course I was right—and bloody stupid at the same time. I knew you and so I chose the Atlantis, giving you at least a small business—something to keep you and the Konstantos Corporation one step away from complete bankruptcy. I chose that and I gave you a small start on the path to building your fortune back up again. Of course I didn’t know how quickly and easily you would do it. Or how you would then use all that you’d gained—all the money, all the power—to turn the tables on me and my family. To have your revenge—’
‘My revenge on your father,’ Nikos put in, but she was too caught up in what she was saying, fighting too hard against the tide of pain and bitter memories that threatened to swamp her, to hear what he was saying or to understand the tone in which he’d said it.
‘And then when you’d succeeded in getting back everything you’d ever lost—and more—when you’d finished taking your revenge on my father—when he was dead and free from your cruel quest for vengeance—that was when Fate really dealt you an ace card. Because when you moved to take possession of Thorn Trees you just thought that you were going to throw us out. That you would kick us out of the family home and never see any of the damn Carterets any more. But of course I had to go and turn up in your office, begging for a chance to stay in the house—offering to do anything. And that…’
Her voice cracked on the words so that she had to struggle to go on.
‘And that was when you decided you could have it all. The money, the businesses, the house—and the ultimate satisfaction: your final, personal revenge on me.’
Nikos’s hands had fallen from her arms, setting her free, and so now, unable to bear the closeness to him any longer, she pulled away, swallowing hard to fight against the tears clogging her throat.
‘Well, you got what you wanted, Nikos—every last little bit of it. Two days ago you said that you weren’t satisfied—that the revenge you’d taken hadn’t been enough. Well, I hope to hell you’re satisfied now—you damn well ought to be, because to be honest there’s nothing left for you to take!’
She had to get away. Had to. If she stayed any longer then she was going to give herself away completely. Eyes stinging, vision blurred, she somehow managed to find the ladder out of the pool and scrambled up it.
‘No!’
But Nikos was only seconds behind her, vaulting out of the water and coming after her. He quickly caught up with her, grabbing her arm again to whirl her round to face him.
‘No, you’re wrong. Revenge doesn’t come into it any more.’
‘It doesn’t?’
‘No. It may have started that way but along the way things changed.’
‘Changed how?’
Nikos’s mouth twisted slightly, and just for a moment that clear golden gaze didn’t quite meet hers.
‘Along the way I abandoned revenge for something far more basic.’
Sadie frowned her confusion.
‘Basic? So tell me what is more “basic” than revenge?’
Nikos didn’t answer. But then he didn’t have to. Looking into his eyes, Sadie saw just what he meant. It was written there, clear and plain to see.
What was a more basic drive than revenge? There was just one answer. Lust. Physical desire. Sexual passion. That was what had driven him from the start and what was still behind everything he did. An intense, searing physical need that obliterated everything else, burning it up in its heat. She recognised that, and understood it. Because didn’t she feel the same whenever he touched her? Hadn’t she just been so driven out of her mind with the same overwhelming hunger that she had let him take her on the desk in his office without a hint of a thought?
‘So…’ Her throat was painfully dry, cracking on the single word. ‘So the whole story of a fiancée?’
‘I told you. It was a pretence from start to finish. It had to be.’
Nikos dropped his head, resting his forehead on Sadie’s so that his eyes burned into her from mere inches away.
‘How could there be someone else when I never got you out of my head? You ruined me for any other woman. You got under my skin and I never got rid of you.’
‘No—no one else?’
That was so much more than she had ever anticipated that her head swam under the impact of it.
‘How could I kiss you like this…?’
His mouth took hers, slow and sensual, heating her blood in an instant and making her sway unsteadily on her feet.
‘…if there was anyone else? How could I touch you…?’
If his kiss had been a sensual assault then his caress, the way his hands swept over her body, was like throwing a lighted match on to bone-dry tinder, making her skin flame in a second, setting her pulse racing between one uneven breath and another.
‘And how could I ever think of taking another woman to my bed when the only one I ever wanted is right here…?’
The one woman I have ever planned on marrying is you.
The words that Nikos had spoken in his office came back to tempt and torment her. Tempting because she so wanted them to be true. Tormenting because she could scarcely begin to imagine that he could actually mean them.
And yet when she had insisted that he tell her about his imaginary fiancée—oh, dear heaven—he had also said: She is the only woman I have ever wanted to marry.
Was the world really spinning round her as she felt it was? Had she been out in the sun too long? Or was it really possible…? Could she believe a word he was saying?
But then Nikos took her lips again and she suddenly knew with a sense of total conviction that deep down she really didn’t care. All she needed, all she ever wanted most in the world, was right here before her in the shape of this man. The man she had fallen for five years before. And she had never managed to recover from that infatuation ever since.
She was sinking deep into the spell of sensuality he was weaving, definitely going down for the third time. But at the same time a tiny, barely audible voice of instinct was whispering inside her head that there was something wrong, something missing, but she couldn’t begin to think what. And quite frankly she didn’t even want to try.
His hands were hot on her body, smoothing over the tingling flesh exposed by her plain black swimming costume. The stretchy material had almost totally dried in the sun, but the heat of the day was as nothing when compared with the flames that were flaring inside, burning her up with the yearning need that he could create so easily. One broad palm cupped her breast, the thumb stroking wickedly erotic circles over her nipple so that she shuddered in uncontrolled response, feeling that she might actually collapse into a molten pool right at his feet. Against her stomach she could feel the hard ridge of his erection, and moist heat flooded between her legs in response.
‘So…’
Nervously, she slicked her tongue over her lips to moisten them enough to get the words she needed
