Then I’ll close my eyes, Lisa thought, remembering to thank the kindly taxi driver. How was she going to look at Tino’s ugly villa after feasting her eyes on a clear aquamarine ocean, ochre-tinted cliffs, and pale sugar sand? The fields they had passed had all been bathed in a mellow golden light, and there was a huge orange ball of a sun hanging low out to sea. She was sure Tino would live in some vast, overblown carbuncle, possibly with gold-plated walls, and certainly with a flagpole to show when he was in residence. Hideously opulent, and grotesquely vulgar, it was sure to be an eyesore after everything else she had seen on Stellamaris… Or not. ‘Is this it?’ she said with surprise, leaning forward in her seat.
‘Ne, Thespinis Bond,’ the taxi driver confirmed, ‘this is Villa Aphrodite. Very beautiful, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, she is,’ Lisa agreed without blinking. ‘Very beautiful indeed.’ Tino’s villa was cloaked in white marble that shimmered peach and umber where the muted light washed over it, and even the shadows came in a tasteful shade of magenta. She imagined the walls might turn to a delicate shade of pink in the first rays of dawn… The building was large, but even without stepping inside Lisa guessed there would be rooms for formal entertaining as well as cosier rooms in which you could live in comfort all year round. The entrance would be grand and imposing, but beyond that there would be secret hideaways—a home within a palace, rather than a showpiece, as she had been dreading… Tino’s home…
‘I expect Constantine is down on the beach.’
The elderly taxi driver cut into her thoughts. The warmth and familiarity with which he spoke the name immediately rang alarm bells in Lisa’s mind, reminding her that Zagorakis was a complex animal—and one she must be constantly wary of.
‘Unfortunately you can’t see the beach from up here.’
Half turning to her, the taxi driver reclaimed Lisa’s attention, angling his shoulders while watching the road. ‘Tino only arrived on Friday, so I expect he will be washing all the stresses of the city out of his mind.’
Stresses of the city? She’d give him stresses, Lisa mused grimly as her thoughts turned to her mission. If Constantine Zagorakis thought he could ditch their deal by remote control while he was enjoying a swim in the sea, he was sadly mistaken.
‘It’s the first thing he does when he comes home to Stellamaris,’ the taxi driver continued, unaware of the tensions building in the seat behind him. ‘Tino loves the ocean, like all Greeks…’
Lisa let his friendly chatter roll over her. It didn’t seem possible the taxi driver was talking about the same man. Even the thought of that brute having something called a home seemed unlikely. Surely Tino Zagorakis lived out of suitcases, always restless, always searching out the next deal?
She sat back as the taxi pulled through some tall wrought-iron gates, preparing herself with some deep steadying breaths. They were travelling slowly down a long, neatly groomed avenue lined with trees. Leading up to the grand villa, it dissected a garden bursting with flowers. In such a hot climate the irrigation alone would be a mammoth task.
‘It is almost May Day—a significant day on Stellamaris. The gardens are at their best.’
Lisa met the taxi driver’s gaze in the driver’s mirror.
‘Soon everyone will be gathering flowers to decorate their houses,’ he went on. ‘You are visiting Stellamaris at the most romantic time of year.’
Lisa’s lips firmed. ‘The villa seems to be built on top of a cliff,’ she said, to distract him from a topic she had no interest in pursuing. ‘How do you get down to the beach?’
‘There are steps cut into the cliff face,’ he explained, ‘but Tino has had a funicular fitted to make it easier for his friend.’
‘His friend?’
‘His elderly friend.’
Constantine Zagorakis had more than one friend? That seemed unlikely.
‘And here we are,’ the taxi driver declared, halting at the foot of some impressive marble steps. Yanking on the handbrake, he switched off the engine.
In spite of everything she had planned—keeping a cool head, securing the deal at any price, etc—Lisa’s heart was thundering. What was she doing here? What was she really doing here? She should have asked for Tino’s e-mail address, and communicated with him safely on that level— impersonally.
Smoothing down her suit jacket, she paid the driver. It didn’t help that she felt so hot and sticky. The tailored trouser suit she was wearing was lightweight, but not lightweight enough. She realised the fingers of one hand were biting like claws into the handle of her briefcase as she waved goodbye with the other.
She tried Mike on the mobile to let him know she had arrived safely, but there was no signal. She really was alone. Turning to stare at the impressive iron-studded door marking the entrance to Tino’s home, she sucked in one more breath, and then ran up the steps.
CHAPTER THREE
LISA realized she was staring foolishly. She had been prepared for most things, but not this. Words refused to form in response to the young woman’s greeting. She could only fight the rigor in her lips, and bob her head.
The girl couldn’t have been much more than twenty-five, and was tall and very beautiful, with a cloud of inky-black hair that fell well below her naked shoulders. She was tanned—evenly, beautifully, naturally tanned—and she smelled fresh, like sea spray, as if she had just returned from the beach. She was wearing something floaty and diaphanous in muted shades of new-shoot green and lemon, over what might have been a bikini—it didn’t feel right to look too closely—and her tiny feet were bare with bright red toenails. And Tino was standing right behind her.
Lisa sensed, rather than saw him. She didn’t trust herself to look. Her head was still reeling. She wasn’t taking anything in too clearly… She shouldn’t care. Of course she shouldn’t care… She ordered herself angrily to get her head up—to look him in the eye. When she did, she found that he was almost a head taller than his beautiful companion, and that his right hand was resting lightly on the young woman’s waist.
The urge to make some angry, guttural sound at the sight of that hand—the same hand that had held her so firmly, the hand that was now resting on another woman—threatened to overwhelm her. Just when she needed all her wits about her, she was transfixed by that hand, and by Tino’s proprietary air towards a young woman he was showing no inclination to introduce her to.
She took matters into her own hands ‘Hi, my name’s Lisa Bond. I’ve come to see Tino on business—’
‘Arianna knows why you’re here, Lisa.’
Like the woman he called Arianna, Tino was dressed casually, as if they had come up from the beach together. Lisa found herself gripped by jealousy: irrational, unwelcome, inescapable jealousy. All she could think of was the touch of his hands on her body and that for a split second before she had pushed him away she had almost lost control.
Both Arianna and Tino were so relaxed, their outfits so normal for any couple living by the sea. Tino’s bronzed feet were naked, and dusted with sand, his casual shirt barely held in place by a couple of buttons. He must have dressed in a hurry… He could hold one woman so passionately in his arms it was branded on her mind, and then coolly return home to another?
Lisa calmed herself. This was business—no need to make it personal. The only way to get money into the bank fast enough to save Bond Steel was to get that money from a cash-rich company like Zagorakis Inc. Zagorakis had to buy her small engineering works. Her personal feelings were irrelevant. She wasn’t going anywhere until the deal was sewn up.
She viewed the couple again, trying to work out what she was up against. There was the wrong dynamic between them for Arianna to be Tino’s sister… And then she noticed Tino’s bleached linen trousers were rolled up almost to his knees. The sight of his naked legs stirred some very primitive emotions inside her, not least of which was the knowledge that Arianna must know how it would feel to have those powerful legs wrapped around her—
Andreas had warned hi
m she was coming. But this was better than he had expected. Seeing Lisa hovering uncertainly on his doorstep gave him a real rush. It was time she learned she couldn’t win every battle in the boardroom, or the bedroom.
She was thrown by the fact that he wasn’t alone, and that his companion was a beautiful young woman. Good. That was her first lesson. She was so used to ruling the roost at Bond Steel, she took too much for granted. No one outside his inner circle could say if he had brothers or sisters, or any family at all. Curiosity about Arianna had to be eating her up inside; he planned to keep it that way as long as possible.
Tino’s face told Lisa very little. What was he thinking? Chasing after him had put her on the back foot, but the deal was too crucial to the survival of Bond Steel for her to entrust it to a third party. Yes, of course it would have been better for her to deal with him by mail, at a distance— but that just wasn’t her way. She never shirked a confrontation. It just hadn’t occurred to her that Tino’s life might be very different from her own. She should have known that a man like Constantine Zagorakis would never want for female company.
She managed a smile—that encompassed both the people facing her. ‘It’s very good of you to see me like this.’ Arianna smiled back, but Lisa found herself confronting a brick wall in Tino’s eyes.
Damn! Damn! Damn! She was only being nice for Arianna’s sake. This picture of domestic bliss had really thrown her. She should have known that ‘nice’ didn’t suit her. She had given Tino the advantage over her right away…
She had pictured a butler showing her into a room where there would have been a chance to look around and draw conclusions about the very private Constantine Zagorakis. Those conclusions would have helped her to hone her business strategy. There would have been time to sip a refreshing drink while she lowered the temperature in her heart to freezing just to remind herself that the idea of courting Clifton Steel must have been in his mind all the time he’d been holding her, leading her on to the point where he’d almost kissed her.
A few steadying breaths and she could feel her determination flowing back. She was over her jealousy, and ready to concentrate on rescuing the deal. On bettering him, on triumphing over the bastard!
‘You’re always welcome, Lisa.’
Always welcome? Was he mocking her now?
‘Andreas told us to expect you.’
‘It won’t take long.’ Lisa glanced apologetically at Arianna. She refused to see the young woman as a rival, if only because that would have meant Tino had some sort of hold over her. ‘I’m staying at the Zagorakis guest house,’ she added in case he should think she was looking for board and lodgings. She had the satisfaction of seeing his gaze sharpen.
‘Tino, please—’ Arianna touched his arm ‘—Lisa looks so pale. She must be tired. She’s had a long journey.’
Pale and tired? Pale because she was strung out like a wire, perhaps…
‘Arianna’s right. Won’t you come in, Lisa?’
Was the humour in his voice only apparent to her? Lisa wondered as she went past them both into the house. She would have to handle this carefully. It might be just a game to him, but she had no intention of losing Bond Steel to Tino Zagorakis.
The hallway was magnificent. It couldn’t have been a more perfect setting for two such beautiful people. A plant- filled atrium stretched towards a stained glass cupola set into the roof, and where the dying rays of the sun penetrated it caused jewels of light to tremble on the floor beneath her feet.
Something made her turn and she noticed Arianna slipping away. Doubtless all Tino’s women would be equally well trained. They would have to become used to coming second to his business interests.
Beneath the curve of an impressive staircase she spotted a grand piano—it surprised her if only because it wasn’t there for show. The lid was raised, and there was a selection of music littering the stand, as well as the floor around the piano stool.. Barto´k, Bach, Liszt and Brahms, all challenging, cerebral pieces, with a strong dose of romance in the mix…
‘Are you interested in music, Lisa?’
She could feel Tino’s stare burning into her back. ‘Yes, I am, as it happens.’
‘Does it surprise you to find music here?’
‘Surprise me? No.’ No one knew anything about Constantine Zagorakis, or the way he lived, but she was intrigued by the music, and felt sure it must belong to someone else. Zagorakis didn’t possess the heart for music. ‘Does your friend play the piano?’
‘Are you talking about Arianna?’
Lisa shrugged. She didn’t want him mistaking her interest for good old-fashioned female jealousy. ‘Yes, I wondered if the music belonged to Arianna.’
‘Arianna plays the piano occasionally—but more to learn her parts than anything else. She’s an opera singer by profession.’
‘I see.’ Why didn’t that surprise her? Was it because there was something about the dark-eyed beauty that reminded her of her idol, the late diva suprema, Maria Callas? There was the same passion and the same intensity in Arianna’s expression. Was there the same heartbreak courtesy of a Greek billionaire in store for her too?
‘Does Arianna do lot of travelling?’ Do you travel with her? Or do you play away when she’s working?
Tino made a noncommittal sound, and she wasn’t about to repeat the question. And now he was holding open a door she saw led into his study. She had been so busy with her own thoughts, she hadn’t realised they had arrived at their destination.
His study was cool, though surprisingly cosy. The cushions were designed to sink into, and the lighting was subtle. Two sofas were arranged either side of a large stone fireplace, but the fire wasn’t lit as the weather was too warm. The windows were open and she could hear the insistent chirrup of cicadas through the slim, slatted blinds.
‘Make yourself comfortable, Lisa.’
‘Thank you.’ She hadn’t realised how weary she was, but much depended on this visit and she couldn’t afford to lose concentration. She had to secure the deal. She had to save Bond Steel, whatever the personal cost. She couldn’t let Tino take the company as easily as he had stolen her self-control.
He invited her to sit down.
‘I’ll go and get some drinks. White wine all right?’
Wine? To soften her up? She still rued the champagne she had shared with him on Thursday night. ‘Just water for me, please.’
As Tino left the room Lisa knew, however well prepared she was, there were certain things she couldn’t know. How far down the road was his deal with Clifton? Could she still convince Zagorakis that her small engineering works was the best option for him, and that he didn’t need the aggravation of two larger companies like Bond and Clifton?
Doubt washed over her to the point where she wondered if her fighting juices were all used up—and then the door swung open and he walked in. ‘Does Arianna know who you were with on Thursday night?’
‘I doubt she’d be interested.’
As Tino stared at her Lisa wondered what was she doing making any of this personal—the one thing she had vowed not to do. But, however cold-bloodedly she approached the situation, a very female part of her wanted answers. Watching him open a bottle of Chablis, she wished things could have been simpler between them. If they had been she would have asked him who the hell Arianna was, and get it over with.
There was a jug of iced water on the tray as well as a bowl of fresh fruit, and there was also a plate of what looked suspiciously like home-made cookies. Lisa hadn’t eaten a thing since breakfast, and now she realised how hungry she was. But how could she eat cookies when foremost in her mind was an image of Arianna playing earth mother for Tino in the kitchen?
Tino made the torture worse, biting into one of them and then uttering a deep-throated sound of pleasure. The last time she had heard him make a sound like that was when he’d almost kissed her—
‘Won’t you have one?’ He held out the plate.
Apart from wanting to crack it over his
head, no way was she going to touch it. Tino was so cool, so together, she wanted the cookies to glue his teeth together, or pull them out, or, better still, stick in his throat and choke him.
‘Do try one.’ He kept on watching her. ‘I can assure you, they’re delicious.’
‘Thank you, no.’ She waved them away with an impatient gesture. ‘Care to tell me why you’re cosying up to Clifton?’
‘Ever the businesswoman, Lisa?’ He shook his head as he put the plate down on the table. ‘You’re such fun to be with.’
‘I can be.’
‘Really? And when would that be?’
The verbal slap came out of nowhere. It took a moment to recover. It seemed Tino shared none of her scruples about avoiding personal issues.
‘You have a proposition for me,’ he prompted.
‘If you’re interested?’
‘I’m always prepared to listen to a business proposal.’
‘I hear you’ve gone cold on our deal and transferred your interest to Clifton Steel?’
‘I’m always looking for possibilities.’
‘Have you ruled out my small engineering works?’
He kept her waiting so long Lisa wondered if he’d heard the question.
‘I haven’t ruled anything out yet,’ he said at last.
‘I do have other people waiting.’
‘Really? Your company’s in big trouble Lisa—your share price is falling through the floor.’
‘And I’ll recover the situation.’
‘In time?’
‘Yes, if we can reach an agreement.’
‘And if you go to one of these other companies—can they come up with the cash in time to save Bond Steel?’
‘Probably not—’ She didn’t have the luxury of time to play cat and mouse with him. Reaching into her own briefcase, Lisa welcomed the chance to break eye contact. Tino’s stare was so penetrating he made her feel naked— and she needed a clear head to do business with him. ‘If you will just take a look at the figures I’ve been working on…’
The Millionaire's Virgin (Mills & Boon By Request) Page 4