Читать книгу Irresistible Greeks: Defiance and Desire - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 16

DRAKON took one look at Gemini collapsed on the floor beside the toilet in the bathroom of her apartment, her face a deathly clammy white after obviously having been violently ill, before striding over to the sink and dampening a flannel with cold water. He went down on his knees beside her to begin bathing her face.

Gemini pushed the flannel away, her eyes a deep and pained sea-green. ‘What are you doing?’

He raised dark brows as he sat back on his heels. ‘I believe I am endeavouring to make you feel better.’

She gave a humourless smile. ‘I’m afraid it’s going to take a lot more than the application of a cold flannel to my forehead to succeed in doing that!’

‘Gemini—’

‘Would you please just go away, Drakon?’ She avoided looking at him directly as she reached up and self-consciously flushed the toilet for a second time before lowering the lid and using it as leverage to rise shakily to her feet. ‘It’s bad enough that I allowed that woman to upset me enough to actually make me physically sick, without the added humiliation of having you witness it,’ she muttered, and she picked up her toothbrush and toothpaste and left the bathroom without so much as a second glance in his direction.

Drakon rose slowly to his feet and threw the damp flannel back into the sink. He concentrated on drawing in deep, controlling breaths in an attempt to dampen down the worst of his own anger at the scene he had walked in on a few minutes ago. His hands clenched into fists at his sides as he fought the need to slam one of them into the mirror inset into the wall over the sink.

Following the veiled insights Gemini had given him into Angela Bartholomew’s true nature, he had expected the older woman to come straight to the florist’s shop and confront Gemini. But, even knowing that, Drakon hadn’t been prepared for the scene of violence he had walked in on earlier.

Or his own reaction to it…

A haze of red had literally passed in front of his eyes on seeing Angela’s hand raised with the obvious intention of striking Gemini, and for the first time in his life Drakon had actually felt himself tempted into using violence against a woman.

He hadn’t done so, of course. That would have been totally against his nature, as well as his parents’ teachings. But it had taken every ounce of his self-control not to shake Angela until her perfectly straight white teeth rattled in her vicious head!

Instead he had taken a tight hold of the woman’s arm and escorted her from the shop, closing the door firmly behind her before informing Gemini’s wide-eyed assistant that her employer was indisposed and probably wouldn’t be downstairs again for the rest of the day.

Coming up the stairs to Gemini’s apartment and finding her collapsed on the floor of the bathroom, and then having his offer of assistance totally rejected by her, had brought a return of that furious red haze.

So much so that Drakon knew he still didn’t have his emotions completely back under iron control when he went in search of her.

Gemini looked up warily as Drakon joined her in the sitting room. She had already hurried into the kitchen and washed her face and cleaned her teeth, but still felt mortified by the scene he had witnessed downstairs, as well as her own physical and embarrassing reaction to it.

But she was even angrier with Drakon for having been the real cause of Angela’s vehemence. ‘What are you doing here, Drakon?’ she demanded dully. ‘Isn’t it enough that I’ve had to listen to your mistress insult both my father and myself this afternoon, without having to now suffer your company, too?’

A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. Those black eyes glittered darkly. ‘I believe I assured you last week that that woman is not, and never will be, my mistress,’ he bit out harshly.

Gemini gave a disbelieving snort as she stood beside the unlit fireplace. ‘Have you told her that?’

‘I have no need to tell a woman such as her something she is already only too well aware of,’ he said arrogantly.

‘Could we please stop the lies?’ Gemini pushed the length of her hair back from the paleness of her face. ‘We both know that Angela only came here at all today because you told her I’d seen you last week.’

That nerve in his jaw pulsed even harder. ‘Markos was the one to tell her about that.’

She looked stunned. ‘What?’

Drakon sighed at her look of hurt disbelief. ‘In self-defence. He had no idea of the trouble it would cause when he did so.’

Gemini stared across at him incredulously. ‘You really expect me to believe that?’

He rose up to his full height, appearing every inch the arrogant billionaire industrialist he was in one of his expensively tailored dark suits, pale grey silk shirt, and a darker grey silk tie. The darkness of his hair looked as if it had received a trim since the last time she had seen him.

‘I am no more in the habit of lying than you have assured me you are,’ he told her coldly.

‘I just find it a little hard to believe that Markos needed to tell Angela anything out of self-defence,’ she said sceptically.

Drakon looked slightly uncomfortable. ‘Apparently she had just propositioned him. Markos was so taken aback by the suggestion that he fell back on his brief acquaintance with you in order to change the subject.’

The first part of that statement sounded a lot like the Angela Gemini now knew far better than she’d ever wished to. It was the second part of the statement that sounded so improbable. ‘Your cousin implied that he and I are involved in an attempt to deflect Angela’s interest in him?’

Drakon’s jaw tightened. ‘I believe Markos might have implied that it is you and I who are involved, and that he is also acquainted with you.’

That would certainly explain the arrival of the wrathful Angela. ‘And exactly how did he think telling her something like that was going to succeed in saving him from what I’m sure was Angela’s less than subtle proposition?’

‘Markos obviously had no idea of the animosity with which Angela regards you.’ Drakon’s nostrils flared. ‘Apparently I was her real target, and Markos only second choice. I believe he merely hoped to distract even those second-hand attentions by drawing attention to our own acquaintance.’

Gemini stared at Drakon wordlessly for several seconds. The directness of that unwavering dark gaze challenged her to continue disbelieving him. Which she found she couldn’t do. The explanation was so ridiculous—and sounded so exactly like something Angela would do—that Gemini couldn’t help but believe it.

She felt some of the tension leave her body as she gave a rueful sigh. ‘Poor Markos.’

‘Poor Markos?’ Drakon repeated incredulously, knowing that at this moment in time he could cheerfully have pummelled his cousin to a pulp—something he hadn’t done since they had been children together—for being the cause of Angela’s verbal and physical assault on Gemini.

Gemini nodded. ‘I like Markos.’

Drakon noted grimly that she did not say she felt that same liking for him. Not that he could exactly blame her. So far in their acquaintance Gemini had believed him to be involved in an affair with her father’s widow, to be responsible for denying her the right to purchase her family home, and to add insult to injury he had then proceeded to make love to her against the wall of a lift in Lyonedes Tower!

No, unfortunately he had no one but himself to blame if Gemini’s feelings towards him were more than a little ambivalent.

Drakon looked up as she gave a sudden splutter of laughter. ‘Sorry—I was just imagining Markos’s panic when Angela propositioned him!’ she explained at his questioning look.

‘Certainly not his finest hour,’ Drakon acknowledged dryly. ‘Although he did at least have the good sense to come to me immediately after she had departed and inform me of what he had done,’ he added with a frown. ‘I am only sorry I did not arrive soon enough to prevent the unpleasantness of your stepmother’s verbal attack.’

‘You at least stopped the physical one.’ Gemini gave a shrug of her slender shoulders. ‘And the verbal stuff was no worse than some of her other outbursts, actually. Better in some ways, because for the first time I actually learnt a little of what motivates her.’ She grimaced. ‘Not a pretty story, I’m afraid.’

And not one she intended sharing with him either, Drakon guessed. Not that he had any wish to know anything more of Angela, or the reasons she behaved in the way she did. His only concern was Gemini—not the unpleasant woman whom her father had married.

‘What did she say to make you physically ill?’

She was very pale still, but even so Drakon couldn’t help but appreciate the way the colour of Gemini’s short-sleeved blouse perfectly matched the colour of her eyes, making her hair appear even more white-gold. Black jeans fitted smoothly over her bottom and thighs; her bare feet were thrust into flat, open-toed sandals.

Gemini sobered. She was very aware that it was the shock of thinking Drakon was involved with Angela after all, and then his unexpected arrival so quickly after Angela—which at the time had only seemed to confirm his involvement—that had caused her to be so violently ill.

The question was, why had it?

She had thought about Drakon a lot these past four days—of their time together in the lift, of her own loss of control—so maybe it had been the thought of his having discussed any of that with Angela which had made her feel so ill? Although if that had really been the case she had no doubt that Angela would have taken great pleasure in telling her so!

‘I told you—nothing worse than usual.’ Gemini gave a dismissive shake of her head. ‘Shouldn’t you have flown back to New York by now?’

He glanced down at the plain gold watch on his tanned wrist. ‘I was scheduled to leave for the airport an hour ago, yes,’ he admitted, before shrugging broad shoulders as he saw her surprised expression. ‘I thought it more important that I come here instead, to help you deal with your stepmother,’ he explained.

Gemini felt a warm glow inside at the thought of Drakon having changed his arrangements out of concern for her. ‘That really was very kind of you,’ she murmured huskily. ‘Perhaps you’ll be able to book another flight later today?’

He smiled tightly. ‘It is of no matter; the Lyonedes jet will fly whenever I instruct it to do so.’

‘Of course it will.’ She nodded ruefully. Silly her—of course there was a Lyonedes jet! Her father had been extremely wealthy, but she knew the Lyonedes family were rich beyond her imagining. Hence Angela’s obvious interest in ensnaring one of them for herself…‘What on earth did you say to Angela to finally get her to go?’ she prompted curiously.

Drakon’s top lip curled with distaste as he recalled the unpleasantness of that conversation—the details of which he had no intention of sharing with Gemini. But it had left Drakon feeling it might be of benefit to all concerned if he were to have further investigations made in regard to Angela Bartholomew. If for no other reason than that Lyonedes Enterprises was about to complete an important and costly business transaction with a woman who could not be trusted.

Except Drakon knew there was another, equally important reason for his concern about Angela. And that reason was standing across the room from him.

He’d had every intention of returning to New York this evening—of putting Gemini Bartholomew and the desire that had blazed so hotly between them the previous week firmly from his mind. But now that he had seen her again he knew he no longer felt any inclination to leave England—either today or tomorrow. In fact, he had no desire to leave England until he was reassured that this matter between Gemini and her stepmother had been settled.

And it would be settled, Drakon inwardly decreed grimly. One way or another. In such a way that would ensure Gemini was no longer in danger from Angela’s viciousness.

‘I merely told her that it was time for her to leave,’ he answered economically, having no intention of boring Gemini with the truth of her stepmother’s flirtatious manner—almost as if he had not witnessed the viciousness of her attack on Gemini!—or the fact that she had dared to invite him out to dinner this evening. It was an invitation Drakon had left the other woman in absolutely no doubt he would refuse—along with any others she might care to make in the future.

The sneering remarks she had made about Gemini following that refusal had been enough to alert Drakon anew concerning Gemini’s safety…

‘Are you free for dinner this evening?’

Gemini had been lost in thought during Drakon’s lengthy silence, but now she looked across at him sharply. ‘You’re inviting me to have dinner with you again?’

He nodded briskly. ‘It is obvious that we need to discuss the continuing problem of your stepmother further, and as I will no longer be flying back to New York today—’

‘You won’t?’ Gemini blinked owlishly, not sure whether that lurch in her stomach was due to a residual nausea from earlier or if it was solely to do with the fact that Drakon apparently wasn’t returning to New York today as planned, and had actually invited her out to dinner with him this evening!

It was an invitation she knew she shouldn’t accept…

Couldn’t accept.

Not when she had spent the past four days telling herself that her heated response to this man had been just a figment of her imagination. An overreaction to everything else that was going on in her life at the moment.

She’d only had to look at Drakon again to know she had been fooling herself…

This man—the way he looked, the aura of power he wore like a mantle about those broad and muscular shoulders—appealed to Gemini on a level she had never experienced before. He somehow made her feel safe, protected, while at the same time being aware that Drakon himself was the biggest danger of all to her. Physically and possibly emotionally as well…

‘No. I—’ Drakon broke off as a knock sounded on the internal door of the apartment. ‘That’s probably your assistant. I instructed her to let you know when she was ready to lock up for the day.’ He shrugged as Gemini raised her brows.

Yes, Drakon Lyonedes was a man she knew she should beware of—for more reasons than the obvious one of finding him so mouthwateringly attractive. Left unchecked, he was more than capable of taking over her life if he chose to do so—and was certainly arrogant enough.

‘You—’ It was Gemini’s turn to break off as a mobile phone began to ring. It had to be Drakon’s, because the ringtone of hers was one of her favourite songs rather than a normal ringtone like this. ‘That’s probably Markos, checking to see if you arrived here in time to save me from the clutches of my evil stepmother!’ she guessed dryly.

‘This situation is not in the least amusing, Gemini.’ Dark brows lowered over those coal-black eyes as he removed a mobile phone from the breast pocket of his tailored jacket. ‘And I believe my cousin knows me well enough to know I will most certainly have saved you—if indeed you needed saving,’ he declared, before taking the call. ‘Yes, Markos,’ he said, at the same time giving Gemini a small inclination of his head in acknowledgement of her correct guess as to the identity of the caller.

Gemini decided to leave him to the privacy of his call and left the room to answer the door to Jo, reassuring her assistant that she was fine before accompanying her down the stairs to close the blinds and lock the door behind her as she left for the day.

Leaving Gemini completely alone with Drakon…

She lingered downstairs in the shop for several minutes after Jo had gone on her way, restlessly tidying where no tidying was necessary as she thought over Drakon’s invitation to dinner this evening. So that they might discuss the problem of Angela further, he had said. Although quite what that meant she had no idea. It was now more than obvious to her that Angela’s dislike of her wasn’t necessarily personal but was directed towards what Gemini represented. An inborn resentment that she doubted any amount of talking between herself and Drakon would succeed in changing.

Which was reason enough for her to turn down his dinner invitation, surely?

If she wanted to turn it down…

She had total recall of her visit to Lyonedes Tower. Of Drakon’s cool arrogance. His remorseless power. Most telling of all, she clearly remembered what it had felt like to have those chiselled lips and those long elegant hands on her body as he made love to her in the lift.

Which was precisely why she shouldn’t even think about agreeing to have dinner with him again this evening.

‘What are you doing alone down here in the darkness?’

Gemini turned sharply to face Drakon, instantly noting how the width of his shoulders almost filled the doorway leading out to the stairs of her apartment. Immediately she was reminded of just how tautly muscled his chest and shoulders had felt beneath her hands…

Not a good memory to have when she was still debating whether or not it would be sensible, even sane on her part, to spend another evening with him!

‘Just tidying up,’ she said lightly. ‘Are you ready to leave now?’ she added hopefully.

Drakon looked across at her speculatively. The blinds that had been pulled down over the windows shrouded the shop in half-light, making it impossible for him to see her clearly—although he thought he could make out two bright wings of heated colour in those ivory cheeks. She also seemed slightly nervous and she avoided meeting his gaze.

‘You are not recovered enough to go out to dinner this evening,’ he said slowly.

‘I—’

‘Perhaps you would prefer it if we were to remain here and I prepared something for us to eat?’ Drakon suggested swiftly when he sensed she was about to use her earlier indisposition as a way of refusing to have dinner with him. A refusal he had no intention of accepting…

Her eyes widened as she gave a disbelieving huff of laughter. ‘You can cook, too?’

‘Of course.’

Of course he could cook, Gemini chided herself derisively; he was a man who gave the impression that he could do absolutely anything he chose to. ‘Well?’ she asked in a reminder of the conversation they’d had the previous week when she’d asked if he played the piano in his apartment.

‘Passably.’ His mouth curved into a wry smile in acknowledgement of that conversation.

Gemini laughed. ‘In that case you can certainly cook for me some time.’

He quirked dark brows. ‘But not this evening?’

She shrugged. ‘I really don’t see that there would be any point. Angela is—well, Angela.’ She grimaced. ‘And whatever bee she currently has in her bonnet over me will no doubt pass when she gets some other multibillionaire in her matrimonial sights.’

Drakon frowned. ‘Did you really believe earlier that I was involved with her in a personal way?’

Yes, briefly, she had once again believed that. How could she have thought anything else when the other woman had appeared here like an avenging angel and accused Gemini of trying to seduce Drakon?

Gemini shrugged again. ‘It really doesn’t matter what I do or don’t believe on that subject, does it?’

‘Oh, but it does,’ Drakon murmured as he stepped further into the shadows. ‘To me it matters very much.’

Gemini swallowed hard as she watched him approach with lithe, purposeful strides, only coming to a halt when he stood mere inches away from her. ‘I—it’s all been sorted out now, so no real harm done,’ she dismissed nervously.

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Surely that is for me to say, and not you?’

She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Stop making such a big thing out of it, Drakon.’

‘But it is a big thing to have one’s word doubted, is it not?’ he pressed softly.

Gemini gave him an irritated frown. ‘You want me to apologise for ever having doubted you? Is that it?’

Those sculptured lips curved in a smile. ‘That would certainly be a start, yes.’

‘A start?’ she repeated warily, not sure she was comfortable with the way Drakon stood so overpoweringly close to her. Or with the direction this conversation appeared to be going in.

‘A start,’ he echoed huskily as he closed the small distance between them, his hands moving up to lightly grasp the tops of her arms as his head began to lower towards hers.

Yes, their conversation was going in exactly the direction Gemini had thought it might!