‘I’m not taking you back to my house.’
Cat was vaguely aware that she was in the passenger seat of his car but it was as if the journey was happening to someone else; she felt strangely detached and she just wanted to close her eyes and sleep.
She opened her eyes as he pulled up outside a whitewashed house with blue shutters which were closed to the heat of the day.
‘Where are we?’
‘My cousin’s house—she’s a doctor. She can check you over.’
‘I don’t want to be checked over!’ She felt panic and anger in equal measures now. ‘Look, Nicholas, just take me to the airport. I want to go home.’
He ignored the request and instead came around to open the passenger door and lift her out. Once again she was forced to hold on to him as he strode down the path towards the front door.
The house was blissfully cool and dark inside. A woman appeared almost immediately and began talking in rapid Greek. Nicholas explained that Cat was a friend of his and that she had fallen and then blacked out.
A friend! The word clawed at Cat, inflaming her anger against him all over again.
They weren’t friends—they weren’t even lovers. Nicholas had used her. He was an enemy—a traitorous, calculating enemy who had tricked his way behind her defence mechanisms.
She pushed against his shoulder, her hands ineffectual against his powerful hold. ‘I want you to let me go.’
‘All in good time.’
‘Place her on the sofa, Nicholas,’ the woman ordered softly. ‘Then you can leave us.’
As he put her down carefully and stepped back, perversely Cat felt bereft without his strength.
‘Catherine?’ The woman leaned closer. She spoke in English, her voice gentle and her manner soothing. ‘Catherine, my name is Sophia Zentenas. I’m a doctor. Did you bang your head when you fell?’
‘No. And I’m fine, really I am.’ Cat struggled to sit up but as she tried the room felt as if it were spinning around.
‘I think you should lie still, Catherine.’ Sophia put a cool hand against her forehead. Then she checked her pulse rate. ‘Your blood pressure is raised.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ Cat muttered wryly. ‘Nicholas is enough to give anyone high blood pressure.’
Sophia laughed at that. ‘You just lie still and I’ll get my bag from the next room.’
Cat’s eyes darted to Nicholas
who was standing in the shadows. ‘I want you to go now,’ she told him firmly. ‘I don’t want you here.’
‘I’m not going anywhere until I know you are all right.’
‘It’s over, Nicholas,’ she told him calmly. ‘Your little game has backfired. I suggest you take your phoney concern and tell my family that your plans have fallen through.’
‘Catherine, I am not in league with your family.’
‘I don’t believe you.’ She stared at him stonily. ‘And anyway, you may as well be. You are as cold-blooded as they are.’
For a moment she thought she glimpsed a raw expression on his remote features.
‘I didn’t want to hurt you.’
‘No, you just wanted to use me, steal the McKenzie money like they did—’
‘I didn’t need your money, Catherine.’
‘Well, maybe that makes you worse than they are.’ Her voice trembled. ‘And that is stooping pretty low, believe me.’