The Kyriakos Virgin Bride / The Billionaire's Bidding: The Kyriakos Virgin Bride

She’d expected some resistance. A challenge. A huge wave of disappointment rocked her. Aki hoisted up her bags and headed down the stairs. Turning away from Zac, she moved back into the room and crossed to the dressing table to pick up the rainbow-hued silk scarf and designer handbag she’d so nearly left behind with all the turmoil stewing inside her. A quick check inside the bag revealed her wallet, her cell phone and her passport.

She tried not to let her shoulders sag. There was a thick knot at the back of her throat, but she wasn’t going to let Zac see her cry.

The last thing she wanted was for him to know how much she cared—how much she’d loved him. How much his silent surrender to her demand for a divorce had devastated her. Fiercely she said, “I need to call the airport to book a seat.”

There was a pause. Then Zac said, “Everything is being taken care of.”

“Already?” She spun around to find him right behind her.

“I’ll take you to the airport if that’s what you want.” His hand touched her elbow. “But first we talk. Alone, without interruption.”

“We can talk on the way to the airport.” She shrugged his hand off and glanced around the immense bedroom— the room where he’d made such devastating love to her and taught her about the power of being a woman. Stuff she’d never known.

Last night…no, she wasn’t thinking about last night. About the tender passionate lover whom she’d stupidly believed loved her with all his heart.

With a jerky movement Pandora swung on her heel and made for the door. She charged through the sitting room in a blur of tears. Furiously she blinked them back.

Downstairs there was nobody to be seen. A sense of desolation overtook her. No one in the huge mansion cared that she was going, no one cared enough to say goodbye. She thought of asking to see Katy, then shook the thought away. What did it matter? She’d never see Zac’s sister again.

Outside, the paved sweep of drive was empty. No one strolled in the parklike grounds, Mount Pendeli rising up in a solid mass of green beyond.

The only person to be seen was Aki crossing the driveway as he made his way to a circle of concrete set on the edge of the grassy park, where he deposited her bags.

“Where’s the taxi?” She glared accusingly at Zac.

“Christos. Do you really think I’d see my wife off by taxi—like some common…” He paused, but she got the message. And then he reached out and grabbed her hand. “Come.”

Almost running to keep up with his long, brisk stride, she crossed the drive and then she was back on the grass. The sun blazed in the halcyon sky overhead. Pandora’s heels sank into the perfectly manicured lawn. Aki had disappeared. Ahead lay the flat circle of concrete. A row of cypress trees lined the drive that led to the large electronic gates in the distance. Why had she not noticed how much those gates resembled prison bars before?

Surely he didn’t mean to dump her outside the gates of his property? No, Zac would not do that to her. She was certain of that. He’d said he wanted to talk, so where was he taking her? She dug in her heels, dragging him to a stop. “Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you away. Where we can be alone, where we can sort this—this misunderstanding—out.”

“Oh, no. I’m going to the airport. There’s plenty of time to talk on the way.”

“You’re my wife, I am—” A deafening drone drowned out the rest of his reply. He grabbed her arm. Pandora resisted, determined not to let Zac dictate to her. Through the roaring noise she was aware that Zac was shouting at her.

She glared at him. “What?”

“Get down! Get back!” he yelled close to her ear.

The huge black shadow of a helicopter swept over them. Shuddering, finally comprehending, she let him pull her out of the path of the hovering machine.

Aki had returned with another batch of bags. These must belong to Zac, Pandora realised as the helicopter settled onto the concrete helipad and Aki started passing the bags—hers, too—up into the belly of the helicopter.

Zac’s bags and her bags being loaded into the helicopter did not equate to her plan of going to the airport. She stared at the monstrous machine, its shiny white body bearing the royal-blue-and-yellow logo of Kyriakos Shipping. For the first time she saw the stylised feminine profile with long flying hair within the logo for what it was. A virgin. Then the slowing rotor blades grabbed her attention.

Pandora’s stomach clenched and a fine attack of perspiration broke out along the back of her neck. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Especially not in that—” she stabbed a finger at the helicopter “—hellishly dangerous thing. I want a taxi to the airport. I’m leaving. I want a divorce.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

Zac’s bronzed face was hard. Inscrutable. This was not the man she’d fallen in love with. This was someone else altogether. A stranger, stripped of the indulgent, cherishing mask. A man so hard she feared he’d break her.

As he’d already broken her heart.

“How could I ever have agreed to marry you? I hate you.”

Something moved across his face, a flash of darkness, and then it was gone. “That’s too bad. Because we’re going on honeymoon, to be alone—like you wanted.”

“No way!”

There was a reckless gleam in his eyes. “Well, then, what have I got to lose?”

Picking her up, he hoisted her over his shoulder and tore across the grass to the open doors of the helicopter.

“No,” she yelled, fear making her stiff.

He ignored her.

Each stride he took caused her to lurch against his shoulder, and with one hand she clung to her handbag while the other clutched his shirt.

“Put me down!” Pandora caught a glimpse of Aki’s startled face as Zac clambered into the helicopter, his arms tight as chains around her.

“Stop fighting me.”

“Never,” she vowed as she tumbled down onto his lap, her hair plastered to her face as tears clogged her eyes.

Zac shouted something at the pilot. The helicopter started to rise. Pandora hammered her fists against Zac’s chest. “Let me out!”

She pushed back her streaming hair. In a blur of horror she stared out the window. Below, Zac’s huge house was retreating, growing smaller. She let out a wail of disbelief, of sheer terror.

“Hush, you are making a scene.”

Pandora realised she was sobbing. “That’s all you can say? You kidnap me, then tell me to be quiet?”

“You’re crying.” His hand smoothed her hair.

“Of course I’m crying.” She twisted her head away from his touch. “I don’t believe you! Who the hell do you think you are?”

But she knew. He was Zac Kyriakos. One of the richest men in the world. So powerful that he could do what he liked with her. No one would stand in his way.

Four

When the descent started, Pandora lifted her face out of her hands and glimpsed the dark bronze disc of the sun glowing in the western sky against a fiery display of clouds. Out of the window she watched the darkening ground rushing up beneath the helicopter with a sense of frozen horror.

They were going to crash.

She was going to die. Panic bit into her and she struggled not to scream, knowing once she started she’d never stop.