Alix seethed inwardly. Did he have to rub her nose in it? It was one thing to know of her own failure, quite another to hear him speak of it. ‘I never asked you to come,’ she pointed out unnecessarily, sitting down only because her legs were so infuriatingly weak, that weakness brought about by an unwanted awareness of him. Nobody else had ever made her senses crackle the way he had, and still did, curse him.
‘How is your father?’ The disarming question made her frown.
‘Do you really care? If not, I’d rather you didn’t pay lip-service,’ she retorted cuttingly, and Pierce’s face grew stony.
‘Whatever you’ve learnt in five years, good manners wasn’t part of it. You’re biting the hand that could feed you, Alix. You’d be better advised to remember that I’m under no obligation to help you. I can get up and leave at any time.’
The reproof was deserved, and she drew in a sharp breath, all the same hating having to kowtow to him. ‘I’m sorry,’ she managed to grit out, and he looked amused.
‘Do I take it from that that you want me to stay?’ he mocked.
Lord, he was a devil! Would he not be happy until he had seen her grovel? ‘Yes.’ The word was torn from a tight throat.
His lips curved. ‘Then may I suggest you order some coffee? You’re almost certain to need it.’
She didn’t trust herself to answer, which he sensed and which only amused him more. She merely reached for the telephone and ordered the coffee. Sitting back, she took several deep breaths and forced herself to relax. She was letting him get to her, and that would always put her at a disadvantage. She had to let him see she was no longer a pushover.
‘You implied last night that you might be able to help us,’ she said in a far more ameliorating tone. ‘What exactly did you have in mind?’
Pierce crossed his legs, eyeing the tip of one shining handmade shoe. ‘As I understand it, the Petrakos Publishing Group is heavily in debt. In order to save it, there needs to be not only a large injection of cash, but also a radical appraisal of the way the business is run. In short, having sorted out the debts, you need to cut back the business into a more manageable size. Correct?’
He certainly knew how to get to the bare bones of the problem, she thought, with acid respect. ‘You know it is. However, you must know that I cannot agree to any sort of take-over without my father’s consent.’
One eyebrow quirked. ‘What makes you think I want to take over your business?’
She sent him an old-fashioned look. ‘Don’t take me for a fool. That’s the way you work. Everyone knows it. You buy people out, cut the businesses up into little pieces and make a killing.’
Now both eyebrows described a mocking arc. ‘Is that a criticism? Strange, I’ve never heard anyone else complaining. I deal fairly and squarely. People get the market value of their firms, and after that the risk is all mine. However, that isn’t the sort of deal I’m offering you,’ he told her quietly, and Alix found her nerves so tense, she couldn’t possibly sit still.
She jumped to her feet. ‘For goodness’ sake, get to the point!’
‘The point, my dear Alix, is that I am prepared to cover the debts. I am also prepared to inject sufficient cash to get the company rolling again,’ Pierce announced silkily.
Alix stared at him as if he had gone mad. ‘How? You’ve just said you aren’t interested in taking the business over. Not even you are mad enough to just hand over money without some sort of return.’
Pierce steepled his fingers and regarded her over the top of them. ‘You’re absolutely right. I’m not. You see, what I’m offering is more in the nature of a gift than a loan, and I most certainly do expect to get a return.’
‘A gift?’ Struck dumb, Alix slowly sank back into her seat, wide grey eyes staring into his. She swallowed hard. It sounded too good to be true. ‘What are your terms? I presume you have some?’
He inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘Most assuredly. The terms are these: I will hand over the required sums of money, and install a management team to review the company on the day that you, my dear Alix, become my wife.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘YOUR wife!’
For a moment Alix felt her senses swim, but then the blood rushed back with a vengeance, and she burst into sarcastic laughter, shaking her head in disbelief.
‘You’re insane! You have to be totally out of your mind!’ she declared scathingly.
Not by a flicker did Pierce’s expression change. ‘That, of course, is a matter of opinion. It has absolutely no bearing on the matter in hand—’
‘Except that you expect me to marry a madman!’ she cut in savagely.
Now his expression assumed a studied blandness. ‘I expect you to do the sensible thing. If I’m mad, as you say, then I’m still a very wealthy madman, and I’m offering you a way out of your difficulties. From all accounts, your only way out. The choice of accepting it is yours,’ he informed her coolly.
Alix felt a nauseous anger churning in her stomach at the idea that he could have had the gall even to suggest such a thing. ‘If you think, after the travesty of our first marriage, that I would ever, in any circumstances, contemplate marrying you again, then you aren’t just mad, you’re certifiable.’ The burnt child dreads fire. It was a proverb she found no argument with.
‘Stop being so melodramatic. You’re a businesswoman, and this is a business deal,’ Pierce commanded, with just the slightest edge to his voice.
Alix widened her eyes. ‘You mean you’d be making the same offer if it were a man sitting here? How very accommodating of you!’ she gibed.
Chilly blue eyes locked with hers. ‘It wouldn’t be wise to push me too far, Alix, My offer is a unique one, but can be withdrawn as easily as any other.’
She moved uncomfortably beneath that unwavering gaze. ‘I’m surprised you haven’t done so already. It would fit in with your modus operandi,’ she couldn’t help adding, even though she knew she was jeopardising her chances.
‘I would have thought by now, things being the way they are, that you’d realise we do what we have to do. It is a trait common to each of us, for we both have Greek blood in our veins.’
Her eyes sent out spears of loathing in a vain attempt to slay him. ‘Blood I would be only too happy to relieve you of. You see, I discovered five years ago that if there was one thing a Greek did well it was know how to hate. I took an oath too, Pierce, and that was to be revenged on you for what you did to me,’ she told him passionately.
Amusement glittered in his eyes, but an emotion which seemed to be a cross between admiration and approval flickered across his face for a moment. ‘I would have expected no less of a Petrakos.’
‘And yet you would marry me? Would help my father? Do you really expect a Petrakos to take the word of an Andreas?’
‘I expect you to take my word, along with my money, like any sensible person,’ Pierce returned with a hint of anger of his own.
Alix let her eyes flash with scorn as she leant across the desk towards him. ‘You make me sound a fool for looking a gift horse in the mouth, but you forget, I’ve heard of Troy too. I know only too well how much you should beware Greeks bearing gifts! So it really isn’t any wonder I don’t believe in your altruism. This is just some other scheme to get your filthy hands on another piece of the Petrakos inheritance!’ she flung at him challengingly.
A muscle ticked in his jaw, the only visible sign that what she was saying had got through the steely thickness of his skin. ‘There are only so many insults I am willing to take from you, Alix, so be advised. As to your claim about my intentions...’ here he paused and gave a typically Greek shrug of the shoulders ‘...you are at liberty to believe what you like. I know that should I attempt to change your opinion it would only make you dig your heels in deeper. However, I will just say this. I only ever had one enemy, and that was Yannis Petrakos. The debt was paid when I got the shipping line.’
Alix could no longer sit still, and she rose agitatedly to
her feet, pacing away, staring out of the window, yet seeing nothing. She didn’t know if she really believed what she had just claimed or not. She was fighting as best she could, but without ammunition in her weapons, and with her back to the wall. His statement didn’t help in any way, either. It only served to remind her of what she had never forgotten. Memory brought a renewed surge of pain, causing her fingers to curl into the frame. Defenceless or not, she had to go on.
‘You used me then, and you want to use me now,’ she stated hardily.
‘On the contrary, I want to help you.’
Her laugh grated harshly on her own ears. ‘Do you truly expect me to believe you’ll be satisfied just to help me? Are you saying you’ll let me go as soon as the money is paid over?’ she taunted, disbelievingly.
Unseen, Pierce rose agilely to his feet, going to stand behind her, so that Alix had no trouble feeling the awesome tension in him. She tensed, too, yet not just at the latent power which he held in check. She was very much aware of his masculinity, of the spicy tang of his aftershave, and the heat which radiated off him.
‘No,’ he confirmed her doubts in a voice which ran with steel. ‘The agreement is non-negotiable. You will remain my wife. There will be no divorce this time, and the marriage will be a very real one.’
Her breathing became restricted at the memories that conjured up, and her mouth twisted bitterly. Sex with Pierce had been more than just good, but then she had loved him. All that had changed. ‘Will it give you some kind of warped satisfaction to take a woman who you know hates you?’
Pierce moved fractionally closer, so that she could feel the brush of his suit against her own, poignantly recalling the glide of flesh on flesh. She knew it was a deliberate move, and knew instinctively that her best defence was to stay quite still and ignore him.
‘You may hate me, Alix, but I wonder if you’ve stopped wanting me?’ he queried in an altogether different voice, one which sent shivers racing along her spine as his breath brushed her nape. ‘You used to go up in flames in my arms.’
It was a goad she could not ignore despite her good intentions. She spun round, beside herself with anger, hand flashing out to slap his cheek so hard that it hurt her. ‘Only an utter bastard would remind me of just how much of a fool I was! The answer is no, Pierce. A hundred times no. Now get out of here before I call Security and have you thrown out!’ she ordered, hands thrust against his shoulders to push him away.
There was an answering anger in his blue eyes now. He moved swiftly, catching both her hands and forcing them round behind her back, hauling her resisting body hard up against his own. ‘Oh, no! Not until I’ve proved one thing, you little hell-cat,’ he bit out tautly, and brought his mouth down violently on hers.
It was a punishing assault which ground her lips against her teeth as she denied him entry, and had he continued with force she would have resisted him forever. But in seconds his attack changed, the pressure easing so that his lips barely brushed hers. Then the silken glide of his tongue stroked over the tender flesh, sending a frisson of pleasure along her nerves, relaxing muscles tensed to resist him. Taking swift advantage of that momentary softening, Pierce used one hand to hold both of hers and brought his free hand gliding up to cup her breast.
Alix felt the touch like a brand even through her jacket, and gasped as her breast swelled, the nipple pushing invitingly into his palm. With a grunt of satisfaction, he took her mouth, stroking her tongue erotically with his until she couldn’t help but respond, tasting him as the fight went out of her and she collapsed against his chest. He released her hands then, lowering his to her hips and hauling her up close against him so that she could feel the hardness of his arousal. She groaned, hands coming round to clutch the cloth of his jacket as she floated away.
Oh, God, how she had missed this! Nobody else had ever made her feel as if she was burning up, ready to explode. Only Pierce... His name rent the sensual cocoon which he had been weaving around her, and reality returned with a sickening wave of self-disgust. She stiffened in his arms, and in an instant Pierce had released her, stepping away to gaze down mockingly into her agonised eyes.
‘Would you still deny that you want me?’ he demanded huskily, and she turned away, unable to bear the proof of her own response in the flush of passion lying warm on his cheeks, and the breathing which was as erratic as her own.
‘I want you to go,’ she said shortly, disgust at herself for being unable to resist him making the words more a request than an order.
‘Not until we’ve settled this,’ Pierce refused point-blank. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her averted face. ‘You say you want revenge. What better way is there than to marry me?’ he proposed levelly, once more fully in control of himself.
Swallowing the bitterness of knowing how helpless she was, Alix returned to her seat, fingers gripping the arms until her knuckles grew white. ‘I won’t put my head in that noose again,’ she declared with all the firmness she could muster.
After a moment Pierce came to sit on the edge of the desk, hemming her in, even as his words were backing her further and further into a corner. ‘All right, then look at it this way. Stop thinking of yourself. You say you want to help your father, and I’m offering you the only way. Just how much did you really mean it? What became of family loyalty, Alix? What happened to personal loyalties, to those you love and who love you?’
Alix gasped as a shaft of pain lanced through her. How dared he ask that? No sacrifice would be too great for them! And yet no sooner had that instinctive statement been drawn up than so too was another more painful truth. By her refusal she was denying her father the only chance he had left. She had tried every other avenue, and this was the only one remaining. Pierce had always had perfect timing! Her voice was choked when she spoke. ‘You’re a sadist.’
Reaching across, he put one hand under her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. ‘I’m a realist. All you have to do is agree to marry me, and three days from now the money will be in the bank. Your father’s worries will be over,’ he expanded pragmatically.
While hers would be just beginning. ‘No!’ Her answer shot back at him as she pulled free. ‘Besides, my father would never accept money from you!’ she attempted to justify herself.
‘Why not? My name should speak for itself,’ he said without boasting, because it was a fact. World-wide his name was a virtual guarantee of good intent, despite her earlier remarks. Then, a moment later, Pierce’s eyes narrowed consideringly. ‘Or are you trying to tell me, in some roundabout way, that you told him about our marriage?’
How she would have loved to be able to say yes, and that her father thought he was a bastard too, but that would mean she had broken her word to her grandfather. It was a catch-22 situation, leaving her only with the truth. ‘Nobody knows,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘But if I told him who you are, then I doubt very much if he’d accept, whatever the consequences!’ she added, not wanting him to win every round as easily as he had so far.
Pierce looked mildly amused. ‘I know you’d like to think so, but your father is a realist too. Why don’t you try asking him?’
Her eyes flashed with a helpless anger. ‘Don’t think I won’t.’ Once again he had her reacting almost childishly. What had happened to all her poise and self-control when she needed them so badly? Silly question. Pierce had happened, and that was explanation enough.
As she might have expected, he laughed outright. ‘I put nothing past you, darling Alix. But just remember, you can still tell him nothing about our brief marriage. Nor would it be wise to get your hopes up too high. Somehow I don’t think he’ll be the champion you expect when it comes to an arranged marriage. He’s a Greek, even if slightly watered down like us. He’ll know what’s good for you, and marriage to me would see you secure for life.’
He was a monster. He had covered every conceivable angle, and she was beginning to feel more and more trapped. She hadn’t thought it possible for her hatred to grow, but it did no
w. ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’
A strange look crossed his face as he stood up, smoothing down his suit. ‘Do I? You’d be amazed at how often I’ve called myself a fool, Alix. But I’ve nothing to lose this time,’ he vouchsafed obliquely.
Alix didn’t understand him, and had absolutely no wish to. ‘Except a very great deal of money!’
Reaching across the desk, he ran one finger tantalisingly over her quivering lips. ‘Money isn’t everything. I learnt that a long time ago. As for this, I’m not taking your no for an answer. Think about it, Alix. Talk to your father if you must. I’ll give you twenty-four hours. If you need to reach me, I’m staying at the Savoy.’
Alix didn’t say a word, merely sat like a frozen statue and watched him leave. The soft closing of the door made her flinch, and she shuddered, lowering lids over smarting eyes. Marry Pierce? Dear God, how could she possibly accept such an offer? It was unthinkable. And yet what choice did she have? Could she really stand by and watch all her father had worked for go down the drain? Could she live with herself afterwards, knowing she had had the means to prevent it?
She shivered, feeling chilled to her bones. Marry Pierce? Resting her elbows on the desk, she sank her head on to her hands. Five years ago he had killed her with his cruelty. How could she put herself in his hands again? What was she to do? What on earth was she to do?
* * *
At three o’clock that afternoon, Alix gave up all attempts to work. Her brain simply wouldn’t function, even on the simplest of matters, and her meeting with the union representative had been a confrontation she could have done without. When he had finally departed, she had felt drained. Pierce’s offer filled her thoughts to the exclusion of everything else, but she knew she would never be able to rest until the matter was settled. There seemed to her to be only one way of doing that.
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