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For an endless moment their eyes meshed. Heat bloomed in her cheeks and she jerked her gaze away, only to find her attention snagging on his hand as he held the wine goblet out to her. He had a workman’s hands. Long-fingered but capable, powerful. His grip on the delicate glass should have seemed incongruous. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
He slid his index finger up the fragile stem then down again. Her mouth dried as she remembered the way he’d touched her nipples with that same finger. The way darts of sensation had rayed out from his touch, making her squirm with delight. The way she’d moaned into his mouth as he’d caressed her and discovered her intimate secrets.
Watching the slow, deliberate movement, feeling the heat of his scrutiny on her flesh made her feel vulnerable. Naked.
Impossible that her body should betray her so. Disgust filled her.
Hurriedly she took the glass from his hand, careful not to brush his fingers. She pushed a tumbler of whisky along the bar towards him.
He was too quick, his hand closing around the glass and her fingers in a grip that made her still.
‘What are you doing over there?’ her uncle grumbled. ‘Callista, you mustn’t monopolise our guest.’
‘Coming, Uncle,’ she called, trying to slide her hand from Damon Savakis’ hold.
‘What’s the matter, Callista? Aren’t you glad to see me?’ His voice was as seductive as she remembered. As if she’d imagined his disapproval moments ago.
‘As a friend of my uncle’s you’re welcome here,’ she said through numb lips, desperately clamping down on the accusations and questions clamouring for release. What did this man want of her? It seemed impossible he was the same warm, exciting lover who’d given her the precious gift of intimacy and tenderness. A wholeness she’d never known.
Damon’s eyebrows tilted down in the hint of a frown. His lips thinned a fraction.
‘Not a very convincing welcome, glikia mou,’ he whispered. ‘I would have expected something a little warmer.’
A ribbon of searing heat curled through her at his endearment in that deep, rich voice. Her weakness horrified her. How could she respond so to a man who had no shame about seducing her while he was here to court Angela? Who chided her for her promiscuity yet played games of innuendo?
Today had stripped her emotionally bare. The experience had overwhelmed her. Physical pleasure had been a vehicle for much deeper feelings, even for a tentative, unexpected sense of healing.
Her stomach cramped so savagely she could barely stand. What had meant so much to her was a sick amusement to him.
At last she managed to slide her fingers from under his and reached for her uncle’s brandy. She looked pointedly over Damon’s shoulder, hanging on to control by a thread. She would not make a scene.
‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll take this to my uncle. It’s time we joined the others.’
He didn’t move. His eyes and his body held her trapped. He blocked her exit. She looked away, at the precise bow-tie on his perfect white shirt.
‘Are you planning to visit me again tonight, Callista? To ensure I feel truly welcome?’ His voice dropped to a low note that resonated through her very bones. There was no mistaking his blatant sexual invitation. The innuendo and exultation.
Panic welled. And distaste. She felt raw and vulnerable.
He’d deliberately tricked her, luring her into betraying her innermost needs and desires. Desires she’d never known before. Now he wanted to gloat. To turn her one bright, glowing slice of heaven into something sordid.
‘Callista?’
She looked up into his shadow-dark eyes, catching the gleam of hunger there and a hint of amusement.
He thought this situation funny?
Instantly her spine straightened. Her chin tilted as indignation and hurt heated her blood. She’d had her fill of the malicious games men played. Of being a pawn, subject to a man’s whim.
‘You want the truth?’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘You don’t belong here, Kyrie Savakis. The last thing I want is to be forced to share a meal with a man like you.’
She stepped forward, calling his bluff.
He had no option but to make way.
Yet the flash of surprised anger in his glittering eyes told her he didn’t like it.
Tough! He’d had his little game at her expense. No doubt he’d got a kick out of seducing the woman the gossip mags had dubbed ‘untouchable’.
Nausea churned in her stomach and an icy chill crawled through her. She’d believed today was precious. An oasis of warmth and comfort in a cold world.
Fool. Hadn’t she learned better than to trust a man?
‘That is the way you want to play, Callista?’
There was a warning edge to his tone. She ignored it.
‘I don’t play, Kyrie Savakis.’
She had a swift glimpse of narrowed, calculating eyes, of a chin jutting with masculine displeasure.
He was like the rest, expecting her to bow to his whims. But she was her own mistress now, free and independent.
Nevertheless her heart pounded as she walked past him. The sensation of his eyes on her bare back was like a lick of flame down her spine.
How was she going to survive a whole evening with him?
She had a sinking feeling that instead of her defiance dampening his conceit, he thought she’d thrown down the gauntlet.
He didn’t look the type to ignore a challenge.
‘No, thank you.’ Damon shook his head as the servant proffered wine to top up his glass.
‘Come, come, Damon.’ His host waved an arm impatiently across the table. ‘No need to be abstemious. It’s not as if you’re driving. Drink up, man.’ He nodded to the waiter and watched as his own glass was filled with premium vintage champagne. ‘You’ll only find the best quality in this house.’
‘I don’t doubt it,’ Damon responded. He looked from the uniformed servants clearing away plates to the ostentatious gold cutlery laid with such meticulous precision on the damask tablecloth. Not many people seeing the luxury in which Aristides Manolis lived would suspect how parlous was his financial state. How close he was to ruin.
Damon knew. Damon was the man whose money could save Manolis and his family company.
Or destroy it.
He’d worked his adult life for the day he’d have Manolis in his power. The need to acquire and then take apart his precious company piece by piece had driven Damon for years. Revenge for what this family had done to his would be sweet.
A flash of light caught his eye and he turned. Callista’s necklace caught the light. A fabulous piece, white gold and several carats of diamonds. Yet it was too obvious for his taste. Too showy. A blatant statement of wealth.
She reminded him of so many other rich, spoiled women he’d known. It was the cost of the gems that mattered to them, not the merit of the design.
Looking at her now, in her exquisite couture gown, her expression bland, he couldn’t believe her the same woman who’d seduced him so wantonly. That woman had revealed such vitality and innate sensuality. There’d been something honest about her abandon. Something warmly generous and, he’d almost believed, special about her.
He’d responded to her with a hunger that stunned him. He’d spent the hours since anticipating the next day. When, he’d vowed, he would learn more about the woman who intrigued him more than any lover he could recall.
How could he have been so gullible?
‘You’re admiring my niece’s jewellery?’ There was gloating satisfaction in his host’s voice. He enjoyed flaunting what he had, or pretended to have. Any man who required two staff members to serve a meal for four was trying too hard to impress. ‘It’s quite something, isn’t it?’
Callista looked up then, her face a polite, gorgeous mask. But when her gaze met Damon’s he felt again that visceral pull, the drag of spiralling anticipation.
It infuriated him. He should be able to master this raw craving now he knew who and what she was. A pampered member of the Manolis family who’d targeted what she thought was a bit of rough on the side.
Her sensual abandon, her responsiveness had enchanted him on the beach. But from the moment tonight she’d stared at him with blank eyes and chilly hauteur he’d realised today’s interlude had been just a jaded socialite’s cheap thrill.
If not something more contrived.
He shot an assessing look from his host to Callista.
‘The necklace is stunning,’ he murmured.
His gaze followed the fall of diamonds on her pendant, the way they dipped into the valley between her ripe breasts, visible in the low-cut gown.
She knew how to show off her assets. The thought annoyed him. Or perhaps it was the cool way she surveyed him with those amazing green eyes that infuriated him. He wasn’t used to women, particularly women he’d made love to so thoroughly, being indifferent to him. Or telling him he was unworthy to share their table.
One taste of her had left him craving more. He’d planned to look for his siren lover tomorrow. Now he discovered his fantasy woman was nothing but a spoiled rich girl who was ashamed of what they’d shared.
Ashamed of him.
That idea scored his pride, uncovering old wounds he thought he’d buried a lifetime ago. His slow-burning anger ignited at her dismissal, and at the fact he even cared.
Perversely her cool-as-a-cucumber air ignited his desire. He couldn’t resist a challenge. Not while she tried to put him in his place like a dirty secret. As if, despite his wealth and power, a blue-blooded Manolis wouldn’t sully her fair skin by letting a man with his working-class roots touch her again.
‘Alkis’ taste was always excellent, wasn’t it, my dear?’
‘He certainly knew what he wanted, Uncle.’ Her voice was crisp and uninflected, as if she discussed tonight’s meal rather than the thousands of euros of gems that dripped down to her breasts. She took her wealth and her life of pampered indolence for granted.
‘Alkis?’ Damon queried.
‘My husband.’ Her eyes dropped in an expression that might have been demure if not for the flamboyant glitter at her slender neck, ears and wrist.
Her husband. The syllables thrummed in his ears. Something hard and cold lodged in his belly. Fury sizzled along his veins.
He should have guessed. She was a bored society wife, looking for a little diversion. That was what today’s escapade had been.
She’d used him.
Unbidden, memories crowded thick, of the days before he’d made his money. When his only assets had been his determination and his flair for commerce. And his looks. Rich women had clustered round him then, eager for adventure, the thrill of walking on the wild side.
As if he’d swallow his pride to be any woman’s plaything.
‘Your husband isn’t here with you?’ Damon reined in brewing anger and self-disgust at having given his libido free rein without checking exactly who she was.
Wide eyes lifted to meet his across the table. They were the colour of the sea in the secluded cove where his yacht was moored. The sea whose lapping waves had muffled the sound of this woman’s cries of ecstasy as she found release in his arms.
For a moment he felt again that illusion of oneness they’d experienced as their bodies joined. He’d felt more pleasure with her than he could remember with any woman.
That alone stoked his distrust. And his disgust that he’d fallen for the fantasy she projected.
‘My husband died some months ago, Kyrie Savakis.’ A chill shuttered the momentary warmth in her eyes.
Too late, Callista! She might act the ice maiden now but he’d already discovered the sensuous fire that blazed inside.
Her passion today hadn’t been the by-product of grief for her husband. There’d been no shadowy spectre between them, no yearning for the past. Just untrammelled lust.
A merry widow indeed.
‘My condolences,’ he said and she inclined her head fractionally. She was so aloof. Not a trace of bereavement or even regret. Damon wondered what sort of female could lose a spouse and not feel anything. Instinct told him, whatever she concealed with that cool expression, it wasn’t a broken heart.
‘Alkis always chose the best,’ Manolis boomed. ‘Those diamonds are of the finest quality.’
‘Really?’ Damon leaned forward as if to get a better look. ‘They’re quite unusual.’ If it was unusual to expend a fortune on something so gaudy. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything to match them.’
‘They were made to order. Callista, give our guest a closer look. No need to stand on ceremony, girl.’
‘Uncle, I’m sure he doesn’t really want to see—’
‘On the contrary,’ Damon cut across her. ‘I’d very much like to see them up close.’ If the Manolis clan was vulgar enough to flaunt its apparent wealth, he was happy to take advantage of the fact.
He watched a swift unreadable glance pass between Callista and her silent cousin. Then she rose and walked round the table towards him.
Her exquisite body shimmered seductively and his groin tightened. Lamplight caught thousands of tiny silver beads on her dress. Each step accentuated her lithe lines and sultry curves in a shifting play of light. His muscles tensed with the effort of sitting still and not reaching out to touch. To claim her as, even now, he hungered to do.
When she stood before him he caught a waft of scent that he knew retailed for an exorbitant price. He’d bought some as a parting gift for his last mistress.
He got up, annoyance flaring as he realised he preferred the fresh, natural fragrance of her bare skin this afternoon. The artificial scent masked that.
Yet it served to remind him the woman he’d met earlier, the woman he’d been drawn to, was a fake.
Callista stood, her breasts rising and falling rapidly, making the stones flash and glitter. To his mind she’d look better without them. Just bare golden skin to match the dark-honey hair piled up in a chic style behind her head.
Damon reached for one drop earring. She trembled and the stones scintillated. The fine hairs on her arms stood up, signalling her awareness of him. It couldn’t be a chill on a night so warm. Damon’s body stirred, attuned to her tension.
He enjoyed the knowledge that she wasn’t as calm in his presence as she appeared.
‘Remarkable,’ he murmured, stepping in so his body almost touched hers, as if to view the heavy pendant. Instead his eyes traced her décolletage. His palms itched as he remembered the bounty of her breasts in his hands.
‘They are, aren’t they?’ Manolis’ voice had a self-congratulatory ring. ‘Alkis always got his money’s worth.’
‘I’m sure you’re right.’ Damon stared into her sea-green gaze, close enough now for him to note again the gold flecks that had dazzled him earlier.
What had her price been?
