by Lynne Graham
She was very conscious of how much she owed Hilary, and there was little that Lily would not have done to lighten her sister’s current load in life. Between family commitments and the endless challenge of battling to prop up a failing business and live on a shoestring, her sister already had too much on her plate and Lily only wished that she were in a position to do more to help. Unfortunately, during term time, she worked in a nursery school a couple of hundred miles away.
In a few short weeks, when the new school term started, she would be returning to work and nowhere within reach when Hilary needed an extra pair of hands or even a supportive hug. Unhappily, flying out to Turkey in Hilary’s stead was all that lay within Lily’s power and, although she dreaded seeing Rauf again, accepting that necessity without dramatising the event felt like the very least she could do in return.
‘There’s a message for you,’ Lily was informed when she finally got to check into her small hotel at two the following morning.
As she trekked after the porter showing her to her room, Lily shook open the folded sheet of paper and then sucked in a sharp sustaining breath.
‘Mr Kasabian will meet you at eleven a.m. on the fourth at the Aegean Court Hotel.’
For what remained of the night, she dozed in stretches, wakening several times with a start and the fading memory of vivid dreams that unsettled and embarrassed her. Dreams about Rauf and the summer she had turned twenty-one. Rauf Kasabian, the guy who had convinced her that a woman could actually die from unrequited love and longing. How had he done that to her? How had he got past her defences in the first instance? It still bewildered Lily that she, who had until then backed off in helpless distaste from masculine overtures, had somehow felt only the most shocking, soaring happiness and satisfaction when Rauf had been the offender.
When she walked out of her hotel later that morning to climb into a taxi, she felt hot and bothered and so nervous she literally felt sick. The document case she carried contained copies of all the relevant account-book entries and bank statements that Hilary had given her as proof that all dues had been paid over to Rauf’s company, MMI, on the correct dates. She was dropped off at an enormous, opulent hotel complex with a long line of international flags flying outside the imposing main doors.
Rauf had not paraded his great wealth in London. In fact she had had no grasp whatsoever of his true standing in the business world until her father had made discreet enquiries through his bank about the male offering him financial backing. Her father’s bank manager had suggested that Douglas Harris break out the champagne to celebrate such a generous offer from a business tycoon whom he had described as being one of the richest and most powerful media moguls in Europe.
In the vast reception lounge inside the Aegean Court, Rauf sank back into his comfortable seat, a glass of mineral water cradled between his lean brown fingers for he never touched alcohol during business hours. He was secure in the knowledge that the staff were hovering at a discreet distance to ensure that nobody else sat down anywhere within hearing for it was his hotel. Conducting his meeting with Lily in a public area would ensure that formal distance was maintained and keep it brief.
But then he might have staged their encounter in his penthouse apartment on the top floor had it not been for the fact that it was already very much occupied by family members expecting him to join them for lunch. The pushy but lovable trio of matriarchs in the Kasabian family had that very morning elected without invitation to come for a heady spin in his private jet. Rauf suppressed a rueful groan, for his ninety-two-year-old great-grandmother, his seventy-four-year-old grandmother and his mother could in combination be somewhat trying guests. Was it his fault that he was an only child and the sole unappreciative focus of their hopes of the next generation?
Shelving that reflection with a wry grimace, he concentrated his thoughts back on Lily. He fully expected, indeed he was even looking forward to, being disappointed when he saw her again. No woman could possibly be as beautiful as he had once believed her to be.
So, it was most ironic that, when Rauf saw the two middle-aged doormen compete in an undignified race to throw the doors wide for the woman entering the hotel, it should be Lily in receipt of that exaggerated male attention that only a very real degree of beauty evoked. Lily, who still seemed to drift rather than walk, her long dress flowing with her fluid movements and baring only slim arms, narrow wrists and slender ankles. As Lily approached the desk, Rauf watched the young clerk rush to greet her and his wide, sensual mouth compressed into a line harder than steel.
Hair the colour of a sunlit cornfield fell all the way to Lily’s waist, even longer than it had been that summer. Her modest appearance, though, was pure, calculated provocation, Rauf thought in raw derision. The plain dress only accentuated her classic beauty and anchoring that mane of fabulous golden hair into prim restraint merely imbued most men with a strong desire to see those pale silken strands loose and spread across a pillow.
In fact it was an education for Rauf to watch every man in her vicinity swivel to watch her move past and note how she affected not to notice the stir she caused. But no woman blessed with her perfect features could remain unaware of the gifts she had been born with. Had he not let himself be fooled by that same air of innocence, had he just taken her to his bed and enjoyed her body, he would surely have realised then that she was not only nothing that special, but also a practised little tart.
As Lily headed in the direction that the desk clerk had indicated her heart started to beat very, very fast, indeed so fast that she could hardly catch her breath. She still could not believe that she was about to see Rauf Kasabian again. But then across the wide empty space that separated them she actually saw Rauf rise from his table. Her whole body leapt with almost painful tension and she froze, paralysed to the spot by that first glimpse of him.
He was so very tall. He stood six feet four inches with the wide shoulders, narrow hips and lithe, muscular build of a male in the peak of physical condition. And gorgeous did not begin to describe that lean, bronzed face, Lily conceded in dazed acknowledgement. Rauf was so startlingly handsome that even on the crowded streets of London women had noticed him and turned their heads to stare. Lustrous, luxuriant black hair was cropped to his proud head. He had a riveting bone structure overlaid with vibrant skin and tawny eyes that could be dark as bitter chocolate or as pure a gold as the sinking sun.
Her legs behaved like sticks without the ability to bend as she forced herself to move towards him. Her colour was high at the lowering awareness that she had stopped dead to look at him like an impressionable schoolgirl. He did not make the moment easier for her by striding forward to meet her halfway. Instead he stayed where he was, making her come to him. How had she forgotten how he dominated everything around him? How he could entrap her with one mesmerising look from those thick-lashed, brilliant eyes?
Rauf watched her approach. She was a perfect doll, dainty and exquisite as a Meissen ornament. On even that very basic level she had once appealed to every masculine protective instinct he possessed. Rauf drew in a stark short breath. Memory hadn’t lied, memory had only dimmed his recollection of her wonderful skin, not to mention those deep blue eyes wide as a child’s and fringed by soft brown lashes a baby deer would have envied. The cool intellect that outright rejected the temptation she presented warred with the much more primitive urges of his all-too-male body. When lust triumphed, stirring him into aching sexual tension, Rauf was infuriated by his own weakness.
Lily hovered several feet away, alarmed by the jangling state of her nerves, the terrifying blankness of her mind and the even more demeaning truth that she could not drag her attention from him. ‘It’s been a long time,’ she said breathlessly, almost wincing at the nervous sound of her own voice.
‘Yes. Would you like something to drink?’
‘Er…pure orange, please.’
Rauf passed on the order to the waiter nearby and turned back to her. ‘Let’s get down to business, th
en,’ he drawled with intimidating cool. ‘I don’t have much time to spare.’
CHAPTER TWO
TAKEN aback by the coldness of that greeting, Lily was grateful for the small hiatus created by the waiter, who stepped forward to swing out a high-backed armchair for her occupation. ‘Thank you.’
‘My pleasure, hanim,’ the young man asserted with an admiring smile until a cool word of Turkish uttered by Rauf sent him into hasty retreat.
‘You may have noticed that my countrymen go for English blondes in a big way,’ Rauf remarked in his dark, deep drawl.
‘Yes,’ Lily confided ruefully, thinking of the taxi driver who had tried to chat her up and all the discomfiting male attention that she had attracted since her recent arrival.
Yet she was conscious of Rauf’s masculine proximity with every fibre of her being and even more aware of the weird tight little knot low in her pelvis of something that felt dangerously like suppressed excitement. Her tension increased for she was as unsettled by her own reactions as she had been at twenty-one, because no other man had ever had that effect on her.
Rauf lifted a broad shoulder in a casual shrug. ‘Here, I’m afraid, and in certain other resorts, British female tourists have the reputation of being the easiest to bed in the shortest possible space of time.’
Lily’s face flamed. ‘I beg your pardon?’
Rauf dealt her a cool golden glance laden with mockery. Being downright offensive was not the norm for him but he was determined to blow her I’m-so-sweet-and-shockable front right out of the water. ‘Some Englishwomen go mad for Turkish men, so don’t blame the guys for hassling you.’
‘I wasn’t aware that I was blaming anybody.’ Lily’s fingers tightened round the document case on her lap. She just could not credit that he was talking to her in such a way and, bewildered by the antagonism she sensed, she allowed her scrutiny to linger on the scornful slant to his beautifully shaped mouth.
Without the slightest warning, she found herself remembering the wicked, unforgettable excitement of those firm, hard male lips on her own. A deep inner quiver slivered through her slight frame and her skin heated. Mortified by the intimate nature of her wandering thoughts, she could not even recall what they had been talking about. Forcing her head up, she encountered intent tawny eyes and stopped breathing altogether.
His lush black lashes dipped to a slumbrous level over his stunning gaze and she shifted on her seat, every muscle tightening, every nerve-ending flaring with agonising immediacy into sensitised awareness. Desperate to break free of the raw magnetic power he exerted over her and shattered that she could still be susceptible to a male who had once rejected her, she tore her eyes from him and muttered with an abruptness that only increased her discomfiture, ‘You said that you didn’t have much time…so can we discuss this misunderstanding over the contract that you agreed with my father?’
Rauf’s shimmering golden scrutiny rested on her evasive gaze with grim amusement and no small amount of satisfaction. So she did want him and that, at least, had not been a total lie like all the rest. He elevated a challenging black brow. ‘There is no misunderstanding.’
‘There has to be.’ With hands that were betraying a dismaying tendency to tremble, Lily dug into the document case and dragged out the sheaf of papers that Hilary had put together.
Wondering what on earth she could hope to achieve by going to such pointless lengths in an effort to convince him that his highly qualified investment consultant was incapable of spotting a rip-off when he came across one, Rauf released his breath in an impatient hiss. ‘I have no intention of studying those documents. By failing to make the agreed sharing of annual profits your father has been in breach of our contract for more than two years. That’s the base line and the only one that counts.’
‘Dad would never default on any contract.’ Alarm gripping her at Rauf’s stubborn refusal even to direct his attention at the papers that she had set on the table, Lily leant forward, frantically swept up the first sheet and extended it herself. ‘This is last year’s account-book entry. A sizeable sum of money was wire-transferred to an account known as Marmaris Media Incorporated at your Turkish bank in London. I have every identifying detail of that transfer. For goodness’ sake, if that’s not proof that a major misunderstanding has occurred, what is?’
His interest now fully engaged by what she had said, for he did not use a Turkish bank in London, but making no attempt to accept the proffered document, Rauf gazed at her flushed and anxious face. ‘This sounds remarkably like a misunderstanding destined to end up in the hands of an international fraud squad.’
Her natural colour draining away, her blue eyes rounding, Lily let the sheet of paper drop back on the pile and gasped, ‘What on earth are you trying to suggest?’
‘That it seems very suspicious that the trading name Marmaris Media Incorporated should bear such a very close resemblance to the name under which my own companies operate—’
‘Which is MMI…Marmaris Media Incorporated!’ Lily argued in bewilderment.
‘No, I rather think that you must know that that is untrue,’ Rauf countered with sardonic cool, for he was now convinced that she was attempting to mount some kind of clumsy belated cover-up. ‘MMI stands for Marmaris Media International and no part of my holdings trades under any similar name. Any cash paid into an account in the name of Marmaris Media Incorporated has nothing to do with me.’
‘Then the money must still be there in that wretched account!’ Lily exclaimed, immediately believing that she had found out where a fatal error might have occurred in Harris Travel’s dealings with Rauf. ‘Don’t you see? Nobody at Harris Travel realised they’d got the name wrong and the payments have gone into someone else’s account…oh, my goodness, suppose they’ve spent it?’
Against his own volition, Rauf was becoming more entertained with every second he spent listening to her spiel. She looked like a live angel and, had he not known what he did know about her, the appeal in her beautiful eyes might have penetrated even his armour-plated cynicism. He lowered his dense black lashes over his appreciative gaze. She ought to be on television creating kiddy-orientated whodunnits of shattering simplicity. That climax of a punchline, ‘Suppose they’ve spent it?’ was priceless and he would long cherish its utterance for he had an excellent, if dark, sense of humour.
Nobody with any wit could have been taken in by so unlikely a tale. He was willing to bet a good half of his vast wealth that were he willing to go through the laborious motions she was trying to prompt him into making, willing to act like her trusting ally in pursuit of an unknown criminal, he would find out…guess what? Surprise, surprise, he didn’t think! The fake account called Marmaris Media Incorporated would be as empty as the old lady’s cupboard in the English nursery rhyme. Switching money between accounts to conceal where it was heading next and false entries in the account books were one of the most rudimentary and common methods of concealing fraud.
‘Didn’t you hear what I said?’ Lily prompted, incredulous at his lack of reaction and actually jumping to her feet to stress her enthusiasm for that possible explanation. It seemed obvious that a stupid but simple mistake had sent the payments that Rauf should have received into the wrong bank account. ‘Either all those payments have been piling up in one of those dormant accounts that you read about or someone’s been having a merry old time for the last two years on money that was rightfully yours!’
‘Thankfully it’s not my problem,’ Rauf responded smooth as silk, but he was operating on two levels again, his brain attempting to disengage from his libido as he tensed with growing annoyance. As she automatically angled her slender body towards him he was maddeningly aware of the tantalising thrust of her lush little breasts beneath the shrouding dress and his body hardened on a surge of instant sexual hunger that inflamed his pride.
‘But it’s your money…don’t you care about that?’ Deflated and bemused by his apparent disinterest, Lily dared to look at him direct and clash
ed with smouldering golden eyes.
Her heart skipped a beat and in the interim she felt her full breasts shift inside her cotton bra, the soft tips pinching into sudden taut sensitivity. Rigid with shamed awareness of what was happening to her, she lowered her head and dropped back down into her seat again at speed. Could he still sense the appalling effect he had on her? A crawling sense of humiliation engulfed her, for she had never dreamt that, three years on, she might still be vulnerable around Rauf Kasabian. After all, she wasn’t in love with him any more, and he might be a good-looking guy—all right a very good-looking guy—but that was no excuse, was it?
Sheer anger having overwhelmed his arousal, Rauf was reminding himself of what a cruel little tease Lily had always been. Once she had drawn him in with the same languishing looks and responsive body language, only to treat him to shrinking reluctance when he had dared to react to those invitations. But her most effective ploy of all had been three quite unforgettable and very clever little words. “You scare me,” she had once confided in a breathy little voice of apparent apology, shocking and shaming him into the kind of total physical restraint that he had never had to practise round any other woman.
Still raw from the memory of that unjust and wounding accusation, Rauf squared his wide shoulders, his formidable intelligence now fully back in the ascendant. ‘Harris Travel would still be in breach of contract and I do wish you luck in pursuing the dormant account scenario. However, all that is owed to me must be repaid—’
Tense as a bowstring, Lily parted dry lips. ‘Yes, of course I accept that, but—’
‘I don’t like being ripped off.’ The chill in Rauf’s hard dark-as-midnight eyes was now pronounced. ‘In fact, with very little encouragement, I can be a total unforgiving bastard.’
