LITMIR.BIZ

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continued attraction to Gemini—a young woman whom he now knew was neither avaricious nor experienced—was unsettling to say the least.

      He eyed her dispassionately and nodded abruptly. ‘I will give your suggestion all the consideration it deserves.’ Which, as far as he was concerned, was none whatsoever.

      Gemini recoiled as if Drakon had physically struck her. Which, in a way, he had.

      For the past four years she had stood back and watched as dozens of men had fallen prey to the allure of Angela’s voluptuous beauty—her own father included—and to think of Drakon, a man whose attraction she seemed unable to resist herself, becoming another one of Angela’s conquests brought a return of Gemini’s earlier nausea.

      She frowned. ‘Obviously you must do what you think best…’

      Those almost black eyes glittered coldly. ‘I invariably do,’ he rasped harshly.

      Yes, she had no doubt that he was a man who answered to no one for any of his actions. And really she had brought this current situation on herself. Out of self-defence and confusion over her attraction towards Drakon, maybe, but nevertheless she had instigated this particular conversation.

      ‘Thank you once again for your help earlier.’

      ‘You’re welcome.’ He gave a brief inclination of his head.

      ‘No doubt you’ll be returning to New York now?’

      Drakon had decided earlier that to leave England before the issue of Angela Bartholomew was settled to his satisfaction would be an error of judgement on his part. But this time spent with Gemini, when he had once again found himself unable to resist making love to her, only to learn that she was an innocent, told him that it would perhaps be an even bigger error of judgement on his part if he were to remain. Only perhaps? It could become a catastrophic error of judgement for both of them if he were to remain in England at this present time!

      ‘No doubt,’ he replied noncommittally as he strolled over and opened the shop door. ‘Lock the door behind me.’

      Gemini glared at his autocratic back as she followed him. ‘I have every intention of doing so.’

      Drakon looked down at her wordlessly for several long seconds before sighing. ‘Don’t hesitate to call on Markos if it should become necessary.’

      Call on Markos, not him, she noted heavily as she shut and secured the door after Drakon left. He couldn’t have told her any more plainly that their own brief association, whatever it might have been, was very definitely over as far as he was concerned.

      Drakon waited only long enough to hear Gemini lock the door behind him before taking his mobile out of his pocket and pressing a quick-dial button as he walked the short distance to where he had parked his car earlier.

      ‘Have Max arrange for a twenty-four-hour watch to be kept on Gemini,’ he instructed economically when his cousin answered the call on only the second ring. ‘And first thing in the morning have him do a thorough check on Angela Bartholomew,’ he added grimly before Markos had time to respond to that first instruction. ‘I also want him to look into the possibility of Miles Bartholomew having drawn up a will dated later than the one that was presented for probate.’ He unlocked and opened the door of the Mercedes and slid into the leather seat behind the wheel. ‘A will that may have left Bartholomew House to his daughter rather than his wife.’

      ‘Do you think that’s a possibility?’

      ‘After today, I think Angela is a woman capable of doing anything that is in her own best interests.’

      ‘Including illegally suppressing her husband’s will?’

      ‘Including that, yes,’ Drakon confirmed grimly.

      ‘Hell!’ Markos groaned heavily. ‘That could leave Lyonedes Enterprises in one almighty legal tangle.’

      It would also, if it existed, leave Gemini in a position of great vulnerability…‘Yes,’ he agreed tersely.

      ‘And where will you will be while I’m instructing Max to do these things?’ Markos prompted curiously.

      Drakon glanced across at the closed and shuttered flower shop that Gemini owned and ran. His gaze was drawn upwards to where a light had come on in what he now knew to be the sitting room of her apartment. ‘I have decided to leave for New York this evening after all.’

      ‘Really?’ Markos sounded surprised.

      ‘Really,’ Drakon echoed dryly. There was no reason for him to return to Lyonedes Tower; he rarely carried luggage with him anyway, as he kept a full wardrobe of clothes in both his New York apartment and the one here in London.

      ‘But Gemini is okay?’

      He frowned his irritation at his cousin’s obvious concern. ‘She appeared to be perfectly well when I left her two minutes ago,’ he snapped.

      ‘And her stepmother?’

      ‘Is a bitch from hell, and we should never have entered into a business transaction with her,’ Drakon felt no hesitation in announcing harshly.

      There was a brief pause before Markos spoke again. ‘I’ll talk to Max straight away.’

      ‘Do that.’

      Drakon ended the call as abruptly as he had started it. His second call to the pilot of the Lyonedes jet was even briefer as he sat and watched Gemini’s shadowy outline inside her apartment as she moved to pull the curtains across the two windows that faced down onto the street.

      He was still sitting there in the silence of the Mercedes fifteen minutes later when a black Range Rover, with Max himself seated behind the wheel, pulled into the parking space behind. He turned in his seat, and the two men nodded brief acknowledgement of each other before Drakon started his engine and drove away.

      ‘Well!’ Gemini huffed indignantly as she slowly replaced the telephone receiver on its cradle.

      ‘Problems?’ Jo looked across at her curiously as she came to collect her jacket from the office of the shop in preparation for leaving for her lunch break on what was turning out to be a very busy Friday.

      Drakon Lyonedes had been a problem before Gemini had even met him! And he had become even more of one—for totally different reasons—since she had first forced herself into his presence. Had that really only been a week ago? It somehow seemed so much longer.

      Gemini still inwardly cringed every time she thought about the last time she had seen him three days ago.

      Considering how the time usually flew by when she was at work, it had been a surprisingly long three days. Three days during which Drakon had completely disappeared from her life.

      No, not completely…

      She had slept badly the night after he’d left her so abruptly. Not because she had wasted any more of her time thinking about that awful scene with Angela, but because she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Drakon and her response to him. Consequently it had taken her until late the following morning to notice the black Range Rover parked just down the street from the flower shop, and several more hours to realise that Max Stanford was seated behind the wheel, his steely gaze fixed unwaveringly on the flower shop. On her?

      Gemini had decided she was being paranoid, and the Range Rover had disappeared when she’d gone out later that morning to buy her lunch from the deli two doors down the street. And then she had realised that another black car had taken the place of the Range Rover, and the man sitting inside seemed to be watching her from behind concealing sunglasses. By the time she’d shut up shop for the night the black Range Rover and Max were back, and the other car and its driver had disappeared.

      Still feeling ever so slightly paranoid, Gemini had nevertheless felt no hesitation in walking over to the Range Rover and tapping on the window to ask an obviously less than pleased Max exactly what he was doing, parked outside her shop. His curt explanation had been

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