marry a total stranger?’
A faint, insolent smile curved his mouth. ‘I thought you had your father’s best interests at heart. Otherwise why would you be here?’
‘I do,’ she admitted, ‘but that doesn’t include giving myself away to you.’ The man had no idea what he was asking. He was probably a fantastic lover with years of experience, but it meant nothing to her. She didn’t know the first thing about him. And nor did she want to if these were his tactics.
‘It’s your choice,’ he said, as simply as if they were discussing a normal business proposition. ‘If your answer’s no then we have nothing else to discuss.’
‘Of course my answer’s no,’ she spat at him. ‘What do you take me for?’ And with that she whirled on her heel and stormed out of the room.
His mocking voice called after her. ‘I’ll be waiting should you change your mind.’
‘Then you’ll wait a lifetime,’ she hissed beneath her breath.
Dione didn’t go straight to the hospital; she was far too wound up for that. She had taken a taxi to Theo’s office but now decided to walk. Even then she took a circuitous route and by the time she did reach the hospital she was almost able to laugh at Theo Tsardikos’ suggestion.
But her father didn’t laugh. ‘You could do worse,’ he said. ‘I’ve always wanted you to marry a proud Greek male and Tsardikos is as good as they come.’
Praise indeed coming from her father, thought Dione.
‘I’ve been so afraid that on one of your trips to England you’ll fall in love. It would break my heart.’
It was on the tip of Dione’s tongue to tell him about Chris, but at the last moment she decided against it. Yannis’ health was so bad that such an admission might finish him off altogether. In fact he looked even worse today that he had yesterday. His breathing was laboured and his skin a ghostly yellow and Phrosini hovered, not knowing what to do to help her beloved husband.
‘I can’t marry a complete stranger,’ Dione said miserably.
‘Not even for me?’ demanded Yannis in a rough, angry voice. ‘Not even though my life and my livelihood depend on it? What sort of a daughter are you?’
He made Dione feel guilty, but even so she stuck to her guns. ‘I’d be prostituting myself.’
‘With Tsardikos? He’s an exciting male. Half the female population of Greece are after him. You’ll be the envy of thousands.’ And then he slumped in his chair and hardly seemed to be breathing.
Phrosini beckoned her out of the room. ‘We must leave him for a while,’ she said.
‘Don’t you know he’s asking the impossible?’ asked Dione, as they made their way to the hospital restaurant. ‘I haven’t said anything to my father, and I don’t want you to either, but there’s a man in England I’ve promised to marry.’
‘Oh, Dione, why didn’t you say?’ Her stepmother was full of concern.
‘How could I when my father’s so ill, and more especially after what he’s just said?’
‘And this boy, you love him?’
‘Of course.’ But Dione’s face gave away the fact that it wasn’t exactly going to be a marriage made in heaven.
‘You’re doing it because you don’t want your father to arrange a marriage for you?’ she asked intuitively.
Dione nodded faintly, her lips clamped together. When it was put to her like that she realised it was probably true. The love she felt for Chris wasn’t like the stuff you read about, but she had been happy enough—until she heard that he’d been seen with his ex-girlfriend!
‘Oh, Dione, is that really the answer? I don’t want you to be unhappy like I was with my first husband, like your mother was.’
‘I’d be happier with Chris than Theo Tsardikos,’ said Dione quietly.
‘Theo’s a good man. His offer is a lifeline to your father. In fact it might save his life. The doctors are very fearful today.’ There were tears in Phrosini’s eyes. ‘And if he doesn’t recover…well, your father’s always wanted me to carry on the business if anything should happen to him.’
Meaning she would be letting them both down. Put like that, how could she refuse? Dione breathed in deeply, closed her eyes, then took the plunge, hating herself for it but knowing it was something she had to do.
‘OK—I’ll—marry him.’ Her words floated in the air like a storm cloud threatening to bear down and drown her in a black deluge of unhappiness.
Phrosini hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘My precious child.’
There was nothing precious about it, thought Dione, but she made up her mind there and then that Theo Tsardikos would not get it all his own way. This marriage would be on her terms.
He was savagely handsome, quite the best-looking man she’d ever seen—tall, with a perfectly honed body and long-fingered, well-manicured hands. It was one of the first things she’d noticed about him. But it didn’t mean that she would eagerly jump into his bed. Quite the opposite! She would be a good and dutiful wife in every other respect. She would cook for him, entertain for him, accompany him whenever necessary, but nothing more.
Maybe this was what he wanted her to be—a good hostess? A man in his position would need someone at his side on special occasions.
And who was she trying to kid?
She had seen the way he looked at her, the way his eyes had raked insolently over her body, and she had known what he was thinking, even though she’d done her very best to ignore it.
Already she was beginning to lament her decision but her father was overjoyed when they went back to tell him, his eyes brightening and becoming alert and interested. ‘My darling daughter! You won’t regret this, I promise you.’
Dione wasn’t so sure.
She spent a sleepless night worrying about it, telling herself there was still time to back out, but then recalling her father’s pleasure. How could she deny him his dying wish?
As Dione sat outside Theo Tsardikos’ office for the second time in the same number of days her heart leapt with alarming violence. This was going to be the hardest thing she had ever done. Giving herself to a man she didn’t know was crazy. She had to be insane to do it.
And the man in question was taking great delight in keeping her waiting!
And the longer Dione waited the more irritated she became, until at last she jumped to her feet and prepared to leave. She couldn’t do this, not even for her father’s sake. No one knew the courage it had taken her to come here this morning; courage that was fast deserting her.
‘Leaving, are we?’
Dione spun round at the sound of a deep, gravelly voice and looked into a pair of amused dark eyes. ‘I’d begun to think you didn’t want to see me. I’ve
