Callie had been sitting in tears in the reception area, trembling and equally shaken, clutching a cheque for an enormous sum of money. Sarah had torn it up and thrown it in the bin and it had been hours before she was able to get the full story out of Callie. But one thing Callie had said was, ‘They made me feel dirty, Sarah...they made me feel like a blackmailer!’
That tremulous confession was engraved on Sarah’s soul like an acid burn. Her sister had been faced with two lawyers, who had proceeded to threaten her with nebulous but, to a teenager, terrifying repercussions should she ever feel tempted to talk about Damon to the Press.
Callie might have bounced back relatively fast from that day. Sarah hadn’t. Callie had continued to write to Damon, angry when she got no replies but amazingly not losing hope. ‘I bet my letters are being stopped before he gets them,’ she had decided. ‘I wouldn’t put anything past Alex Terzakis. Just wait until my son is born. It’ll be a different story then. Nothing will keep Damon away from me.’
The loathsome memory of that day lived for Sarah again now. The hatred came back, borne on a seething tidal wave of bitterness. She paused on the threshold of Nicky’s bedroom.
An unexpected scene met her eyes. Alex was reclining on her single bed with her nephew closely cradled against him. He was talking to him in Greek and Nicky was no longer crying. In fact he was making those endearing little snuffling sounds that signified that his attention was being fully engaged. Sarah’s stomach heaved at the deceptive imagery.
Alex looked so human. But his treatment of Callie had been inhuman. And now he wanted her child, simply expected him to be handed over like a parcel. Why? Nicky was also Nikos, with all that that implied. He was a Terzakis. Incredibly, Callie had correctly estimated the worth of her unborn child to the Terzakis family.
But Sarah was still astonished by the strength of their interest in Nicky. Or should she instead be astonished by the strength of Alex’s interest? For it seemed to Sarah that Damon’s professed desire to bring up his own child had been incredibly short-lived and very easily silenced. So how sincere could the offer have been in the first place? Sarah was chilled by the suspicion that Damon might have been bullied into making that offer more to impress his big brother than out of any real wish to take possession of his son.
Was it fear of public exposure at some future date which made Alex demand custody of her nephew? Some sort of paranoid possessiveness? It was certainly not a question of honour or conscience. Callie’s experiences made that clear. Sarah stared at the man and the child, one whom she loved and one whom she hated, and she trembled with the force of her own frustration.
Yes, she did want revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and all that. She wanted, she needed to hurt Alex Terzakis but she could not. It was not within her power. But never at any stage had she not considered Nicky’s welfare as being of paramount importance. In scorching silence she removed the baby from Alex’s hold, careful not to touch any part of him. She sat down on the chair and began to feed her nephew.
Alex sprang off the bed. ‘You must accept that Nikos does not belong here.’
Her teeth gritted. Act two, scene five. He was remorseless and so far he had yet to convince her that anyone in the Terzakis family genuinely wanted Nicky, and surely not all the money in the world would make up for the absence of love? It wouldn’t, would it? she asked herself anxiously, torn in conflicting directions by her desperate desire to keep the baby that she had already learned to love and the worrying fear that her own feelings might be too deeply involved to allow her to make a fair, clear-headed decision about what was best for the tiny child in her arms.
‘It would be less disturbing for you both if you gave him up now.’
What was he going to offer her now? He had tried money. He had tried intimidation. He had tried very briefly to portray Damon and Androula as perfect parents. And he had finally offered himself. But if Nicky went to Greece, Sarah would have no further say over what happened to him, and how far could she trust any Terzakis male?
‘I am not a patient man,’ he breathed harshly.
‘Tell me something I don’t know.’
Fierce dark eyes stabbed into her. The silence stretched and simmered for long minutes.
‘I am a dangerous enemy,’ Alex finally assured her icily. ‘No matter what the cost, I will take that child from you.’
She had finished feeding Nicky. She settled him back down into his cot, desperately striving to conceal the unsteadiness of her hands. How dared he come to her home and threaten her? Hadn’t he and his brother between them already done enough damage? The Terzakis men had killed her sister.
Damon should have told Callie that he no longer loved her. Instead he had run away, leaving her poor sister to hope in limbo. What had those months of stress done to her weak heart? And what might have been the result had Damon kept his promises and married her? Callie might well have lived.
‘Listen to me...’ Alex demanded abruptly, closing a strong hand on her arm.
Sarah jerked away violently and started down the stairs. ‘Keep your filthy hands to yourself! I can’t bear you to touch me,’ she hissed.
‘Liar.’
She spun round in the hall in a furious turmoil of emotion. Alex Terzakis lounged back against the wall, exuding a blaze of devastating sexual awareness. She had never seen that in a man before. She saw it now, recognised it on some atavistic level not previously explored inside herself. Raw sexuality sizzled from him, in the tautened poise of his lean, hard body, in the smouldering depths of the golden eyes sliding over her and the audible fracture in his breathing pattern.
‘I think you would like me to touch you,’ he positively purred.
In complete confusion, Sarah backed away from the heat and the suffocating tension that had entered the atmosphere. Her skin felt hot and stretched over her bones. Her body felt strangely weighted and unfamiliar. She translated the sensations as fear. He scared her.
‘You’re an animal,’ she whispered with a shudder.
He dealt her a slashing smile full of all-male triumph as he absorbed her retreat, and she wanted to knock his teeth down his arrogant throat. Calling him an animal was an insult to animals. But he did belong in a cage. Clearly he thought he was irresistible. But what enraged her most was that he was baiting her on a level she could not match.
‘Unfortunately when I told you that I would give you whatever you want,’ he drawled in a dark, deep voice with an unbelievably insolent smile, ‘I wasn’t including myself in the offer... When I go to bed with a woman, I have to like her. That is the barest minimum requirement.’
If Sarah had had a knife in her hand, he would have been bleeding to death at her feet. In fact she marvelled that he had managed to reach thirty-three unscathed by vengeful female hands. That he could have the brazen effrontery to insinuate that she found him attractive! That he could then go on to suggest that, had he been willing, she would have dropped gratefully into his arms... Frankly, the power to vocalise simply failed her.
He uncoiled himself fluidly from the wall. She shivered. Her hands itched. He made her feel...he made her feel so violent. He incited her to violence...his every move, his every word, his every smile. He was a walking incitement to a crime of passion. And yes, he had told her to name her price for Nicky and it would be hers. However, he wasn’t likely to walk voluntarily over the edge of a cliff.