chapter Three
To SASKIA’S dismay she heard the town hail clock striking eight a.m. as she hurried to work. She had intended to be in extra early this morning but unfor tunately she had overslept—a direct result of the pre vious evening’s events and the fact that initially she had been mentally agonising so much over what she had done that she had been unable to get to sleep.
Officially she might not be due to be at her desk until nine a.m., but in this modern age that was not the way things worked, especially when one’s hold on one’s job was already dangerously precarious..
‘There are bound to be cutbacks. ..redundancies,’ the head of Saskia’s department had warned them all, and Saskia, as she’d listened to him, had been sharply conscious that as the newest member of the team she was the one whose job was most in line to be cut back. It would be virtually impossible for her to get another job with the same kind of prospects in Hilford, and if she moved away to London that would mean her grandmother would be left on her own. At sixty-five her grandmother was not precisely old—far from it—and she had a large circle of friends, but the illness had left Saskia feeling afraid for her. Saskia felt she owed her such a huge debt, not only for bringing her up but for giving her so much love.
33
As she hu into the foyer she asked Emma, the receptionist, anxiously, ‘Has he arrived yet?’
There was no need to qualify who she meant by ‘he’, and Emma gave her a slightly superior smile as she replied, ‘Actually he arrived yesterday. He’s up stairs now,’ she added smugly, ‘interviewing every one.’ Her smugness and superiority gave way to a smile of pure feminine appreciation as she sighed. Just wait until you see him. He’s gorgeous. ..with a great big capital G.’
She rolled her eyes expressively whilst Saskia gave her a wan smile.
She now had her own special and private—very private—blueprint of what a gorgeous man looked like, and she doubted that their new Greek boss came anywhere near to matching it.
‘Typically, though, mind you,’ the receptionist continued, oblivious to Saskia’s desire to hurry to her office, ‘he’s already spoken for. Or at least he soon will be. I was talking to the receptionist at their group’s head office and she told me that his grand father wants him to marry his cousin. She’s mega wealthy and—’
‘I’m sorry, Emma, but I must go,’ Saskia inter rupted her firmly. Office gossip, like office politics, was something Saskia had no wish té involve herself in,andbesides... Iftheirnewbosswasalreadyin terviewing people she didn’t want to earn herself any black marks by not being at her desk when he sent for her.
Her office was on the third floor, an open plan space where she worked with five other people. Their
boss had his own glass-walled section, but right now both it ax the gen office itself were empty.
Just as she was wondering what to do the outer / door swung open and her boss, followed by the rest of her c6lleagues, came into the room.
I ‘Ah, Saskia, there you are,’ her boss greeted her.
‘Yes. 1 had intended to be here earlier...’ Sasida began, but Gordon Jarman was shaking his head.
‘Don’t xplain now,’ he told her sharply. ‘You’d better get upstairs to the executive suite. Mr Latinier’s secretary will be expecting you. Appar ently be wants to interview everyone, both individ ually and with their co-department members, and he wasn’t too pleased that you weren’t here...’
Without allowing Saskia to say anything, Gordon turned on his heel and went into his office, leaving her with no option but to head for the lift. It was unlike’ Goi-don to be so sharp. He was normally a very laid back sort of person. Saskia could feel the nervous feeling in her tummy increasing as she con templated the kind of attitude Andreas Latimer must have adopted towards his new employees to cause such a reaction in her normally unflappable boss.
I The executive suite was unfamiliar territory to SaskiL The only previous occasions on which she had enterbd it had been when she had gone for her initial interview and then, more recently, when the whole sta had been informed of the success of the Demet takeover bid.
A 1itt1 uncertainly she got out of the lift and walked tdwards the door marked ‘Personal Assistant to the Chi Executive’.
Madge Fielding, the previous owner’s secretary,
had retired when the takeover bid’s success had been announced, and when Saskia saw the elegantly groomed dark-haired woman seated behind Madge’s desk she assumed that the new owner must have brought his PA with him from Demetrios head office.
Nervously Saskia gave her name, and started to explain that she worked for Gordon Jarman, but the PA waved her explanation aside, consulting a list in front of her instead and then saying coldly, without lifting her head from it, ‘Saskia? Yes. You’re late. Mr Latimer does not like... In fact I’m not sure...’ She stopped and eyed Saskia with a disapproving frown. ‘He may not have time to interview you now,’ she warned, before picking up the phone and an nouncing in a very, different tone of voice from the one she had used to address Saskia, ‘Ms. Rodgers is here now, Andreas. Do you still want to see her?
‘You can go in,’ she informed Saskia. ‘It’s the door over there...’
Peeling like a naughty child, Saskia forced herself not to react, heading instead for the door the PA had indicated and knocking briefly on it before turning the handle and walking in.
As she stepped ifito the office the bright sunlight streaming in through the large windows momentarily dazzled her. All she could make out was the hazy outline of a man standing in front of the glass with his back to her, the brilliance of the sunlight making it impossible for her to see any more.
But Andreas could see Saskia. It hadn’t surprised him that she should choose to arrive at work later than her colleagues; after all, he knew how she spent her evenings. What had surprised him had been the
genuinely high esteem in which he had discovered she was held both by her immediate boss and her co workers. It seemed that when it caine to giving that extra metre, going that extra distance, Saskia was al ways the first to do so and the first to do whatever she could to help out her colleagues.
‘Yes, it is perhaps unusual in a young graduate,’ her boss had agreed when Andreas had questioned his praise of Saskia. ‘But then she has been brought up by her grandmother and perhaps because of that her values and sense of obligation towards others are those of an older generation. As you can see from my report on her, her work is excellent and so are her qualifications.’
And she’s a stunningly attractive young woman who seems to know how to use her undeniable ‘as sets’ to her own advantage, Andreas had reflected inwardly, but Gordon Jarman had continued to en thuse about Saskia’s dedication to her work, her kindness to her fellow employees, her ability to in tegrate herself into a team and work diligently at whatever task she was given, and her popularity with other members of the workforce.
After studying the progress reports her team leader and Gordon himself bad made on her, and the pho tograph in her file, Andreas had been forced to con cede that if he hadn’t seen for himself last night the way Saskia could look and behave he would proba bly have accepted Gordon’s glowing report at face value.
She was quite plainly a woman who knew how to handle his sex, even if with him she had made an error of judgement.
This morning, for instance, she had completely metamorphosed back into the dedicated young woman forging a career for herself—neatly suited, her hair elegantly sleeked back, her face free of all but the lightest touch of make-up. Andreas started to frown as his body suddenly and very urgently and unwontedly reminded him of the female allure of the body that was today concealed discreetly beneath a prim navy business suit.
Didn’t he already have enough problems to con tend with? Last night after returning from the wine bar he had received a telephone call from his mother, anxiously warning him that his grandfather was on the waipath.
He had dinner with some of his old cronies last night and apparently they were all boasting about the deals they had recently pulled off. You know what they’re like.’ She had sighed. ‘And your grandfather was told by one of them that he had high hopes of his son winning Athena’s hand...’ — ‘Good luck to him,’ Andreas had told his mother uncompromisingly. ‘I hope he does. That at least will get her and Grandfather off my back.’
• ‘Well, yes,’ his mother had agreed doubtfully. 4 at the moment it seems to have made him even more determined to promote a marriage between the two o you. And, of course, now that he’s half retired he’s got more time on his hands to plan and fret... It’s such a pity that there isn’t already someone in your life.’ She had sighed again, adding with a chuckle, ‘I honestly believe that the hope of a great- grandchild would thrill him so much that he’d
quickly forget he’d ever wanted you to marry Athenat’
Someone else in his life? Had it really been ex asperation and the headache he knew lay ahead of him with their new acquisition that had prompted him into making the rashest statement of his life in telling his mother, ‘What makes you think there isn’t someone?’
There had been a startled pause, just long enough for him to curse himself mentally but not for him to recall his impetuous words, before his mother had demanded in excitement, ‘You mean there is? Oh, Andreas! Who? When are we going to meet her? Who is she? How did you...? Oh, darling, how won derfuL Your grandfather will be thrilled. Olympia. guess what...’
He had then heard her telling his sister.
He had tried to put a brake on their excitement, to warn them that he was only talking in ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, but neither of them had been prepared to listen. Neither had his grandfather this morning, when he had rung at the ungodly hour of five o’clock to de mand to know when he was to meet his grandson’s fiancée.
Fiancée... How the hell his mother and sister had managed to translate an off the cuff remark made in irritation into a real live fiancée Andreas had no idea, but he did know that unless he produced this myth ical creature he was going to be in very big trouble.
‘You’ll be bringing her to the island with you, of course,’ his grandfather had announced, and his words had been a command and not a question.
What the hell was he going to do? He had eight
days in which to find a prospective fianc6e and make it clear to her that their ‘engagement’ was nothing more than a convenient.fiction. Eight days and she would have to be a good enough actress to fool not just his grandfather but his mother and sisters as well.
Irritably he moved out of the sunlight’s direct beam, turning round so that Saskia saw him properly for the first time.
There was no opportunity for her to conceal her shock, or the soft winded gasp of dismay that es caped her discreetly glossed lips as her face paled and then flooded with burning hot colour.
‘You!’ she choked as she backed instinctively to wards the door, her memories of the previous night flooding her brain and with them the sure knowledge that she was about to lose her job.
She certainly was an excellent actress, Andreas ac knowledged as he observed her reaction—and in more ways than one. Her demeanour this morning was totally different from the way she had presented herself last night. But then no doubt she was horrified to discover that he was the man she had so blatantly propositioned. Even so, that look of sick dismay darkening her eyes and the way her soft bottom lip was trembling despite her attempts to stop it... Oh, yes, she was a first-rate actress—a first-rate actress!
Suddenly Andreas could see a welcome gleam of light at the end of the dark tunnel of his current prob lem. Oh, yes, indeed, a very definite beam of light.
‘So Ms Rodgers.’ Andreas began flaying into Saskia’s already shredded self-confidence with all the delicacy of a surgeon expertly slicing through layer after layer of skin, muscle and bone. ‘I have read the
.report Gordon Jarman has written on you and I must congratulate you. It seems that you’ve persuaded him to think very highly of you. That’s quite an accom plishment for an employee so new and young. Especially one who adopts such an unconventional and, shall we say, elastic attitude towards time keeping... leaving earlier than her colleagues in the evening and arriving later than them in the morning.’
‘Leaving early?’ Saskia stared at him, fighting to recover her composure. How had he known about that?
As though he had read her mind, he told her softly, ‘I was in the foyer when you left.. .quite some time before your official finishing time.’
‘But that was...’ Saskia began indignantly.
However, Andreas did not allow her to finish, shaking his head and telling her coolly, ‘No excuses, please. They might work on Gordon Jarman, but un fortunately for you they will not work with me. After all, I have seen how you comport yourself when you are not at work. Unless...’ He frowned, his mouth hardening as he studied her with icy derision. ‘Un less, of course, that is the reason he has given you such an unusually excellent report...’
‘No!’ Sasida denied straight away. ‘No! I don’t... Last night was a mistake,’ she protested. ‘I...’
‘Yes, I’m afraid it was,’ Andreas agreed, adding smoothly, ‘For you at least. I appreciate that the sal ary you are paid is relatively small, but my grand father would be extremely unhappy to learn that’ a member of our staff is having to boost her income in a way that can only reflect extremely badly on our company.’ Giving her a thin smile he went on with
deceptive amiability, ‘How very fortunate for you that it wasn’t in one of our hotels that you were.. .er... plying your trade and—’
‘How dare you?’ Sasida interrupted him furiously, her cheeks bright scarlet and her mouth a mutinous soft bow. Pride burned rebelliously in her eyes.
‘How dare I? Rather I should say to you, how dare you,’ Andreas contradicted her sharply, his earlier air of pleasantness instantly replaced by a hard look of contemptuous anger as he told her grimly, ‘Apart from the unedifying moral implications of what you were doing, or rather attempting to do, has it ever occurred to you to consider the physical danger you could be putting yourself in? Women like you...’
He paused and changed tack, catching her off guard as he went on in a much gentler tone, ‘I un derstand from your boss that you are very anxious to maintain your employment with us.’
‘Yes. Yes, I am,’ Saskia admitted huskily. There was no use denying what he was saying. She had already discussed her feelings and fears about the prospect of being made redundant with Gordon Jarman, and he had obviously recorded them and passed them on to Andreas. To deny them now would only convince him she was a liar—as well as everything else!
‘Look... Please, I can explain about last night,’ she told him desperately, pride giving way to panic. ‘I know how it must have looked, but it wasn’t... -I didn’t...’ She stopped as she saw from his expression that he wasn’t prepared even to listen to her, never mind believe her.
A part of her was forced to acknowledge that she
could hardly blame him.. .nor convince him either, unless she dragged Lorraine and Megan into his of fice to support her and she had far too much pride to do that. Besides, Megan wasn’t capable of think ing of anything or anyone right now other than Mark and her upcoming Caribbean holiday, and as for Lorraine... Well, Saskia could guess how the older woman would revel in the situation Sasida now found herself in.
‘A wise cci 1 told her gently when she stoped s ‘You see, 1 despise a liar even more than I do a woman who...’ Now it was his turn to stop, but Saskia kiiew what he was thinking.
Her fac burned even more hotly, which made it
-discohcerting for her when he suddenly said abruptly, ‘I’ve got a’próposition I want to put to you.’
A she made a strangled sound of shock in her throat he steepled his fingers together and looked at her ‘ver them,’ like a leek, well-fed predator watch ing a small piece of prey it was enjoying tormenting.
‘What kind of proposition?’ she asked him warily, but the heavy’ sledgehammer strokes of her heart against herribs warndd her that she probably already knew the answer—i st as she knew why she was filled with such a shocking mixture of excitement and revulsion. I
‘Oh, not the kind you are probably most familiar with,’ Andrèas was telling her softly. ‘I’ve read that some professional young women get a kick out of acting the part of harlots...’
‘I was doing no such thing,’ Saskia began heat edly,: but he stopped her.
‘I was there—remember?’ he said sharply. ‘If my
grandfather knew how you had behaved he would demand your instant dismissal.’ His grandfather might have ceded most of the control of the business to Andreas, but Andreas could see from Saskia’s ex pression that she still believed him.
‘You don’t have to tell him.’. He could see the effort it cost her to swallow her pride and add a re luctant tremulous, ‘Please...’
‘I don’t have to,’ he agreed ‘But whether or not I do depends on your response to my proposition.’
‘That’s blackmail,’ Saskia protested.
‘Almost as old a profession as the One you were engaging in last night,’ Andreas agreed silkily.
:‘saskia began to panic. Against all the Odds there was n1y one thing he could possibly want from her, unlikely though that was Alter all, last night she had given him every reason t assume.. .to believe... But that had been when she had thought he was Mark, and if he would just allow her to explain...
Fear kicked through her, fuelling a panic that rushed her headlong into telling him aggressively, ‘I’m surprised that a man like you needs to blackmail a woman into having sex with him. And there’s no way that!...’
‘Sex?’ he questioned, completely astounding her by throwing back his head and laughing out loud. When .he had stopped, he repeated, ‘Sex?’ adding disparagingly, ‘With you? No way! It isn’t sex I want from you,’ he told her coolly.
‘Not sex? Then. ..then what is it?’ Saskia de manded shakily.
‘What I want from you,’ Andreas informed her
calmly, ‘is your time and your agreement to pose as my fianc&.’
‘What?’ Saskia stared at him. ‘You’re mad,’ she told him in disbelief.
‘No, not mad,’ Andreas corrected her sternly. ‘But I am very determined not to be coerced into the mar riage my grandfather wants to arrange for me. And, as my dear mother has so rightly reminded me, the best way to do that is to convince him that I am in love with someone else. That is the only way I can stop this ridiculous campaign of his.’
‘You want me.. .to pose... as your.. .fiancée?’ Saskia spaced the words out carefully, as though she wasn’t sure she had heard them correctly, and then, when she saw the confirmation in his face, she denied fiercely, ‘No. No way. No way at all!’
‘No?’ Andreas questioned with remarkable amia bility. ‘Then I’m afraid you leave me with no alter native but to inform you that there is a strong—a very strong possibility that we shall have to let you go as’ part of our regrettable but necessary cutbacks. I hope I make myself clear.’
No! You can’t do that...’ Saskia began, and then stopped as she saw the cynical way he was looking at her.
She was wasting her time. There was no way he was even going to listen to her, never mind believe her. He didn’t want to believe her. It didn’t suit his plans to believe her.. .she could see that. And if she refused to accede to his commands then she knew that he was fully capable of carrying out his threat against her. Saskia swallowed. She was well and truly trapped, with no way whatsoever of escaping.
‘Well?’ Andreas mocked her. ‘You still haven’t given me your reply. Do you agree to my proposi tion,or...?”
Saskia swallowed the bitter taste of bile and defeat lodged in her throat. Her voice sounded raw, rasp ing. . .it hurt her to speak but she tried to hold up her head as she told him miserably, ‘I agree.’
‘Excellent. For form’s sake 1 suggest that we in vent a previously secret accidental meeting between us—perhaps when I visited Hilford prior to our take over. Because of the negotiations for the takeover we have kept our relationship.. .our love for one an other.., a secret. But now. • .now there is no need for secrecy any more, and to prove it, and to celebrate our freedom today I shall take you out for lunch.’
He frowned and paused. ‘We shall be flying out to the Aegean at the end of next week and there are things we shall be expected to know about one an other’s background!’
‘Flying out to where?’ Saskia gasped. ‘No, I can’t. My grandmother...’
Andreas had heard from Gordon Jarman that she lived with her grandmother, and now one eyebrow - rose as he questioned sillcily, ‘You are engaged to
me now, my beloved, surely I am of more impor tance than your grandmother? She will, I know, be surprised about our relationship, but I am sure she will appreciate just why we had to keep our love for one another to ourselves. If you wish I am perfectly prepared to come with you when you ex plain.. .everything to her...’
‘No!’ Saskia denied in panic. ‘There’s no need anyway. She’s in Bath at the moment, staying with
her sister. She’s going to be there for the next few weeks. You can’t do this,’ she told him in agitation. ‘Your grandfather is bound to guess that we’re not...that we don’t... And...’
‘But he must not be allowed to guess any such thing,’ Andreas told her gently. ‘You are an excellent actress, as I have already seen for myself, and I’m sure you will be able to find a way of convincing him that we are and we do, and should you feel that you do need some assistance to that end...’ His eyes darkened and Sasida immediately took a step back wards, her face flaming with embarrassed colour as she saw the way he was lookiiig at her.
‘Very nice,’ he told her softly, ‘But pethaps it might not be wise to overdo the shy, virginal bit. My grandfather is no fool. I doubt that he will expect a man of my age to have fallen passionately in love with a woman who is not equally sexually aware. I am, after all, half-Greek, and passion is very much a factor of the male Greek personality and psyche.
Saskia wanted to turn and run away. The situation was becoming worse by the minute. What, she w6n- dered fatalistically, would Andreas do if he ever learned that she was not ‘sexually aware’, as he had termed it, and that in fact her only experience of sex and passion was limited to a few chaste kisses and fumbled embraces? She had her parents to thank for her caution as a teenager where sexual experimen tation had been concerned, of course. Their rash be haviour had led to her dreading that she might repeat their foolishness. But there was, of course, no way that Andreas could ever know that!
‘It’s now almost ten,’ Andreas informed her
briskly, looking at his watch. ‘I suggest you go back to your office and at one p.m. I’ll come down for you and take you out to lunch. The sooner we make our relationship public now, the better.’
As he spoke he was moving towards her. Immediately Saskia started to panic, gasping out loud in shock as the door opened to admit his PA in the same heartbeat as Andreas reached out and manacled Saskia’s fragile wrist-bone in the firm grip of his fin gers and thumb.
His skin was dark, tanned, but not so much so that one would automatically guess at his Greek blood, Saskia recognised. His eyes were grey, she now saw, and not blue as she had so blush-makingly suggested last night, and they added to the confusion as to what nationality he might be, whilst his hair, though very, very dark, was thick and straight. There was, though, some whisper of his ancient lineage in his high cheekbones, classically sculptured jaw and aquiline nose. They definitely belonged to some arrogant, ar istocratic ancient Greek nobleman, and he would, she suspected, be very much inclined to dominate those around him, to stamp his authority on everything he did—and everyone he met.
‘Oh, Andreas,’ the PA was exclaiming, looking in flustered disbelief at the way her boss was drawing Saskia closer to him, ‘I’m sorry to interrupt you but your grandfather has been on—twice!’
‘I shall ring my grandfather back shortly,’ Andreas responded smoothly, adding equally smoothly, ‘Oh, and I don’t want any appointments or any interrup tions from one to two-thirty today. I shall be taking my fiancee to lunch.’
As he spoke he turned to Saskia and gave her such a look of melting tender sensuality, so completely redolent of an impatient lover barely able to control his desire for her, that for a breath of time she was almost taken mt herself. She could only stare back at him as though she had been hypnotised. If he had given her a look like that last night... Stop it, she warned herself immediately, shaken by the unex pected thought.
But if his behaviour was shocking her it was shocking his PA even more, she recognised as the other woman gave a small choked gurgle and then shook herheadtwhen Aiidreas asked her urbanely if anything was wrong.
‘No. I was just... That is... No.. .not at all...’
‘Good. Oh, and one more thing. I want you to book an extra seat on my flight to Athens next week. Next to mine.. .for Saskia...’ Turning away from his PA he told Saskia huskily, ‘I can’t wait to introduc you to my fan especially my grandfather. But first...’
Before Saskia could guess what he intended to do he lifted her hand to his mouth, palm facing upwards As she felt the warmth of his breath skimming her skin Saskia started to tremble, her breath coming in quick, short bursts. She felt dizzy, breathless, filled with a mixture of elation, excitement and shock, a sense of somehow having stepped outside herself and become another person, entered another life—a life that was far more exciting than her own, a life that could lead to the kind of dangerous, magical, awe inspiring experiences that she had previously thought could tiever be hers.
Giddily she could hear Andreas telling her huskily, ‘First, my darling, we must find something pretty to adorn this bare finger of yours. My grandfather would not approve if I took you home without a ring that states very clearly my intentions.’
Saskia could hear quite plainly the PA’s sudden shocked indrawn breath, but once again the other woman could not be any more shocked than she was herself. Andreas had claimed that she was a good actress, but he was no slouch in that department him self. The look that he was giving her right now alone, never mind the things he had said...
After his PA had scuttled out of his office, closing the door behind her, she told him shakily, ‘You do realise, don’t you, that by lunchtime it will be all over the office?’
‘All over the office?’ he repeated, giving her a desirous look. ‘My dear, I shall be very surprised and even more disappointed if our news has not travelled a good deal further than that.’
When she gave him an uncomprehending look he explained briefly, ‘By lunchtime I fully expect it to have travelled at least as far as Athens...’
‘To your grandfather,’ Saskia guessed.
‘Amongst others,’ Andreas agreed coolly, without enlightening her as to who such ‘others’ might be.
Unexpectedly there were suddenly dozens of ques tions she wanted to ask him: about his family, as well as his grandfather, and the island he intended to take her to, and about the woman his grandfather wanted him to marry. She had a vague idea that Greeks were very interested in protecting family interests and ac
cording to Emma his cousin was ‘mega wealthy’, as was Andreas himself.
Somehow, without knowing quite how it had hap pened, she discovered that Andreas had released her hand and that she was walking through the door he had opened for her.
‘Ready, Saskia?’
Saskia felt the embarrassed colour start to seep up under her skin as Andreas approached her desk. Her colleagues were studiously avoiding looking openly at them but Saskia knew perfectly well that they were the cynosure of their attention. How could they not be?
‘Gordon, I’m afraid that Saskia is going to be late back from lunch,’ Andreas was announcing to her bemused boss as he came out from his office.
‘Have you told him our news yet, darling,’ Andreas asked her lovingly.
‘Er.. .no...’ Saskia couldn’t bring herself to look directly at him.
‘Saskia,’ she could hear her boss saying weakly as he looked on disbelievingly, ‘I don’t understand...’
He would understand even less if she tried to ex plain to him what was really happening, Saskia ac knowledged bleakly. It seemed to her that it was a veiy unfair thing to do to deceive the man who had been so kind to her but what alternative did she really have.
‘You mustn’t blame Saskia,’ Andreas was saying protectively. ‘I’m afraid I’m the one who’s at fault. I insisted that our relationship should be kept a secret until the outcome of our takeover bid became public.
I didn’t want Saskia to be accused of having conffict ing loyalties—and I must tell you, Gordon, that she insisted that any kind of discussion about the take over was off-limits between us... Mind you, talking about work was not exactly my number one priority when we were together,’ Andreas admitted, with a sensual look at Saskia that made her face burn even more hotly and caused more than one audible and envious gasp from her female co-workers.
‘Why did you have to do that?’ Saskia demanded fretfully the moment they were alone and out of ear shot.
‘Do what?’ Andreas responded unhelpfully.
‘You know perfectly well what 1 mean,’ Saskia protested. ‘Why couldn’t we just have met some where?’
‘In secret?’ He looked more bored now than am orous, his eyebrows drawing together as he frowned impatiently down at her. He was a good deal taller than her, well over six foot, and it hurt her neck a little, craning to look up at him. She wished he wouldn’t walk so close to her; it made her feel un comfortable and on edge and somehow aware of her self as a woman in a way that wasn’t familiar to her.
‘Haven’t I already made it plain to you that the whole object of this exercise is to bring our relation ship into the public domain? Which is why—’ He smiled grimly at Saskia as he broke off from What he was saying to tell her silldly, ‘I’ve booked a table at the wine bar for lunch. 1 ate there last night and I have to say that the food was excellent—even if what happened later was less.. .palatable...’
Suddenly Saskia had had enough.
‘Look, 1 keep trying to tell you, last night was a mistake. I...’
‘I completely agree with ‘you,’ Andreas assured her. ‘It was a mistake.. .your mistake...and whilst we’re on the subject, let me warn you, Saskia, if you ever manifest anything similar whilst you are en gaged to me, if you ever even look at another man...’ He stopped as he saw the shock widening her eyes.
‘I’m half-Greek, my dear,’ he reminded her softly. ‘And when it comes to my woman, I’m more Greek than I am British.. .very much more...’
‘I’m not your woman,’ was the only response Saskia found she could make.
‘No,’ he agreed cynically. ‘You belong to any man who can afford you, don’t you, in reality? But...’ He stopped again as he heard the sharp sound of protest she made, her face white and then red as her emo tions overwhelmed her self-control.
‘You have no right to speak to me like that,’ Saskia told him thickly.
‘No right? But surely as your fiancée I have every right,’ Andreas taunted her, and then, before she could stop him, he reached out and ran one long finger beneath her lower eyelashes, collecting on it the angry humiliated tears that had just fallen. ‘Tears?’ be mocked her. ‘My dear, you are an even better actress then I thought.’
They had reached the wine bar and Saskia was forced to struggle to control her emotions as he opened the door and drew her inside.
‘I don’t want anything to eat. I’m not hungry,’ she told him flatly once they had been shown to their table.
‘Sulking?’ he asked her succinctly. ‘I can’t force you to cat, but Icertainly don’t intend to deny myself the pleasure of enjoying a good meal?
‘There are things we have to discuss,’ he added in a cool, businesslike voice as he picked up the menu she had ignored and read it. ‘I know most of your personal details from your file, but if we are to con vince my family and especially my grandfather that we are lovers, then there are other things I shall need to know.. .and things you will need to know about me.’
Lovers... Saskia just managed to stop herself from shuddering openly. If she had to accede to his black mail then she was going to have to learn to play the game by his rules or risk being totally destroyed by him.
‘Lovers.’ She gave him a bleak smile. ‘I thought Greek families didn’t approve of sex before mar riage.’
‘Not for their own daughters,’ he agreed blandly. ‘But since you are not Greek, and since I am half- British I am sure that my grandfather will be more. ..tolerant...’
‘But he wouldn’t be tolerant if you were engaged to your cousin?’ Saslda pressed, not sure why she was doing so and even less sure just why the thought of his cousin should arouse such a sensation of pain arid hostility within her.
‘Athena, my cousin, is a widow, a previously mar ried woman, and naturally my grandfather...’ He paused and then told her dryly, ‘Besides, Athena her self would never accept my grandfather’s interfer
ence in any aspect of her life. She is a very formi dable woman.’
‘She’s a widow?’ For some reason Sasida had as sumed that this cousin was a young girl. It had never occurred to her that she might already have been married.
‘A widow,’ Andreas confirmed. ‘With two teenage children.’
‘Teenage!’
‘She married at twenty-two,’ Andreas told her with a shrug. ‘That was almost twenty years ago.’
Saskia’s eyes widened as she did her sums. Athena was obviously older than Andreas. A lonely and no doubt vulnerable woman who was being pressurised into a second marriage she perhaps did not want, Saskia decided sympathetically.
‘However, you need not concern yourself too much with Athena, since it is doubtful that yOu will meet her. She lives a very peripatetic existence. She has homes in Athens, New York and Paris and spends much of her time travelling between them, as well as running the shipping line she inherited.’
A shipping line and a hotel chain. No wonder Andreas’s grandfather was so anxious for them to many. It amazed Saskia that Andreas was not equally keen on the match, especially knowing the hard bargain he had driven over the takeover.
As though he had guessed what she was thinking, he leaned towards her and told her grittily, ‘Unlike you, I am not prepared to sell myself.’
‘I was not selling myself,’ Saskia denied hotly, and then frowned as the waiter approached their table carrying two plates of delicious-looking food.
‘I didn’t order a meal,’ she began as he set one or them down in front of her and the other in front of Andreas.
‘No. I ordered it for you,’ Andreas told her. ‘1 don’t like to see my women looking like skinny semi-starved rabbits. A Greek man may be permitted to beat his wife, but he would never stoop to starving her.’
‘Beat...’ Saskia began rising to the bait and then stopped as she saw the glint in his eyes and realised that he was teasing her.
‘I suspect you are the kind of woman, Saskia, who would drive a saint, never mind a mere mortal man, to be driven to subdue you, to master you and then to wish that he had had the strength to master himself instead.’
Saskia shivered as the raw sensuality of what he was saying hit her like a jolt of powerful electricity. What was it about him that made her so acutely aware of him, so nervously on edge?
More to distract herself than anything else she started to eat, unaware of the ruefully amused look Andreas gave her as she did so. If he didn’t know better he would have said that she was as inexperi enced as a virgin. The merest allusion to anything sexual was enough to have her trembling with reac tion, unable to meet his gaze. It was just as well that he knew it was all an act, otherwise... Otherwise what? Otherwise he might be savagely tempted to put his words into actions, to see if she trembled as deliciously when he touched her as she did when he spoke to her.
To counter what he was feeling he began to speak to her in a crisp, businesslike voice.
‘There are certain things you will need to know about my family background if you are going to con vince my grandfather that we are in love.’
He proceeded to give her a breakdown of his im mediate family, adding a few cautionary comments about his grandfather’s health.
‘Which does not mean that he is not one hundred and fifty per cent on the ball. If anything, the fact that he is now prevented from working so much means that he is even more ferociously determined to interfere in my life than be was before. He tells my mother that he is afraid he will die before I giver him any great-grandchildren. If that is not blackmail I don’t know what is,’ Andreas growled.
‘It’s obviously a family vice,’ Saskia told him mock sweetly, earning herself a look that she refused to allow to make her quake in her shoes.
‘Ultimately, of course, our engagement will have to be broken,’ Andreas told her unnecessarily. ‘No doubt our sojourn on the island will reveal certain aspects of our characters that we shall find mutually unappealing, and on our return to England we shall bring our engagement to an end. But at least I shall have bought myself some time.. .and hopefully Athena will have decided to accept one of the many suitors my grandfather says are only too wiffing to become her second husband.’
‘And if she doesn’t?’ Saskia felt impelled to ask.
‘If she doesn’t, we shall just have to delay ending our engagement until either she does or I find an alternative way of convincing my grandfather that
one of my sisters can provide him with his great- grandchildren.’
‘You don’t ever want to marry?’ Saskia was star tled into asking.
‘Well, let’s just say that since I have reached the age of thirty-five without meeting a woman who has made me feel my life is unliveable without her by my side, 1 somehow doubt that I am likely to do so now. Falling in love is a young man’s extravagance. In a man past thirty it is more of a vain folly.’
‘My father fell in love with my mother when he was seventeen,’ Saskia couldn’t stop herself from telling him. ‘They ran away together...’ Her eyes clouded. ‘It was a mistake. They fell out of love with one another before I was born. An older man would at least have had some sense of responsibility to wards the life he had helped to create. My father was still a child himself.’
‘He abandoned you?’ Andreas asked her, frown ing.
‘They both did,’ Saskia told him tersely. ‘If it hadn’t been for my grandmother I would have ended up in a children’s home.’
Soberly Andreas watched her. Was that why she went trawling bars for men? Was she searching for the male love she felt she had been denied by her father? His desire to exonerate her from her behav iour irritated him. Why was he trying to make ex cuses for her? Surely he hadn’t actually been taken in by those tears earlier.
‘It’s time for us to leave,’ he told her brusquely.
14-11-07, 06:00 AM
The Demetrios Virgin
chapter Two
ÌÏíÏ ãæÇÖíÚ ÞÓã ÇáÇÑÔíÝ
ÇáÚÑÖ ÇáÚÇÏí
