LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

      NICOS had already left when Katrina entered the kitchen, and she popped bread into the toaster, poured coffee, then she balanced a cup and a plate, tucked the daily newspaper beneath her arm and opted to eat breakfast on the terrace.

      The sun’s warmth was enticing, the air still…a perfect spring morning. Tiny buds were beginning to emerge along the garden borders. Soon, multicoloured impatiens would burst into new life, and the lattice along the back wall would display a tapestry of multicoloured sweet peas.

      Peace and tranquillity, Katrina mused. She bit into her toast, then sipped the hot, sweet black coffee as she skimmed the daily headlines.

      Until she reached the gossip column.

      Which prominent Sydney businessman, recently reconciled with his heiress wife, has been exonerated of fatherhood by DNA testing? The ploy by an ex-mistress to provide herself with a meal ticket has failed due to the success of medical science.

      Nicos? Katrina’s stomach twisted into a painful knot. Following Enrique’s directive yesterday, the reference held too many coincidences for it not to be.

      Dear heaven. She felt sickened as the implications began to sink in.

      She looked blindly out over the landscape, not seeing the superb view, the terraced pool. Her mind was a kaleidoscope of remembered images.

      The nine months between then and now disappeared in a flash. She felt the pain as if it were yesterday.

      Georgia informing her she was pregnant with Nicos’s child. Nicos’s disavowal. Her own disbelief. The arguments. The chilling silences. Followed by Katrina’s decision to leave.

      In seeming slow motion she caught up her plate and cup, the newspaper, and carried them into the kitchen. With automatic movements she rinsed and stacked the dishwasher, then dressed for work.

      She called her office, said she was delayed, and half an hour later she entered the elegant suite of offices Nicos occupied downtown.

      Getting past reception took only the necessary time for the girl behind the desk to buzz his secretary, only to have her offer her personal regrets that Nicos was engaged in an important meeting.

      ‘It’s a matter of urgency.’ Her urgency to discover the truth.

      ‘I’ve been instructed not to disturb Mr Kasoulis under any circumstances.’

      ‘I’ll take the blame,’ Katrina said coolly.

      The boss, or the boss’s wife? Each were irretrievably linked, and she sensed the secretary’s dilemma.

      ‘I’ll tell him you’re here,’ his secretary conceded after a few seconds’ silence, and crossing to the desk she picked up the phone and made the call. Seconds later she replaced the handset. Her expression was carefully composed as she turned back to her boss’s wife. ‘I’ll show you through to Mr Kasoulis’s office. He’ll join you in a few minutes.’

      It was a large corner office, with magnificent views of Port Jackson harbour. Antique furniture, leather buttoned chairs, genuine oil paintings on the walls.

      Katrina crossed to the tinted, floor-to-ceiling plate-glass window, and stood watching a passenger ferry as it headed towards the Manly terminal. A huge tanker lay anchored in the entrance, awaiting a tug-boat to guide it into a designated berth. A peaceful scene that was totally at variance with the turmoil seething beneath the surface of her control.

      The almost silent click of the door closing caused her to turn, and she wore Nicos’s raking appraisal as he closed the distance between them.

      ‘What is it?’

      Katrina felt the knot in her stomach tighten as he reached her side. Oh, hell, just cut to the chase. She slid the newspaper clipping from her jacket pocket, and handed it to him. ‘Read this.’

      He was good, she conceded. There was no change in his physical expression as he scanned the newsprint. Then he crunched it into a ball and tossed it in the direction of a waste-paper basket. ‘For that, you pulled me out of a meeting?’

      ‘I consider it important.’

      Nicos cast her a long, level look that was impossible to read. ‘Of such urgency it couldn’t wait until this evening?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘You want me to confirm it?’

      ‘Yes,’ she stated simply.

      ‘Let me guess,’ Nicos began with marked indolence. ‘Georgia confided in Enrique, who then sold the information to a newspaper contact?’

      ‘Yes,’ Katrina reiterated. Her eyes flashed with long withheld anger. ‘Dammit, you could have told me yourself instead of leaving me to discover facts from a newspaper!’

      ‘When would you have had me confide my intention to have Georgia provide tissue samples for DNA testing, Katrina?’ His voice was pure silk. ‘Should I have introduced it as idle conversation during the few social functions where we accidentally happened to attend at the same time? As Kevin lay dying in hospital? At his funeral?’

      Katrina’s gaze sharpened. ‘You knew Kevin had redrawn his will, incorporating the condition stipulating my control of Macbride.’ The anger began to build, gaining momentum. ‘So you waited. Both of you making the decision to take advantage of a bad situation.’

      ‘Yes.’

      Her eyes sparked green fire. ‘You didn’t have that right!’

      ‘The least I could do for him, and you, was to allow him your total focus, unclouded by other issues which could be resolved—’

      ‘At a later date.’ A cold hand closed around her heart. ‘And if Kevin’s health hadn’t been in jeopardy?’

      His gaze was hard, inflexible, almost dangerous. ‘You doubt I would have told you?’

      She couldn’t be sure. She wanted to be. Desperately, with all her heart.

      Nicos read the momentary indecision, the aching intensity of her emotions. Yet still he waited.

      ‘Do you know what I went through when Georgia confronted me with her pregnancy and named you as the father of her unborn child?’ she demanded.

      ‘At the time, I distinctly recall stating my relationship with Georgia was over long before I met you.’

      She’d chosen not to believe him. ‘You have to admit the evidence seemed weighted against you.’ Dear heaven, the barbs, the innuendo had been very cleverly orchestrated. ‘Georgia provided dates, places, that coincided with your absence.’

      ‘Even given there was any truth in it, do you think I would have been sufficiently foolish not to take precautions against a possible pregnancy?’ he continued relentlessly.

      ‘Prophylactic protection has been known to break.’

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