She tugged the thick towel closer to counteract the increasing chill in her veins.
Finally there was silence. Long. Threatening. Pulsatingly alive with unspoken accusation.
Stavros asked a single curt question, heard the response and then flicked a stabbing glance at Tessa. Gone was all trace of vulnerability. Of humanity. This man was icily controlled. Eyes bright as lasers sliced through the veneer of her composure, cutting to the bone.
Involuntarily she stepped back.
The security expert spoke again in an earnest undertone. Stavros gave what could only be an order, and the man turned and strode towards the house.
Stavros pulled his phone from his pocket, turning away and breaking eye contact. Instantly the clenching pain in her chest eased. She drew a shaky breath, filling her lungs with oxygen. She had to know.
‘That was about me, wasn’t it?’
At the sound of her voice Stavros froze in the act of hitting the speed dial for Angela’s number.
He was leashing his temper only with the greatest effort. He’d never been so close to losing control.
Fury shuddered through him, like the aftershocks of an earthquake. A quake that had shattered the calm when Petros had appeared with his news.
Slowly he lifted his gaze. She was staring up at him, wide-eyed and apparently hesitant.
Something turned inside him, a shifting, burning ball of wrath that curdled his stomach and sent darts of fire through his bloodstream. He trembled with the force of it.
The face of innocence. That was the image she projected. And it was pure sham. Was there any female, anywhere, who was honest to the core? Who didn’t live by guile and greed?
His jaw tightened as he battled for calm.
This close he could see her eyes dilate with fear as she registered his simmering anger. She took a step back and then suddenly she was teetering on the pool edge.
With one swift stride he closed the space between them, hauling her away from the edge and setting her aside. His grip was hard and his fingers flexed against her slick skin. Instantly he withdrew, dropping his hands and taking a few paces away so he was beyond temptation’s reach.
It would be totally understandable if he closed his hands round her shoulders and shook her senseless for the damage she’d caused by her selfish actions. But he wouldn’t give in to the primitive impulse.
‘What makes you think we were discussing you?’ Even to his own ears the question was thick with menace.
‘I…It was obvious.’ Her voice was a husk of sound but there was no satisfaction in the knowledge of her fear. At the moment he felt nothing short of blood would appease his anger.
It was a good thing for Tessa Marlowe he was a civilised man.
‘The Press know about our marriage.’ He stared down at her, looking for a flicker of knowledge or excitement. Something that would confirm her guilt. ‘The story is about to appear in every news-sheet and scandal magazine.’
‘How…?’
‘I thought you could tell me that. Surely it suits you to have the marriage common knowledge?’
‘No! No, I wouldn’t do that. I didn’t!’
‘And you expect me to believe you?’
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I know you won’t believe anything I say. But that doesn’t alter the fact that I’ve never spoken to a journalist.’
‘Spoken, written to, contacted. The semantics don’t matter. The fact remains that you’re the one to gain.’
He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, ignoring the instinct to reach out and force the truth from her.
‘Your staff can tell you there haven’t been any phone calls to the Press and I haven’t posted any letters. As for email—I don’t even know where your office is so I haven’t accessed the net.’
She had a point. Petros had assured him she’d been incommunicado. But that didn’t clear her. She must have found some way to get a message out.
‘Unless you think I’ve been sending semaphore messages from my bedroom window?’
‘There’s no need for sarcasm,’ he growled.
‘Well, how did I talk to the Press? Have you even considered the possibility it wasn’t me?’
‘No one else has the same motive,’ he countered. ‘You’re the one looking for bargaining power to get my money. But I won’t be blackmailed.’
‘If it’s such a good story, surely it’s worth something? Why not question your employees? Plenty of them knew I was here. One of them—’
‘Silence!’ With an abrupt gesture he cut her off. ‘Don’t try to shift the blame to them.’
‘You can’t ignore the possibility.’
‘I can and do. I know all the staff here intimately.’ He’d grown up with most of them. He’d trust them instead of her every time. ‘There’s no question that they’d leak the story. Besides,’ he paused, ‘you might have let the news out before you arrived here.’