Reluctant Mistress, Blackmailed Wife

Through wide, questioning eyes Katie stole a glance at the room. The décor was very feminine, a perfect match to her personal preferences, she conceded, with a frown starting to build between her feathery brows. Not only were pastels her favourite colours, but she also adored fresh flowers. Had she ever seen more roses and lilies gathered more prettily and less naturally in one place? What did it take to rouse her suspicions and put her on her guard? A fire alarm? A full-frontal attack with a military tank?

The picnic scenario had been equally calculated to provide special appeal, she reflected tautly. Cue for the exclusive magazine-spread approach to outdoor dining? A faint chill formed in her tummy and began to grow. She studied the beribboned silk knots embellishing the bedpost nearest her and almost choked on the conviction that it was all brand-new, that in fact she had been hooked like a fish by an expert angler. And, worse still, how many hours was it since she had seen or thought about her children? The lash of guilt that reflection induced was horrendous.

‘You’re very quiet.’ Alexandros sighed. ‘I hate to surrender our idyll, but I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and it’s now time for dinner.’

Thrusting herself away from him in an abrupt movement, Katie sat up. ‘You’ve made a real fool of me…’

Lazily engaged in admiring the elfin quality her fragile features possessed, even with her hair all tousled and her make-up kissed off, Alexandros tensed and came up on one elbow to say, ‘I don’t think I quite follow.’

Katie leapt out of the bed as though she had had a sharp pin stuck into her shrinking flesh. The sun was sinking, but there was still more daylight than her modesty could stand coming through the tower windows. Nudity had never felt more damning or humiliating to her. Espying her panties on the rug, she swooped on them with shaking hands and clumsily climbed back into them.

Alexandros thrust back the tumbled sheet and sprang upright, a vision of lithe, bronzed masculinity. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I can’t believe you can ask that question!’ Katie raged. ‘I made it so easy too, didn’t I? Just give me a bit of sunlight, a cartload of roses and beautiful surroundings, and I fall for the whole seduction routine—’

‘What seduction routine?’ Alexandros hauled on his boxers and reached for his well-cut trousers. ‘I have never had to seduce a woman in my life.’

‘Don’t you think for one moment that I will ever forget you doing this to me!’ Katie launched at him, wrenching the sheet violently off the mattress and wrapping it round her in a series of jerky defensive movements. What remained of her underwear and her dress were still lying outdoors. Her cringing embarrassment felt like a fitting punishment for such wanton behaviour.

With tears of pain and anger burning the back of her green eyes, Katie raced down the spiral staircase. The incredible charm of the creased quilts, tumbled cushions and abandoned wine glasses in the beautiful leafy glade struck her afresh. She went rooting around for her bra and failed to find it.

‘Have you gone crazy?’ Alexandros enquired from the terrace, where he stood pulling on his shirt. ‘One minute we’re making love, the next you’re screaming at me?’

‘What happened to friendship?’ she bawled at him.

Alexandros stilled, his shirt hanging loose and unbuttoned. Evening stubble made a sexy blue shadow round his wide, beautifully moulded mouth. Slumberous golden eyes full of immense power rested on her levelly. ‘The option was there…you didn’t go for it.’

Trembling with disbelief at that calm response, Katie stared back at him.

Alexandros extended a lean brown hand. ‘Come back to bed, thespinis mou. I’ll order food.’

She snatched up her dress, carefully unwound the sheet, and fought her way back into the garment in furious haste. ‘You’ve just got to be joking! I came to Italy because I trusted you. Because I wanted to be fair to you and the children.’

Alexandros lifted expansive arms in a very Greek gesture and dropped them again. ‘And you have been—for which I honour you. Today we moved on from the past…an important step—’

‘The only place I moved on to was your bed, and I regard that as very much a retrograde step!’

‘But you had a good time there,’ Alexandros countered without hesitation. ‘I heard no complaints.’

‘That’s not the point—’

Alexandros slung her a hard, shimmering smile that tensed her tummy muscles with a mixture of resentment and nerves. ‘Perhaps your point is too illogical for me to follow. You wanted me.’

Furious tears in her eyes, Katie bent to lift and shake a quilt to locate her missing shoes. ‘So it was okay to set me up, then, was it? Because I still find you attractive, you thought it would be fun to lure me out here with false talk of friendship?’

Watching her dig her dainty feet into her tiny shoes, Alexandros realised how much he liked that physical delicacy of hers. He groaned with impatience. ‘I assure you that I am not finding this ridiculous scene fun. I still don’t understand what the problem is.’

‘Is that a fact?’ Katie shot him a gleaming green glance full of bitterness. ‘You don’t see anything wrong with what you did?’

Lean, powerful face unyielding, Alexandros shrugged, a battle-hardened veteran when it came to avoiding direct and damning questions. ‘What did I do?’

‘Something that should’ve been beneath your precious honour after what you’ve already done to me. I should’ve smelt a rat the minute I saw this gorgeous picnic scene. It was too good to be true.’

Increasing frustration was starting to rise inside Alexandros. He was a very practical man. She liked fairy stories, floaty things, four-posters and flowers. He had ensured she got the lot and she had been enchanted. As far as he was concerned, everything had gone fantastically well: she’d been happy; he’d been happy. What was her problem? She was the only woman in his life who had ever shouted at him.

/> ‘Since when was giving you what you like and enjoy an offence?’

‘It was all a sham—a nasty, manipulative, cheating sham.’

‘Theos mou…I want to marry you!’ Alexandros growled with incredulity. ‘How was it a sham?’

Katie was so upset that it was a relief to espy her missing bra in the grass and have the excuse to stoop down to reclaim it. She closed a shaking hand over the small cotton garment. She hurt so much she wanted to scream. Because she knew she had wanted it all to be real, had wanted it so badly that she could still taste it.

‘I asked you to marry me and you said no. I don’t quit when I want something.’ Alexandros dealt her a challenging look. ‘That’s who I am. That’s what I’m about. I employed no deception.’

Outraged by his refusal to acknowledge fault, Katie straightened to her full height. ‘Didn’t you? You did all that romantic stuff for me before and it meant nothing! You encouraged me to care about you and then ditched me,’ she condemned between clenched teeth, filled with hurt and mortification. Terrified that she would break down, she started back down the path through the woodland. ‘Well, I’m not going to fall for the same empty charade again. You can’t manipulate me like some business deal.’

‘Define “romantic stuff”.’

‘The rose petals in the bath…the flowers…the cards…my favourite film…book,’ she recited fiercely over one slight shoulder, enraged by his obtuseness.

Alexandros looked grim. ‘I see no reason why so much significance should be awarded to several thoughtful treats and gifts,’ he confided curtly. ‘There was no intent to encourage or mislead you. I had not been in a relationship of that type before—’

‘Yeah…I know. Is that why you referred to me as “just the maid” when your friend flew in for a visit?’ Katie squeezed out a humourless laugh as she stalked back through the archway and down the cobbled lane.