Книга - The Greek’s Blackmailed Wife

The Greek's Blackmailed Wife
Sarah Morgan


In order to secure the Greek island resort he's always wanted, ruthless tycoon Zander Volakis needs to change his image–fast! The only person who can help him is the woman who betrayed him five years ago: his wife! But Lauranne O'Neill refuses to work with Zander. He has the power to ruin her life again. To play with Zander is to play with fire…! Her refusal leaves Zander with only one choice: he will buy her back and blackmail her until she's his….







Sarah Morgan is a rising star of Harlequin Presents


, and we hope that you’ll enjoy her passionately intense and dramatic stories, too….

Praise for Sarah Morgan:

“Sarah Morgan [creates] a dynamic and intense read.”

—Romantic Times

“Sarah Morgan’s likeable characters will draw you in…”

—www.romantictimes.com




Harlequin Presents









They’re the men who have everything—except a bride…

Wealth, power, charm—what else could a handsome tycoon need? In THE GREEK TYCOONS miniseries you have already met some gorgeous Greek multimillionaires who are in need of wives.

Now it’s time to meet the irresistible Zander Volakis in Sarah Morgan’s

The Greek’s Blackmailed Wife

This tycoon has decided it’s time to reclaim his wife…whatever it takes!




The Greek’s Blackmailed Wife

Sarah Morgan










www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


To the real Lauranne, KLY, for being brilliant in every way. XXX




CONTENTS


CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN




CHAPTER ONE


THE atmosphere in the boardroom crackled with tension, all eyes fixed on the man at the head of the table.

Zander Volakis, Greek billionaire and the object of a million women’s fantasies, lounged in his chair with careless ease, the deadly glitter in his eyes the only indication that he’d even heard the heated discussion that had just taken place.

Broad-shouldered and impossibly handsome, his hard jaw was darkened with the beginnings of stubble, evidence of the punishing hours he’d been working to secure this deal.

Waiting for him to deliver his verdict, the men in the room watched him with a mixture of awe and envy while the two women on his board experienced entirely different emotions.

Finally, after what seemed like a million hours to the others, he drew breath.

‘I want that island.’ His tone deceptively mild, he raked the tense faces of the men and women around the table with night-black eyes. ‘So we look for another solution.’

‘There is no solution,’ someone said bravely. ‘People have been trying to buy that island from Theo Kouropoulos for twenty-six years. The guy won’t sell.’

Zander sat totally still, his expression veiled by lashes indecently long and thick. ‘He’s going to sell.’

The board members exchanged furtive glances, each one wondering how to perform the expected miracle.

In the end it was the lawyer who spoke. ‘He might sell—’ he licked dry lips, fingering the papers in front of him ‘—if we could change your image.’

The tension around the table increased.

Zander surveyed him steadily, a ghost of a smile playing around his hard mouth. ‘My image?’

His lawyer gave a nervous smile. ‘Think about who you’re dealing with. Theo Kouropoulos has been married to the same woman for fifty years. They have six children and fourteen grandchildren. Family values are high on his agenda and Blue Cove Island is a family resort. As things stand, he doesn’t think you’re the right buyer.’ He drew breath and sat up straighter, bracing himself. ‘To quote him exactly, you’re “an ice-cold, ruthless businessman with a wicked reputation for womanising and no commitment to family life.”’

Zander didn’t shift in his seat, the casual lift of a dark eyebrow a clear indication that he failed to see the relevance of his reputation. ‘And?’

Alec exchanged a helpless glance with the finance director. ‘And the bottom line is that he doesn’t want to sell you his family resort. You’re the acknowledged leader in creating hotel complexes for singles and couples. You understand what they need for a great holiday. Blue Cove Island is different and it’s not like anything you’ve done before.’

‘You argue his case very convincingly,’ Zander said smoothly, toying with the pen in front of him. ‘Are you working for him or for me?’

Sensitive to the deadly tone behind the softly spoken words, the lawyer flushed but carried on bravely. ‘The bottom line is that if you want that island, you need to change your image.’ He looked nervously at Zander. ‘Or you could think about acquiring a wife.’

An appalled, fascinated silence spread across the spacious glass-walled room. The floor-to-ceiling windows afforded breathtaking views over the heat-soaked, traffic-clogged city of Athens, but no one was looking at the view.

They were all looking at Zander, their gazes uniformly frozen in horrified anticipation as they waited for his reaction.

‘I will not,’ he declared silkily, ‘be acquiring a wife.’

Nervous laughter followed this announcement and Alec cleared his throat again.

‘Right. Well, in that case I suggest you see this company I’ve found.’ He shuffled through a pile of papers on his desk. ‘They’re in London, but you’re flying there on business tomorrow for two weeks so we can easily fit a meeting into your schedule. They specialise in public image. Their results are outstanding and they’re discreet. I think you should at least talk to them.’

Zander studied him silently, battling with the intense and unwelcome emotions that had been stirred up at the mere mention of matrimony. He had buried those feelings deeply in the darkest corners of his soul and their sudden emergence, as new and fresh as ever, came as an unwelcome shock.

A wife was most certainly not a viable solution to his current problem.

Which left the option of changing his image.

He gritted his teeth. The prospect filled him with no small degree of impatience. He’d never cared about other people’s opinions. Until now. When his reputation was jeopardising the purchase of Blue Cove Island.

Nothing in his expression revealed just how important this deal was to him.

He wanted that island.

He’d wanted it for twenty-six years but he’d been biding his time, waiting for the right moment.

And that moment was now.

‘All right.’ He stood up with all the grace of a lethal jungle animal, his movements remarkably smooth for such a powerfully built man. ‘Let’s change my image.’



‘So we really know nothing about them? Not even the name of the company?’

Lauranne O’Neill flicked through some slides on her computer, checking her presentation one more time.

‘Nothing. They were very cagey.’ Mary, her PA, shot her an apologetic look and then cast her eyes over the meeting room one more time. ‘Intriguing, isn’t it? Maybe they’re royalty. The guy I spoke to just said that they wanted to talk to us and that it was highly confidential.’

Lauranne gave a wry smile. ‘So confidential that they can’t even tell us the company name?’

‘I don’t care what they’re called as long as they pay good money.’ Tom, her business partner, strode into the room briskly, a pile of corporate brochures under his arm in readiness. ‘They’re on their way up. Amanda just went to collect them from Reception.’

Lauranne looked at him with amusement. ‘Do you ever think about anything except the bottom line, Tom?’

‘No.’ He slapped the pile of reports on the table. ‘And that’s what keeps this company so healthy. You’re the conscience—I’m the cash register.’

Lauranne laughed and she was still smiling when Amanda, one of their junior executives, came into the room, her face bright with excitement.

Obviously the client was someone well known and very rich if Amanda’s reaction was anything to go by, Lauranne reflected wryly as she smoothed her silk skirt over her slim thighs and pinned a polite smile on her face.

It was a smile that turned to a shocked gasp as she caught her first glimpse of her prospective client.

Zander Volakis.

Staggeringly handsome and arrogantly male, he strolled into the room as if he owned it, closely followed by a team of suited men all keeping a respectful distance behind the boss.

Lauranne stood, welded to the spot, her body frozen. For a moment she thought she might have lost her ability to feel. And then her past exploded into her present and the pain shot through her. Intense, dark pain that should have lessened with time but instead seemed more acute than ever. Pain that ripped away the layers of protection she’d carefully built between her and the world. Pain that had been buried deep for five, long years.

She stared into that cold, handsome face and felt her insides lurch.

He hadn’t changed at all.

He was still impossibly good-looking and unashamedly Greek. Sleek dark hair swept back from a smooth, tanned brow, a straight, aristocratic nose, a hard jaw that was almost permanently darkened by stubble and a physique so powerfully masculine that it made women drool.

Intercepting her stunned gaze, those brilliant dark eyes lasered onto hers with all the lethal accuracy of a deadly weapon.

A shiver ran through her trembling body as she read the challenge in that dark gaze.

Zander the hunter.

Pursuing his prey with the same single-minded ruthlessness that he used to outmanoeuvre his competitors. This was a man who had never encountered failure. A man who took millions and turned them into billions.

A man who didn’t know the meaning of the word no.

But he was going to have to learn it, she told herself. Because there was absolutely no way she was ever saying yes to this man again.

And there was no way she would give him the satisfaction of seeing just how strongly he affected her.

She lifted her chin and returned his gaze full on. ‘Go to hell, Zander.’

There was an audible gasp from the team of people with him but Zander didn’t flinch, tension emanating from every inch of his powerful frame as he surveyed her with glittering dark eyes.

‘Are you going to make this personal?’

She lifted a hand to her throat, feeling her pulse pounding under the tips of her fingers. ‘You bet I am. How can it not be personal?’ After everything that had happened between them, how could it not be personal? ‘You have the sensitivity of an atomic bomb,’ she said hoarsely and their gazes locked in combat, neither of them even remotely aware of their audience.

Mary gave a tiny whimper of shock and exchanged horrified glances with Tom, who stood white-faced and silent in one corner of the room.

One of the men with Zander stepped forward, eyeing the two of them cautiously. ‘Miss O’Neill? I’m Alec Trevelyan. I’m a lawyer.’ The man tried a smile and then gave up, visibly discomforted by the scene playing out around him. ‘I work for Volakis Industries.’

‘Then I hope you keep your c.v. up to date,’ Lauranne said caustically, not even glancing in his direction, ‘because working for Volakis Industries is an extremely precarious form of employment.’

The lawyer, mystified and deprived of speech, looked at his boss for some sort of enlightenment. He didn’t receive any. Zander Volakis continued to stare at the woman in front of him, nothing in his handsome face giving the slightest clue as to his thoughts.

The lawyer turned back to Lauranne, a pained expression on his face. It was clear he’d never had to deal with this sort of reception before.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. ‘You do realise who—?’ He gestured to Zander, everything about his body language respectful to the point of being reverential. ‘I mean—Zander is—’

‘I know exactly who he is,’ Lauranne said clearly, her wide blue eyes fixed on that breathtakingly handsome face in blatant challenge. ‘He’s the bastard who tried to ruin my life.’ She paused, her breathing as rapid as her heart rate. ‘He’s also my husband.’

She heard the collective gasp of shock and felt a shaft of pain. The knowledge that he hadn’t told them, that he hadn’t even admitted his marriage to her, wounded her so badly that she wanted to curl up in the corner of the room and hide.

And that was exactly what she’d been doing for the past five years, of course.

Hiding.

Hiding from her past. Hiding from her marriage. Hiding from her feelings.

She lifted her chin, pride giving her strength. ‘Did you forget to mention that?’ Her eyes were still fixed on Zander, sparking fire and flame. ‘How remiss of you. If you wanted it kept a secret then you picked the wrong woman. I’m not prepared to be anyone’s dark secret.’

Something flashed in those molten dark eyes. For a fleeting moment she thought it might be admiration but then she shook herself. Zander didn’t admire the sort of woman she was. He liked meek, obedient women who played the game and she’d never played the game.

She didn’t do meek, and she didn’t do obedient either.

Alec slid a finger inside his collar, sweat visible on his brow. ‘Well, obviously this—er— I mean we didn’t— Miss O’Neill— I mean Mrs Volakis—’ He broke off and glanced nervously at his boss, waiting for some sort of reaction.

But Zander didn’t speak.

He just watched her.

Using silence as the ultimate weapon. Letting everyone else around him sweat, Lauranne thought grimly.

She clenched her teeth but she didn’t drop her gaze. Wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She knew his tricks. Knew just how skilled he was at manipulating his opponent. If he thought he could intimidate her, then he’d misjudged her.

But then misjudging her was an art that he’d perfected.

‘Why are you here?’ Her breathing laboured, Lauranne straightened her slim shoulders and at that point Tom cleared his throat and stepped forward.

‘This is obviously a mistake. We should just cancel this meeting—’

Still on the receiving end of Zander’s cold stare, Lauranne saw the instant change in him. Saw the lethal flash of white-hot anger as he registered Tom’s voice. The stillness in that athletic frame fell away to be replaced by a tension so powerful that she took an instinctive step backwards. Connected as she was to that dark, molten gaze, she felt his mood shift from restrained to furious with staggering speed. It was like staring into the crater of a volcano on the very brink of eruption.

He dragged his gaze away from hers and fixed his attention on Tom, his fabulous eyes glittering dangerously, anger visible in every angle of his powerful body.

Transported back five years, Lauranne sucked in a breath.

With the shockingly expensive designer suit and the Rolex watch on his wrist, Zander might look every inch the civilised businessman, but she knew that he was anything but civilised. Behind the trappings of success that he wore with such effortless style lurked a male so basic and primitive in his perspective on life that a loincloth would have been more appropriate dress.

‘Zander, no—!’

Suddenly she was the one trying to calm things and instinctively she stepped in front of Tom.

‘Still protecting him, Lauranne?’ Zander’s eyes flashed dark, his voice thickened with anger as he whirled on his unsuspecting employees. ‘Get out. All of you get out.’

The rest of his team stared at him in blatant shock, horrified and fascinated by this unusual display of emotion from a man renowned for his self-control.

Alec cleared his throat, his consternation evident. ‘Zander, maybe we should—’

‘I want to talk to my wife,’ Zander growled, turning back to Lauranne. His gaze slammed into hers with the force of a missile. ‘Get rid of Farrer.’

His own team made their retreat so hastily that if the situation hadn’t been so serious she would have laughed at how pathetic they were.

But the situation was serious, and she wasn’t laughing.

Her heart hammering against her chest, Lauranne swallowed and turned to Tom, desperate to defuse a highly charged situation.

‘Go,’ she urged, her slim fingers closing over the back of a chair for support. Her legs were shaking and her palms were clammy. ‘Just go! And you too, Amanda.’

Tom hesitated, both eyes fixed warily on Zander. ‘I’m not leaving you with him.’

She saw Zander’s shoulders tense, saw naked male jealousy and something deeper and far, far more dangerous.

‘Tom—’

Evidently sensing that danger himself, Tom hurried to the door, following in the wake of Zander’s stunned employees.

‘Just remember, Lauranne.’ Tom stopped by the door, keeping one eye on Zander as if he were a dangerous animal who might attack at any moment. ‘Remember what he did.’

Zander braced his muscular shoulders. ‘You’re extremely brave with one hand on the door handle, Farrer.’ His tone was lethally soft and Lauranne watched with dismay as the colour drained from Tom’s face at the barely veiled threat.

Feeling the tension in the room rise to critical levels, she felt an uncontrollable surge of panic, remembering what had happened last time these two men had confronted each other. And she’d been the cause of the confrontation. It was her fault that Zander hated Tom. She was totally to blame and she’d lived with the guilt ever since—

‘Stop it!’ Her voice shook and her breath came in unreliable pants. ‘Stop it, the pair of you!’ Still gripping the chair, her knuckles white, Lauranne glared first at Zander and then at Tom. ‘Go! For goodness sake, please go! Can’t you see that you’re just making things worse?’

With a final scowl at Zander, Tom slid out of the room and suddenly they were left alone.

Zander went straight into attack mode, his eyes fierce and his mouth tight with restrained emotion as he launched his first missile. ‘You went into business with him? With Farrer?’

Suddenly she was glad there was a table between them. It prevented her from hurling herself at him and committing bodily harm.

‘Yes!’ With Tom safely out of the room, she wanted to rub it in. Wanted to poke a stick at the tiger and see just how long it took for him to stop snarling and goad him into action. It was a dangerous game but she couldn’t help herself. What right did he have to question her? To stand there with that contemptuous look on his disgustingly handsome face. ‘Yes, I did. I went into business with him. Tom was good to me.’ She spat the words out and Zander gave a growl and faced her across the table.

‘I know exactly how good he was to you, Lauranne,’ he growled savagely, his voice thick with anger. ‘I witnessed it firsthand.’

Her grip tightened on the chair and her breathing jerked. ‘We’re not going there, Zander. It was five years ago. If you’d wanted to talk we should have done it then but you threw me out. I refuse to discuss it with you now.’

‘There was nothing to talk about,’ he growled, livid streaks of colour emphasising his intensely masculine bone structure. ‘When a Greek man finds his wife in bed with another man, the talking stops.’

He swore in Greek and paced over to the window while Lauranne watched in appalled fascination. She’d never been able to understand how Zander Volakis had gained his reputation for being ice-cold. With her he was so volatile and explosive that he could legitimately be held personally responsible for global warming.

‘What are you doing here?’ Without the protection of the table between them, Lauranne eyed him with healthy caution, all her senses primed for flight. ‘Why have you come here now? It’s been five years—’

Five years during which she had tried to come to terms with their brief and totally disastrous marriage. Five years of trying to put each shattered piece of her life back together, hoping that the glue would hold.

Zander didn’t turn and her eyes fixed on the back of his neck, on the dark hair that just touched his collar. His hair had always fascinated her. It was the only thing about him that was soft and she knew exactly how it would feel under her fingers. Silky. Tempting. So many times she’d slid her hands into that hair, holding his head while he kissed her to the point of meltdown.

Determined not to dwell on his considerable skills in that direction, she dragged her mind back to the present. ‘Why did you pick this company?’

He turned then, all forceful virile male, dominating her meeting room with the sheer force of his presence and personality.

‘I didn’t.’

She gave a humourless laugh as his words registered. ‘You didn’t know it was me, did you? One of your poor, unsuspecting minions recommended my company and you didn’t know it was me—’

‘But I should have guessed from the name.’ He gave a sardonic smile. ‘Phoenix PR. Rising from the ashes, Lauranne?’

She glared at him, her cheeks flushed with colour. ‘And you created those ashes, Zander,’ she reminded him hoarsely, her chest rising and falling as she sucked in air. ‘You fired me and made sure I wouldn’t get another job. You ruined my reputation.’

And he’d trampled on her heart into the bargain but she had too much pride to raise that with him. He’d proved that he didn’t care about her and she was damned if she was even going to hint at how much she’d cared about him. He was a heartless bastard and she should have had more sense than to become involved with him in the first place.

‘Evidently not.’ His gaze was ironic as he glanced round the smart meeting room. ‘You’ve done well for yourself.’

It was typical of Zander to judge someone by their business success, she reflected bitterly. Professionally she had done well, but as for the other areas of her life—

She wondered what he’d say if he knew that she hadn’t been on a date for five years. That every evening she worked until she was exhausted and then just went home and fell into bed. That she was afraid to slow down in case her emotions caught up with her. In case she suddenly started to feel.

Emotionally numb and physically exhausted was the only way she could safely exist.

But Zander wasn’t interested in emotion. He just didn’t do emotion.

He’d deleted their brief marriage from his memory with the same ruthless efficiency with which he organised the rest of his life.

Lauranne lifted her chin. Thanks to him, she’d learned not to do emotion either. If he wanted to talk business, then they’d talk business. ‘The business is a success thanks to Tom. He financed this business with his own money. He took me on when no other company would touch me.’ Her voice shook as she reminded him of the facts. ‘If it hadn’t been for him I would have had no way of earning a living.’

He rounded on her with a ferocious growl. ‘Don’t mention his name in my hearing.’

She felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. ‘Give me one reason why not.’

His eyes flashed fire and flame. ‘Because you were mine,’ he said thickly, his tone pure masculine possession. ‘Mine. And Farrer did what no other man would have dared to do. Only ignorance could have prompted him into such a foolish and risky course of action.’

Her heart was thudding so hard she thought it must be visible to him. ‘He didn’t know what sort of man you are.’

‘I’m Greek,’ he announced flatly. ‘And Greek men know how to take care of their women.’

She needed no reminder of his heritage. It was part of who he was, visible in everything he did and everything he said.

‘Your relationship with women is stuck in the Stone Age. If Versace made loincloths you’d be wearing one.’

‘I didn’t notice you complaining when you were naked under me.’ His voice was a rich, masculine drawl and she felt it curl its way around every part of her damaged and fragile heart. The vision of lying naked with him was all too clear and she felt an unwelcome coil of heat low in her pelvis.

The discovery that part of her still craved him came as an unpleasant shock.

She lifted her chin, struggling to hang onto her dignity. ‘I’d like you to leave right away.’

‘Because you don’t trust yourself around me, Lauranne?’

‘Because I’m afraid I might bruise you if you stay within thumping distance,’ she said grittily. ‘Fighting always was what we did best.’

He lifted an eyebrow mockingly, back in control once again. ‘That’s not how I remember it, agape mou. We did a lot of things extremely well.’

Their eyes clashed and she caught her breath, remembering, feeling—

Oh, God, she didn’t want to feel…

‘Go, Zander. Just go.’

But he didn’t go. Instead he strolled towards her, his eyes still locked with hers in blatant challenge.

She forced herself to hold her ground. Forced herself not to turn and run despite the quivering of her body and the lurch of her heart.

‘You always reminded me of a firework,’ he murmured, his tone conversational as he steadily closed the distance between them. ‘Sparky, full of fire and beautiful enough to make a man gasp. And dangerous to handle.’

His words made her breathing jerk. ‘Come any closer and you’re going to find out just how dangerous. And stop pretending that we had any sort of relationship that meant anything. To you it was just sex and you were only interested in me because I refused you.’

‘Not true,’ he shot back instantly. ‘I was interested because you challenged me. With every flash of your blue eyes and every lift of that delicate chin, you challenged me.’ He came to a halt directly in front of her, a smile playing around his firm mouth. ‘But it’s true that no woman had ever run away from me before. It was a first.’

‘You are impossibly arrogant.’ She gave an exclamation of disgust and his smile widened.

‘I’m honest. And we both know that you were just playing games. You were mine from the moment I saw you sitting on that bar stool, that tiny skirt showing every inch of your fabulous long legs, your golden hair trailing down your back like a beacon lighting up the night sky.’

Her pulse was fluttering and she shook her head in denial. ‘I never would even have spoken to you if I’d known who you were.’

He lifted a hand and touched her hair with gentle fingers, his touch making her tremble.

‘You couldn’t help yourself, Lauranne. And neither could I. It was stronger than both of us—’

And it was still stronger than both of them.

This close she was aware of every single inch of him. She could see the strong column of his throat, smell the tantalising male smell that she associated only with Zander, and she could feel the power of his sexuality with every traitorous bone in her body. He was just so wickedly attractive, she thought desperately, remembering the way he’d murmured huskily to her in Greek as he’d rolled her under him on a warm sandy beach.

She pushed the thought away, wondering why the brain remembered good when there was so much bad to choose from.

‘If I’d known who you were I would have known you were trouble. Your reputation alone would have made me run a mile.’

Dear God, how could she feel like this? Even after everything he’d done to her, she could feel the heat of desire burning inside her, the incessant throb of the blood in her veins.

It was as if her body were suddenly coming to life after five years of hibernation.

Only Zander had ever done this to her.

Only Zander drove her to a pitch of sexual excitement that eclipsed the workings of her brain.

And he hadn’t even touched her—

He was dangerous, deadly and thoroughly addictive.

‘You were a fascinating mixture of sparky and shy,’ he observed, totally ignoring her snappy response. ‘Nervous of me but excited and intrigued at the same time.’

Suddenly it was difficult to speak. ‘I was right to be nervous of you. I should have run a mile.’

‘Instead of which you married me.’

His cool statement sucked the breath from her lungs. Yes, she’d married him. Because she’d been so madly, crazily in love with him that from the day she’d met him the only word in her vocabulary had been ‘yes.’

‘Everyone makes mistakes, Zander.’ And she was still paying for hers. Every minute of every day. ‘You’re ruthless and cold-hearted and I truly don’t believe that you have a compassionate bone in your body.’

He stared at her for a long moment, a muscle working in his lean jaw. ‘There are plenty of people out there who would agree with you,’ he drawled, ‘which brings us back to the reason I’m here.’

Her brain did an emergency stop. She’d actually forgotten that there must be a reason for his visit.

‘You’re here because your people made a big mistake,’ she reminded him caustically. ‘You wouldn’t have come if you’d known it was me. And now you know, you can leave the same way you came in.’

‘I don’t think so.’ There was a strange light in his eyes. ‘You see, after five years I’ve finally found a use for you. You’re going to work for me again.’




CHAPTER TWO


LAURANNE stared at Zander in stunned silence.

He wanted her to work for him?

Was he mad?

Had he forgotten everything that had happened between them?

Had he forgotten the hideous details?

Her skin prickled and she suddenly felt hot. Terribly hot. ‘You must be joking. I will never work for you again.’

A smooth dark eyebrow lifted and he smiled, totally unperturbed by her passionate declaration. ‘You think not?’

She stared at him helplessly, realising too late that she’d said the wrong thing. A blatant refusal simply fuelled his ferociously competitive instinct. No one ever refused Zander Volakis anything. It just cemented his desire to win.

He was assuming she’d issued him a challenge, instead of which her refusal to work for him had originated from the most basic instinct for survival.

She resisted the impulse to slap the arrogant smile from his handsome face. ‘This isn’t one of your games, Zander. I wish you’d never come here but seeing as you have we might as well sort things out once and for all.’ Her heart was banging against her ribs as she came to an instant decision. ‘I—I want a divorce.’

There was a pulsing silence and he surveyed her with a maddening degree of cool.

‘You want a divorce?’ He sounded faintly amused. ‘This is very sudden, agape mou. After five years you suddenly want a divorce?’

Five years of utter misery. Five years of burying her past and trying to get on with her life. It was like ignoring an enormous wound and hoping that it would heal by itself.

But it hadn’t healed. Maybe a divorce was the answer.

‘We made a mistake, Zander,’ she croaked, wishing her insides didn’t feel so raw. ‘Let’s put it right.’

Then maybe she could finally let go and get on with her life.

There was a long silence and Zander watched her thoughtfully. ‘All right,’ he said finally. ‘Do this job for me, and I’ll consider it.’

‘No!’ She didn’t want him to turn it into one of his deals. She just wanted him to leave before she fell apart. ‘I don’t want to work for you again.’

It was just too painful. Seeing him again.

Being this close—

He paced slowly across the carpet, infuriatingly calm in the face of her growing anger. ‘You’re running a business, Lauranne. Can you afford to turn away wealthy clients?’

‘Whatever you offered would never be enough to even vaguely tempt me to work for you again,’ she said bitterly. ‘There’s more to a business than money.’

He laughed. ‘If you think that then it’s a wonder you’re still trading.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t expect you to understand what I mean,’ she flung back, her eyes blazing with the fire of past injuries. ‘You only ever look at the bottom line.’

‘Where else is there to look?’

‘At people! People matter, Zander. People have feelings—’ She broke off, horrified with herself for becoming so emotional. How could it still hurt so much? Whoever said that time heals had never been in love with Zander Volakis. She was rapidly discovering that time hadn’t healed anything at all. Trying to calm herself, she reached out and poured herself a glass of water with a shaking hand. ‘Believe it or not, when I refused to see you I was not issuing you with a challenge.’ She’d been protecting herself. ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with you and I can’t think why you would want me to work for you again.’

‘Because I need someone to do a good job.’

Her fingers tightened around the glass and she glared at him, hating him for coming back into her life. Hating herself for reacting so strongly. ‘And what makes you think I’d do a good job for you?’

‘Three reasons come to mind,’ he drawled lazily. ‘Firstly because I will pay you an indecent sum of money that you can’t afford to turn down; secondly because if you don’t do a good job, then I won’t give you that divorce that you suddenly seem to want so much.’

Lauranne licked dry lips. ‘You said three reasons.’ Her voice was little more than a croak. ‘What’s the third?’

He smiled. ‘Thirdly you will do the very best job you can, because if you mess up then I’ll ruin you and I’ll ruin Farrer.’ He gave a casual shrug. ‘Simple really.’

The glass slid from her hand and shattered on the floor. Like my life, Lauranne thought numbly, not even bothering to pick up the pieces as she stared at Zander. ‘You can’t be serious.’

‘I never joke about work,’ he said smoothly. ‘You should know that much about me.’

She did know. When it came to work, Zander was single-minded. Driven.

She tried another tack. ‘You can’t possibly want me to work for you again. Not after everything that happened.’

‘Five years ago I wasn’t safe to be in the same room as you,’ he agreed, ‘but thankfully I’ve moved on since then. You’ll work for me, Lauranne.’ He delivered his statement with cool confidence, his total lack of emotion in direct contrast to her own highly charged feelings. His careless, arrogant assumption that she’d eventually agree to his demands increased the tension in the room by dramatic degrees.

‘You fired me,’ she said, her voice shaking with a passion so powerful that it threatened to consume her usually rational self. ‘You fired me publicly and then ruined my reputation so thoroughly that no other company would touch me.’

He shrugged, casually dismissive of her passionate statement. ‘What happened between us is in the past. Fortunately for you, I’m willing to forget what you did.’

She gaped at him, rendered speechless by his overwhelming arrogance.

Forget?

Had their marriage really affected him so little that he could forget?

And did he really think that she would ever forget?

Had he really no idea just what he’d done to her? How much she’d suffered because of him? Part of her was proud that she’d survived in spite of him and part of her wanted to leap on him and claw at that devastatingly handsome face if only to provoke some degree of emotional response.

‘You’re my husband and yet you tried to destroy me.’ Her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘You took vows, Zander. Made promises. And none of them meant anything to you, did they? You are utterly ruthless and I will remind myself of that fact every single day of my life.’

Black eyes clashed with blue. ‘You angered me.’

Such a simple statement with which to justify brutal behaviour. He was just so Greek, she reflected helplessly, his otherwise razor-sharp intellect neutralised by his driving need for revenge.

He stepped towards her and she tensed, her body rendered immobile by the naked sexuality in his masculine gaze. She felt that gaze with every feminine part of her quivering body. Heat built inside her and slowly spread outwards, consuming her with its intensity. Her knees wobbled and she was forced to face the inevitable. That even hating him she still wanted him with every fibre of her being.

How could she?

How could her body still react to the man when her mind was ordering her to feel nothing and run?

But it was impossible to stand this close to Zander Volakis and feel nothing. She was still helplessly vulnerable to his overwhelming sexuality.

Appalled by that revelation, she reminded herself that she might not be able to control her reaction to him, but she could certainly control her actions and she had more sense than to act on those feelings.

Determined to conquer her own weakness, Lauranne curled her fingers into her palms. ‘Get out before I call Security.’

The faint lift of his brow and the hint of amusement in his dark eyes drew attention to the foolishness of her words. Her ‘Security’ consisted of the caretaker who maintained the building and was nominally responsible for keeping the alarm system in working order. Hardly a match for a professional security team, or even Zander himself. He was taller and broader than every other male of her acquaintance and she knew from experience that he was a man who could handle himself physically.

‘I think we both know that your “Security” are unlikely to challenge me.’ Zander moved closer still and suddenly the room seemed airless. The meeting room was huge and light and yet he managed to dominate every inch of the space around him.

‘I want you to go. I mean it, Zander.’ She dragged her gaze away from those indecently thick dark lashes, trying hard to ignore the masculine jaw and the wide, sensual mouth that could kiss a woman to a state of madness. Instead she forced herself to focus on the pain and the hurt. The destruction of her life. The man was a ruthless hunter. He took what he wanted and then moved on, stepping neatly over the debris that he’d created. ‘I have absolutely nothing to say to you. If you truly want to work with my company then you can talk to Tom.’

It was the wrong thing to say.

With appalled fascination she stood totally still, watching the change in him again, seeing the way his broad shoulders tensed in preparation for a fight.

‘You have the nerve to suggest that I talk to him, knowing what I would do to him if he set just one foot inside this office again—are you really that stupid?’

She stared at him, transfixed, hardly daring to move or speak in case her actions inflamed him further.

No. She wasn’t stupid.

She’d just forgotten what it was like to deal with an elemental Greek male. All the other men she knew were civilised and mild mannered. Not Zander. He was shockingly primitive, his emotions so hazardous and unpredictable that he should have had ‘handle with care’ printed on his back.

But she wasn’t twenty-one any more and she wasn’t going to allow him to intimidate her. ‘You don’t frighten me, Zander. And if you lay one finger on Tom ever again, I’ll—I’ll—’ She broke off, helplessly, aware of just how ridiculous her threats must seem to this man.

‘You’ll what?’ Dark eyes clashed with hers, his gaze heavily loaded with derision. ‘Still fighting battles for that pathetic little coward, Lauranne?’

‘He isn’t pathetic—’

‘He left you in here with me,’ Zander pointed out dryly, his tone dripping with masculine derision. ‘Hardly the actions of a hero, given our past history. He should have been in here, protecting his woman.’

‘I was never his woman.’

There.

She’d said it. Finally she’d said it. The words she should have spoken five years earlier and would have done if it hadn’t been for her stupid pride and a misguided desire to play him at his own game.

But her statement had no impact on Zander. It was five years too late.

‘Don’t insult my intelligence,’ he ground out, anger and tension evident in the aggressive thrust of his jaw and the set of his wide shoulders. ‘You were in bed with him. And you were wearing my wedding ring at the time.’

Lauranne stared at him helplessly, her chest rising and falling as she struggled to breathe. Zander was Greek to the very backbone and she knew that there was no point in trying to tell him the truth. And anyway, wasn’t part of it her fault? Hadn’t she manipulated the situation because she’d wanted Zander to be jealous? Wanted to punish him for the hurt he’d caused her. And she’d succeeded.

She’d succeeded so well that his reaction had frightened her—

The whole situation had escalated out of control so fast that she hadn’t even had a chance to confess the truth. That the embrace he’d witnessed had started off as comfort. A brotherly hug to ease the pain of having discovered that Zander had no intention of changing his playboy lifestyle just because he’d married her.

‘It’s too late for excuses and explanations,’ Zander interrupted harshly. ‘You’re only making them because you’re afraid that I’m not safe around your lover. And you’re right. I’m not safe.’ His dark eyes glittered dangerously and he fixed his gaze on her face with a fierce intensity. ‘I’m not safe at all.’

‘Zander—’

‘Despite your mouth and your attitude, you were a virgin when I met you.’ His tone was raw, his breathing shallow and decidedly unsteady as he wrestled for control. ‘So what was it, Lauranne? What happened? Did you need to experiment? Did you need to find out what it was like with other men?’

The injustice of it bit through to her soul.

Her temper flaring, she glared at him. ‘You don’t have the monopoly on variety, Zander.’

It was a foolish, inflammatory thing to say and the moment the words left her mouth she wished she could retract them.

Zander Volakis was a poor choice of adversary.

His eyes clashed with hers and Lauranne felt like an animal caught in headlights, aware of the rapid approach of danger but unable to move. Instinctively she tensed and prepared for impact. She heard his sharply indrawn breath, saw the flash of anger in his eyes and knew she was looking at a man at the very edge of tolerance.

His mouth was pressed together in a grim line, his gaze hostile and challenging, and she realised that the past was a subject she was never going to be able to discuss with this man unless he was physically restrained. He just wouldn’t listen to her. Not then and not now.

It was only when he unexpectedly turned and started scanning the photographs and award certificates on the walls that she suddenly realised that she’d been holding her breath.

Starved of oxygen, her head thumping and her heart banging against her chest, Lauranne dragged some much-needed air into her lungs. Forcing herself to breathe slowly she glanced around her. She couldn’t run because he could outrun her, so all she could do was wait, unsure as to when the next attack would come.

He stopped in front of one of her certificates, legs planted firmly apart in an attitude of pure male dominance. ‘You’ve received plenty of awards—’

‘I’m good at my job. And I was good at my job when you fired me.’

He ignored that. ‘We’d gone way past a business relationship.’

And that had been her biggest mistake, of course.

She’d married the boss. And when her marriage had fallen apart, so had her career.

‘You were my wife and you betrayed me,’ he growled. ‘And now you have what you obviously wanted. A new life with your lover.’

Lauranne gaped at him, deprived of speech by his spectacular misinterpretation of the facts.

‘Tom is not my lover.’

If she hadn’t been so appalled she would have laughed. This was a man with a brilliant brain, a man whose ability with figures was legendary and who had an awesome reputation for strategic thinking.

Why was it that with her he developed tunnel vision?

How had he added two and two and made fifty?

Hadn’t he known how much she’d loved him?

She opened her mouth to ask him that exact question and then closed it again. What was the point? It was too late. Too late for both of them. They’d moved past the point where communication could make a difference. And the past was history now. She just wanted him to be history too and the less she spoke, the better. There was only one level on which they’d ever communicated effectively and she didn’t even want to think about that.

So she stayed silent, trying to anticipate his next move.

‘I don’t want Farrer anywhere near my business,’ he said harshly, ‘but I want you working for me again.’

His emphatic statement should have stimulated a sharp retort on her part but her brain had ceased to function. She was operating on a much baser level.

Mesmerised by his shockingly potent masculinity, Lauranne opened her mouth and her tongue flickered out to moisten her lips. His dark gaze homed in on the gesture with the speed of a heat-seeking missile and suddenly she was holding her breath. Remembering.

His eyes lifted back to hers and she felt the tension throb between them, the atmosphere so taut that it threatened to snap at any moment. His eyes dropped to the tiny pulse in her neck and then moved lower still, resting on the soft swell of her breasts under the cream silk blouse.

Did he know?

Did he know what effect he had on her? Fighting the temptation to lift her hands and cover herself, Lauranne stood still, helpless to prevent the hardening of her nipples and the growing ache in her pelvis.

Imprisoned by that shimmering dark gaze, she felt herself melt inside, hypnotised by a force too powerful to resist.

Sexual awareness throbbed between them and then he swore softly in Greek and dragged his gaze away from her, a muscle working in his lean, bronzed cheek.

Of course he knew, she thought helplessly. Hadn’t he always known? He’d recognised her response to him before she had. And that was hardly surprising. A man as experienced with her sex as Zander knew everything there was to know about female reactions. He was able to detect the most subtle of signs and know exactly when to make his move.

‘Farrer would never be able to satisfy a woman like you.’ His harsh statement took her by surprise and she gaped at him, stunned by his unspoken implication that he would be the only male to ever fulfil that task. ‘You’d trample all over him.’

‘Not every woman is vulnerable to your particular brand of Neanderthal machismo,’ she said bitterly and then wished she hadn’t because he was across the room in less than two strides, pulling her against him in a powerful movement that reminded her that she was talking utter rubbish.

She was extremely vulnerable and she always had been where Zander was concerned.

‘Let’s test that theory, shall we?’ His dark eyes shielded by impossibly long lashes, he gazed down at her, muttered something in Greek and then brought his mouth down on hers in a kiss of such savage urgency that she had no time even to whimper a protest.

Her mouth opened under the determined pressure of his and then she was kissing him back, her tongue tangling with his, her hands sneaking upwards to lock in his silky black hair.

It was wild and hot, the kiss of a man seeking to stake his claim, and she responded in full measure, her hips grinding against his in an effort to draw herself closer to the very centre of his masculinity.

How she’d missed this—

How she’d missed him.

It was as if their bodies recognised each other, drawn together by a force more powerful than the mere physical. She felt him shudder and then he was lifting her onto the desk, curling her legs around his muscular length so that they were held together in the most intimate way possible.

‘Not vulnerable?’ He growled the words against her mouth and yanked her closer so that she felt the hard throb of his erection against her most sensitive flesh. ‘Does he make you feel this, Lauranne?’

Heat exploded in her pelvis and she squirmed closer still, frustrated by the barriers that still remained.

And then suddenly he released her, uttered a savage curse and extracted himself from the coil of her body with decisive force, leaving her to clutch dizzily at the desk for support.

Her whole body throbbed with a sexual need that she hadn’t felt for five long years and for a second she stared at him blankly, unable to comprehend why he had ended something so utterly perfect. Then her passion-clouded brain flickered slowly to life and humiliation set in.

He’d ended it because the kiss had had nothing to do with chemistry and everything to do with revenge. She’d dented his ego and he was punishing her.

What was she doing?

This man was her enemy. Without thinking she’d issued another challenge, this time to his sexuality, and he’d responded by kissing her in anger, using passion as a punishment, not a seduction. The moment his mouth had crushed hers she’d been clinging to him, swept away by a primitive sexual need that she’d only ever felt with this man.

Was she really that shallow?

‘I hate you,’ she whispered, but the words were meaningless even to her because the lips that formed them were soft and swollen from his kisses and the eyes that glared at him were still hazy with passion.

‘I don’t care.’ He stepped away from her with all the grim satisfaction of a male who had very definitely proved his point. ‘I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty. We’ll discuss terms over dinner.’

Dinner?

She stared at him, muted by the shivers that still affected her body.

‘What?’ He lifted a smooth, dark eyebrow in her direction. ‘No smart remark? No refusal? No, you’re the last man on earth I’d eat dinner with? This isn’t going to be much fun if you’re so compliant, agape mou.’

‘Why d-dinner?’ Still shocked by the intensity of her response to him, her brain seemed to have slowed to a virtual halt.

He dealt her a wry smile. ‘Despite the fact you claim not to be vulnerable to me, I suspect that the only way you and I will ever be able to conduct a conversation of any length, agape mou, is if we meet in a very public place. Hopefully the presence of an audience will curb our natural instincts to strip each other naked.’

She stared at him, shattered at being confronted with such an unpalatable truth. How could she have responded like that? She should have slapped his handsome face, instead of which—

‘I have absolutely no trouble resisting you,’ she croaked and he smiled.

‘Of course you don’t.’

His eyes dropped to her breasts and she was suddenly painfully conscious that her nipples were pushing against the thin fabric of her blouse, visible evidence of her arousal.

Resisting the temptation to cover herself, she lifted her chin, trying to salvage a trace of dignity from the wreckage of her pride.

‘I don’t want to discuss terms.’ She wasn’t going to let him threaten her. ‘I have nothing to say to you, Zander, in private or in public.’

‘Then I’ll do the talking.’ Totally indifferent to her protests, he strolled casually towards the door and then paused, a hint of danger in his glittering dark eyes as he focused his attention on her one more time. ‘Oh, and a word of warning—’ his voice was quiet but she tensed, detecting the steel under that deceptively soft tone ‘—if you want to have a civilised evening, then don’t mention Farrer.’

Civilised?

She almost laughed.

How could an evening with Zander ever be civilised? He was the least civilised person she’d ever met.

‘I won’t be mentioning anything because I’m not meeting you.’

Black eyes slammed into hers, holding her captive. Like two fighters in a ring they faced each other, the atmosphere antagonistic and highly charged.

‘Don’t play games with me, Lauranne,’ he warned softly. ‘The stakes are high. Seven-thirty. And you know well enough that if you’re not here, I’ll find you.’

With that he turned and strolled out of the room with the same degree of cool authority with which he’d entered it.

Lauranne stared after him with helpless hostility, unsure whether to scream or cry. For five years she’d successfully locked her past away. She’d managed to get on with her life. And then Zander had sauntered back into it with his hot black eyes and his arrogant ways and all her attempts to forget what they’d shared, their marriage, were ground to dust. One frantic, febrile kiss later and suddenly her emotions were free again.

When he’d walked through the door she’d been spitting and angry, in fact all the things she should have been five years before when she’d been too distraught to defend herself from his accusations.

She knew now what he was and who he was—

Knew that Zander Volakis didn’t possess a soft side—

But all that had ceased to matter when he’d kissed her. She’d forgotten everything except the burning heat of his mouth, the erotic probe of his tongue and the hardness of his body against hers. And her traitorous, yearning body had responded with a desperation that had been humiliatingly obvious to a man as experienced and sophisticated as Zander.

She slid off the table and straightened her clothes, wishing that her emotions could be tidied with the same ease. The knowledge that he could still have such a powerful effect on her filled her with despair.

It didn’t really matter if he agreed to a divorce, she thought helplessly. What they shared was so powerful that all the lawyers in the world wouldn’t be able to negotiate an end to it. And the only answer was to stay away from him.

Once he discovered that he couldn’t bully her, he’d leave her alone. He couldn’t really ruin the business, she reasoned, mentally running through their list of clients. He was calling her bluff.

Trying to frighten her into submission.

There was no way she was eating dinner with him. In fact there was no way she was going to see him again in any shape or form.

He might be arriving to collect her at seven-thirty, but she wouldn’t be here. And if she knew him well enough to know that he’d find her, then he should also know her well enough to know that she wouldn’t make it easy for him.

If he thought he was going to knock on the door and collect her, then he was in for a long and disappointing evening.




CHAPTER THREE


ZANDER strode out to his sports car, furious with himself and cursing his utter lack of control.

What the hell had come over him? he wondered savagely as he tossed the file on Phoenix PR onto the passenger seat and slid into the car, oblivious to the rest of his team and his bodyguards who immediately swarmed into the car parked behind. He’d virtually jumped her on her table and he never behaved like that. He was a man who prided himself on his self-discipline, on being able to operate without allowing emotions to interfere with his decision-making.

But Lauranne reduced his behaviour to a level so basic that he barely recognised himself.

He’d wanted to punish her—

It had been the shock of seeing her, he reassured himself grimly. He hadn’t expected to see her. And he certainly hadn’t expected to see Farrer.

It had been the desire to wipe Farrer’s name from her lips that had driven him to behave like that, staking a claim where none lay.

And the moment he’d felt her soft mouth open under his he’d been lost, overwhelmed by a raw physical need that he’d never experienced around any woman except Lauranne O’Neill.

Lauranne—

The biggest mistake of his life.

As if to taunt him, a powerful vision exploded inside his brain. A vision of honey-blonde hair and a soft mouth curved in a tempting smile designed to drive a man to the edge of sanity.

Lauranne, with her micro miniskirts, endless brown legs and hotly passionate nature.

Zander gave a humourless laugh. For most of his life he’d watched his father make an utter fool of himself over a string of women and he’d vowed never to do the same thing himself. There was no way he was ever going to get married. He wasn’t so stupid.

But then he’d met Lauranne—

He groaned and leaned his head against the seat of the car, almost able to feel the touch of her mouth on his. From the moment they’d met they’d been enveloped by a scorching fire of passion so intense and primitive that for a short while it had consumed both of them. To the extent that he’d done the one thing he’d always promised himself he’d never do.

He’d married her.

And to this day he didn’t understand why he’d done it.

Breathing heavily, Zander reached out a lean brown hand and flipped open the file that his lawyer had given him, his heart thudding as he gazed at the photograph on the first page.

Had he bothered to open the file sooner he might not now be suffering from a severe case of mental and sexual frustration, he reflected grimly, reminding himself to always check out every company that his lawyer suggested in future. Had he known it was her he would never have agreed to meet her.

Or would he?

Staring down at those amazing blue eyes, he felt a reaction so raw, so primitively sexual that his body stirred in the most masculine way possible. His mouth tightened in bitter self-condemnation. It had always been like that with this woman. From the first moment he’d seen her, sipping a cocktail in one of his bars by the beach, swinging one long tanned leg from the bar stool, he’d been hooked. His reputation for being cool had certainly not been earned on that occasion, he reflected with grim amusement. In fact he’d been so hot for her he’d used every technique in his armoury to ensure that she ended up where he wanted her.

In his bed.

His entire relationship with Lauranne had been one long burn of emotion. He’d brought out the hotly sexual side of her nature and somehow she’d found his sensitive side. Until then he hadn’t even known he had a sensitive side, but Lauranne had wriggled herself into places previously off limits to all females, no matter how beautiful or satisfying in bed.

Zander studied the cool, businesslike photograph of the woman that he’d once known in the most intimate way that a man could know a woman.

He’d been her first lover and that had given him a satisfaction that only a very traditional Greek male could ever truly understand.

She’d been his.

He’d held her as she’d trembled against him, swallowed her cries of ecstasy as he’d introduced her to the pleasures of sex for the first time in her life.

And he’d been ruthlessly unforgiving when he’d discovered her infidelity. His father’s experience of women should have more than prepared him for her betrayal, but the emotions he’d experienced had been so powerful that they’d shocked him. He’d felt out of control and he’d hated that feeling. He’d just wanted her out of his life before he was tempted to do something even more stupid than marrying her.

Like forgiving her.

His mouth tightened slightly as he scanned the rest of the file, taking in her astonishing achievements in the five years since he’d last seen her. Even as the anger simmered inside him, he found himself admiring the way she’d obviously managed to build a successful business from the ashes of the career that he’d personally destroyed.

But that didn’t surprise him. She possessed rare qualities, qualities that he’d spotted within moments of meeting her.

Everything about Lauranne was bright. Her mind, her wit and her shiny blonde hair that had wrapped itself around him in a silken seduction every time they’d made love.

Being with Lauranne had been like gazing into the sun. It had left him blinded and dazzled.

And now she wanted a divorce.

His jaw tightened. He’d never even thought about divorce before she’d mentioned it. He’d just put the whole disastrous episode out of his head and got on with his life.

Intensely irritated by the depth of emotion that the mere memory of Lauranne could evoke, Zander snapped the file shut, his eyes suddenly hard.

Swearing fluently in Greek, he pulled into the flow of traffic and made for his office. He needed a cold shower. A very, very cold shower. And after that maybe he’d be able to disengage his libido and engage his brain.



‘I couldn’t believe it when he walked into the room.’ Tom stared at Lauranne in utter dismay. ‘Tell me you threw him out.’

She gave a wan smile, thinking of Zander’s six-foot-three, muscle-packed frame. ‘Hardly.’

Tom paced backwards and forwards in front of her desk. ‘I need a cigarette.’

‘You gave up six months ago,’ Lauranne pointed out gently and he grimaced.

‘If Volakis is back in our lives then I’ll be taking it up again pretty damn fast.’ Tom’s face was white. ‘And tell me that the two of you are not still married and that you were just playing one of your games. You almost gave me a heart attack when you said “he’s my husband” in that chilly tone.’

Lauranne closed her eyes briefly and curled her fingers into her palms. ‘We weren’t playing games.’

Tom stilled and then shook his head slowly, looking at her in horrified disbelief. ‘Oh, no—no, no, no. You’re not telling me you are still married—’

Lauranne swallowed and nodded.

‘Surely you divorced him?’ Tom’s tone was utterly incredulous and Lauranne bit her lip.

‘I didn’t get round to it.’

‘You didn’t get round to it?’ Tom gaped at her. ‘Why the hell not?’

Because she’d meant every one of her vows. Because divorcing him would have meant facing up to the end of their relationship and she just wasn’t able to do that.

‘Because I didn’t really want to think about it.’

Tom shook his head. ‘And Volakis? What’s his excuse?’

Lauranne bit her lip. ‘I think he probably forgot he was ever married to me,’ she croaked and Tom rolled his eyes.

‘Oh, great. So technically you’re still married to him.’ He let out a long breath. ‘So what did he want? Apart from causing mayhem, which is his favourite pastime, I seem to recall.’

Lauranne folded her hands in her lap to hide how badly they were shaking. ‘He wants me to work for him.’

Tom gave a short disbelieving laugh. ‘You’re kidding.’

‘I wish I was.’

Tom’s mouth tightened. ‘But you’re not going to, right? Tell me you’re not even considering it!’ He raked his fingers through his already-tumbled blond hair and looked at Lauranne with naked exasperation. ‘This is the man who took your heart and trampled it into the dirt, remember? This is the man who slept with another woman, fired you from a job you adored and then did everything in his power to make sure that you couldn’t get another one.’

Faced with the unpalatable truth, Lauranne bit her lip. ‘I know that, and I’m not—’

‘Yes, you are.’ Tom let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head in despair. ‘I know you so well and I know how you felt about him. I also know that there’s been no man in your life for the five years since he dumped you. And I’m beginning to question the real reason that you didn’t get round to divorcing him.’

‘Tom—’

‘You’re already dreaming about him, aren’t you?’

Lauranne opened her mouth, wanting to deny it, but no sound came out.

Tom groaned. ‘Don’t go getting ideas, Lauranne. Zander Volakis is bad news. He might have just walked back into your life but sooner or later he’s going to walk straight back out again, taking all the vulnerable bits of you with him.’

She flinched. ‘I know that and I wouldn’t—’

‘Yes, you would,’ Tom said flatly. ‘You can’t help yourself, and neither can he. It’s like watching a natural disaster in the making. Tell me he didn’t kiss you.’

She felt betraying colour flood into her cheeks and Tom swore softly.

‘I knew it!’ He spread his hands in a gesture of exasperation. ‘The pair of you can’t be in a room and not rip each other’s clothes off!’

‘Tom, please—’

‘Let’s get one thing straight.’ He pointed a finger at her, stabbing the air to emphasise his point. ‘I’m not doing it again! I’m not watching you go through it again, Lauranne. For six months you were an emotional wreck. I had to drag you out of that bed of yours every morning. I’m your best friend, Lauranne, but the guy almost destroyed you. I put you back together piece by piece. I can’t do that a second time.’

‘I’m not asking you to.’ Her voice was little more than a croak as she was forced to face memories that she’d tried to lock safely away. ‘I didn’t ask him to come here. He just barged in and took over—’

‘Conquering Greek tycoon,’ Tom said bitterly, pacing across the office and thumping a fist against the wall. ‘You should have told him to go to hell.’

‘I tried that, remember? His listening skills definitely need attention.’ Lauranne made a pathetic attempt at humour but it fell flat.

‘Divorce him, Lauranne. You’ve got any number of options. Unreasonable behaviour—adultery—’ Tom’s mouth tightened. ‘Or had you forgotten the adultery?’

Lauranne felt a lump build in her throat and shook her head. Of course she hadn’t forgotten the adultery. Until that awful day she’d never known the true meaning of pain.

Tom sighed. ‘So now what? Presumably it was him I saw just now burning up the road in his flash car. Is he coming back?’

Lauranne hesitated. ‘He’s picking me up at seven-thirty to discuss business over dinner.’

‘Dinner?’ Tom gaped at her incredulously. ‘The last time we saw the guy, you were his dinner and so was I! Main course and dessert. He’s a predator, Lauranne, and if you trust him then you’re a fool.’

‘I don’t trust him.’

Tom glared at her. ‘This is the man who landed me in hospital—’

She closed her eyes briefly and shivered at the memory. She’d been so afraid. Afraid of what she’d caused. If she hadn’t kissed Tom— ‘I know that, but he’s Greek and he saw you and I together and he’s a possessive guy—’ She broke off, wondering why she was trying to excuse his behaviour.

Judging from the appalled expression on his face, Tom was obviously wondering the same thing. ‘Possessive? Unhinged, you mean. Does being Greek somehow make you lose your brain?’ His voice was bitter. ‘The guy is supposed to be ferociously intelligent. If he’d looked closely he would have noticed that you’d been howling. Generally speaking when I’m with a woman I don’t make her howl.’

Lauranne bit her lip. ‘B-but he saw me on the bed with you.’

Tom had the grace to look sheepish. ‘Yes—well—’ he shrugged awkwardly ‘—I admit that bit was my fault. I’d been drinking with clients and then you turned up looking all vulnerable and—well—’

‘It’s all right.’ Lauranne reached out a hand and touched his arm. ‘We both know it was just the drink that made you leap on me. Just friends, that’s all you and I have ever been, isn’t it?’

Tom sighed. ‘I learned a long time ago that there’s only one man on this planet that you ever notice,’ he said dryly, ‘so fortunately I gave up on you years ago and found myself a decent love life somewhere else.’

Lauranne gave a wan smile. ‘Glad one of us did.’ Her smile faded. ‘It’s all my fault that Zander hates you. That night when he found us together— I could have punched you on the nose if I’d wanted to but when I looked up and saw Zander standing there all I could think about was revenge. It was my fault really. I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have made him jealous.’

She’d played a dangerous game but she hadn’t been thinking straight. In fact she’d discovered that she was capable of being every bit as stubborn and jealous as Zander.

Tom shuddered at the memory. ‘Well, do us all a favour and don’t make the guy jealous again. Did you see the look on his face when he saw me today? I thought I was dead.’

Before Lauranne could answer Mary came hurrying into the room, pink-cheeked and breathless.

‘That was Zander Volakis! The Greek wonder boy—here—in our office—and you, you—’ she looked at Lauranne, wide eyed. ‘You’re married to him?’

‘In name only,’ Lauranne said stiffly and Mary shook her head.

“I’ve never heard you speak to a client like that before—’

‘He isn’t a client,’ Lauranne said shortly and Mary glanced at Tom, her confusion evident.

‘But he’s probably the richest man in the world. And this is just the sort of challenge that you both love,’ she pointed out. ‘Everyone thinks Volakis is ruthless and cold and this is your chance to prove that underneath that controlled exterior lurks a warm, beating heart.’

If it hadn’t been so painful, Lauranne would have laughed.

A warm, beating heart?

This was the man who had destroyed her life. He’d taken her innocent dreams and crushed them with the same ruthless lack of emotion that he applied to his business dealings.

He hadn’t believed in her—

For a moment the pain and hurt threatened to choke her and she struggled to control her emotions, reminding herself how far she’d come since that dreadful summer five years before.

She wasn’t going to let one kiss destroy that, however passionate.

‘Zander Volakis doesn’t have a heart. He is exactly the way he appears in the press,’ she said shakily. ‘He is cold-hearted and ruthless and there is nothing I or anyone else can possibly do for his public image.’

She was breathing so rapidly that she thought her lungs might explode.

Mary was still staring open-mouthed. ‘I can’t believe you know him—’

Lauranne felt her eyes fill and she shook her head in denial. ‘I never knew him.’

She’d thought she did, but she’d been proved wrong in the most agonising, humiliating way possible.

Even now her naïvety made her blush. How could she have truly believed that a man as sophisticated and experienced as Zander Volakis would want any more from her than a brief fling? How could she have convinced herself that there was more to the relationship than sizzling sex? The man was Greek to the very backbone. His concept of relationships was different from hers. He still believed in virgin brides, mistresses and vengeance for acts of wrong.

Vengeance—

Lauranne closed her eyes, her face losing still more of its colour as she remembered the merciless way he’d dealt with her. He’d been cold and unapproachable, refusing even to listen to her. It was as if they’d never been intimate. As far as he was concerned she’d betrayed him and that was the end of it. There was no explanation that he was willing to listen to.

And seeing him so remote had hurt so badly she’d thought she’d die of the pain.

Lauranne opened her eyes. She hadn’t died. She was still here and she wasn’t going to let Zander Volakis destroy her a second time.

Tom glared at her. ‘Tell me you won’t be here at seven-thirty.’

‘I won’t.’ Her heart rate accelerated as she remembered his promise to find her. If he wanted a chase then he was going to get one.

Tom relaxed slightly. ‘And don’t go home, either. You’d be too easy to find. Take my advice. Lose yourself in London. Go for a walk. Find a bar in a part of London that a style-conscious Greek billionaire wouldn’t be seen dead in. Buy a wig. Dye your hair. Put on forty kilos. Spend a few nights in a seedy hotel.’

Lauranne gave a wan smile. ‘And we both know that running will just make him more determined to find me. That’s the way his mind works. Zander Volakis doesn’t ever lose.’

But she was going to make it hard for him.

She closed her eyes briefly and sucked in a breath. What exactly did he want from her? Why would he want her to work for him? She’d already done that, five years before…



Landing a job in the public relations department of Volakis Industries immediately after she’d left university had been the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. Lauranne had started in the London office, learning the ropes, developing a feel for the breadth of the Volakis business empire along with three other graduates, one of whom had been Tom Farrer.

As for Zander Volakis himself, she hadn’t seen him. Like all the other women who worked for him, she’d drooled over his picture in the front of the annual report but hadn’t had any expectations of actually meeting him in person. With offices in all the major capitals of the world, he’d flown in for meetings and left again, maintaining a punishing schedule that had left little time for mingling with anyone but his most senior staff.

She might never have met him at all if she hadn’t become involved in the opening of one of his new hotels in the Caribbean.

‘You’re being posted there for two months,’ her boss told her one morning. ‘You’re going to work in different departments, get a feel for the place and then you’ll be in a position to entertain journalists when we arrange press visits. We call it a soft launch. The idea is to wine and dine them and generally give them such a great time that they go home and write wonderful things about the hotel and the boss. This is his flagship resort. More stars than the night sky.’

‘Will he be there?’ Lauranne was intrigued at the prospect of finally meeting the legendary God-like figure who had taken the wreckage of his father’s company and built it into one of the most successful businesses in the world at a staggeringly young age.

‘No idea.’ Her boss shrugged. ‘Probably not. The guy is usually in the air. Flying from one meeting to another. Or else he’s in bed with some stunning model or actress, so don’t get any ideas in that direction.’

She certainly didn’t have any ideas in that direction, Lauranne mused as she packed a case for the Caribbean. Just twenty-one, she had absolutely no intention of falling in love with anyone, and certainly not with Zander Volakis, no matter how good-looking and wealthy he was. The man had a wicked reputation with women and she had more sense than to fall for that sort of man.

She was sitting in the bar one evening, chatting to some of the other guests, when she was suddenly aware that she was being watched.

The man stood slightly apart from the noisy crowd, distinguished by an air of authority and by the sheer impact of his powerful physique and stunningly handsome face. She should have recognised him immediately but she didn’t, perhaps because photographs in the annual report hadn’t come close to capturing the vital masculinity of the man standing in front of her.





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