So she responded. ‘
Yes, you have my word.’
He continued to watch her for a moment before his gaze returned to the landscape ahead of them. ‘Good. Your brother believes I intend to seduce you. I propose we take it a step further. Convince him that you are I are already lovers.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
XANDRO WATCHED A series of expressions flicker across her face. The emotion he recognised as bewilderment resonated faintly through him.
Blackmail? He had first-hand knowledge of how close it could drive a man to the edge.
And yet the moment he’d issued the ultimatum, he knew it was the perfect means to bring all this to a hasty conclusion. Besides, unlike when it’d been directed at him by his gang leader as a teenager, there were no sinister intentions behind his command to Sage.
All she needed to do was remain by his side until her brother came to heel.
Already it was working perfectly. Woods was riled enough to poke his head out of wherever he was hiding. Xandro’s only regret was that he hadn’t had the means to trace the call and pinpoint his exact location.
Sage’s expression settled into stubborn acceptance. Had he not found this situation intensely unsatisfactory, he would’ve found it amusing. He didn’t want to acknowledge the part of him that was curiously offended that she clearly felt mild abhorrence at his suggestion that they pretend to be lovers.
Without conceit, he knew countless women who would’ve expressed delight at being given the role of playing his lover. Many more who would yearn for that role to be real. And yes, it stuck in his craw that the woman whose integrity he’d questioned only last night seemed to have a problem with him in return.
He refocused on the horizon, specifically the sprawling magnificence of the Acropolis, and beyond that to the Xei Athens Hotel rooftop, where his helipad waited. The Vegas hotel and casino were his crowning glory, but coming back to the country where his family had experienced such hardship that they’d been forced to flee and stamping his authority beneath one of its most revered monuments had been extremely satisfying.
These days the Christofides name was no longer spoken of with contempt but with the respect he’d clawed from blood and dirt, from literally fighting his way out of a vicious gang that would’ve sent him down a path of chaos. He’d taken on the system that could so easily have chewed him up and spat him out, and beaten it. He’d seized his second chance because of a piece of jewellery, and he’d won.
Every member of his family had paid dearly, bearing the stigma of being labelled a thief. Until he’d redeemed the Christofides name.
He smothered the churning memories.
Beside him, Sage was rubbing her wrist. He frowned. He opened his mouth to question her, then closed it again. He didn’t want to know about her vulnerabilities or her strengths. She was just a means to an end. Even though her continued silence threatened to escalate his irritation.
Conversely, the slightly agitated sounds of her breathing coming through the headset started a small blaze inside him. His hand tightened on the stick, her effect on his libido startling him as much now as it had last night. Except this time it was more potent. More visceral.
He didn’t speak until he’d set the chopper down and powered off the instruments.
‘You have a problem with my plan?’ he demanded as he removed his headset.
She followed suit, avoiding his gaze as she handed the headset over. ‘How long will I have to pretend I’m your lover? I have to practise my routines.’
‘You need to work it into your schedule or you won’t have a schedule at all.’ At her soft gasp, he gritted his teeth, dimly aware that he was growing increasingly annoyed with her resistance. Dammit, he was fed up to the back teeth of pussyfooting around her.
‘So we’ve progressed to outright threats?’ she asked, one eyebrow lifted at him.
He sighed. ‘I’ve laid everything out for you and yet you seem to want to keep pushing my buttons.’
‘You’re a master manipulator—and no, that’s not a compliment—so pardon me if I want things laid out in the open and less...nebulous.’
A reluctant smile tugged at his mouth. He killed it dead, unwilling to add amusement to the unsettling mix of arousal and frustration churning through him. ‘We’re only here for tonight. After my meeting in the morning, we’ll leave for the States. You can return to your routine within the next twenty-four hours, with a few adjustments, of course.’
Relief tinged her features. Again he experienced a bite of irritation. He was the wronged party here and yet she made him feel as if she was with him under sufferance. Which, he told himself, she was. He needed to stop being irrational!
By the time he walked round to her side, she was halfway out of the chopper. He caught her hand and helped her the rest of the way, acutely aware of the blaze inside him intensifying at her touch. He also became aware a moment later that he didn’t want to let her go. But he forced himself to release her when she tugged at his hand.
In the late afternoon sunlight, her hair gleamed with the fire of a Greek sunset. When Xandro found himself wondering, yet again, how long the silky tresses were, he scowled and strode across the roof towards the lift.
She didn’t speak until they were cocooned in the small space, on their way down to his suite. A ride that was long enough for him to inhale her heady perfume, but too short to count the freckles on her pert nose. ‘What adjustments?’
It took a precious few seconds for him to recall what he’d said to her. He exited the lift and took his time to find the key card to his suite as he regrouped.