‘I—That was you?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Angela sneered. ‘Until I reached sixteen and was old enough to break my ties with my family in order to reinvent myself and use the one asset I have—my body and the way that I look. Of course I had to put up with the pawing of a succession of wealthy old men, but it was all worth it when I finally persuaded the wealthiest one into marrying me.’
Gemini went deathly white at these revelations. ‘You told my father that your father had gambled away your family fortune before committing suicide—’
‘And he did gamble—probably still does. What little money the government gave us always went to the bookies or on another bottle of whisky to throw down his throat,’ Angela said harshly. ‘He rarely, if ever, gave my mother enough money to actually feed any of us.’
‘You told my father that both your parents were dead.’
‘I lied,’ Angela admitted. ‘I’ve never been back, but as far as I’m aware both my parents are still alive—and no doubt living in exactly the same squalor as always.’
Gemini could perhaps understand what had driven Angela into seducing Miles into marriage now that she knew the truth of the other woman’s background—obviously any wealthy man would have done. Could understand and even sympathise with her. What she couldn’t accept was the unhappiness that selfishness had caused her disillusioned father before he died…
She took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry if that truly is how you were forced to live as a child—’
‘Oh, it’s all true,’ Angela assured her. ‘And you can keep your sympathy for someone who might actually appreciate it. After all, I came out the winner in the end, didn’t I?’
Oh, yes, Angela had certainly triumphed. Spectacularly, in fact, with regard to Gemini’s father.
‘I suppose Drakon Lyonedes was to be your second, even wealthier husband?’
‘Why not?’ Angela demanded aggressively.
Gemini gave a pained frown. ‘Don’t you have enough money now, having sold off everything my father left you?’
‘I’ll never have enough money,’ the older woman said with hard determination.
‘And never care who you have to trample over in order to get it, apparently,’ Gemini said dully.
‘That’s rich, coming from you!’ Angela jeered. ‘You’re still so desperate to own Bartholomew House that you would even stoop to trying to seduce Drakon yourself to get it!’
Gemini felt ill. In fact she thought she might actually be sick if she had to stand and listen to this woman for too much longer. ‘Considering your claim that you’re involved with Drakon, I’m surprised you believe he could be seduced—by me or any other woman.’
‘I believe I said you had tried to seduce him,’ Angela scoffed. ‘I’m sure you very quickly learnt that a man like Drakon requires a woman who’s a little more adventurous and experienced than a mere baby like you!’
Just thinking of Drakon and Angela together intimately, after the passionate way he had kissed her in the lift four days ago, brought on another wave of nausea. She swallowed hard. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave after all.’
‘I’m not going anywhere until I’ve made it perfectly clear to you that Bartholomew House—and Drakon—will never be yours!’ Angela announced.
Gemini gave a slow and disbelieving shake of her head. ‘What on earth could a man like Drakon possibly see in someone like you?’
Those blue eyes flashed angrily. ‘Oh, climb down off your alabaster pedestal, Gemini. If you haven’t realised it yet, your own pathetic attempt to seduce Drakon makes you exactly like me!’
Gemini closed her eyes and gave a shudder of distaste. ‘God, I hope not.’
‘Offends your naive little sensibilities, does it?’ Angela taunted.
‘Everything about you offends my sensibilities,’ Gemini shot back.
‘Why, you little—’
‘I think not,’ interrupted a dangerously soft voice that Gemini instantly recognised.
She opened wide, startled eyes in time to see Drakon take hold of the arm that Angela had raised with the intention of slapping Gemini on the face.
The older woman’s face twisted into an ugly mask of hatred as she turned to see who her assailant was. The change that came over Angela’s expression then was even more sickening than all that had gone before it. Her eyes softened to a sultry blue as she looked up at Drakon. Her painted red lips curved into an inviting smile, the anger leaving her body as she leant into him.
‘Oh, dear, Drakon, I’m afraid you’ve been caught in the middle of a rather silly argument between two even sillier women,’ she murmured throatily.
Gemini felt nausea rise up inside her, and knew she was actually going to be ill after witnessing this sickeningly kittenish display. She only had time to gasp ‘Excuse me!’ before she brushed past Drakon, heading for the stairs and the privacy of the bathroom in her apartment above the shop.
CHAPTER SEVEN
DRAKON took one look at Gemini collapsed on the floor beside the toilet in the bathroom of her apartment, her face a deathly clammy white after obviously having been violently ill, before striding over to the sink and dampening a flannel with cold water. He went down on his knees beside her to begin bathing her face.
Gemini pushed the flannel away, her eyes a deep and pained sea-green. ‘What are you doing?’
He raised dark brows as he sat back on his heels. ‘I believe I am endeavouring to make you feel better.’
She gave a humourless smile. ‘I’m afraid it’s going to take a lot more than the application of a cold flannel to my forehead to succeed in doing that!’
‘Gemini—’
‘Would you please just go away, Drakon?’ She avoided looking at him directly as she reached up and self-consciously flushed the toilet for a second time before lowering the lid and using it as leverage to rise shakily to her feet. ‘It’s bad enough that I allowed that woman to upset me enough to actually make me physically sick, without the added humiliation of having you witness it,’ she muttered, and she picked up her toothbrush and toothpaste and left the bathroom without so much as a second glance in his direction.
Drakon rose slowly to his feet and threw the damp flannel back into the sink. He concentrated on drawing in deep, controlling breaths in an attempt to dampen down the worst of his own anger at the scene he had walked in on a few minutes ago. His hands clenched into fists at his sides as he fought the need to slam one of them into the mirror inset into the wall over the sink.
Following the veiled insights Gemini had given him into Angela Bartholomew’s true nature, he had expected the older woman to come straight to the florist’s shop and confront Gemini. But, even knowing that, Drakon hadn’t been prepared for the scene of violence he had walked in on earlier.
Or his own reaction to it…
A haze of red had literally passed in front of his eyes on seeing Angela’s hand raised with the obvious intention of striking Gemini, and for the first time in his life Drakon had actually felt himself tempted into using violence against a woman.
He hadn’t done so, of course. That would have been totally against his nature, as well as his parents’ teachings. But it had taken every ounce of his self-control not to shake Angela until her perfectly straight white teeth rattled in her vicious head!
Instead he had taken a tight hold of the woman’s arm and escorted her from the shop, closing the door firmly behind her before informing Gemini’s wide-eyed assistant that her employer was indisposed and probably wouldn’t be downstairs again for the rest of the day.
Coming up the stairs to Gemini’s apartment and finding her collapsed on the floor of the bathroom, and then having his offer of assistance totally rejected by her, had brought a return of that furious red haze.
So much so that Drakon knew he still didn’t have his emotions completely back under iron control when he went in search of her.
Gemini looked up warily as Drakon joined her in the sitting room. She
had already hurried into the kitchen and washed her face and cleaned her teeth, but still felt mortified by the scene he had witnessed downstairs, as well as her own physical and embarrassing reaction to it.
But she was even angrier with Drakon for having been the real cause of Angela’s vehemence. ‘What are you doing here, Drakon?’ she demanded dully. ‘Isn’t it enough that I’ve had to listen to your mistress insult both my father and myself this afternoon, without having to now suffer your company, too?’
A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. Those black eyes glittered darkly. ‘I believe I assured you last week that that woman is not, and never will be, my mistress,’ he bit out harshly.
Gemini gave a disbelieving snort as she stood beside the unlit fireplace. ‘Have you told her that?’
‘I have no need to tell a woman such as her something she is already only too well aware of,’ he said arrogantly.
‘Could we please stop the lies?’ Gemini pushed the length of her hair back from the paleness of her face. ‘We both know that Angela only came here at all today because you told her I’d seen you last week.’
That nerve in his jaw pulsed even harder. ‘Markos was the one to tell her about that.’
She looked stunned. ‘What?’
Drakon sighed at her look of hurt disbelief. ‘In self-defence. He had no idea of the trouble it would cause when he did so.’
Gemini stared across at him incredulously. ‘You really expect me to believe that?’
He rose up to his full height, appearing every inch the arrogant billionaire industrialist he was in one of his expensively tailored dark suits, pale grey silk shirt, and a darker grey silk tie. The darkness of his hair looked as if it had received a trim since the last time she had seen him.
‘I am no more in the habit of lying than you have assured me you are,’ he told her coldly.
‘I just find it a little hard to believe that Markos needed to tell Angela anything out of self-defence,’ she said sceptically.
Drakon looked slightly uncomfortable. ‘Apparently she had just propositioned him. Markos was so taken aback by the suggestion that he fell back on his brief acquaintance with you in order to change the subject.’
The first part of that statement sounded a lot like the Angela Gemini now knew far better than she’d ever wished to. It was the second part of the statement that sounded so improbable. ‘Your cousin implied that he and I are involved in an attempt to deflect Angela’s interest in him?’
Drakon’s jaw tightened. ‘I believe Markos might have implied that it is you and I who are involved, and that he is also acquainted with you.’
That would certainly explain the arrival of the wrathful Angela. ‘And exactly how did he think telling her something like that was going to succeed in saving him from what I’m sure was Angela’s less than subtle proposition?’
‘Markos obviously had no idea of the animosity with which Angela regards you.’ Drakon’s nostrils flared. ‘Apparently I was her real target, and Markos only second choice. I believe he merely hoped to distract even those second-hand attentions by drawing attention to our own acquaintance.’
Gemini stared at Drakon wordlessly for several seconds. The directness of that unwavering dark gaze challenged her to continue disbelieving him. Which she found she couldn’t do. The explanation was so ridiculous—and sounded so exactly like something Angela would do—that Gemini couldn’t help but believe it.
She felt some of the tension leave her body as she gave a rueful sigh. ‘Poor Markos.’
‘Poor Markos?’ Drakon repeated incredulously, knowing that at this moment in time he could cheerfully have pummelled his cousin to a pulp—something he hadn’t done since they had been children together—for being the cause of Angela’s verbal and physical assault on Gemini.
Gemini nodded. ‘I like Markos.’
Drakon noted grimly that she did not say she felt that same liking for him. Not that he could exactly blame her. So far in their acquaintance Gemini had believed him to be involved in an affair with her father’s widow, to be responsible for denying her the right to purchase her family home, and to add insult to injury he had then proceeded to make love to her against the wall of a lift in Lyonedes Tower!
No, unfortunately he had no one but himself to blame if Gemini’s feelings towards him were more than a little ambivalent.
Drakon looked up as she gave a sudden splutter of laughter. ‘Sorry—I was just imagining Markos’s panic when Angela propositioned him!’ she explained at his questioning look.
‘Certainly not his finest hour,’ Drakon acknowledged dryly. ‘Although he did at least have the good sense to come to me immediately after she had departed and inform me of what he had done,’ he added with a frown. ‘I am only sorry I did not arrive soon enough to prevent the unpleasantness of your stepmother’s verbal attack.’
‘You at least stopped the physical one.’ Gemini gave a shrug of her slender shoulders. ‘And the verbal stuff was no worse than some of her other outbursts, actually. Better in some ways, because for the first time I actually learnt a little of what motivates her.’ She grimaced. ‘Not a pretty story, I’m afraid.’
And not one she intended sharing with him either, Drakon guessed. Not that he had any wish to know anything more of Angela, or the reasons she behaved in the way she did. His only concern was Gemini—not the unpleasant woman whom her father had married.
‘What did she say to make you physically ill?’
She was very pale still, but even so Drakon couldn’t help but appreciate the way the colour of Gemini’s short-sleeved blouse perfectly matched the colour of her eyes, making her hair appear even more white-gold. Black jeans fitted smoothly over her bottom and thighs; her bare feet were thrust into flat, open-toed sandals.
Gemini sobered. She was very aware that it was the shock of thinking Drakon was involved with Angela after all, and then his unexpected arrival so quickly after Angela—which at the time had only seemed to confirm his involvement—that had caused her to be so violently ill.
The question was, why had it?
She had thought about Drakon a lot these past four days—of their time together in the lift, of her own loss of control—so maybe it had been the thought of his having discussed any of that with Angela which had made her feel so ill? Although if that had really been the case she had no doubt that Angela would have taken great pleasure in telling her so!
‘I told you—nothing worse than usual.’ Gemini gave a dismissive shake of her head. ‘Shouldn’t you have flown back to New York by now?’
He glanced down at the plain gold watch on his tanned wrist. ‘I was scheduled to leave for the airport an hour ago, yes,’ he admitted, before shrugging broad shoulders as he saw her surprised expression. ‘I thought it more important that I come here instead, to help you deal with your stepmother,’ he explained.
Gemini felt a warm glow inside at the thought of Drakon having changed his arrangements out of concern for her. ‘That really was very kind of you,’ she murmured huskily. ‘Perhaps you’ll be able to book another flight later today?’
He smiled tightly. ‘It is of no matter; the Lyonedes jet will fly whenever I instruct it to do so.’
‘Of course it will.’ She nodded ruefully. Silly her—of course there was a Lyonedes jet! Her father had been extremely wealthy, but she knew the Lyonedes family were rich beyond her imagining. Hence Angela’s obvious interest in ensnaring one of them for herself…‘What on earth did you say to Angela to finally get her to go?’ she prompted curiously.
Drakon’s top lip curled with distaste as he recalled the unpleasantness of that conversation—the details of which he had no intention of sharing with Gemini. But it had left Drakon feeling it might be of benefit to all concerned if he were to have further investigations made in regard to Angela Bartholomew. If for no other reason than that Lyonedes Enterprises was about to complete an important and costly business transaction with a woman who could not be trusted.
&
nbsp; Except Drakon knew there was another, equally important reason for his concern about Angela. And that reason was standing across the room from him.
He’d had every intention of returning to New York this evening—of putting Gemini Bartholomew and the desire that had blazed so hotly between them the previous week firmly from his mind. But now that he had seen her again he knew he no longer felt any inclination to leave England—either today or tomorrow. In fact, he had no desire to leave England until he was reassured that this matter between Gemini and her stepmother had been settled.
And it would be settled, Drakon inwardly decreed grimly. One way or another. In such a way that would ensure Gemini was no longer in danger from Angela’s viciousness.
‘I merely told her that it was time for her to leave,’ he answered economically, having no intention of boring Gemini with the truth of her stepmother’s flirtatious manner—almost as if he had not witnessed the viciousness of her attack on Gemini!—or the fact that she had dared to invite him out to dinner this evening. It was an invitation Drakon had left the other woman in absolutely no doubt he would refuse—along with any others she might care to make in the future.
The sneering remarks she had made about Gemini following that refusal had been enough to alert Drakon anew concerning Gemini’s safety…
‘Are you free for dinner this evening?’
Gemini had been lost in thought during Drakon’s lengthy silence, but now she looked across at him sharply. ‘You’re inviting me to have dinner with you again?’
He nodded briskly. ‘It is obvious that we need to discuss the continuing problem of your stepmother further, and as I will no longer be flying back to New York today—’
‘You won’t?’ Gemini blinked owlishly, not sure whether that lurch in her stomach was due to a residual nausea from earlier or if it was solely to do with the fact that Drakon apparently wasn’t returning to New York today as planned, and had actually invited her out to dinner with him this evening!
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