A Perfect Love: International Billionaires VI: The Greeks (6 page)

“I’m suggesting far more than that.” Rafe curled his lip in disgust. “I’m asking point-blank. How much for the boys?”

The muscles in her jaw went taut, her eyes glowed with a fiery heat, and her hands tightened into two small fists. For a second, he thought she might jump over the chairs to wrap her fingers around his neck.

He tensed, an explosive blend of excitement and anger flowing like lava in his veins.

“There isn’t enough money in the world to get me to let go of my brothers.” Her voice was hoarse, yet steady and steely. “However, we can still come to an agreement.”

The commitment in her tone shook him. He’d known, deep down, the tie between Tamsin and the twins was strong. He’d had enough exposure during these last couple of days to note the powerful bond. Up to now, though, he’d convinced himself she’d ultimately cede to the new reality. He was here. The boys were Vounós. And she wasn’t needed anymore.

Her words and tone shook his belief.

A hard knot settled in his stomach, his tension and anger curdling like a poisoned brew. “I’m supposed to believe you won’t walk away from Aarōn and Isaák at some point?”

“Believe it.” She held herself with confidence—her hands draped calmly on her lap, her shoulders relaxed. Her intent gaze never left his.

“I’m supposed to believe they can depend on you?” he snarled. “I think we both know I have ample experience to reject that belief.”

A spark of something, some unguarded emotion, crossed her expression, but she didn’t back down and she didn’t look away. “As you pointed out, this isn’t about ten years ago. It’s about now.”

Rafe gritted his teeth. She was right. She’d thrown his own words back at him and she was right. Damn her.

“I have something you want.” The green of her eyes blazed into him, heating him, making him feel as if he were pinned to the wall. “And you have something I want.”

He crossed his arms across his chest. A jolt of shock went through him when he realized his palms were sweating. In fact, his entire torso was damp. Not with anger or pain or fear.

You want.

I want.

Lust. He was sweating with lust.

She sat there: blond hair in a simple braid, no paint on her face, challenge in every line of her covered body. Nothing like the women he’d dallied with during the last few years. Women who spent hours in the salon. Women who dressed in gowns worth thousands. Women who drank in his every word.

Yet not one of those women ever made him sweat.

The woman before him, and yes, she’d become a woman not only in form, but in strength of mind, continued. Relentlessly. “I’ll agree to the DNA test.”

He narrowed his gaze, keeping his tense hands tucked beneath his arms.

“If you tell me why you didn’t go to medical school.”

T
amsin sensed
when Rafe made his decision. The scowl on his face smoothed into bland disinterest. He stretched his long, naked legs out in front of him. His hands slid from under his arms to land on his thighs in a careless gesture.

He shrugged his big shoulders. The white of the T-shirt he wore emphasized the thickly muscled curve of his bicep. A quick kick of awareness rushed through her.

“I decided to go into business instead.” His voice was all smooth, all solid dismissiveness.

“You dreamed of being a doctor.” She couldn’t stop the emotion flooding her words. “You never wanted to be anything else.”

He gazed at her, his eyes blank. Then he shrugged again. “I changed my mind.”

Tamsin didn’t know why she kept pushing. Maybe it was because she wanted to understand why this one dream, among the other dreams she’d lost, this one dream had been denied. Perhaps if she understood this, she could make sense of the rest of the turbulent emotions this man’s arrival back into her life had stirred inside her.

“You couldn’t have simply changed your mind.” She frowned at her clenched hands lying in her lap as if she could find a resolution there instead of trying to find it in eyes dark with disdain.

“Couldn’t I?” His question was quiet yet biting. “But why not? You changed your mind about us.”

She jerked her head up to meet his gaze. “That was different.”

“Was it?” His voice twined around the words, hostility leaching into each vowel. “I don’t see how. I discarded something I supposedly loved, just as you did.”

His cynicism rolled through her, dragging her into a depressed funk. Yet she knew. She knew. He was faking with his
supposedly
and his
changing his mind
. “You were going to be a doctor from the moment I met you. You talked about it all the time. Your father—”

“
Nai
.” The curt, brittle word cut her off. “And now you have reached the reason why I didn’t attend medical school.”

Sucking in a breath, she forced herself to continue. “Your father would have wanted you to go. Even after he…”

His words didn’t stop her this time. No, it was the look in his dark gaze.

Brutal hate.

Bitter anger.

Unbearable pain.

“Rafe.” A deep well of sorrow and compassion opened in the depths of her.

“Even after my father killed himself, you were going to say.” His lips curved, but it was no smile he gave her. “However, this was when all hope of going to medical school ended, of course.”

“You still had the opportunity—”

“No, I did not.” One of his hands lifted in rejection before slashing down, as if trying to cut off the past. “There were far too many things that had to be done and not enough money to fix everything.”

“There was money for you to go to school, though.” Her throat tightened around each word until her voice cracked at the end.

He appeared startled for a moment, even shaken. A dark frown furrowed his brow. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

Had she been fooled by Haimon? But no, she’d made sure. Absolutely sure. She’d even forced her stepfather to show her the wire, show her the bank account with her love’s name on it, show her when the money had been withdrawn by Rafe.

“You had money.” She had to know. Had to understand.

He stared at her hard for a moment, before leaning back, his eyes blank once more. “Whatever money that was left after my father died, I used to strengthen the family finances.”

“I don’t understand—”

“Don’t understand what?” His long fingers splayed on his thighs, white and tense. “You don’t understand your father left us broke after he killed my father?”

The accusation knifed into her, cutting through her determination to find out what had happened. “Are you talking about Haimon?”

He laughed. His ugly laugh. “Who else?”

The memories of years ago swept into her mind. The sudden announcement of Loukas Vounó’s surprising suicide. The meeting with Haimon. Her decision, her wretched decision. And her last confrontation with Rafe. “Haimon had something to do with your father’s death?”

A rough sound of male rage filled the air around them. “Don’t play the innocent, Tamsin. Don’t even try.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She stared at him, willing him to believe.

His black gaze was as dark and empty as a wasteland. “You have no idea your father—”

“He’s not my—”

“—stole my father’s most important patent.”

“No, I can’t believe—”

“Driving my father to his suicide.”

Horror filled her stomach. She knew Haimon played his tricks. This, though? This was far past anything she could imagine. “You have to be wrong.”

“I’m not wrong.” He lounged in his chair, yet his face was white and his eyes blazed with conviction. “Just as I’m not wrong about the boys, I’m not wrong about this.”

The clear certainty of his words shook the horror in her stomach until it seeped into every inch of her body. “I’m sure there must be some mistake.”

“There was one mistake made.” His casual pose held, but she wasn’t fooled. The tight line of his jaw told her; he was livid with remembered rage. “My father trusting yours was a mistake.”

She glanced at her hands again, no longer willing to face his wrath. Because something deep inside told her, it was true. Everything he said. “I can’t believe—”

“Believe.” The one word was pitched low. Still, it hit her hard. “Believe me when I tell you there was no way I could go to medical school after what your father did to my family.”

Medical school. Her mind whipped back to how this conversation had started. She’d asked one simple question and opened a Pandora’s box filled with unbelievable evil. How she wished she hadn’t even opened her mouth.

“Don’t you understand my family almost lost their home?”

“What?” Her head came up in a sharp snap. She hadn’t realized. Hadn’t understood the situation had been so bad. “I didn’t know—”

“You didn’t know? Didn’t know your stepfather stole my father’s prized patent and then threatened him? Didn’t know my father took his life because of this and that our family was destroyed?”

Only the lap of the pool water on the tiles filled the deadened silence. The boys huddled at the end of the pool, whispering. Tam suddenly remembered what she’d never forgotten before. Her brothers. Their safety, their comfort, their needs. She took a quick peek over at them, wanting to make sure—

“They didn’t hear,” he said. “They aren’t a part of this. All of this is in the past and unimportant.”

In the past and unimportant.
She pushed back the tears threatening to fall. She tried to collect herself, tried to put her old dream to rest. However, her soul couldn’t recover from its wretched realization that something had gone terribly wrong with the sacrifice she’d thought so terribly right years ago.

The clutch in her throat tightened until she couldn’t breathe.

“There was a small amount of money left.” He kept going, almost as if he’d tied himself to the tale and had to finish it. “I used it to pay off the mortgage on the house and start the business.”

Her brain buzzed as her heart ached. “The business?”

“My business.” The claim was stated with pride, though there was a hint of something else there, something distracted, even disturbed.

She couldn’t wrap her head around the thought. Rafe hadn’t ever been about business. He’d been about healing and loving and caring. “You started a business?”

Turning to inspect him, she tried to imagine. Even in a simple white T-shirt and casual blue shorts, he did exude harsh authority and arrogant confidence. Years ago, she’d seen the authoritative way he’d handled his menagerie of wounded creatures and she’d noticed his confidence about his university studies. Yet these qualities had been wrapped in a kind heart, a healing spirit.

“
Nai.
” His eyes blazed, now with arrogance. “A business I’m very successful in.”

She assumed he was correct. The trappings of wealth were hard to ignore. “But it’s not what you’re supposed to do.”

A disparaging sound came from deep in his throat. “Don’t become trite.”

“I know—”

“I know I have given you what you negotiated for,” he continued. “And now it’s time you gave me what I asked for.”

Soul-deep and bruising, she hurt. She couldn’t look at him any longer, couldn’t look at the boys, couldn’t look at his rejection of what he was without hurting.

“I’ll call the doctor right now.” He kept marching toward his victory.

“No.” Laying awake far into the night, she’d come to some decisions. She knew in her heart what Rafe claimed was true. The boys were not Haimon’s. And the twins deserved to know their history. They deserved to know the family they had in Greece. Haimon wouldn’t agree, but he was still unconscious and fighting for his life, and she was as much the boys’ guardian as he was. So this man would get his DNA test, although not as quickly as he wanted.

“I should have known you’d go back on your word.” The heat of his animosity radiated around her.

“I’m not going back on my word.” She forced herself to stay calm. “They’ll take the test.”

“Then I don’t see why I can’t—”

“Not until I see my solicitor, though.”

The
lap, lap, lap
of the waves filled the void between them.

“You?” he finally said, astonishment wrapped around the question. “Have a solicitor?”

Indignation surged past the pain. “Of course I do,” she snarled, turning to glare at him. “I ran a business only a few days ago.”

He stared at her, irritation now mixed with the lingering astonishment in his expression. “I don’t see why you need a solicitor. It’s a pretty simple process.”

“I need to know my options.”

“You have no options.” A gentle, sinister tone came into his voice. “I’ll win.”

“Eventually.”

He rustled in his chair, and she felt his frustration. Still, she knew from his non-rebuttal, she’d bought some time. “I’ve got an appointment with my solicitor tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.” His one word was clipped and taut and filled with aggravation.

“Yes, in the afternoon.” Braving a glance his way, she tried to make him believe through the sincerity in her voice. “That was the earliest appointment I could get.”

He shifted in his seat, his eyes shining with distrust.

Why did she even care what he thought? Frustration boiled over. “Did you think you could merely swoop in and within a day or two take the boys away?”

“
Nai
.” He spat the one word out.

“Well, you were wrong.” Folding her arms around her, she tried to hold the frustration in. “All I’m saying is you can have your test after I see my solicitor.”

“A stipulation you didn’t mention when we made our bargain.” His long fingers tapped on his leg. “Yet why should I be surprised? I’m dealing with a Drakos.”

“You’ll get your test.” She stopped herself from trying to defend against his slur. What was the use? “You can schedule the doctor for tomorrow evening.”

“I have no choice, do I?”

“No, you don’t.”

He growled.
Growled.

She jerked herself off the lounge, irked at his unwillingness to see her side. Turning to face him, she leaned over the chair and matched his glare with one of her own. “Can’t you see how totally unfair you’re being?”

“I’m not—”

“It’s been less than two days since you arrived.” She barreled past his outrage. “Two days ago the boys didn’t even know you existed.”

“That isn’t my—”

“Two days ago I didn’t know they weren’t Haimon’s.”

“So you admit it.” He shot forward in his chair, his expression alight with immediate victory. “They are mine.”

“They are ours.”

Her words fell into complete silence. Yet the weight and impact of the claim echoed around them, filling her head with all the repercussions of what this one simple sentence meant for the boys and for her and for Rafe.

“Tam.” Aarōn’s tentative voice cut past her turmoil.

Jerking around, she met the twins’ anxious gazes. Both of them had swum to the edge of the pool close to where she and Rafe had been arguing about their future. What had she been thinking? She didn’t want the boys in the middle of this mess.

Yet they were, weren’t they? They were directly in the center of this situation.

“Come into the pool and swim, Tammy,” Isaák said in a soft, comforting tone. As if he and his brother should have any responsibility or need to take care of her.

She
took care of
them
.

Still, the man sitting silent several chairs down was too much for her to handle for any length of time. She’d made her demands. She’d stated her plans. Now the only thing she wanted to do was swim away from all of it. Swim away from Rafe.

She flipped her coverlet over her head and dropped it on the lounge chair. With two swift steps, she launched herself into the water.

As the water swallowed her, she felt a part of her come apart.

They are ours.