and cut off her painful thoughts. ‘You can’t punish me for something that happened when I was seventeen.’
‘Seventeen?’ He laughed harshly. ‘You were no ingénue, Kallie. I remember the way you were with Giorgio…you had the poor guy panting after you like a dog. You were almost eighteen, about to go to college, on the brink of adulthood—you knew exactly what you were doing.’ He waved an impatient hand. ‘This isn’t about the past any more. In fact, that whole episode just bores me. It’s about the present. All the past is doing now is serving to give me a little leverage where you’re concerned. A little retribution, sweetened by very strong desire.’
Sadness filled her. He had it all so wrong. Giorgio. She hadn’t thought about him in years. Another friend of her cousins, she’d taken advantage of his dogged pursuit of her to try and make Alexandros jealous. To little effect and much to her shame. But it had been done with the innocence and disregard of a typical teenager. She didn’t doubt that Giorgio had been robust enough to accept her rejection and knew he hadn’t been too wounded as he had quickly sought the affections of another cousin. Was she to be punished for every little thing?
She shook her head desperately. ‘I won’t do it. You can’t make me.’ Please, she added silently. He had no idea how much of a punishment this would be.
‘Too late. I’ve made up my mind. If you don’t marry me, who would suffer most? I think possibly your uncle Alexei, as he has the most invested. Doesn’t he have three grown-up children at college in the States?’
‘Stop it…’ Fear and panic laced her voice. ‘You’re a bastard.’
He inclined his head. ‘No, Kallie, I’m not.’ He lifted a hand and ticked off long fingers. ‘I need to get married more or less immediately, you’ve fallen into my path like a ripe plum, you are available…and you’ve grown up into a very attractive young woman.’
‘So that’s it? You only want me now because I come up to your standards of physical perfection?’
He smiled and it didn’t reach his eyes. ‘You’re no image of physical perfection, Kallie, don’t flatter yourself, but for some reason I find myself wanting you more than I’ve wanted any other woman in a long time…so I don’t anticipate that there’s going to be any hardship on our wedding night when you come to me…’
His insulting choice of words barely impinged her consciousness, she reacted purely to his assertion that she would ever choose willingly to sleep with him. ‘I’ll never—’
‘Yes. You will,’ he cut in ruthlessly. ‘And I am going to enjoy every moment of this sweet revenge, every step of the way, every piece of flesh that’s going to be uncovered as you give yourself to me, as you offer yourself up as you did seven years ago. In the place of the marriage that you made sure didn’t happen, don’t you think when I need a wife now that it’s only fair that you step into that role?’
She couldn’t control the shiver that shook her frame at his words. And she knew it wasn’t a shiver of fear. She hated this man. He had her backed into a corner with no way out.
‘How can I be sure you’ll still deliver on the loan?’
He shrugged. ‘I could watch your family flounder. Heaven knows, I have the right. But contrary to what you think, Kallie, I’m not that cruel. On our wedding day when I get my convenient wife, you can consider the loan approved.’
She had an overwhelming urge to jump up and run as fast as she could, as far away as she could. But he would find her if she did. She knew that without a doubt. She sank back against the chair, unable to sit up straight in the face of his condemnation.
She looked miserable. ‘I don’t want them to suffer, despite what you might think.’
And suddenly Kallie had to do something, had to try and make him listen. There had to be a human being in there somewhere. The old Alexandros. She appealed to him now, sitting up straight again.
‘Alexandros—’
He started to cut her off and she put up a hand. ‘Please. Just let me say something.’ Her eyes were an intense green on his. ‘I never went to the paper with that story. I would never have done something like that. You knew me…’ Better than nearly anyone.
He said nothing and Kallie searched her brain frantically. ‘Why would I have done it, Alexandros? Why?’
There was unmistakable tension in his huge frame, just inches away from her. He shrugged dismissively. ‘Because you were just one more in a long line of people who thought they could cash in on the Kouros money.’ Except that was a myth by then!
‘Did your father put you up to it, Kallie? See his ticket out of debt? Or did you just do it for the hell of it, to see if you could turn my head yourself? I told you that day I didn’t go in for seventeen-year-olds.’ His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘But if you’d come to me as you are now…’
He flicked an openly appraising look up and down her body. It should have disgusted her. It should have made her angry. But it didn’t. It made her feel hot and bothered and confused and out of her depth.
But he wasn’t finished. ‘To tell the truth, seven years on I’m not much interested in why…’ He shook his head. ‘You changed, Kallie. The girl I knew would never have tried to seduce me and get someone to photograph the evidence.’
Her insides stung with acute hurt and the humiliation rose up again so sharply she felt sick. To think that he would have believed that of her.
Kallie bit her lip hard and could feel blood. As if his rejection hadn’t hurt enough that night, he had to reiterate just how unwelcome her advances had been and how futile it was to try and get him to listen to anything, any explanation.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.’
‘It’s a bit late now.’
His words flayed her like a whip, cutting so deeply that she winced inwardly. ‘But really it wasn’t like that. I didn’t—’
‘Give me a break.’ Derision and disbelief stamped his features, his mouth a bitter slash. ‘There were three people there that night, you, me and whoever your loyal photographer was. Pity they were so amateur…but they got enough.’
She slumped back again, defeated and diminished by his derision and cruelty. And now that she knew what he wanted, all avenues of escape were closed off. She couldn’t assert her innocence any further, and she couldn’t explain what had happened as that would involve someone who wouldn’t be able to handle this much more dangerous Alexandros. Eleni had come up to Kallie at her parents’ funeral, nearly hysterical with remorse and guilt. She’d told her everything—how she’d followed Kallie out to the patio, taken the picture, hacked into her e-mail and sent in the story.
For one blissful moment, unaware of him across the table, Kallie’s mind was fixed on that awful day of such tragedy. The added pain when Eleni had revealed the truth. Kallie had always had her suspicions but, still, to hear it explained…She’d been shocked and angry. Dismayed, hurt. About to lash back, already filled with grief and now anger. But Eleni’s husband had stepped in. He’d explained everything, exactly why Eleni had been acting so on the edge. Which was the reason why Kallie couldn’t defend herself now.
She’d discovered that her cousin had had a nervous breakdown, and
