He lingered possessively in her arms, kissing her neck and murmuring endearments in Greek. A sigh of pleasure came from deep within her as she ran her hands through his dark, wavy hair.
Then, without warning, he released her.
She blinked up at him, dazed. Caressing the inside of her wrist with a languorous finger, he looked down at her with cold, dark eyes.
“You hate me enough to kidnap my son,” he observed coolly. “But then you kiss me like that.”
He dropped her wrist and stepped away from her. As if she disgusted him. Rejecting her. Again.
Her whole body went white-hot with humiliation as she realized that his gentle kiss had been more savage than any forceful assault. Nikos was too strong for brute force. All he had to do was give her the chance to betray herself. One loving, lying kiss from him, and all her feeble defenses had burned to the ground.
She took a deep breath, trying to regain her balance. “You surprised me, that’s all. It was just a kiss. It meant nothing.”
“It meant nothing to me. But to you...” He looked down at her with a sardonic light in his dark eyes. “I own you, Anna. You’re mine in every way. It’s time you understood that.”
She tightened her hands into fists, fighting for calmness, for some vestige of dignity. “You don’t own me. You can’t own someone.”
He stepped back from her. His face was a dark silhouette against the sunlight flooding the high library windows. She could see the cruel twist to his sensual lips as he stared her down.
“You’re mine. And I will make you suffer for betraying me.”
He meant it, too. She could see that. And she knew how he’d make her suffer. Not by hurting her body—no. But by breaking her will. By breaking her heart. By making her desire him, by giving her pleasure in bed such as she’d never imagined until it ultimately destroyed her soul.
He would poison her with love.
A sob rose to her lips that she couldn’t control.
“Enjoy your time with our son,” he said. He stepped back through the tall library doors, closing them behind him as he departed with a low, grim parting shot. “Because for the rest of your days and nights you are mine.”
* * *
Revenge.
As Nikos strode down the hall toward the east wing of the house he smiled grimly, remembering the way Anna had melted into his arms. The bewildered look in her eyes after he pulled away. She was putty in his hands. Like the old song promised, that single kiss had told him everything he needed to know.
She still wanted him.
She still cared for him.
That was her weakness.
Now that he knew, making her suffer would be easier than he’d ever imagined. He’d already begun, by telling her the truth about her worthless excuse for a father. She didn’t want his protection? Fine. He was done protecting her.
He would see her twist and pant helplessly, like a butterfly pinned to a display. He would see the pain in her eyes every day while he mercilessly pounded her heart into dust. Maybe then, someday, she would understand what she’d done to him by stealing his child.
His son was all that mattered now. He was the one who needed Nikos’s protection...and love.
“I waited for you in the nursery,” he heard Lindsey say from down the hall. “When you didn’t come, I gave him to the nanny.”
He turned to see Lindsey leaning against the wall in a sultry pose. “I was delayed,” he replied in a clipped voice.
“That’s okay.” She skimmed a hand over a tanned thigh barely covered by her short skirt, curving her red lips into a smile. “Finding you alone is even better.”
God, no. Another of Lindsey’s clumsy attempts at seduction? He was in no mood.
“I gave you the rest of the morning off,” he said shortly. “The negotiations for the Singapore bid can wait.”
“That’s not why I came looking for you.”
No, of course it wasn’t. Unlike Anna, who’d taken her job so personally, Lindsey would never stick around on a holiday. Her work was barely up to par on regular days.
He hated that he still had Lindsey as his secretary. She wasn’t a fraction of the employee Anna had been. He should have fired her long ago. But firing her would have been like admitting that he’d made a mistake.
“What do you want, Lindsey?” he asked wearily.
She toyed with the slit of her short skirt with her long French-manicured nails, making sure he could see the top edge of her thigh-high stockings. “The question is, what do you want, Nikos?”
It was the most blatant invitation she’d ever tried.
Once, he might have taken her up on her offer, buried his pain in the sweet oblivion of pleasure. No longer. His experience with Anna had taught him that sex could give a worse hangover than tequila and Scotch.
“Just go to the casino office and wait for my call,” he said, walking past her.
Nikos found his son in the nursery, held in the plump arms of his new nanny. The white-haired Scotswoman had recently finished raising an earl’s son from babyhood to university, and Nikos had hired her at an exorbitant rate. His son must have the best of everything. “Good morning, Mrs. Burbridge.”
“Good morning, sir.” She smiled at him, holding up the baby. “Here to hold your son?”
“Of course.” But, looking at the baby, he suddenly felt as if he were facing a firing squad. What did he know about babies? He’d never held one before. Nikos had been an only child, or close enough, and he’d never exactly been the sort of man to ooh and ah over the children of friends.
Feeling nervous, Nikos gathered his child from the nanny’s protective embrace and held him awkwardly underneath the arms.
“No, er...Mr. Stavrakis, tuck him closer to you. Under his bum.”
Nikos tried, but he couldn’t seem to get it right. The baby apparently agreed. He looked up at Nikos, and his lower lip started to tremble. He screwed up his face and started to wail.
“I...I seem to be doing this wrong,” Nikos said, breaking into a cold sweat.
“Don’t take it personally, sir,” Mrs. Burbridge said in her friendly Scottish burr. “The bairn is just tired and hungry. He’ll soon be right again with a bit to eat. Is his mum about? Or should I make a bottle?”
But Nikos could hardly hear her words over his son’s panicked cries. He felt helpless. Useless. A bad father.
“He... I... I’ll come back when he’s not so tired.” He thrust the baby back into Mrs. Burbridge’s arms and fled.
Or at least he started to. Until he saw Anna standing in the doorway of the nursery, staring around the room with an expression of wonder.
“You didn’t change the room,” she breathed in amazement. With apparent ease, she took the baby from Mrs. Burbridge and cuddled him close. His cries subsided to small whimpers as Anna looked from the painting of animals and trees on the wall to the soft blue cushions of the window seat. “I was sure you’d have Lindsey redecorate.”
Lindsey? Redecorate his house? She could barely manage to type his letters.
“Why would I do that?” Nikos said uncomfortably. “Damn waste of time.”
But the truth was he’d loved this nursery. Once. Mostly he’d loved the way Anna’s face had lit up when she designed it.
This was the first time he’d been in here since that awful day Cooper had called him to say that Anna was missing. Nikos had been sure she’d been kidnapped. Or worse.
It had been one of the police detectives who’d first dared to ask, “Is it possible the woman’s just left you, sir?” Nikos had nearly punched the man for even suggesting it. Because, in spite of his arguments with Anna over her job and her family, Nikos had known he could trust her. He’d never trusted anyone more in his life.
And she’d made him look like a fool.
“Ah, so you’re Mum, then? I’m Mrs. Burbridge, the new nanny. A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Stavrakis.”
“I’m not Mrs. Stav— A nanny?” Anna glanced at Nikos in surprise. “Is that really necessary? I can take care of Misha, as I always have.”
Nikos stared at the baby. That name still grated on him. He could probably still change it to Andreas. No, he thought. Even he thought of his son as Michael now—Misha. Too late to change his name. Too late for a lot of things.
His own son didn’t know him. He clenched his hands.
“I’m terribly sorry, Mrs. Burbridge, but we don’t need you—”
“Mrs. Burbridge stays,” he interrupted, glaring at Anna. “Since I don’t know how long you’ll be here.”
“What do you mean, how long I’ll be here?” she demanded. “I’m here until Misha is grown and gone. Unless,” she added, “you want to give me joint custody?”
The idea was enough to make him shudder with the injustice of it, but he showed his teeth in a smile. “Your presence here is based upon my will and my son’s needs. The day he doesn’t need you anymore you’ll be escorted to the gate. When he’s weaned, perhaps? A few months from now?”