Irresistible Greeks: Defiance and Desire

Drakon had spent the past four days trying not to think about Gemini. Not too successfully, admittedly. Several times he had found himself lost in thoughts of making love with her, and usually at the most inappropriate of times. The last thing he had been expecting was a visit to Lyonedes Tower by her stepmother.

‘What did she want?’

‘You. Or, alternatively, me.’ Markos gave a disgusted snort.

He shook his head. ‘Is there some problem with our purchase of the Bartholomew property?’ Such as a more recent Miles Bartholomew will making a sudden and unexpected appearance? That would certainly solve all Gemini’s problems—whilst at the same time opening up a legal nightmare for Lyonedes Enterprises!

‘Not that I’m aware.’ Markos immediately dismissed that possibility. ‘Angela Bartholomew’s interest in the Lyonedes family appeared to be completely personal,’ he added, with a contemptuous curl of his top lip. ‘She invited me out to dinner this evening,’ he expanded when Drakon still looked nonplussed. ‘And she left me in no doubt that dinner would very swiftly be followed by bed.’

It was so much in keeping with the things Gemini had implied if not said about her stepmother that Drakon found it difficult to hold his smile in check. ‘And did you accept the invitation?’

‘Don’t be so damned stupid! Have you ever met the woman?’ His cousin glared at Drakon’s obvious amusement. ‘She’s a barracuda wrapped in designer-label silk!’

Drakon bit his top lip to stop his smile from deepening. ‘I have had the…pleasure of meeting her once, yes. When the contracts were signed.’

‘And?’

‘She’s a barracuda wrapped in designer-label silk,’ he agreed.

‘This isn’t funny, Drakon.’ Markos scowled. ‘I thought it was a business meeting, and I was so surprised by the obvious sexual intent in her invitation that I’m afraid I was less than my usual discreet self.’

Drakon’s humour instantly faded. ‘What did you do?’

His cousin looked annoyed. ‘I merely commented what a charming stepdaughter she has—at which she asked very sweetly when and how I had met her stepdaughter.’

‘Did you tell her?’ Drakon rasped sharply.

‘At the time I didn’t think there was any reason not to.’

‘Exactly what did you tell her, Markos?’ Drakon demanded.

‘I said we had both met her when she came here last week to talk to you. That was when that sweetness completely disappeared and I saw the true nature of the woman.’ Markos winced at the memory. ‘I’ve never seen such a change in anyone. She was muttering something about killing her as she left.’

‘How long ago was that?’

‘Only ten minutes or so—where are you going?’ Markos asked in surprise as Drakon strode forcefully towards the door.

He turned in the doorway. ‘To ensure she does not succeed in harming Gemini, of course.’

His cousin raised dark brows. ‘What about your flight?’

Drakon shrugged dismissively. ‘If necessary I’ll reschedule the jet for tomorrow. Right now I believe I need to go and ensure Gemini’s safety.’

Markos looked shocked. ‘You really think Angela Bartholomew would physically harm her?’

Drakon gave a humourless smile. ‘From what I have learnt, I don’t believe that woman needs to lay a finger on Gemini in order to hurt her. Or to enjoy every moment of doing so,’ he added grimly.

‘Do you want me to come with you? Probably not.’ Markos raised placatory hands as Drakon turned to glare at him.

‘I think you’ve already done enough for one day, don’t you?’ he asked accusingly.

‘I really had no idea how she felt about Gemini until she changed from sex-kitten into tigress just at the mention of her name!’ his cousin defended.

No, in all fairness, Markos hadn’t known of the depth of animosity that existed between Gemini and her stepmother. Drakon had chosen to tell his cousin only the rudimentary details of the reason for her visit to him the previous week. And he had only told Markos that much out of self-defence—to illustrate that it had been a business meeting and nothing more—after his cousin had teased him over the weekend about whether or not he would be seeing Gemini again before he returned to New York.

Much as it irked Drakon to admit it even to himself, these past four days he had wanted to see her again. He had wanted it very much. Those occasions when he had been unable to succeed in putting her from his mind had usually resulted in him having to take a cold shower. Yes, Drakon had really wanted to see Gemini again.

He had just never imagined it would be under circumstances such as these…

‘Exactly what did you think you were doing?’

Gemini had taken advantage of a brief lull in the day’s business and left her assistant in charge of the shop while she retired to her office, intending to go through the accounts and check on the rest of the month’s bookings. The last thing she had been expecting late on a Tuesday afternoon—or at any time, in fact—was a visit from Angela!

She drew in a deep breath before glancing up at her father’s widow, not in the least reassured by the angry glitter she could see in Angela’s eyes and the bright spots of colour in her cheeks. The rest of her appearance was as elegantly beautiful as usual; her hair was perfectly styled, the blue silk knee-length suit a perfect match in colour for her eyes, the three-inch heels on the matching shoes making her legs appear both slender and shapely. An elegantly beautiful viper!

‘What did I think I was doing in regard to what?’ Gemini enquired calmly as she placed her pen carefully down on the desktop in front of her.

‘Don’t try and play the innocent with me!’ Angela snapped as she stepped fully into the office and slammed the door behind her before striding over to stand in front of the desk and look down at Gemini contemptuously. ‘You’ve always acted so primly self-righteous. I never would have guessed that you would attempt something so underhand!’

Gemini looked at her blankly. ‘Flattered as I am to have so obviously succeeded in surprising you, I still have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.’

Angela’s pale blue gaze swept over her scornfully. ‘You know exactly what I’m talking about.’

Her patience with this woman had worn thin long ago, and now that her father was dead, and Angela was selling everything he had ever worked for and owned, Gemini saw absolutely no reason why she should even attempt to hide her dislike any longer.

She stood up impatiently. ‘If you don’t tell me what you’re doing here in the next few minutes then I’m afraid you’ll leave me with no choice but to demand that you leave.’

Those blue eyes flashed angrily. ‘Perhaps the name Drakon Lyonedes might help to jog your memory?’

Gemini felt the colour drain from her cheeks. Drakon? Angela was here because she knew Gemini had been to Lyonedes Tower to talk to him concerning Bartholomew House? Did Angela also know she’d had dinner with him there on Friday evening? That they’d kissed? And, if so, how did she know? Surely Angela could only have learnt those things from Drakon himself?

Did that mean he had been lying to her, after all, when he’d denied any personal involvement with Angela?

Gemini eyed the other woman guardedly. ‘What about him?’

Angela gave an inelegant snort. ‘I told you not to try and play the little innocent with me.’ She looked daggers at Gemini. ‘And to think Miles always believed you were such a sweet little thing too.’

‘Whatever problem you think you have with me, you will leave my father out of this,’ Gemini said, her hands clenched so tightly at her sides that her nails were digging painfully into her palms.

‘Will I?’ the older woman challenged derisively as she perched one slender hip against the side of the desk. ‘I wonder what Miles would have thought about your having thrown yourself at a man like Drakon Lyonedes.’

‘I did not throw myself at him!’ Gemini protested.

‘Liar!’ Angela straightened abruptly, her eyes once again glittering. ‘I always knew you didn’t like me, Gemini—and, believe me, the feeling is completely reciprocated. As far as I’m concerned you’ve always been far too much of a reminder of the perfect first wife that Miles so obviously adored.’

‘How could you possibly have been jealous of a dead woman?’ Gemini gasped.

‘I was never jealous of Rosemary!’ Angela glared furiously.

‘It sounds distinctly like jealousy to me,’ she retorted.

‘And what would you know about it, little rich girl?’ the other woman demanded. ‘You lived in a mansion all your life, doted on by rich and indulgent parents, you owned your own pony, attended private schools, and holidayed in exotic places all over the world several times a year. What would you know about growing up on the twelfth floor of a tenement building in a family of six who had nothing to look forward to but the next dole cheque?’

‘I—That was you?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Angela sneered. ‘Until I reached sixteen and was old enough to break my ties with my family in order to reinvent myself and use the one asset I have—my body and the way that I look. Of course I had to put up with the pawing of a succession of wealthy old men, but it was all worth it when I finally persuaded the wealthiest one into marrying me.’

Gemini went deathly white at these revelations. ‘You told my father that your father had gambled away your family fortune before committing suicide—’

‘And he did gamble—probably still does. What little money the government gave us always went to the bookies or on another bottle of whisky to throw down his throat,’ Angela said harshly. ‘He rarely, if ever, gave my mother enough money to actually feed any of us.’

‘You told my father that both your parents were dead.’

‘I lied,’ Angela admitted. ‘I’ve never been back, but as far as I’m aware both my parents are still alive—and no doubt living in exactly the same squalor as always.’

Gemini could perhaps understand what had driven Angela into seducing Miles into marriage now that she knew the truth of the other woman’s background—obviously any wealthy man would have done. Could understand and even sympathise with her. What she couldn’t accept was the unhappiness that selfishness had caused her disillusioned father before he died…

She took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry if that truly is how you were forced to live as a child—’

‘Oh, it’s all true,’ Angela assured her. ‘And you can keep your sympathy for someone who might actually appreciate it. After all, I came out the winner in the end, didn’t I?’

Oh, yes, Angela had certainly triumphed. Spectacularly, in fact, with regard to Gemini’s father.

‘I suppose Drakon Lyonedes was to be your second, even wealthier husband?’

‘Why not?’ Angela demanded aggressively.

Gemini gave a pained frown. ‘Don’t you have enough money now, having sold off everything my father left you?’

‘I’ll never have enough money,’ the older woman said with hard determination.

‘And never care who you have to trample over in order to get it, apparently,’ Gemini said dully.

‘That’s rich, coming from you!’ Angela jeered. ‘You’re still so desperate to own Bartholomew House that you would even stoop to trying to seduce Drakon yourself to get it!’

Gemini felt ill. In fact she thought she might actually be sick if she had to stand and listen to this woman for too much longer. ‘Considering your claim that you’re involved with Drakon, I’m surprised you believe he could be seduced—by me or any other woman.’

‘I believe I said you had tried to seduce him,’ Angela scoffed. ‘I’m sure you very quickly learnt that a man like Drakon requires a woman who’s a little more adventurous and experienced than a mere baby like you!’

Just thinking of Drakon and Angela together intimately, after the passionate way he had kissed her in the lift four days ago, brought on another wave of nausea. She swallowed hard. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave after all.’

‘I’m not going anywhere until I’ve made it perfectly clear to you that Bartholomew House—and Drakon—will never be yours!’ Angela announced.

Gemini gave a slow and disbelieving shake of her head. ‘What on earth could a man like Drakon possibly see in someone like you?’

Those blue eyes flashed angrily. ‘Oh, climb down off your alabaster pedestal, Gemini. If you haven’t realised it yet, your own pathetic attempt to seduce Drakon makes you exactly like me!’

Gemini closed her eyes and gave a shudder of distaste. ‘God, I hope not.’

‘Offends your naive little sensibilities, does it?’ Angela taunted.

‘Everything about you offends my sensibilities,’ Gemini shot back.

‘Why, you little—’

‘I think not,’ interrupted a dangerously soft voice that Gemini instantly recognised.

She opened wide, startled eyes in time to see Drakon take hold of the arm that Angela had raised with the intention of slapping Gemini on the face.

The older woman’s face twisted into an ugly mask of hatred as she turned to see who her assailant was. The change that came over Angela’s expression then was even more sickening than all that had gone before it. Her eyes softened to a sultry blue as she looked up at Drakon. Her painted red lips curved into an inviting smile, the anger leaving her body as she leant into him.

‘Oh, dear, Drakon, I’m afraid you’ve been caught in the middle of a rather silly argument between two even sillier women,’ she murmured throatily.

Gemini felt nausea rise up inside her, and knew she was actually going to be ill after witnessing this sickeningly kittenish display. She only had time to gasp ‘Excuse me!’ before she brushed past Drakon, heading for the stairs and the privacy of the bathroom in her apartment above the shop.

CHAPTER SEVEN

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?’