‘Pleased to meet you.’ Sam continued to look into that harshly chiselled face for several seconds before giving a perceptible shake of his head as he turned to look back at Gemini, a dozen unasked questions in his widened bright blue eyes. ‘Maybe we can get together for a longer chat during the interval?’ he urged, obviously eager to pump her for answers.
‘I—’
‘That will not be possible, I’m afraid.’ Drakon was the one to answer dismissively. ‘Gemini and I will be meeting other friends then.’
She gave him a surprised look; that was the first she’d heard of it. Although, as Drakon had been the one to fly her here to Verona in his private jet, she could hardly complain if he had now decided he wanted to talk to some of his business acquaintances later on, after all.
‘Sorry about that.’ She gave Sam a regretful smile.
‘I’ll be back in London next week, so maybe we can meet up again then?’ Sam suggested.
‘Perhaps. If Gemini is back in London by next week,’ Drakon said frostily at the same time as his arm moved about the slenderness of her waist.
Gemini gave him another startled glance, surprised at the possessiveness of that gesture as much as by what he had said. ‘But—’
‘If you will excuse us?’ Drakon murmured as the bell sounded to announce the start of the performance, not even waiting for Sam’s reply before moving away to join the people now making their way to their seats.
Gemini had time to turn to shoot Sam an apologetic glance over her shoulder before glaring up at Drakon. ‘What on earth was all that about?’ she demanded, bewildered by his behaviour.
He spared her only the briefest of glances as he concentrated on guiding her safely through the milling crowd. ‘What was what about?’ he said evasively.
‘Well, for one thing, of course I’ll be back in London next week. In fact I’ll be back in London later this evening—’
; ‘No, you won’t.’
Gemini came to an abrupt halt, and then was forced to mutter a distracted apology to the couple whose way she was blocking.
‘What do you mean I won’t?’ She frowned at him as he took a firm grasp of her arm and moved them to a less crowded and thankfully more private area.
He shrugged as he released her arm. ‘The opera won’t finish until very late, so naturally I have arranged for us to stay at a hotel here in Verona tonight.’
‘What? Without so much as asking me if that was okay?’ Gemini gasped incredulously.
He raised arrogant brows. ‘I brought you to Verona without asking your permission, too.’
‘Well…yes. But—’ She flung up her hands in dismay. ‘Not only have I not brought any other clothes or toiletries with me, but you can’t just make decisions like that without even consulting me!’
‘I believe I already have.’
Gemini’s cheeks burned at what she considered his bloody-minded arrogance. ‘You—’
‘And the second thing?’ he interrupted calmly.
‘What?’ she said, confused.
‘You said “for one thing”, so I assumed there must necessarily be a second thing?’ he replied.
Gemini ground her teeth in frustration at his obvious lack of interest in discussing their overnight stay any further. ‘The second thing is what was all that about with Sam just now? You deliberately gave him the impression that we’re—well, that we’re—’
‘Involved?’ he supplied dryly.
‘Yes!’ she hissed, uncomfortable with Drakon’s continued calm when she was feeling anything but.
He looked down at her wordlessly for several long seconds. ‘We had dinner together last week. And again yesterday evening. We have had dinner together again this evening. We are now in Verona, attending the opera together. And somewhere in amongst those evenings together we have twice been intimate with each other, for want of a better expression. Do all of those things not indicate that we might possibly be involved?’ He arched those arrogant dark brows.
Gemini looked annoyed. They had done all those things together, yes, but as far as she was aware not one of those earlier evenings had been arranged and agreed between them. Dinner last week had been to discuss Lyonedes Enterprises buying Bartholomew House. She had organised their dinner together yesterday evening at the Italian restaurant because she had been angry with Drakon for setting his watchdogs onto her. Which only left this evening…