A Deal with Benefits (13 page)

She still loved the rat bastard. She shook her head in self-disgust. It was a sign that she was definitely her mother’s daughter.

Her first instinct had been to ignore the letter he sent. But how could she? She had felt numb for the last few weeks until she had seen his name on the envelope. She had been pathetically pleased that he knew where she lived. That he was still aware of her.

That ended when she read the letter. Her body shook with anger and hurt, confusion and despair. Every dark emotion whipped through her body until she leaned on the wall and slid to the floor.

This was why she’d cut him out of her life. She couldn’t go through this pain. She wasn’t going to let her unrequited love tear her apart.

The elegant receptionist hung up the phone and gave her a curious look. “Mr. Cruz will see you right away, Miss Jones.”

Ashley nodded as the surprise jolted her system. The last time she was here she had been ignored and forgotten. Now she was given immediate access to Sebastian? She hadn’t been prepared for that. Ashley glanced at the exit and took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to hide from him. Not anymore.

* * *

She was here. Ashley was here to see him. Sebastian stood in the center of his office and buttoned his jacket. His fingers shook and he bunched his hands into fists. This was an opportunity he couldn’t squander. His future, his happiness, was riding on the next few minutes.

The door opened and Ashley rushed inside. “What the hell is this?” she asked as she held up the envelope.

He barely noticed his assistant closing the door and leaving them alone. Sebastian greedily stared at Ashley. This time she didn’t feel the need to dress up. He was glad. She looked stunning in her black T-shirt, cutoff shorts and sandals. Her hair was a wild mane and her skin carried the scent of sunshine.

He frowned as he saw that Ashley was vibrating with anger. “That is payment for Inez Key,” he said. He thought he had explained everything in the letter.

“Why would you give this to me?” Ashley asked, shaking the envelope close to his face. “You got the island because I couldn’t pay back the loan.”

“I want to pay you my highest offer because I made a mistake. I went after this island even though it wasn’t for sale. My actions were legal but unforgiveable,” he admitted through gritted teeth.

“And you think throwing money around is going to make it all go away?” she asked, tossing the envelope onto the floor. “Typical. You rich and powerful men are all the same.”

Ashley may look sweet and innocent, but she knew just how to hurt him. “Stop comparing me to your father.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh, is that what this is all about? You’re uncomfortable with the idea that you are just like Donald Jones? Refuse to believe it even though you think like him. You act like him. You destroy lives like him. The only difference is that you out–Donald Jones the original.”

“The difference is that I regret what I did. It’s tearing me up inside, knowing that you hate me. That your opinion of me is so low.” He cursed in Spanish and thrust his hand in his hair.
That you loved me once but I destroyed those feelings
.

“And so you send me a check because you feel responsible? Because you think if you throw enough money at me you think I’ll forgive you?” Her voice rose. “Don’t get me wrong, Sebastian. I could use the money. I’m flat broke and I don’t know if I can make rent next month. But I won’t take a penny from you. You think this will absolve what you did? It won’t.”

“I know that. I can’t erase what I did.” Sebastian would never forget the hurt in Ashley’s eyes when she realized his original plan. He wanted to be a hero in her eyes. He wanted her to look at him in wonder and admiration the way she used to. “The only thing I can do is repair the damage and make amends.”

“It’s too late.”

“I refuse to believe that,” he said as the hope died a little inside him. “I want what we had and I am willing to do whatever is necessary to make it happen. Tell me what you need from me. What can I do to regain your trust?”

She glanced up and met his gaze. “There is nothing you can do.”

Sebastian felt as if his last chance was disintegrating in his hands. He didn’t know what to do and the panic clawed at him. If she gave him a mission, he could earn her trust. But she didn’t want anything from him.

“Stay with me,” he urged. His request was pathetically simple. He couldn’t dazzle her with his wealth and connections. “Give me a chance.”

She shook her head. “You don’t have to make this offer. I’m not pregnant.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.” Sebastian tasted fear. This reunion wasn’t going the way he had envisioned. He was losing her. If she didn’t want to be with him, he had nothing to use as leverage. She wasn’t interested in his money or power. Those were disadvantages in her eyes. All he could give her was himself. It wasn’t enough, but it was a start.

“I need you,” he said quietly. “You left this giant hole in my life. I can’t sleep. I can’t concentrate. All I do is think of you.”

Ashley looked away. “You’ll get over it.”

“I don’t want to,” he said harshly. “I knew you would be my downfall the moment we met. I didn’t care. Nothing mattered but you.”

“Getting the island back mattered,” she said as the tears shimmered in her eyes. “You used me and betrayed my trust. You planned to cut me out with nothing because that is what my father did to your family. I was just part of your revenge. You would have tossed me to the wolves if you hadn’t been attracted to me.”

“That’s not true! I love you, Ashley.”

“Stop playing games with me,” Ashley said in a broken whisper. She took a step back and he grabbed her hand. He wasn’t going to let her go again.

“You don’t have to forgive me at this moment.” It hurt that she didn’t believe him, but he was willing to work hard at regaining her love and her trust. “Just be with me and I’ll prove my love to you every day.”

She looked down at their joined hands. Sebastian took it as a good sign that she didn’t let go. “I want to but I can’t go through this again,” she whispered.

He knew how much it cost her to say those words. She risked so much. Maybe even more than when she had declared her love. She still may have feelings for him, that she was willing for another chance. “I want to be the man you need. I want you to believe in me. In us.”

The tears started to fall down her cheeks. “I want that, too.”

“Stay with me, Ashley,” he urged her as his heart pounded fiercely. “I will give you everything you need. Everything you want.”

“Stay as what?” she asked as she stepped closer and pressed her hand against his chest. “Your lover? Your mistress?”

“I’m going to make you my wife very soon.”

Ashley tugged his tie. “You have to ask first.”

“I will,” he promised as he covered her mouth with his. “And I’ll keep asking until you say yes.”

Five years later

Ashley heard the incessant chirping of the nighthawks as she stepped out onto the patio. It had been weeks since she and Sebastian had visited Inez Key. Every time she stepped on the wooden dock, she was struck by how much the island had changed and how much it remained the same.

Sebastian had painstakingly restored the main house, adding a few touches to accommodate his mother’s age and mobility. The antebellum house was no longer stark and silent. It was always filled with the shrieking laughter of children and the waft of spices in the big kitchen as everyone had a hand in cooking for the large family dinners.

But this dinner was different, Ashley decided as she caught Sebastian’s eye and slowly walked to him. The sky was streaked with orange and red and the birthday candles flickered on the cake she held.

The guests at the long table clapped and cheered when they saw her. She smiled when they began to sing “Happy Birthday.” She walked barefoot as the ocean breeze pulled at her casual sundress.

Everyone on Inez Key was there to celebrate. The main house was festooned with streamers, bunting and balloons. The bright colors and loud music reflected the festive spirit of the day. The islanders and the Cruz family mingled at the party that had started early in the day and showed no signs of fading.

Ashley glanced at her mother-in-law. She knew it had been a long and emotional day for Patricia. The older woman, dressed in a vibrant red, was dabbing her eyes with one hand while holding Ashley’s infant daughter with the other. Patricia continued to fulfill the wish she’d made almost thirty years ago. She was home surrounded by her family.

Ashley carefully set the cake down in front of Sebastian as he held their boisterous three-year-old twin boys in each arm. She felt his heated gaze on her as the guests sang the last verse.

“Happy birthday, Sebastian,” she murmured as she scooped up one of the boys who tried to lunge for the cake. “Make a wish.”

“I have everything I want,
mi vida.
”

“Ask for anything,” she encouraged her husband, “and I’ll make it happen.”

Ashley saw the devilish tilt of his mouth as the desire flared in his eyes. Anticipation licked through her veins as she watched Sebastian blow out the candles.

As the guests clapped, Ashley saw Sebastian’s satisfied smile at the blown-out candles. The curiosity got the better of her. “What did you ask for?”

“If I tell you, it won’t come true,” he teased. “But this is going to be one birthday wish I’ll never forget.”

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from THE DIMITRAKOS PROPOSITION by Lynne Graham.

CHAPTER ONE

‘B
EARING
IN
MIND
the history of the company’s expansion and success, it
is
a most unjust will,’ Stevos Vannou, Ash’s lawyer, declared heavily in the simmering silence, a wary eye locked to the very tall, dark and powerfully built male across the office.

Acheron Dimitrakos, known as Ash to his inner circle, and Greek billionaire founder of the global giant DT Industries, said nothing. He did not trust himself to speak. Usually his control was absolute. But not today. He had trusted his father, Angelos, as far as he trusted anyone, which was to say
not
very much, but it had never once crossed his mind that the older man would even consider threatening the company that Ash had single-handedly built with the bombshell that his last will and testament had become. If Ash didn’t marry within the year, he would lose half of the company to his stepmother and her children, who were already most amply provided for by the terms of his father’s will. It was unthinkable; it was a brutally unfair demand, which ran contrary to every honourable scruple and the high standards that Ash had once believed the older man held dear to his heart. It just went to show—as if Ash had ever had any doubt—you couldn’t trust anybody, and your nearest and dearest were the most likely to plunge a knife into your back when you were least expecting it.

‘DT is
my
company,’ Ash asserted between compressed lips.

‘But regretfully not on paper,’ Stevos countered gravely. ‘On paper you never had your father transfer his interest to you. Even though it is indisputably the company that
you
built.’

Still, Ash said nothing. Cold dark eyes fringed with ridiculously long black lashes locked on the sweeping view of the City of London skyline that his penthouse office enjoyed, his lean, darkly handsome features set in hard, forbidding lines of restraint. ‘A long court case disputing the will would seriously undermine the company’s ability to trade,’ he said eventually.

‘Picking a wife would definitely be the lesser evil,’ the lawyer suggested with a cynical chuckle. ‘That’s all you have to do to put everything back to normal.’

‘My father knew I had no intention of ever marrying. That is exactly why he did this to me,’ Ash ground out between clenched teeth, his temper momentarily escaping its leash as he thought of the utterly unhinged woman his misguided father had expected him to put in the role. ‘I don’t want a wife. I don’t want children. I don’t want
any
of that messing up my life!’

Stevos Vannou cleared his throat and treated his employer to a troubled appraisal. He had never seen Acheron Dimitrakos betray anger before or, indeed, any kind of emotion. The billionaire head of DT Industries was usually as cold as ice, possibly even colder, if his discarded lovers in the many tabloid stories were to be believed. His cool, logical approach, his reserve and lack of human sentiment were the stuff of legend. According to popular repute when one of his PAs had gone into labour at a board summit, he had told her to stay and finish the meeting.

‘Forgive me if I’m being obtuse but I would suggest that any number of women would line up to marry you,’ Ash’s companion remarked cautiously, thinking of his own wife, who threatened to swoon if she even saw Acheron’s face in print. ‘Choosing would be more of a challenge than actually finding a wife.’

Ash clamped his mouth shut on an acid rejoinder, well aware the portly little Greek was out of his depth and only trying to be helpful even if stating the obvious was more than a little simplistic. He knew he could snap his fingers and get a wife as quickly and easily as he could get a woman into his bed. And he understood exactly why it was
so
easy: the money was the draw. He had a fleet of private jets and homes all over the world, not to mention servants who waited on him and his guests hand and foot. He paid well for good service. He was a generous lover too but every time he saw dollar signs in a woman’s eyes it turned him off hard and fast. And more and more he noticed the dollar signs
before
he noticed the beautiful body and that was taking sex off the menu more often than he liked. He needed sex as he needed air to breathe, and couldn’t really comprehend why he found the greed and manipulation that went with it so profoundly repellent. Evidently somewhere down inside him, buried so deep he couldn’t root it out, there lurked an oversensitive streak he despised.

It was worse that Acheron knew exactly what lay behind the will and he could only marvel at his father’s inability to appreciate that the woman he had tried to push Acheron towards was anathema to him. Six months before the older man’s death there had been a big scene at his father’s home, and Acheron had steered clear of visiting since then, which was simply one more nail in the coffin of the proposed bride-to-be. He had tried to talk to his stepmother about the problem but nobody had been willing to listen to common sense, least of all his father, who had been sufficiently impressed by the lady’s acting ability to decide that the young woman he had raised from childhood would make his only son the perfect wife.

‘Of course, perhaps it is possible that you could simply ignore the will and
buy
out your stepmother’s interest in the company,’ the lawyer suggested glibly.

Unimpressed, Ash shot the older man a sardonic glance. ‘I will not pay for what is mine by right. Thank you for your time.’

Recognising the unmistakable note of dismissal, Stevos hastily stood up to leave while resolving to inform his colleagues of the situation immediately to sort out a plan of action. ‘I’ll put the best business minds in the firm on this challenge.’

Jaw line clenched as hard as a rock, Ash nodded even though he had little hope of a rescue plan. Experience told him that his father would have taken legal advice as well and would never have placed such a binding clause in his will without the assurance that it was virtually foolproof.

A wife, Ash reflected grimly. He had known since childhood that he would never take a wife and never father a child. That caring, loving gene had passed him by. He had no desire for anyone to grow up in his image or follow in his footsteps, nor did he wish to pass on the darkness he kept locked up inside himself. In fact, he didn’t even like children, what little contact he had had with them simply bearing out his belief that children were noisy, difficult and annoying. Why would any sane adult want something that had to be looked after twenty-four hours a day and gave you sleepless nights into the bargain? In the same way why would any man want only one woman in his bed? The
same
woman, night after night, week after week. Ash shuddered at the very suggestion of such severe sexual confinement.

He recognised that he had a decision to make and he resolved to act fast before the news of that ridiculous will hit the marketplace and damaged the company he had built his life around.

* * *

‘Nobody sees Mr Dimitrakos without an appointment
and
his prior agreement,’ the svelte receptionist repeated frigidly. ‘If you don’t leave, Miss Glover, I will be forced to call Security to have you removed from the building.’

In answer, Tabby plonked her slight body back down on the plush seating in the reception area. Across from her sat an older man studying documents from a briefcase and talking urgently in a foreign language on his cell phone. Knowing she looked like hell did nothing for her confidence in such luxurious surroundings but she hadn’t had a full night’s sleep for some time, she no longer owned any decent clothes and she was desperate. Nothing
less
than desperation would have brought her to DT Industries seeking an interview with the absolute seven-letter-word of a man who had summarily refused to take any responsibility for the child whom Tabby loved with all her heart. Acheron Dimitrakos was a selfish, arrogant pig and what she had read about his womanising exploits in one of her clients’ glossy scandal-sheet magazines had not improved her opinion. The man who had more money than Midas had turned his back on Amber without even expressing a desire to meet with Tabby as his co-guardian, or checking out the little girl’s welfare.

The call to Security by Reception was duly made in clear crystalline tones undoubtedly intended to scare Tabby off before the guards arrived. Her small face stiff, she stayed where she was, her slight body rigid with tension while she frantically tried to think up another plan of approach because gatecrashing Acheron’s office wasn’t going very well. But it wasn’t as if she had had a choice, although she acknowledged that the situation was very serious indeed when such a callous personality became her last hope.

And then fate took a hand she wasn’t expecting and she wasted a split second simply staring when she saw the tall dark man from the magazine pictures striding across Reception with a couple of suited men following in his wake. Tabby flew to her feet and raced after him. ‘Mr Didmitrakos...Mr Dimitrakos!’ she launched, stumbling over the syllables of his wretchedly complicated surname.

And at the exact same moment as her very tall and commanding quarry paused by the lift wearing an expression of sheer disbelief at her approach, the security guards came at a literal run, muttering fervent apologies to the man in front of her!

‘I’m Amber’s other guardian, Tabby Glover!’ Tabby explained in feverish haste as both her arms were suddenly grabbed by the two men with him and she was yanked back a step from her proximity to him. ‘I need to see you...I tried to get an appointment but I couldn’t even though it’s desperately important that we talk before the weekend!’

Security really was in need of sharpening up if they allowed him to be cornered on the top floor of his own building by a crazy woman, Ash reflected in exasperation. The young woman was wearing a worn jacket, track pants and trainers, her fair hair tied up in a high ponytail, pale shadowed face bare of make-up. She was small and plain, not at all the kind of woman who would have attracted his attention...although no sooner had he decided that than he noticed her remarkable blue eyes, which were an unusual violet in shade and dominated her pinched features.

‘Please!’
Tabby gasped. ‘You can’t be this selfish—nobody could be! Amber’s father was a member of your family—’

‘I have no family,’ Ash informed her drily. ‘Escort her out,’ he told the security officers, who took over from his bodyguards in restraining Tabby even though she hadn’t put up a struggle. ‘And make sure this doesn’t happen again.’

Taken aback that he wouldn’t even give her five minutes of his time, that he betrayed no recognition even of Amber’s name, Tabby was momentarily silenced. Then she swore at him like a fishwife, angrily employing language that had never left her lips before. In response, his brilliant dark eyes glittered with a raw angry hostility that momentarily shocked her because that cool front he wore evidently concealed much murkier depths.

‘Mr Dimitrakos...?’ Another voice interposed, and Tabby turned her head in surprise to see the older man who had been seated near her in the waiting area.

‘The child—you’ll recall your late cousin’s guardianship request, which you turned down a couple of months ago?’ Stevos Vannou hurtled forward to remind Acheron Dimitrakos in a quiet, respectful undertone.

An inconsequential memory pinged in the back of Ash’s shrewd brain and drew his straight black brows together into a frown. ‘What of it?’

‘You selfish bastard!’ Tabby raked at him, outraged by his lack of reaction and the consequences that his indifference to Amber’s fate were about to visit on the child. ‘I’ll go to the press with this...you don’t deserve anything better. All that wretched money and you can’t do anything good with it!’

‘
Siopi!
Keep quiet,’ Acheron told her sternly in Greek and then English.

‘And you and whose army is going to make me?’ Tabby snapped back, unimpressed, the fighting spirit that had carried her through many years of loss and disappointment rising to the fore again to strengthen her backbone.

‘What does she want?’ Acheron asked his lawyer in English as if she weren’t there.

‘I suggest we take this back into your office,’ Stevos remarked on a loaded hint.

Savage impatience gripped Ash. Only three days earlier he had returned from his father’s funeral and, without even allowing for his grief at the older man’s sudden death from a heart attack, it had turned into a very frustrating week. The very last thing he was in the mood for was a drama about some child he had never met and couldn’t have cared less about. Troy Valtinos, oh, yes, he could remember now, a third cousin he had also
never
met, who had unexpectedly died and, in doing so, had attempted to commit his infant daughter to Ash’s care. An act of sheer inexplicable insanity, Acheron reflected in exasperation, thinking back incredulously to that brief discussion with Stevos some months earlier. He was a childless single male without family back-up and he travelled constantly. What on earth could anyone have supposed he would do with an orphaned baby girl?

‘I’m sorry I swore at you,’ Tabby lied valiantly in an effort to build a bridge and win a hearing. ‘I shouldn’t have done that—’

‘Your mouth belongs in the gutter,’ Acheron breathed icily and he addressed the security guards, ‘Free her. You can take her out when I’m done with her.’

Tabby gritted her teeth together, straightened her jacket and ran uncertain hands down over her slender denim-clad thighs. Ash briefly studied her oval face, his attention lingering on her full pink mouth as a rare flight of sexual fantasy took him to the brink of picturing where else that mouth might be best employed other than in the gutter. The stirring at his groin put him in an even worse mood, reminding him of how long it had been since he had indulged his healthy libido. He knew he had to be in a very bad way if he could react to such an ignorant female.

‘I’ll give you five minutes of my valuable time,’ Acheron breathed with chilling reluctance.

‘Five minutes when a child’s life and happiness hang in the balance? How very generous of you,’ Tabby replied sarcastically.