скачать книгу бесплатно
The lift swept her up to the administration floor where she encountered a middle-aged woman guarding the reception desk.
‘Can I help you?’ the woman asked in a haughty tone.
Maddison brushed another wayward strand out of her face.
‘I’m here to see Mr Papasakis.’
‘Do you have an appointment?’
‘No, not really. I was supposed to call him, but at the last minute I decided to come in person. My name is Maddison Jones.’
The woman’s eyes swept over her. ‘You’re Miss Jones?’
‘That’s correct.’ Maddison lifted her chin in a token gesture of pride.
She didn’t care for the look the secretary was giving her, as if she was the last person anyone would expect Demetrius Papasakis to be associated with. She suffered no illusions about her out-of-date clothes and scuffed shoes, but she knew her figure was nothing to be ashamed of, even if her hair needed brushing and her lips a touch of gloss.
‘I’ll let him know you’re here.’ The woman reached for the intercom on her desk.
‘Thank you,’ Maddison responded politely.
She heard the deep burr of Demetrius’s voice on the machine as she stood waiting, and glancing at the clock on the wall saw the second hand tick down the remaining seconds—ten, nine, eight, seven…
‘He’ll see you now,’ the woman said, interrupting her quiet panic.
She followed the woman’s directions to his office and gave the solid door one small sharp knock.
‘Come.’
She opened the door and her eyes immediately went to his seated figure behind the huge expanse of his desk.
He got to his feet with languid grace and greeted her. ‘Maddison, and right on time too.’
She didn’t answer but stood in front of his desk with a fiery look in her clear blue gaze.
Demetrius couldn’t help feeling faintly amused. She was so touchingly defiant, pretending she wasn’t intimidated when she very clearly was. It intrigued him in a way. Most of the women he’d been involved with would have jumped at the chance to wear his ring and yet here she was looking as if he’d asked her to walk the plank above an ocean full of sharks.
He indicated the chair for her to sit on with a sweep of his hand.
‘Please, take a seat.’
‘I’d rather stand,’ she said through stiff lips.
‘As you wish.’ He sat back down and picked up a pen off his desk and gave it a click. ‘Have you come to a decision regarding my proposal?’
‘I’m surprised you still have the gall to call it a proposal,’ she said. ‘I would prefer the term blackmail.’
‘Blackmail is a strong word.’ He gave his pen another audible click. ‘I’d like to remind you now that you can walk out of that door at any point and accept the consequences.’
She tightened her spine at his chilling warning.
‘But you’ve made it impossible for me to do so, haven’t you?’ She eyeballed him directly.
‘I take it you’re referring to my real estate dealings over the weekend?’ He leant back in his chair and propped his feet on his desk in an indolent pose that made the blood simmer in her veins.
‘You did it deliberately, didn’t you? To flush me out like a rat down a drainpipe.’
‘Not quite the metaphor I would have chosen, but it will suffice, I suppose.’
‘You’re totally sick!’
‘I’ll take that as a ‘‘no’’ then?’ His dark gaze glinted with lazy amusement.
She clenched and unclenched her fists in an effort to keep control.
‘I’m going to make you a promise, Mr Papasakis, one that I hope you won’t forget.’
‘You intrigue me.’ The corner of his mouth lifted sardonically. ‘Pray tell me what delightful pledge you have in store.’
Her eyes flashed with fire. ‘I will marry you, but you will live to regret it; I’m going to make absolutely certain of that.’
He lifted his feet off the desk in one easy movement and stood up, straightening to his full height as he came around the desk to her side. She stood her ground determinedly, but on the inside she was shaking and was sure he was aware of it.
‘You and whose army?’ He reached out and touched her flaming cheek with one idle finger.
She jerked her head out of his reach and glared up at him.
‘Mock me all you like but I’ll be the one laughing in the end,’ she promised.
‘How absolutely terrifying you are when aroused.’
‘I’m not aroused!’ She stamped her foot at him. ‘I’m angry, blindingly so!’
‘Come now, Maddison.’ He caught her upper arms with his hands and held her gently but firmly. ‘Why not give in with good grace? You’ll be the envy of single women everywhere. A rich husband, all the clothes and trinkets you want in exchange for a few months of your time. What more could you ask?’
‘I could ask for a lot more in a husband,’ she threw at him coldly. ‘Being tied to an unprincipled playboy is not my idea of nuptial bliss, nor is the prospect of being a laughing stock when you carry on with your perfidious behaviour behind my back.’
‘It won’t be behind your back,’ he said. ‘I’ve already informed you of the terms of our agreement.’
‘Your double standards make me sick!’
‘No doubt they are a little distasteful, but that’s the deal. I can’t have people wondering why my wife is having a bit on the side; it’s not good for my reputation.’
‘I can’t believe your arrogance,’ she spat.
His hands on her arms tightened momentarily.
‘I also can’t have my wife calling me names, is that understood?’
She met his implacable look with defiance. ‘I won’t be your wife for long.’
‘No, but while you are you’ll do as you’re told.’
She gritted her teeth against the string of invectives on her tongue.
‘You’d much rather be my temporary wife than see your brother go to prison, wouldn’t you?’ he added when she didn’t speak.
‘I’d much rather like to see you rot in prison,’ she ground out.
‘Answer me, Maddison.’ He tilted her chin to meet his eyes. ‘Tell me how much you’d rather be married to me than see your brother’s future go up in smoke.’
She hadn’t thought it was possible to hate another person so much as she did him at that moment. Her blood thrummed with it, thundering in her ears as she felt every last remnant of her pride being stripped away by his ruthlessness.
‘I…I don’t want to see Kyle go to prison,’ she bit out.
‘And the rest?’
‘And…and I’d rather be your temporary…wife.’
He smiled one of his hateful smiles and her palm itched to wipe it from his face. He lowered his mouth towards hers in a slow motion movement which should have been enough warning for her to get out of the way but somehow wasn’t. She closed her eyes as his lips connected with hers, surprised at how warm and dry they felt as they brushed along hers. Her lips clung to his, her mouth opening to the heated probe of his tongue as he traced the line of her bottom lip in spine-weakening intimacy. She felt the slight graze of his teeth as he took her bottom lip between them, holding her for a heart-stopping moment until releasing her, only to dive between the soft folds of her lips to taste her completely. She felt the unmistakable thrust of his hard thighs between her quivering ones, felt too the evidence of his essential maleness as he leaned into her softness.
He lifted his head a fraction and her eyes sprang open to see him watching her steadily, his own dark gaze inscrutable.
‘I’ll be in contact with you over the arrangements.’ He stepped away from her.
She watched him silently as he returned to the chair behind his desk, irritated beyond measure at his calm indifference to what had passed between them in that one brief kiss.
‘Under the circumstances I thought it would be best if we have a small ceremony,’ he added. ‘Is there anyone you’d particularly like to invite?’
‘Apart from a sniper, do you mean?’
His eyes held hers for a lengthy pause.
‘Careful, Maddison, you’re supposed to be in love with me, remember? Not planning my demise behind my back.’
‘I could never be in love with you. You’re everything I most detest in a man.’
‘All I’m asking you to do is pretend.’
‘It’s going to take every bit of acting ability I possess to do so.’
‘I don’t care what it takes as long as you do it. Otherwise you know the score.’
‘I suppose you’re going to hang that threat over my head for as long as our marriage continues?’
‘Think of it as my insurance policy,’ he said. ‘I’ll let your brother off the hook if and when I feel you’ve done what is required.’
‘Am I to be allowed to contact him?’
‘I can hardly stop you,’ he said. ‘Besides, you’ll have to tell him of our impending marriage for no doubt he’ll read about it in the papers.’
‘How am I going to explain our sudden marriage to him?’
‘You’re a woman. Think of a suitable lie to put him off the scent.’
‘Your view of my gender positively reeks of misogyny.’
‘No doubt it does, but then in my thirty-four years I have yet to meet a woman who doesn’t run true to form.’
A small frown settled between her brows at his words. She wondered if somewhere along the line he’d been hurt by a woman, perhaps one who had got the upper hand with him and rubbed his nose in it.
‘I’ll arrange for some legal papers to be sent to you for your perusal,’ he said, cutting across her thoughts. ‘As for wedding finery, I’ll organise a credit card for you; it should be available in three or four days.’
‘I’m to be a real bride?’ She stared at him in alarm.
‘What’s wrong? Do you have a thing about wearing white?’
‘No.’ If only he knew the irony of his words, she thought. ‘I just didn’t expect you to want to go to so much trouble over a temporary arrangement.’
‘It’s only temporary to us,’ he pointed out. ‘To everyone else this must be presented as a match made in heaven. If we have some hole-and-corner ceremony it won’t look good enough to believe. Besides, everyone knows how Greek men pride themselves on scoring a virginal bride.’
Hot colour suffused her cheeks.
‘I hope being a virgin isn’t part of your stipulations?’
‘I’m not so stupid as to imagine you’ve got to the age you are without experiencing sex first hand. I take it I’m right?’
‘Of course,’ she lied.
‘That’s all for now.’ He got to his feet, effectively dismissing her. ‘I’ll be in touch.’
‘Is that all?’
‘Was there something else?’ He glanced at his watch before meeting her incensed gaze across the desk.
‘No.’ She snapped her mouth over the single word and snatched up her bag from the floor.
She was at the door with her hand on the knob when his voice halted her.
‘I wouldn’t advise any last minute countermoves. Remember I’m watching you.’
‘How could I forget?’ she tossed back at him before closing the door behind her.
She was halfway down the corridor when a heady cloying perfume began to assault her nostrils. She looked up to see an exotic-looking dark-haired woman sashaying past her towards Demetrius’s office, her clinging black dress outlining her very generous curves.
‘Is Demetrius free now?’ the woman asked in a kittenish tone which sickened Maddison to her stomach.
Some spark of residual defiance made Maddison adopt an equally provocative pose as she faced his latest conquest.
