Anger rose in her like bile; she could taste it in her mouth, the metallic sourness making her feel positively ill. Shame was there too, burning red-hot shame that leaked into her cheeks as she remembered how she had touched him.
‘If you think you can intimidate me, think again,’ she lied.
‘I must not be getting my message across very clearly,’ he said silkily, his deep voice moving over her skin like a flow of sun-warmed chiffon.
She disguised a nervous swallow but she saw the way his gaze dipped to her neck as if he had sensed the up and down movement of her throat. ‘Wh-what do you mean?’ she said.
‘I want you, Charlotte as much as you want me,’ he said. ‘I am here in Sydney for the next month. During that time I want you to be my mistress.’
She reeled backwards in shock. ‘No!’
His dark brows rose imperiously. ‘No?’
‘N.O. No,’ she repeated. ‘Never.’
He paused for a moment, each second ticking by feeling like a hammer-blow to Charlotte’s skull. The tension was unbearable.
‘I met someone this evening,’ he dropped into the taut silence. ‘Someone who reminded me very much of you.’
Charlotte’s eyes flicked nervously to her evening bag before she could stop them.
‘It seems theft runs in your family,’ he continued.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘The police are searching for your sister as we speak,’ he informed her. ‘Once they locate her, it is up to me to decide whether or not to press charges.’
She stared at him speechlessly, her stomach folding over in panic.
‘Of course, if I do happen to press charges, she is likely to face trial, even be sent to prison,’ he continued in the same coolly detached tone.
Charlotte knew all about prisons and the drug use that was rife within them. Her father had died a horrible death—a death that could have been prevented if he had received the help he’d needed earlier.
She had to stop the same thing happening to Stacey. Whatever it took, she had to stop her sister going down even further. Stacey would never recover, not after months in some horrid prison with heroin on tap.
‘So you see it is all up to you, agape mou,’ he said with another little unreadable smile. ‘You either agree to be my mistress for the next four weeks or you will be seeing your sister from between iron bars for who knows how long.’
‘You can’t ask this of me. It’s totally immoral.’
‘Perhaps your sister’s welfare is not enough inducement for you,’ he said, his gaze sweeping over her indolently. ‘I can see you have much more class than she has, so perhaps I will have to use a different currency with you after all.’
This is it, Charlotte thought with another sickening wave of panic. Here goes my career and my livelihood.
‘Are you not going to ask me what I mean, Charlotte?’ he demanded when she didn’t respond.
She clenched her teeth until she was sure they would crack. ‘All right, let’s get it over with. Tell me what you’re going to do if I don’t cooperate. I can handle it. It is after all what I expect from someone as unprincipled as you.’
‘You will have to tame that tongue of yours,’ he cautioned. ‘I will not tolerate you speaking to me in such a way.’
She tightened her mouth and glared at him. ‘How do you expect me to speak to you when you’re treating me like a…a…?’
‘Whore?’ he offered. ‘Isn’t that the word you are looking for?’
‘I am not a whore and you cannot make me one.’
‘I have no intention of doing so. The role I have assigned for you is somewhat different,’ he said smoothly. ‘You will be my companion for the many social engagements I have planned for the time I am here. I do not know my way around Sydney and would appreciate your company.’
‘And if I don’t agree to this preposterous plan of yours?’
He smiled another one of his enigmatic smiles. ‘I would have thought you would have worked that out for yourself by now, agape mou.’
She had worked it out but she clamped her lips tightly together and waited for him to continue, her stomach tightening with apprehension.
‘If you do not consent to be my mistress, the Eleni Foundation will immediately withdraw its sponsorship from the Greek Exhibition you and your desperately ill colleague have meticulously planned. Of course, if the major sponsor should pull out, what do you think the other smaller ones will do?’ he said.
Again Charlotte knew exactly what they would do, but wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of hearing her say it out loud.
‘As to your job…’ He paused to inspect his signet ring for a moment before returning his gleaming eyes to hers. ‘Is it worth losing over a simple matter of your pride?’
She tightened her hands into fists. ‘You can’t do this. I won’t let you toy with me like this.’
‘The way I see it, Charlotte, you do not have any choice. You either agree to be my mistress or face the consequences. I let you off lightly four years ago. My mother was far too gracious on your behalf to allow me to send you to the authorities as I had planned.’
Her eyes shone with unshed tears.
She would not cry.
Not now.
Not in front of him.
‘I did not steal from your mother’s gallery.’
He ignored her to continue, ‘You wormed your way into my bed in order to get to the treasure trove of my dead father’s priceless collection, did you not? I should have guessed it but I was naïve to the underhand tactics of someone like you. You had me fooled, which is something I am not proud of to this day. I foolishly fell for a lie. I had you picked as a young, innocent twenty-two-year-old student who had not seen much of the world, but I was wrong. You are as street-smart as they come, perhaps even more so. The hostel operator told me later that you had had at least two other men in your room while you were seeing me.’
She looked at him in outrage. ‘That’s an outright lie!’
He tilted his head at her imperiously. ‘You have some other explanation?’
‘Yes. The two young men in question were nothing but troublemakers. I met them a few days before I left. They were annoyed I wouldn’t go out with them to party all night. They started playing practical jokes on me like leaving their clothes in my room or pinching my pillow.’
‘You did not mention them to me at the time,’ he pointed out with narrowed eyes.
‘I didn’t see the point. They were just kids with too much money and too little sense. I didn’t want them to get into trouble unnecessarily.’
‘I do not believe you.’
Her eyes blazed at him in fury. ‘It wouldn’t matter what I said—you’d never believe me. You’re crazy. Totally out of your mind crazy.’
‘Not crazy, Charlotte—I am simply in search of justice.’
‘Why now?’
‘When I was approached by Julian Deverell about this exhibition I was immediately interested,’ he said. ‘I knew you lived in Sydney, but when I found out that you not only worked at the museum but would be actively involved in the exhibition itself, I could not resist coming to see what you had made of yourself.’
She gaped