by Sarah Morgan
‘And that’s supposed to make it OK?’ She was so angry that her whole body was shaking. ‘Well, let me tell you something, Zander, there is never a good time to introduce your wife to your mistress! And awkward is certainly not the word I’d choose to use to describe this situation.’
There was a pulsing silence, broken only by the fractured sound of her breathing.
Underneath his tan, Zander lost his colour and his eyes glittered dangerously. ‘Mistress? You’re suggesting that Marina is my mistress?’
‘I don’t know.’ She spread her hands, her eyes flashing with anger. ‘You tell me, Zander. I know she used to be. As for whether it’s still going on—what exactly is this deal you’re negotiating with Kouropoulos? Does it include his director of Corporate Affairs?’
‘That’s enough.’ With a growl of anger he stepped forward and closed his hands around the tops of her arms. ‘You’re not making any sense. I assumed you were upset because Marina was your boss and she was there when I fired you. I assumed that was the reason why you were so quiet over dinner—because you were embarrassed—’
She lifted her chin, her eyes blazing with passion and pride. ‘I have nothing to be embarrassed about. I did nothing wrong. You were the one who was wrong to fire me! But that should be on your conscience, not mine.’
He closed his eyes briefly and muttered under his breath. ‘Which accusation am I dealing with here? Let’s go back to the mistress. Why are you suggesting that Marina is my mistress?’
‘Because she used to be and tonight you seemed extremely pleased to see her,’ Lauranne said bitterly, trying to pull away from him.
His grip tightened on her arms, holding her firm. ‘Listen to me carefully, Lauranne, because I’m not in the habit of repeating myself.’ His voice was dangerously soft. ‘I have never had an affair with Marina.’
‘How can you say that?’ She looked at him, pain shimmering in her eyes. ‘She was in your office. Naked.’
He looked at her with a convincing lack of comprehension.
‘When?’ He gave her a shake, his dark eyes suddenly blazing with an emotion that she didn’t recognise. ‘When was she ever naked in my office?’
‘That night you found me with Tom! What did you think I’d do, Zander?’ She struggled in his arms but he still held her fast, refusing to let her go, his strong fingers biting into her soft flesh. ‘Behave like a good little wife and wait quietly for you to come back to me?’
She twisted violently and this time he let her go, his handsome face blank of expression as his hands fell to his sides.
‘I want you to tell me exactly what happened that night,’ he said harshly, his breathing rapid. ‘And don’t miss out anything.’
She closed her eyes and choked back a sob. ‘It was bad enough the first time. Do I really have to relive it?’
‘Every detail.’ His jaw was set aggressively and she took a deep breath.
* * *
‘He wants to see me?’ Lauranne put down the list of journalists that she’d been amending, unable to suppress the smile. ‘Right now?’
‘It seems your husband can’t get enough of you.’ Tom, her colleague, observed, a trace of sarcasm in his tone as he relayed the message.
Lauranne got to her feet. ‘I thought he was working.’
‘I don’t think his mind is on his work,’ Tom said shortly. ‘And it hasn’t been for the past two months. You’ve done what no one else has managed. You’ve finally snared the boss.’
Lauranne frowned at his tone. She’d really enjoyed working with Tom, but he’d changed towards her since her relationship with Zander had begun. Snared the boss. ‘You make it sound awful.’
It sounded so cool and calculating and that wasn’t what had happened at all. She’d fallen in love. And even if Zander had never actually said those words to her yet, he would one day. And in the meantime—well, he’d married her, hadn’t he? For a man like Zander, a man with a reputation for avoiding commitment, his gesture meant more than words, surely?
‘Better get yourself up there,’ Tom said lightly. ‘You don’t want to keep the man waiting.’
Unable to contain the bubble of happiness, Lauranne nodded. ‘OK. If anyone wants to know where I am, I’ll—’
‘Lauranne, you’re with the boss.’ Tom’s voice had an edge to it. ‘Who’s going to question it? And anyway, I’m off to the bar for a drink.’
Lauranne bit her lip, reflecting that Tom clearly had some sort of problem with her relationship. And he seemed to be drinking more and more. ‘Right.’
Too excited at the prospect of seeing Zander in the middle of the working day, she pushed the thought away, resolving to have a frank discussion with Tom later. They’d been firm friends since the day she’d started working at Volakis Industries. They’d be able to sort out any problems.
Her heart thudding with anticipation, she straightened her scarlet silk skirt and on impulse released her hair from its pony-tail. It fell softly onto her shoulders and she swung her head a few times, knowing that this was the way Zander loved it.
Only one more week and they’d be leaving the Caribbean hotel where they’d met and married and returning to his home in Athens.
She took the path that led to his suite of offices, thrilled that he couldn’t make it through a working day without seeking her out.
He might not have said he loved her, but he was showing all the signs.
She pushed open the door, expecting to see one of the secretaries, but the reception area was empty, a half-drunk cup of coffee abandoned by the computer.
Wondering why the place was so empty, Lauranne made straight for his office, tapping lightly on the door and pushing it open.
For a moment she thought this room was empty too. And then she saw her.
Wearing only a bathrobe, her blonde hair tousled, her lipstick smeared across her mouth.
‘Marina?’ Lauranne choked the word out and her boss clutched the bathrobe.
‘Lauranne.’ Her gaze flickered guiltily towards another door that Lauranne knew led to a bathroom. She heard the sound of a shower running and then Zander’s deep voice, instructing Marina to leave the papers on the desk.
Feeling physically sick, Lauranne stared at her boss in disgust and disbelief. ‘How could you?’
‘You didn’t really think he was exclusive to you, did you?’ Marina’s eyes flashed bright with triumph. ‘When I wanted him, he came right back to me.’
The noise from the shower stopped and Lauranne knew that any moment now Zander would be coming back into the room and she’d have to face him.
Her emotions and her faith shattered into tiny pieces, she backed out of the office and then turned and ran down the path, her blonde hair flying across her face as she fled from betrayal.
‘Lauranne?’ Tom’s voice penetrated her shocked brain and she stopped dead, looking at him blankly.
‘Lauranne!’ Tom’s voice was urgent. ‘What’s wrong?’
She was shaking so badly she could barely stand and Tom slipped an arm around her shoulders. ‘You’d better come back to my room—it’s closest.’
Without questioning his intentions she followed him like someone in a trance and only when the door closed behind her did she start to cry.
And then she couldn’t stop.
She sobbed on Tom’s chest, clutching at his shirt as she tried to tell him what had happened, incoherent with grief.
For a moment he stood there, rigid, and then he gave a groan and the next minute she was on the bed with him and he was muttering drunkenly into her neck.
‘Forget him, Lauranne. He’s not worth it.’
‘Tom?’ Totally shocked for the second time in one evening, Lauranne tried to wriggle from underneath him but he slid his body over hers, pinning her to the bed.
‘You’re so beautiful. I’ve always wanted you—you must know that.’
No, she didn’t know that. Horrified by his announcement, Lauranne surfaced from the depths of misery.<
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‘Tom, for goodness’ sake!’ She pushed at his chest and wriggled under him but before she could free herself she heard the door to the room open and she looked up to see Zander standing there, his eyes black with anger.
Flayed raw by his betrayal, she froze and thought, you bastard, and then turned her mouth to Tom’s.
* * *
Zander watched her in silence, his whole body vibrating with tension.
‘Who told you that I wanted to see you that night?’
Lauranne shook her head. ‘I don’t know—Tom took the call—’
Zander’s hard mouth tightened. ‘I want you to tell me exactly what I said when I was in the shower.’
‘I—I don’t know—’
‘Well, think!’ His tone was thickened and pulsing with urgency. ‘I want you to remember what I said. It’s important.’
She looked at him with a total lack of comprehension. How could it possibly be important? What did it matter what he’d said? He’d slept with the woman. ‘I—I think you were saying something about a guest list.’ She frowned and then nodded. ‘Yes, you told her to leave the guest list on the table.’
His jaw tensed. ‘And then what happened?’
‘The shower stopped and I looked at her—’ Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. ‘She—she—’
‘She what?’ His voice was rough and Lauranne took a step backwards.
‘She smiled. She obviously wanted me to catch the two of you together.’
‘But we weren’t together, were we, Lauranne?’ he said savagely, taking a step towards her, his eyes fixed on her pale face. ‘I was in the shower and she was in my office.’
‘She was naked!’
‘Was she?’
She stared at him, heart pounding. ‘You know she was—’
‘No, I don’t,’ he said, speaking deliberately so that there could be no misunderstanding. ‘I remember her coming to my office that evening and I remember being intensely irritated and concerned that she was becoming so overt in her attempts to seduce me. I made quite sure that I didn’t leave the shower until my office was empty. I certainly didn’t know that you were there.’
Lauranne froze, her brain suddenly confused as she ran through the events of that night a further time, this time applying a different interpretation. Was he seriously suggesting that nothing had happened?
‘Attempts to seduce you?’
Was he really trying to tell her that they’d never had an affair?
‘Let me fill in the rest of the evening,’ he said, his mouth set in a grim line. ‘By the time I left the shower my office was empty—presumably both you and Marina had flown by then. Almost immediately I received a call from Marina saying that she’d seen you with Tom and that you were very upset. Naturally I came to find you.’
Naturally?
‘Y-you cared that I was upset?’ She stared at him blankly and he gave a humourless laugh.
‘We were married. Of course I cared. Foolishly, as it turned out. I found you kissing Farrer.’
Lauranne shook her head. ‘I don’t know what came over him that night. He’d been drinking—he wasn’t himself. He’d been behaving oddly all day. And then he jumped on me. When you walked through the door I was hurt and angry and I wanted to show you that I didn’t care.’
There was a long silence and Zander stared at her, his eyes glittering. ‘Finally I’m beginning to understand what happened. You kissed Farrer to make me jealous because you thought I’d just betrayed you with Marina. Do you know the risk you took?’ he asked hoarsely. ‘I could have killed him for being with you—’
She flinched slightly, remembering that moment all too well. ‘You gave him a black eye and a nosebleed and I wasn’t with him.’
‘But you made damn sure that I thought that you were.’ He stared at her for a long moment and then turned and paced the length of the villa, tension visible in every line of his powerful frame. ‘If we weren’t both so stubborn and hot-headed things might not have exploded so badly.’
‘We were manipulated, Zander,’ she said simply. ‘Both of us. And then you fired me. On the spot. “Get out,” you said, “I never want to see you again.”’
He sucked in a breath, a muscle working in his lean jaw. ‘I’m willing to admit that on that occasion my judgement may have been flawed—’
‘It wasn’t flawed, Zander,’ she muttered. ‘It was totally distorted.’
His eyes flashed defensively. ‘I had just found you in bed with another man—I was jealous.’
‘And so was I.’
Breathing heavily, he gave a twisted smile. ‘But neither of us had reason, it would seem. It would help our relationship a great deal if we talked instead of fighting. Why didn’t you ask me about Marina? Why didn’t you shout at me then? Why didn’t you black my eye? If I’d known what you were thinking then I could have put you right immediately—’
‘Because I had no reason to doubt what I saw,’ she shot back. ‘She was naked and you were in the shower.’
‘I left the robe in my office,’ Zander recalled, a frown touching his dark brows. ‘She must have pulled it on over her clothes to make you think she was naked.’
Lauranne stared at him. ‘Over her clothes?’
He shrugged. ‘Who knows? And it really doesn’t matter anyway. Why did you have so little faith in me?’
She swallowed hard. ‘Because I suppose deep down I couldn’t believe my luck,’ she mumbled. ‘Everyone wanted you, Zander. You’re an international heartthrob. I’d been expecting it to happen at some point. It just came earlier than even I’d expected—’
Dark eyes crashed into hers. ‘Meaning what, exactly?’
‘You don’t do commitment and you never did,’ she said, her eyes sliding away from his. ‘Women chase you endlessly. The temptation is always there. I was always afraid that sooner or later you’d find someone else.’
Waiting, aching, hoping it wouldn’t happen—
He looked at her, his eyes glittering strangely. ‘And you married me, believing that?’
She dragged her eyes away from his, afraid of giving too much away. ‘We were both impulsive—’
‘So you assumed the worst of me—’
Her eyes shot back to his in defiance. ‘As you did of me.’
They glared at each other and then he gave a long sigh and raked long fingers through his cropped hair, a rueful expression on his handsome face.
‘The problem is that we are both equally stubborn,’ he said dryly. ‘You were determined not to let me know that I’d hurt you and I was too jealous and angry to look deeper.’
Lauranne licked her lips. ‘You really weren’t having an affair with her?’
‘This is the first time in my life I’ve ever repeated myself,’ he gritted, walking towards her and taking her hands in his. ‘But no, I wasn’t.’
She closed her eyes. ‘Oh, God—’
What had they both done?
He slid his hands into her hair and tilted her face to his, forcing her to look at him.
‘She was trying to break up our relationship.’
Lauranne nodded sickly. ‘I already reached that conclusion myself.’
‘She thought she was in love with me,’ he said, his tone matter-of-fact, his thumbs gently massaging her cheeks as he stared down into her eyes. ‘Your arrival on the scene must have been very hard for her to cope with. You were young, clever, stunningly beautiful and I was totally captivated. It must have been obvious to everyone that I was seriously smitten with you.’
Totally captivated? Seriously smitten? Reminding herself that he was still just talking about sex, she looked at him blankly.
‘How would it have been obvious?’
Until their whirlwind marriage, most of their relationship had been conducted behind closed doors or on boats or quiet corners of deserted beaches. She certainly wasn’t aware that they’d had an audience.
‘I didn’t do a stroke of work for the entire two months
we were together,’ he confessed in that lazy drawl that always made her knees shake. ‘My staff were in a state of shock.’
They were?
‘So you think Marina—’
‘I think she got rid of you in the only way possible.’ His expression was thoughtful. ‘She knew that I was Greek enough to be blinded by jealousy.’
‘But she couldn’t have known I’d turn to Tom.’
Zander looked at her and his jaw tightened. ‘You and he were pretty close.’
Lauranne bit her lip. ‘I was wrong too—stubborn.’ Her heart beating faster, she stood on tiptoe and pressed her mouth against his.
With a tortured groan he returned the kiss, his tongue sliding into her mouth, seeking more intimate contact.
‘We both need to use our minds more than our feelings,’ he said ruefully, lifting her in his arms and carrying her through to the bedroom.
‘What are you doing?’ Her arms tightened around his neck and he shot her a smile that was pure, conquering male.
‘I’m not risking any more bruising on that marble. We both need comfort.’
This time when he stripped her naked his hands were gentle, his mouth and fingers torturing them both as he drove them to fever pitch before making love to her so slowly that when her climax hit she wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and sobbed with emotion.
‘Don’t cry.’ He brushed her tears away with long fingers, his breathing still rapid as he rolled onto his back, taking her with him. ‘I never want to see you cry.’
She had to bite her lip to prevent herself from declaring her love for him.
Instead she buried her face in his warm flesh, loving the feel of him against her burning cheek.
‘So what happens now?’ After a moment she lifted her head to look at him. ‘Marina will ruin this deal for you if she can.’
‘That won’t happen.’
‘She’s devious.’
He turned to look at her, his dark eyes intent as they searched hers. ‘I know what she is, agape mou. And you have no reason at all to be jealous. After all, you are the one in my bed.’
