Defying Drakon

‘Oh, it’s all true,’ Angela assured her. ‘And you can keep your sympathy for someone who might actually appreciate it. After all, I came out the winner in the end, didn’t I?’

Oh, yes, Angela had certainly triumphed. Spectacularly, in fact, with regard to Gemini’s father.

‘I suppose Drakon Lyonedes was to be your second, even wealthier husband?’

‘Why not?’ Angela demanded aggressively.

Gemini gave a pained frown. ‘Don’t you have enough money now, having sold off everything my father left you?’

‘I’ll never have enough money,’ the older woman said with hard determination.

‘And never care who you have to trample over in order to get it, apparently,’ Gemini said dully.

‘That’s rich, coming from you!’ Angela jeered. ‘You’re still so desperate to own Bartholomew House that you would even stoop to trying to seduce Drakon yourself to get it!’

Gemini felt ill. In fact she thought she might actually be sick if she had to stand and listen to this woman for too much longer. ‘Considering your claim that you’re involved with Drakon, I’m surprised you believe he could be seduced—by me or any other woman.’

‘I believe I said you had tried to seduce him,’ Angela scoffed. ‘I’m sure you very quickly learnt that a man like Drakon requires a woman who’s a little more adventurous and experienced than a mere baby like you!’

Just thinking of Drakon and Angela together intimately, after the passionate way he had kissed her in the lift four days ago, brought on another wave of nausea. She swallowed hard. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave after all.’

‘I’m not going anywhere until I’ve made it perfectly clear to you that Bartholomew House—and Drakon—will never be yours!’ Angela announced.

Gemini gave a slow and disbelieving shake of her head. ‘What on earth could a man like Drakon possibly see in someone like you?’

Those blue eyes flashed angrily. ‘Oh, climb down off your alabaster pedestal, Gemini. If you haven’t realised it yet, your own pathetic attempt to seduce Drakon makes you exactly like me!’

Gemini closed her eyes and gave a shudder of distaste. ‘God, I hope not.’

‘Offends your naive little sensibilities, does it?’ Angela taunted.

‘Everything about you offends my sensibilities,’ Gemini shot back.

‘Why, you little—’

‘I think not,’ interrupted a dangerously soft voice that Gemini instantly recognised.

She opened wide, startled eyes in time to see Drakon take hold of the arm that Angela had raised with the intention of slapping Gemini on the face.

The older woman’s face twisted into an ugly mask of hatred as she turned to see who her assailant was. The change that came over Angela’s expression then was even more sickening than all that had gone before it. Her eyes softened to a sultry blue as she looked up at Drakon. Her painted red lips curved into an inviting smile, the anger leaving her body as she leant into him.

‘Oh, dear, Drakon, I’m afraid you’ve been caught in the middle of a rather silly argument between two even sillier women,’ she murmured throatily.

Gemini felt nausea rise up inside her, and knew she was actually going to be ill after witnessing this sickeningly kittenish display. She only had time to gasp ‘Excuse me!’ before she brushed past Drakon, heading for the stairs and the privacy of the bathroom in her apartment above the shop.

CHAPTER SEVEN

DRAKON took one look at Gemini collapsed on the floor beside the toilet in the bathroom of her apartment, her face a deathly clammy white after obviously having been violently ill, before striding over to the sink and dampening a flannel with cold water. He went down on his knees beside her to begin bathing her face.

Gemini pushed the flannel away, her eyes a deep and pained sea-green. ‘What are you doing?’

He raised dark brows as he sat back on his heels. ‘I believe I am endeavouring to make you feel better.’

She gave a humourless smile. ‘I’m afraid it’s going to take a lot more than the application of a cold flannel to my forehead to succeed in doing that!’

‘Gemini—’

‘Would you please just go away, Drakon?’ She avoided looking at him directly as she reached up and self-consciously flushed the toilet for a second time before lowering the lid and using it as leverage to rise shakily to her feet. ‘It’s bad enough that I allowed that woman to upset me enough to actually make me physically sick, without the added humiliation of having you witness it,’ she muttered, and she picked up her toothbrush and toothpaste and left the bathroom without so much as a second glance in his direction.