The Greek's Convenient Wife (Greek Tycoons)

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘I suppose you’ve done this deliberately?’ she asked. ‘Isn’t this taking the pound of flesh a little too far?’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking when we made love.’

  ‘We did not make love.’ She sent him a frosty glance. ‘We had sex.’

  ‘Both produce babies.’

  ‘I don’t want to listen to this.’ She turned away.

  ‘There’s something else I’d like to discuss with you.’

  She stalled, a shiver of apprehension running through her at some indefinable element to his tone. ‘What?’

  ‘I don’t want you to have any further contact with Jeremy Myalls.’

  She opened and closed her mouth.

  ‘May I ask why?’ She finally found her voice.

  ‘I don’t trust him.’

  ‘I see.’

  He wanted to tell her of his suspicions regarding Jeremy’s handling of the investigation into her father’s misuse of company funds but wasn’t sure she was in the right frame of mind to accept his angle on the matter.

  ‘Is there anyone else I’m forbidden to have contact with?’ she asked with her usual spirit.

  ‘No.’ He hooked his jacket over his shoulder and turned for the door.

  ‘Where are you going?’ she asked before she could stop herself.

  He gave her an ironic look as he turned the doorknob.

  ‘I’m going out. Any objections?’

  She ground her teeth. ‘No. I don’t give a damn.’

  ‘I’m very glad to hear it,’ he said and closed the door behind him.

  Maddison shut her eyes against the bitter tears but there was no stopping them. She stumbled blindly for the spare bedroom but it was very close to dawn before she finally fell asleep.

  Maddison tried not to notice the fact that Demetrius hadn’t returned to the penthouse overnight. She avoided looking at his smoothly made bed on the way past, and after a solitary breakfast made her way downstairs.

  She went to the nearest auto teller machine and checked her balance, her eyes instantly widening at the amount documented there.

  Jeremy had deposited the funds so all she had to do now was withdraw them.

  She made her way inside the next branch of her bank that she came to but when she handed her withdrawal slip to the teller she gave her an apologetic look.

  ‘I’m sorry, those funds can’t be withdrawn until they clear.’

  ‘How long will that take?’

  The teller looked at her computer screen for a moment.

  ‘Five working days for the Australian currency and a month for the international ones.’

  ‘International?’

  ‘International cheques take up to one month to clear. I’m sorry.’

  Maddison left the bank in a state of agitation. She’d wanted to hand over a bank cheque to Demetrius, not have those funds sitting in her bank account for a month!

  She had only moved a few paces back through the hotel foyer when a male voice called out to her.

  ‘Maddison!’

  ‘Kyle?’

  She turned on her heel and threw herself at him, almost choking him with her arms around his neck.

  ‘Hey, steady on, old girl.’ He extricated himself with a gruff note of affection in his voice.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, her expression instantly clouding.

  ‘I wanted to see you. Mr Marquis gave me an advance so I could come.’

  ‘You can’t see me here!’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘You know why not!’

  ‘Let’s go upstairs then,’ he suggested.

  She bit her lip in indecision.

  ‘Come on, Maddy, I won’t keep you long.’

  ‘All right,’ she said, leading the way. ‘But I’m warning you if the axe falls on your neck this time I’m not stepping on to the block with you.’

  The lift carried them upstairs in a mutually agreed silence.

  Maddison shut the penthouse door behind them and faced him.

  ‘Kyle, you really shouldn’t be here.’

  ‘I know but I had to tell you something important.’

  ‘What could be more important than you staying out of jail?’

  ‘I didn’t sink his boat.’

  It took her a moment to grasp his simple statement.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I didn’t do it.’

  She stared at him in horror. ‘What do you mean you didn’t do it? You told me you did it! You said you sabotaged his boat…I mean his yacht, and it sank!’

  ‘I admit I was on his yacht that night,’ he said. ‘And I wanted to sink it but I didn’t do it. I couldn’t have.’

  ‘I’m not following you.’ She lowered herself on to the nearest sofa.

  He reached for a newspaper clipping in his pocket and handed it to her. ‘I found this in one of the newspapers at Gillaroo. It says Demetrius’s boat was sabotaged by a diving spear. I pulled the plug out of the centre of his yacht, thinking it would do the trick, but it wasn’t enough to sink it.’

  ‘You didn’t use a diving spear?’

  ‘Sis, I can’t swim to save myself. How the hell do you think I’d be able to pull off that sort of stunt?’

  ‘I thought someone must have helped you…’ She swallowed and stared at the newspaper clipping in her hand. It showed a picture of Demetrius’s yacht after its retrieval from the bottom of Parsley Bay, the underside of it clearly scored by three deep puncture marks.

  She lifted her confused gaze to his. ‘But if you didn’t do it, then who did?’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ‘I DON’T know, but I have a feeling it won’t be long before they reveal themselves,’ Kyle answered confidently.

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  He gave her a superior male look. ‘Because Demetrius has known almost from the start where I was.’

  Her eyes widened in shock. ‘What?’

  ‘He called me the other day.’

  She got to her feet in agitation, her tumbled thoughts scrambling her brain.

  ‘But I don’t understand.’ She gripped the back of the drinks cabinet for support. ‘He kept asking me to tell him where you were.’

  ‘Maybe he wanted you to trust him.’

  ‘I don’t know how to deal with this.’ She sat down again. ‘Why did he marry me if he didn’t need to know where you were?’

  ‘Maybe he fancies you.’

  She knew her colour was giving her away but there was nothing she could do about it.

  ‘Or maybe he felt guilty about what happened to Dad,’ he added more solemnly. ‘He hinted at it on the telephone. It seems he was preoccupied at the time of Dad’s trouble with the unexpected death of his mother.’

  ‘He told you that?’

  ‘Yeah, he seemed pretty open about it actually. Said how losing a mother so young through divorce had made him run off the rails a bit.’ He lowered his gaze to stare at his scuffed Blundstone boots. ‘I could really relate to what he was saying.’

  Maddison stared at her brother as if seeing someone entirely different.

  ‘I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused,’ he added. ‘I’ve been a right jerk, I know, but it’s taken till now to see it. Demetrius really helped me to see how the past can have such an impact on your future unless you get some insight.’ He straightened to his full gangling height, determination in his tone as he faced her. ‘I’m going back to the Territory in a few hours. I’ve got a muster to do and once that’s over I’m going back to school.’

  ‘School?’

  ‘Don’t look so shocked.’ He grinned. ‘That’s another thing your husband taught me in the space of a single phone call. You can’t get anywhere in life without an education.’

  Tears brightened her eyes as she hugged him.

  ‘Be happy, Maddy,’ he said gruffly.

  ‘I’ll try,’ she promised.

  Kyle had not long left for his return trip to the Northern Territory when Maddison heard Dem
etrius’s key in the lock. He came into the lounge a few moments later, his brooding expression as his eyes met hers striking a chord of disquiet deep inside her.

  ‘Hi.’ She tried a smile but it didn’t quite work.

  He didn’t answer but his eyes glinted darkly as he unclipped the metal fastener on his briefcase as he laid it down on the coffee table between them. He took out a sheet of paper and handed it to her.

  ‘Want to tell me about this or am I supposed to guess?’ His cold, terse tone sent a trickle of alarm through her.

  She stared at the paper in her hands, her throat closing over when she saw it was a bank statement.

  Her bank statement.

  ‘I…I can explain…’

  ‘I suggest you do so before you find yourself before a High Court judge.’

  She blinked at him in shock. ‘Surely you don’t mean that?’

  His eyes were almost black with anger. ‘Do you think that just because you slept with me I would overlook something like this? What sort of fool do you take me for?’

  ‘I…I can explain—’ The bank statement fluttered to the floor as she twisted her hands in front of her agitatedly. ‘I was only doing it to protect—’

  His cynical snort cut off her speech and sent another chill down her back. ‘I suppose this is the payback you had planned all along?’ His mouth twisted bitterly. ‘You promised me you were going to make me regret marrying you, and damn you to hell, you did it.’

  ‘But you don’t understand!’

  ‘Oh, I understand.’ He came towards her, stopping just inches away from her trembling form, his eyes raking her mercilessly. ‘I understand that you and Jeremy Myalls had planned this for months.’

  She frowned in confusion. Had Jeremy told him that?

  He slammed his fist against the wall beside her, making her shrink away in alarm. ‘Do you know what gets me the most? I thought you were different. I thought I had finally found someone I could trust with my life.’

  ‘Demetrius, I…’ She gulped as his eyes flashed with hatred, the rest of her sentence frozen on her trembling mouth.

  ‘But you didn’t get away with it, Maddison.’ The line of his mouth was rigid. ‘I made sure of that. I’ve been watching Jeremy for weeks. I knew he was up to something. What I didn’t know was how willing a partner in crime you would turn out to be.’

  ‘I didn’t do—’

  ‘Are you going to stand there and lie?’ He almost shouted the words. ‘Damn it, Maddison, I have proof. That is your bank statement, isn’t it?’

  Her gaze flicked to the damning paper on the floor beneath their feet. ‘Yes.’

  ‘And, correct me if I’m wrong, but the funds in there are mine on behalf of foreign investors, are they not?’

  ‘Yes.’ She swallowed again. ‘I was going to get them out to give to you but the bank wouldn’t release them. I didn’t know that there was international money involved and it takes a month for it to clear. I was hoping to withdraw them immediately and—’

  ‘You expect me to believe that?’

  She stood before him uncertainly. ‘I know it looks bad but…’

  ‘Why should I believe you?’

  It was a good question, she had to grant him that.

  ‘Demetrius, surely you don’t think I would do something like that. I was trying to help you—’

  He tilted her chin so that she had to meet the burning fury in his gaze. ‘You wanted my pride and you nearly got it, God damn you.’ He dropped his hand and stepped back from her. ‘I want you out of here by the time I get back.’

  ‘What?’ Her stomach caved in at his curt dismissal.

  ‘You heard.’

  ‘Demetrius, I—’

  ‘I’m giving you the chance to get away before I press charges,’ he said, cutting her off again. ‘Jeremy hasn’t been quite so lucky.’

  He turned and left the penthouse without another word, the door snapping shut behind him with an ominous stroke of finality.

  Maddison fought back tears but it was no good. The choking sobs tore at her chest as she sank to the floor where, through her tears, she saw the bank statement with her name printed clearly on the top.

  She left the penthouse a short time later, her head down as she went past reception in case any of the staff noticed her reddened eyes and still wobbling chin.

  She slipped into the first cab that came along and when the driver asked for her destination she felt another wave of distress hit her. She choked back a sob and reached for the store of tissues up her sleeve, trying to avoid the driver’s concerned gaze in the rear vision mirror.

  ‘Where to, lady?’ the driver asked after they’d gone around the block.

  She lifted her face out of the wad of sodden tissues and met his eyes in the mirror. ‘Do you know where Black Rock Mountain is?’

  The driver frowned. ‘Never heard of it. Is it very far from the city?’

  ‘Not far enough,’ she said wryly and, giving him some directions, sat back in her seat and pulled out yet another tissue.

  Demetrius came back to the penthouse late that night, fully expecting Maddison to still be there in direct defiance of his orders. He knew she wouldn’t be able to resist the opportunity to gloat over her final victory, bringing about the revenge she had promised.

  How well she had achieved it!

  He slammed the door to announce his arrival, sure it would drive her out for yet another confrontation.

  Silence.

  He frowned as he searched through the apartment, his throat tightening when he realised she wasn’t there.

  He turned and saw something lying on the floor next to the bank statement he’d waved under her nose. He bent down to pick it up, his fingers closing around it just like the invisible tension squeezing around his heart.

  It was a very wet tissue…

  Maddison paid the cab driver with all the money she had in her purse once they arrived at the hut at Black Rock Mountain.

  ‘You sure you’ll be all right?’ he asked as he gave the remote hideaway a quick, almost nervous, glance. ‘There doesn’t seem to be too much out here.’

  ‘There’s not, but I prefer it that way.’ She closed the car door and waved him off, fighting off panic as the darkness of night settled around her like a smothering cloak once the car lights had faded into the distance.

  She pushed open the door of the hut and, trying to ignore the fear tiptoeing up her spine, reached for the matches on the mantelpiece.

  She struck one and breathed a sigh of relief when the soft glow illuminated the heavy darkness. There were still some pieces of tinder amongst the wood in the basket by the fireplace so she made a rough pile with them and, striking a fresh match, watched as the flames took hold, casting a welcome flickering light to the far reaches of the room.

  Once the fire was burning steadily she curled up in front of it with a blanket off the bed and, burying her face in its soft folds, tried not to notice how it still held a trace of Demetrius’s aftershave.

  She closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of the night outside—the soft chirrup of crickets, the throaty call of a tree frog looking for a mate and the sound of water trickling through the bed of the creek…

  Demetrius threatened to sack the entire staff of the hotel for not being able to tell him where Maddison had gone.

  ‘She got into a taxi,’ one of the junior porters said, under threat of instant dismissal.

  ‘Which one?’ Demetrius eyeballed him.

  The porter pointed to one of the cabs outside. ‘That was the company; why don’t you ask them to do a trace?’

  Demetrius turned on his heel and after a few terse words with the driver came back inside. ‘I want my car and I want it immediately.’

  The junior porter gave him a nervous look. ‘Which one, sir?’

  ‘The four-wheel drive, and if it’s not here in under thirty seconds you’re fired.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  A short time later Demetrius was
on his way, his hands around the wheel white-knuckled in tension.

  He’d thought he had it all worked out, the way Jeremy had conspired with Maddison to bring about the revenge they both sought, but if that was so why had she left his apartment in tears? Had he misjudged her? What if Jeremy was lying? After all, what was one more lie, considering all the others he’d managed to pull off over the years?

  He frowned as he drove through the encroaching darkness. How had he got it so wrong? She’d only married him to protect her younger wilful brother. Her threats had been little more than an attempt at salvaging her pride at the way he’d railroaded her into an arrangement that was nothing if not distasteful to her.

  His gut clenched at the way he’d broken their agreement. If anyone should be accused of lying it should be him. He’d wanted her from the first day he’d called at her flat, her flashing blue eyes defying him to do his worst. Her innocence had been a total shock to him, and now that he’d had time to think about it, it explained a lot about her that he’d previously overlooked. She wasn’t some grasping opportunist after a fast buck. She was a devoted sister who had been prepared to sacrifice herself so her brother could escape punishment.

  The hut was in darkness when he arrived and for a heart-stopping moment he wondered if the information he’d been given had been wrong. But on opening the door he shone his torch around and saw her curled up in front of the now dead fire, her hair across her cheek, her small hand like a starfish where it rested on the blanket.

  He sat on the rickety chair and watched her sleep until the sun came over the horizon and shone its warming rays of light through the window.

  Maddison opened her eyes to find Demetrius sitting watching her and from what she could tell of his darkly shadowed eyes he’d been doing so for quite a while.

  She brushed her hair out of her face as she struggled upright, her eyes skilfully avoiding his.

  ‘Why did you come here, Maddison?’ he asked, his voice containing no trace of the anger of the evening before.

  ‘I’m sorry…’ She got to her feet and headed for the door. ‘I’ll leave straight away.’