sneer, but he knew that was probably because she considered him totally beneath her, not worthy of the million-dollar smile she flashed at other men.
But he was patient. He’d waited this long; he could wait a little longer…
Bryony found Kane’s scrutiny increasingly disturbing but stood her ground, waiting for him to speak. She reassured herself that he couldn’t possibly do any worse than he’d already done. If it were indeed true that he now owned everything she would have to move out of the city apartment, but there were plenty of other places she could rent instead.
Her work as a ballet teacher brought in a reasonable income, but she still had to be careful financially, mostly because she found it hard to charge the going rate when children from less fortunate backgrounds fell behind in their fees.
She knew she could always supplement her income some other way, although she had no intention of asking for her father’s help. She suppressed a tiny bubble of what threatened to be hysterical laughter as she even considered taking up house cleaning.
‘Would you care to share the joke?’ Kane asked.
She stared up at him, uncertain of what to make of his expression. ‘No, actually, it wasn’t even funny.’
‘Not much in life is, is it?’ he asked.
She compressed her lips by way of reply. He of all people knew how much she’d idolized her older brother—yes, life wasn’t all that much fun any more.
‘I have made a deal with your father,’ he announced after another one of his nerve-tightening pauses.
‘Oh?’ She hoped she sounded uninterested.
‘I’m giving him the chance to escape the harrowing experience of the judicial system.’
‘Why would you do that?’ She frowned. ‘Especially since…’ She didn’t finish the sentence. She still remembered the shame and disgrace Sophia Kaproulias had gone through when her son had been charged with wilful damage. The local paper had got wind of it, calling Kane Kaproulias an ungrateful rebel who had turned on the benefactor who’d paid for his private education.
The hand of the law had fallen hard on him and she was glad it had. She’d heard he’d spent some time behind bars but had got out early due to good behaviour.
Somehow good behaviour and Kane Kaproulias didn’t sit all that well together in her opinion, especially now, with him watching like a hawk did before it made its final swoop.
‘Your father would not survive a month in prison,’ Kane said. ‘Your mother wouldn’t even make it past the first day.’
‘My mother?’ She looked up at him in sudden consternation. ‘What has my mother got to do with any of this?’
‘Your mother would be implicated in aiding and abetting a criminal,’ he informed her impersonally. ‘And, since I now own and control the family fortune, no decent lawyer would defend their case.’
‘You’re making this up…you have to be…’
‘I’m afraid not, Bryony. Your father has been doing some rather shady deals over the past few years. I got wind of it and decided it was time to make him face the music, so to speak.’
‘With you as principal conductor, I suppose?’ Her look was arctic.
‘But of course.’
She took a prickly breath. ‘So what is my role in all this? You can hardly implicate me. I don’t have anything to do with the family business; I never have.’
‘That’s true; however, you do have rather an important role to play now. For unless you play it both your parents will leave Mercyfields in the back of a police van as I did ten years ago.’
It was hard to maintain her composure as a vision of her fragile mother came to mind. She felt the drum beat of fear pounding deep in her stomach, sending shockwaves all the way to her brain as she tried to imagine what he had planned for her.
What sort of sick revenge would he require to appease his bitterness over the past?
There was only one thing she thought of that would truly rock her to the core of her being, but surely he wouldn’t be thinking along those lines…
He straightened from his leaning position against her father’s desk and strode with loose-limbed grace to where she was sitting on the edge of the wing chair, her crossed leg trembling just ever so slightly as he drew nearer.
She looked up at his face and for the first time realised she had seriously underestimated him. There was a hint of ruthlessness in his glittering eyes, as if he couldn’t wait to tell her of what he had in store for her but was deliberately making her wait to draw out the agony of her suspense for his own enjoyment.
She was close to losing her head and sensed he knew it. Her mouth was dry, her hands damp and her neck and shoulders so tense she could feel a muscle spasm begin in the middle of her back, beating in time with her increasing headache.
She got to her feet, then wished she hadn’t as it brought her far too close to the wall of his body, her thighs almost touching his.
She shrank back but one of his hands came out and held her by the elbow, making escape impossible.
‘Get your filthy hands off me.’ She hissed the words at him with aristocratic hauteur.
His nostrils flared and she felt the unmistakable tightening of his grasp for endless seconds before he finally let her arm go.
She fought to keep her breathing under some sort of control but the feel of his long fingers on her had set off a host of strange electric sensations throughout her body. She felt frightened of him but drawn to him all at the same time, making her feel confused and disoriented.
‘In time you will get used to having me touch you, Bryony,’ he said. ‘You may, in fact, eventually crave it.’
‘I wouldn’t have you touch me for all the money in the world,’ she told him with stiff pride.
‘What about for all the money in the Mercer family vault?’ he asked.
‘W-what are you talking about?’
He gave her an unfathomable look. ‘You see, that is my plan for you, Bryony. Your parents will maintain their freedom and, as I’m feeling generous, a certain level of financial support, but on one condition and one condition only.’
She gave one tiny nervous swallow before she could stop herself. ‘Which is?’ she asked, not really wanting to know the answer, somehow sensing it wasn’t going to be what she wanted to hear.
And she was right.
It wasn’t.
‘I want you to be my wife.’
CHAPTER TWO
BRYONY knew she was giving a very good imitation of a stranded fish, with her mouth opening and closing in shock, but there was little she could do to stop it.
‘You’re
