The Greek's Convenient Wife

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  CHAPTER TEN

  MADDISON was ten minutes late for the meeting at Demetrius’s office due to a last-minute traffic snarl her cab had been caught up in. Demetrius had offered her his car but she’d declined, preferring to make her own way there after she picked up a few things from the pharmacist that she thought might ease his symptoms.

  The meeting was well under way when she came in with an all-encompassing apologetic glance around the table as she took her chair.

  ‘Ah, Maddison,’ Jeremy greeted her before turning to the men gathered around him. ‘Gentlemen, this is Mrs Maddison Papasakis. As you know, Demetrius is currently indisposed with some sort of virus. His charming new wife has been kind enough to sit in on the meeting in his absence.’

  No matter how hard she tried Maddison found it impossible not to be intimidated by the boardroom full of men. She seemed to be the cynosure of each and every eye whenever she chanced a look upwards from the sheaf of papers Jeremy had handed her.

  After a few tense moments she buried her head back in the documents and tried to follow the main gist of the meeting.

  ‘As you know, the development on the Sunshine Coast has struck some further delays,’ Jeremy was saying. ‘I have someone working on it presently so those funds will not be represented until the next quarter.’

  ‘Are they being reinvested with the usual people?’ a grey-haired man asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Jeremy said and tapped the agenda sheet in front of him. ‘Now, gentlemen, let’s stick to the programme. Let’s have your report on the Melbourne refurbishment. Thanks, Stefan.’

  It was clear to Maddison’s quiet observation that Jeremy enjoyed being in the chairman’s role. He seemed to relish the feeling of power the position gave, even though he must surely realise it was only temporary, while Demetrius was ill.

  She forced herself to concentrate on the discussion at hand, but when one of the gentlemen questioned a small detail regarding the refurbishment in Melbourne she found her gaze slipping to the financial statement in front of her.

  The rows and columns of neat figures reminded her of her father’s work, the hours he had sometimes spent at weekends going through the books to make sure every dollar was accounted for.

  ‘What do you think, Maddison?’

  She looked up from the financial statement with a guilty flush and met Jeremy’s cold blue gaze across the table.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ She felt the heat rise up from her neck at the undisguised reproof in Jeremy’s tone. ‘I missed that last bit.’

  It was obviously the wrong thing to say if the frozen stares were anything to go by. She could tell the board had decided unanimously on her not being up to the task and felt annoyed with herself for not concentrating harder, but a tiny question mark had been raised in her head over the investment funds for the Sunshine Coast development. Her father had been working on that account before he died, she was sure. She vaguely remembered him saying something about it being a complicated account due to the amount of money brought in by several private investors who were planning their retirement suites in the luxury hotel resort.

  ‘It’s quite clear Mrs Papasakis is distracted about her husband’s health,’ Jeremy said in what could only be described as a patronising tone. ‘Perhaps we should postpone the rest of the meeting until Demetrius is well enough to join us.’ He turned to the gentlemen around him. ‘All in favour say aye, against—carried.’ He snapped his folder closed and the men got to their feet and began filing out of the room.

  ‘But…’ She felt tempted to call them back but then thought better of it when she saw Jeremy approach her side of the table.

  He pulled out her chair for her as she got to her feet. She felt his hand on her elbow and, rather than call attention to herself by making a fuss, decided to leave it there.

  Jeremy waited until the others had left the room before he let her arm go to face her.

  ‘There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you,’ he said. ‘Privately.’

  Her eyes flicked nervously to the door but the last gentleman had already closed it behind him.

  ‘I see.’

  Once again his smile didn’t quite make the distance to his eyes.

  ‘I thought we might go and have a coffee somewhere.’ He paused momentarily before adding, ‘I wouldn’t want Demetrius to think I’d had you all to myself in the boardroom.’

  She knew her cheeks were aflame at the insinuation behind his words but there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  ‘I’m sure he’d understand if it were strictly business,’ she responded coolly.

  ‘It’s very definitely strictly business,’ he returned. ‘Your business, in fact.’

  There was something in his tone that made her uneasy.

  As much as her instincts demanded she get away from him as soon as possible, a part of her insisted she scratch a little more beneath the surface of Demetrius’s right-hand man.

  She followed him out of the boardroom and once outside the building he led her to a small café with the sort of subdued lighting that made her uneasiness ratchet up another notch.

  He waited until a sultry-looking waitress had taken their order before speaking.

  ‘How is your brother enjoying the Northern Territory?’

  She reflected later that there were few things he could have said to shock her more. She fought to control the evidence of her alarm by schooling her features into impassivity as if they were merely discussing the capricious spring weather instead of the information she’d struggled to keep hidden at great personal cost.

  ‘I haven’t had much contact from Kyle,’ she answered with as much evasiveness as she could. ‘He moves around a lot.’

  ‘No doubt one does on a cattle station as large as Gillaroo.’ His knee touched hers ever so slightly beneath the cramped table.

  She decided there was no point beating about the bush, even a bush as large as the sort the Northern Territory was famous for.

  ‘What do you want?’

  The coldness of his eyes chilled her to the very base of her spine where it was pressed against the back of the uncomfortable chair.

  ‘I see you’re no stranger to blackmail,’ he observed with a curl of his lip.

  Her earlier hatred of Demetrius seemed to her to pale into insignificance in the face of the depravity reflected in that fabricated smile.

  Panic clawed at her insides. What if Demetrius also knew where her brother was? What then?

  She sucked in a breath, her hands tightening into knots in her lap.

  ‘I have no money.’

  He looped an arm over the back of his chair in a casual manner which irritated her beyond bearing.

  ‘I don’t want your money.’

  It took her a full ten seconds to realise where he was heading.

  ‘But you’ll happily take Demetrius’s?’ she guessed.

  He held her hostile look for a lengthy pause.

  ‘I’m offering you a chance to enact your own little plan for revenge. You see, unlike some, I know your marriage to him wasn’t entirely your idea. I also know you harbour some considerable resentment towards him over the untimely demise of your father, perhaps not so much as your wayward brother, but enough to want to bring him to his knees if you ever got the opportunity.’

  She felt ashamed at how close to the truth his hateful assessment actually was, or at least had been.

  She had wanted to destroy him.

  She’d wanted to make him suffer for blackmailing her into marriage, but somehow her earlier motivations had been put aside in the last twenty-four hours as if they had never existed.

  She loved him, and just as she had done for her brother—would do anything to protect him. She knew she had to be careful dealing with someone as devious as Jeremy Myalls, but if in the end it cleared her father’s name it would be worth it, surely? She felt certain now that Jeremy had had something to do with her father’s rapid dismissal from the Papasakis corporation, and she was d
etermined to get to the bottom of it once and for all.

  She met his malevolent gaze across the table.

  ‘What do you want me to do?’

  He smiled a hateful smile of victory as if he’d just landed the biggest fish of an extensive fishing career.

  ‘I’m giving you the opportunity to sabotage his development plans for the Sunshine Coast.’

  She swallowed the mouthful of bile his words produced. ‘How?’

  ‘I need a bank account to place some funds in. A lot of funds.’

  ‘How many?’

  He told her and she blinked. ‘That much?’

  He nodded. ‘That much.’

  ‘For how long?’

  He gave a casual shrug. ‘For as long as it takes.’

  ‘My bank manager will suspect something. I haven’t had more than two hundred dollars in my account for months.’

  ‘Maybe not, but you’ve just married one of Sydney’s richest men,’ he pointed out. ‘It’s quite feasible he would have paid you handsomely for the privilege of sharing your bed.’

  ‘I’m not sharing his bed.’

  His eyebrows rose in twin arches. ‘So Elena is still in the picture, is she?’

  She wished she could tell him differently but what was the point? Demetrius had gone to Elena at the first opportunity and it was time she began to accept it.

  ‘Yes, she’s still his…mistress.’

  ‘You surprise me.’ His eyes ran over her suggestively. ‘I thought Demetrius would’ve sampled you by now. After all, you’ve been married—what is it? Forty-eight hours?’

  She refused to hold his rodent-like gaze.

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ She addressed the stained tablecloth in front of her.

  ‘I just need your bank account number. You can leave the rest to me.’

  Maddison scratched out the number of her account on a piece of paper and handed it to him across the table. His cold fingers touched hers as he took it from her and she suppressed a shudder of distaste.

  ‘I knew I could rely on you,’ he said.

  What could she say?

  She was laying a trap just as he was setting his own snare. The only question was, how was she going to get out of it before he did?

  ‘How did you find out where Kyle was?’ she asked.

  ‘I have some, shall we say, somewhat underhand connections.’ He smiled that loathsome smile once more. ‘It’s amazing what people will tell you if a little money changes hands.’

  She took a ragged breath. ‘Does Demetrius know?’

  Jeremy’s eyes gleamed. ‘No, but if you so much as put a foot wrong I’ll make sure he does. And we both know what will happen then, don’t we?’

  She gritted her teeth, not trusting herself to speak.

  ‘I’ll be seeing you, Maddison.’ He got up from the table and made his way through to the front of the dingy café but it was only after her lukewarm coffee arrived that she realised he’d left without paying the bill.

  Demetrius was awake and in a foul mood when she got back to the penthouse.

  ‘What took you so long?’ he growled at her as she set the pharmacist’s bag down on the end of the bed.

  ‘I had some errands to run.’ She meticulously avoided his eyes. ‘I bought some vitamins for you.’

  ‘Vitamins?’ He glared at her. ‘I don’t need vitamins.’

  She undid the bag and laid the bottles out on the bedside table next to him. ‘Yes, you do. It’s obvious your diet is inadequate otherwise you wouldn’t have gone down with this bug.’

  ‘People catch viruses all the time. It has nothing whatsoever to do with diet.’

  ‘If you don’t eat properly your immune system becomes suppressed.’ She opened the first bottle and laid a capsule on her palm. ‘We both took a dunking in that creek but you are the one who got sick, not me.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So your diet must be inadequate.’

  ‘I eat very well.’

  ‘No doubt you do, but hotel food is notoriously high in fat and lacking in vital nutrients.’

  ‘I hire the best chefs, I’ll have you know.’

  She handed him the three capsules and poured a glass of water from the jug she’d left by his bedside. ‘I’m sure you do, but not one of them knows how to cook a decent home-cooked meal.’

  ‘And you do?’

  ‘Of course I do.’ She screwed the bottle caps on securely. ‘I’ve bought the ingredients for chicken broth and very soon it will be ready.’

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ His brows drew together in a frown. ‘Is this part of your plan for revenge?’

  She found it hard to meet his hard gaze in the light of the conversation she’d not long had with his second in command.

  She pretended an avid interest in the hem of the quilt as she responded. ‘You’re sick and I’m helping you to get better—simple as that.’

  ‘Nothing is that simple,’ he said wryly, ‘or at least not where you’re concerned.’

  ‘I can assure you I have no other motive than to ensure you are back on your feet as soon as possible.’

  ‘Are you missing your sparring partner?’ he asked.

  ‘Not at all,’ she answered evenly. ‘Anyway, since you effectively removed my place of employment from me I have nothing better to do.’

  He’d asked for that but it still annoyed him that she’d flung it back at him. Business was business, and that corner of town was prime real estate; he’d done what anyone with any vision of profit would have done.

  ‘How did the meeting go?’ he asked after a slight pause.

  ‘Fine.’ She turned away from his penetrating look.

  ‘Did Jeremy fill you in on all the details?’

  ‘He sure did.’

  Demetrius frowned at the tone of her voice. ‘Is everything all right?’

  ‘Of course.’ She sent him an over-bright smile. ‘I have the paperwork here for you.’ She bent to her bag but his voice stalled her.

  ‘Don’t bother. Jeremy dropped it in earlier.’

  She straightened from her bag to look at him. ‘When?’

  ‘This morning, soon after you left.’

  ‘He didn’t say.’

  ‘No doubt he had other things on his mind.’

  No doubt indeed, she thought cynically.

  ‘I’ll go and get your broth,’ she said instead.

  ‘I’m not hungry.’

  ‘It’s more fluid than food,’ she pointed out. ‘You need your fluids.’

  ‘I need to be left alone.’

  ‘And I need my head read for being so patient with you,’ she bit out as she got to her feet.

  ‘Maddison?’ His voice stalled her at the door.

  ‘What?’ She gave a sigh of exasperation and turned around to face him.

  She couldn’t help noticing how pale he was and how his dark eyes were shadowed as if he hadn’t slept properly for days.

  ‘I do appreciate what you’re doing for me even if I don’t completely understand it,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t understand it myself,’ she said and closed the door behind her.

  An hour later she brought him the broth she’d prepared but he sipped at it with little appetite.

  She sat on the chair beside the bed with a worried frown between her brows. ‘I still think I should’ve called a doctor.’

  ‘What for?’ He pushed the bowl away with a grimace. ‘It’s a virus. I’ll get over it.’

  ‘But you look…so…different.’

  ‘I’m feeling better all the time.’

  ‘You don’t look it.’

  ‘I feel it.’

  ‘You’re pale.’

  ‘And interesting?’

  She couldn’t stop her smile in time. ‘Yes, you are definitely interesting.’

  His lips curved upwards and she was pleased to see the dullness of his gaze lessen.

  ‘You’re a tonic, Maddison,’ he said. ‘I feel better just having you in the room with m
e.’

  Her stomach flipped over at the compliment even as she remonstrated with herself for believing it.

  ‘I think I prefer you sick to healthy,’ she said with a little smile. ‘You’re much more human.’

  He looked at her for a long moment without speaking.

  ‘I haven’t been all that humane to you, have I?’ he finally asked.

  She lowered her gaze from the sudden intensity of his. ‘You’ve been…’

  ‘Pig-headed?’ he offered.

  ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘And demanding?’

  ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘What about conniving?’

  ‘I don’t—’

  ‘Not to mention outright nefarious.’

  ‘I wouldn’t—’

  ‘One could almost describe it as Mephistophelian.’

  ‘Mephis—what?’

  ‘Fiendish,’ he translated.

  ‘Oh.’

  He smiled at her and reached for her hand, his fingers entwining with hers. She couldn’t help noticing their warmth, so different from the tombstone touch of Jeremy Myalls earlier that day.

  Just thinking about that exchange made her feel guilty.

  She felt as if she were betraying Demetrius by even calling his right-hand man to mind, much less agreeing to whatever felonious scheme he had in mind, even though she was determined to sabotage it as soon as she could.

  She wanted to tell Demetrius of her suspicions but held herself back at the last moment. She had to go through with her plan to trap Jeremy. It was her best chance of clearing her father’s name, and with Demetrius still so intent on avenging the loss of his boat she had no other choice.

  ‘Can I get you anything else?’ she asked, sliding her hand from his.

  ‘No.’ He rested back on the pillows and shut his eyes. ‘You should go to bed; you look tired.’

  ‘I’m not tired.’

  ‘You should be.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Looking after an unwilling invalid is tiresome work.’

  ‘I can handle it.’

  He opened one eye and swivelled his head towards her. ‘I’m beginning to think you can handle most things; in fact, I think I’ve very seriously underestimated you.’