JACQUELINE BAIRD - Mediterranean Men Unleashed - The Billionaire's Blackmailed Bride

A trait that Emily had inherited from the Deveral side of her family.

So why was she even giving Anton’s tragic tale a second thought? Where he had got it from she had no idea, and she cared even less. As for her marriage, as far as she was concerned it was over …

Five minutes later, dressed in casual drawstring linen trousers and a matching sleeveless top, Emily lifted her suitcase onto the bed and began to methodically pack the clothes she had unpacked only hours before.

She heard a knock on the door but ignored it.

She was immune to everything except the need to leave. She snapped the suitcase shut, and straightened up. Now all she needed was her travel bag and she was out of here.

‘Just what the hell do you think you are doing?’ a deep voice roared. And Emily spun round to see Anton striding towards her. ‘How dare you lock me out?’ he demanded. His black eyes leaping with fury, he grasped her shoulder. ‘What the hell do you think you are playing at, woman?’

‘I am not playing. I am leaving … The game is over,’ she said, standing tall and proud. ‘Your game,’ she said bitterly.

Emily felt nothing for him. She was cocooned in a block of ice. The hands on her shoulders, the close proximity of his big body had no effect on her. Except to reinforce her determination to leave. It was bad enough she had made the mistake of marrying him. She was certainly not going to allow him to manhandle her.

Anton was furious. He had got no work done, he couldn’t seem to concentrate, and finally he had given up and decided to smooth things over with Emily, only to find she had locked him out of their cabin. Not that it mattered—he had a master-key. But his temper was at breaking-point.

‘Over my dead body.’

‘That would be my preference,’ Emily tossed back.

She felt his great body tense and his hands fell from her shoulders. She watched his handsome face darken and for a second she thought she saw a flash of pain in his eyes, and for a moment she was ashamed of her hateful comment. She would not wish anybody dead. But Anton had the knack of making her say and feel things she did not want to.

‘Well, I think I can safely say, barring accidents, you will not get your wish any time soon. Though for the foreseeable future it appears I must watch my back where you are concerned, my sweet loving wife, because I have no intention of letting you leave. Not now. Not ever.’

‘You have no choice.’ She tilted up her chin and drew on every ounce of her pride to face him. ‘As far as I am concerned the marriage is finished.’

Anton’s dark eyes studied her.

He was furious at her defiance but he did not let it show. Because in a way he could understand her distress, her desire to lash back at him, though he had not appreciated her wishing him dead.

He didn’t do emotions, other than over death and birth maybe. But Emily was an emotional, passionate woman, as she had proved spectacularly last night. She had been brought up on love and happy ever after. Hell, he could still hear her cries of love ringing in his ears when he had taken possession of her exquisite body. And he would again, he thought confidently. She just needed time to adjust to the reality of life as his wife.

‘We always have a choice, Emily,’ he murmured silkily, and, snaking an arm around her waist, he pulled her into the strength of his powerful body. ‘Your choice is quite simple. You stay with me, your husband ,’ he emphasized, grasping her chin between his fingers and tilting her face up to his. ‘You behave civilly as my wife and the perfect hostess I know you to be with our guests and you can continue to dabble at your career until you’re pregnant with my child. Something that was implicit in the promise you made yesterday, I seem to recall.’

She stared at him. ‘That was before I knew the truth. Now let me go.’

Her usual luminous blue eyes were impenetrable, her body rigid in his hold, and it made Anton want to pierce her icy control … Something he would never have imagined she was capable of.

‘You have two choices. One, you stay with me. The other is you return to your brother’s home, and his pregnant wife, and inform them you have left me.’ He let his hand stroke down her throat, a finger resting on the pulse that beat wildly in her neck. Not such icy control as he had thought …

‘Then you can explain that naturally, as I am deeply upset, I am severing all ties with your family,’ he drawled with mocking sarcasm. ‘Which unfortunately for Fairfax Engineering will mean an immediate repayment of the loans I forwarded some months ago for the expansion of the company.’

Then, like all good predators, he watched and waited for his victim to recognize her fate.

He saw the puzzled expression on her face, could almost see her mind assimilating what he had said, and knew the moment she realized. Anger flared in her wide blue eyes and flags of colour stained her cheeks. She twisted out of his hold and he let her, smiling inwardly. He knew she was not going anywhere …

Emily took a few steps back on legs that trembled. The numbness that had protected her since his shocking revelation about her father was fading fast and the effort to remain unaffected by his closeness had taken every bit of control she possessed. She was horribly conscious that just being held against him had made her traitorous body achingly aware of him and was furious at herself and him … She drew in a few deep steadying breaths and wrapped her arms defensively around her midriff, grittily determined to control her anger and the rest …

The silence lengthened.

She could feel Anton watching, waiting, and finally, when she was confident she could speak to him without tearing the lying rat’s eyes out, she glanced across at him.

‘And what exactly does that mean for Fairfax?’ she asked in a cool little voice.

‘An educated guess. The expansion will have to stop and they will be in deep financial trouble, and probably ripe for a hostile takeover.’ He gave her a humourless smile. ‘As I said before, the choice is yours, Emily.’

He didn’t need to add a takeover by him. Emily figured that out for herself. ‘You would do that …’ she prompted, and saw his proud head incline slightly, the glimmer of triumph in his dark eyes, and she knew the answer.

‘If I have to. I will do anything to keep you.’

A hysterical laugh rose in her throat and she choked it back. He would do anything to keep her . A few hours ago she would have been flattered by his words, now she was just sickened.

Suddenly her legs threatened to collapse beneath her, and abruptly she sat down on the bed, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, and stared up at him in sheer disbelief …

She shook her head and looked down at her hands, her gaze lingering on the gold band on her finger. What a travesty …

Slowly she reran the scenario of the future of their marriage Anton had painted in her head. It did not take a genius to work out he must have planned this all along. She also realized there was one glaring flaw in the choice he had given her as far as she was concerned.

‘If what you say is true you can take the company any time, whether we are together or not,’ she said slowly. ‘And you freely admit you don’t love me, or anyone else for that matter. We both know you can have any woman you want without much effort, and frequently do by all accounts.’ Though picturing him in another woman’s arms doing what he had done to her was like a knife to her heart. She paused for a moment, drawing on every bit of will-power she could before lifting her head and asking, ‘So why on earth, Anton, would I stay with you?’

He stood towering over her, his expression unreadable. He was so close she imagined she felt the warmth of his body reaching out to her, and she trembled and despised herself for it.