EIGHT
THREE days.
It hadn’t sounded long when Theo had given Skye the ultimatum. In fact it hadn’t sounded like any time at all.
Three days—just seventy-two hours—in which to find the courage to face Cyril and admit to him what had happened. She didn’t know how she could do it. She only knew that somehow—God knew how—she had to.
But that had been the day before yesterday. Now more than forty-eight hours of the seventy-two had passed—gone. And she was no nearer to bringing herself to do as Theo had ordered.
If anything, she was further away from it than she had ever been.
For one thing, Cyril hadn’t even been in the house most of the time. He had spent a large amount of yesterday in the village and had returned in such a dreadful mood that Skye had hurriedly retired to her room and left him to himself. This morning he had ordered the helicopter to take him to Athens at what seemed like the crack of dawn and hadn’t been seen since.
Skye could only be thankful that Theo too had made himself scarce. The thought of facing him and the inevitable reaction when he discovered that she still hadn’t given in to his demands and told his father the truth made her shiver in genuine fear.
The future seemed dark and bleak, without a single glimmer of hope on the horizon, and she had no idea which way to turn.
If she didn’t tell Cyril, then Theo would. But how could she tell Cyril when doing so would inevitably mean that he would call off the whole engagement and the wedding that was supposed to follow it?
And without that wedding, then her father had no chance of avoiding arrest, because if thwarted then Cyril would surely press charges even more vehemently. And if he was arrested, then her mother…
‘Oh, heaven help me!’
Skye sank down onto the nearest chair and buried her face in her hands, giving in to despair.
She had never felt so lost and alone. So totally abandoned by everyone.
‘Is there a problem?’
She recognised the husky male voice immediately. It was the one that had haunted her dreams, sounded in her head all day long ever since she had heard it issuing the brutal ultimatum that threatened to shatter her life, and that of all the people she loved.
‘Oh, no, there’s no problem!’ she flung at him, her head coming up sharply, auburn hair tossed back over her shoulder, grey eyes blazing defiance. ‘No problem at all! Only the fact that my life finally seemed to be back on some sort of track—one that I could at least cope with. But then I had the misfortune to meet you and now everything’s blown up in my face!’
‘You haven’t told him.’ It was a statement, not a question, but Skye still felt he was waiting for a response to it.
‘No, I haven’t told him!’
If he’d been around in the house, he would have known that. But for his own private reasons Theo had made himself scarce for the past couple of days. Having delivered his ultimatum, he had backed off and left her alone with his father.
Of course, she knew why. He was expecting her to use the time to tell Cyril everything. She supposed that he thought he was being fair—even considerate—by giving her the space and the quiet in which to broach the subject.
Well, he might not have been actually putting pressure on her directly with his words and his presence, but the knowledge that he was there, waiting, watching, like some cruel hunter lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce if she didn’t do as he ordered, had kept her in a permanent state of shivering terror, never knowing when his dark patience would run out and he would move in for the kill.
‘For one thing, I haven’t had an opportunity, and for another—well, I just don’t know how he’s going to react.’
‘That’s something you should have considered before you leapt into bed with a complete stranger.’
The cynicism in Theo’s tone seemed all the worse when Skye admitted to herself just how wonderful he looked. With the afternoon sunlight shining on the glossy black hair, making the dark eyes gleam spectacularly between their frame of thick, lush lashes, he was a Greek god come to life in modern dress. The long, lean legs were clothed in jeans so tight they were positively indecent, and the power of his chest and shoulders was emphasised by the loving cling of the soft tee shirt to the muscled contours. The white material threw the colour of his bronzed skin into sharp relief, his tan already deepened by several days in the Greek sun, and the whole picture was one that made her mouth dry in purely sensual delight.
‘I had no idea that the complete stranger was going to turn out to be my fiancé’s son!’
‘No, I don’t suppose you did,’ Theo drawled, strolling into the room and dropping down into a chair opposite with indolent ease. ‘That was rather unfortunate for you.’
‘Unfortunate!’ Skye echoed sourly. ‘That has to be the understatement of the year!’
‘But would it have made things any more justifiable if I’d been a perfect stranger? You would still have been unfaithful to the man you were engaged to. Or are you one of those people who believe that the crime is not in the actual action, but in getting found out?’
‘Not at all!’ Skye denied his words furiously ‘I don’t expect you to believe me, but I don’t make a habit of indulging in one-night stands with complete strangers!’
‘You’d be wrong about that—I do believe you.’
‘And I wasn’t exactly engaged to your father at the time—’
The sudden realisation of the words he had inserted quietly into her tirade pulled her up sharp, her head spinning in shock.
She couldn’t be hearing properly. Had he said…?
‘What did you say?’ she demanded rawly.
‘That I believe you. That you’re not the type who makes a habit of indulging in one-night stands with complete strangers.’
‘You—you do?’
‘Absolutely.’
Stunned relief and delight flooded through her. Her heart leapt, her spirits lifted. A smile she couldn’t suppress spread wide across her face.
‘That’s wonderful! Fantastic! You can’t imagine the relief that makes me feel…’
But something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The smile slipped a bit, faded, as she realised that there was no answering lightening of Theo’s expression. Instead, his features remained set in the sombre, unyielding cast that they had displayed from the moment he had come into the room.
As sudden doubt crept into her mind and took an uncomfortable hold Skye felt her world tilt on its balance, swaying sickeningly.
‘You didn’t mean it?’ she questioned hesitantly.
