Greek Affairs: Claiming His Child: The Greek's Million-Dollar Baby Bargain / The Greek Millionaire's Secret Child / The Greek's Long-Lost Son

It made the emotion spear deeper into her. Her eyes went to the necklace again—the necklace Nikos was offering her in exchange for sex. Emotion bit again—a different one. One that seemed to touch the very quick of her. But she must not allow that emotion—only the other one, which was as sharp as the point of a spear.

Her eyes pulled away, back to the man sitting in his handmade suit at his antique desk, rich and powerful and arrogant. The man who had kissed her deeply, caressed the intimacies of her body, who had melded his body with hers, who had transported her to an ecstasy she had never known existed.

Who was offering her a diamond necklace for sex …

Carefully, very carefully, she snapped shut the lid of the box and placed it back in front of him.

‘I am not,’ she said, ‘a whore.’

His expression did not change. ‘Your sister,’ he said softly—so softly that it raised the hairs on the back of her neck—’possessed at least one virtue. She did not try and disguise the truth about herself. But you, Ann—you are a hypocrite. Worse even than your sister. Your sister sold her body—you, you sold your own flesh and blood. You sold her child.’ His gaze seared her. ‘So do not stand there and attempt to look virtuous or insulted—’ each word dripped from him with acid contempt ‘—because I’m offering you what your sister was happy enough to take from any man she could persuade to make a similar offer!’

Like a floodgate breaking, emotion surged in Ann. Powerful and overpowering.

‘Don’t speak of Carla like that! And take your diamonds and choke on them!’

She whirled around, blind with fury.

How she got out of there she didn’t know, but the moment she was in the corridor all she could do was stand there, shaking. Then, looking wildly around her, she plunged through the villa until she found her own bedroom, and there, safe in its sanctuary, she threw herself down on her bed.

Hot, hard tears convulsed in her throat. Fevered and furious. Choking her as they racked her. Face down on her pillow she cried tears for Carla, dead in her grave, whom even death could not save from the vile insults of Nikos Theakis—

a man who could take a woman to ecstasy, a paradise of the senses, and yet think her nothing more than a whore …

It was like acid poured on a wound, burning and biting into raw flesh.

She fisted her hands, pushing herself up on her elbows, neck straining, staring at the headboard, tears staining her cheeks.

Why—why should she be reacting like this? She’d known Nikos despised her for what she had done—and she had already castigated herself for succumbing to a man who could still take a woman to bed that he thought so contemptuously of.

And yet this was different. Offering her a diamond necklace, in exchange for her body. Expecting her to accept it.

And why? Because it brought home to her the brutal reality of it—that was all she was to Nikos Theakis. Nothing more.

Rage, convulsing and blinding, shook through her. But beneath the rage was another emotion. The one she had felt reach the very quick of her. The one that brought not fury but something quite different. That made her want to curl up into a ball and clasp her arms around her, as if to stanch a wound.

A wound that had gone much, much deeper than should ever be possible.

Nikos sat at his desk. He hadn’t moved a muscle since she’d gone storming out of his office.

Without the diamond necklace.

He shifted his eyes so they rested on the jewel case.

Why hadn’t she taken it?

It didn’t make sense.. Everything he knew about her—everything she had proved to him—had told him that she would snatch the necklace from his hand as eagerly as she’d taken his cheques.

Even more eagerly.

The expression in his eyes changed minutely. After all, it was not as if she had found being in his bed repulsive …

But it was a mistake to admit any thoughts about Ann Turner in his bed. Immediately, hungrily, appetite leapt within him. It had been twenty-four long, deprived hours since he had taken her to the beach chalet, and his body was protesting the absence of a repeat encounter. It had protested quite enough last night, when he had been left unsatisfied, thwarted. But then at least he had had the prospect of remedying the situation by dint of the means he’d just put into play.

Cutting to the chase had been exactly what he’d intended. No more prevaricating, manipulating games from Ann Turner. Just cutting to the chase and giving her exactly what she was so obviously angling for—what was so obviously the reason behind all her ploys of denial and evasion. Because what other reason could there be for her evasion of him? Her denial of her response to him? He only had to touch her for her to light up like a flame—and, Theos mou, it was the same for him! One touch from her and he wanted her instantly—totally.

The way he did right now.

He shifted restlessly, his thoughts biting with a poisonous mix of frustration and incomprehension.

Why had she refused the necklace? What did she think she was going to achieve by refusing it?

His mouth thinned. Well, there was one thing she was going to achieve, that was for sure.

He seized up the house phone. As Yannis answered, Nikos barked down it, ‘Phone Kyria Constantis and inform her that she is invited to dine here tonight.’ Then he put the receiver down. He glowered darkly into the space in front of the desk, where Ann Turner had refused to take the necklace.

So she didn’t want the necklace, and she didn’t want him. His mouth tightened even more. There were plenty of women who did want him. And tonight Ann Turner would get an eyeful of one of them.

CHAPTER NINE

ELENA CONSTANTIS WAS speaking Greek, clearly intent on cutting out Ann and Tina. Ann was glad of it. Glad that she could focus her whole attention on Tina, discussing her forthcoming wedding, and give none at all—not the slightest iota—to the man to whom Elena Constantis was devoting her attention at the dinner table.

She was welcome to him.

Every woman on God’s earth was welcome to him.

Emotions still roiled within her like bilge water—dark and angry. She had got through the remainder of the day somehow, but she wasn’t even sure how. She’d had to stay in her room until she could finally face going back downstairs, face washed, breathing controlled. But it had still been hard. Hard to behave normally, and harder still now, in Nikos’s loathsome presence at dinner.

Abruptly, Elena switched back to English—and to Ann.

‘Will you be looking after darling little Ari as his new nanny?’ she enquired in saccharine tones.

‘I am his aunt, but I’m only visiting, Kyria Constantis,’ replied Ann. ‘I have no qualifications to be a professional nanny.’

The Greek woman’s eyes hardened a moment. ‘Yes, even on a salary as generous as working for a family such as the Theakises would bring you, it would be difficult to afford designer clothes,’ she purred. Her heavily mascaraed eyes flicked over Ann’s dress, then became tinged with satisfaction. ‘I do love your outfit—I had one very similar when that particular collection came out. When was it now? Oh, five years ago, I believe. It has scarcely dated at all!’

‘Yes,’ responded Ann, not rising to the pinprick. ‘Some fashions last longer than others.’

Longer than those who bought them—

The unbidden thought rose in her mind, making her throat tighten suddenly and her vision blur. Emotionally raw as she was, despite her outward display of calm, as she blinked to clear her eyes she diverted her thoughts from their painful subject and became aware of Nikos Theakis’ dark gaze resting on her. Or rather on her dress. He was staring at it critically.

Ann’s mouth thinned. Oh, yes, go on, do, she thought viciously. Cost it down to the last penny—something to condemn me for! Why should she care what he thought of her?

I won’t let myself be hurt by what he did today! I won’t! I knew all along that he despised me for taking his money, and I knew it was just sex that he wanted me for! Just sex—a passing appetite. He helped himself, and didn’t have to think twice about it, because he thought he only had to toss me a diamond necklace and I’d roll over for him! Because that’s the sort of woman he thinks I am.

So how can a man like that hurt me?

A silent shudder went through her. Thank God she had the strength to know she must not have anything more to do with Nikos Theakis! Had had that strength even when he was sitting on her very bed, reaching for her, and her whole body was suddenly aflame. Because if she hadn’t, if she had allowed Nikos to sweep away her frail, pathetic defences against him, as he had done on the beach she would never have known just how low he thought her.