by Penny Jordan
What on earth was she thinking? Agitatedly Saskia wriggled in her seat, snatching her hands from beneath Andreas’s.
‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ she asked him slightly breathlessly as she tried to concentrate on the reality of why she was sitting here next to him. ‘I mean, if your grandfather already doesn’t approve of our engagement...’
It was so long before he replied that Saskia began to think that her question had annoyed him but when he did answer her she recognised that the anger she could see darkening his eyes wasn’t directed at her but at Athena.
‘Unfortunately Athena claims a blood closeness to my grandfather which he finds flattering. His elder brother, Athena’s grandfather, died some years ago and whilst there is no way at all that Athena would allow anyone, least of all my grandfather, to interfere in the way she runs her own financial empire, she flatters and encourages him to the point where his judgement is sometimes not all that it should be. My mother claims that the truth will out, so to speak, and that ultimately my grandfather will see through Athena’s machinations.’
‘But surely she must realise that you don’t want to marry her,’ Saskia suggested a little bit uncomfortably. It was so foreign to her own way of behaving to even consider trying to force anyone into a relationship with her that it was hard for her to understand why Athena should be driven to do so.
‘Oh, she realises it all right,’ Andreas agreed grimly. ‘But Athena has never been denied anything she wants, and right now...’
‘She wants you,’ Saskia concluded for him.
‘Yes,’ Andreas agreed heavily. ‘And, much as I would like to tell her that her desires are not reciprocated, I have to think of my grandfather.’
He stopped speaking as their plane started to lose height, a small smile curling his mouth as he saw Saskia’s expression when she looked out of the window down at their destination.
‘He can’t possibly be intending to put this plane down on that tiny piece of land,’ she gasped in disbelief.
‘Oh, yes, he can, It’s much safer than it looks,’ Andreas said reassuringly. ‘Look,’ he added, directing her attention away from the landing strip and to the breathtaking sprawl of his family villa and the grounds enclosing it.
‘Everything is so green,’ Saskia told him in bemusement, her eyes widening over the almost perfect oval shape of the small island, the rich green of its gardens and foliage perfectly shown off by the whiteness of its sandy beaches and the wonderful turquoise of the Aegean Sea that lapped them.
‘That’s because the island has its own plentiful supply of water,’ Andreas told her. ‘It’s far too small to be able to sustain either crops or livestock, which is why it was uninhabited—as you can see it is quite some distance from any of the other islands, the furthest out into the Aegean.’
‘It looks perfect,’ Saskia breathed. ‘Like a pearl drop.’
Andreas laughed, but there was an emotion in his eyes that made Saskia’s cheeks flush a little as he told her quietly, ‘That was how my grandmother used to describe it.’
Saskia gave a small gasp as the plane suddenly bumped down onto the runway, belatedly realising that Andreas had deliberately distracted her attention away from their imminent landing. He could be so entertaining when he wanted to be, so charming and so easy to be with. A little wistfully she wondered how much difference it would have made to his opinion of her had they met under different circumstances. Then she very firmly pulled her thoughts into order, warning herself that her situation was untenable enough already without making it worse by indulging in ridiculous fantasies and daydreams.
There was a bleak look in Andreas’s eyes as he guided Saskia towards the aircraft’s exit. There was such a vast contradiction in the way he was perceiving Saskia now and the way he had perceived her the first time he had seen her. For his own emotional peace of mind and security he found himself wishing that she had remained true to his first impression of her. That vulnerability she fought so determinedly and with such pride to conceal touched him in all the ways that a woman of Athena’s coldness could never possibly do. Saskia possessed a warmth, a humanity, a womanliness, that his maleness reacted and responded to in the most potentially dangerous way.
Grimly Andreas tried not to allow himself to think about how he had felt when he had kissed her. Initially he had done so purely as an instinctive response to his awareness that Athena was in his apartment—that appalling overpowering scent of hers was instantly recognisable. Quite how she had got hold of a key he had no idea, but he suspected she must have somehow cajoled it from his grandfather. But the kiss he had given Saskia as a means of reinforcing his unavailability to Athena had unexpectedly and unwontedly shown him—forced him to acknowledge—something he was still fighting hard to deny.
He didn’t want to want Saskia. He didn’t want it at all, and he certainly didn’t want to feel his current desire to protect and reassure her.
Athens had been hot, almost stiflingly so, but here on the island the air had a silky balminess to it that was totally blissful, Saskia decided, shading her eyes from the brilliance of the sun as she reached the ground and looked a little uncertainly at the trio of people waiting to greet them.
Andreas’s husky, ‘Here you are, darling, you forgot these,’ as he handed her a pair of sunglasses threw her into even more confusion, but nowhere near as much as the warm weight of his arm around her as he drew her closer to him and whispered quite audibly, ‘Our harsh sunlight is far too strong for those beautiful Celtic eyes of yours.’
Saskia felt her fingers start to tremble as she took the sunglasses from him. They carried a designer logo, she noticed, and were certainly far more expensive than any pair of sunglasses she had ever owned. When Andreas took them back and gently slipped them on for her she discovered that they fitted her perfectly.
‘I remembered that we didn’t get any in London and I knew you’d need a pair,’ he told her quietly, leaning forward to murmur the words into her ear, one arm still around her body and his free hand holding her shoulder as though he would draw her even closer.
To their onlookers they must look very intimate, Saskia recognised, which was no doubt why Andreas had chosen to give them to her in such a manner.
Well, two could play at that game. Without stopping to think about the implications of what she was doing, or to question why she was doing so, Saskia slid her own arm around his neck, turning her face up to his as she murmured back, ‘Thank you, darling. You really are so thoughtful.’
She had, she recognised on a small spurt of defiant pleasure, surprised him. She could see it in his eyes—and she could see something else as well, something very male and dangerous which made her disengage herself from him hastily and step back. Not that he allowed her to go very far. Somehow he was holding her hand and refusing to let go of it, drawing her towards the small waiting group.
‘Mama. This is Saskia...’ he announced, introducing Saskia first to the older of the two women.
Warily Saskia studied her, knowing that if she and Andreas were really in love and engaged her heart would be in her mouth as she waited to see whether or not she and Andreas’s mother could build a true bond. Physically she looked very much like Athena, although, of course, older. But the similarity ended once Saskia looked into her eyes and saw the warmth there that had been so markedly lacking from Athena’s.
There was also a gentleness and sweetness about Andreas’s mother, a timidity almost, and intuitively Saskia sensed that she was a woman who, having loved only one man, would never totally cease mourning his loss.
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Latimer,’ Saskia began, but immediately Andreas’s mother shook her head chidingly.
‘You are going to be my daughter-in-law, Saskia, you must call me something less formal. Helena is my name, or if you wish you may call me Mama, as ‘Reas and my daughters do
.’ As she spoke she leaned forward and placed her hands gently on Saskia’s upper arms.
‘She is lovely, ’Reas,’ she told her son warmly.
‘I certainly think so, Mama,’ Andreas agreed with a smile.
‘I meant inside as well as out,’ his mother told him softly.
‘And so did I,’ Andreas agreed, equally emotionally.
Heavens, but he was a wonderful actor, Saskia acknowledged shakily. If she hadn’t known how he really felt about her that look of tender adoration he had given her just now would have...could have... A man like him should know better than to give a vulnerable woman a look like that, she decided indignantly, forgetting for the moment that so far as Andreas was concerned she was anything but vulnerable.
‘And this is Olympia, my sister,’ Andreas continued, turning Saskia towards the younger of the two women. Although she was as darkly Greek as her mother, she too had light-coloured eyes and a merry open smile that made Saskia warm instantly to her.
‘Heavens, but it’s hot down here. Poor Saskia must be melting,’ Olympia sympathised.
‘You could have waited for us at the villa,’ Andreas told her. ‘It would have been enough just to have sent a driver with the Land Rover.’
‘No, it wouldn’t,’ Olympia told him starkly, shrugging her shoulders as her mother made a faint sound of protest. She looked anxiously at her, saying, ‘Well, he has to know...’
‘I have to know what?’ Andreas began to frown.
‘Athena is here,’ his mother told him unhappily. ‘She arrived earlier and she...’
‘She what?’
‘She said that your grandfather had invited her,’ his mother continued.
‘You know what that means, don’t you Andreas?’ Olympia interrupted angrily. ‘It means that she’s bullied Grandfather into saying she could stay. And that’s not all...’
‘Pia...’ her mother began unhappily, but Olympia refused to be silenced.
‘She’s brought that revolting creep Aristotle with her. She claims that she is right in the middle of an important business deal and that she needs him with her because he’s her accountant. If it’s so important, how come she had time to be here?’ Olympia demanded. ‘Oh, but I hate her so. This morning she went on and on about how concerned Grandfather is about the business and how he’s been asking her advice because he’s worried that you...’
‘Pia!’ her mother protested again, and this time Andreas’s sister did fall silent, but only for a few seconds.
‘What I can’t understand is why Gramps is so taken in by her,’ she burst out, as though unable to contain herself. ‘It’s obvious what she’s doing. She’s just trying to get at you, Andreas, because you won’t marry her.’
‘I’m sorry about this,’ Helena Latimer was apologising gently to Saskia. ‘It can’t be pleasant for you. You haven’t met Athena yet, I know—’
‘Yes, she has,’ Andreas interrupted his mother, explaining when both she and Pia looked at him questioningly, ‘Somehow or other she managed to get a key for the London apartment.’
‘She’s the worst, isn’t she?’ Pia told Saskia. ‘The black widow spider I call her.’
‘Pia!’ Andreas chided her sharply.
‘Mama hasn’t told you everything yet,’ Pia countered, looking protectively at her mother before continuing, ‘Athena has insisted on having the room that Mama had arranged to be prepared for Saskia. It’s the one next to your suite—’
‘I tried to stop her, Andreas,’ Helena interrupted her daughter unhappily. ‘But you know what she’s like.’
‘She said that Saskia could have the room right down at the end of the corridor. You know, the one we only use as an overspill when absolutely everyone is here. It hasn’t even got a proper bed.’
‘You’ll have to say something to Athena, Andreas. Make her understand that she can’t...that she can’t have that room because Saskia will be using it.’
‘No, she won’t,’ Andreas contradicted his mother flatly, sliding his arm very firmly around Saskia, imprisoningly almost, drawing her right into his body so that her face was concealed from view as he told his mother and sister, ‘Saskia will be sharing my room...and my bed...’
Saskia could sense their shock, even though she could not see their faces. Now she knew why he was holding her so tightly, preventing anyone else from seeing her expression or hearing the panicky denial she was trying to make but which was muffled against the fine cotton of his shirt.
There was just no way that she was prepared for anything like this. No way that she could ever be prepared for it. But her attempts to tell Andreas were bringing her into even more intimate contact with him as she tried to look up into his face.
His response to her efforts to attract his attention made the situation even worse, because when he bent his head, as though anxious to listen to what she was saying, her lips inadvertently brushed against his jaw.
It must be a combination of heat and shock that was sending that melting liquid sensation of weakness swooshing through her, Saskia decided dizzily. It certainly couldn’t be the feel of Andreas’s skin against her lips, nor the dangerous gleam she could see in his narrowed eyes as they glittered down into hers. The arm he had around her moved fractionally, so that the hand that had been resting on her waist was now somehow just beneath the curve of her breast, his fingertips splaying against its soft curve and making her...making her...
‘Saskia will be sharing your room!’ Pia was breathing, verbalising the shock that Saskia herself felt and that she suspected his mother was too embarrassed to voice.
‘We are engaged...and soon to be married...’ Andreas told his sister smoothly, adding in a much rougher, rawer, spine-tinglingly possessive voice, ‘Saskia is mine and I intend to make sure that everyone knows it.’
‘Especially Aristotle,’ Pia guessed. ‘I don’t know how Athena can endure him,’ she continued shuddering. ‘He’s like a snake, Saskia. All cold and slimy, with horrid little eyes and clammy hands...’
‘Athena endures him because of his skill at “creative” accounting,’ Andreas informed his sister dryly.
‘You mean he’s dishonest,’ Pia translated pithily.
‘You didn’t hear that from me,’ Andreas warned her as he started to shepherd all three of them towards the waiting Land Rover.
Whilst they had been talking the driver had loaded their luggage, and as he held the door open for his mother, sister and Saskia to get in Saskia heard Andreas asking him about his family, listening interestedly whilst the driver told him with pride about his son who was at university.
‘Grandfather was not very pleased at all when Andreas said that he wanted to use the money our father had left him to help pay for the education of our personal household staff,’ Pia told Saskia.
‘Pia, you aren’t being very fair to your grandfather,’ her mother objected.
Andreas had done that? Stubbornly Saskia refused to acknowledge that she was impressed by his philanthropy.
Had he really meant what he had said about them sharing a room? He couldn’t have done—could he? Personally she didn’t care where she slept, even if it was a normally unused bedless room, just so long as she occupied it on her own.
‘We have both had a long day and I imagine that Saskia is going to want to have a rest before dinner,’ Andreas was saying as the Land Rover pulled up in a cool paved courtyard with a central fountain that sent a musical plume of water up into the air to shower back to earth in millions of tiny teardrops.
‘I’ll make sure everyone knows that you aren’t to be disturbed,’ his mother responded. ‘But perhaps Saskia would like something light to eat and drink...’
Before Saskia could say anything Andreas was answering for her, telling his mother, ‘I’ll see to that,’ before placing his hand beneath Saskia’s elb
ow and telling her in a soft voice in which she suspected only she could hear the underlying threat, ‘This way, Saskia...’
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘I CAN’T SLEEP in this room with you!’
Saskia had been able to feel herself trembling as Andreas had whisked her down a confusing maze of corridors. She had known that he must be able to feel her nervousness as well, but somehow she had managed to keep her feelings under control until they were both inside the huge elegant bedroom with the door firmly shut behind them.
Right now, though, she was in no mood to appreciate the cool elegance of her surroundings. Whirling round, she confronted Andreas determinedly. ‘No way was that part of the deal.’
‘The “deal” was that you would act as my fiancée, and that includes doing whatever has to be done to ensure that the act is believable,’ he told her angrily.
‘I won’t sleep here with you,’ Saskia protested wildly. ‘I don’t... I haven’t...’ She could hardly bear to look at the large king-sized bed as panic filled her, flooding out rationality. She had gone through so much, and now she was hot and tired and very, very afraid. Her emotions threatened to overwhelm her.
Quickly she turned away as she heard Andreas saying, almost mundanely, ‘I’m going to have a shower, and if you’ll take my advice you’ll do the same. Then, when we’re both feeling cooler and calmer, we can discuss this whole situation less emotively.’
A shower! With Andreas! Saskia stared at him in mute shocked disbelief. Did he really think that she would...that she could...?
‘You can use the bathroom first,’ he told her.
First! So he hadn’t meant... Relief sagged through her, quickly followed by a furious burst of toxic anger.
‘I don’t want to use the bathroom at all,’ she burst out. ‘What I want is to be at home. My own home, with my own bathroom and my own bedroom. What I want is to be free of this stupid...stupid charade... What I want...’ She had to stop as her feelings threatened to overwhelm her, but they refused to be contained, spilling out in a furious fierce torrent of angry words. ‘How could you let your mother and sister think that you...that we...?’ She shook her head, unable to put into words what she wanted to say.
