Page 49 of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife

‘Thank you! Thank you so much!’

‘My pleasure.’

The words meant one thing, but the expression in those glittering black eyes and the way that he pulled his hands from her grasp said something else completely and a lot of Becca’s euphoria evaporated as he got up and moved away.

Of course—he was prepared to help Daisy, but not her. Though there was something he had said…

But before she could quite grasp what it was, Andreas had spoken again and his words pushed all other thoughts from her mind.

‘So now you’ve got what you came for…’

How she wished that Andreas hadn’t got to his feet because now he seemed to tower over her, dark and forbidding, as she registered what he had said.

She’d got what she’d come for and now he wanted her to leave. She’d been right that he couldn’t let Daisy suffer for the division that had come between them, but his actions hadn’t indicated any healing or even a hope of peace. He’d provided the money she needed; he wasn’t offering her anything more.

‘Of course.’

She stumbled to her feet in a rush, refusing to let the anguish in her heart show in her face. She might be falling apart inside at this speedy, cold-blooded dismissal, but outwardly she was determined to be as brisk and businesslike as possible.

‘I’ll leave at once. If you’d just give me time to pack, I’ll be on my way. And if you call me a taxi—’

‘No.’

It was hard and coldly savage, slashing into her words as she tried to get them out.

‘No. That’s not the way it’s going to be.’

‘It isn’t?’

The sun was almost totally below the horizon now and the room so dark that she could scarcely see his face. But one last, lingering ray of light fell on the coldly glittering eyes, the start of his tightly clamped jaw. There was no yielding in him, no gentleness at all, and her heart quailed at the thought of just what he was about to say.

‘You’re not leaving.’

It was so unexpected that she almost laughed. But she caught back the betraying sound with an effort and managed to control her face so that the shocked astonishment she was feeling didn’t show on it.

‘Of course I am.’

She had to get home, tell Macy the wonderful news, get the hospital to put things in motion…

‘You can’t want me to stay.’

She blinked in astonishment as an autocratic flick of Andreas’ hand brushed aside her protest in a second.

‘That is where you are wrong, agape mou,’ he told her with deadly intensity. ‘I very much want you to stay.’

‘But why…?’

‘Oh, Becca, Becca…’ Andreas reproved and the softness of his tone made an icy shiver crawl all the way down her spine. ‘You are not so naïve that you have to ask that question. You know why I want you here, what I want from you.’

And of course she did.

‘Sex,’ she stated baldly and saw a frown draw his black, straight brows together.

‘I prefer to call it passion.’

‘You can call it what you like.’

The pain that was clawing at her heart made her voice harsh; the fight to hold back tears roughened it at the edges.

‘But sex is what you mean and…’

Her voice failed her as a terrible truth dawned in her thoughts, the horror of it taking away all her strength.

‘Is this about the money? Is this what you’re demanding in return for helping Daisy—your conditions for the loan? Is it what I have to do to ensure she gets the operation?’

She knew she was wrong as soon as she’d spoken. Even the shadows in the room couldn’t disguise the way his head went back, the hiss of his breath between clenched teeth.

‘What sort of a brute do you think I am?’

The vein of savage anger in Andreas’ voice made her blood run cold. There was no room for possible doubt of his sincerity. But she didn’t have the strength to take the words back, particularly not when his hand flashed out, clamped tight around her wrist and pulled her towards him with a rough, jerky movement.

‘Your sister and her child, the money for the operation—money that is a gift, not a loan—all that is dealt with. You can get on the phone to your sister—to the hospital, tell them arrange everything—and then that is done. Finished. This is between you and me. And nothing is finished between the two of us.’

‘But…’ Becca tried to interject but Andreas ignored her weak attempt at speech.

‘I let you go too easily the last time, and I’ve regretted it ever since. I’ve never been able to get you out of my mind. You’ve shadowed my days—haunted my dreams—and this afternoon in my bed reminded me of just why you have this effect on me. And it also told me that once would never be enough. I want so much more.’

Becca could only listen in dazed silence, struggling with the cruelly ambiguous feelings his words woke in her.

They should be complimentary. They should be what every woman dreamed of the man she loved saying to her. But she knew what he really meant and that destroyed any joy she might have wished she could find in what he was saying.

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