LITMIR.BIZ

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civil marriage was to take place at the office of the mairie on the Place Du Panthéon, Kallie was meeting her uncle for lunch near his office on the Champs Elysées. The Arc de Triomphe was a mere shape in the distance as she steeled herself and went into the restaurant.

      He stood as she approached and they kissed on both cheeks in a warm greeting. She hadn’t seen him since that night at the Ritz. They’d spoken on the phone when she’d delivered her news of the wedding and now she couldn’t put off the inevitable any more. Finally, after she’d prevaricated for as long as possible, he got to the point. Taking her hand across the table, he said gently, ‘Kallie, darling, you know how important to me you are, you’re like another daughter.’

      ‘I know…’ She tried to keep the emotion out of her voice, aching to be able to confide in someone, anyone.

      ‘Are you telling me the truth about Alexandros?’ He shook his head. ‘I just find it a little hard to believe that you bumped into him that night and have had this whirlwind romance. I know him, Kallie. He’s not given to random romantic whims…and this, well, it’s completely out of character. Especially with the history between you. I remember how angry he was. That story in the paper—’

      Kallie cut him off before he could delve too deeply into the past—the present was hard enough to deal with. ‘Alexei. Please. believe me when I say you don’t have to worry about anything.’ She crossed her fingers under the table on a superstitious reflex. ‘It is true. We met that night and…I don’t know.’ She shrugged and pasted a bland smile on her face. ‘He’s changed. Seven years is a long time. He doesn’t harbour any grudges.’ Her fingers were clenched so tightly that Kallie could feel the blood flow stopping. ‘Trust me, Alexei, I don’t want you to think about it, really. I want to marry Alexandros.’

      She prayed that her hopelessly romantic uncle wouldn’t push her to say anything about love. He looked unconvinced for a long moment but then something seemed to pass over his face and he smiled. ‘I do trust you, Kallie.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘I know it can happen like that. After all, didn’t I fall in love with your Aunt Petra in just a week?’

      Kallie smiled weakly.

      A rogue part of her needed to check something. ‘Alexei, that night at the Ritz, you mentioned that you’d had to go to Alexandros. Is there anything you want to tell me?’

      He paled and Kallie’s heart fell. Confirmation…as if she needed it at this stage. Even so, a tiny part of her had clung to some mad, irrational hope. He blustered slightly, clearly embarrassed, his macho Greek pride painfully evident and obviously the reason why he hadn’t said anything about the loan. ‘My dear, don’t be ridiculous, we’re just doing business, that’s all.’

      She read far more into his reactions than he suspected. She’d checked up on what Alexandros had said and every word he’d uttered had been true. Things were even worse than she’d anticipated. She didn’t know how Alexei had been managing for so long without a loan. His efforts to secure loans elsewhere were dismayingly documented in financial papers. Guilt made her feel cold inside again. If she’d been the slightest bit interested, she would have noticed. Her shares had long been sucked into the haemorrhaging business.

      She had to comfort herself that at least this way she was keeping Alexandros’s lust for revenge to herself. No one else would ever know and the Demarchis shipping fleet would be safe. It was cold comfort, however, as she said goodbye to her still uncomfortable-looking uncle. She’d never felt so alone and vulnerable in her life. As she walked back down one of the most famous boulevards in the world, she felt as if everything was closing in on her and her last chance of possibly avoiding her fate had just disappeared. Snuffed out like the light of a candle. She shivered in the warm spring air.

      When she got back to her office Alexandros was waiting for her. Her whole body stiffened in blatant rejection of what was to come the next day. He noted it with narrowed eyes as he watched her walk in from behind her desk. As at home as if he sat there every day. He made a thorough study of her, up and down, taking in the black pencil skirt, the cream high-necked shirt, which she was supremely grateful for now.

      ‘Can I help you with something?’

      He uncurled his tall length from the chair and came around the desk. Devastatingly compelling in a dark suit and dark shirt. Kallie took a step back. The room seemed to have become as hot as hell in seconds. Alexandros flicked his head to indicate the window and looked out. Kallie walked over very warily, keeping a good distance, but even that couldn’t stop the frisson of awareness running through her.

      Outside, swarming on the pavement, were what seemed to be hundreds of photographers. The circus that surrounded Alexandros Kouros. She hadn’t seen them before as she’d come in through another entrance. He came and stood beside her. Her skin prickled uncomfortably. So far he hadn’t said a word. The moment seemed to stretch for ever. And finally with silky deadliness he said softly, ‘You see that? They’re all going to be waiting outside the office of the mairie tomorrow. Waiting to see you arrive, go in and then come out on my arm. And they’re going to get the pictures they want. If you’re planning any little surprises, like not turning up, then I will find you, Kallie, and I will take you as far away from here as I can, and we will be married where you will have no escape.’

      She turned to face him, dread in her body at his cold tone. This stranger before her. Bitterness laced her voice. ‘I’ve already told you I’d marry you. I’d do anything to save my family from ruin. Even if it means marrying you and subjecting myself to a period of purgatory.’

      He turned to face her, his face stamped with arrogance and a sensuality that even now called to her on some base, carnal level. She hated him. She knew she kept telling herself that…and knew it felt as though she was trying to convince herself.

      He reached out a finger and trailed it along her jaw. She clenched it and he tapped where it bulged out against her smooth skin.

      ‘Such dramatic language, Kallie. When you set me up all those years ago, when I was considered as close as family, it made me very wary. I’m just warning you what will happen if you decide to leave your family to their fate. That’s all.’

      He was so far off base from how Kallie felt that her head swam. She would never, ever do something to hurt her family. It seemed as if everything, every conversation that had ever passed between them, had turned to poisoned ashes. And amounted to nothing. He’d decided to judge her solely based on what he’d perceived her to have done seven years ago.

      She straightened her shoulders and stuck her chin out.

      ‘I will be there tomorrow, Alexandros, and, believe me, you’re going to be sorry you ever married me.’

      ‘Somehow I don’t think so. But I admire your attempt at bravado. One other thing. I’ve asked members of our families, just as a little added…insurance.’

      Kallie felt her throat clog and wanted nothing more than to hit him right in the solar plexus, wipe that smug smirk from his face. But then he snaked a hand around the back of her head through her hair and pulled her softly to him. Panic coursed through her. Her hands came up in an instinctive and classic defense pose between them.

      ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ She tingled with anticipation.

      ‘Just the one other thing I need to confirm for myself before I make you my wife…check the levels of compatibility…’

      ‘Levels of—’

      And before she could speak another word, his head had dipped, daylight disappeared and his mouth was on hers. Warm and intoxicating and hot and…words disappeared. Kallie found her hands resting against his broad chest, his heat coursing over her skin, making her heat up all over. She felt herself wanting to melt into him, against his hard length. His lips moved against hers, hard and insistent. A completely instinctive unbidden response made her open her mouth and at the first touch of his tongue to hers, an explosive heat erupted deep in her belly.

      She felt him pulling her in tighter, lifting her up against him. She wanted nothing more than to give in…lean against

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