‘Whatever you say,’ she said wearily, leaning back in her seat and wishing he’d take his suspicions and his acid tongue and leave her alone.
‘No arguments? No negotiation on price?’
‘No.’ She flicked him a glance then turned away. ‘I’m sure you’ve already calculated to the last cent exactly how much you’re worth, and how much my silence should cost. Why would I quibble with an expert?’
And besides, she wouldn’t touch his money. But there was no point telling him that. He’d already tried and judged her in his mind. He wouldn’t believe any protestation that all she wanted was to go home.
She started at a shadow of movement close beside her. It was him, looming over her. His features dark as a thunder-cloud. His eyes sparking an unmistakable warning.
He really did move with uncanny silence.
She tried to push her way up from the seat but his hand on her shoulder held her still. His grip seared through the thin cotton of her T-shirt like a brand.
‘Don’t play games with me.’ His voice grated low and threatening, raising goose-flesh on her arms. ‘You’ll come out the loser.’
‘I’m not playing games.’ She was too weary to try shrugging out of his heavy grasp. Her burst of defiance had melted away as if it had never been. This last bout of illness really had taken its toll. She had no stamina left.
‘I was just about to ring the Australian embassy in Athens to get their help in sorting out a divorce or an annulment or whatever.’
‘That won’t be necessary.’ His dark voice came from above her. ‘My legal advisors will organise everything.’
‘And will they organise my flight home to Australia too? Or am I allowed to do that for myself?’
One look at his face told her the sarcasm was wasted. His expression was stern and his eyes shone with a fierce light that sent a jolt of anxiety right to her core.
Then his lips curved up in a smile that owed nothing to humour. It was too…carnivorous. Too dangerous.
‘There is no need for a return flight. You won’t be going anywhere till this is resolved.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘ARE you threatening to keep me a prisoner here?’
Again that baring of strong white teeth that made her shiver. For all his careful control, Tessa sensed a latent barbarism in him, hiding just below the surface.
‘Let us say instead that you’ll be my guest.’
Stay here, in his home? The idea was too appalling to contemplate.
‘And if this takes a long time to finalise?’ Surely nothing involving lawyers and courts happened quickly.
He shrugged, lifting his hand from her shoulder. But still he stood too close for her to feel safe. ‘I think I can manage to accommodate you for the duration.’
He had to be kidding. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him and saw not a trace of humour in his steady gaze. Only the smug satisfaction of a man who held all the cards.
He was serious! He really meant to hold her here.
‘You have no right.’
‘On the contrary, I have every right to ensure my privacy and protect my family.’
And he thought that by imprisoning her here indefinitely he could do that? As if he could keep her against her will. There must be multiple exits from the property and ways to seek help. Her eyes flicked automatically to the phone on the other side of the room then up to his hard face.
Then she remembered her passport, so conspicuously missing from her belongings when they’d been returned to her.
‘What did you have in mind? Tying me up so I can’t run away?’ Bravado hid the shreds of fear evoked by the memory of real captivity all those years ago.
‘Don’t tempt me.’ He leaned in towards her, his hands resting on the arms of her chair, trapping her. His dark face was pure threat and his voice a rumbling whisper that abraded her skin. ‘The idea has a certain undeniable appeal.’
This close she could see that, despite the mocking tilt of his mouth, his eyes blazed with something other than fury. Something that told her he was picturing her bound and vulnerable, completely at his mercy. And the image pleased him. Tessa’s eyes widened.
In that moment he looked like a man who didn’t give a damn about right and wrong, about common decency or even the law, if they came between him and what he wanted.
Tessa shuddered, aware now of the hot, musky scent of his skin enveloping her as he thrust his face close to hers. The fierce heat of his powerful body, pushing her back in the chair. The skittering, swirling sensation in the pit of her stomach.
It had to be fear. It couldn’t be excitement.
She felt his breath warm on her face, heard the soft sound of his steady breathing, a contrast to her own ragged gasps. He was crowding her. His head and shoulders blocked the room, his face filled her vision.