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??Me? Kill him? How dare you?” She threw up her hands. “I’ve done my best to be polite to you, but all you do is rip into me. I’m sick of this. I have done nothing to you to deserve your treatment, and I fail to see how you could speculate about me doing away with your brother, even in your wildest dreams.”
“Yes, it would be quite difficult for her to overpower me,” Carter said, his lips twitching.
Lydia ignored Carter’s contribution. “You are a Terini, and that justifies my hatred of you. You are more than capable of the most foul deed ever dreamed up by man, and I have no doubt you would murder as easily as anything else you do.”
Scarlett sighed deeply. “I’m going to my room.” She pushed past him. But instead of rushing upstairs she waited behind the wall, she had to list, to know if he would defend her.
“Why must you taunt her so?” asked Carter in an icy voice. “She is not her father.” He blinked as he realized he was defending her.
“No.” Thea moaned. “The worst has happened.”
“No way!” Lydia protested.
“What are you talking about?” Carter feigned amusement.
“You’ve fallen in love with her, a Terini.” Thea cursed in Greek.
“That can’t be true, brother. You would not do that to your family.”
“Do not be foolish. She is simply a means to an end, nothing more.”
Scarlett couldn’t bear to listen to the rest of the conversation and abandoned her hiding place around the corner. Some compulsion had urged her to stay, to hear his sisters, hoping that a reasonable explanation for their behavior would be offered. She bit back a sob as she ran to her room, wishing she’d never heard those damning words. She wanted to pretend that Carter had slept with her because he wanted her, maybe because he was starting to love her as she was beginning to love him.
The truth was so much more simple, plain, and devastating. To Carter, she was an inconvenience, a way to toy with her father. He probably considered last night a small consolation for the trouble she’d put him through. He was a man, not going to refuse what was offered, especially when she’d been so humiliatingly willing. Scarlett’s face flamed as she remembered begging Carter to make love to her. At the time she’d assumed he was prolonging her pleasure, but now she knew he was prolonging his own. Playing with her had must have brought almost as much satisfaction as the sexual release, if not more.
Scarlett threw herself on the bed, finally giving in to the sobs. She was falling in love with a man who hated and despised her, who regarded her as a pawn in a game of war he was playing with her father. The worst part was, she didn’t know how to stop falling for him. How did she turn off her emotions? She might as well rip the heart from her chest and grind it under her heel. And she could never do it as effectively as Carter had done with a few careless words.
Carter
Athena shook her head at Carter as his sisters left the room. “It’s not like you to lie. You’ve always been truthful.”
“I’m not lying,” Carter said in a voice that rang with conviction.
She nodded sagely. “That is the worst kind of lie, Carter. The kind you tell yourself,” she added, leaving him in the sudden silence as she swept out of the room.
Carter looked up to meet the recrimination in Darren’s eyes. “What?” he bit out. “You disapprove of my game?”
“She’s not a game,” Darren said in a mild tone. “She’s a nice girl, and she doesn’t deserve what you’re doing to her.” He shook his head and left Carter as well.
Carter shook his head, marveling at how quickly everyone could abandon a person. His sisters had departed after hearing what they wanted to hear, going about their lives. Then his mother and her ridiculous accusation, followed by Darren’s disapproval.
“Dammit,” Carter cursed, drawing himself up sharply. He had to separate the truth from the lies, the pretense from the reality, before he could allow himself to trust her enough to love her.
15
Scarlett
Scarlett awoke with a pounding head and a dry feeling in her mouth. She sat up, lurching a bit in the afternoon heat. Too busy sobbing, she hadn’t turned on the air conditioner before lying down.
She still wore the rumpled slacks and white halter, so apparently she’d fallen asleep sometime during that storm of tears. Her head was pounding more now, and it took her a moment to realize the pounding was an external sensation. She rose from the bed and walked onto the balcony, looking up at the sky, seeing the helicopter approaching the island. Without interest, she turned from the balcony and went to the bathroom, where she took a long shower, forcing herself not to think of Carter and his hurtful words.
After dressing, Scarlett sat on her bed, wondering what she should do with herself. She was hungry, and dinner was fast approaching, but she didn’t want to face Lydia and Thea. She was also in no hurry to see Carter again, knowing she would have to pretend that she’d never heard the damning words he’d spoken.
She would have to paste on a false smile, pretending like they’d never slept together, and that he’d never used her. Scarlett would have to hide the love growing in her heart, and she didn’t know if she could do that. She wasn’t an actress by any stretch of the imagination, and she wasn’t good at lying. Too practical.
Eventually, Scarlett decided she would have to go down to dinner if for no other reason than her pride. She wasn’t going to let any of them intimidate her or treat her as an inferior. With a sigh, she got off the bed and left her room.
As she walked into the sitting room, she noticed it was much noisier than usual. She was surprised to find several more people milling around the room, and first thought Athena was hosting a party. Then she saw the four children and figured it must be a more intimate occasion.
