Selina glanced down at his strong, long-fingered hand. He had brought her to climax with those elegant fingers before … Her thighs flexed and, shocked, she stifled the memory, going hot and cold and hot again. Ignoring his hand, she glanced up, her gaze skating over his hard face. She saw the determination in his heavy-lidded eyes and knew he meant what he said. She went cold again.
‘Why are you doing this?’ Selina finally cleared her mind of the sexual fog Rion had induced and asked the question she should have asked in the beginning. ‘You can have any woman you want—your list of lovers is legendary—so why me? We don’t even like each other.’
‘I like what I see, Selina darling,’ he drawled, his gaze roaming over her in insolent appraisal. ‘Very much so. And I want to see a lot more. You looked great in that tiny white bikini, but your naked body in my bed will look even better.’
The colour drained from Selina’s face and her eyes widened in horror. Her instincts had been right last night—someone had been watching her.
‘You were on the beach spying on me.’ She was angry and frightened but forced herself to stare coldly at Rion. ‘That’s disgusting.’
‘No, quite the reverse—you looked beautiful and erotic playing in the sea, Selina.’ His hand snaked out and caught her shoulder and she stiffened in rejection. ‘So much so I decided to renew our acquaintance,’ he mocked, his hard eyes narrowing on her pale face.
Selina shrugged, trying to dislodge his hold on her and at the same time hoping to convey her indifference to him—with no success.
‘Well, you have. And flattered though I am,’ she said with sarcastic bite, ‘I can’t just take off on holiday with you. I have commitments—work …’
Actually she was on holiday—she had a six-week break between jobs. She had planned to stay at home with Peggy for a couple of weeks, but she had already lost a week coming here, and then she had planned to help Beth with the charity for a month before her next assignment.
Even if she wanted to go with Rion—which she definitely did not—it was impossible.
‘Let me enlighten you, Selina. You don’t have a choice. To put it bluntly, it is payback time,’ he drawled, with a silken menace that made her blood run cold.
She looked at him in disbelief. ‘There is always a choice,’ she said tightly.
‘Not for you. Not this time. As far as I know you are the only woman to cheat on me with another man, which was bad enough, but to threaten me with a public fight over the divorce so I had to concede to your demands was worse. There is a saying: revenge is a dish best served cold. As by a quirk of fate, Stakis never changed his will. I decided it was time to take mine. Call it closure, if you like. As for your work commitments—if they are that—’ he prompted, with a sardonic arch of an ebony brow ‘—cancel them and I’ll pay you double what you lose in salary.’
Typical of Rion the businessman. Believing his wife had been unfaithful did not bother him half as much as not getting his own way in the divorce, and in that moment she hated him with a fury she could hardly contain.
Selina wanted to claw at his conceited, arrogant face and tell him to go to hell. But instead she counted to a hundred under her breath, fighting to maintain her self-control.
Tilting back her head, she swept her eyes over Rion, a scornful gleam in their golden depths. She knew exactly what he meant and
was filled with revulsion—but sadly life had taught her not to be surprised. In a weird way it put things in perspective for her and finally cooled her temper, and she began to think seriously about his offer—or rather his ultimatum!
The life and death of Mark Stakis had put her in this position. Chance … fate … it didn’t matter which. The question was, with her firmly held moral beliefs, could she walk away from Anna and her girls?
No, she would not be able to live with herself if she did …
Selina knew there was no other work on the island for Anna, and since the death of her husband she had been the only financial support for her daughters. Thea, the youngest, was joining her sister at college on the mainland in the autumn hoping to become a lawyer. There was no way Selina could destroy those young girls’ dreams … which was what would happen if she walked away. She had spent the past few years trying to help children’s much smaller dreams come true.
Rion was a filthy-rich powerful man, and what he wanted he got—money no object. And at the moment he wanted her … A cynical smile twisted her lips. The great Orion Moralis would be outraged if anyone dared suggest he paid for sex, and yet what he was suggesting was no different in her eyes.
She thought of her Aunt Peggy, whom she considered her family. Although Peggy had claimed her state pension two years ago naturally she still lived with Selina, and depended on her to a large extent. She would never dream of leaving Peggy to fend for herself, as her grandfather had done Anna. Then there was Beth and her husband, Trevor, and the charity they ran that needed Selina’s regular financial support. She made good money at her job, but it was not enough to cover any more commitments.
She stifled a despairing sigh. She needed the money from the shares she had supposedly inherited for Anna but she had to go through Rion to get it. Unfair, but then life wasn’t always fair …
Selina thought of all the people she had met, some so very young, who had really suffered and sacrificed for their family—not for a couple of weeks but for years. Could she in all conscience do any less? she asked herself. How hard could it be to put up with Rion? He said he wanted her, but only for two weeks—no surprise there. He had the attention span of a flea where women were concerned. He scratched the itch and leapt on to the next …
She could ‘lie back and think of England,’ she supposed. A clichéd expression but probably true for many women …
Her decision made, she put her hand in Rion’s. ‘Agreed.’ She shook his hand to seal the deal and swiftly pulled free. ‘Now can I go and tell Anna the good news?’
‘Yes, but first …’ Rion wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her hard against him. Cupping her chin between thumb and forefinger, he tipped her head back. ‘Anna is an astute lady. You need to look the part.’
He was going to kiss her again, she knew and Selina splayed a hand on his chest to push him away, but with his shirt open her fingers made contact with satin-smooth flesh and her stomach churned.
‘Yes, touch me, Selina.’ His voice lowered to a husky growl and she felt the warmth of his skin beneath her palm as his mouth covered hers.
She tried to stay rigid in his arms, her mouth closed, and she did it for a few seconds. Then her lips quivered beneath the pressure of his as he circled them teasingly with his tongue. He bit her bottom lip, and involuntarily her mouth opened. He caught the tip of her tongue and sucked lightly before deepening the kiss, his tongue probing the interior of her mouth with a gentleness that sent shivers through her slender frame. His hand stroked down her neck and over her breast and finally her body betrayed her. She was eighteen again and eager, her resistance melting, and she kissed him back.