couldn’t get the words out.
‘You thought…?’ Nikos prompted harshly when she fought with herself, trying to speak.
‘I thought that that—that when you…’
When you kissed me. She just couldn’t make herself say it. She knew that she would give herself away if she did. She had thought—had hoped—that the way he had kissed her so passionately meant that he still felt some trace of something for her. That, if nothing else, at least he was still attracted to her. And she had little doubt that that hope, that illusion—because his face made it plain it was an illusion—would show in her voice if she said anything more.
‘When I kissed you?’ Nikos drawled mockingly. ‘Is that what you mean? So tell me, my sweet Sadie, just what did you think was happening? What do you think that was?’
‘I—’ Sadie tried to begin, but he ignored her stuttering attempt at speech and talked across her quite deliberately.
‘Did you think it was warmth? Was that it? Or perhaps affection? Or perhaps…’
He actually had the nerve to stop, appear to consider, even look suitably surprised, when deep down inside she knew damn well that the brute wasn’t surprised at all but had been aiming for this right from the start.
‘Thee mou, you didn’t think it was love, did you?’
If she’d found it hard to speak before, then now Sadie found it absolutely impossible. She could feel the hot colour flaring in her cheeks and knew that her furiously embarrassed reaction had given her away completely.
‘Then I’m sorry—’
‘No, you’re not!’ Sadie broke in, finding her voice at last in the strength of the wave of anger that swept over her. ‘You’re not sorry at all. And I know it wasn’t—wasn’t anything like love.’
It couldn’t have been. There was no way anyone could switch on love like that and then immediately turn it off right away.
‘It certainly wasn’t,’ Nikos confirmed coldly.
‘So what was it?’
Cruelty? Deliberate manipulation? Some sort of hateful test?
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Nikos questioned softly. ‘I couldn’t help myself.’
He’d shocked her there. It wasn’t at all the answer she’d expected. But he’d anticipated her response and knew that he had her when her head went back in amazement, green eyes opening wide. A smile that did nothing to light up his face and had no effect at all on the coldness of his eyes flickered across his beautiful mouth as he noted her response.
He paused just long enough for his words to sink in and hit home before moving in for the kill.
‘Lust will do that,’ he declared, making sure that his words were totally clear. ‘You always spoke to my most basic masculine nature—my libido—you still do. I find it hard to keep my hands off you.’
‘Is that supposed to be a compliment? Because if it is you need to work on your technique.’
But Sadie’s sarcasm, her attempt to hit back, simply bounced off Nikos’s impenetrable hide without, apparently, even leaving a mark.
‘Lust I can handle,’ he went on, as if she had never spoken. ‘It’s something I can decide to indulge or not as I choose.’
‘And you—decided to indulge it just now when you pawed me—’
‘Not pawed, Sadie,’ Nikos corrected, shaking his head almost as if in sorrow at her interpretation of his actions. ‘I do not paw women. And if I had then you would not have responded as you did.’
‘I—’ Sadie tried to protest, but the sudden rush of confidence to speak seemed to have deserted her.
‘If you want the truth,’ Nikos continued, ‘I wanted to know if you tasted the same. And you do.’
‘Taste?’
It was the last thing she had expected.
‘You still taste exactly the same.’
Nikos’s mouth twisted on the words.
‘I may not have recognised it before, but I see what it is now—the taste of lies and deceit—the taste of betrayal.’
Sadie flinched inwardly as he flung the words in her face. She wished she could deny them, throw her refutation right back into his dark, contemptuous face. But how could she when deep down she knew that they were nothing but the truth? She’d been forced to betray him, but he had planned his own betrayal with cold-blooded cruelty and with no one twisting his arm up behind his back—emotionally, at least. It had all been precisely what he had wanted all along.
‘It wasn’t exactly as you think. But I don’t suppose you want to hear about that, do you?’
‘You’re damn right I don’t. In fact, I do not want to hear another single word from you.’
‘But the house…’ Despair forced her to say it, pushing the words from her mouth when she just wanted to keep quiet and get out of there with some shreds of dignity intact. But she had her mother and her little brother to think of, and she couldn’t let them down.
‘Gamoto!’ Nikos flung up his hands in a gesture of total exasperation. ‘How many times do I have to tell you that I will not sell you Thorn Trees? Nor will I rent it to you—not at any price. Not if you were the last person on earth.’
‘But there must be some arrangement we can come to! Surely there’s something I can do—anything…’
The words shrivelled and died when she saw the fiendish light in his eyes and knew that she had made a terrible mistake.
‘And exactly what sort of services did you have in mind? What exactly are you offering…?’
‘Not that! Never!’ Sadie flung at him, seeing the way his dark and cruel mind was going. ‘If you really think that I’d sell myself…I’d rather die!’
‘That was not the impression you were giving a few minutes ago,’ Nikos returned, his voice sounding soft and silky but with an effect as brutal as a sharp stiletto sliding in between her ribs to stab at her heart. ‘Then it was Oh, Nikos—yes, Nikos…’
‘And you fell for it, didn’t you?’
The words had flashed from her mouth before she had time to consider if they were wise or even safe. She only knew that she couldn’t take any more of this black mockery. Of the appalling insults he was tossing in her direction with almost every word that came out of his mouth.
‘You really thought that all you had to do was to touch me—kiss me—and I would be putty in your hands.’
‘You were. That is exactly how you behaved.’
‘I made it seem as if I was but you’re pretty easy to fool. All I had
