give you a week, no more.’
‘A week?’
He gave a single nod. ‘But, let me warn you, I’ll be following your every move, so if you have any plans to escape, forget them.’
He reached into his back pocket and handed her a business card. She took it with nerveless fingers and stared at it sightlessly for a long moment.
‘You can reach me on that number when you’ve made your decision,’ he informed her. ‘I’ll tell my secretary to expect your call by five p.m. on Monday.’
She wished she had the courage to tear the card into a thousand pieces, and if it hadn’t been for Kyle she would have, but instead she closed her palm around it, feeling its sharp edges digging into her flesh like an instrument of torture. She lifted her gaze back to his unwavering one, the cold fingertips of fear edging their way up her spine at the self-satisfied gleam reflected in his black-hooded eyes.
‘I’m assuming from all this that your boat wasn’t adequately insured,’ she said.
‘It was very adequately insured,’ he informed her. ‘But this is my way of ensuring I get the best possible return.’
The predatory look he gave her caused her stomach to turn over unexpectedly.
‘You’re taking a very big risk; you don’t know where I might have been or who I’ve been with.’ She was deliberately provocative, even though she had never been so close to a man until he’d stepped into her personal space a few minutes ago.
‘I have no real interest in your sexual proclivities,’ he said dismissively. ‘This will not be a real lasting marriage.’
‘It’s to be temporary?’ She clutched at the life-line hopefully.
‘Of course.’ His eyes glinted darkly. ‘Isn’t every marriage?’
She didn’t have it in her to argue the point, even if she’d wanted to. She’d read the latest figures on marital success and they weren’t all that promising.
‘Aren’t you worried I might take you to the cleaners at the end of our…arrangement?’ she asked.
‘Not at all. By the time our marriage is annulled you’ll be very much aware of what sort of outcome such an action would produce.’
She lifted her chin at the thinly veiled threat behind his words.
‘Do I have your word the marriage would stay in name only?’
‘I can assure you, Maddison, my physical needs are being very satisfactorily catered for elsewhere. I have absolutely no interest in chasing you around the bedroom. You will be able to sleep in peace.’
She knew it was highly inconsistent of her to be annoyed by his callous dismissal of her attractiveness to the opposite sex; she knew she was hardly model material but surely she wasn’t ready for the shelf yet?
‘So, if I agree to this arrangement it is safe to assume I’m to turn a blind eye to your activities for appearance’s sake?’
‘You will not only turn a blind eye, you will do everything in your power to maintain the illusion of a happy union whenever we are in public, which means, of course, the same freedom I enjoy will not be available to you.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Meaning any dalliances you might be tempted to conduct will have to be temporarily shelved until such time as our marriage is over.’
‘So you can have your cake and eat it too, but I must not?’
‘That’s correct.’
‘That’s archaic!’
‘That’s the deal, take it or leave it.’
She longed to tell him what to do with his preposterous proposal but a vision of her brother in handcuffs flitted unbidden into her mind and she snapped her mouth shut.
‘Don’t forget, Maddison, I’m doing you a very big favour here. One point five million dollars is a huge debt for someone in your position to pay. This way the debt can be cleared within a short space of time. Your brother can stop looking over his shoulder and you can walk away with a clear conscience knowing you saved him from a fate thought to be worse than death.’
‘What sort of time-frame are you thinking of?’ she asked, her insides twisting painfully.
He pursed his lips for a moment in a gesture of deep thought.
‘At a guess I’d give it six months. Any longer and you might be tempted to get a little too attached to the role.’
‘You must be joking.’ She gave him a scathing glance.
‘One can never be too sure,’ he said with another one of his secret smiles. ‘Women have rather an annoying habit of becoming clingy at times.’
‘It must be your money,’ she shot back. ‘It can’t possibly have anything whatsoever to do with your personality.’
His sudden laughter surprised her; it had a deep masculine sound to it that sent an arrow of sensation up her back as if he’d reached out and touched her with his long fingers. It made her feel as if she’d inadvertently uncovered an even more dangerous facet to him, the ability to slip under her defences and catch her off guard.
‘Maddison Jones—’ his eyes twinkled with lingering amusement as he surveyed her mutinous features ‘—I’m looking forward to hearing your decision next week. I think our little arrangement could prove to be very entertaining, very entertaining indeed.’
Before she could think of a suitably stinging reply the door opened under his hand and he was gone, leaving her standing there with his business card tightly clenched in her hand.
She opened her palm and winced when she saw the tiny pinprick of blood one of the sharp edges had drawn from her soft flesh. She couldn’t help wondering if it were some sort of omen, or perhaps a warning specifically aimed at her; if she were to allow herself to get too close to someone like Demetrius Papasakis she would be, in the end, the only one to get hurt.
CHAPTER TWO
MADDISON had never known a week to go so quickly. As each day unfolded her panic grew steadily inside her until she began to feel as if she were on death row, waiting for the next cock’s crow to herald her imminent demise.
She hadn’t wasted the time available to her but had tried everything in her power to extricate herself from the clutches of Demetrius Papasakis—to no avail. As if to deliberately intensify her desperate circumstances, she had received a flood of bills in the space of days, one of which was a hefty speeding fine of her brother’s which she knew he wouldn’t be able to pay.
She spent a miserable weekend trying to think of a way out of her difficulties but in the end had to admit she was well and truly trapped. Her modest income from the second hand bookstore where she worked would hardly cover Kyle’s speeding ticket let alone a million-and-a-half dollar boat.
However, when she arrived at
