Lips compressed to keep them from trembling, she shot the tall, dark figure a covert look from under the sweep of her long lashes. What she saw in his lean face was not comforting. Please, please don’t let him say anything until I’ve had a chance to tell Tom myself.
That was it! If she could explain to Tom herself…sudden hope surged through her. Maybe it wasn’t too late. If she could get this Nikos creature alone and explain how things stood, she could appeal for his temporary silence until she’d had a chance. Their eyes collided; it was a fleeting collision but enough to make her forget about appealing to his better nature. She repressed a shudder—nobody with eyes like that had one!
Of all the men in the world why had she ended up married to this one?
If Nikos Lakis kept quiet about their marriage deal it would be for his own reasons, not out of consideration for her or Tom. Maybe it didn’t fit in with his macho image to admit he had married for money, she speculated. Although it seemed to her that Greek men were quite pragmatic about such things. She gritted her teeth; the best she could hope for was that he’d keep silent for his own reasons.
Katie didn’t know how her trembling knees managed to support her weight as her hand was enfolded in a firm grip. Her tummy muscles cramped violently as long, lean brown fingers folded over her own. The contrast of small and large, dark and pale…once again her beleaguered brain was distracted from coping with much more urgent matters like should she beat him to the punchline and tell Tom now herself?
How would she do that exactly…? Actually, Tom, I’ve met Nikos before…yes, isn’t that a coincidence? I don’t know him exactly, we just got married…
The men were talking, though the words were just a discordant buzz in her ears. Katie found she was sitting but couldn’t recall taking her seat. Neither could she recall how the glass found its way into her hand, but it seemed an extremely good idea to make use of it.
With a sigh she replaced the drained glass on the table and as she shook back her hair discovered both men were looking at her.
‘Is that such a good idea on an empty stomach, darling?’ Tom spoke lightly but his eyes were shooting furious warning messages.
Tom was desperately anxious for her to make a good impression on this man he admired. If only all Tom had to worry about was me having one too many drinks! The irony struck her forcibly, and she struggled to control the bubble of hysteria lodged dangerously in her dry throat. Laughing like a hyena might just draw unwanted attention…
‘Katie’s had a tough day at work.’
Katie’s smooth brow wrinkled…again the anxiety to please in Tom’s manner. Maybe this wasn’t so surprising. Two things impressed Tom, money and power, and this man had both in abundance, and it showed. Tom had money, Tom had power, what he didn’t have was the tall Greek’s quiet, understated confidence. Confidence that came when you didn’t feel the need to prove yourself to anyone.
‘You work, Katerina?’ The dark winged brows knitted as Nikos Lakis managed to imbue the casual enquiry with amused incredulity.
Katie’s eyes narrowed as those black eyes broadcast useless ornament. It seemed as if the antipathy she felt was fully reciprocated.
‘When it doesn’t interfere with shopping or polishing my nails.’
Tom, who had never heard that particular tone in her soft, pleasing voice before, laughed uncomfortably as though she’d made a joke he didn’t quite understand. Nikos didn’t laugh; his merciless eyes continued to rake her angry face and then, much to her dismay, his long fingers curled over her left hand, which lay clenched on the table-top.
Without haste he unfurled her tapering fingers one by one. The tip of his thumb grazed the blue-veined inner aspect of her wrist as he turned her hand over, exposing the short, unpolished condition of her nails; his touch also exposed her nerve endings, which came to tingling life.
Katie would have liked to crawl out of her skin.
‘Not today,’ he remarked softly.
His soft voice did things almost as uncomfortable to her as the light touch. Dabbing her tongue to the tiny beads of sweat across her upper lip, she snatched her hand away.
Breathing hard through her flared nostrils, she lifted her chin. ‘I’m an events organiser.’ And a flipping good one too, she felt like adding to the patronising prat.
‘Impressive,’ he drawled, sounding anything but impressed. ‘And what does an events organiser do exactly?’ he added, making it sound as though as far as he was concerned it couldn’t be much.
Tom, sensing the atmosphere for the first time, looked slightly uneasy. ‘Katie works for a charity, but she’ll be giving up work after the wedding.’
‘Ah…the wedding—and when will that be?’
‘I can’t get Katie to set a date.’
Nikos’s lazy glance turned to Katie. ‘Really? You do surprise me.’
He reminded her of some sleek cat playing with a mouse, not because he was particularly hungry, just because it was in his nature to be cruel. The more she saw of this man, the more she saw to dislike. Kate’s nostrils flared as her teeth came together in a smile that was as brittle as it was brilliant.
Two could play at this, she thought grimly. If he was going to drop her in it there didn’t seem any point prolonging the agony or his pleasure.
It was a dangerous tactic, but Katie felt uncharacteristically reckless, and at least this way she’d know one way or the other.
‘And you, Mr Lakis—is there a Mrs Lakis?’ she enquired sweetly. ‘Or any little Lakises?’
Katie held her breath; the silence that followed her question seemed to last for ever. When her lowered gaze lifted she was surprised to see something that might have been admiration in Nikos Lakis’s dark, glittering eyes.
‘There is only one Mrs Lakis in my life, and she’s my stepmother, who’s very much an active force in my life.’ He smiled, not in a snide, snooty, I’ve-just-stepped-on-something-nasty way—anything but. Katie’s jaw dropped as she watched the stern lines of his proudly sculpted face soften as he produced a real, honest-to-goodness grin.
The transformation was nothing short of devastating. Katie only just stopped herself grinning fatuously back.
‘So you’re not married, then?’ she persisted doggedly.
‘If Nik had married, Katie, I think we’d have read about it.’ Tom laughed. ‘The media would have had a field day.’
You don’t know the half of it, Katie thought, feeling a tide of guilty colour seep up her neck. She pressed a hand to her hot cheek.
She was disgusted with herself that in her desire to score points against the detestable Nikos Lakis she’d lost track of what was most important. The public humiliation and scandal of having his fiancée revealed as being secretly married to Nikos Lakis would be devastating for Tom and her primary concern had to be protecting him from any fallout.
‘Marriage is inevitable if only for the procreation of…how did you put it?…little Lakises. We Greeks are a little old-fashioned about such things.’
‘I’d have said cold-blooded.’
Tom began to look seriously disturbed as he laid a warning hand on her shoulder; the pressure made Katie wince. Nikos’s eyes followed the other man’s gesture, and the permanent line over the bridge of his masterful nose deepened fractionally.
‘Shall we order?’ Tom said, patting her arm before his hand fell away.
‘I’m not hungry.’ Katie doubted she could have eaten a scrap even if her future had depended on it, which was no more an