‘No!’
It was an instant decision. She was clearly on a mission and wanted to get it over with. ‘So how can I help you?’ He folded his arms, allowing his eyes to half close as he studied her intently. He could feel a stirring in his groin that shocked him to the core. This was the daughter of a man he hadn’t the faintest admiration for. He should be totally indifferent to her. So why wasn’t he?
‘My father needs money.’
He felt quite sure she hadn’t intended to blurt it out like that because a tell-tale colouring to her skin belied her cool outer image. But he was glad that she had because he now knew where he stood. His mind had run to the fact that her father could be offering him first refusal on the business. But money! How much had it cost Keristari to send her here?
‘Is that so?’ he asked with cool indifference. He had no intention in the world of helping this man out.
Dione nodded. ‘He believes that you might be able to help him.’
Theo wanted to tell her straight away that he wouldn’t. Keristari was a bully of the highest order and most definitely not a man to do business with.
But he didn’t want to let Dione go yet. He was fascinated. She was quite the sexiest woman he had met in a long time. There was something refreshingly different about her. It was as though she had no idea of her own sexuality. How he would like to introduce her to it.
‘Why ask me?’ he asked, leaning back in his chair, his hands linked behind his head. ‘Why not his bank?’
‘I think he’s in too deep for that,’ admitted Dione. ‘He says you’re his only hope. He’s counting on it.’
Dione saw the disbelief on Theo Tsardikos’ face, the hint of anger quickly suppressed, and knew that her mission was doomed to failure. But she still needed to try. The image of her father lying helpless in hospital flashed in front of her mind’s eye. Much as she feared him, much as she sometimes despised him, she couldn’t bear to see him so ill and worried.
‘He’s counting on it!’ repeated Theo disbelievingly, dragging dark brows together over velvety brown eyes. ‘Why would he ask me, the man he probably hates more than anyone else in the world, for money? Unless, of course, he’s exhausted all his other options.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Dione, her eyes steady on this tall, undeniably handsome man with a shock of dark hair that looked as though he constantly ran his fingers through it. ‘I didn’t know anything about it until yesterday. I’ve been visiting my mother in England.’
‘So Phrosini isn’t your birth mother?’ he enquired, sharp interest on his face.
Dione shook her head. She wished he wasn’t quite so good-looking. She wished his eyes wouldn’t rake over her as though he wanted to take her to bed.
‘That explains why you look nothing like either of your parents.’
‘Which has nothing to do with the reason I’m here,’ declared Dione heatedly. She certainly wasn’t here to discuss her parentage.
He allowed himself to smile and his very even white teeth looked predatory in her heightened state. Like a wolf about to pounce, she thought. This was a man she had to watch closely. He looked relaxed leaning back in his chair, his shirt collar undone, but his mind was as sharp as a razor.
‘Your father’s using you, you do know that?’ he pointed out. ‘Like he uses everyone he comes into contact with. The best thing you can do, Dione—do you mind if I call you Dione?—is to go right back and tell him the answer’s no.’
Dione drew in a pained breath. What a heartless brute the man was. ‘You haven’t even asked how much he wants,’ she retorted, her back stiff, her eyes sparking resentment.
‘It’s immaterial,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t lend your father one euro, let alone thousands of them, which I presume is the kind of amount he’d want. What’s happened?’
Dione shrugged. ‘All I know is that he’s nearly bankrupt.’
‘Bad management,’ drawled Theo uncaringly.
‘So that’s your final answer?’ she snapped, her heart dipping so low it almost touched her shoes.
Theo leaned back in his chair, a smile playing on well-shaped lips, and an unfathomable gleam in his eyes. ‘There could be another solution.’
Dione’s heart leapt with hope.
‘I could save your father’s business—on one condition.’
‘And that is?’ asked Dione eagerly.
There was a long pause before he answered, a space of time when his eyes raked insolently over her body, sending a shiver of unease through her limbs. But she didn’t let him see it; she sat still, her hands folded primly in her lap, and waited to hear what he had to say.
‘That you become my wife.’
The shock of his suggestion couldn’t have been greater. This man was a stranger to her, as she was to him, and yet he was talking about marriage! Was he out of his mind? Would he lend her father money just to get his hands on her? What sort of a monster was he? Dione shivered as rivers of ice raced down her spine.
She jumped to her feet and glared. ‘That is the most outrageous suggestion I’ve ever heard. What makes you think I’d marry a total stranger?’
A faint, insolent smile curved his mouth. ‘I thought you had your father’s best interests at heart. Otherwise why would you be here?’
‘I do,’ she admitted, ‘but that doesn’t include giving myself away to you.’ The man had no idea what he was asking. He was probably a fantastic lover with years of experience, but it meant nothing to her. She didn’t know the first thing about him. And nor did she want to if these were his tactics.
‘It’s your choice,’ he said, as simply as if they were discussing a normal business proposition. ‘If your answer’s no then we have nothing else to discuss.’
‘Of course my answer’s no,’ she spat at him. ‘What do you take me for?’ And with that she whirled on her heel and stormed out of the room.
His mocking voice called after her. ‘I’ll be waiting should you change your mind.’
‘Then you’ll wait a lifetime,’ she hissed beneath her breath.
Dione didn’t go straight to the hospital; she was far too wound up for that. She had taken a taxi to Theo’s office but now decided to walk. Even then she took a circuitous route and by the time she did reach the hospital she was almost able to laugh at Theo Tsardikos’ suggestion.
But her father didn’t laugh. ‘You could do worse,’ he said. ‘I’ve always wanted you to marry a proud Greek male and Tsardikos is as good as they come.’
Praise indeed coming from her father, thought Dione.
‘I’ve been so afraid that on one of your trips to England you’ll fall in love. It would break my heart.’
It was on the tip of Dione’s tongue to tell him about Chris, but at the last moment she decided against it. Yannis’ health was so bad that such an admission might finish him off altogether. In fact he looked even worse today that he had yesterday. His breathing was laboured and his skin a ghostly yellow and Phrosini hovered, not knowing what to do to help her beloved husband.
‘I can’t marry a complete stranger,’ Dione said miserably.
‘Not even for me?’ demanded Yannis in a rough, angry voice. ‘Not even though my life and my livelihood depend on it? What sort of a daughter are you?’
He made Dione