she lost Thorn Trees too, she acknowledged privately to herself. There was no way Nikos was going to let her stay in the house now, under any circumstances. She didn’t dare to let herself consider that thought any further for fear that it would take all the strength from her. And she already felt as if she was fighting for her life.

‘You’re right,’ Nikos conceded unexpectedly, shrugging his broad shoulders in a way that made her mouth drop open slightly in astonishment and disbelief. ‘It really doesn’t matter any more now. If anything, it makes things easier.’

And that was the last thing she had expected. So much so that she took a step back in shock, eyeing him warily, as if she believed that he might have changed shape and persona right in front of her, turning into some totally different, totally alien being right before her eyes.

‘Easier in what way?’

He looked straight at her, those gleaming golden eyes locking with her confused green ones. And he actually smiled. But it wasn’t a smile that warmed her in any way, or even lifted the atmosphere in the room. Instead it sent a cold, creeping sensation sliding down her spine in dread of what was coming next.

‘When we marry, it won’t be such a shock to the world—the gossip columns will already have had a field-day.’

Sadie shook her head in confusion. She couldn’t have heard right.

‘We aren’t getting married.’

‘Oh, but we are.’

Nikos put one hand down on the top of the desk, pressing hard on it as he leaned towards her.

‘It’s the obvious solution, isn’t it?’

‘Not to me. You haven’t even asked me!’

‘Do I need to ask?’ he stunned her by saying. ‘I told you—you are the only woman I’ve ever wanted to marry.’

And he truly thought that that made it all fine. The belief was stamped onto his dark features, drawing the muscles tight around his mouth.

‘Yes, in order to have me in your bed!’

If she’d expected him to look mortified, even disconcerted, then she was very badly mistaken.

‘And what better reason is there for being together?’ he countered dismissively.

There’s love, and caring for each other…But she didn’t dare say it, couldn’t even find the strength to open her mouth to speak the words. Obviously they had never crossed Nikos’s mind, and were never likely to do so at any point in the future.

---