скачать книгу бесплатно
‘Not so fast.’ He wrapped his hand around her upper arm and spun her back to face him. ‘You and I are not finished yet.’
Selina glanced at Rion, furious at his bullying tactic to delay her. She had had enough. ‘We were finished years ago.’ She tried to pull her arm free but he simply tightened his grip, his fingers digging into her flesh, and she lost her temper completely. ‘My God, Iris did me a favour, telling me about you.’
‘Iris?’ He looked puzzled. ‘Telling you what?’
‘You are supposed to be brilliant—work it out,’ she snapped.
His other hand slid up her back to catch her long silken plait and tug her head back. ‘Cut out the sarcasm and tell me.’
Held in his firm grip, Rion’s eyes boring down into hers, she registered the implacable determination in the dark depths. Refusing to be intimidated, she thought, why not? Their business was concluded, and Rion could do with being taken down a peg or two.
‘It wasn’t my grandfather who told me about the marriage deal, as you seem to think. It was your half sister, Iris.’
‘Iris? I don’t believe you. She did not know.’
‘Yes, she did. She heard her parents talking in the car on the way back from our engagement party. How ironic is that?’ She felt him stiffen, his hand falling from her hair—though he still kept hold of her arm. Shaking her head, she eyed him contemptuously. ‘And she told me a lot more. The day you threw me out you told her never to speak to me again, but she did. Jason was her boyfriend. Iris had told him to follow her up to her bedroom—right at the top of the stairs. But he was drunk. He turned left and passed out in my bed. I never knew he was there because I’d gone to bed early with a couple of strong painkillers.’
Selina was on a roll. Everything Rion had denied her the right to tell him came spilling out with a vengeance.
‘Iris knew the truth. Jason told her he’d heard a noise in the hall, woken up. He saw red hair on the pillow and realised his mistake. Horrified, he dashed out of the bedroom. I begged her to tell you, but she was too frightened of what her bossy older brother would do. Knowing you, I can’t say I blame her—and in fact, as it turned out it was lucky for me. She told me about the marriage deal and what a womaniser you are. Who did you think showed me the shots of you and your lady friends on the computer? I didn’t have one at the time. Who do you think told me the woman you really loved and wanted to marry was Lydia, but she married someone else?’
Shocked rigid, Rion stared down into angry golden eyes glinting with shards of green and knew she was telling the truth. The story was so bizarre it had to be true. That Iris, his half-sister whom he had always protected, had been dating the boy and had known the truth all along and refused to tell him horrified him. All this time he had thought Selina had betrayed him, and she hadn’t …
A great wide chasm opened up in his mind, filled with memories he had banked down for years. The innocence Selina had gifted him, their wedding day when he had watched her walk down the aisle and thought her the most beautiful bride he had ever seen, the love she had given him unconditionally and he had taken for granted. How could he have been so arrogant, so stiff-necked with pride as to throw her out? What did that make him? And he had taken one look at Selina on the beach at Letos the night before the funeral and wanted her so badly he had blackmailed her into his bed.
‘Why didn’t you—?’
‘Tell you?’ Selina jeered, cutting him off. ‘You refused to see me, speak or listen to me, remember …?’ She saw him flinch. He had a right to. He didn’t like the truth. ‘Then you had the audacity to try to name me as the adulterous party. What a joke, given your reputation. I told Beth what had happened and thanks to her and her dad I fought you and won. It was the best thing I ever did. Beth reckoned you got off lightly. I should have demanded more money. But it was enough for me to get my self-esteem back, and the whole affair taught me a lesson I will never forget.’
‘What would that be?’ Rion asked not sure he wanted to know the answer. But he wanted to keep her talking while his mind grappled with the enormity of what she had revealed. What had he done?
‘To work hard, get a career and never count on a man to take care of me. With the shining examples of my biological father, my grandfather and my ex-husband I find it remarkably easy to remember,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I am leaving.’ And, tightening her grip on her satchel, she pulled her arm free.
‘No, not yet.’ Thinking fast for a reason to make her stay, he said, ‘I have not given you the salary you’ve lost for the last two weeks. I said I would.’
‘Forget it. I have.’
‘No. What I am trying to say is I owe you an apology, Selina—more than an apology. I don’t expect you to forgive me for not trusting you when we were married, but you have to admit finding a half-naked man dashing out of our bedroom looked bad.’
Selina couldn’t help it—she laughed … if a little hysterically. Rion could not be contrite in a million years. ‘Even when you try to apologise you still have to qualify it with your opinion. You could have asked.’ She put a finger on her chin and flashed him a pseudo-pensive glance. ‘Oh, no, you couldn’t. You wouldn’t speak to me!’
His lips twisted. ‘Cute, Selina. But please listen. I am serious. I have done you a terrible injustice—more than one.’ Grasping her shoulders, he held her still. ‘I want to make it up to you any way I can.’
She looked up and caught the grim urgency in his expression, the sincerity in the dark eyes that bored into hers—and the underlying gleam of awareness in the glittering depths. His great body was too close. She felt the pressure of his strong hands, the flexing of his long fingers on her arms, and knew she had to get out of here fast—before her traitorous body succumbed once again to the wonder of his.
‘More money? Forget it.’ She had to get away with her pride intact. It was all she had left.
‘No … yes. I mean I will marry you again—have a home, children.’ Rion was almost as shocked as Selina looked by what he’d said. Then like a lightning strike, electrifying in its intensity, it hit him. He actually meant every word …
During the time he had spent with Selina on the yacht he’d been more relaxed, more alive, and had more genuine fun than at any other time in his life. But it wasn’t just sex. It had never been just sex with Selina, but love. He had made love to her, and been too blinkered, too arrogant to see it until now. He loved Selina …
Selina’s lips parted in shock and for a moment her foolish heart leapt. Then reality clicked in. Nothing had changed. Rion didn’t love her.
‘Marry you again …? Are you mad …?’
She recognised his proposal for what it was. For once in his life the great Orion Moralis was feeling guilty. Well, he could drown in that for all she cared. He had made her feel guilty even when she had done nothing wrong. If he thought he could salve his conscience by marrying her again he was in for a big surprise. She was amazed he had the cheek to ask. In fact she was insulted and, feeling about him as she did, it hurt. And he had hurt her enough already to last a lifetime …
‘As for a home and children—you have to be joking. I don’t like the company you keep.’
‘A simple no would have sufficed. And what the hell do you mean by “the company I keep”?’ Rion demanded, his grip tightening.
For an instant she felt afraid. But she refused to be intimidated by a man—any man …
‘Bratchet for one,’ she sneered. Rion led a gilded life, and it was time he learnt not everyone was so fortunate. ‘I know you didn’t believe me, but I did give your money to a children’s charity. A charity that is needed because of depraved perverts like him, who put a boy of eight in hospital. It made my flesh crawl to shake his hand.’
She looked Rion straight in the eyes and told him about the charity Beth and Trevor ran, of which she was a silent partner and one of the main supporters. She felt him tense but spared him nothing, telling him the painfully tragic details with all the passion of a caring woman committed to the cause.
Rion let his hands fall from Selina’s shoulders. He could not believe what he was hearing. Of course he had heard as much as any normal person about the trade in child sex, but as he listened to her with growing horror his face paled. He was appalled at what she told him, and appalled at how badly he had misjudged her and how spectacularly he had failed to protect the innocent girl he had married from ever having to come into contact with such a sick, depraved side of life.
‘I had no idea,’ he murmured.
‘Why would you? In your world business and money is God,’ she said flatly. ‘Though you would be surprised how many very wealthy men like Bratchet use and abuse children. Perversion cuts across all levels of society and it costs money to fly to Cambodia,’ she opined cynically.
‘And you compare me with Bratchet?’ Rion queried hollowly.
‘No.’ She knew Rion’s sexual preferences all too well. Seeing him standing there watching her with dark haunted eyes, she felt her heart swell with love and compassion and knew it was time to go. ‘But people are usually judged by the company they keep, and as you said yourself yesterday, you would do business with a serial killer if it was legitimate and a good deal.’
Now Rion knew what she had been hiding—why she had refused to go on the dive. And, worse, he realised that one exaggerated throwaway comment he had made had killed any hope he had of keeping Selina.
‘I know it is a lot to ask, because it is your precious business, but do me a favour when you speak to Bratchet again: don’t mention what I have told you. When you caught me on the phone the other night I wasn’t calling Aunt Peggy, but Trevor, to tell him I’d seen Bratchet and learnt he was heading back to the Far East. His sort never change, and with luck he might be caught and not be able to buy his way out again.’
‘You have my word,’ Rion promised quietly, but inside he was a seething mass of emotions—fury at Bratchet, and at himself for being so blind, so arrogant he had refused to recognise the love he felt for Selina until now, when she was leaving him.
‘Thank you. And, hey, look on the bright side. If Bratchet is arrested you might get his company even cheaper and we’ll both win,’ she said facetiously.
Rion slowly shook his head, the hint of a smile quirking the corners of his mouth. ‘You are an incredible lady, Selina.’ Sadly he resigned himself to the fact she was never going to be his. He didn’t deserve her after all he had done. ‘I’ll arrange you a flight back to England.’
‘No need. I have already got my flights booked for Cambodia. I usually spend a month every year helping Beth and Trevor—though it is only going to be three weeks this time.’
Her eyes lifted to his and Rion saw the disdain in their amber depths. He knew she was remembering why her trip had been cut short. As was he. And if it was possible to feel worse he did.
‘Then let me make a donation to the charity,’ he offered.
‘It is simple. Just mail the Taylor Foundation.’ Selina reeled off the e-mail address. ‘But I would make it anonymous. Beth is a real crusader for justice—much more high-minded than me.’
Rion didn’t try to stop her when she turned to leave. Didn’t even touch her. He didn’t dare.
‘Your luggage is in the car. I’ll tell the chauffeur to take you where you want to go.’
His original thought of persuading Selina to stay a night or two more with him, never mind marry him, was dead in the water and, moving to sit at his desk, he simply nodded as she walked out of the door.
Half an hour later Rion hadn’t moved, but still sat with his head in his hands. He knew with gut-wrenching certainty that the same day he had finally realised he loved Selina he had lost her …
The phone rang and he ignored it. His secretary walked in and he told her he was not to be disturbed for the rest of the day.
He glanced around his state-of-the-art office and rose to his feet to walk to the vast glass wall. He gazed out over Athens but it did nothing for him. He had health, wealth, work he enjoyed—a great life by any standard. Yet the one person he needed was forever unobtainable to him, and the pain was crippling.
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#ulink_55b101f4-134f-59ee-bdb0-bae836b1cac0)
SELINA stopped in the centre of the elegant foyer of the luxurious hotel in the centre of Rio that had been her home for the past ten days and turned to smile up at Antonio. Six foot tall, powerfully built and wearing a black tuxedo, white dress shirt and red bow tie, he was strikingly attractive—and a refreshingly honest man for all his wealth.
‘Thank you, Antonio, it was a lovely evening,’ she said. ‘And it has been a real pleasure working for you again. But I am leaving early in the morning so I will say goodbye now.’ She held out her hand but, ignoring it, he caught her shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks.
‘You could change your mind and accept my offer to stay on as my mistress,’ he prompted with a grin. ‘Currently I have a vacancy—in fact I will always have a vacancy for you, Selina.’
Stepping back, Selina laughed up at him, shaking her head. ‘You are incorrigible, Antonio—and, no, I could not. But if you ever need a translator again you know how to find me.’
‘True. And if you ever change your mind, Selina, or need me for anything you have my number. Call me. If I can’t have you as a lover I’ll settle for a friend.’ He smiled.
Selina saw the warmth in his dark eyes and was touched. ‘Thank you. I will. Goodbye.’ And, turning on her heel, she headed for the bank of elevators without looking back.
Once in her room, she gave a sigh of contentment as she closed the door. Another successful job completed, she thought and, kicking off her shoes, crossed to sit on the edge of the king-sized bed. She began unpinning her hair from its intricate chignon.
Antonio Soares, the head of the largest mining consortium in Brazil and with interests worldwide, was one of the good guys, Selina reflected. She had met him two months ago, as a client in Australia, and she had travelled to China with him. Then he had hired her again for a Chinese delegation visit to Brazil. The trip had been a success for both parties, and tonight had been the final celebratory dinner before the delegation left in the morning.
She finger-combed her hair, smiling. Antonio was a self-confessed womaniser but he was also fun, and he made her laugh with tales of the doyennes of Brazilian society who kept trying to get him to marry their daughters. He was like Rion in a way—he worked hard and played hard—but, unlike Rion, Antonio was not hard of heart. She had met his ten-year-old son, Eduardo, and knew his much-loved wife had died in childbirth and he had no intention of ever replacing her.
In fact, she thought, given a year or so to get over Rion she might even accept Antonio’s offer to be his mistress …
Rising to her feet, she reached around to untie the halter neck of her dress and paused. For the first time in the three months since leaving Rion she realised she was beginning to think more positively of the future, even considering another man. That had to be a sign she was getting better.
She was about to unfasten the bow at the back of her neck when she heard a loud knock on the door.
Odd, she thought, it was after eleven, and she had not ordered anything from room service. She walked towards the door, not intending to open it until she’d asked who it was. But she never got the chance. The door opened and a man walked in, slamming the door behind him.
‘You!’ Selina exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock even as her traitorous heart leapt as she recognised Rion. His hair was longer and falling over his brow, she noted, and his usual sartorial elegance had slipped a little. The superbly tailored navy suit he wore no longer fitted so well. The jacket was loose across his chest and he looked leaner, his handsome features honed to an even more chiselled edge.
‘What on earth are you doing here?’ she asked, shocked rigid. Her insides were shaking. ‘And how did you get in?’ Stupid question. ‘Never mind. Just get out or I will call the manager.’ She didn’t like the ferocious look on his face and suddenly she was afraid.
‘Call away, but it won’t do you any good. I own this hotel, I have a key, and I want to talk to you.’
‘Own the hotel?’ she parroted, a host of conflicting emotions flooding through her. ‘But how did you know I was here?’ she demanded.
Rion ran his hands through his hair. It was that or grabbing Selina, and he didn’t trust himself to touch her after witnessing the scene between her and Antonio Soares in the foyer. But he could not take his eyes off her. Her glorious hair tumbled around her bare shoulders and the golden-brown shot satin dress she wore revealed a tempting cleavage. The satin slid sensuously over her shapely body to the floor. She looked beautiful and sexy and she was driving him out of his mind.
Rion shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to ease the fierce tension in his long body. ‘I decided to look you up.’
‘Look me up … Hunt me down, more like,’ Selina said, her voice rising incredulously. Her amber eyes flashed with temper, clashing with blazing black, but she was too angry to care. A few minutes ago she’d been congratulating herself on beginning to get over Rion, and now, like some evil genie, he’d popped back into her life.
‘What the hell for?’ She swore. ‘It is almost midnight in Brazil—halfway round the world from where you live, for heaven’s sake—and yet here you are. Are you crazy?’ she demanded furiously.
Rion grabbed her around the waist and hauled her hard against him. For an instant desire flared between them, and savagely she tried to crush it. But too late. She registered his eyes, glittering with an almost manic light.
‘Crazy, maybe—but it is you who have made me this way. And I’ll hunt you down to the ends of the earth if that is what it takes to get you back. Because I can’t stand the thought of you with someone else. Everything in me—everything I am—yearns for you,’ he declared harshly.
This was a Rion she had never seen before. He was like a man possessed. ‘You can’t just hunt—’
But he carried on as though she had not spoken, and being held against his body was making her temperature rise.
‘Do you think I haven’t suffered the torment of the damned since we parted? Knowing the truth almost unmanned me. You were mine first, and I don’t give a damn about any in between as long as you are mine last. As for Antonio Soares—I spoke to him downstairs and he won’t bother you again.’
‘Spoke to him? Bother me?’ She was turning into a parrot. ‘Antonio is a client—a friend, you Neanderthal,’ she shot back furiously, and tried to wriggle free. But he tightened his grip and with one hand stroked up her back, tangling his fingers in her hair and forcing her to look up into his dark face.
‘Where you are concerned I am. I can’t help myself. I lied when I told you I didn’t do jealous. I only need to see you smile at a man to be consumed by the green-eyed monster because I love you. I don’t expect you to believe me but I do.’
Selina blinked. Had she heard right …? No, it was impossible. She glared at him belligerently. ‘If this is another ploy to get me into bed you are wasting your time. Now, let me go.’
‘No. Never again, Selina.’ He lowered his head and kissed her with a possessive, seductive hunger that she fought to resist. But her traitorous body betrayed her and she felt her heart thud, the blood flow thicker in her veins. She raised her hands to push him away, but somehow her fingers involuntarily splayed across his broad chest and crept around his neck as she gave in to the sensual awareness Rion never failed to arouse in her and kissed him back.
Rion groaned and buried his face against her throat, inhaling the delicate scent of her skin. ‘Forgive me.’ He lifted his head. ‘I swore I wouldn’t do this, wouldn’t touch you until we’d talked and I’d explained.’ His anguished expression tore at Selina’s heart. ‘I know I don’t deserve you, but I do love you, Selina.’
Loved her? Was it possible? She raised a hand to feel his brow and brushed back a stray lock of hair. ‘Are you ill? Have you got a fever or something?’ She didn’t dare to believe in a penitent, loving Rion.
‘Only a fever for you. When I think of how brutally I cut you out of my life, divorced you without a word, I’m appalled. Discovering that my own sister was too frightened of me to tell me the truth makes me cringe inside. I never considered myself a vengeful person, and yet I took advantage of your grandfather’s will on the day of his funeral and used your generous heart, your caring for Anna, to get you back in my bed.’
‘You’re a ruthless man when you want something,’ Selina said bluntly. Though her lips throbbed sensuously from his kiss, and his confession was balm to her wounded heart, she was still not prepared to believe the seismic change from outraged macho male to supplicant lover.
‘I know. It is my character, I guess, but I am working to change it.’
A hint of a smile twitched Selina’s lips.
‘I can’t help it—the same way I can’t help wanting you. I love you, but I can’t find the words to describe my feelings. I have never had to try before,’ Rion said with a touch of his usual arrogance, pressing her closer to his long body.
The heat and the strength of him enveloped her.
‘To say I love you sounds so tame in comparison to what I really feel. That last day in my office, when I realised you had never betrayed me and I asked you to marry me again, that was the moment I finally recognised the limitless depths of my feelings for you … that I loved you.’
Five times he had mentioned love, and Selina was beginning to believe him. ‘You don’t have to tell me this,’ she said gently, noticing the lines of tiredness etched about his eyes, his mouth. Lifting a finger, she traced the contours of his lean, harshly handsome face. He was either ill or he did love her, and she knew which she’d prefer.
‘Yes I do. For a few glorious moments I was euphoric. Then in less than a minute I was in hell. When you told me you didn’t like the company I kept and why, and I realised what you did with your money … the Taylor Foundation … I had never been so horrified or ashamed in my whole life. Then I realised from your parting statement that I had in one careless comment made you forever associate me with that monster, Bratchet, and I had to let you walk away.’
‘Oh, no …’ She was shaken by the bleakness of his tone, and wanted to reassure him. ‘You might be arrogant, and look and act like a ruthless tycoon sometimes—well, most of the time—but I would never ever compare you with that horrible man.’
‘Thank you—I think,’ he said wryly, and brushed his lips across hers in the briefest of kisses. ‘That is what Dimitri said a week ago, when he arrived in Athens to visit his parents and we had a drink together. It is thanks to him I am here. He told me I looked a wreck, and asked me what had happened. I’d had a bit to drink and told him the story of our relationship. He told me I was a coward. If I loved you I had to fight for you. Then he mentioned he had seen you leaving an airport in Rio with Antonio Soares as he was dashing to catch a flight to Greece. He also told me there was a picture of you and Soares in some geological magazine, taken in China a month ago, and if I had a grain of sense I wouldn’t waste any more time. Am I too late?’
Selina lifted wide amber eyes to his but his long lashes lowered, shielding his eyes. But they could not quite hide the unfamiliar vulnerability in their black depths.
‘Or can I hope?’
