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Her small hands curled into fierce fists. ‘But what if I don’t want to be your sacrifice?’
His golden gaze chilled. ‘There’s no scope for negotiation on this. I’ve already started making the wedding arrangements.’
Her green eyes flashed in angry disbelief. ‘Well, then, you can just unmake them again.’
‘Why would I do that? And why the big drama?’ Alexandros delivered with derisive force. ‘You’re sleeping with me anyway, glikia mou!’
Katie turned scarlet. ‘Don’t you dare throw that in my face!’
Alexandros always went ice-cold in situations of conflict. But out of nowhere came a rage that could have lifted the roof off his vast Regency house. ‘Throw what? The truth? If you’d been at home when I arrived today, you’d have gone to bed with me. Deny it if you can, but I don’t think we need a line of expert witnesses to prove my point!’
The colour seeped back out of her cheeks to be replaced by pallor. She felt utterly humiliated. It was true. She had never been much good at saying no to him sexually, and she would have slept with him again. Being confronted by that mortifying fact cut her pride to ribbons. She refused to look at him and compressed her lips. ‘Do you know where I was this morning? I had an interview for a job.’
‘Do you spend every minute of your waking day figuring out how to wind me up?’ Alexandros enquired in a raw, incredulous undertone, still struggling to suppress that disturbing surge of black fury that had taken hold of him. ‘A job? Why is it your mission to reject everything I try to do for you?’
‘All I’m trying to do is be independent—’
‘Forget it. I never thought I’d say it, but we need to go back to old-fashioned basics. I don’t want a caring, sharing partnership or an occasional lover. I want a wife. There are good reasons why we should marry, not the least being that we have two children and we very much like having sex,’ Alexandros spelt out with sardonic bite. ‘But the next time we share a bed, I’ll be your husband.’
Katie lifted her chin. ‘Would you really fight me for the twins in court?’
‘If that’s what it takes to bring you to your senses, ne…yes,’ Alexandros declared without remorse. ‘I think you’re acting irresponsibly.’
‘No, I’m not.’
‘Maybe you’re not mature enough yet to see what I see. Toby and Connor need stability and two parents. I know the worth of those advantages. I believe that I can make a difference in their lives, and that it is right that I should.’
Katie swallowed the thickness in her throat. She was furious with him. His threats outraged her sense of justice. Would he really try to separate her from the twins? Or was he just making a point? Did he appreciate or care what he was doing to her in the process? He wanted equal rights over his sons and a bigger say in what went on in their lives. If he was no longer prepared to compromise, only marriage would grant him those requirements.
Ironically, his refusal to continue taking a back seat role as a parent was not a total surprise to Katie. In recent months she had watched from the sidelines while Alexandros steadily grew from a reluctant father into a committed one. He had made a lot of effort to spend time with Toby and Connor, and as he got to know them he had learned to care for them. In fact, Alexandros had managed to form ties with his sons which were in no way dependent on her.
A sense of foreboding assailed Katie then. No longer could she view herself and her children as an indivisible threesome. Suddenly she was feeling very scared and insecure. Much more uncertainty hung over her own position in Alexandros’s life. His sons would always be his sons, but she had no such safety of tenure. It was no consolation to acknowledge that she had last ended up in bed with him because she hadn’t been able to contemplate the possibility that he might have an affair with someone else. In fact he had manipulated her into doing exactly what he wanted with shameless cold-blooded efficiency. He was very good at that. Achieving his objectives was what he did best. But what if he had now decided that it might make better sense to walk away and take the children with him? How much of a hold would sex give her when the novelty was beginning to wear off?
A trained observer, Alexandros could feel the tension emanating from Katie’s slight, taut figure. He would say nothing that might lessen the pressure on her. Having reached a decision, he was convinced that he had to be cruel to be kind.
‘I’m shocked that you should use threats to try and make me do what you want.’ As Katie made that ringing condemnation her triangular face was very pale and her green eyes very bright.
Alexandros surveyed her steadily. ‘No comment.’
‘I won’t forget this.’ Swallowing the lump in her dry throat, Katie spun on her heel. ‘I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.’
The door flipped shut on her exit. Alexandros discovered that he wanted to smash something. She was so stubborn. She was the only woman he had ever met who was as stubborn as he was. What did she need to think about? He had laid it out plain and simple and with no avenue for escape. What was wrong with making an instant decision? Was she deliberately making him wait for an answer?
He poured a brandy. A job? Why was she applying for jobs? He raked an impatient hand through his cropped black hair and drank, wondering why she would never, ever do what he wanted—except in bed. He pictured her in an office environment. Someone as full of life and energy as Katie would be popular. She had a quick mind and an even quicker tongue. She worked hard, learned fast. She was very sexy….
He compressed his wide well-shaped mouth into a fierce and puritanical line. Just because he never hit on his staff—well, just that once, with her—it didn’t mean other men were so scrupulous. More than one guy was likely to find her attractive, and would maybe think she was really up for it when they found out that she was already the mother of two children. In fact some men might even target her because of that background. He imagined the sexual wolves circling her when he was out of the country on business. His even white teeth gritted. He knocked back the brandy. He did not want that situation to develop.
Before he had realised that the woman in the bed in Katie’s apartment wasn’t actually Katie, he had come within inches of killing Damon Bourikas in cold blood. Bourikas was very lucky that he had kept his grimy paws off Katie Fletcher, for had it been otherwise Alexandros knew that he would not have let the younger man live to tell the tale. Alexandros had accepted that when it came to Katie he was possessive. He wanted to know that she was exclusively his, and that was why marriage was the only option he was now prepared to consider.
Katie ate a snack supper in her beautiful bedroom. She had little appetite for it, though. She was furious with Damon and her former nanny Maribel for what they had done, and deeply shaken that, in spite of all her care and caution on their behalf, her children had still been put at risk. She was hugely grateful that providence had brought Alexandros back to London early, and that he had caught the guilty couple out. How long might such behaviour have gone on behind her back without her finding out?
When she went to bed, she lay awake, torn by uncertainty and worry. But she had no doubts about the answer she had to give. For two very good reasons she would marry Alexandros. First and foremost, she could not afford to risk losing custody of her children. Alexandros would be a frighteningly rich and powerful opponent in the parenting stakes. If she fell out with him, made him an enemy, it could turn into a disaster. Suppose he simply took the children back to Greece and fought a court battle from his home turf? What rights would she have then? The fact that she loved Alexandros only got second billing in the reason corner, because just then she felt ashamed that she loved him. But he would soon learn that she had no intention of condoning his use of duress by acting like a proper wife. Oh, no, indeed, Katie reflected bitterly. He might win the contest, but that did not mean he’d win all the usual spoils.
When Katie got up the next morning and discovered that Alexandros had already left for London and the bank, as though nothing had happened and it was another ordinary working day, she was fit to be tied. Once she had dealt with Toby and Connor’s needs, she dialled his private number.
Alexandros dismissed the staff gathered round his desk and mentally switched off from the major stockmarket crisis that had forced him into the office at the crack of dawn. ‘Kalimera, pedhi mou,’ he greeted her lazily. ‘I was making plans for my stag night.’
Up until that point Katie had felt cool as a cucumber, but the instant he said that, emphasising that he had never doubted what her answer would be, she wanted to lunge down the phone line and slap him. ‘Not funny, Alexandros!’
Alexandros printed a K on the pad in front of him, enclosed the letter in the jaws of a giant C, and circled it for good measure. Temper as a response from Katie was good, and it told him that he had her cornered. Success was within reach. ‘As busy as I am at present, a stag night looks most unlikely. I thought a joke would lighten the mood.’
‘Don’t joke about what you said last night,’ Katie told him thinly. ‘You didn’t give me a choice, and that’s the only reason I’m going to marry you.’
‘That’s fantastic news,’ Alexandros fielded, his intonation as confident and positive as though she had told him she couldn’t wait to see him at the altar. ‘We’ll go for a special licence and get married in two weeks’ time. The wedding organiser will work with my staff, so that you can concentrate your energies on choosing your dress.’
‘No ideas to offer on that score?’ Katie prompted, tongue-in-cheek, since all the other arrangements and decisions already appeared to have been made.
‘I would love to see you in white, thespinis mou. White from head to toe, no style statements. It’ll be a very traditional wedding.’ Alexandros jerked his head in frowning acknowledgement of the frantic pleading signals that two of his executives were giving him from the doorway. ‘Look, I’m sorry, the helicopter is here to take me to the airport. I may not make it back much before the wedding, but I promise that I’ll call you every day.’
The airport? Where was he going? She wanted to ask, but instead she was left with a dead phone humming and an attack of raging, screaming frustration. A few minutes later she switched on the business news and she found out about the stockmarket crisis.
CHAPTER NINE
TEARS of pride glimmering in her eyes, Maura Sullivan surveyed her daughter with a contented smile. An attractive woman with short copper hair, she looked a good deal younger than her fifty years. ‘You look like a princess in a fairytale.’
‘Honestly…? You’re not just saying that?’ Unconvinced, Katie studied her reflection in the elegant fitted gown, which clung with loving fidelity to her slender curves and made the most of her slim figure. The hand-embroidered fabric was gorgeous, but the design was plain, as she had decided that she did not have the height to carry anything more elaborate. A short, flirty crystal-beaded veil, attached to the exquisite diamond tiara which Calliope had insisted she borrow, added the final note.
‘I know you’re nervous because it’s such a big fancy wedding, but Alexandros will only have eyes for you,’ Maura declared with warm conviction. ‘Dermot and I might only have met him last night, but we were very impressed with him. We weren’t expecting someone so rich and important to be as friendly and welcoming.’
‘Alexandros has buckets of charisma, and he was in top form yesterday,’ Katie conceded, with the keen smile she wore every time she mentioned her bridegroom’s name in her mother’s presence; she didn’t want the older woman worrying about her.
Maura had been thrilled at the news that her daughter was getting married, and Alexandros had phoned her in New Zealand to insist that she and Dermot, her second husband, make the trip to the UK at his expense. For Maura, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the entire affair had been the chance to meet her grandchildren and get to know them.
‘It’s an awful shame that business has kept you apart for the past fortnight, and then last night—when you must both have been gasping to be left alone—you had to entertain all your relatives and his.’ Maura sighed with sympathy. ‘But I must say, I do like his grandparents. They’re just lovely people.’
‘Yes,’ Katie agreed fondly. Calliope and Pelias had provided her with sterling on-the-spot support, and the older couple’s sincere delight in the wedding about to take place had touched her. At their insistence, Katie and her family had stayed in their spacious home in the run-up to the wedding.
Even so, nothing had so far managed to ease the tight, hard knot of angry hurt and insecurity that Katie was keeping hidden inside her. Thoughts that did nothing to lift her confidence continued to attack her. Ianthe’s giant portrait, which still dominated the main staircase at Dove Hall, was a continual reminder of how uniquely impressive true physical beauty was. Either you were born with that blessing or you were born short with a nose like an elf’s, Katie reflected bleakly. Whether she liked it or not, Alexandros was bound to be looking back today to his first wedding, and recalling how very different his feelings had been on that occasion. Ianthe had been loved and appreciated and grieved over, while Katie felt her children were of more importance to her bridegroom than she could ever be. Hers was to be a marriage of convenience, rather than love, and because he had already rejected her love once she would not offer it again.
‘But I have to admit that I really don’t know what you were doing when you decided to invite that Leanne Carson to your wedding,’ Maura confided with a slight grimace. ‘Did you get around to telling Alexandros about that yet?’
‘No, I haven’t. But Leanne was my friend, and if I want to forgive her for selling that trashy story to the newspaper, it’s my business and nothing to do with him.’
‘Well, you’ve always been very loyal to your friends, and I think that’s great, but…’ Maura hesitated uncomfortably. ‘I wouldn’t let Leanne cause trouble between you and Alexandros.’
‘I’m giving her a second chance because she was always there for me when I was having a hard time.’ Katie saw no reason to tell her mother that she wasn’t actually planning to draw Alexandros’s attention to Leanne’s presence in the midst of several hundred guests. What he didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt him.
Katie had gone to visit Leanne on impulse. In truth, she had felt a great need to talk over the episode that had ruined their friendship. Leanne had been overjoyed to see her, and had apologised wholeheartedly for what she had done. When the other girl had admitted that she had only approached the journalist because she had been in fear of eviction after she’d fallen behind with her rent, Katie had understood, and had felt even more sympathetic.
At that point in her conversation with Maura, Katie’s stepfather, Dermot Sullivan, came to tell them that it was time to leave for the church. A well-built man of medium height, he managed a car showroom in New Zealand. Maura’s health and spirits had blossomed tremendously since her second marriage, and Katie liked the older man.
In less than two hours she would be Alexandros’s second wife, Katie registered in a daze.
Toby and Connor and their new nanny, a sensible young woman in her thirties, with impeccable references, had already accompanied Alexandros’s grandparents to the church. Getting into the white limousine, Katie was careful to keep her short train clear of the ground. The wedding didn’t seem quite real to her, since Alexandros had been out of the country while everything was being organised, and her sole contact with him had been via the phone. Their conversations had been so stilted his grandparents could have listened to them and fallen asleep while Katie painstakingly described every minute of the twins’day and ignored enquiries that were the slightest bit more personal.
The night before, however, seeing Alexandros again after a break of two weeks had jolted her equilibrium, and she had been grateful that they were surrounded by other people. When Alexandros had attempted to speak to her alone, she had utilised every evasive tactic she knew and then vanished upstairs. From the landing above she had sneakily watched as Pelias intercepted his grandson before he could follow her.
Of one point Katie was certain: she was not letting Alexandros off the hook for what he had done. While she would act like a bride in public, she had no intention of carrying on the act in private. He had blackmailed her into marriage and he had had no business doing that. No way was she about to share a bed with a husband who had used the threat of a court custody battle to force her to the altar!
Alexandros needed to learn respect, and sleeping with him was clearly not the way to go about achieving that objective. The guy who had sworn he would fly round the world to spend an hour in bed with her was about to hear the word no for what might well be the first time in his life. Though she wasn’t really looking forward to the moment when Alexandros finally realised how she intended to stand up for herself…
When she arrived at the Greek Orthodox church, Katie was totally disconcerted to find Alexandros waiting to greet her. Sheathed in a grey striped morning coat that was a superb fit, he looked devastatingly handsome. His dark golden eyes arrowed over her in intent appraisal as he presented her with an exquisite bouquet of flowers. ‘It’s a Greek tradition. You look very beautiful, yineka mou.’
‘You’re actually here to stay…no flight to catch?’ Katie prompted sweetly, marvelling at the way in which he simply glossed over the blackmail he had employed to get her to the church. ‘Nothing serious going down at the bank?’
Alexandros gave her an appreciative grin that proved the toughness of his hide and still made her heartbeat race. ‘From today I’m all yours, and we’re having a very long and very private honeymoon.’
The church interior had been beautifully decorated with flowers. Both she and Alexandros were handed a beribboned candle, and the service began. She knew exactly what was happening, because she had had the benefit of two separate meetings with the elderly priest, as well as a wedding rehearsal in which Pelias had stood in for his grandson with much humour. She and Alexandros exchanged rings. Symbolic matching crowns of silver and pearls joined by a ribbon were placed on their heads. They drank from the same cup of wine and circled three times the ceremonial table on which a bible sat. The guests showered them with rose petals. After the blessing the crowns were removed, and the priest joined their hands. It was a solemn and moving ceremony, and Katie discovered that even her anger with Alexandros could not detract from her awareness that they were now man and wife.
