The Konstantos Marriage Demand (10 page)

A sudden rush of new-found determination pushed her up the aisle towards the still, silent figure standing by the altar steps. Face unreadable, arms folded across the width of his chest, Nikos watched her come.

‘If you really want to employ me as your wedding planner then you have to let me do my job properly,’ Sadie managed once she had drawn level with him, the words spluttering from her in a rush to get them out. ‘You really don’t need to keep my phone and my laptop under lock and key—I’m not going to sell your story.’

The cold-eyed look he turned on her told her that there was no way he believed her declaration.

‘You did damn nearly everything else in the past,’ Nikos flung at her. ‘So you’ll have to forgive me if I’m in no rush to believe you can be trusted now. We do this my way or not at all. And if you can’t agree then you’ll be on the first plane out of here….’

And if she was on the first plane out of Athens, then what would happen to her mother and George? Nikos had said that he would not take revenge on a child, but if she did not fulfil her part of the contract then what was to stop him going back on the deal and throwing her mother and brother out of the only home where they felt safe? Her insides knotted in raw panic at the thought.

She had promised her mother that she would keep her safe in her home for as long as she possibly could, and she would keep that promise if it killed her, she told herself. The one thing she had going for her in this situation was the fact that Nikos was getting married and, for reasons known best to himself, he wanted her to plan the event for him.

She was just going to have to ignore the fact that even thinking about it brought with it a sensation like a cruel knife being scraped over raw, sensitive skin. That the concern that Nikos showed for preserving his fiancée’s anonymity, his involvement in this early stage of things, rubbed her face right in the difference between this wedding and the one he had been planning with her.

Had
appeared
to be planning with her, she corrected painfully.

She needed to put all those difficult feelings out of her mind. She had to refuse to let herself remember that she was trapped here, isolated with the man who had ruined her life and her family’s. A man who now seemed hell-bent on using the hold he had over her to his own advantage, and taking a cruel and sadistic pleasure in doing just that.

Somehow she was going to have to pretend to herself that Nikos was just a client. Sighing inwardly, Sadie faced the impossibility of that task. Nikos could never be ‘just’ anything. But that was her only way through this situation. The only way she could handle this. Because she did have to handle this.

The truth was that Nikos held all the cards and he could
play them as he chose. The only single option left to her was to do the best job she could—and hope that Nikos had some sort of kind cell in his body that would push him to help her when she was done.

Otherwise she would be right back where she had started—or worse. And all of this would have been for nothing.

‘Y
OU WILL WANT
to phone your mother.’

After a journey back to the villa that had been completed in almost total silence, Nikos’s first words on their arrival caught Sadie distinctly off balance, so that for a moment or two she could only stare at him in confusion, not quite sure she had heard him right.

‘Did you not tell me that you needed to check on your mother and brother?’

‘Oh, yes—but…’ But she hadn’t expected him to remember or, if he did, that he would be the one to prompt her into action rather than the other way about. After everything he’d said, she had never thought that he would be so generous—or so trusting.

‘You can use the phone in my office—it’s just through here.’

He led the way into a room at the back of the villa. One that had disturbing echoes of the office at the Konstantos building in which she had faced him—was it really only a couple of days before? Memories of that encounter threatened to drain the strength from her legs as she followed him, putting a fine tremor into the hand she held out for the phone he snatched up and passed to her.

‘If you need the code for England then this is it…’

Nikos scrawled a number on a piece of paper and pushed it towards her. Then he pulled out a chair at the head of the desk and dropped down into it, switching on the computer before him as he did so.

Not quite so generous or so trusting after all, Sadie acknowledged privately to herself. He might have handed her the phone, but he was still staying around in the office to make sure that she didn’t say anything he objected to. She was not to have any privacy with her phone call.

But she wasn’t going to look any gift horses in the mouth. Her mother’s mental balance and her own peace of mind were too important for that. So she pulled the sheet of paper towards her, punched in the numbers and pressed ‘Dial’. Perching on the edge of the desk, with her back to Nikos, she waited anxiously for her mother to answer. She would know how things were from the moment that happened.

‘H-Hello?’

Oh, no! Sadie closed her eyes briefly in distress, her shoulders tightening as tension held them taut. She knew that tone of voice and it meant there was a problem. Her mother was clearly in a very different frame of mind from the previous night.

‘Mum, it’s me—Sadie. How’s things?’

‘Sadie—where have you been all day. I’ve been expecting you to call…’

‘I had things I had to do, Mum.’

Sadie kept her voice low, hunched herself over the phone, as if by doing so she could cut herself off from the man at the other side of the desk, where she hoped that the click of keyboard keys meant Nikos was concentrating on what he was doing and so wouldn’t catch anything of her mother’s words.

‘I’m here to do a job, remember?’

‘I know you said that—but do you have to be away so long?’

Sadie’s heart sank at the querulous note in her mother’s
voice, the way it rose so sharply on the final words. She was very much afraid that, without her there to supervise, Sarah hadn’t taken her medication and so was worryingly off balance.

‘It’s only a couple of days.’

But that was longer than her mother had been left alone at any time since George’s birth, she acknowledged. And clearly the older woman was finding it hard to cope.

‘What is it, Mum? What’s wrong?’

And suddenly it was as if her question had pressed a switch, making the words flow. Sadie could almost see her mother perched on the edge of her chair, her fine-boned face drawn taut with nervous tension as she gave voice to her fears. She couldn’t believe that the letter Nikos had sent yesterday was real. It seemed impossible that it was true. Impossible that they wouldn’t be forced out of their home after all.

‘It will be fine, Mum.’ She could only pray that she sounded convincing. That there was enough conviction in her words to get through the panicked haze inside her mother’s head and reassure her. ‘I promise you that everything’s going to be fine.’

If she could believe that herself then everything would be so much easier.

‘But how do you know that, Sadie? How can you be sure? How do you know that Nikos Konstantos will keep his word? What if he changes his mind?’

‘That isn’t going to happen. I won’t let it happen, Mum. I’ve made sure of that.’

What else could she say? she asked herself. When she was so far away from home, how else could she persuade Sarah to calm down? And it seemed to have worked. The nervous questions eased, and she could hear her mother’s breathing settle from the frantic, uneven gasps that had so worried her.

‘I’ve got everything in hand,’ she said again. ‘You know you can rely on me.’

‘You’re sure? We can stay?’

‘Mmm…’

The non-committal sound was all Sadie could manage. Painfully aware of Nikos’s dark, silent presence behind her, she didn’t dare to try for more. And even more than before she prayed that nothing her mother had said could reach him.

When she had explained the situation to Sarah on that first evening after her meeting with Nikos at Cambrelli’s, she had deliberately aimed to emphasise the positive. Nikos was letting them stay in the house for now. And at least as long as Sadie was working for him they were safe. That was what she had to hold on to until she had any sort of a chance to think of any other way out of their situation. But she knew that by highlighting the good things she was risking letting her mother think that all was completely well and their future in Thorn Trees was assured.

But she hadn’t dared risk anything else.

If Nikos had caught her mother’s words then what was he going to think? Would he believe that she had taken too much for granted? That she had assumed he would hand over a house worth millions simply because she was doing a job for him, planning his wedding? A sneaking cold shiver ran down her spine at the thought of his possible reaction.

‘Promise me.’

‘I promise, Mum.’

And now at last it seemed that Sarah was convinced enough to let her go. Reluctantly, Sadie managed to say goodbye, switching off the phone as she fought to get her own disturbed and shaken mood back under control.

‘Is something wrong?’

Nikos had caught her sigh, and it made her stomach lurch in apprehension at the thought that he might also have heard her mother’s unwary comments after all.

‘No—nothing. Everything’s—fine.’

Her voice caught on that word, but she pulled herself together and returned the phone to its stand on the desk. The movement brought her close to an array of family photographs nearby. Some of them looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place why.

‘Who’s that?’ She waved her hand in the direction of one particular frame.

It was a question she was obviously not supposed to ask, judging by the dark frown that Nikos turned in her direction.

‘My father.’

‘Really?’

Sadie’s eyes went back to the man in the picture. A man who looked so very different from the one time she had met Nikos’s father—thinner and older, and with his black hair almost totally grey—that she shook her head in confusion.

‘He’s changed a lot.’

‘He’s been ill.’

Nikos clearly had no intention of explaining further, and Sadie was about to give up on the photos when something about another picture tugged on her attention again.

‘And the one behind it…?’

‘My uncle Georgiou. He died five years ago.’

And that was all he was going to tell her.

‘So—do you have any questions about the wedding—other than who exactly the members of my family are?’ he prompted harshly, cutting across her hasty, uncomfortable apology in a way that made it plain that she had been slapped down, verbally at least.

She was to keep her mind on her job and nothing else. Besides, if Nikos’s uncle had died so long ago then she had obviously never met him.

‘Well, yes, lots—starting with the obvious. You know it’s
ridiculous to expect me to work on this without any idea about your—your bride. I understand your need for privacy—but surely just a few basic facts…?’

She pulled a notepad towards her, picked up a pen.

‘Like her age, colouring, name.’

‘Why the hell do you do this?’ Nikos said, so suddenly and unexpectedly that the pen that was resting on the notepad jerked sharply in her hand, shooting up across the page and etching a wild straight line into the paper.

Hastily she recovered herself.

‘What?’

Did she know what it did to him, Nikos wondered, when she looked at him like that, with her eyes wide and shocked, blinking in confusion? Very possibly she did, and that was exactly why she reacted in that way—wide-eyed and innocent, like a startled deer.

‘Why do I do what?’

‘Why does a woman who walked out on her own wedding spend her time planning other people’s big days?’

‘Because I believe in marriage.’

She was definitely on edge as a result of his question, tension showing in her shoulders and the elegant line of her beautiful neck. It was just a damn torment that the way she held her head, the rapid rise and fall of her breathing, brought those creamy breasts into his line of vision, creating a devastating temptation with every breath she took.

‘Marriage?’ he scorned. ‘Do you really? Why would you of all people think that marriage is important? Ah—but of course…’

He snapped his fingers, as if he had really just come to the realisation but the way that Sadie’s eyes flared in response made it clear that she knew only too well the way his thoughts were heading.

‘Marriage as a dynastic arrangement. Preferably with plenty of money as a sweetener and perhaps a lot of hot sex in order to avoid any boredom.’

‘It’s nothing of the sort!’

She was getting to her feet again, her eyes flashing fury, cheeks pink with indignation. The way her breathing had accelerated meant that her chest rose and fell rapidly and unevenly, pushing her breasts against the v-neck of her red dress with every movement. The heated clutch of lust low down in his body in response was hard and immediate, making him draw in his breath in a sharp, uncontrollable response.

‘I also happen to believe in love—I do!’ Sadie flung at him, when the effort to drag his gaze away from the creamy swell that rose and fell so distractingly made him glance at her with what she obviously saw as disbelief in his eyes.

And he didn’t believe her. Why should he believe her? How could he believe someone who had manipulated and schemed so that her own wedding was just a distraction of his own attention that her father needed to complete his plan for the destruction of the Konstantos family? A plan that had very nearly achieved more destruction than it had ever aimed for when his father had tried to take his own life.

And Sadie had played her part in that too.

‘Love!’ Nikos scorned. ‘What do you know about love? Have you ever felt real love for anyone—anyone but yourself?’

‘Of course I have! You know I have! I—’

‘Oh, don’t try to tell me that I know you’ve loved because of the way you were with me!’

Unable to believe how outrageously she was still prepared to lie, Nikos flung the words at her in a black fury.

‘
Thee mou
, don’t you dare claim that you loved—even still love—me!’

Sadie’s head snapped back, eyes closing briefly as if he had
actually slapped her in the face. But she recovered quickly enough and turned on him instead.

‘No, I’m not claiming that! I don’t love you. If you want the truth…’

‘Oh, by all means, let us have the truth,’ Nikos drawled, when an unexpected catch in her breath had her stumbling over her next words. ‘It is time there was a little honesty in this relationship.’

‘Honesty?’ Sadie echoed, injecting the word with so much cynicism that she almost felt it sharp as a razor on her tongue, ready to cut her to ribbons. ‘If you want honesty, then I’ll give you
honesty
.’

Once more she had to pause, to draw in a needed calming breath, and Nikos watched her with burning eyes, no trace of emotion on the stone wall of his face. And the need to drive something past that armoured wall drove her to lose control completely.

‘The honest truth is that I don’t love you. Of course I don’t. The only feeling I have for you is loathing. I
hate
you. I would never have come to you, never have sought you out unless you were my very last chance. The only hope I had.’

The way his eyes narrowed, black brows snapping together in a dark frown made Sadie’s stomach clench in sharp unease. Had she taken several steps too far, saying that? Given him too much ammunition to use against her if he wanted to? But then there was no way he couldn’t know that she’d had to be desperate, on her very last chance, to be prepared to come to him, practically begging for a way to stay in Thorn Trees. He could never have doubted how worried she had to have been to turn to him. Nikos, of all people, would know that if she had had any other possible alternative then she would have used it if she could.

And it had felt so good to actually spit the words out and toss them in his face. To say the things that she had wanted to say five years before and never had the chance. When Nikos had come to the house that one last time, and her father had opened the door to him, she had been upstairs with her mother. Sarah had been pregnant with George and had been in such a state that there’d been no way Sadie could have left her, not even to face the man who had broken her heart and destroyed her life. So she had tossed down the stairs the lines that her father had given her to use and at the time had been thankful that that was all she’d had to do. That she hadn’t had to actually confront Nikos about the things he had done. Because that would have been more than she could bear.

But this time it felt good to actually have the words on her tongue and to give them free range. So good that for a crazy, wild moment she didn’t stop to think of what she was doing or of how dangerous it might be to let rip.

‘And the only reason I’m here is because you asked me to do a job—to plan and organise your damn wedding! We had an agreement on that.’

‘We did.’

Nikos’s tone was surprisingly mild, but the burn of his eyes seemed to flay away a couple of precious layers of her skin, leaving her raw and hurting without even trying.