In retrospect, it was a fitting way to describe the closeness that had existed between his own parents—their marriage had been one of friendship and trust as much as love. A love that had encompassed both their ‘sons’, and which now caused his long-widowed mother to resort to constant lectures on the wonderful state of matrimony whenever he or Markos visited her at her home in Athens and she encouraged at least one of them to marry and give her the grandchildren she so dearly longed for. Unfortunately neither Markos nor Drakon had found a woman they could even contemplate spending the rest of their lives with, let alone be that elusive ‘life-mate’ Gemini Bartholomew had referred to.
As a child Drakon had just assumed that everyone’s parents were as happily married as his own, that their deep love and friendship for each other was the norm. In his teens and twenties, as the Lyonedes heirs, Drakon and Markos had enjoyed dating and bedding a variety of beautiful women, with no thought of falling in love and marrying. It had taken Drakon years to realise that he hadn’t felt even the beginnings of love for any of those women—that in fact the type of love his parents had for each other was the exception rather than the norm.
Now, at the age of thirty-six, Drakon believed himself to be too hardened and cynical ever to welcome that emotional vulnerability into his life. Even if he was lucky enough to find it.
‘You and your father were close?’ he prompted softly.
‘Very.’ Tears flooded those sea-green eyes.
‘I did not mean to upset you—’
‘It’s okay,’ she assured him gruffly. ‘I just—I still miss him so much.’
Drakon shifted uncomfortably. ‘Are you sure I cannot get you something to drink?’
‘No. Really. I’ll be fine.’ She blinked back those tears as she continued determinedly, ‘Things changed between us—became…difficult once Daddy was married to Angela.’
‘He was unhappy in the marriage?’
She had already revealed more to this man than she had intended doing; there was absolutely no reason for him to know of the disillusionment that had set in within months of her father’s second marriage. ‘I’m sure I’ve already bored you with enough family details for one day, Mr Lyonedes,’ she said huskily. ‘I’ve only told you the things I have in an effort to help you to understand the…the awkwardness, of this situation.’
He nodded briskly, obviously accepting her explanation. ‘What I fail to understand is what you think I can do about any of it.’
Unfortunately, now that Gemini was confronted with the man himself, she was wondering the same thing! Sitting at home in her apartment, going over the conversation she wanted to have with Drakon Lyonedes, it had all seemed so much simpler than it was in reality. And the fact that the man was so completely and disconcertingly handsome wasn’t helping the situation.
Nor was the fact that, in spite of knowing he was intimately involved with the despised Angela, Gemini actually found herself appreciating those tall, dark and dangerous good looks…
How much greater would that appreciation be if she didn’t know he was involved with Angela? Gemini dreaded to think!
She nervously moistened the dryness of her lips with the tip of her tongue before speaking. ‘As I’ve said, I would like you to withdraw your offer for Bartholomew House.’
‘Which, unless I have misunderstood the situation, would not seem to be any of your concern. It was Angela Bartholomew who inherited the house on your father’s death and not you,’ Drakon pointed out.
‘But she shouldn’t have done,’ Gemini insisted. ‘Daddy assured me only weeks before he died that he intended making a new will—one that would clearly state that Bartholomew House was to come to me when he died.’
‘Something he obviously failed to do before his unexpected death.’
She gave a pained wince. ‘Well…yes.’
‘He left you nothing?’
Gemini didn’t particularly care for the censure she could hear in Drakon’s tone. ‘I wouldn’t call the cherished memories of the love and caring he always had for me nothing!’
That sculptured mouth thinned. ‘As I am sure you are well aware, I was talking of what you English refer to as “bricks and mortar”.’
‘It wasn’t necessary. My parents set up a substantial trust fund for me years ago,’ she dismissed stiffly. ‘But, as I’ve said, my father assured me that it was his intention to ensure that Bartholomew House came to me after…after his death.’
‘Unfortunately we only have your word for that.’
‘I am not in the habit of lying, Mr Lyonedes!’
‘I was not suggesting that you are.’ Drakon sighed his irritation, both with this conversation and his feelings of discomfort at her obvious distress at her father’s recent demise and the loss of her family home. ‘Only that perhaps you should be discussing all these things with your father’s lawyers rather than with me.’
‘I already have,’ she admitted heavily.
‘And…?’
She sighed. ‘And they acknowledge that my father informed them only weeks before he died that he was in the process of writing a new will.’
Drakon gaze sharpened. ‘But he failed to present this will to them?’
‘It would appear so,’ she confirmed shakily. ‘As such, they agree with you. In the absence of this new will, clearly stating that Bartholomew House was to be separate from all my father’s other properties, then Angela is entitled to it as well.’
‘It is not a case of my agreeing or disagreeing,’ Drakon stated. ‘The law is simply the law—no matter what may have been stated verbally. Besides which,’ he continued firmly as she would have interrupted, ‘if I were to withdraw my own offer for the house and land I have no doubts that your stepmother would simply find another buyer.’
‘I realise that—which is why I’ve come up with another proposal. If you are agreeable, that is?’ Those sea-green eyes had brightened excitedly.
Drakon closed his own eyes briefly, before opening them once again to study Gemini from beneath lowered lashes.
From the things she had just revealed to him concerning the Bartholomew family, she was perhaps exactly who she claimed to be. Nevertheless, as she’d come here today with the sole intention of persuading him to stop his company’s purchase of Bartholomew House, Drakon somehow doubted this ‘proposal’ would be any less irregular!
‘Of course you would have to agree not to tell Angela anything about it for now,’ she added worriedly. ‘Otherwise I know she would do everything in her power to prevent it—to the point of withdrawing from the sale of Bartholomew House to Lyonedes Enterprises.’
Drakon’s mouth thinned. ‘Not without incurring a severe financial penalty for reneging on our present arrangement.’
‘That’s something, at least,’ she breathed shakily.
‘Miss Bartholomew—’
‘Please call me Gemini,’ she invited softly.
‘Gemini,’ Drakon agreed abruptly, although just voicing that unusual name seemed to add a level of intimacy to this already unusual situation that he wasn’t sure he felt altogether comfortable with. ‘You are obviously under a misapprehension concerning my—’ He broke off as he saw Markos reappear at the top of the private spiral staircase leading directly from the offices below.
Gemini frowned as she sensed that his attention was no longer on her but directed somewhere behind her. Her breath caught in her throat as she turned and found herself looking at a dark and handsome man so similar in looks to Drakon Lyonedes that he surely had to be