скачать книгу бесплатно
‘No.’ Tahlia fought to keep the panic from her voice. If her father phoned Vantage he would learn from Thanos that there was no deal and never had been, that the offer to buy Reynolds had just been part of a cruel trick designed to punish her. This was her fault, she thought despairingly. If Vantage had not approached her father he would have sold Reynolds to one of the other firms who had been interested, and Carlton House would be safe.
‘Are you prepared to stand by and allow your father to lose the company…?’ Thanos’s voice mocked her. The thought had torn her apart, but she had rejected his solution, vowing to find another way to save Reynolds. The defeated note in her father’s voice now made it clear there was no other way. It was not simply the company that was in danger but Carlton House, and her parents’ happiness and peace of mind.
‘Each of us has something the other wants.’ Thanos was a billionaire who had the means to buy Reynolds, and in return he wanted…
A tremor ran through her. He wanted to have sex with her. She couldn’t do it, she thought wildly. But hard on the heels of that thought came the acknowledgement that she had no choice. Her father had admitted he was at rock bottom, and she was at the limit on her own overdraft and credit cards. She could not raise enough money to cover one mortgage repayment on Carlton, let alone clear the arrears.
‘There are just a couple of minor points that need clarification before Vantage agrees to the deal,’ she told her father, forcing herself to sound calm. ‘I’ll get back to them and sort it out. Can I speak to Mum?’ she asked quickly, before her father could argue.
‘Oh, yes—of course…’ There was a moment’s silence, and then Vivienne’s voice sounded down the line.
‘Tahlia! Isn’t it wonderful?’ she said tremulously. ‘I feel as though I’ve been given a second chance at life.’
The raw emotion in her mother’s voice tore at Tahlia’s heart, and she swallowed the tears that clogged her throat. ‘I hope you enjoy every minute of it, Mum,’ she whispered. ‘You and Dad deserve to be happy.’
And she would do everything in her power to help them, she vowed fiercely as she put down the phone. Even the unthinkable.
Thanos emerged from the en suite bathroom and padded across the bedroom to answer the phone, his brows lowering in a frown as he listened to the message relayed by the receptionist. He hesitated for a few moments, wondering why Tahlia Reynolds was standing in the lobby of his hotel at eleven o’clock at night, and silently acknowledged that he was intrigued.
‘Inform Miss Reynolds that I will see her in my suite in fifteen minutes,’ he murmured, before he replaced the receiver. It wouldn’t hurt Tahlia to cool her heels, and if the reason for her unexpected visit was sufficiently important she would wait until he was ready to see her. He also needed to get dressed—unless he intended to greet her wearing nothing but a towel around his hips. When he recalled his body’s involuntary reaction to her at their last meeting it was clear that clothes were a necessity, he conceded, his mouth curving into a self-derisive grimace.
To his annoyance his curiosity grew over the following quarter of an hour, and after pouring himself a liberal malt Scotch he paced restlessly around his suite. What did Tahlia want? Had she, after all, decided to offer her body in return for him saving her father from financial ruin? His mouth twisted as he recalled her scathing refusal to sell herself to him earlier in the day. Her reaction had surprised him, he acknowledged. He had first-hand evidence that she had the morals of an alley cat, and the recent story of her affair with another married actor was not the first time her love-life had been reported in the press.
He had been certain that she would agree to sleep with him in return for his agreement to buy Reynolds Gems, but instead she had looked as scandalised as if she were a vestal virgin—which was a laughable notion, he thought sardonically.
‘Hell will freeze over before I agree to your disgusting suggestion,’ she’d flung at him with icy scorn. So why was she here now? Undoubtedly she wanted something. In his experience women always did, he thought cynically. He stared out of the window at the night-time view of London: the myriad lights of buildings and cars glowing like bright jewels against the black velvet sky, the illuminated London Eye sparkling like an enormous static Catherine wheel. His mind flew back six months to another hotel—this time in Athens—and another woman whose visit had been unexpected.
He had been shocked when Yalena had phoned him out of the blue and suggested they meet up. Fifteen years had passed since the woman he had loved had broken off their engagement and married his best friend, and he admitted he had been curious to gauge his reaction when he met Yalena and Takis again. But Yalena had come to his hotel alone, dressed like a tart and clearly confident that Thanos would not turn down her offer to leave her husband for him. She had made a mistake all those years ago, she had told him tearfully. She realised now that she loved him, not Takis—although Thanos noted that she had only arrived at that conclusion since his name had been included on the list of the world’s top one hundred richest men.
Yalena had been dismissive of the fact that her husband adored her, and worked hard to give her a good lifestyle, and Thanos had felt a mixture of disgust and disappointment that he had been so wrong about her. For years he had put her on a pedestal—the discovery that she was an avaricious gold-digger, just like every other woman he had ever met, had filled him with contempt and the bitter realisation that he had been a fool to waste his emotions on her.
The knock on the door dragged him from his memories. Tahlia was here. He finished the whisky, savouring its warmth as it slid down his throat. What would he do if she had come to offer herself to him? He felt a tightening sensation in his groin, and his nostrils flared as sexual heat flooded through him. He wanted her badly, and he could afford her. Why not indulge himself? he brooded. He hadn’t had sex for months. Combining visiting Melina in hospital with running a billion-pound company had meant that he’d had neither the time nor the inclination for his usual meaningless sexual liaisons with lovers who knew better than to expect commitment from him. Celibacy did not suit him, he owned as he strode across the suite. His body felt taut, hungry for satisfaction, and anticipation licked in his veins.
The door of Thanos’s suite swung open and Tahlia wondered if he could hear her heart beating frantically against her ribs.
‘Tahlia,’ he greeted her coolly.
His heavily accented voice caused a delicious little shiver to run down her spine, and at the same time exacerbated the tension that had shredded her nerves during the fifteen minutes she had been forced to wait downstairs in the bar. He stood back for her to enter, and for a few seconds her resolve wobbled, and she was tempted to turn tail and flee. But somehow her legs continued to propel her forward—like a lamb into the wolf’s lair, the voice in her head whispered as she moved into the centre of the room. Another tremor ran through her when she heard the click of the door closing behind her.
‘You are the mistress of surprise,’ Thanos drawled as he strolled towards her.
‘What do you mean?’ she queried sharply, colour storming into her cheeks. The word mistress touched a raw nerve. Thanos believed she had been James Hamilton’s mistress. He assumed that she was sexually experienced. The fact that she was not made what she was about to do even harder.
‘I did not expect to see you at the art gallery, and I did not anticipate you turning up here tonight.’ Nor had he anticipated his reaction to her when he had opened the door—the way his heart had slammed in his chest at the sight of her, looking utterly exquisite in the same blue silk gown she had been wearing the other evening. His desire for her weakened him, and he resented the effect she had on him. ‘What do you want, Tahlia?’ he demanded tersely, moving away from her to avoid the subtle drift of her perfume that teased his senses.
Tahlia shot him a quick glance that encompassed his black silk shirt, open at the throat to reveal a few inches of bronzed skin covered with crisp, dark hairs, and his superbly tailored black trousers which drew her attention to his lean hips and muscular thighs. The table lamps placed strategically around the room emitted a soft apricot glow that threw his sculpted cheekbones into sharp relief and danced across his gleaming jet-black hair.
He was unfairly gorgeous, and her stomach muscles clenched as she relived those moments in his office when he had crushed her against his body and his lips had claimed hers with untamed passion. No woman would ever tame Thanos, she brooded. Beneath his veneer of urbane sophistication she sensed power and ruthless ambition, a magnetism that commanded the respect of other men and drew beautiful women to him in droves—yet none would own him or control him, and only the most foolish would try.
The expression on his coldly handsome face was not encouraging, but she had spent the evening listening to her mother’s excited chatter about her plans for the garden at Carlton House while her father had looked increasingly strained and haunted. She had finally accepted that she would do whatever it took to prevent her parents from losing their home.
Her mouth felt dry. She licked her lips nervously and prayed that when she spoke her voice would not waver. She did not want him to know how much this was costing her. ‘I’ve come to tell you that I accept your offer,’ she said baldly, lifting her head and meeting his midnight gaze steadily. ‘I’ll sleep with you in return for you buying Reynolds Gems, for the price my father stipulated to Vantage Investments.’
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_b6c6b5f7-bdaf-5f0d-8460-8acbe6b652e9)
FOR several long, agonising seconds Thanos said nothing, but then his brows rose and he drawled mockingly, ‘I will expect you to do rather more than sleep in return for paying a fortune for your family’s failing company.’
His body had reacted predictably to the knowledge that Tahlia was his for the taking; his arousal had been instant and uncomfortably hard. But inexplicably he’d also felt a surge of savage disappointment. When she had rejected his offer earlier that day he’d felt a grudging sense of admiration for her, but now he felt nothing but contempt. She was prepared to sell her body to protect her financial security. She was a gold-digger. He would have no compunction about taking her to bed and sating his inconvenient desire for her.
He dropped his gaze to the low-cut neckline of her dress and the provocative thrust of her breasts. Theos, she was beautiful. Heat surged through him and he ruthlessly ignored the faint whisper of regret that it had to be like this, that making love to her would be nothing more than a business transaction. What else could it be? he brooded. He wanted her; she wanted him to bail out her father. It was as simple and clinical as that.
Tahlia caught her breath when Thanos reached out and removed the diamanté clip that secured her chignon. Her hair fell down around her shoulders as soft as silk against her skin, and she watched his eyes darken as he wound a few pale red-gold strands around his fingers. He stayed like that for timeless seconds, his dark eyes scorching her, and then she gasped when his strong arms suddenly closed around her and he jerked her hard against his chest, his dark head swooping and his mouth claiming hers in a kiss of pure possession.
His dominance was absolute as he forced her head back on her slender neck and kissed her fiercely, demanding her complete compliance and proving beyond doubt his mastery. Instinct warned her that Thanos would be a skilled and highly experienced lover, but he had no idea that she was a novice—a virgin who had no real idea of how to please a man.
The hard ridge of his arousal nudging insistently against her thigh was proof that he wanted her, and his low growl of satisfaction when he slid his tongue deep into her mouth filled her with a mixture of apprehension and feminine triumph that she could have such an affect on him. Her senses were swamped by the subtle scent of his aftershave, and fire licked through her veins when she placed her hands on his chest and traced the bunched muscles beneath his shirt. He was so intensely, intoxicatingly male, and he aroused feelings inside her that no other man had ever made her feel.
But the voice of caution in her head, which she had ignored during the taxi ride to his hotel, was demanding to be heard.
This had gone way too far. She should never have started it in the first place, she thought frantically when he finally broke the kiss and drew back a fraction to stare down at her, his eyes glittering with sexual hunger. She ran her tongue over her lips; swollen and sensitive from the unsparing pressure of his mouth, and felt a lightning flare of reaction at her mental image of him making love to her. Her decision to offer herself to him had been born of a desperate desire to help her father. But to sell herself to a man who despised her, who made no effort to disguise his contempt of her? That was beyond desperation—it was insane.
She opened her mouth to tell him she had made a horrendous mistake. But as she was about to utter the words a picture flashed into her mind of her mother as she had been a few months ago, painfully thin and fragile, with a silk scarf wrapped around her head to disguise the fact that she had lost her hair after numerous bouts of chemotherapy. Tonight, Vivienne had still looked fragile, but her head was now covered in baby-fine curls and her smile had been that of a woman who had cheated death and was looking forward to the rest of her life. Her parents had suffered enough, Tahlia thought fiercely. She could not sit back and allow them to lose their home.
‘You don’t come cheap, Tahlia,’ Thanos murmured, with a deliberate inflexion on the word cheap that brought a flush of colour to her cheeks. ‘Before I agree to pay such a substantial sum for Reynolds Gems, I think it only fair that I should see what I’m getting for my money.’
‘I don’t understand,’ she faltered, snatching a sharp breath when he hooked his finger beneath the shoulder strap of her dress and drew it down her arm.
‘I think you do,’ he said softly. ‘Your dress is charming, but I want to see what is beneath the pretty packaging. Take it off,’ he ordered, when she remained rigidly unmoving.
End this now, the sensible voice in Tahlia’s head urged frantically. Tell him you’ve changed your mind, and get out of here fast.
And then what? demanded the reckless voice inside her that she had not known existed until tonight. Go back to her parents and watch her father’s emotional devastation as he broke the news to her mother that they would have to leave Carlton House?
She stared wildly at the door while her mind engaged in a fierce debate. Go—or stay, and sell her soul to the devil?
‘How can I be certain that you will buy Reynolds Gems?’ she asked Thanos shakily. ‘I need some sort of assurance.’
‘My word is the only assurance I’m prepared to give.’ Thanos’s eyes narrowed when she opened her mouth to argue. ‘Take it—or leave it,’ he shrugged uninterestedly. ‘We can call the deal off.’
Tahlia’s brain was racing. She had no option but to take him at his word. He was calling the shots. One night in his bed would mean that her parents’ retirement would be free from financial worries. They need not know what she had done to secure their future. No one would know apart from her. And faced with the choice of sacrificing her self-respect or ensuring her parents’ happiness there was no contest.
Without giving herself time to reconsider, she reached behind her and slowly slid the zip of her dress down her spine. She shot him a lightning glance, and her stomach dipped when she found him watching her intently, the expression in his dark eyes unfathomable. Don’t think. Just get it over with, she told herself. And, taking a deep breath, she drew the straps of her dress down, revealing inch by inch the silver-grey strapless bra she was wearing beneath. She prayed he could not see that her hands were shaking. For this one night she must play the part of seductive temptress.
Her silk dress whispered against her skin as she drew it down over her stomach and hips and allowed the material to slither down her thighs and pool around her ankles. Her French knickers matched her bra, and her stockings were gossamer fine, topped with a wide band of lace which secured them around her slender thighs. She stepped carefully over her dress, terrified that she would stumble on her four-inch stiletto heels. She could not bring herself to look at him, but he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face to his. The sultry gleam in his eyes filled her with trepidation, and at the same time a fierce jolt of shameful excitement.
She was exquisite, Thanos acknowledged, his heart kicking in his chest. He hated himself for his reaction to her, for the urgent tide of desire that swept through his body that weakened and unmanned him. He knew Tahlia possessed the morals of a whore, and he knew the pain she had caused his sister, but his awareness of her consumed him and overrode every other consideration but his need to make love to her.
He inhaled sharply, re-imposing control over his hormones, and trailed his eyes over her in a cool assessment.
‘Very nice,’ he drawled, watching in fascination as twin spots of colour flared on her pale cheeks. Her ability to blush at will was a useful trick in her armoury, as was her air of innocence, he reminded himself impatiently. But he could not prevent himself from reaching out and tracing the fragile line of her collarbone. Her skin felt like satin beneath his fingertips, and her long pale amber hair fell in a curtain of silk around her shoulders. He brushed it aside to reveal the slender column of her throat, then lowered his mouth to the pulse beating frenetically at its base. She smelled divine, her light floral perfume tantalising his senses and driving every thought from his head other than his burning need to possess her.
Tahlia held her breath when Thanos trailed his lips along her jaw in a feather-light caress that sent a tremor through her. Was he going to make love to her right now? Remove her bra and knickers and stroke his strong hands over her naked body before tugging her down onto the sofa? His mouth was tantalisingly close, and the gleam in his eyes filled her with apprehension—and at the same time a wild and uncontrollable excitement. There was no point in kidding herself; she wanted him to kiss her. She snatched a frantic little breath as he slowly lowered his head.
He claimed her mouth in a kiss of determined intent, forcing her lips apart and thrusting his tongue between them to explore her with erotic thoroughness. To her shame, Tahlia was lost from the first touch; he was so big and powerful, and she knew that if she fought him she would lose. Besides, she did not want to fight him, she acknowledged with searing honesty. Heat was coursing through her veins, and she felt boneless and supremely conscious of the melting warmth pooling between her thighs.
He increased the pressure of his mouth and slid one hand into her hair, while the other roamed up and down her body, skimmed her hips and slender waist, then curled around one breast. The brush of his thumb pad over her nipple caused it to harden beneath her sheer lace bra.
She had not expected the firestorm of emotions that raged through her. Her whole body seemed to be burning up, and the throbbing hardness of Thanos’s arousal thrusting into her pelvis turned the fire into a raging inferno. She slid her hands over his chest, feeling the heat of his body through his silk shirt, and suddenly it was not enough. She wanted to feel his bare flesh beneath her fingertips. Fingers shaking slightly, she began to unfasten his buttons, revealing olive-gold skin covered with fine dark hairs, but before she had reached halfway down his abdomen he lifted his head, and his hands closed over hers in a vice like grip.
‘Your eagerness to share my bed is flattering,’ he drawled, watching dispassionately as colour surged into Tahlia’s cheeks. ‘But we have an early start in the morning, and I prefer to wait and enjoy you at my leisure.’
He had known from the moment he had taken her in his arms that one night would not be enough to pacify the ravenous beast that had taken charge of his body, Thanos acknowledged. His desire for her was beyond anything he had experienced with any other woman, and he would not be satisfied with a hurried sex session—a few snatched hours of pleasure before he left for an urgent business meeting tomorrow. For reasons he could not fathom Tahlia was a drug in his veins, and he intended to make her his mistress for as long as it took to slake his hunger for her.
‘We have an early start?’Tahlia mumbled, so excruciatingly embarrassed by her ardent response to him and his cool rejection of her that she wanted to crawl away and die. ‘I don’t understand.’ Had he changed his mind about wanting her? Sick fear surged through her. Had he ordered her to take off her dress because it had amused him to tease her before he revealed that he would not buy Reynolds Gems?
‘It’s quite simple,’ he told her, picking up her dress and handing it to her. His harsh, ‘Cover yourself,’ brought another flare of scorching colour to her cheeks. ‘I’m flying to the Greek island of Mykonos to visit my new hotel first thing in the morning—and you’re coming with me. I shall require your services for one month,’ he continued smoothly, ignoring Tahlia’s gasp of shock. ‘That should satisfy my more basic urges. I’ve no doubt I’ll have grown bored of you after you’ve shared my bed for a few weeks.’
‘I’m not going anywhere with you and—and certainly not for a month,’ Tahlia stammered when she finally found her voice. She wobbled precariously on her high heels as she stepped into her dress and tugged it up over her hips, with scant regard for the fragile material. She thrust her arms through the straps, gasping when Thanos spun her round and slid the zip up the length of her spine.
He swung her back to face him and cupped her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet his sardonic gaze. ‘You are exceptionally lovely, Tahlia, but even you must admit that a six-figure sum for one night of sex with you would be an extravagance—even for a billionaire.’
She blanched at the flare of contempt in his eyes, and accepted that she had taken leave of her sanity when she had agreed to sell herself to him. ‘I have responsibilities here—commitments, a job…’Although she would not have one for much longer if Thanos bought out Reynolds Gems, she acknowledged dismally. The future was frighteningly uncertain. ‘I can’t spend a month in Greece with you,’ she said dully. ‘It’s impossible.’
Thanos shrugged and withdrew his mobile phone from his trouser pocket. ‘That’s a pity, because I was just about to call Steven Holt and instruct him to proceed with buying Reynolds Gems. But if you’ve changed your mind I’ll tell him not to go ahead.’
She was halfway across the room, heading for the door. But his words stopped her in her tracks. She turned slowly back to face him, her brain whirling. ‘You can’t phone him now—it’s almost midnight,’ she pointed out.
‘I can do whatever I like,’ he informed her, with a supreme arrogance that took her breath away. ‘I did not make my fortune by working nine till five. My employees know that I expect them to be available whenever I need them.’
Presumably he would have the same expectation of her if she went to Greece with him? A tremor ran down Tahlia’s spine at the thought. She could carry on walking out of the door and out of Thanos’s life—and all her instincts were screaming at her that she should walk away—but he was offering her the chance to save Carlton House from repossession, the voice in her head argued. The price was high. Could she survive a month as Thanos’s mistress? What was one month compared to the rest of her parents’ lives?
She snatched a breath and squared her shoulders as she met his hooded gaze. ‘I want written assurance that you will honour our deal. I’m afraid I don’t trust your word.’
Anger surged through Thanos at her disdainful tone, but he refrained from pointing out that she was not in a position to demand anything. ‘My legal team will take care of it,’ he told her dismissively. ‘Would you like your duties to be listed—how many times a night I will expect you to pleasure me, perhaps a description of positions…?’
‘That won’t be necessary,’ Tahlia said sharply, conscious that her face was burning hotter than a furnace. ‘I just want to be sure my father’s financial worries will be over.’
‘How very altruistic of you,’ he murmured sardonically.
She frowned. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
He crossed to the door and held it open. ‘Don’t waste your breath trying to convince me that your desire to save Reynolds Gems from bankruptcy is to help your father. You have expensive tastes,’ he drawled, sliding his finger over the diamanté strap of her dress and then trailing an insolent path down to her cleavage. ‘Your sole interest is in ensuring your own financial security—isn’t it, Tahlia?’ He paused, his eyes narrowing as he glimpsed the sudden shimmer of her tears, and for a second something tugged at his insides at the knowledge that he had hurt her. He dismissed the thought ruthlessly. She deserved to be hurt—just as she had hurt Melina. ‘I’ll drive you home,’ he said brusquely, standing aside for her to precede him out of his suite. ‘You need to pack.’
There was simply no point in arguing with him, Tahlia accepted miserably as she followed him into the lift. Thanos had judged her, and he was so pig-headed that nothing she did or said would change his opinion of her. But she had glimpsed the flare of feral hunger in his eyes before his lashes swept down and hid his expression. He desired her, and he had agreed to buy Reynolds Gems in order to have her in his bed for one month. She could only pray that she would not spend the rest of her life regretting her decision to become his mistress.
After giving Thanos stilted directions to her flat Tahlia lapsed into silence, and he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.
‘I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock tomorrow morning,’ he told her as he parked outside her flat. ‘Don’t keep me waiting. And Tahlia?’ he called, when she flung open the car door and hurried up her front path. ‘Remember the reason why you’re accompanying me on this trip and pack accordingly, won’t you? I’m already fantasising about seeing you in sexy underwear like the tantalising wisps of lace you’re wearing tonight.’
Face flaming, she bit back a retort which would have singed his ears and stepped into her flat, slamming the front door behind her and sagging against it. What had she done? she thought despairingly, burying her face in her hands as the enormity of the deal she had struck with Thanos sunk in. She had saved her parents from the devastation of losing their home, she reminded herself grimly. And with that thought in mind she dug out a suitcase from the cupboard under the stairs, pulled open her wardrobe and began to sort through its meagre contents for outfits suitable to take to Greece.
‘Are you ready?’ Thanos demanded curtly, when she opened the door to him at one minute past eight the following morning.
‘Almost,’ she muttered, annoyed that her heart immediately began to race at the sight of him, in a lightweight stonecoloured jacket and trousers, teamed with a cream shirt which was open at the throat so that she could see a tantalising V of bronzed skin. His black hair gleamed like jet in the early morning sunshine, and his beautifully sculpted features and sensual mouth caused a peculiar dragging sensation in the pit of Tahlia’s stomach. ‘Unfortunately Charlie is proving rather stubborn to persuade out of my bedroom.’
Black eyebrows winged skywards. ‘Spare me the details of your tangled love-life,’ he drawled, in the sardonic tone she detested.
‘Charlie is my cat,’ Tahlia informed him tightly. ‘He’s actually the laziest cat on the planet, and spends most of his time sleeping on my bed.’ She noted Thanos’s impatient frown and chewed on her bottom lip. ‘You’ll have to help me get him into the cat-carrier.’
She disappeared through a door and Thanos followed, glancing curiously around her bedroom. He had expected something more…seductive, he mused. The soft lemon walls, pale carpet and floral curtains and bedspread were fresh and pretty, but he could not imagine her entertaining a stream of lovers here.
A hissing sound like a kettle coming to the boil came from under the dresser, and he stared in surprise at the fat ginger cat whose yellow eyes were fixed menacingly on him. Tahlia was on her knees, dangling a rubber toy in front of the cat to tempt it into the carrier.
‘Come on, Charlie,’ she crooned. ‘Come and play.’ The hissing grew louder, and the cat suddenly sprang, hooking its claws in Tahlia’s hand. ‘Quick—grab him!’ she yelled.
‘You must be joking.’Instead Thanos manoeuvred the carrier over the cat, and after a brief tussle Tahlia managed to deposit the ball of orange fur inside and hastily secured the door. Blood was running down her hand and the cat was still spitting furiously. ‘Theos, ’ he muttered. ‘What breed is it—a wild cat?’
‘He’s just a bit sensitive,’ Tahlia told him seriously. ‘I got him from the cat rescue centre, and I think he was badly treated by his previous owners. He’s a sweetie, really.’
‘I’ll take your word for it. You’d better put some antiseptic on that scratch.’ Thanos frowned. Giving a home to a stray cat with homicidal tendencies did not fit in with his image of Tahlia, he brooded irritably. He picked up her suitcase and cast another look around her room, pausing at the photograph on the bedside table. ‘Is this your brother?’ he asked curiously, as he studied the picture of Tahlia and a tall man with bright red hair.
‘No, I don’t have any siblings.’ She slipped on her jacket and flicked her hair back from her face. ‘That’s Michael. We met on my first day at university, when he told me that redheads should always stick together.’ She smiled softly at the memory. ‘Michael was studying to be a vet, but he died of meningitis a few months before he graduated.’
Thanos heard the sudden huskiness in her voice. ‘Was he your boyfriend?’ he queried abruptly, irritated with himself for his curiosity. Tahlia’s personal life had nothing to do with him.
She shrugged. ‘We’d been dating for a few months.’ Over the years she had come to terms with losing Michael, but only her closest friends knew how devastated she had been by his death. She had no intention of confiding in Thanos. She picked up the cat-carrier and glanced at him. ‘I’m ready to leave now.’
Tahlia’s tone warned Thanos that she did not want to continue the conversation, and he was suddenly impatient to leave. He did not want to hear that she had suffered a tragedy in her past. For the past six months he had envisaged her as a cold-hearted bitch, and he refused to contemplate any possibility that he might have been wrong.
‘I hope you’re not planning to try and smuggle that cat through Customs?’he said tersely as they walked out to the car.
‘Of course not. Hobson is going to look after him. He used to be my parents’ butler, but he’s semi-retired now, and lives in an annexe of Carlton House,’Tahlia explained. ‘We’ll have to take Charlie over to him.’
‘Is the house on the way to Gatwick?’
‘The opposite direction, I’m afraid. But I can’t leave Charlie to fend for himself. I guess it’s a case of love me, love my cat,’ she quipped, as Thanos deposited the cat carrier on the back seat and opened the front passenger door for her.
‘Hell will freeze over before I do either,’Thanos said violently.
He fired the ignition and pulled away from the kerb, but his scathing comment hung in the air between them, and Tahlia quickly turned her head and stared out of the window, wondering why her eyes were stinging with stupid tears. Thanos could not make it plainer that he hated her, but she was shocked at how much his contempt hurt.
She said nothing more, apart from giving him directions to Carlton House, and only glanced at him when he drove through the gates and gave a low whistle.
‘I see why your parents are so keen to hang on to the house,’ he said dryly, as he stared up at the ivy-covered walls and the three storeys of mullioned windows glinting in the sunlight. ‘It’s spectacular.’
‘For many generations it was passed down to the oldest son of the family, but my mother was an only child so she inherited it,’ Tahlia explained. ‘It’s a Grade I listed building, and to be honest the cost of its upkeep is a nightmare. My parents do their best to maintain it, even though it’s a drain on their resources, and Mum is very proud of her heritage. She loves Carlton House. It would break her heart to leave it—’
She broke off, blushing at the knowledge that she had agreed to become Thanos’s mistress to keep Carlton House safe. The front door of the house suddenly swung open, and an elderly, impeccably dressed man walked slowly down the front steps.
