Carole Mortimer - Mediterranean Seduction

Iannis folded his arms across his chest in apparent unconcern, but she saw a muscle working in his jaw as he fought to keep his feelings under control.

‘Please yourself,’ he agreed, in a voice that suggested it would do her no good at all.

Charlotte watched him move towards the window as she started to key in all the necessary information. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she hurried to uncover some evidence that might help to put her in the clear. But all she found was mail that seemed to add to her guilt.

‘Have you found what you were looking for?’ Iannis asked coldly, swinging around when he heard Charlotte’s small cry of despair.

‘I’ve found some mail from my editor,’ she admitted, straightening up to face him, ‘but I’m afraid it will do me no good in your eyes. Apparently my contract with the magazine allows them to sell excerpts where they choose—I should have known. It’s quite a coup, apparently,’ she said, embroidering the remark with a helpless gesture. ‘My editor thought I would be pleased.’

‘Do you always treat business contracts with such casual disregard?’ Iannis queried icily.

He looked every bit the tycoon now, Charlotte thought, feeling her heart leap in response and then plummet again in the same tortured instant. Imposing, but relaxed, his hair neatly groomed and his tanned face freshly shaved, Iannis looked—As the knife of regret stabbed deep into her heart Charlotte put a hand up to her own face and knew what a sight she must be. What a fool she had been to imagine a man like Iannis Kiriakos could ever be interested in her…

‘You do know what you have done, don’t you?’ Iannis said. His voice was frighteningly calm and dispassionate. ‘At best I shall be ridiculed, at worst my state of mind will be questioned, and then the share prices of my companies will dive and jobs will be put in danger.’

‘Aren’t you exaggerating just a little?’ Charlotte demanded with alarm.

‘Would that I were,’ Iannis murmured. Glancing at his slim gold wristwatch, he observed, ‘The London stock market and several of my major companies open for business very shortly. May I suggest that you go and get yourself washed and dressed, and then return to determine for yourself whether what I am saying is true or not?’

Charlotte’s shorts and tee shirt had already been washed and pressed by the tactfully elusive Marianna. She found them lying on her bed when she returned from the bathroom and, after quickly putting them on, she looked at her naked face in the mirror. Marianna’s balm was a miracle cream, but there was still a suggestion of redness across her cheekbones and on the tip of her nose. She had no make-up with her so could do nothing about it—not that she supposed Iannis would even look at her now. In the light of the disaster she had set in motion her appearance was the last thing that mattered.

Iannis turned to face her as she entered the room. ‘ Theos! What happened to your legs?’

Charlotte frowned in bewilderment and followed his stare down to where her legs were sunburned, the backs covered in bruises and criss-crossed with dried blood after her panic-driven slide down the cliff to get away from him. Her mind was full of the crisis about to unfold—the crisis she was responsible for.

‘Has Marianna seen this?’ Iannis demanded in a more insistent tone, hunkering down to take a closer look.

‘Yes, yes,’ Charlotte said vaguely. ‘She gave me some cream.’

‘And where is it?’

‘Here.’ Charlotte showed him the pot she was clutching in her outstretched hand.

‘Give it to me.’

‘But the stock market—’

‘The stock market can wait; this can’t. Give me the balm now,’ Iannis insisted brusquely.

As their gazes clashed, Charlotte looked away.

‘What have you done?’ he said, and his voice had gentled, as if he was asking about so much more than just the damage to her legs.

Charlotte bit back tears and didn’t even try to answer as Iannis got to work. Having applied the cooling balm to the worst of the scratches, he got to his feet and stood looking down at her. She had forgotten how tall he was.

Charlotte met his gaze steadily. ‘We should look at your share prices and—’ She stopped, seeing his lips had tugged up in a crooked smile.

‘Only you,’ he murmured, cupping her chin in one hand. As he traced the line of her cheekbone with one fingertip he added softly, ‘It could have been so different between us.’

‘Believe me, Iannis, if I had known any of this would happen… I’m so sorry…’

He made a sound with his lips that insisted she stop. ‘And I’m sorry I drove you to the point where you felt the only way to leave Iskos was to tie me up and run away to sea.’

There was something approaching humour in his ebony gaze, but more regret than anything. ‘It wasn’t quite like that,’ Charlotte protested softly. ‘I shouldn’t have left you tied up—anything might have happened to you—’

‘Indeed,’ he agreed, cutting across her. ‘And would you have cared?’

‘Of course I’d care,’ Charlotte admitted in a whisper. She watched as one of his sweeping ebony brows lifted in enquiry.

‘Why?’ Iannis demanded softly.

Charlotte mashed her lips together, but the words refused to be stopped. ‘Because I’m in love with you, I suppose.’

‘You only suppose?’

‘Because I love you,’ she said in a louder voice, knowing she had nothing to lose. ‘And now I’ve ruined everything with this.’ She gestured helplessly at the laptop screen. Before he could say anything in reply she walked away to stare blindly out of the window. ‘Let me know when you have the site you’re looking for on screen,’ she murmured, bracing herself for the worst.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

‘I HAVE something to say too, Charlotte,’ Iannis said evenly. ‘Please show me the courtesy I have afforded you by turning around and listening to me.’

There was a quiet authority in his voice that made Charlotte turn to face him.

Iannis indicated the seat to one side of the hearth. ‘I will put some more of Marianna’s cream on your sunburn while we talk. Come and lie down over here. Come,’ he insisted, holding out a hand towards her.

Considering the damage she had done, bringing his empire crashing down, the least she could do was listen to what he had to say, Charlotte conceded. Walking over to the sofa, she lay down carefully on her stomach, not wanting to get the cream he had already applied to her legs on the fabric.

The balm was soothing, his touch intoxicating, but Charlotte knew he was only tending her wounds and wished it could be something more. ‘I can’t do this, Iannis,’ she said, suddenly trying to pull away.

‘Can’t do what?’ he demanded softly, resting his hand on the swell of her buttocks.

‘I can’t let you do this.’ It’s too intimate, and I can’t bear that when I know it’s all over for us .

‘Someone has to,’ he pointed out, lifting his hand away.

‘No, I mean it, Iannis. All I can think about is how much damage will be done by those articles in the newspaper.’

‘It’s too late to think of that now,’ he said bluntly. ‘I shall just have to wait and see how bad it gets and then deal with it.’

‘Don’t make light of it. Too much has gone wrong. Too many people are involved. There’s too much history between us—’

‘Less than a week.’

Was that really all it was? ‘And now so many people are going to suffer because of my stupid mistake.’

‘No one who works for me will be allowed to suffer because of your article,’ Iannis said evenly. ‘I will not allow it.’

‘Then you lied?’ Charlotte said, her voice rising.