She nervously licked her lips as the panic swelled inside her. It pressed against her skin, ready to burst free. Every instinct told her to run but she stood as still as a statue. “I wouldn’t want to cause any inconvenience for you or your bride,” she explained huskily.
“You won’t,” Dimos said with a lopsided smile. “I’ll go ask Zoi right now.”
She watched helplessly as Dimos strode toward his fiancée. She wanted to run and hide but knew she had to be brave. At least appear fearless. From the corner of her eye, she saw Stergios’s crisp white linen suit. She forced herself to turn. Jodie looked straight ahead at his pale blue shirt. She tried to ignore how it emphasized the breadth of his powerful chest before she jerked her gaze to his face.
Her breath snagged in her throat as her heartbeat roared in her ears. She stared at Stergios’s luxuriant black hair that fell past his chin. The shadow of a dark beard almost diminished the whitened scar on his upper lip.
This was not the Stergios she’d known. She blinked several times, noting the bold lines of his cheekbones and nose, the slash of his mouth and his warm golden skin. She recalled how he’d once kept his hair ruthlessly short and had shaved twice a day. Now it looked as if he could no longer contain the wildness that rumbled through him.
His dark brown eyes were cold as he callously assessed her and immediately found her lacking. “I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve—”
“I wasn’t asking for an invite,” she bit out. “He offered and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Perhaps he didn’t understand what you were saying.” His gaze drifted to her mouth. “You’re not good at saying no to any man.”
She swallowed the gasp of outrage and fought the driving need to fling the contents of her glass into his face. Damn it, her new and improved image was already slipping. She was never in control when she was around her stepbrother. She had to get away from Stergios or risk making a scene. That wouldn’t help her gain forgiveness from her father.
“Don’t confuse me with the women you associate with.” Jodie turned on her heel.
“Running away already?”
She whipped around, wobbling to a standstill as she glared at him. Stergios had sounded disinterested and bored while she was a jittery mass of nerves. It wasn’t fair. “I don’t run away. That’s your signature move, stepbrother dear.”
The muscle bunching in his cheek was the only indication that her barb had hit its target. “You know how to create a disaster and leave without a trace while everyone else deals with the aftermath. The merger had fallen apart after that night because Dimos suddenly didn’t want to get married. It has taken me years just to get the Antoniou-Volakis wedding to this point.”
“I was banished.” She wanted to stamp her feet. This was bad. It was as if her hard-earned poise had disintegrated into nothing. “There’s a difference.”
“Banished?” Stergios repeated with skepticism. “You’ve always been dramatic.”
And you’ve always been cold and hateful. No, she realized that wasn’t true. Stergios had been tolerant the first time she’d moved in with the Antoniou family. He had been her only companion, her one true confidant. But gradually he had become distant.
The more he was around her, the more he knew and learned about her, the more hostile he became. It had been a relief and yet agony when he missed her eighteenth birthday to work overseas on a project. He had returned a few months later but her joy had been brief and misplaced. It had become obvious that Stergios couldn’t stand being in the same room with her.
“If you were banished, why are you working so hard to return to the family fold?” His tone was casual but he watched her with open suspicion. “You’re not the type to forgive.”
Stergios knew her too well. Having one person understand her should bring comfort, but this man would use that knowledge against her. “I am here,” she said slowly, emphasizing each word, “to repair my relationship with my father.”
“And that’s all?”
No, this time she wanted Gregory Little’s concern and interest. She wanted to be a priority. She’d always wanted that from her father but she had tried to gain it the wrong way when she had been a teenager.
Jodie lifted her head when she suddenly understood Stergios’s question. “Oh...you think I’m here to get revenge or to cause trouble. To stop this merger that you need so badly. I hate to disappoint you, but the Antoniou family isn’t worth my time.”
One winged eyebrow arched at her statement. As if he couldn’t believe his family wasn’t everyone’s top interest. “You returned just when Dimos and Zoi are about to marry.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get the family newsletter,” she said with exaggerated sweetness, “or I would have timed my visit better.”
She was about to flounce away but Stergios easily read her next move. He grabbed her arm, his large fingers biting into her pale flesh as he held her still. Her skin went hot as she remembered the last time he touched her. She knew better than to look at him or she would betray her conflicted emotions.
“I don’t trust you.” His voice was low against her ear.
She shivered from his nearness. “I don’t care.”
Stergios’s grasp tightened. “Stay away from Dimos.”
“With pleasure,” she said in a hiss and forced herself to look into his dark eyes. “Now let go of me.”
Jodie saw the turbulent emotions chasing across his face before he abruptly released her. She was uncomfortably aware how her skin tingled from his touch. “I have no interest in Dimos,” she continued. “I didn’t seduce him back then and I’m not pursuing him now.”
“Why should I believe you? You’re a liar.”
Her anger flashed wildly. Yes, she had lied in the past, but it had been a stupid and instinctual attempt to protect Stergios that night. She had made a sacrifice for him and he couldn’t see it, couldn’t appreciate it. The hurt and the injustice of it all rolled inside her. “And if I wanted to seduce Dimos, there is nothing you could do about it,” she slung at him.
“I’m warning you, Jodie.” His voice was low and menacing.
She pressed her lips together. Why did she say that? Why was she provoking Stergios? She knew better but she was unable to stop. “I could have had him in my bed like that.” She gave a satisfying snap with her fingers. “I certainly wouldn’t have picked a cold wall in a dark wine cellar.”
They stared at each other, instantly trapped in the inconvenient memories. She shifted, her spine aching as she remembered the rough brick against her back. Jodie swallowed as she recalled how she had laved her tongue against Stergios’s warm skin. She felt her cheeks flush as the echoes of their mingled gasps and incoherent words reverberated in her mind.
She couldn’t think about that. Not now, not here, not ever. “I could have contacted Dimos any time over the years,” she declared in a rush. “And he would have dropped everything for the chance to have sex with me.”
