by Lynne Graham
Callie had been sitting in tears in the reception area, trembling and equally shaken, clutching a cheque for an enormous sum of money. Sarah had torn it up and thrown it in the bin and it had been hours before she was able to get the full story out of Callie. But one thing Callie had said was, ‘They made me feel dirty, Sarah...they made me feel like a blackmailer!’
That tremulous confession was engraved on Sarah’s soul like an acid burn. Her sister had been faced with two lawyers, who had proceeded to threaten her with nebulous but, to a teenager, terrifying repercussions should she ever feel tempted to talk about Damon to the Press.
Callie might have bounced back relatively fast from that day. Sarah hadn’t. Callie had continued to write to Damon, angry when she got no replies but amazingly not losing hope. ‘I bet my letters are being stopped before he gets them,’ she had decided. ‘I wouldn’t put anything past Alex Terzakis. Just wait until my son is born. It’ll be a different story then. Nothing will keep Damon away from me.’
The loathsome memory of that day lived for Sarah again now. The hatred came back, borne on a seething tidal wave of bitterness. She paused on the threshold of Nicky’s bedroom.
An unexpected scene met her eyes. Alex was reclining on her single bed with her nephew closely cradled against him. He was talking to him in Greek and Nicky was no longer crying. In fact he was making those endearing little snuffling sounds that signified that his attention was being fully engaged. Sarah’s stomach heaved at the deceptive imagery.
Alex looked so human. But his treatment of Callie had been inhuman. And now he wanted her child, simply expected him to be handed over like a parcel. Why? Nicky was also Nikos, with all that that implied. He was a Terzakis. Incredibly, Callie had correctly estimated the worth of her unborn child to the Terzakis family.
But Sarah was still astonished by the strength of their interest in Nicky. Or should she instead be astonished by the strength of Alex’s interest? For it seemed to Sarah that Damon’s professed desire to bring up his own child had been incredibly short-lived and very easily silenced. So how sincere could the offer have been in the first place? Sarah was chilled by the suspicion that Damon might have been bullied into making that offer more to impress his big brother than out of any real wish to take possession of his son.
Was it fear of public exposure at some future date which made Alex demand custody of her nephew? Some sort of paranoid possessiveness? It was certainly not a question of honour or conscience. Callie’s experiences made that clear. Sarah stared at the man and the child, one whom she loved and one whom she hated, and she trembled with the force of her own frustration.
Yes, she did want revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and all that. She wanted, she needed to hurt Alex Terzakis but she could not. It was not within her power. But never at any stage had she not considered Nicky’s welfare as being of paramount importance. In scorching silence she removed the baby from Alex’s hold, careful not to touch any part of him. She sat down on the chair and began to feed her nephew.
Alex sprang off the bed. ‘You must accept that Nikos does not belong here.’
Her teeth gritted. Act two, scene five. He was remorseless and so far he had yet to convince her that anyone in the Terzakis family genuinely wanted Nicky, and surely not all the money in the world would make up for the absence of love? It wouldn’t, would it? she asked herself anxiously, torn in conflicting directions by her desperate desire to keep the baby that she had already learned to love and the worrying fear that her own feelings might be too deeply involved to allow her to make a fair, clear-headed decision about what was best for the tiny child in her arms.
‘It would be less disturbing for you both if you gave him up now.’
What was he going to offer her now? He had tried money. He had tried intimidation. He had tried very briefly to portray Damon and Androula as perfect parents. And he had finally offered himself. But if Nicky went to Greece, Sarah would have no further say over what happened to him, and how far could she trust any Terzakis male?
‘I am not a patient man,’ he breathed harshly.
‘Tell me something I don’t know.’
Fierce dark eyes stabbed into her. The silence stretched and simmered for long minutes.
‘I am a dangerous enemy,’ Alex finally assured her icily. ‘No matter what the cost, I will take that child from you.’
She had finished feeding Nicky. She settled him back down into his cot, desperately striving to conceal the unsteadiness of her hands. How dared he come to her home and threaten her? Hadn’t he and his brother between them already done enough damage? The Terzakis men had killed her sister.
Damon should have told Callie that he no longer loved her. Instead he had run away, leaving her poor sister to hope in limbo. What had those months of stress done to her weak heart? And what might have been the result had Damon kept his promises and married her? Callie might well have lived.
‘Listen to me...’ Alex demanded abruptly, closing a strong hand on her arm.
Sarah jerked away violently and started down the stairs. ‘Keep your filthy hands to yourself! I can’t bear you to touch me,’ she hissed.
‘Liar.’
She spun round in the hall in a furious turmoil of emotion. Alex Terzakis lounged back against the wall, exuding a blaze of devastating sexual awareness. She had never seen that in a man before. She saw it now, recognised it on some atavistic level not previously explored inside herself. Raw sexuality sizzled from him, in the tautened poise of his lean, hard body, in the smouldering depths of the golden eyes sliding over her and the audible fracture in his breathing pattern.
‘I think you would like me to touch you,’ he positively purred.
In complete confusion, Sarah backed away from the heat and the suffocating tension that had entered the atmosphere. Her skin felt hot and stretched over her bones. Her body felt strangely weighted and unfamiliar. She translated the sensations as fear. He scared her.
‘You’re an animal,’ she whispered with a shudder.
He dealt her a slashing smile full of all-male triumph as he absorbed her retreat, and she wanted to knock his teeth down his arrogant throat. Calling him an animal was an insult to animals. But he did belong in a cage. Clearly he thought he was irresistible. But what enraged her most was that he was baiting her on a level she could not match.
‘Unfortunately when I told you that I would give you whatever you want,’ he drawled in a dark, deep voice with an unbelievably insolent smile, ‘I wasn’t including myself in the offer... When I go to bed with a woman, I have to like her. That is the barest minimum requirement.’
If Sarah had had a knife in her hand, he would have been bleeding to death at her feet. In fact she marvelled that he had managed to reach thirty-three unscathed by vengeful female hands. That he could have the brazen effrontery to insinuate that she found him attractive! That he could then go on to suggest that, had he been willing, she would have dropped gratefully into his arms... Frankly, the power to vocalise simply failed her.
He uncoiled himself fluidly from the wall. She shivered. Her hands itched. He made her feel...he made her feel so violent. He incited her to violence...his every move, his every word, his every smile. He was a walking incitement to a crime of passion. And yes, he had told her to name her price for Nicky and it would be hers. However, he wasn’t likely to walk voluntarily over the edge of a cliff.
But she knew suddenly with crystal-clarity and embittered frustration what the best punishment of all would have been...what would really hurt Alex Terzakis the most. To be forced to marry her to gain access to Nicky. A choky little laugh escaped her. Not that he would have agreed, of course, but how perfect a revenge that would have been. An insane idea, but oh, what a beautiful fantasy! Though why should it be a fantasy? a little voice asked. She should make that demand. It would at the very least get rid of him.
Questioning dark eyes, cool as a winter wind, rested on her. ‘I am glad that you find something amusin
g in this situation. I confess that I do not.’
Sarah sent him a veiled glance of pure poison. ‘You did ask me to name my price for Nicky...didn’t you?’
‘I wondered how long it would take for you to abandon the loving aunt act,’ Alex admitted, sending her a shimmering look of distaste. ‘Why did you waste my time with such a pretence?’
She had never come across anyone whose reactions were more impossible to predict. He talked as though he would give anything, do anything to get Nicky. But when success appeared to beckon he froze and surveyed her with judgemental revulsion. And he hadn’t even touched the tip of the iceberg yet, she reflected with bitter amusement.
She took a deep breath. ‘You’re not going to like my price,’ she sighed, strolling into the lounge, wanting to give him a little more space before he lost his temper and exploded. She just loved watching him fight for self-restraint.
‘I do not care what it costs to remove you from that child’s life forever,’ he asserted icily.
‘But, you see, it wouldn’t do that.’ Sarah turned back to face him, emerald eyes gleaming with provocation and unconcealed challenge. ‘Just how much do you want Nicky, Mr Terzakis? You see, the only thing I want is what you wouldn’t let my sister have...’
His gaze had narrowed but it was obvious that he hadn’t yet caught her drift. ‘Get to the point.’
‘It’s a little...delicate.’ Sarah was electrified by the sense of power he had given her.
‘You are no shrinking violet,’ he gritted with blistering impatience.
‘I want you to marry me.’ Sarah dropped it like a brick into a bottomless silence. ‘I want to be Mrs Alex Terzakis. In name only, of course,’ she added, gently ironic. ‘Hard as you may find it to believe, I find you highly resistible. The immense sacrifice of lying back and thinking of the greater glory of Greece would not be required from you.’
As she stopped speaking, she could not believe that she had actually said all that to him. But his unnatural stillness, the dark rise of blood accentuating his carved cheekbones and his stunned silence confirmed that she had. He was transfixed to the spot.
‘Cristos...you think that I would marry you?’ he demanded ferociously.
‘A fate worse than death, but so sweet a revenge,’ Sarah pointed out softly. ‘Am I to assume that I am even less acceptable than my poor sister? Well, you did ask me what I wanted—’
‘You cannot be serious...you are joking!’ Alex sent her a black intimidating glower of expectancy. ‘You could not ask such a thing of me and be serious—’
‘I could,’ she confirmed, revelling in his unwillingness to believe. Alex Terzakis in shock—what a glorious vision.
‘What kind of a woman are you that you can ask this of me?’
‘So, you are not a man of your word.’ Sarah savoured the condemnation, her jewel-like eyes shimmering over the sudden perceptible clenching of his golden features with helpless satisfaction. No, he didn’t like that—tough.
Alex Terzakis asked for everything he got. This past fortnight had been a nightmare for Sarah, a long, dark tunnel she’d had to force herself to keep on walking through. From the very hour of Callie’s death, this arrogant Greek had tormented her and intruded on her grief. Her sister’s death had meant nothing to him. Indeed it might well have been a relief. Yet he had dared to appear at Callie’s funeral, and on the selfsame day had offered her money in return for her sister’s baby. And still he was refusing to leave them alone!
‘It is out of the question,’ he drawled with unflinching candour. ‘But if it is possible I despise you even more for making such a demand.’
Sarah was bitterly amused by his response. Did he really imagine that she gave two hoots what he thought of her? He strode out to the hall, perceptibly eager to be gone.
‘Goodbye,’ Sarah said drily.
Without warning, he swung back to her, glittering dark eyes shooting over her, the faintest crease drawing his ebony brows together. ‘Did you demand marriage for the child’s sake?’ he prompted tautly, abruptly.
She really had shaken him up. Shorn of his usual sardonic aura, he looked forbiddingly serious.
‘What do you think?’ His question had thrown her, since she had only been playing a game with him by demanding the one thing that he would not give.
‘That revenge is a two-edged sword.’
Moments later she watched the limousine drawing away, accompanied by fluttering curtains on the other side of the street. She fell into bed, totally drained by exhaustion. How could she have asked him to marry her? To watch him break out in a cold sweat at the prospect of being tied to an unfeminine, malicious shrew? His opinion of her was immaterial, she reminded herself. His shattered reaction to her proposal had really been quite funny. Absently, she wondered why she wasn’t laughing...
* * *
The following week, Sarah went back to work to complete the statutory two weeks’ notice required if she was to receive a full month’s pay. And she couldn’t afford to lose that money. Gina’s neighbour, a registered childminder currently without any other charges, took over Nicky. Sarah found it an appalling wrench leaving him every morning.
‘You can come and work for me at the shop,’ Gina announced over breakfast at the end of the first week.
Sarah felt awful. Gina, who owned a florist’s shop, was very fussy about employing only trained staff. ‘But I know nothing about flowers—’
‘You can learn, but you can start by sorting out all the paperwork. Nicky can come with you. You can stick his basket in the back room.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Sarah muttered awkwardly. ‘I’m very grateful.’
‘I gave you no help with Callie,’ Gina sighed, ‘but I think we should all stick together this time. I kind of like the company round the house and, although things are a bit frantic right now with Nicky being so young, that’ll soon settle down. He’ll be off to school before we know it.’
‘Do you think I’m doing the right thing...keeping him?’ Sarah finally had the courage to ask outright. She so badly needed to hear someone telling her that she was.
‘I think you’re doing what you have to do,’ Gina said nebulously. ‘Anyway, it’s all up to them now, isn’t it?’
‘How?’
‘Well, sooner or later Damon is surely going to roll up on the doorstep and if you want my advice you let him see Nicky without any argument. Nicky has a right to know his father.’
Sarah stiffened and then bit her lower lip. Nicky did have a right to know his father, she acknowledged ruefully...but then she was still waiting for Damon to beat a hot, enthusiastic trail to their door, eager to meet his baby son.
‘Mind you, I would’ve thought he would have shown up by now,’ Gina remarked, speaking aloud Sarah’s own thoughts on the subject.
Late morning, Sarah became aware of the subdued murmur of voices that usually distinguished the office abruptly rising to a much more noisy level and then suddenly falling very, very quiet. She was in the file-room where she spent most of her working day.
Someone cleared his throat. She spun round and was transfixed by the sight of a phalanx of the top-floor executives all standing out in the corridor staring in at her as though she had grown horns. Her dismayed eyes fell on the managing director, Mr Soames.
‘Miss Hartwell...?’ he began uncertainly, for he didn’t know her, had certainly never spoken to her before.
The executives parted like the Red Sea as another figure strolled into view.
‘I came to take you out to lunch,’ Alex Terzakis drawled.
‘It’s n-not my lunch-hour.’ Scarcely crediting the scene before her, unable even to absorb his announcement, Sarah answered automatically.
Mr Soames paled. ‘Nonsense, Miss Hartwell... you’re free to go whenever you like. Take the rest of the day off if you want,’ he hastened to add with a strained smile.
Sarah focused on Alex. With effortless ease, he dominated, the sole male in the group who
didn’t look as though he was standing barefoot on a bed of nails. In a navy pinstripe suit of exquisite tailoring, he had a dark exotic splendour that was undeniably riveting. For an instant she collided with night-dark eyes and she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move.
‘Miss Hartwell no longer works here,’ Alex murmured. ‘I have other duties for her.’
‘A truly excellent employee,’ the managing director rushed to assert heartily.
What the heck was going on? Her cheeks crimson, Sarah moved forward, but before she could speak Alex had planted a hand like an iron bar to her rigid spine and pressed her out of the room. ‘You have things to collect?’
‘Yes, but—’
He turned his dark head. ‘Have Miss Hartwell’s desk cleared and her possessions conveyed to her home.’
Somebody said, ‘Yes sir.’
She was thrust into the lift in a state of furious bewilderment. ‘What the heck are you playing at?’
‘I just sacked you.’ Alex stared down at her, his handsome mouth tightening. ‘You have appalling dress-sense—’
‘You sacked me?’
‘I own this company,’ he advanced carelessly, frowning again. ‘And as for that hairstyle—’
‘You own this company?’
‘I came here merely to take you to lunch. I was intercepted in the foyer. Someone recognised me and total panic reigned because I have never been here before.’ His wide mouth twisted and suddenly he pulled her forward and released the clasp imprisoning her hair before she could even guess his intention.
Filled with consternation and confused by everything he had said and done since his descent, Sarah made a pointless grab at the descending tangle of silver-blonde strands. ‘Have you gone crazy?’ she gasped.
‘I refuse to be seen out in public with a woman who resembles a prison wardress.’
‘You sexist pig!’ Sarah spluttered. ‘In one breath you tell me you’ve sacked me, and in the next you tell me you’re taking me to lunch. I wouldn’t eat with you if I was starving!’