by Lynne Graham
‘Don’t tempt me...’ he murmured drily.
‘And you’re wasting your time sacking me. I was leaving anyway and I already have another job—’
‘And it is so difficult to think of you saying anything with flowers that anyone in their right mind would want to hear,’ he slotted in silkily. He was forging a passage through the foyer, leaving her simply to bob in his wake.
‘How did you know I’m going to work for Gina?’
‘She told me.’
‘When?’ A swing door almost hit her in the face as he strode through it. Fuming, Sarah stopped dead centre of the pavement. ‘Your manners are atrocious!’
He paused, flashing her a vibrantly amused smile that quite transformed his usually grim features. On the brink of moving on, she stilled and stared, an odd tightening sensation making its presence felt in the pit of her stomach. Her mouth ran dry. For the very first time, it occurred to her that Gina was right. He was extravagantly handsome.
‘You called me sexist. Only a sexist would open doors for a woman.’
Sarah slid with the stiffness of a clockwork doll into the rear of the opulent limousine. What did he want this time? Maybe he was planning to give her a pair of concrete boots and toss her in the Thames. A very real sense of unease assailed her. Alex Terzakis kept on overturning her every expectation. He was totally unpredictable. Although she prided herself on being a reasonable judge of character, she had to admit that she had not a clue what went on inside his head but she suspected that a lot of it would be complex, cunning and free of all conscience.
‘Would you like a drink?’
Hastily she shook her head.
‘Not even to celebrate your triumph?’ he drawled, his accent thickening noticeably over the syllables of that final word, his strong dark face clenching.
She studied him suspiciously. ‘What triumph?’
‘I will pay the price,’ he delivered harshly, scanning her with flat dark eyes.
‘W-what price?’ she began and then fell silent, her throat closing over as she stared at him wide-eyed and stunned.
‘I will marry you.’
CHAPTER FOUR
WHATEVER Sarah might have expected it had not been that. Not in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Alex Terzakis might accept her provocative and facetious demand and actually agree to marry her. Astounded by his capitulation and conscious of his hard scrutiny, she concentrated fiercely on keeping her face bland and uninformative. But her heart was pounding crazily in her eardrums and shock was reverberating through her in waves. She had demanded the most outrageous price she could think of...and he was prepared to give it to her. Why? Why? she wanted to know. Why was Nicky so important to the Terzakis family? Presumably he had to be the first grandchild and he was male, but surely Damon and his precious wife would quickly produce children of their own? Why would Alex agree to a forced marriage with a woman he despised when the most that sacrifice could gain would be his adoption of Nicky?
She chose her words carefully, determined to reveal nothing of her thoughts. ‘It would appear that Nicky is worth his weight in gold.’
‘Dios...’ Alex ground out and her head spun back to him.
She clashed with black ice eyes and a chilly hand closed over her heart, sudden fear clenching her muscles. It was instinctive but she was powerless to translate the sensation into any form of suspicion. Her own fear was simply there, thickening the atmosphere.
‘To you, I meant,’ she extended tightly. ‘You can hardly blame me for expressing my surprise. Callie was four months pregnant when she was evicted from your brother’s apartment in Oxford—’
‘Cristos...do you think I would have made that instruction had I believed your claim that she was pregnant?’ With one lean hand, he made a slashing movement of frustration. His dark features were pale and set.
So the eviction had been his idea and not Damon’s. Once more, Callie had been proved correct in her assumptions. Sarah stared at Alex Terzakis with unashamed loathing.
‘What sort of a man do you think I am?’ he demanded savagely.
‘A complete bastard,’ Sarah murmured helplessly from between compressed lips.
‘Had I believed that she was carrying my brother’s child, I would have behaved very differently,’ he emphasised from between gritted even white teeth.
‘Oh, I don’t think so. The cheque would have covered the cost of an abortion... I don’t think you were too concerned either way—’
‘How dare you?’ The atmosphere burst into flame with the sheer force of his fury. ‘There was no such thought in my mind. I would have played no hand in murdering my brother’s child!’
Surprisingly she found that she believed him. Surely he could not manufacture such outraged disbelief to order? She bowed her head. ‘I gather Damon didn’t tell you that she was pregnant.’
‘He did not.’ The confirmation was stark, dredged from him.
So there had been lies, Sarah registered in disgust. She wondered how many other lies Damon Terzakis had told to save face with his brother. No doubt Damon had also been responsible for Alex’s belief that Callie was promiscuous and greedy for money.
‘We’ll have lunch at my town house.’
Was she so awful-looking that he couldn’t bear to be seen in public with her? That was her first thought and swiftly she stamped on it, reminding herself that, unlike him, she was not hung up on physical appearance. In any case there were far more important things to dwell on. He was prepared to marry her...was she prepared to marry him?
The town house was part of an imposing Georgian terrace which overlooked a quiet square. Lunch was swiftly served in a lofty-ceilinged dining-room by a uniformed Greek maid. Alex’s silence was starting to set Sarah’s teeth on edge by the second course. He had spoken when he had to speak but not otherwise.
‘The coffee will be served in the drawing-room,’ he informed her finally, flinging down his linen napkin.
Sarah had been too tense to eat much. Their surroundings impressed her to death: the rich décor, the gleaming period furniture, the fresh flower arrangements and the exquisite dinner service, not to mention the servants. She preceded Alex into the drawing-room and found herself gaping at a Canaletto above the marble fireplace with helpless fascination and an increasing feeling of being badly out of her depth.
The maid poured coffee. As soon as the door closed behind her, Alex murmured, ‘Let’s get down to business. I will naturally expect you to sign a pre-nuptial contract. I have already instructed my lawyers to draw one up.’
Was she prepared to marry him? It would not be a normal marriage. It would be a business arrangement for Nicky’s benefit. Her nephew’s rights of inheritance and his welfare would be secured. Nicky would have her...and she would have Nicky, she realised with a flood of warmth and relief. It wouldn’t matter if Alex spent most of his time flying round the globe...in fact it would be a bonus, she decided. Why shouldn’t she marry him? Callie would certainly have wanted her son to have the very best, and in this one way Sarah could ensure that that was exactly what Nicky received. Not just the material advantages but the love and support that were equally important.
What did she have to lose? Her freedom... What freedom would she have anyway with a young child? It was not as though she had any desire for a man in her life. Alex would continue to visit Athens and Paris and Sarah would carve out her own existence round Nicky. The only real difference would be that, for the very first time that she could remember, she would have no financial worries.
‘I will not marry you without the contract.’
‘No problem,’ Sarah murmured, not even looking at him, quite unconcerned by what clearly most preoccupied him. His filthy lucre. And the conservation of it.
‘I’ll send someone over with any forms that need to be filled in and you’ll be informed of the wedding arrangements in due course. Do you have any questions?’
‘Why have you agreed to this?’
‘For the ch
ild’s sake.’ Hooded dark eyes with the merest glimmer of gold rested on her, and an odd little shiver ran down her backbone. ‘I want him to have what he needs most: security, love and a peaceful home.’
Why was it that she wasn’t convinced? Why was it that some sixth sense sought to warn her that he was not telling her the truth? She suppressed her uneasiness irritably. He could gain nothing else but Nicky from a marriage empty of love, desire and even liking. And then the bitterness surged up inside her, blurring the clarity of her thoughts.
It should have been Callie and Damon. Her fingers tightened round her fine porcelain cup. She wanted Alex Terzakis to pay for hurting and humiliating Callie and for denying her the man she loved. Her stomach knotted up sickly. Yes, he deserved to pay...and pay he would, if she had anything to do with it!
‘You don’t appear to have very much to say to me,’ he noted softly.
‘I’ve got what I wanted.’ Sarah threw him a malicious smile.
He might have been carved from marble. Not a muscle moved on his strikingly hard features. He would make a terrific poker player, she conceded. He had to be hiding his rage. His fierce pride would force him to conceal his fury at being forced into marriage with a woman he despised. And she wanted to humble that macho pride just as he had once humbled Callie.
‘You seem very sure of that,’ Alex commented with a curiously slumbrous look in his dark eyes as they rested on her delicate profile.
‘I am.’ A sense of triumphant righteousness was filling her to capacity. There was justice in the world, after all. Alex Terzakis was not untouchable. She had him right where she wanted him...in the palm of her hand.
* * *
‘Well, what do you think?’ Ruefully conscious of Gina’s dropped jaw, Sarah cast aside her load of shopping-bags and pirouetted in the narrow hallway. ‘Does it suit me?’
‘Your hair...’ Gina whispered dazedly, taking in the silver-blonde mane now frothing over Sarah’s shoulders in a torrent of silky waves. ‘You’ve had it cut and styled...and that suit, those shoes...’ In frank astonishment, the older woman stared at the beautifully cut mauve jacket and skirt lovingly hugging Sarah’s slender figure. ‘You look like a million dollars. I could have walked past you in the street without recognising you!’
‘Good.’ Sarah started upstairs.
‘Do you really think you ought to be spending Alex’s money before you marry him?’ Gina murmured uneasily.
‘I love spending Alex’s money,’ Sarah confided truthfully. ‘He thinks I’m greedy and grasping. That contract made that clear enough. Twenty pages of insults. I think I ought to satisfy his expectations, don’t you?’
‘Has it occurred to you that you’ll still have to live with the man?’
‘I haven’t the slightest intention of living with him,’ Sarah asserted. ‘I dare say I’ll see him at the occasional mealtime...but, the way we feel about each other, I should imagine our meetings will be few and far between.’
‘Then why this staggering transformation?’
Sarah dealt her an outraged look and then laughed. ‘Gina, this isn’t for his benefit...it’s for Nicky’s.’
‘Nicky’s?’
‘I have to look the part to be his mother, don’t I? I have to fit,’ Sarah stressed with serious emphasis. ‘Otherwise, I’ll embarrass him in a few years’ time. Anyway, I’ve only done what Alex suggested. Put myself in the hands of the professionals so that I can look reasonably presentable...’
Gina swallowed hard. Sarah looked more than reasonably presentable, she looked luminously beautiful, and her small stature, no longer dwarfed by unflattering clothing, now revealed the fragile delicacy of her slender curves. But nobody knew better than Gina that any such assurance would be greeted by hurt rejection. Sarah had spent far too many years thinking of herself as plain to be easily convinced that she had in fact chosen to make herself look plain.
Not remotely like a prison wardress, Sarah reflected as she studied her appearance in the bedroom mirror. Money could buy the illusion of beauty. His money. After reading that grossly insulting pre-nuptial contract, Sarah had been furious. In the first place, it had initially been presented to her in Greek. She had had to demand an English translation before she’d finally condescended to sign the Greek version in several places. In reward for her apparent docility, she had then been handed several credit cards and informed that accounts had been opened in her name.
‘It’s not too late to change your mind, admit you had a brainstorm and that you really didn’t mean it,’ Gina sighed from the doorway.
Sarah groaned. Gina hadn’t once let up on the argument over the past week. ‘I haven’t had any second thoughts,’ she admitted. ‘I’m doing this for Nicky.’
‘But you’re not too unhappy that it demands a considerable sacrifice from Alex Terzakis?’
Emerald eyes fired. ‘What do you think?’
‘I think he isn’t a male I would like to cross. I think you’re crazy and, if anything, he’s even more crazy to have agreed...’
* * *
‘So tell me,’ Alex murmured tautly, ‘how did you do it?’
Do what? Sarah threw an uneasy glance at the male seated beside her in the limousine. She was as physically far away from him as she could get but somehow it still didn’t feel far enough. He was making her feel grossly uncomfortable. This was the first time Alex had actually spoken since the ceremony in the register office.
Mind you, he had more than made up for his silence by staring, she conceded irritably. If it had been any other man, she would have said that her improved appearance had literally struck him dumb but Sarah could not credit that some new clothes, a rather silly hairstyle and a few cosmetics could genuinely dredge such a staggered response from a male reputed to be a connoisseur of the world’s beautiful women. She suspected that he was attempting to send her up cruelly for her, no doubt in his eyes, pathetic efforts to measure up to her new status as Nicky’s mother.
‘Do what?’ Her arms felt empty without Nicky. Ignoring her new husband, Sarah cast a nakedly anxious glance back at the car following them. It contained Nicky...and a nanny. A real nanny in a uniform, and no Mary Poppins either in Sarah’s opinion.
When Nicky had screeched blue murder at being insensitively thrust by Alex into the strange woman’s arms, the nanny had tightened her mouth and said archly, ‘I can see you’re a spoiled little boy,’ and Sarah had rather suspected that Nanny Brown meant it. She wondered if this was the right moment to tell Alex that she did not want a nanny for Nicky and that she intended to devote herself personally to his full-time care.
‘How did you achieve this astonishing metamorphosis virtually overnight?’ Alex demanded in a low growl.
Sarah flushed, convinced that he was being hatefully sarcastic. She tilted her chin. ‘I hired an image consultant.’
‘I beg your pardon?’ Alex sounded almost dazed.
‘When you don’t know how to do something, you consult a higher authority.’
‘And what didn’t you know how to do?’
Her ripe mouth, expertly enriched by lipstick the exact shade of her peach-coloured shoes, tightened and then she noticed that his dark gaze seemed to be positively welded to her lips and instinctively withdrew even further into her self-imposed corner. What on earth was the matter with him? Why was he asking such stupid questions? After all, it had been he who had given her the idea in the first place. ‘With concentrated effort and professional advice, you could be quite attractive...’ he had said, buttering her up, of course.
‘I didn’t know how to make the best of myself with clothes and that sort of stuff. Frankly, I never had the time or the interest before,’ she muttered defensively. ‘Or the money to do it.’
‘You spent a pittance.’
He couldn’t be serious. She had spent a fortune on her own terms. Admittedly, her new wardrobe didn’t include any designer labels but it did include classic separates and suits that would not date and a rainbow collecti
on of shoes, handbags and lingerie. And the consultant, whose advice had been indispensable, had cost an arm and a leg!
‘An absolute pittance,’ Alex repeated, continuing to scan her elegance with narrowed eyes.
He really meant it, she registered. Virtue one. Alex Terzakis was not stingy.
‘And I am flattered that you were moved to such effort upon my behalf.’
‘Your behalf?’ Sarah echoed blankly. Dear heaven, for flattered read smug and amused...the conceited swine! she thought. ‘I did this for Nicky. Why on earth would I do it for you?’
‘Nicky?’ he repeated very drily.
‘I don’t want to embarrass him—’
‘He’s six weeks old!’ Alex suddenly raked at her incredulously.
‘I don’t ever want to be a mother that he will be ashamed of,’ Sarah responded shortly.
‘And what about gracing me with a wife that I don’t have to be ashamed of?’
Sarah regarded him with blatant astonishment, without even trying making it painfully obvious that such an ambition would never have occurred to her in a million years.
A dark flush had highlighted Alex’s savagely high cheekbones. He was outraged, she realised. Dear heaven, were all male egos this fragile? This was a marriage of convenience and he loathed her not one whit less than she loathed him. Why would she want to make herself more attractive for his benefit?
‘I wish you would stop staring at me,’ she muttered tightly, accusingly.
‘What did you expect?’ he drawled flatly. ‘You have altered yourself out of all recognition...apart from the hair...’
His accented voice had dropped in pitch and disturbingly roughened. Involuntarily, Sarah felt her every muscle tighten. Like a mesmerised statue, she watched a lean brown hand reach out across the great divide that separated them and flick one long shining silver strand and then linger.
Her heart in her mouth, her shocked eyes helplessly glued to smouldering gold ones, Sarah jerked back like a bristling cat cornered by a pit bull terrier, plastering her slender body against the door behind her.