The Innocent's Shameful Secret. Sara Craven

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СКАЧАТЬ shall we stop playing games? Just take me to her and she’ll be off your hands and on the way back to Mykonos and the airport on the next ferry.’

      ‘An excellent plan.’ His voice was crisper. ‘But there is a problem. I do not know either your sister’s identity or where she may be found. Except it is plainly not here.’

      Selena gasped. ‘You mean she’s already left? She’s on her way home?’ She glared at him. ‘I suppose I should be grateful to you, but I’m finding it difficult.’

      ‘It is also unnecessary. I was not aware of her presence here, or her departure. I suggest you conduct your enquiries elsewhere,’ he added with cold finality and turned as if to go back to the store room.

      ‘And I suggest you answer my questions,’ she flung after him, aware that she was trembling inside, and not simply with temper at being so summarily dismissed. ‘Otherwise I shall go to the police and tell them you’ve taken advantage of a vulnerable seventeen-year-old. That you’ve kept her here to have sex with her, forcing her friends to return to the UK without her, and causing endless worry to her family.’

      She added contemptuously, ‘I thought the Greeks were supposed to respect foreign travellers.’

      ‘We do,’ he said. ‘Although your female compatriots do not always make it easy.’ The contempt was echoed and the frown was back in force. ‘She was staying here, your sister and her friends? Their names?’

      ‘Raymond, Marsden and—and Blake.’ She heard her voice quiver slightly and snatched at her self-command.

      ‘Ah, yes.’ He nodded. ‘I remember some of the staff speaking of them.’ His tone suggested the comments were not to their credit.

      Well, he was the last person with any right to pass judgement.

      ‘Whatever their opinions, nothing justifies your behaviour, Mr Papoulis.’ She was about to say ‘And I insist you bring Millie here immediately,’ when she was stopped in her tracks by the realisation that he’d started to laugh.

      ‘I’m glad you’re amused,’ she said scornfully. ‘However, the police may not share your sense of humour.’

      ‘They may,’ he said, still grinning. ‘When they hear I have been mistaken for my own barman. And they would undoubtedly tell you that, when you burst in, all guns blazing, thespinis, you should make sure they are aimed at the right target.’

      He put down the clipboard and held out his hand. ‘Allow me to introduce myself. I am Alexis Constantinou and I own this hotel. Kostas is merely employed here, when he can take the trouble to work,’ he added sardonically. ‘But at least I know the reason for his absence this time, and that he cannot use the excuse that he is ill.’

      Numb with embarrassment, and bitterly aware of the mockery in his dark eyes, Selena allowed her fingers to be gripped briefly in his.

      ‘So Kostas has sweet-talked your young sister into his bed,’ he went on musingly. ‘Strange. He usually confines his attentions to rather older women—the single, the divorced, so...’ He paused, his gaze once more drifting down her hair. ‘So—she must have made quite an impression.’

      Her skin warming, she said tautly, ‘I don’t find that particularly reassuring.’

      ‘Nor would I,’ he said unexpectedly, ‘if she was my sister.’

      He turned to the shelf of bottles behind him. ‘I think you need a drink, thespinis, and so do I.’ He poured something amber into two glasses and gave her one. ‘Five-star Metaxa,’ he said. ‘A universal remedy. Especially for shock.’

      She said tautly, ‘You don’t seem particularly shocked over your employee’s behaviour.’

      ‘No,’ he agreed. ‘However, it is an irritation.’

      He came round the bar and took the drinks to a table, motioning her to join him. She obeyed reluctantly, bringing her satchel with her.

      Alexis Constantinou eyed it with faint amusement. ‘You travel light, Kyria Blake.’

      ‘It’s going to be a brief visit, Mr Constantinou. I intend to find my sister and persuade her to leave this—this cut-price Casanova she’s involved with and come home.’

      His amusement deepened. ‘You have quite a turn of phrase, thespinis.’

      ‘Thank you.’ She added tautly, ‘And if I may say so, perhaps you ought to exercise more vigilance over your staff’s out-of-hours activities.’

      ‘I make sure they do their job,’ he said. ‘I do not claim to be anyone’s moral guardian. And perhaps your sister and her friends are the ones in need of guidance.’

      ‘How dare you,’ she flared. ‘Millie is totally inexperienced. He’s taken advantage of her innocence.’

      ‘You paint a moving picture,’ he said, clearly remaining unmoved. ‘Now let us drink.’ He raised his glass, touching it to the one she was holding, ‘Yamas. That means—to our health.’

      She didn’t like the way the toast seemed to unite them, but took a cautious sip, suppressing a gasp as it trailed fire down her throat.

      ‘What is that?’ she asked when she could speak.

      ‘Brandy. To give you strength for your search. And—to calm you.’

      She bit her lip. ‘I’m perfectly calm, thank you.’ And wished it was true. Because she was suddenly all too aware of him watching her. Glanced away and found herself instead looking at the hand clasping his glass. At the long fingers and well-kept nails, and the way his thumb was playing with the glass’s stem.

      Even with the width of the table between them, he seemed too close for comfort.

      She went on hurriedly, ‘If you’ll just give me Mr Papoulis’s address, I’ll go and let you get back to—whatever you were doing.’

      ‘Stock-taking,’ he said. ‘As for Kostas’s address,’ he added with a shrug, ‘I doubt if that will help. Like the rest of the staff, when he is working, he has a room here, but this, I am told, he has not used for several days.’

      The implication in his words was obvious, Selena thought, swallowing.

      ‘And when he’s not working?’ she demanded.

      ‘He lives with his widowed mother,’ he said. ‘But she is very pious, so I doubt you will find your Millie there, either.’

      She said half to herself, ‘Then what am I going to do?’

      ‘I am sure that is not a request for my advice,’ he drawled. ‘But I shall offer it just the same. Go home, thespinis, and wait for your sister to come to her senses.’

      She took another gulp of brandy. ‘And if he’s keeping her here against her will?’

      ‘Once again you are allowing your taste for the dramatic to run away with you,’ Alexis Constantinou said softly. ‘Kostas, believe me, has no need to use force.’

      ‘You СКАЧАТЬ