as well as her own physical and embarrassing reaction to it.
But she was even angrier with Drakon for having been the real cause of Angela’s vehemence. ‘What are you doing here, Drakon?’ she demanded dully. ‘Isn’t it enough that I’ve had to listen to your mistress insult both my father and myself this afternoon, without having to now suffer your company, too?’
A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. Those black eyes glittered darkly. ‘I believe I assured you last week that that woman is not, and never will be, my mistress,’ he bit out harshly.
Gemini gave a disbelieving snort as she stood beside the unlit fireplace. ‘Have you told her that?’
‘I have no need to tell a woman such as her something she is already only too well aware of,’ he said arrogantly.
‘Could we please stop the lies?’ Gemini pushed the length of her hair back from the paleness of her face. ‘We both know that Angela only came here at all today because you told her I’d seen you last week.’
That nerve in his jaw pulsed even harder. ‘Markos was the one to tell her about that.’
She looked stunned. ‘What?’
Drakon sighed at her look of hurt disbelief. ‘In self-defence. He had no idea of the trouble it would cause when he did so.’
Gemini stared across at him incredulously. ‘You really expect me to believe that?’
He rose up to his full height, appearing every inch the arrogant billionaire industrialist he was in one of his expensively tailored dark suits, pale grey silk shirt, and a darker grey silk tie. The darkness of his hair looked as if it had received a trim since the last time she had seen him.
‘I am no more in the habit of lying than you have assured me you are,’ he told her coldly.
‘I just find it a little hard to believe that Markos needed to tell Angela anything out of self-defence,’ she said sceptically.
Drakon looked slightly uncomfortable. ‘Apparently she had just propositioned him. Markos was so taken aback by the suggestion that he fell back on his brief acquaintance with you in order to change the subject.’
The first part of that statement sounded a lot like the Angela Gemini now knew far better than she’d ever wished to. It was the second part of the statement that sounded so improbable. ‘Your cousin implied that he and I are involved in an attempt to deflect Angela’s interest in him?’
Drakon’s jaw tightened. ‘I believe Markos might have implied that it is you and I who are involved, and that he is also acquainted with you.’
That would certainly explain the arrival of the wrathful Angela. ‘And exactly how did he think telling her something like that was going to succeed in saving him from what I’m sure was Angela’s less than subtle proposition?’
‘Markos obviously had no idea of the animosity with which Angela regards you.’ Drakon’s nostrils flared. ‘Apparently I was her real target, and Markos only second choice. I believe he merely hoped to distract even those second-hand attentions by drawing attention to our own acquaintance.’
Gemini stared at Drakon wordlessly for several seconds. The directness of that unwavering dark gaze challenged her to continue disbelieving him. Which she found she couldn’t do. The explanation was so ridiculous—and sounded so exactly like something Angela would do—that Gemini couldn’t help but believe it.
She felt some of the tension leave her body as she gave a rueful sigh. ‘Poor Markos.’
‘Poor Markos?’ Drakon repeated incredulously, knowing that at this moment in time he could cheerfully have pummelled his cousin to a pulp—something he hadn’t done since they had been children together—for being the cause of Angela’s verbal and physical assault on Gemini.
Gemini nodded. ‘I like Markos.’
Drakon noted grimly that she did not say she felt that same liking for him. Not that he could exactly blame her. So far in their acquaintance Gemini had believed him to be involved in an affair with her father’s widow, to be responsible for denying her the right to purchase her family home, and to add insult to injury he had then proceeded to make love to her against the wall of a lift in Lyonedes Tower!
No, unfortunately he had no one but himself to blame if Gemini’s feelings towards him were more than a little ambivalent.
Drakon looked up as she gave a sudden splutter of laughter. ‘Sorry—I was just imagining Markos’s panic when Angela propositioned him!’ she explained at his questioning look.
‘Certainly not his finest hour,’ Drakon acknowledged dryly. ‘Although he did at least have the good sense to come to me immediately after she had departed and inform me of what he had done,’ he added with a frown. ‘I am only sorry I did not arrive soon enough to prevent the unpleasantness of your stepmother’s verbal attack.’
‘You at least stopped the physical one.’ Gemini gave a shrug of her slender shoulders. ‘And the verbal stuff was no worse than some of her other outbursts, actually. Better in some ways, because for the first time I actually learnt a little of what motivates her.’ She grimaced. ‘Not a pretty story, I’m afraid.’
And not one she intended sharing with him either, Drakon guessed. Not that he had any wish to know anything more of Angela, or the reasons she behaved in the way she did. His only concern was Gemini—not the unpleasant woman whom her father had married.
‘What did she say to make you physically ill?’
She was very pale still, but even so Drakon couldn’t help but appreciate the way the colour of Gemini’s short-sleeved blouse perfectly matched the colour of her eyes, making her hair appear even more white-gold. Black jeans fitted smoothly over her bottom and thighs; her bare feet were thrust into flat, open-toed sandals.
Gemini sobered. She was very aware that it was the shock of thinking Drakon was involved with Angela after all, and then his unexpected arrival so quickly after Angela—which at the time had only seemed to confirm his involvement—that had caused her to be so violently ill.
The question was, why had it?
She had thought about Drakon a lot these past four days—of their time together in the lift, of her own loss of control—so maybe it had been the thought of his having discussed any of that with Angela which had made her feel so ill? Although if that had really been the case she had no doubt that Angela would have taken great pleasure in telling her so!
‘I told you—nothing worse than usual.’ Gemini gave a dismissive shake of her head. ‘Shouldn’t you have flown back to New York by now?’
He glanced down at the plain gold watch on his tanned wrist. ‘I was scheduled to leave for the airport an hour ago, yes,’ he admitted, before shrugging broad shoulders as he saw her surprised expression. ‘I thought it more important that I come here instead, to help you deal with your stepmother,’ he explained.
Gemini felt a warm glow inside at the thought of Drakon having changed his arrangements out of concern for her. ‘That really was very kind of you,’ she murmured huskily. ‘Perhaps you’ll be able to book another flight later today?’
He smiled tightly. ‘It
