His Mistress by Blackmail

Since his own investigation had reached the same conclusion, he tried another avenue. ‘But you must have some idea where his usual haunts are. The likely places where he could be hiding.’

‘No, I don’t. I have nothing else to add to what I’ve already told you. Goodnight.’

She stepped around him, keeping a few feet between them. He allowed her to walk a few steps before he spoke. ‘Every day that goes by without my property back in my possession is another day when my patience dwindles, Miss Woods.’ The good, the bad, the ugly. All wrapped up in a few precious gemstones. It was nowhere near the most expensive thing he owned, but it was priceless. ‘Think on that while you sleep.’

Her back stiffened but her stride didn’t break, nor did she acknowledge his warning.

He watched her walk away until she was out of sight, with a deep, dark knowledge that he hadn’t admitted the whole truth to himself or to her. His interest in her was personal, as he’d stated. But it was also morphing into something else—something sexual.

For reasons he didn’t want to probe too deeply—because a part of him didn’t want to find anything in common with her—he was attracted to Sage Woods. Considering he abhorred liars almost as much as he detested thieves, that was insanity. Lies and treachery had led to his family’s downfall, the worst of all perpetrated by the man whose blood ran through Xandro’s veins. The man he’d never once called Father and never intended to.

Xandro might be called ruthless, arrogant and power-hungry in the boardrooms of the most notable companies in the world, but he never misled and he never lied. His own conception had been based on lies. That was more than enough for him to have to live with.

He refused to make room for any more so, for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why the woman who was blatantly keeping secrets from him affected him with such visceral hunger. Hell, he’d even found himself wondering, as he’d reviewed her audition tapes this afternoon, whether his mother would’ve been as enthralled with her dancing as he was. Whether she would’ve seen the pure exquisiteness that seeped from Sage’s very soul the moment the music started. It was as if she lived and breathed dance.

All the reasons he’d stated for pursuing Hunter’s were technically sound. The dance company would reap good dividends in the coming years. And yet he knew deep down that Sage was the reason for the unquenchable flame burning inside him. She’d sparked the fire the moment he’d stepped up onto that stage three weeks ago. A fire that, like a moth to a flame, he couldn’t completely resist.

So what if it’d just taken this long to finally admit it to himself?

So what if it wasn’t an admission he welcomed?

Xandro shook his head as he retraced his steps to his study and walked across the large room to the French windows overlooking the pool and well-lit garden.

Focused on dissecting his unwanted reaction to her, he thought for a moment that his imagination was playing tricks on him until movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention.

She was tugging off her shoes as she uncapped the bottle of water. After kicking them away, she took a long drink, set the bottle on a nearby table before taking a few steps to the swimming pool.

His breath snagged somewhere in his chest as she extended one foot and delicately dipped her toes in the water. Xandro exhaled in a mixture of gruff irritation and swelling arousal as the sight of her arched foot caused a hot little tug in his groin.

Thee mou, what the hell was wrong with him? Of all the women he could have at his disposal, h

e had to be hooked on this one.

He needed to turn away right now, dismiss her from his mind until the next stage of his plan demanded their interaction.

And yet he couldn’t move from the window. He watched as, satisfied with the temperature, she took two steps down until her legs were submerged to mid-calves. Then slowly she hitched up her dress.

Xandro’s hands balled in his pockets, the heat in his groin intensifying. He growled under his breath, thoroughly perplexed and a little disgusted with himself.

He’d dated many beautiful women, both before and after he’d made his first million dollars. A few of them even had more spectacular legs than Sage Woods. But still he stood there, shamelessly voyeuristic in his scrutiny, unable to summon up even a single image of what those other women looked like.

He rolled restless shoulders, and told himself there was a reason watching her was beneficial. After all, if she was standing in his pool, drifting her fingers seductively through the water as if she were stroking her lover’s skin, then she wasn’t upstairs, sharing that bottle of champagne with the friend who blatantly wanted to be so much more.

He was looking after his investment: keeping an eye on his enemy’s proxy.

Xandro snorted at his self-deception. The only way he could see to nip all this nonsense in the bud was for Sage to confess what she knew about her brother’s whereabouts so he could be done with her.

Which meant it was time to bring the next stage of his plan into play.

CHAPTER SIX

SAGE TRIED TO drown out the memory of Xandro’s deep, disturbingly sexy voice as she went through her stretching routine before her last audition. The butterflies in her belly from knowing she needed to nail this final performance were enough to deal with.

But that voice...and those eyes had followed her into her sleep and now dogged her waking hours.

My interest in you will continue to be personal.

She knew what those words truly meant, and yet each time she recalled them the icy foreboding she anticipated had been replaced by a sizzle in her belly that was slowly driving her nuts. It was that initial unsettling burn that had driven her to the pool last night instead of going to her bedroom when she’d walked away from Xandro. That and the fact he’d caught her nursing her wrist—a telling habit she’d practised hard to overcome. Until very recently. Until Xandro Christofides had entered her life.