A Mediterranean Marriage

At Bodrum airport, Lily could only be impressed by the sleek private jet that bore an MMI logo on the tail fin that awaited them.

‘This is definitely how to travel,’ she confided after takeoff, studying the big, luxurious cabin and the amount of space surrounding her cream leather seat.

There was no response from her bridegroom and she smiled. Rauf was settled by the built-in desk opposite, a laptop computer sitting open in readiness, and his entire attention appeared to be consumed by the contents of the file he had brought with him.

Rauf had not realised that one of the faxes that had arrived before he’d left Sonngul was a response from the Turkish bank he had requested information from. Therefore when he initially glanced at the sheet in the act of leafing through the file, he could not at first grasp why Lily’s name was printed there. And then he saw Brett Gilman’s name as well and comprehension dawned at an excessively slow speed, for Rauf did not want to believe the evidence before his eyes.

There had to be a mistake. He angled a sideways glance at Lily from below dense black lashes. She was watching him and she gave him a sunny smile as if she had not a care in the world.

‘Lily…’ Rauf breathed without any expression at all.

Something in his voice made her tense and she looked at him and connected with piercing dark eyes. ‘What is it?’

Rauf rose upright in one forceful motion and stared down at her, not a muscle moving in his lean dark face. ‘You must’ve known that I was going to find out. Is that why you married me?’

A frown line indented her brow. ‘What on earth is the matter?’

>

Rauf lounged back against the side of the desk, raw incredulity and rage beginning to flame inside him. He had made it so simple for her. He could not credit his own stupidity. She had run rings round him! Had he really believed that he was the one controlling events? In the space of four days, she had got his wedding ring on her finger and, with that single achievement, she had made herself safe from all threats.

After all, it really didn’t matter what he found out now, did it? She could afford to sit there and look politely enquiring, for he wasn’t likely to prosecute his own wife, was he? He had married a thief. A lying, greedy little thief, who had conspired with Brett Gilman to defraud him of over two-hundred-thousand pounds. He snatched up the fax he had been sent and slung it down in front of her.

Lily lifted the sheet and tried to read, only to say, ‘But this is in Turkish—’

‘I’m sure you’re capable of reading your own name and Brett’s,’ Rauf derided.

Lily looked up at him, frightened by the dark bleakness of his accusing gaze. ‘My name and Brett’s? What is this? Where did you get it?’

‘You and Gilman opened that bank account for Marmaris Media Incorporated together,’ Rauf spelt out so softly that she almost strained to hear him. ‘And guess what, the little bad fairies have been in and they have emptied the account just as I expected!’

CHAPTER NINE

LILY lost colour as she finally grasped what Rauf was talking about. ‘I did not open any bank account with Brett!’ she protested.

‘Yes, you did. It’s down here in black and white in this fax,’ Rauf pointed out with a rawer edge to his deep, dark drawl, his fabulous bone structure rigid, his pallor below his bronzed skin pronounced.

‘Well, then, someone’s made a mistake…or Brett has set me up. That’s the only possible explanation!’ Lily flung back at him, and no longer able to bear him standing over her like a very tall building casting a menacing dark shadow, she jumped up out of her seat.

‘Don’t waste my time. I don’t believe you. You conspired with Gilman to steal from me!’

Lily was shaking from the terrifying and frustrating awareness that she seemed to have been tried, judged and found guilty on the spot. Nor did Rauf appear to have the slightest intention of hearing a word she said in her own defence.

‘That’s not true. How can you even think that I could do such a thing?’ she asked with shocked distaste. ‘For goodness’ sake, I’m your wife!’

Dark colour accentuated the taut angularity of Rauf’s superb cheekbones and he spread both hands into a violent arc. ‘Yes, you’re my bride. That’s quite a coup I gave you, isn’t it? You must’ve been laughing all the way down the line at me—’

‘I’ve had enough. I am not even going to try to talk to you in the mood you’re in—’

‘Oh, yes, you are,’ Rauf bit out, closing strong hands to her wrists before she could complete her intent and drop back into her seat again. ‘And I warn you…your usual, very effective ploy of turning on the waterworks won’t silence me this time around!’

‘At this moment, Rauf Kasabian…’ as Lily wrenched her wrists free of his hold her blue eyes burned like the sapphire centre of a flame over his lean, darkly attractive features ‘…I wouldn’t cry if you tied me to a stake and stood over me with a match!’

‘At last a piece of good news. I also think you need to know when and where my suspicions about you and Brett began—’

‘Inside your own very colourful imagination?’ Lily sliced in.

Incensed by that scornful suggestion, Rauf flashed her a scorching look of pure intimidation. ‘Tecer Godian…do you remember him?’