‘It’s obvious that you aren’t any more interested in the deal I’m offering than Angela was, so I think it’s best if I just be on my way now. It will save us both the embarrassment of your having to say so.’
No. Unfortunately Drakon could not in all conscience even consider a deal in which Lyonedes Enterprises effectively paid out millions of pounds for a prime site the company wanted in the heart of London, then shelved their idea to build a hotel complex there in favour of selling it on to Gemini, who would then pay them back in instalments. From a business point of view the whole idea was ludicrous!
And from a personal one…?
Drakon frowned darkly as he saw the look of defeat in the pallor of Gemini’s face. Her eyes now appeared like huge sea-green lakes of bleak despair against that paleness. Because she now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had lost the family home she so obviously loved. The last tie with the father she had also loved and so recently lost…
He gave an impatient shake of his head, knowing that he couldn’t back down on his decision. Not only was it the right one in regard to Lyonedes Enterprises, it would be totally against his nature to do so. ‘I do not believe for one moment that your father intended your trust fund to be used for such a purpose.’
She gave him a bitter smile. ‘We’ll never know now what he intended, will we?’
Drakon’s jaw tightened. ‘The fact that he did not, as he intended, make a new will, perhaps implies that he had rethought his decision to leave you Bartholomew House?’
‘Oh, please, Drakon!’ Gemini threw him a fiery glance. ‘As you didn’t even know my father you can have absolutely no idea what he did or didn’t decide.’
He winced at the emotion in her voice. ‘That is not completely true. I met your father several times at social functions in London over the years.’
That was news to Gemini. Although there was absolutely no reason why her father should ever have mentioned meeting the legendary Drakon Lyonedes to her. He couldn’t have known that Gemini and Drakon would meet one day. Especially under these circumstances!
‘And?’
He shrugged those wide shoulders. ‘And he always seemed a man of decisiveness and purpose.’
Gemini smiled sadly. ‘Then I can only assume you must have met him pre-Angela.’
‘Perhaps,’ Drakon acknowledged. ‘But from a practical point of view what would you even do with a home and grounds the size of Bartholomew House? Surely it is far too big for you to have considered living there alone?’
Her stubbornly pointed chin rose. ‘I have—had,’ she corrected firmly, ‘no intention of living there alone, Drakon.’
Ah. It was a complication Drakon hadn’t but definitely should have considered before now…‘You are engaged. Or intend to be married soon?’
‘Of course not.’ She looked down pointedly at her bare left hand before adding, ‘I wouldn’t be here having dinner alone with you if I was!’ She shook her head. ‘But I don’t intend always to be alone. I would like to be married at some time in the future, and to have children of my own one day. Whenever I’ve envisaged that day I’ve always thought I would be living in Bartholomew House,’ she said huskily.
Guilt was not an emotion Drakon was in the least familiar with, and it now sat uncomfortably heavy on his shoulders. Especially when it was in connection with a young woman he found altogether too attractive for his own comfort! Nor was he particularly happy with the brief feeling of satisfaction he had experienced at knowing Gemini was not seriously involved with anyone else at the moment. The chances of her ever becoming involved with him, now that he had refused even to consider her proposal for purchasing Bartholomew House, were also extremely remote!
He looked across at her through narrowed lids. ‘I don’t see how anyone could have reason to object to your having a business dinner with me?’
Gemini accepted that it might have started out as a business dinner—except for the subdued lighting and those candles on the dinner table—but Drakon certainly hadn’t been feeling businesslike a few minutes ago, when she had felt the evidence of his arousal pressing against her. When whether or not they kissed each other had hung so delicately in the balance for several tense and breathlessly expectant moments!
‘Probably not,’ she accepted briskly. ‘But I wouldn’t have felt right about coming here if I was involved with someone.’
Drakon frowned his irritation. ‘I don’t see why not. Or is it your intention, when this “one day” arrives with this as yet imaginary husband and children, to close yourself off from all other social contact?’
‘Of course not.’ Gemini gave him a derisive glance. ‘But going out for the evening to have dinner alone with—well, frankly with another man, who happens to be single and very eligible, really isn’t acceptable when you’re married to someone else.’
He raised dark brows. ‘Even if it is a business dinner?’
‘Even then.’ She shrugged dismissively. ‘I wouldn’t be at all happy knowing my husband was out to dinner with some glamorous blonde or brunette, business or otherwise, so I wouldn’t expect him to like my doing it either. And I really have no idea why we are even talking about someone who doesn’t even exist yet,’ she added wryly. ‘It’s bizarre!’
It was an odd conversation, Drakon acknowledged. One that gave him even more of an insight into the type of woman Gemini Bartholomew was.
At the same time it reiterated his earlier impression that she was not the type of woman to enter lightly into what Drakon already knew, from that brief time of holding her in his arms, would be a highly volatile sexual affair between the two of them. Indeed, she was the type of woman who would need to be in love, rather than just in lust, with any man she went to bed with.
Surely that didn’t mean she might still be a virgin at twenty-seven?
Of course it didn’t; just because Gemini hadn’t married yet it didn’t mean she hadn’t already fallen in—and out—of love, or had sex. Or made love, as she no doubt thought of it!
Drakon’s hands clenched at his sides just at the thought of other men making love to her. Of those men having seen her naked, with that beautiful white-gold hair falling caressingly over them as they touched and kissed all those delectable and willowy curves—
Those regrets at his earlier self-denial had occurred even more quickly than Drakon had imagined they might!
He nodded abruptly. ‘I will ring for the car and have you driven back to your home,’ he said.
‘There’s no need,’ Gemini replied. ‘I can easily get a taxi once I’m outside.’
‘I arranged for your transport here, and as such cannot possibly allow you to go home in a taxi,’ he bit out harshly.
‘You aren’t allowing me to do anything, Drakon.’ Gemini couldn’t help smiling a little at his arrogance. ‘And I want to go now,’ she insisted heavily, that humour quickly fading. ‘Not in ten minutes or so when the car arrives.’
He straightened. ‘Then I will drive you home myself—’
