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The next moment he had stepped into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.
‘Nicholas, I don’t think there is anything more for us to say. I just want you to give me my passport so I can go home.’ She was pleased at how cool and composed she sounded whilst inside her heart was turning over with sadness, with a longing for something that could never be—with anger like molten fire.
‘You are not going anywhere until you’ve heard me out.’
‘How dare you come barging in here, laying down the law like I owe you something?’ She crossed her arms defensively over her chest as he moved closer. ‘I don’t owe you anything. And there is nothing left to talk about.’
‘Well, I owe you something,’ he said softly. ‘I owe you an apology. I’m sorry I hurt you, Catherine—really I am.’
The softness of his tone made her defences waver alarmingly.
‘The only thing that you are sorry about is the fact that I’ve found you out and you are not going to get your hands on the McKenzie inheritance.’
‘This was never about money,’ he said quietly.
‘So what was it about, Nicholas?’
‘It was about revenge—about the fact that your father cheated me in a business deal. He lied and deceived me in a most ruthless fashion and almost succeeded in ruining my reputation.’
Cat could feel her heart beating violently against her chest. ‘So you thought you would bed me for your revenge?’
‘When I found out about your inheritance, it did seem the perfect way to get revenge. I knew your father wanted to get his hands on that money—and yes, I’ll admit I had no qualms at first about using you to get to him.’ He watched how she flinched at that and he reached out to touch her arm.
‘Get away from me.’ She stepped back angrily, her eyes burning into his.
‘I thought you were as bad as they were,’ he continued softly. ‘I thought you were in alliance with them when they worked their vicious scams. In particular I thought you helped in that con they played here in Crete. I had photographs from a private investigator backing up that assumption.’
‘Yes, well, your private investigator got it wrong,’ she blazed. ‘In fact he couldn’t have got it more wrong. I was as duped as the people here in Crete. I gave money in good faith to Michael for what I believed to be an honest business venture. He used it to set up a scam. By the time I realized what was going on, the damage had already been done.’
‘But you bailed your brother out,’ Nicholas stated firmly.
‘No—I repaid what he had stolen, which is something totally different.’
‘Yes … I realize now that I made a mistake about you. I’m sorry, Catherine.’ His eyes held steadily with hers. ‘Truly I am, sorry from the bottom of my heart.’
‘You haven’t got a heart.’
‘That’s where you are wrong.’ He said the words quietly. ‘The only problem was that I didn’t trust myself enough to listen to it.’
‘Don’t try and sweet-talk me, Nicholas, because it won’t work. I’ve met men like you before. Unbeknown to me, my brother set me up once before. I met someone I thought knew nothing about my background, someone who told me he loved me. I’d been going out with him for six months and I was starting to trust him—starting to have feelings for him—and then I discovered it was all an elaborate hoax, just so my family could get their hands on the McKenzie money. Do you know what a curse that inheritance is? Do you know what it feels like to have people lie to you, profess feelings they haven’t got, just to get your money?’
‘Surprisingly, yes, I do.’ Nicholas’s voice was grim and she remembered suddenly how Sophia had told her how difficult he had found it to trust women since his divorce.
‘Well, then, maybe you should have been a little more careful with my emotions.’ Quickly she shut out the feelings of sympathy.
‘I never told you I loved you, Catherine.’
He noted how her complexion paled, how her eyes burnt like bright emerald fire.
‘So what were you going to say when you got around to asking me to marry you?’ She shot the question at him with a quiver in her voice. ‘Come away with me so we can have red-hot sex on tap for ever?’
His lips twisted derisively. ‘I don’t know what I was going to say. To be honest, when I held you in my arms, revenge was far from my thoughts.’
‘Liar.’
‘It’s the truth, Catherine. I started to have feelings for you that I didn’t want to have—started to doubt my motives.’
‘But you were still going to go through with your revenge until I overheard your little plan and ended it.’
