Читать книгу Chosen by the Greek Tycoon: The Antonakos Marriage / At the Greek Tycoon's Bidding / The Greek's Bridal Purchase - Кэтти Уильямс, Kate Walker, Cathy Williams - Страница 15

HOW could she ever answer that? Skye asked herself. She was trapped, no matter which way she turned. Tied by so many different promises to so many people, and knowing she had no way out. There was the promise she had made to her father—others to Cyril…

But the one promise that truly mattered to her was the one that she had made in her heart to her mother. Claire Marston knew nothing of the real reasons why her daughter was suddenly going to marry a much older Greek millionaire; she would have been horrified if she did. But in her heart Skye had promised that she would do anything—everything—she could to ensure that her mother had the health and strength to enjoy as much of life as she could. And if that meant giving up some of her own life, her own happiness, in return, then she believed it was worth it.

So now she had only one choice open to her, one path she could possibly follow.

And she took it.

‘Why?’ she echoed with what she hoped was a deceptively lightweight and flippant air. She had started on this coldly casual act to protect herself; she couldn’t afford to let it slip now. ‘Isn’t it obvious? Because he asked me.’

Once again, Theo’s response surprised her. She had expected anger. She had expected contempt. She had expected that he would simply toss her aside—mentally at least—and just walk out. So she was stunned when he shook his head in total rejection of what she was saying.

‘Not good enough,’ he stated with a cold finality.

His absolute calmness was somehow more disturbing than if he had lost his temper and shouted at her. A sudden, scary feeling that she was fighting for her life pushed her towards an even more outrageous declaration.

‘You don’t think that’s good enough? Why ever not?’

Her pause was supposed to give him time to respond, but he didn’t take it. Instead, he seemed to be waiting for her to speak again.

But what could she say? If he only knew it, she had spoken the exact truth when she had given him her answer. Cyril had offered marriage as a way out of the appalling problems that beset her family, and, in despair, with no way to turn, she had accepted him.

‘What’s so difficult to believe about it?’ she demanded, the anguish in her heart putting a sharpness on her tongue that she couldn’t have managed if she’d planned it. ‘Who in their right mind would want to turn down this?’ She waved a hand in an all-encompassing gesture that took in the whole room, the patio out beyond the doors, and the blue water of the swimming pool beyond that. ‘I certainly wasn’t going to.’

It was only when his face changed, his expression hardening, eyes turning to black flint, that she realised how a moment before he had had an entirely different look. She had been near to some sympathy, some understanding from him, and now he had backed away again. Physically as well as mentally.

He had moved back from her; his grip on her jaw loosening. The barriers were up between them once more and it hurt so badly that she had to blink back tears.

But it was better this way.

Safer.

The implications of that word, ‘safer’, were ones she flinched away from admitting to herself. They gave her an idea, though. If she tried to defend herself from Theo’s questions, then she very rapidly found herself with her back against the wall. It was time to stand up for herself—go on the attack instead.

Wrenching her chin free from his loosened grasp, she tried to push Theo aside, get to her feet. But the barrier of his big body offered far more resistance than she had ever imagined. Her push had no effect whatsoever on him, but it made her fingers curl in shock at the sensations that fizzed up her nerves as they encountered the heat and hardness of his powerful chest.

Giving up the attempt to make him move, she scrambled inelegantly off the chair over its arm, turning hastily to confront him while she had the advantage of height because he still knelt on the floor.

‘Why does it matter so much to you what happens between me and your father? I understood that you and he weren’t exactly close.’

She’d got under his guard with that one. She saw it register in the depths of his eyes and knew a shiver of apprehension as his jaw tightened and a muscle in his cheek tugged sharply.

‘Who told you that?’

‘Your father, of course.’

Her throat dried as Theo uncoiled his long body and slowly stood up. Perhaps it was the fact that she had no shoes on and in bare feet was inches smaller, but Skye felt that never before had he seemed so tall, so imposing, so big as when he towered over her now. Her toes curled on the polished wooden floor as she fought against the craven impulse to turn and run.

‘And what did he tell you about it?’

‘That—that you had a disagreement.’

‘Which is something of an understatement.’

The bitter irony of Theo’s response made it plain that it had been anything but a ‘disagreement’.

‘What was it about?’

‘Do you really want to know?’ Theo demanded sharply. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, I do.’ Skye tried to sound much more certain than she actually felt. ‘It might make me understand things more.’

Something in Theo’s expression warned her that that was a vain hope. But she had taken this path now. She was determined to see it through.

‘Tell me,’ she said unevenly.

Theo pushed his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans and strolled away towards the open patio doors where he stood, staring out at the clear blue water of the pool glinting in the sun.

‘My father disowned me because I wouldn’t marry the bride of his choice.’

‘What?’ Skye was stunned. ‘You’re kidding!’

Theo swung round to face her again and the deadly serious cast of his stunning features made the half-laughing protest and disbelief fade rapidly from her face.

‘Do I look as if I am joking?’ he demanded haughtily, his accent sounding very pronounced on the question. ‘Believe me, it is not a topic I would be flippant about.’

‘But—he—I mean—why?’

Theo’s mouth curved into a grim travesty of a smile that had no trace of humour at all in it.

‘My father has always tried to run my life,’ he said at last. ‘When I was small he took control completely—I could barely breathe without his permission. My mother died when I was five—two years later I was sent to board-ing-school in England.’

‘At seven?’

She looked truly shocked, Theo reflected. Shocked, and something else he couldn’t quite interpret. If he’d been caught in a weak moment he might have called it sympathetic, but he would probably be fooling himself to even consider it.

‘I wasn’t the only one,’ he returned dryly. ‘I was in a class of boys that age. My father was determined that I should get the best education possible—for him that meant an English public school, then an English university. Then, of course, working with him in the Antonakos Corporation.’

‘He had your life all mapped out for you.’

Theo’s mouth twisted cynically.

‘Right down to the woman I should marry.’

Skye perched on the arm of one of the big chairs. Her eyes still had that strange shadowed look in them. Concentrate on that, he told himself fiercely. At least if he kept his gaze—and his attention—focused on her eyes, then he would stop himself from thinking too much about the rest of her.

About the slide of her hair over the bare, lightly tanned shoulder exposed by the slender straps of her lilac-coloured dress. About the way that sitting on the edge of the chair had pulled the already short skirt up even higher on the slim, elegant legs. About the sway of soft breasts clearly not confined in some restricting contraption of satin and Lycra, but moving with each slight gesture she made.

When she lifted a hand to push through her hair his blood pressure mounted to an alarming degree. And the memory of those legs wrapped around his waist like hot silk as she writhed underneath him threatened his ability to think so badly that he barely heard her next comment and had to force his attention back to the present before he lost track of things completely.

‘You didn’t like her?’

‘You really don’t know my father too well, do you? I never saw her—and neither, I believe, did he.’

There was no mistaking the emotion that widened her eyes now. It was total consternation—mixed with a touch of disbelief.

‘You’d never even met her?’

Theo shook his head firmly. ‘It was to be an arranged marriage. A cold-blooded financial arrangement between my father and hers.’

‘And you had no say in the matter?’

‘My father certainly didn’t intend that I should. I was twenty-seven—more than old enough to start providing him with grandchildren. He had surveyed all the families with daughters of marriageable age, and Agna’s father owned land he wanted. That, together with the fact that she was just nineteen, a virgin, and the family fortune, though no match for the Antonakos wealth, was far from inadequate, made her the perfect choice as far as he was concerned.’

‘So this Agna didn’t get a choice either?’

‘Why should she? She was only a daughter, and as far as two greedy old men were concerned she had one real purpose to serve—to marry well, improve the family fortunes, and bear an heir to the combined estate.’

‘Oh, don’t! You make her sound like a brood mare!’

Skye’s voice broke uncontrollably on the words as a result of the bleak thoughts that flooded her mind. At first she been feeling so uptight that she had almost let his explanation of the rift with his father slip by in a haze of shocked disbelief, without registering the impact it had on her personally. All she had thought of was the way Theo had been treated, when she should have looked at what it meant for her.

And what it meant for her was an added brutal twist to the knife in her heart, an added sense of being used.

She was only a daughter, and as far as two greedy old men were concerned she had one purpose to serve—to marry well, improve the family fortunes, and bear an heir to the combined estate.

The words seemed to gather an added sense of bitterness with each repetition inside her head. Theo’s father had not managed to get his way, by marrying his son off, so he had done the next best thing by taking a young wife who, in her own words, would have to act as ‘a brood mare’.

‘Not me, sweetheart,’ Theo returned harshly. ‘I was the one who turned her down, remember. I had no wish to get married. And I lost my own inheritance as a result.’

‘He really disinherited you? Cut you out of his will without a penny?’

‘That is what the term usually means. Though that “without a penny” isn’t strictly accurate. I’d already formed my own company—one with an income my father couldn’t touch. No, the part of my inheritance I really lost was this island.’

‘Helikos?’

The grim set to Theo’s mouth as he nodded twisted her nerves into even more painful knots.

‘It was my mother’s and it should have come to me. But anything else—forget it! In the five years since I rebelled against the idea of becoming a married man, I’ve more than doubled my profits. I expect my personal fortune will match my father’s now. So you needn’t worry that I lost out on the deal.’

‘I never…’ Skye began, but she was interrupted by the sound of the telephone shrilling through the room. She glanced in the direction of the sound, but it was more important that Theo should know she hadn’t been shocked at his father’s treatment of him because of the money he had lost.

‘That wasn’t what was on my mind!’ she continued. ‘I—’

Once more the sound of the phone cut into her words.

‘Aren’t you going to answer that?’ Theo asked.

‘I’m not sure I should. Your father…’

Cyril had made it plain that she was not to interfere in his life. That she was only to be a decorative wife on his arm and in his bed.

‘It will probably be him anyway. And if it isn’t—well, the reason you’re here is that you will be Kyria Antonakos in a matter of weeks. So if you’re determined to go through with it, you’d better get a taste for acting as the mistress of the house.’

He made a point of walking away to the open doors again, giving her time and privacy for the call.

It was Cyril and what he had to say, the tone he used, made icy footsteps dance up and down her spine. He had never, obviously, treated her with much affection, but now his tone was positively brusque, his need to get away quickly desperately worrying.

Skye was suddenly a prey to a terrible fear that something had gone wrong. Had something happened to make Cyril change his mind so that even the sacrifice she was prepared to make wasn’t enough? The thought made her realise just how terribly isolated she was, how alone. But with Theo so close at hand she didn’t dare to ask, and Cyril issued his last order and switched off the phone even as she was struggling to find a reply.

When Theo swung round again to face her she was still standing by the table, sharp teeth digging into her lower lip, a frown of concern between her brows.

‘Theo will look after you,’ Cyril had said, and right at this moment she couldn’t even begin to think which was worse—this terrible, dragging sense of loneliness and fear, or the thought of being alone with Theo once more.

‘He’s staying in Athens tonight,’ she said flatly when she saw that Theo was looking at her. ‘Not coming back till tomorrow. He—he said you’d look after me.’

She lifted her eyes as she spoke, her dove-grey gaze locking with his, and Theo wondered sharply just what was going through her mind.

He knew what was going through his.

His father was not coming back until tomorrow. Twenty-four hours alone with Skye.

Twenty-four hours alone with temptation. A night of temptation.

He said you’d look after me.

Oh, Theos! His father had no suspicion at all just how he would like to look after this woman, or he wouldn’t have left her in his care.

He had already been fighting himself desperately for more than forty-eight hours. Could he manage to keep his feelings on a tight rein for another day, here, on his own in the house with her?

It was not something he wanted to risk.

‘I have things I need to do.’

‘All right.’

She wouldn’t look at him as she spoke, but seemed absorbed in a painting that hung on the far wall, concentrating fiercely on the image of Persephone.

‘You’ll be all right?’

‘I’ll be fine.’

It was less certain this time, the words faintly uneven. But she still wouldn’t look at him.

Was there a thickness in her voice? And the only time he had ever seen anyone blink that hard it had been because they were blinking back…

‘Skye?’

Perversely, now that he had what he wanted, Theo found he was more than reluctant to leave. A faint flicker of a smile touched Skye’s mouth as she watched him hesitate. But it was a cynical, disturbingly weary smile. And at last she looked at him, or at least she turned her head in his direction, but her unfocused gaze seemed to go straight over his shoulder, avoiding his eyes.

‘What are you trying to do?’ she questioned with a rough-edged note to the words, as if her words were unravelling as she spoke. ‘Do you want to prove that I can’t let you go? That that…electricity that you think is between us will make it impossible to part from you?’

‘I’d be a fool to think that,’ he said with dark softness, ‘when I know only too well that you could walk out without a second thought. You’ve already done it once.’

‘I told you it was just for that night.’

‘And I told you I don’t do one-night stands.’

This time when she blinked her gaze seemed to come back into focus and her dark, cloudy eyes met his just once, then flinched away again.

‘Are you claiming you wanted more?’

‘It was certainly an experience that I would have liked to repeat if you hadn’t bolted out of there like a frightened rabbit before I even had time to wake up.’

‘I did not bolt!’

‘You sure as hell didn’t hang around. What was it, sweet Skye? A sudden realisation that you had a conscience after all?’

‘It wasn’t that at all.’

Skye aimed for defiance, almost made it, but her voice slipped a little on the last couple of words. But she felt as if she were fighting for her life here and she had no intention of letting him see it.

The acid burn of misery ate into her soul at the memory of the way she had felt when she had left that hotel room. At the time she had thought that nothing could make her feel worse. Now she knew how wrong she had been.

‘I said at the time that it was my way or nothing. And you agreed.’

‘I went along with what you said,’ Theo corrected coldly. ‘I don’t recall signing any agreement in blood. I was fool enough to think you might wait around at least for breakfast.’

‘I told you how it would be. Why should you complain when I stuck to my word?’

‘I didn’t like the way it made me feel.’

‘And that was?’

‘Used.’

It was the last thing she had expected and the single word made her thoughts reel in shock.

Used.

He had felt used?

How did he think his father had made her feel?

‘Join the club!’ she flashed back, her spinning brain unable to think of anything less provocative in the few seconds that were at her disposal.

‘What?’

For a moment she thought that once more Theo’s grasp of English had failed him and that was why he was frowning his lack of comprehension. But the next second she realised how dangerously close she had come to giving away the true details of her situation.

‘Well, you have to admit it’s unusual for a man to feel that way…’ She covered her tracks hastily. ‘That’s how most women feel when a man only wants a one-night stand. It doesn’t do any harm for you to get a taste of your own medicine.’

‘I did not use you!’

‘We both used each other. It was just—what was it you said? A night of meaningless passion.’

‘Meaningless is the truth. You couldn’t get out of there quick enough!’

Oh, if only he knew the reality of it!

Skye felt tears threaten and fought against them hard, tightening her jaw and clamping her mouth tight shut against the little cry of distress that almost escaped her.

If only he knew how she had felt that morning when she had woken to find herself curled up close to his long, warm body, clasped tight in the strength of his arms.

For a few, wonderful moments reality hadn’t quite sunk in and she had lain there, keeping her eyes closed, a small, ridiculous smile on her face, just enjoying the sensation of being held like this. How she had wished that she could just stay there, held close, and never, ever move again.

And when she had finally left the room, her face had been streaked with tears. Tears of loss for a man who hadn’t even known who she was and—if fate was kind—would never know.

But of course fate had not been kind. The truth was that fate had been at its cruellest that night, and again when it had brought her here, to this island just three days ago.

Because it had brought her face to face with the man who had stolen part of her soul on that single night in a London hotel. The man whom she had tried to convince herself she never wanted to meet ever again. But the man whom she knew, deep down in her heart, she most longed to see in the entire world.

Until he had appeared in Helikos in the form of the one man that she must never, ever, even dream of getting close to. The man who was totally forbidden to her, and had to stay that way for the rest of her life.