Defying Drakon

Neither of them had had any appetite for the breakfast Drakon had ordered to be delivered to their suite at eight o’clock this morning, and the drive to the airport and their flight back to England had been made in tense silence.

She could have sat down and cried for the awful way their evening together in Verona had ended. Apart from that brief awkwardness with Sam it had been such a magical time: the delicious dinner on the plane, the beautiful sights and smells of Verona, the pageantry of the opera, the romantic walk along the cobbled streets to their hotel with the warmth of Drakon’s arm draped possessively about her waist, the wild heat of passion once they were finally alone together in their suite.

And then the icy coldness of Drakon’s rejection.

Even now, after hours of thinking of virtually nothing else, Gemini didn’t understand it, let alone accept it. He had known from the outset that she’d had no other lovers, and it certainly hadn’t seemed to bother him during the walk back to the hotel, or when they had kissed so passionately.

She turned to look at him now as he sat so distant and unmoving beside her in the back of the limousine. ‘Drakon—’

‘We should go up to your apartment now,’ he cut in as the chauffeur got out of the car and opened Gemini’s door for her.

‘We?’ Gemini had assumed from his aloofness the past twelve hours that once they were back in England Drakon would be anxious to get rid of the responsibility of her before returning to New York.

‘Max has arrived.’ He nodded to where the black Range Rover had just parked in front of the limousine. His grim-faced Head of Security was getting out from behind the wheel. ‘The two of us need to talk to you privately,’ Drakon added before opening the door beside him and striding over to greet the older man.

Gemini got slowly out of the car, vaguely smiling her thanks at the chauffeur at the same time trying, and failing, to hear what Drakon and Max were saying to each other. Their voices too soft for her to make out any of their conversation, although their expressions didn’t look reassuring.

She frowned as the men walked briskly back to join her. ‘Drakon, what—?’

‘We will go inside, where we cannot be overheard.’ He took a firm grasp of her arm.

Considering it was lunchtime on a Sunday—a time when most people were either at home or in the local pub eating lunch—the area was virtually deserted, with only two uninterested joggers passing by on the other side of the road—which was probably as well, when Gemini and Drakon were both so obviously wearing the clothes they had worn the evening before.

‘Aren’t you being a bit cloak-and-dagger?’ she protested.

‘Privacy would be best.’ Max was the one to answer her gruffly.

‘I don’t think so.’ Gemini stubbornly dug her heels in as she glared at first one man and then the other. ‘In fact I’m not going anywhere until one of you tells me what’s going on.’

A grudging amusement entered Max’s steely blue eyes before he turned to raise questioning brows at his employer.

Drakon’s jaw clenched. ‘You are the most stubborn woman!’ He sighed impatiently. ‘Bartholomew House was broken into last night,’ he revealed economically.

Gemini recoiled slightly in shock. ‘I—is Angela all right?’ she gasped breathlessly.

Drakon’s impatience turned to incredulity at her concern for a woman who had been nothing but vicious and cruel towards her. A woman who had tried to do everything in her power, since Miles’s death, to make Gemini miserable in every way possible. A woman, in fact, who deserved no one’s sympathy—least of all Gemini’s.

‘Your stepmother was not at home at the time,’ Drakon assured her coolly.

‘Thank goodness!’ She looked relieved. ‘Was anything taken?’

‘That is what we need to talk to you about,’ he answered pointedly.

Gemini continued to look at him dazedly for several long seconds, a frown between her eyes. ‘I don’t understand…’ She shook her head. ‘How do you even know about the break-in if it only happened last night?’ she finally said slowly. ‘Let alone that Angela wasn’t at home at the time?’

He raised dark brows. ‘That is the reason that Max and I would prefer this conversation took place in private.’

Sea-green eyes widened as Gemini obviously took in the full import of what he had said. She glanced at the stoic Max and then back at Drakon. ‘Perhaps it might be better if we did go up to my apartment, after all.’

‘A canny lass; I knew there was a reason I liked you!’ Max nodded approval.

‘That’s a pity—because I’m still reserving judgement on you!’ Gemini threw back as she unlocked the door leading up to her apartment.

Max gave a throaty chuckle—the first that Drakon could remember hearing from him in the five years Max had worked for him. ‘Give it time, lass, maybe I’ll grow on you.’

‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ Gemini muttered as she led the way upstairs, still feeling slightly stunned about the break-in at Bartholomew House and the unspoken implications of Drakon’s knowledge of it. Let alone what Max’s presence here might indicate.

‘Okay!’ She threw her wrap and bag down on the coffee table in her sitting room before turning to face the two men. ‘One of you tell me exactly what’s going on. And I sincerely hope your explanation doesn’t include telling me that Max, for reasons as yet unknown, was the one who broke into Bartholomew House last night! Drakon?’ she prompted.