Conveniently His Omnibus (25 page)

‘I’m not trying to make a point, Saskia, one-upmanship of that boastful sort is anathema to me. My grandfather may be a millionaire but I most certainly am not.’

It wasn’t entirely true, but something about the look in Saskia’s eyes made him want to refute any mental criticism she might have that he was some kind of idle playboy, lounging by a swimming pool all day.

‘It’s just that I happen to like an early-morning swim when I’m here at the villa; my sisters used to claim that I woke them up so I had this pool installed for my own use. Swimming laps helps me to clear my thoughts as well as allowing me to exercise.’

Saskia knew what he was saying, she felt the same about walking. Whenever she was worried about something, or had a problem to mull over, she walked.

As he watched her Andreas asked himself grimly why he was going to so much trouble to calm and reassure her. That frightened heartbeat he had felt thudding so anxiously against his own body just had to have been faked. There was no way it could not have been. Just like that huge-eyed watchfulness.

Saskia bit her lip as she looked away from him. It was obvious that Andreas meant what he said about sleeping in his office, but right now it wasn’t their sleeping arrangements that were at the forefront of her mind so much as what was happening during their waking hours—and what she herself had just experienced when he kissed her.

She couldn’t have secretly wanted him to kiss her. Surely it was impossible that that could happen without her being consciously aware of it. But what other explanation could there be for the way she had responded to him? her conscience demanded grittily.

‘Right,’ she could hear Andreas saying dryly, ‘now that we’ve got
that
sorted out I’ve got some work to do, so why don’t you have something to eat and then have a rest?’

‘I need to unpack,’ Saskia began to protest, but Andreas shook his head.

‘One of the maids will do that for you whilst you’re resting.’

When he saw her expression he told her softly, ‘They work for us, Saskia. They are servants and they work to earn their living just as you and I work to earn ours.’

* * *

‘O
H
, I’
M
SORRY
,
I didn’t wake you, did I?’ Pia said
sotto voce
. ‘But it will be dinner time soon and I thought you might appreciate some extra time to get ready.’

As Saskia came fully awake and struggled to sit up in the bed she recognised that her unexpected visitor was Andreas’s sister Olympia.

The arcane grin that crossed Pia’s face as she added, ‘We normally dress down here, not up, but Athena is bound to want to make an impact,’ made Saskia warm to her friendliness.

‘Where’s...?’ she began anxiously, but didn’t get any further than the first word of her enquiry.

‘Where’s Andreas?’ Pia supplied for her, ‘Grandfather telephoned to speak to our mother and then he wanted to have a word with Andreas.’ She gave a small shrug. ‘He’s probably still on the phone, and I have to warn you he isn’t in a very good mood.’ As she saw the way Saskia’s eyes became watchful she hastened to assure her. ‘Oh, it isn’t you. It’s Athena. She’s brought her accountant with her and Andreas is furious. He can’t stand him. None of us can, but Athena insisted that Grandfather invited Aristotle personally.’

As Pia darted about the room, switching on lamps to illuminate the darkness of the Greek evening, Saskia swung her feet to the floor. She had fallen asleep fully dressed and now she felt grubby and untidy. The thought of having to sit down at a dinner table with Andreas and Athena was not one she was looking forward to, but Pia was right about one thing: she
would
need to make an impact. Andreas would no doubt expect it of her. Still, with her suitcase full of the new clothes he had insisted on buying for her, she had no excuse
not
to do so.

‘Maria’s already unpacked your cases for you,’ Pia informed her. ‘I helped her,’ she added. ‘I love that little black number you’ve brought with you. It’s to die for. Your clothes are gorgeous. Andreas kept coming in and telling me not to make so much noise in case I woke you up.’ She pulled another face. ‘He’s so protective of you.

‘Mama and I are so glad that he’s met you,’ she added more quietly, giving Saskia a look of warm confidence that immediately made her feel horribly guilty. ‘We both love him to bits, of course,’ she went on, ‘and that hardly makes us impartial. But we were beginning to get so afraid that he might just give in to Grandfather and Athena for Grandfather’s sake—and we both know he could
never
love her. I suppose he’s told you about what she did when he was younger?’

Without waiting for Saskia to say anything Pia continued in a quick burst of flurried words, ‘I’m not supposed to know about it really. Lydia, my sister, told me, and swore me to secrecy, but of course it’s all right to discuss it with you because Andreas must have told you about it. He was only fifteen at the time—just a boy, really—and she was
so
much older and on the point of getting married. I know the actual age gap in terms of years would be nothing if it had been between two adults, but Andreas wasn’t an adult. He was still at school and she... I think it was wonderfully brave and moral of Andreas to refuse to go to bed with her—and do you know something else? I think that although Athena
claims
to love him a part of her really wants to punish him for not letting her—well, you know!’

Athena had tried to
seduce
Andreas when he had still been a schoolboy! Saskia had to fight hard to control both her shock and the distaste Pia’s revelations were causing her.

It was true that in terms of years—a mere seven or so—the age gap between them was not large. But for a woman in her twenties to attempt to seduce a boy of fifteen—surely that was almost sexual abuse? A cold shiver touched Saskia’s skin, icy fingers spreading a chilling message through her.

Would a woman who was prepared to do something like that allow a mere bogus fiancée to come between her and the man she wanted? And Athena obviously did want Andreas very badly indeed—even if her motivation for doing so was shrouded in secrecy.

Andreas was such a very
male
man it was hard to imagine him in the role of hunted rather than hunter. If ever a man had been designed by nature to be proactive, arrogant and predatory that man was, in Saskia’s opinion, Andreas. But there was something so alien to Saskia’s own experience in Athena, a coldness, a greed, almost an obsessiveness that Saskia found it hard to relate to her or even think of her in terms of being a member of her own sex.

Her determination to marry Andreas was chillingly formidable.

‘Of course, if it wasn’t for Grandfather’s health there wouldn’t be any problem,’ Pia was saying ruefully. ‘We all know that. Grandfather likes to think that because he works for him Andreas is financially dependent on him, but...’ She stopped, shaking her head.

‘You are going to wear the black, aren’t you? I’m dying to see you in it. You’ve got the colouring for it. I look so drab in black, although you can bet that Athena will wear it. Whoops!’ She grimaced as they both heard male footsteps in the corridor outside the bedroom. ‘That will be Andreas, and he’ll scalp me if he thinks I’m being a pest.’

Saskia tensed as Andreas came into the room, watching as his glance went from the bed to where she was standing in the corner of the room.

‘Pia,’ he began ominously, ‘I told you...’

‘I was awake when she came,’ Saskia intervened protectively. She liked Andreas’s sister, and if she’d been genuinely in love with him and planning to marry him she knew she would have been delighted to have found a potential friend in this warm-hearted, impulsive woman.

Pia launched herself at Andreas, laughing up into his face as she hugged him and told him triumphantly, ‘See? You are wrong, big brother, and you must not be so firm and bossy with me otherwise Saskia will not want to marry you. And now that I have met her I am determined that she will be my sister-in-law. We were just discussing what she is going to wear for dinner,’ she added. ‘I have warned her that Athena will be dressed to kill!’

‘If you don’t take yourself off to your own room so that we can
all
get ready, Athena is going to be the only one who is dressed for anything,’ Andreas told her dryly.

Kissing his forehead, Pia released him and hurried to the door, pausing as she opened it to give Saskia an impish grin and remind her, ‘Wear the black!’

‘I’m sorry,’ Andreas apologised after the door had closed behind her. ‘I asked her not to disturb you.’

So he hadn’t been deceived by her fib, Saskia recognised.

‘I don’t mind. I like her,’ Saskia responded, this time telling him the truth.

‘Mmm... Pia’s likeability is something I’m afraid she tends to trade on on occasion. As the baby of the family she’s a past mistress at getting her own way,’ he told Saskia in faint exasperation, before glancing at his watch and informing her, ‘You’ve got half an hour to get ready.’

Saskia took a deep steadying breath. Something about the revelations Pia had made had activated the deep core of sympathy for others that was so much a part of her nature. Somewhere deep inside her a switch had been thrown, a sea change made, and without her knowing quite how it had happened Andreas had undergone a transformation, from her oppressor and a dictator whom she loathed and feared to someone who deserved her championship and help. She had a role which she was now determined she was going to play to the very best of her ability.

‘Half an hour,’ she repeated in as businesslike a manner as she could. ‘Then in that case I should like to use the bathroom first.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘S
O
, S
ASKIA
,
HOW
do you think you will adjust to being a Greek wife—if you and Andreas
do
actually get married?’

Saskia could hear Pia’s indrawn gasp of indignation at the way Athena had framed her question, but she refused to allow herself to be intimidated by the other woman. Ever since they had all taken their places at the dinner table Saskia had recognised that Athena was determined to unnerve and upset her as much as she could. However, before she could say anything Andreas was answering the question for her.

‘There is no “if” about it Athena,’ he told her implacably. ‘Saskia
will
become my wife.’

Now it was Saskia’s turn to stifle her own potentially betraying gasp of shock, but she couldn’t control her instinctive urge to look anxiously across the table at Andreas. What would he do when he ultimately had to back down and admit to Athena that their engagement was over? That was
his
problem and not hers, she tried to remind herself steadily.

Something odd had happened to her somehow; she was convinced of it. Andreas had walked out of the office adjoining ‘their’ bedroom earlier this evening and come to a standstill in front of her, saying quietly, ‘I doubt that any man looking at you now could do anything other than wish that you were his, Saskia.’

She had certainly never had any desire to go on the stage—far from it—and yet from that moment she had felt as though somehow she had stepped into a new persona. Suddenly she had become Andreas’s fiancée and, like any woman in love, not only was she proud to be with the man she loved, she also felt very femalely protective of him. The anxiety in her eyes now was
for
him and
because
of him. How would he feel when Athena tauntingly threw the comment he had just made back in his face? How must he have felt when he had first realised, as a boy, just what she wanted from him?

‘Wives. I love wives.’ Aristotle, Athena’s accountant, grinned salaciously, leaning towards Saskia so that he could put his hand on her arm.

Immediately she turned away from him. Saskia fully shared Pia’s view of Athena’s accountant. Although he was quite tall, the heavy, weighty structure of his torso made him look almost squat. His thick black hair was heavily oiled and the white suit he was wearing over a black shirt, in Saskia’s opinion at least, did him no favours. Andreas, on the other hand, looked sexily cool and relaxed in elegantly tailored trousers with a cool white cotton shirt.

If she had privately thought her black dress might be rather over the top she had swiftly realised how right Pia had been to suggest that she wore it once she had seen Athena’s outfit.

Her slinky skintight white dress left nothing to the imagination.

‘It was designed especially for me,’ Saskia had heard her smirking to Andreas. ‘And it is made to be worn exactly the way I most love—next to my skin,’ she had added, loudly enough for Saskia to overhear. ‘Which reminds me. I hope you have warned your fiancée that I like to share your morning swim so she won’t be too shocked...’ She had turned to Saskia. ‘Andreas is like me, he likes to swim best in his skin,’ she had told her purringly.

In his skin. Saskia hadn’t been able to prevent herself from giving Andreas a brief shocked look which, fortunately, Athena had put down to Saskia’s jealousy at the thought of another woman swimming nude with her fiancée.

Whilst Saskia had been digesting this stomach-churning disclosure she had heard Andreas himself replying brusquely, ‘I can only recall one occasion on which you attempted to join me in my morning lap session, Athena, and I recall too that I told you then how little I appreciate having my morning peace interrupted.’

‘Oh, dear.’ Athena had pouted, unabashed. ‘Are you afraid that I have said something you didn’t want your fiancée to know? But surely, Andreas,’ she had murmured huskily, reaching out to place her hand on his arm, ‘she
must
realise that a man as attractive as you...as virile as you...will have had other lovers before her...’

Her brazenness had almost taken Saskia’s breath away. She could imagine just how she would be feeling right now if Andreas
had
indeed been her fiancée. How jealous and insecure Athena’s words would be making her feel. No woman wanted to be reminded of the other women who had shared an intimate relationship with her beloved before her.

But Andreas, it seemed, was completely unfazed by Athena’s revelations. He had simply removed her arm by the expedient of stepping back from her and putting his own arm around Saskia’s shoulders. He had drawn her so close to his body that Saskia had known he must be able to feel the fine tremor of reaction she was unable to suppress. A tremor which had increased to a full-flooded convulsion when his lean fingers had started almost absently to caress the smooth ball of her bare shoulder.

‘Saskia knows that she is the only woman I have ever loved—the woman I want to spend my life with.’

The more she listened to and watched Athena the more Saskia subscribed to Pia’s belief that it wasn’t love that was motivating the other woman. Sometimes she looked at Andreas as though she hated him and wanted to totally destroy him.

Aristotle, or ‘Ari’ as he had told Saskia he preferred to be called, was still trying to engage her attention, but she was deliberately trying to feign a lack of awareness of that fact. There was something about him she found so loathsome that the thought of even the hot damp touch of his hand on her arm made her shudder with distaste. However, good manners forced her to respond to his questions as politely as she could, even when she thought they were intolerable and intrusive. He had already told her that were he Andreas’s accountant he would be insisting she sign a prenuptial contract to make sure that if the marriage ended Andreas’s money would be safe.

Much to Saskia’s surprise Andreas himself had thoroughly confounded her by joining in the conversation and telling Aristotle grimly that he would never ask the woman he loved to sign such an agreement.

‘Money is nothing when compared with love,’ he had told Aristotle firmly in a deep, implacable voice, his words so obviously genuine that Saskia had found she was holding her breath a little as she listened to him.

Then he had looked at her, and Saskia had remembered just how
they
had met and what he really thought of her, and suddenly she had felt the most bitter taste of despair in her mouth and she had longed to tell him how wrong he was.

At least she had the comfort of knowing that his mother and sister liked her, and Pia had assured her that their elder sister was equally pleased that Andreas had fallen in love, and was looking forward to meeting Saskia when she and her husband and their children came to the island later in the month.

‘Lydia’s husband is a diplomat, and they are in Brussels at the moment, but she is longing to meet you,’ Pia had told her.

She would have hated it if Andreas’s close family had
not
liked and welcomed her.

Abruptly Saskia felt her face start to burn. What on earth was she thinking? She was only
playing
the part of Andreas’s fiancée. Their engagement was a fiction, a charade...a
lie
created simply to help him escape from the trap that Athena was trying to set for him. What she must not forget was that it was a lie he had tricked and blackmailed her into colluding with.

Aristotle was saying something to her about wanting to show her the villa’s gardens. Automatically Saskia shook her head, her face burning with fresh colour as she saw the way Andreas was watching her, a mixture of anger and warning in his eyes. He couldn’t seriously think she would actually
accept
Aristotle’s invitation?

‘Saskia has had a long day. I think it’s time we said our goodnights,’ she heard him saying abruptly as he stood up.

Saskia looked quickly round the table. It was obvious from the expressions of everyone else just what interpretation they were putting on Andreas’s decision, and Saskia knew that the heat washing her face and throat could only confirm their suspicions.

‘Andreas...’ she started to protest as he came round to her chair and stood behind her. ‘I don’t...’

‘You’re wasting your breath, Saskia.’ Pia chuckled. ‘Because my dear brother obviously
does
! Oh, you needn’t put that lordly expression on for me, brother dear.’ She laughed again, before adding mischievously, ‘And I wouldn’t mind betting that you won’t be lapping the pool at dawn...’

‘Pia!’ her mother protested, pink-cheeked, whilst Athena gave Saskia a look of concentrated hatred.

Hastily Saskia stood up, and then froze as Aristotle did the same, insisting in a thick voice, ‘I must claim the privilege of family friend and kiss the new addition to the family goodnight.’

Before Saskia could evade him he was reaching for her, but before he could put his words into action Andreas was standing between them, announcing grimly, ‘There is only one man
my
fiancée kisses...’

* * *

‘I
F
YOU
’
LL
TAKE
my advice, you’ll keep well away from Aristotle. He has a very unsavoury reputation with women. His ex-wife has accused him of being violent towards her and—’

Saskia turned as she stepped into the bedroom, her anger showing. ‘You can’t mean what I
think
you mean,’ she demanded whilst Andreas closed the door. How could he possibly imagine that she would even contemplate being interested in a man like the accountant? It was an insult she was simply not prepared to tolerate.

‘Can’t I?’ Andreas countered curtly. ‘You’re here for one reason and one reason only, Saskia. You’re here to act as my fiancée. Whilst I can appreciate that, being the woman you are, the temptation to feather your nest a little and do what you so obviously do best must be a strong one, let me warn you now against giving in to it. If you do, in fact...’

If she
did
... Why, she would rather
die
than let a slimeball like Ari come anywhere near her, Saskia reflected furiously. And to think that back there in the dining room she had
actually
felt sympathetic towards Andreas, had actually wanted to
protect
him. Now, though, her anger shocked through her in a fierce, dangerous flood of pride.

‘If you want the truth, I find Ari almost as repulsively loathsome as I do you,’ she threw bitterly at him.

‘You dare to speak of me in the same breath as that reptile? How dare you speak so of me...or to me...?’ Andreas demanded, his anger surging to match hers as he reached out to grab hold of her. His eyes smouldered with an intensity of emotion that Saskia could see was threatening to get out of control.

‘That man is an animal—worse than an animal. Only last year he narrowly escaped standing on a criminal charge. I cannot understand why Athena tolerates him and I have told her so.’

‘Perhaps she wants to make you jealous.’

It was an off-the-cuff remark, full of bravado, but Saskia wished immediately she had not said it when she saw the way the smoulder suddenly became a savage flare of fury.

‘
She
does? Or
you
do...? Oh, yes, I saw the way he was looking at you over dinner...touching you...’

‘That was nothing to do with me,’ Saskia protested, but she could sense that the words hadn’t touched him, that something else was fuelling his anger and feeding it, something that was hidden from her but which Andreas himself obviously found intolerable.

‘And as for you finding me
loathsome,
’ Andreas said through gritted teeth. ‘Perhaps it is unchivalrous,
ungentlemanly
of me to say so, but that wasn’t loathing I could see in your eyes earlier on today. It wasn’t
loathing
I could hear in your voice,
feel
in your body...was it?
Was it?
’ he demanded sharply.

Saskia started to tremble.

‘I don’t know,’ she fibbed wildly. ‘I can’t remember.’

It was, she recognised a few seconds later, the worst possible thing she could have said. Because immediately Andreas pounced, whispering with soft savagery, ‘No? Then perhaps I should help you to remember...’

She heard herself starting to protest, but somehow the words were lost—not because Andreas was refusing to listen, but because her lips were refusing to speak.

‘So when exactly
was
it that you found me so loathsome Saskia?’ Andreas was demanding as he closed both his arms around her, forming them into a prison from which it was impossible for her to escape. ‘When I did this...?’ His mouth was feathering over hers, teasing and tantalising it, arousing a hot torrent of sensation she didn’t want to experience. ‘Or when I did
this
...?’

Now his tongue-tip was probing the lips she was trying so desperately to keep firmly closed, stroking them, tracing their soft curves, over and over again, until she could hear herself moaning helplessly as they parted softly for him. But still it seemed he hadn’t extracted his pound of flesh, because even this victory wasn’t enough for him.

‘What? Still no answer...? I wonder why not,’ he was taunting her, before adding bitingly, ‘Or do I need to wonder at all? You are a woman who is used to giving her body to a man, Saskia, who is used to experiencing pleasure. And right now you want that pleasure from
me
.’

‘No,’ Saskia moaned in denial, trying to turn her face away from his and to break free of him.

‘Yes,’ he insisted rawly. ‘
Yes.
Admit it, Saskia... You
want
me... Your body wants
mine
. It wants the sexual satisfaction it’s used to...it aches and craves for.’

A shudder of shock ripped through her as Saskia recognised the truth of what he was saying. She
did
want him, but not in the way he was suggesting. She wanted him as a woman wanted the man she loved, she realised shakily. She wanted him as her lover, not merely as her sexual partner, someone with whom she could find a release for a basic physical need, as he was so cruelly saying. But how could she love him? She
couldn’t
... But she
did
.