A Mediterranean Marriage

‘Left unsaid…’ Lily echoed, mouth running dry, a languorous, wanton heat infiltrating her with the desire that he could awaken so easily.

Rauf bent his dark head and kissed her just once in a stormy surge of pent-up hunger that made her quiver with almost painful longing. As he jerked back from her, releasing his breath in a stark exhalation at the cost of that restraint, she was tempted to haul him greedily back to her.

‘In a couple of days, we’ll be together again, güzelim,’ he framed unevenly, catching her hand in his, pressing his lips to the centre of her palm. ‘I want that to be special.’

They flew back to Istanbul in the helicopter that afternoon. At the airport, Rauf received a call informing him of a dispute at one of his newspapers. With a longsuffering groan, he tucked her into the limousine that would take her back to his family home while he went into the office to deal with the threatened strike. ‘I might not be able to make it back in time to take everyone out for dinner as I promised,’ he warned her ruefully.

He did not make it back in time and, although the rest of his family went ahead on their own, Lily was feeling tired and, aware that her own relatives would be arriving the next day, she decided to have an early night instead. After a light meal, she was about to do exactly that when a maid entered to tell her that she had a visitor. Every evening over the preceding week Lily had sat with the matriarchs and received formal visits and gifts of gold jewellery from the older generation of guests who would be attending their wedding. On this occasion, shorn of the helpful support of Rauf’s family, Lily could only hope that her unlucky last-minute visitor spoke a little English.

But when she walked into the airy drawing-room the welcoming smile on her lips fell away as her aghast gaze landed on the tall, lanky blond man posed by the fireplace.

Brett gave her an unpleasant smile. ‘Didn’t I tell you I’d see you soon?’

CHAPTER TEN

FOR possibly the longest moment of her existence, Lily was frozen to the spot.

She stared back at Brett with a choking sensation of fear in her throat and goose-flesh prickling the nape of her neck. Yet even as she looked, incredulous that he should have taken the risk of not only coming to Turkey, but also daring to visit her at the Kasabian home, she was noting the changes in him. Usually a very sharp dresser, he was wearing a crumpled suit, he needed a shave and his pale blue eyes were bloodshot. As he moved forward she got a whiff of the sour smell of alcohol and recognised the ennervated edge of desperation he was striving to conceal.

‘I know all the Kasabians are out tonight,’ Brett told her in an effort to intimidate her. ‘I watched them leave the house and I’m sure you’ll want to keep this little courtesy call of mine to yourself.’

‘And why would I want to do that?’ Although Lily’s own voice emerged faint in tone, she was already overcoming her old instinctive fear of him and seeing him with the eyes of a woman rather than a frightened teenager. The family might be out but the door onto the hall was still ajar and she knew that one of the staff would be hovering out there, waiting to receive the expected request for tea for her visitor.

‘How could you think I would be dumb enough to credit that Rauf Kasabian had married you within a couple of days of your arrival here? Give me a break,’ Brett mocked. ‘The wedding of the year doesn’t take place until the day after tomorrow. I was able to read that in one of Kasabian’s own newspapers. But the wedding of the year won’t take place at all if I start shooting my mouth off…’

In spite of the knowledge that she could have nothing to fear from Brett and that she and Rauf were already married, a cold, chilled sensation infiltrated Lily’s stomach, a hangover from the bad old days when Brett had seemed to second-guess her at every turn. She wanted to call the police but realised that she did not even know what phone number she needed to use, nor how she could contrive to leave Brett alone without making him suspicious.

‘Won’t it?’ Lily lifted her chin and studied him with loathing. ‘You can’t hurt me any more.’

An unattractive flush of colour mottled Brett’s sallow skin. ‘Can’t I? Let me share a secret with you. Kasabian’s cash payments on that contract were never made and, sooner or later, the news that that money has gone missing will emerge and all hell is going to break loose at Harris Travel. But if you tell Rauf about that now, you’ll be in big trouble too.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Lily countered drily without turning a hair in receipt of what Brett had evidently hoped would be a bombshell.

Brett’s full mouth twisted. ‘Well, that just proves how stupid you are, because when I set up another bank account to syphon those payments off I put your name on that account too! If I go down, I’ll take you down with me. I’ll say we had an affair and that you were in on the theft every step of the way with me. So, you’d better keep quiet until you get that wedding ring on your finger—’

‘Still the same old threats and they’re sounding very tired,’ Lily cut in with angry contempt. ‘You’re not dealing with a scared little teenager now and I know you have to be very scared to have risked coming over here—’

‘Go upstairs, Lily…’ Another achingly familiar male voice intervened from behind her. ‘I’ll deal with this.’

In the seconds that followed Rauf’s quiet entrance, Brett succumbed to panic. Surging forward just as Lily spun round in surprise and relief to see Rauf, Brett gave Lily a violent shove out of his path in an effort to reach the door and Rauf went for him like a lion. But Rauf only managed to land one powerful punch on the other man before registering that Lily, who had been smashed up against the wall, had fallen. Rauf’s rage that Gilman should have dared to approach his wife with threats again was overpowered by his fear that Lily might have been seriously hurt.

Dizzy and winded by that fall, Lily was gathered with anxious care into Rauf’s arms and lifted over to the nearest couch. ‘Are you all right?’ he demanded rawly.

‘Brett?’ she gasped.

The slam of the front door answered that query and Rauf groaned out loud in frustration. ‘I came back minutes after he arrived and I called the police immediately. I should’ve stayed out of the room until they arrived but I couldn’t stand to hear him threatening you!’

‘I’m just glad he’s gone,’ Lily confided unevenly.

Thinking that having Gilman arrested and charged just before their wedding might have cast something of a pall over the festivities, Rauf just held her close and wished he had contrived to get more than one healthy punch in.

‘And I’m so grateful there wasn’t a fight,’ Lily added.

Again, Rauf said nothing, knowing that she would be dismayed by the admission that he felt seriously deprived of what had very probably been his one and only opportunity to pulverise the vicious little creep. He ushered Lily upstairs to her room and then went back down to deal with the police.

Lily’s family arrived the following afternoon. Douglas Harris looked brighter than he had in months and her three nieces were bubbling over with excitement. After a slew of necessary introductions and socialising and talk

ing to her father, who was full of praise for Rauf, Lily took Hilary into another room so that they could talk in private.