lifted her chin. ‘It’s not for you, kyrie, to criticise my friends.’
‘They are old and dear acquaintances perhaps?’ The sardonic note in his voice was not lost on her.
She bit her lip. ‘Not—exactly.’
‘I thought not.’ He walked her across the hotel foyer to the row of lifts and pressed a button.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked in alarm, as the lift doors opened.
‘To my suite.’ He steered her inexorably inside. ‘My housekeeper will join us there.’
‘Take me back to the ground floor, please.’ Kate was shaking suddenly. ‘I want to go home—now.’
‘It will be safer for you to remain at the hotel tonight.’ He paused. ‘I have a confession to make to you, thespinis. I sent Takis to spill your drink deliberately.’
‘You must be crazy.’ Kate felt dizzy suddenly. ‘You can’t hope to get away with this—even if you do own the place.’
‘Ah,’ he said softly. ‘So you know who I am.’
‘Your fame goes before you. But I’m not interested in being added to your list of conquests.’
He laughed. ‘You flatter yourself, my red-headed vixen. My motives, for once, are purely altruistic.’
The lift doors opened, and Kate found herself being marched along a wide corridor towards a pair of double doors at the end.
‘No.’ There was real panic in her voice. ‘I want to go home.’
‘So you shall,’ he said. ‘In the morning when I am sure you have suffered no lasting ill effects.’
‘Ill effects?’ Kate echoed, as another wave of dizziness assailed her. ‘What are you talking about.’
He said flatly, ‘Your drink was spiked, thespinis. I saw your companion do it.’
‘Spiked,’ Kate repeated. ‘You mean—drugged? But—why?’
He shrugged. ‘To make you more amenable, perhaps.’ He opened the door, and guided her into the room beyond. ‘There is something called the date-rape drug. You may have heard of it.’
She said numbly, ‘Heard of it—yes. But you must be mistaken. It can’t be true…’
His mouth twisted. ‘If the man you were with had asked you to sleep with him tonight, would you have agreed?’
She gasped. ‘God—no. He’s repulsive.’
‘But might not take rejection well, all the same,’ he said drily. ‘Which is why you must not return to your apartment tonight.’
‘But I have to.’ Kate was shaking. She put a hand to her forehead, trying to steady herself. Collect her thoughts. ‘My—my things are there. I’m going back to England tomorrow. Besides, they may have drugged Lisa too.’
His mouth curled. ‘I doubt they would need to.’
She said hotly, ‘You have no right to say that. You don’t know her.’
He smiled faintly, ‘I admire your loyalty, thespinis, if not your judgement. Now, I think you should lie down before you fall down,’ he added with a slight frown.
‘I’m—fine,’ Kate said thickly.
‘I don’t think so,’ he said, and picked her up in his arms.
She knew she should protest—that she should kick and fight, but it was so much easier to rest her head against his shoulder and close her eyes, and let him carry her.
She could feel the warmth of his body through his clothing. Could smell the faint muskiness of some cologne he wore.
She sensed a blur of shaded light, and felt the softness of a mattress beneath her. Dimly she was aware of her zip being unfastened and her dress removed, and tried to struggle—to utter some panicked negation.
A woman’s voice spoke soothingly. ‘Rest easily, little one. All will be well.’
Kate felt the caress of clean, crisp linen against her bare skin, and then the last vestiges of reality slid away, and she slept.
She dreamed fitfully, in brief wild snatches, her body twisting away from the image of Dimitris bending towards her with hot eyes and greedy hands, her voice crying out in soundless horror.
Once, there seemed to be a man’s voice speaking right above her in Greek. ‘She could solve your immediate problem.’
And heard a cool drawl that she seemed to recognise in the wry response, ‘And create a hundred more…’
She wondered who they were—what they were talking about? But it was all too much effort when she was tired—so tired.
And, as she drifted away again, she felt a hand gently touch her hair, and stroke her cheek.
And smiled in her sleep.
CHAPTER THREE
SHE was on fire, burning endlessly in feverish, impossible excitement. Because a man’s hands were touching her, arousing her to feverish, rapturous delight. His mouth was exploring her, his body moving against her as she lay beneath him, making her moan and writhe in helpless pleasure. In a need she had not known existed—until then.
And she forced open her heavy lids and looked at the dark face, fierce and intense above her, and saw that it was Michael Theodakis.
Kate awoke, gasping. For a moment she lay still, totally disorientated, then she propped herself up on an unsteady elbow, and looked around her.
Her first shocked realisation was that she was naked in this wide, luxurious bed, her sole covering a sheet tangled round her sweat-slicked body.
In fact, the entire bed looked as if it had been hit by an earthquake, the blue and ivory embroidered coverlet kicked to an untidy heap at its foot, and pillows on the floor.
It was a very large room, she thought, staring round her, with a cream tiled floor, and walls washed in a blue that reflected the azure of the sea and sky. The tall shutters had been opened, and the glass doors beyond stood slightly ajar, allowing a faint breeze from the sea to infiltrate the room and stir the pale voile drapes in the brilliant sunlight.
She shook the sheet loose, restoring it to a more decorous level, as she began slowly to remember the events of the previous night.
She didn’t know which was the most extraordinary—the danger she’d been in, or the fact that Michael Theodakis had come to her rescue.
He must, she thought, have been watching very closely to have noticed her drink being spiked. But his attention would have been attracted by Stavros whom he’d clearly identified as trouble.
And he’d naturally be anxious to avoid any whiff of scandal being attached to his hotel, however
