‘But it isn’t—wasn’t…’
Which did she mean? Which was right? She really didn’t know.
‘We knew that. No one else. And not knowing that, how would it have looked if it became known that I had taken possession of Thorn Trees after all. That I had thrown my fiancée’s mother and little brother out of their home? Perhaps out of spite for the fact that you had refused to get back with me again…’
‘You think that I would have used this picture as some sort of moral blackmail—a bargaining tool to get what I wanted?’
‘Why not? It is a technique worthy of your father at his best—or do I mean his worst? He would be proud of you, Sadie mou. You have clearly learned a great deal from him.’
‘I’ve learned nothing!’
Raising her voice like this was probably a big mistake, but to be honest she didn’t really care. She wanted to make her point as emphatically as she could.
‘I’ve learned nothing from my father—and I wouldn’t want to! The cold-blooded way he went about everything appalled me. I hated it. My father thought he could run people’s lives—rather like you, in fact. It made my life a misery—my mother’s too—and everyone else’s around us!’
‘And you expect me to believe that?’
‘Do you know what?’
Sadie flung up her arms now, in a gesture that was very similar to the one that Nikos had used a few moments earlier—and expressing the same sort of exasperation.
‘I don’t really care! You’re so obviously dead set against me—and so convinced that you’re damn well right—it seems to me there’s very little point in even trying to explain. I’m never going to persuade you of anything else. So I might as well just stop trying.’
And she’d have to admit that she lost Thorn Trees too, she acknowledged privately to herself. There was no way Nikos was going to let her stay in the house now, under any circumstances. She didn’t dare to let herself consider that thought any further for fear that it would take all the strength from her. And she already felt as if she was fighting for her life.
‘You’re right,’ Nikos conceded unexpectedly, shrugging his broad shoulders in a way that made her mouth drop open slightly in astonishment and disbelief. ‘It really doesn’t matter any more now. If anything, it makes things easier.’
And that was the last thing she had expected. So much so that she took a step back in shock, eyeing him warily, as if she believed that he might have changed shape and persona right in front of her, turning into some totally different, totally alien being right before her eyes.
‘Easier in what way?’
He looked straight at her, those gleaming golden eyes locking with her confused green ones. And he actually smiled. But it wasn’t a smile that warmed her in any way, or even lifted the atmosphere in the room. Instead it sent a cold, creeping sensation sliding down her spine in dread of what was coming next.
‘When we marry, it won’t be such a shock to the world—the gossip columns will already have had a field-day.’
Sadie shook her head in confusion. She couldn’t have heard right.
‘We aren’t getting married.’
‘Oh, but we are.’
Nikos put one hand down on the top of the desk, pressing hard on it as he leaned towards her.
‘It’s the obvious solution, isn’t it?’
‘Not to me. You haven’t even asked me!’
‘Do I need to ask?’ he stunned her by saying. ‘I told you—you are the only woman I’ve ever wanted to marry.’
And he truly thought that that made it all fine. The belief was stamped onto his dark features, drawing the muscles tight around his mouth.
‘Yes, in order to have me in your bed!’
If she’d expected him to look mortified, even disconcerted, then she was very badly mistaken.
‘And what better reason is there for being together?’ he countered dismissively.
There’s love, and caring for each other… But she didn’t dare say it, couldn’t even find the strength to open her mouth to speak the words. Obviously they had never crossed Nikos’s mind, and were never likely to do so at any point in the future.
‘We’re great together sexually,’ Nikos went on, confirming her fears. ‘The best. You have to agree there. Last night proved that. I want more of that.’
‘And me?’ Sadie had to force the words from her tight and painful throat so they sounded raw and rusty, breaking apart at the edges. ‘What do I get out of this?’
Again he looked stunned that she had to ask.
‘Do I really have to tell you? You get to be my wife—to have all the wealth and luxury you could ever want. Everything you’ve ever dreamed of. I’ll never look at another woman as long as we are together. And I’ll give you Thorn Trees too—as a wedding gift. I’ll sign it over to you on our wedding day.’
It was the fact that he thought it was enough that finished her. Nikos obviously felt he was offering her everything she wanted, so why was she even hesitating?
Because what he was offering was everything he thought she had ever dreamed of but nothing that she truly wanted.
She couldn’t do it. It was her worst nightmare come true, possibly even worse than the last time he had wanted to marry her. Because at least then she had believed—had deceived herself—that he loved her. Now she no longer had even that comforting delusion.
‘No.’
The stark rejection was all that she could manage. Besides, what else was there to say? There was no point in even trying to explain. The two of them were on opposite sides of a huge, gaping cavern, and there was no way at all of bridging the gap that yawned between them.
‘Why not? After all, you were prepared to marry me for money once before. What’s different now?’
If he had tossed a bucket of icy water right in her face then he couldn’t have brought her to her senses any quicker. What was she doing even standing here like this, listening to him? She had lost. That was the plain and simple fact. And the only thing she could hope for now was to get out of here with a shred of her dignity intact.
‘What’s different? Everything. Every damn thing. But I couldn’t expect you to understand that.’
‘Try me.’
Sadie had turned on her way towards the door, but those two words had her swinging back, looking him straight in the eye. If she had seen any sign there then, damn it, she might actually have tried. But Nikos’s gaze was pure golden ice, no trace of emotion, no flicker of doubt to give her hope that they were even speaking the same language.
‘You can’t even see that it’s the fact you have to ask that is the problem. If you think any woman would accept a proposal like that then you have to be out of your mind.’
Then, knowing that she had well and truly burned her boats, that she had to get out of here before she collapsed completely, she forced herself to continue her walk to the door, not daring to spare him even the briefest of glances.
‘I’m going to my room to pack—and then I’m leaving—getting out of here. But don’t worry. I don’t expect you to get out the executive jet just for me. If you can order me a taxi to the airport, then I’ll take it from there.’