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‘This isn’t a social visit,’ she declared with a delightful toss of her head that revealed a long, slender neck simply begging to be kissed. Theo sat down behind his desk to stop himself from advancing towards her. ‘Maybe,’ he growled. ‘But there’s no need for formalities, especially when you’re the daughter of an old…acquaintance of mine.’ He’d been about to say enemy, but realised that this could get her back up before she’d even given her reason for being here. ‘Would you like coffee? I can get someone to—’
‘No!’
It was an instant decision. She was clearly on a mission and wanted to get it over with. ‘So how can I help you?’ He folded his arms, allowing his eyes to half close as he studied her intently. He could feel a stirring in his groin that shocked him to the core. This was the daughter of a man he hadn’t the faintest admiration for. He should be totally indifferent to her. So why wasn’t he?
‘My father needs money.’
He felt quite sure she hadn’t intended to blurt it out like that because a tell-tale colouring to her skin belied her cool outer image. But he was glad that she had because he now knew where he stood. His mind had run to the fact that her father could be offering him first refusal on the business. But money! How much had it cost Keristari to send her here?
‘Is that so?’ he asked with cool indifference. He had no intention in the world of helping this man out.
Dione nodded. ‘He believes that you might be able to help him.’
Theo wanted to tell her straight away that he wouldn’t. Keristari was a bully of the highest order and most definitely not a man to do business with.
But he didn’t want to let Dione go yet. He was fascinated. She was quite the sexiest woman he had met in a long time. There was something refreshingly different about her. It was as though she had no idea of her own sexuality. How he would like to introduce her to it.
‘Why ask me?’ he asked, leaning back in his chair, his hands linked behind his head. ‘Why not his bank?’
‘I think he’s in too deep for that,’ admitted Dione. ‘He says you’re his only hope. He’s counting on it.’
Dione saw the disbelief on Theo Tsardikos’ face, the hint of anger quickly suppressed, and knew that her mission was doomed to failure. But she still needed to try. The image of her father lying helpless in hospital flashed in front of her mind’s eye. Much as she feared him, much as she sometimes despised him, she couldn’t bear to see him so ill and worried.
‘He’s counting on it!’ repeated Theo disbelievingly, dragging dark brows together over velvety brown eyes. ‘Why would he ask me, the man he probably hates more than anyone else in the world, for money? Unless, of course, he’s exhausted all his other options.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Dione, her eyes steady on this tall, undeniably handsome man with a shock of dark hair that looked as though he constantly ran his fingers through it. ‘I didn’t know anything about it until yesterday. I’ve been visiting my mother in England.’
‘So Phrosini isn’t your birth mother?’ he enquired, sharp interest on his face.
Dione shook her head. She wished he wasn’t quite so good-looking. She wished his eyes wouldn’t rake over her as though he wanted to take her to bed.
‘That explains why you look nothing like either of your parents.’
‘Which has nothing to do with the reason I’m here,’ declared Dione heatedly. She certainly wasn’t here to discuss her parentage.
He allowed himself to smile and his very even white teeth looked predatory in her heightened state. Like a wolf about to pounce, she thought. This was a man she had to watch closely. He looked relaxed leaning back in his chair, his shirt collar undone, but his mind was as sharp as a razor.
‘Your father’s using you, you do know that?’ he pointed out. ‘Like he uses everyone he comes into contact with. The best thing you can do, Dione—do you mind if I call you Dione?—is to go right back and tell him the answer’s no.’
Dione drew in a pained breath. What a heartless brute the man was. ‘You haven’t even asked how much he wants,’ she retorted, her back stiff, her eyes sparking resentment.
‘It’s immaterial,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t lend your father one euro, let alone thousands of them, which I presume is the kind of amount he’d want. What’s happened?’
Dione shrugged. ‘All I know is that he’s nearly bankrupt.’
‘Bad management,’ drawled Theo uncaringly.
‘So that’s your final answer?’ she snapped, her heart dipping so low it almost touched her shoes.
Theo leaned back in his chair, a smile playing on well-shaped lips, and an unfathomable gleam in his eyes. ‘There could be another solution.’
Dione’s heart leapt with hope.
‘I could save your father’s business—on one condition.’
‘And that is?’ asked Dione eagerly.
There was a long pause before he answered, a space of time when his eyes raked insolently over her body, sending a shiver of unease through her limbs. But she didn’t let him see it; she sat still, her hands folded primly in her lap, and waited to hear what he had to say.
‘That you become my wife.’
The shock of his suggestion couldn’t have been greater. This man was a stranger to her, as she was to him, and yet he was talking about marriage! Was he out of his mind? Would he lend her father money just to get his hands on her? What sort of a monster was he? Dione shivered as rivers of ice raced down her spine.
She jumped to her feet and glared. ‘That is the most outrageous suggestion I’ve ever heard. What makes you think I’d marry a total stranger?’
A faint, insolent smile curved his mouth. ‘I thought you had your father’s best interests at heart. Otherwise why would you be here?’
‘I do,’ she admitted, ‘but that doesn’t include giving myself away to you.’ The man had no idea what he was asking. He was probably a fantastic lover with years of experience, but it meant nothing to her. She didn’t know the first thing about him. And nor did she want to if these were his tactics.
‘It’s your choice,’ he said, as simply as if they were discussing a normal business proposition. ‘If your answer’s no then we have nothing else to discuss.’
‘Of course my answer’s no,’ she spat at him. ‘What do you take me for?’ And with that she whirled on her heel and stormed out of the room.
His mocking voice called after her. ‘I’ll be waiting should you change your mind.’
‘Then you’ll wait a lifetime,’ she hissed beneath her breath.
Dione didn’t go straight to the hospital; she was far too wound up for that. She had taken a taxi to Theo’s office but now decided to walk. Even then she took a circuitous route and by the time she did reach the hospital she was almost able to laugh at Theo Tsardikos’ suggestion.
But her father didn’t laugh. ‘You could do worse,’ he said. ‘I’ve always wanted you to marry a proud Greek male and Tsardikos is as good as they come.’
Praise indeed coming from her father, thought Dione.
‘I’ve been so afraid that on one of your trips to England you’ll fall in love. It would break my heart.’
It was on the tip of Dione’s tongue to tell him about Chris, but at the last moment she decided against it. Yannis’ health was so bad that such an admission might finish him off altogether. In fact he looked even worse today that he had yesterday. His breathing was laboured and his skin a ghostly yellow and Phrosini hovered, not knowing what to do to help her beloved husband.
‘I can’t marry a complete stranger,’ Dione said miserably.
‘Not even for me?’ demanded Yannis in a rough, angry voice. ‘Not even though my life and my livelihood depend on it? What sort of a daughter are you?’
He made Dione feel guilty, but even so she stuck to her guns. ‘I’d be prostituting myself.’
‘With Tsardikos? He’s an exciting male. Half the female population of Greece are after him. You’ll be the envy of thousands.’ And then he slumped in his chair and hardly seemed to be breathing.
Phrosini beckoned her out of the room. ‘We must leave him for a while,’ she said.
‘Don’t you know he’s asking the impossible?’ asked Dione, as they made their way to the hospital restaurant. ‘I haven’t said anything to my father, and I don’t want you to either, but there’s a man in England I’ve promised to marry.’
‘Oh, Dione, why didn’t you say?’ Her stepmother was full of concern.
‘How could I when my father’s so ill, and more especially after what he’s just said?’
‘And this boy, you love him?’
‘Of course.’ But Dione’s face gave away the fact that it wasn’t exactly going to be a marriage made in heaven.
‘You’re doing it because you don’t want your father to arrange a marriage for you?’ she asked intuitively.
Dione nodded faintly, her lips clamped together. When it was put to her like that she realised it was probably true. The love she felt for Chris wasn’t like the stuff you read about, but she had been happy enough—until she heard that he’d been seen with his ex-girlfriend!
‘Oh, Dione, is that really the answer? I don’t want you to be unhappy like I was with my first husband, like your mother was.’
‘I’d be happier with Chris than Theo Tsardikos,’ said Dione quietly.
‘Theo’s a good man. His offer is a lifeline to your father. In fact it might save his life. The doctors are very fearful today.’ There were tears in Phrosini’s eyes. ‘And if he doesn’t recover…well, your father’s always wanted me to carry on the business if anything should happen to him.’
Meaning she would be letting them both down. Put like that, how could she refuse? Dione breathed in deeply, closed her eyes, then took the plunge, hating herself for it but knowing it was something she had to do.
‘OK—I’ll—marry him.’ Her words floated in the air like a storm cloud threatening to bear down and drown her in a black deluge of unhappiness.
Phrosini hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘My precious child.’
There was nothing precious about it, thought Dione, but she made up her mind there and then that Theo Tsardikos would not get it all his own way. This marriage would be on her terms.
He was savagely handsome, quite the best-looking man she’d ever seen—tall, with a perfectly honed body and long-fingered, well-manicured hands. It was one of the first things she’d noticed about him. But it didn’t mean that she would eagerly jump into his bed. Quite the opposite! She would be a good and dutiful wife in every other respect. She would cook for him, entertain for him, accompany him whenever necessary, but nothing more.
Maybe this was what he wanted her to be—a good hostess? A man in his position would need someone at his side on special occasions.
And who was she trying to kid?
She had seen the way he looked at her, the way his eyes had raked insolently over her body, and she had known what he was thinking, even though she’d done her very best to ignore it.
Already she was beginning to lament her decision but her father was overjoyed when they went back to tell him, his eyes brightening and becoming alert and interested. ‘My darling daughter! You won’t regret this, I promise you.’
Dione wasn’t so sure.
She spent a sleepless night worrying about it, telling herself there was still time to back out, but then recalling her father’s pleasure. How could she deny him his dying wish?
As Dione sat outside Theo Tsardikos’ office for the second time in the same number of days her heart leapt with alarming violence. This was going to be the hardest thing she had ever done. Giving herself to a man she didn’t know was crazy. She had to be insane to do it.
And the man in question was taking great delight in keeping her waiting!
And the longer Dione waited the more irritated she became, until at last she jumped to her feet and prepared to leave. She couldn’t do this, not even for her father’s sake. No one knew the courage it had taken her to come here this morning; courage that was fast deserting her.
‘Leaving, are we?’
Dione spun round at the sound of a deep, gravelly voice and looked into a pair of amused dark eyes. ‘I’d begun to think you didn’t want to see me. I’ve sat here for twenty minutes.’
‘I’m a busy man, Dione. And you did arrive without an appointment. But now I’m all yours. Do come in.’ And he touched a hand to her arm as he led her into his office.
It was a large, airy room with a wooden floor and pale grey walls hung with photographs of his various hotels. His desk was in front of the massive window with its views over Athens, and in one corner was a trio of armchairs. Against another wall was a series of bookcases. It was clean and clinical and efficient. Like the man himself.
She headed towards the desk, prepared to sit in the seat opposite him, as she had before, but instead he steered her towards the armchairs. ‘We’ll be more comfortable here.’
Dione did not want to be comfortable; she wanted to say what she had to say and get out quickly. Not the right sort of thought when Theo was her prospective husband—though actually she was hoping that he’d had a change of heart. A hope that was quickly dashed when he flashed his wolfish teeth.
‘Can I presume that the reason you’re here is to declare that you’ll marry me after all?’
Two pairs of brown eyes met and warred, and Dione was the first to look away. ‘I’d like to be able to say no,’ she snapped, ignoring the stammer of her heart. This man was lethal. Deadly attractive but a danger all the same.
‘You’re a free agent.’ The words were tossed lightly and dismissively into the air and Dione gained the impression that he couldn’t care less. That this was all some sort of game to him.
‘Meaning you’ve changed your mind?’ she enquired sharply, mentally crossing her fingers that this was so.
‘Not at all.’ It was a simple, matter-of-fact answer; he was giving her no help whatsoever. In fact he was enjoying her discomfort.
‘In that case,’ she said in a voice not much above a whisper, ‘I’ll do as you ask.’
‘I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.’
Damn the man! A satisfied smile played about his sculpted lips and his eyes were filled with amusement. She felt pretty sure that he had heard. He just wanted to hear her say it again. He liked seeing her squirm.
‘I said, I’ll do as you ask.’ There, was that loud enough for him? She’d projected the words as though she was throwing a missile, hoping they’d smash into his face and wipe some of the pleasure off it.
No such luck! His smile widened and deepened and he leaned forward and took her hands into his. ‘There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’
Dione huffed and said nothing.
‘You’re not happy?’
‘No, I’m not.’
‘But I’m guessing your father’s delirious?’
‘He was pleased, yes.’
‘He must really have hit rock-bottom.’
Dione flashed furious dark eyes at him. ‘He has, and he’s in hospital fighting for his life because of it.’
Theo frowned. ‘I didn’t know that.’
‘There’s a lot about my father you don’t know.’
‘And a lot I do,’ he growled. ‘He’s unscrupulous. I bet he had no hesitation in saying you should marry me. How he could have produced a daughter like you I don’t know.’
‘How do you know I’m not unscrupulous too?’ she riposted, wishing she could jump up and run. This was the most humiliating experience of her life.
