by Sara Wood
‘Feta cheese salad,’ he said abruptly, when they’d fetched up in a large kitchen.
‘Lovely.’
She beamed, and tucked in, looking around. Expensive floor tiles, coffered ceiling and royal-blue wooden cupboards. A marble table, comfortable chairs and three wrought-iron candelabra. Murano glass downlighter adorned with angels. Stylish objects—a piece of driftwood, a large shell, a wooden bowl of realistic artificial cherries—casually placed as if by accident, but looking absolutely right. Gorgeous. If this was another sample of Marina’s taste, then she’d make a great interior designer.
Leon cleared his throat and she looked up expectantly.
‘You’ll have to stay here tonight and don’t say, Yes, Leon.’
She stopped herself from giggling at his monotone delivery. She was in for the night. Goal number two!
‘Thank you,’ she murmured and decided to go for gold. ‘Have you worked out how to help Lexi with her parent problem?’ she asked innocently.
He scowled beautifully. ‘No.’
She tried not to look pleased and set about rubbing salt in his wounds. ‘Poor kiddie. She’s such a sweetie and it’ll be awful seeing her become more and more paranoid—’
‘Emma,’ he roared, banging his fist on the table and making her—and the crockery—jump. ‘I’m worried stiff. You’re not helping—’
‘I am, I can,’ she said earnestly. ‘You know why I’m here, don’t you?’
‘Because you’re an obstinate, difficult, stroppy, mule of a woman who doesn’t know when the odds are stacked against you,’ he growled.
‘Well, yes, there’s that,’ she conceded smugly.
He glared. ‘And?’
Now the moment had come, she was losing courage. It was such an outrageous suggestion in the cold light of a kitchen.
‘This is…so difficult,’ she said, twiddling her fork in the salad aimlessly.
‘That’s never stopped you before,’ Leon said caustically.
Her mouth twitched. No. It hadn’t. She leapt where angels feared to tread.
‘OK,’ she said, but keeping her eyes lowered on her frantic fork. ‘I have a proposition.’ There was a silence and in that silence she suddenly noticed her desperately unsexy clothes. They wouldn’t help at all. Putting her fork down, she clasped her hands in front of her and managed to undo another button. ‘Well,’ she began, letting her hands fall to her lap.
‘Yes?’
It was only a small, barely spoken word, but it had carried heat and lust and passion. And when her eyes flickered up, she rocked back, knocked breathless by the sizzling impact of his sensual expression.
He would agree, she thought, tense with excitement. Her hands shook.
‘You offered me a choice,’ she said huskily.
Something quivered in the muscles of his face, as if each one had tightened in sequence. She had to lick her lips or she wouldn’t have been able to continue. And it was so important. Her tongue slicked over them again, and the simmering darkness of his eyes dried her throat. Pools of heat were making her focus on her hungering body and she had to redouble her efforts to speak.
‘I—’ She swallowed, wanting to hurl herself across the table and ravish him, to tear off his shirt and ease the tempestuous turmoil claiming her entire system. ‘I said once I’d do anything for Lexi. I imagine you would, too.’ He nodded slowly. ‘She needs to know me, we’ve already agreed that. And I understand why you want me to leave…’ Agitated because he sat there without saying anything, other than the hot message he was projecting from every inch of his body, she staggered to her feet and began to pace up and down the kitchen. Her physical urges had to go somewhere. Her brows drew together. ‘I’ve forgotten where I was.’
He seemed to have trouble finding his place in her outburst too. ‘You understand why I want you to leave,’ he provided eventually.
‘Oh, yes. Right. However,’ she said, prowling furiously, ‘I’ve decided not to leave the island.’
‘Ah-h-h.’
It was a whisper. Husky, deep and laced with such feeling that she found her steps getting even faster and infinitely more erratic.
She sucked in a huge breath and launched her suggestion, rattling it off at high speed without giving him a chance to interrupt.
‘And, to start with, I want to stay in this house because that’ll suit us both. When you think about it, you’ll see it makes sense. I will get to know Lexi quicker that way because I can pop up and take a rest whenever I need and yet I’ll be around a lot of the time gradually becoming part of Lexi’s life, so you’d have to put up with me for a shorter time than if I was commuting. And after a while she’ll accept me as her mother and—and she’ll be happy and then…then I can leave and find somewhere to live on the island and Lexi will know she has a mother and I can see her often and write to her and telephone…’ She ran out of breath and dreams and stopped abruptly.
‘You…want to…live in this house?’ The silence was deafening, the pause unbearable. ‘You know what that means,’ he growled. It was her turn to nod, her eyes enormous in her pale face. ‘Let me get this straight,’ he said, his voice oddly strangled. ‘You’re saying that, for Lexi’s sake, you’d risk being used for sex?’
It wasn’t like that, she told herself. It wasn’t just sex. Maybe that was his attitude towards her at the moment, but she’d convince him of her innocence somehow and then his feelings would change.
It was a huge gamble. But worth going for. She stared at the floor, willing her nerve to hold.
And realised in dismay how stupid she looked. With all the striding about, the jeans had unfolded and hung around her ankles, the belt having given up entirely and having allowed the waistband to slide precariously to her hips so that the crotch appeared somewhere around her calves.
It dawned on her that it hadn’t been sexual tension that had put a strain on his muscles. He’d been trying hard not to laugh.
‘You…said you’d do anything to get Lexi,’ he said in a rasping.
‘I did,’ she squeaked.
‘Even making yourself available in exchange for access?’
She knew that Leon must be trying to discover how far she’d go to be with her daughter. It was the, Will you sleep with me or any other man I might name and, if you will, then you’re a slut? kind of question.
She might as well answer. Her hopes of finding the love they’d once shared could now take a running jump. She’d become a figure of ridicule.
‘If that’s the price,’ she mumbled crossly, glaring at the clumsy jeans and hauling them up.
She knew he was looking at her, his stare rooting her to the spot even though her gaze was fixed with unlikely intensity on the floor. The atmosphere burned around Emma as, presumably, Leon battled to stop himself from laughing out loud.
‘Agreed,’ he said, when she had abandoned all hope of an answer.
‘Thank you,’ she said in a small voice.
‘There’s a condition.’ He waited but she was too miserable to comment. ‘You cut all contact with Sefton. No calls, no visits, no letters, no e-mails—nothing.’
Dubiously she chewed her lip. ‘He knows where he stands now, Leon. I still need him as my lawyer here.’
‘Lawyer or fellow abductor?’ he asked flatly. ‘I have details now of the route you’ve planned. He told me in Alikes yesterday evening. If I were you, I’d forget Sefton and his little games. They could result in you never seeing your daughter again.’
Her eyes rounded in dismay. ‘Why would he tell you?’ she asked, pink-faced with horrified embarrassment.
‘He’s been warning me of the possibility ever since my first meeting with him, Emma. He doesn’t want you to succeed.’
‘Why?’ she cried, baffled.
‘He doesn’t want you saddled with someone else’s child, don’t you see? And Sefton’s the type who needs women to be dependent on them. You filled that bill very well all the time you were in prison and desperate. He played the
hero. I’m not denigrating what he did for you, only his motives. The moment you looked like showing strength, he backtracked and did everything he could to make sure you ended up miserable and needy. You’re not totally convinced, I can see. But will you believe me if I say that I even know he’s brought over clothes and toys for Lexi, to keep her amused during the journey?’
Betrayed, she thought. Her plan would never have worked—John would have seen to that, and Leon would have had her stopped before they even set sail from the island.
She was horrified. ‘We made plans…’
‘I know.’ His eyes were grave.
‘I would have lost her for ever.’
‘Without doubt.’
‘How could he do this to me?’
‘He had his own agenda. You were supposed to fit into it.’
She trembled. Choking with dismay, she took a step towards him and tripped over the jeans, grabbing the table in frustrated fury at her own clumsiness.
‘You think I meant to whisk her away from everything she loved,’ she cried, desperate that he should understand. ‘But I wouldn’t do anything so cruel. John and I argued about that but I insisted that Lexi and I had a stable and loving relationship before we—we—’
‘Snatched her. How could you even think of doing that, Emma?’ he asked quietly.
She gulped. ‘I told you before,’ she wailed. ‘John had reported that she was a millstone around your neck. I couldn’t bear that, Leon. I thought of my baby, being suffered by you because it was your duty, your wife and daughter treating her badly, and—and it made me mad.’
Her vigorous movements had dislodged the jeans again and she muttered curses under her breath as she tried to leash the belt tighter around her middle.
‘And now you know different?’ he asked throatily.
She flicked a glance at him, ready to complain—if he was laughing—that it wasn’t her fault he couldn’t find her any female clothes. But his expression was implacable and only his eyes gleamed as if in amusement.
‘Now I know different,’ she agreed, tossing back her hair and hanging onto the gaping shirt for grim death, ‘I have no intention of ever taking her away. She’s settled here happily and she loves you. I hope she’ll come to love me too. As I said, if all goes well, I’ll live on Zakynthos and find a job. I’ve only ever wanted the best for Lexi. Honest,’ she said earnestly. ‘I thought I was best. Now I think she needs us both. You can trust me. I swear I won’t abduct her.’
He was frowning and she held her breath, then she realised she was dragging the shirt hard over her breasts and he was probably worried that she’d rip the seams or something. Her fingers eased up and so did his frown.
‘Believe me,’ she pleaded when he just sat there.
He blinked as if he’d been thinking of something entirely different. ‘I believe you,’ he said slowly. ‘But I will take precautions nevertheless. I don’t want you to go anywhere without me. I need to watch over you, Emma. This house will be your prison. That’s reasonable under the circumstances, isn’t it?’
‘I’ve known worse prisons,’ she muttered, wriggling uncomfortably in the jeans. ‘This one’s got a swimming pool.’
His mouth tightened, definitely, she realised, to hide a smile. She sighed. Her appearance was wearing down his resistance. He’d roll about on the floor in hysterics soon.
‘Then, you agree.’
‘Of course.’
Absently she pushed up the sleeves of the baggy shirt which had flopped down over her hands and had been dangling unappealingly. What did she look like? He’d never want her after this. Bang went goal number three.
‘Emma…where are your clothes?’ he asked tautly. ‘The villa was empty when I dropped Marina there.’
She hitched up the jeans again, longing for a sexy dress with a slit skirt. Or even a dull Auntie Maud dress that fitted her vaguely. Then Leon could stop busting a gut trying not to fall about laughing.
‘In a shed near the goats and sheep and things,’ she replied meekly.
He grunted. ‘They’ll have to wait till tomorrow then. I’m not going out in this weather. Are you finishing that?’ he asked belligerently, pointing to her mangled salad.
‘Not hungry any more,’ she replied, subdued.
He scowled. ‘Then I’ll take you up. You can have Taki’s old room. It’s not been used and all his stuff’s there but I’m sure that won’t bother you.’
She glared back at him from under her brows. Was that a dig, to remind her of what she was supposed to have done? Taki’s possessions had been taken from the house the day after she’d asked for a divorce and had been shipped to Zakynthos. Taki had obviously intended to skip the country.
‘Why should it?’ she said with a shrug. The shirt slipped off her shoulders and she sulkily tugged it back again.
Leon’s intake of breath alarmed her in its ferocity. ‘Don’t do that,’ he roared, leaping to his feet.
Her eyes widened in bewilderment. ‘Do what?’
‘Look sexy in whatever you wear,’ he yelled savagely.
Emma’s eyes widened even more. ‘What, these old things?’ she cried, wondering if he was being sarcastic. One glance at his mouth and she knew he wasn’t. ‘Leon,’ she croaked, putting up a defensive hand.
‘Oh, no,’ he said menacingly, ‘you don’t get out of your agreement like that.’
And suddenly her back was against the wall, Leon was kissing her, the shirt was slipping and she didn’t care and firecrackers were going off in her head.
‘Bonfire night,’ she mumbled crazily.
‘I’m consumed,’ he said, breathing hotly in her ear.
She shivered. ‘Me too. Take me to bed, Leon.’ Looking dazed, he drew back, and then grabbed her hand to pull her to the door. But she resisted. ‘Wait a minute.’ She wasn’t spending a moment longer in the jeans. Couldn’t have walked in them anyway. With trembling fingers she unleashed the belt and let them drop to the floor, stepping out suddenly untrammelled.
They began to run. Into the hall, up the stairs, into the bedroom where she had first bathed, slept and changed. There he tore off his clothes and hers, driving her against the door and then, in a tumble of arms and legs, to the thickly carpeted floor.
I love you, she said in her head. And she knew then that she wouldn’t settle for an occasional relationship with Lexi, and some lusty sex with Leon whenever she visited. She wanted to live with them both for ever and no one was going to stop her.
Her heart swelled as she kissed him, adoring the feel of his toned skin beneath her mouth. Licking him, tasting, eating… Her hands touched his leaping heat and she gazed lovingly into his eyes.
I love you, they said. His teeth drove into his lower lip as if she’d injured him. Shaking, he caressed her breasts. And then his hands paused. She could feel his palm curving around the deep dent where her scar was and she realised that she’d forgotten about it—and that he couldn’t have noticed it at all the last time they’d made love.
He was still, looking at her with shocked eyes. Oh, God! she thought. He finds me ugly. It would be the end. He’d never want her. Never fall in love with her. He’d avoid her like the plague and they’d be strangers, meeting on the doorstep every time she came for Lexi.
She felt tears swim into her eyes. One day she’d be faced with Leon’s mistress or his wife…a stepmother for Lex. She couldn’t bear it.
She pushed his hands away. ‘I disgust you, don’t I?’ she mumbled unhappily. ‘I know it’s hideous. But it’s still me in here,’ she said in a blaze, choking on her tears. ‘And if you don’t like the way I am then all our problems are solved. You won’t be tempted to make love to a woman you despise and I won’t be tempted to encourage you.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
UPSET, she tried to scramble to her feet. He pulled her down again and they struggled for a moment till the tears were overwhelming her and she just lay in a miserable heap, weeping. And she was horribly aware that he was tense and t
ellingly silent beside her, just staring, not touching, not even comforting her.
‘You don’t have to say anything,’ she mumbled. He was appalled. She could see the horror in his eyes. Blind with tears, she sat up, her hands crossing over her breasts. And she realised that she’d instinctively covered her breasts when they’d made love in the villa. Hence his disgust now. ‘Where’s Taki’s room?’ she asked croakily. ‘P-point me in the right direction and I’ll g-get out of your hair,’ she said jerkily through her sobs.
‘What…?’ He sat up too and cleared his throat. ‘What happened?’
‘Cancer,’ she muttered sulkily.
His intake of breath rasped harshly. ‘Emma,’ he whispered. ‘Was that your illness? Why you get so tired?’
‘Yes. Taki’s room. Where is it?’ she snapped.
Leon was in shock. He’d loved her breasts. They’d been perfect. Softly rounded globes, sweet to his lips, with wonderfully responsive nipples that leapt eagerly into his mouth.
And she’d faced the most terrible disease… He felt a gut-wrenching fear empty his gut and cause his stomach to contract fiercely. What was her future? She might die! The shock rocketed through him bewilderingly, thundering through his body and leaving it weak. Aghast, he met her wet-lashed eyes and fought his desperate urge to say mad things.
Like, Don’t ever leave me, you can’t die, why you, of all people?
‘I’m so sorry,’ he growled inadequately instead.
She looked at him with pitiful eyes as if her world had come to an end, the tears pouring down her unhappy face.
And whether it was unwise or not, he couldn’t let her go. Gently he stroked her arm, trying to ignore his own fear, his own needs, and to concentrate on hers. She thought she was ugly. That he didn’t find her sexy any more. He smiled ruefully to himself. If only!
‘Take your hands away from your breasts,’ he said quietly.
‘No.’ She shook her head violently. ‘You’ve seen me. Isn’t that enough? Do you want to humiliate me more?’
‘Seeing isn’t enough for either of us.’
