‘I believe I said I might have been mistaken,’ she said uncomfortably.
‘And do you really believe that?’
‘What I believe is that Angela was trying to hurt me by boasting of how quickly she had replaced my father in her bed,’ Gemini acknowledged shakily. ‘You must have thought I was completely off my head this morning when I started rambling on about the affair you were having with Angela.’ She offered him an embarrassed smile.
He gave a derisive snort. ‘Not completely, no.’
‘You’ve never been intimately involved with Angela, have you?’
‘No,’ he confirmed.
‘Oh, God, I’m so sorry!’
‘Here—drink some more of your wine.’ Drakon moved to pick up Gemini’s glass and handed it to her, inwardly seething at Angela Bartholomew and the lies she had told her stepdaughter. In order to hurt her? No doubt. For himself, Drakon took exception to any woman claiming to have a relationship with him that simply did not, never had and never would exist. Especially in the case of the voluptuous Angela Bartholomew.
Would he resent it quite as much if it had not been the intriguing and beautiful Gemini to whom that lie had been told?
Drakon didn’t even want to think about the implications of that question, let alone find an answer for it! ‘Not everything your stepmother told you about me was a lie. Lyonedes Enterprises is in the process of purchasing Bartholomew House and its grounds from her,’ he reminded her softly.
Gemini gave a pained frown. ‘I don’t understand why you would even want to own a big house and grounds in London when you have this wonderful apartment to stay in whenever you’re in England.’
Drakon drew in a sharp breath even as he stepped slightly away from her. ‘It is not my intention ever to live in Bartholomew House.’
She looked puzzled. ‘It isn’t?’
‘No.’
‘Then who is—? Perhaps I shouldn’t ask that.’ She shot him an awkward look. ‘Obviously you have your reasons for wanting to own a house in London.’
Drakon’s eyes narrowed at Gemini’s more than obvious assumption that those reasons probably involved a woman. ‘I believe I stated that Lyonedes Enterprises is in the process of completing the purchase of Bartholomew House?’ he reiterated firmly.
She frowned. ‘What does that mean, exactly?’
His jaw tightened. ‘Precisely what I said.’
She gave a confused shake of her head. ‘Are you going to open up more offices there, or something?’
Drakon’s mouth firmed as he sensed impending disaster. ‘Or something.’
Gemini looked at him searchingly, but as usual that dark and harshly handsome face revealed none of his inner thoughts or emotions. This man could have posed for the original Egyptian Sphinx, his expression was so damned inscrutable!
She swallowed before speaking. ‘Exactly what are you, as President of Lyonedes Enterprises, intending to do with Bartholomew House?’ She ensured the preciseness of her question didn’t allow for further prevarication on his part.
‘Perhaps we should have dinner first—’
‘Is that because you’re hungry? Or because I probably won’t want to eat once you’ve answered my question?’ Gemini prompted shrewdly.
‘The latter,’ he allowed grimly.
Her chin rose determinedly. ‘Drakon, will you please tell me what your intentions are with regard to Bartholomew House?’
He breathed deeply. ‘For the house itself? Very little.’ He gave a shrug of those broad shoulders. ‘For the land it stands upon? Extensive.’
Gemini continued to stare at him, her expression remaining blank even as her thoughts inwardly raced. Bartholomew House was a beautiful three-hundred-year-old four-storey mansion house, standing on half an acre of prime land in the very heart of fashionable London. Land that Drakon Lyonedes seemed to be implying was his main reason for the purchase.
If that was so, then what did he intend doing with the house that stood on that piece of land?
‘Oh, my God!’ Gemini gasped weakly even as she felt the colour draining from her cheeks. ‘You intend to have the house knocked down!’
Drakon scowled darkly as he heard the shocked accusation in her tone.
It was not an entirely incorrect accusation…
‘PERHAPS you should sit down before you fall down!’ Drakon rasped harshly as he clasped the white-faced Gemini’s arm to steady her before gently guiding her across the room to sit down in one of the armchairs. Putting his hand at the back of her neck, he pushed her head down between her knees.
Just what he needed. An unconscious Gemini Bartholomew in his apartment!
‘Breathe deeply,’ he instructed gruffly. The hand he held against the slenderness of her nape revealed that she was shaking. Badly!
Breathe deeply? Gemini wasn’t sure how she could be expected to breathe at all when he had just revealed that his company intended destroying the house that had been in her family for hundreds of years! The same house where she had been born and had spent such a happy and carefree childhood…
‘Drink this.’
Gemini raised her head enough to see the full glass of white wine Drakon now held in front of her, reaching up to take it from him before downing the contents in one go. ‘Could I have some more, please?’ she breathed shakily.
‘I do not think—’
‘Drakon, please!’ Gemini rallied enough to look up at him pleadingly through the curtain of her hair.
He shrugged those broad shoulders before taking the empty glass from her shaking fingers and once again crossing over to the bar to refill it. ‘I merely wished to point out that your drinking too much wine will not change anything.’ He walked slowly back across the room.
Gemini’s hands shook as she pushed her hair back over her shoulders before taking the refilled glass from him. ‘I don’t think I particularly care about that at the moment.’
He raised dark brows. ‘Which, unfortunately, will not prevent you from suffering a hangover tomorrow morning.’
She laid her head back against the chair, breathing deeply. ‘At this moment I’m more than happy to let tomorrow take care of itself!’ She frowned suddenly. ‘Are you even able to legally demolish a house as old Bartholomew?’
That square jaw tightened. ‘Not completely, no.’
‘What does that mean?’
He seemed to choose his words carefully. ‘It means that our plans for the redevelopment of the site have, by necessity, to incorporate the original house.’
Gemini’s heart sank. ‘Incorporate it how, precisely?’
He shrugged. ‘Plans have already been submitted and approved for the building of a hotel and conference centre.’
Gemini’s hand tightened about her wine glass as she felt a sudden wave of dizziness. ‘And no doubt Angela has known about these plans from the beginning?’
Drakon drew in a deep breath before turning and walking away, his back towards her as he looked out of one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. ‘I believe your stepmother was made fully aware of our intentions at the outset, yes…’
Gemini