Mediterranean Seduction. Кэрол Мортимер

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СКАЧАТЬ Charlotte,’ he said, enunciating each word with glittering clarity. ‘If anyone is adept at trickery it is you, and not me.’

      ‘Then why are you here, if you have such a poor opinion of me?’

      If only that was the case, Iannis reflected bitterly. She looked so young, so vulnerable. And the face mask, clearly something of Marianna’s concoction, only added to that impression. Even the shapeless garment she was wearing made him want to sweep her up in his arms and keep her safe beside him for ever. But he could not do that. Not after what she had done to him.

      ‘Why have you come here?’ Charlotte asked again, her eyes widening with apprehension.

      ‘I brought something for you to have a look at,’ Iannis said, pointing to a state-of-the-art laptop on the table.

      Her eyes were astonishingly beautiful, Iannis registered, even if at this moment they were a vivid, wary green. It gave him some small satisfaction to see how they clearly mirrored her dawning realisation that something very bad was about to happen. With one flick of his wrist he spun the laptop around so that she could see the screen.

      Charlotte crept close enough to read the text.

      Iannis watched as her lips fell apart. She could not have faked that, he realised, firming his own mouth. She could not have faked that expression of absolute surprise.

      ‘I don’t understand,’ Charlotte whispered fiercely. ‘It just can’t be possible—’

      ‘Well, I can assure you it is possible,’ Iannis said harshly. ‘You are reading the front page of today’s Daily Messenger.’

      ‘But I don’t understand,’ Charlotte repeated, her eyes wide with concern as she turned to face him. ‘I promise you, I had absolutely nothing to do with this…’

      Her voice trailed away as she turned back to the screen again in confusion. She certainly hadn’t misread it. The banner across the top of the daily newspaper read: Greek Tycoon Unmasked! And next to the garish red print there was a picture of Iannis, half-naked, with the waves lapping over his feet, hauling nets with the other fishermen.

      ‘You said an article in a magazine,’ he reminded her in a voice that jabbed at her heart. ‘And you made a promise to me that you would have it pulled. You e-mailed your editor,’ he reminded her when Charlotte remained silent. ‘But I have just been reading something in that newspaper that purports to be the first in a series of articles about me.’

      If he had shouted and raged it might have been easier to handle. As it was, Charlotte felt like Alice—shrinking so fast she would soon disappear beneath his scorn.

      ‘You have no understanding of what it feels like to be constantly hounded,’ he went on steadily. ‘To have no privacy at all, to have every aspect of your life scrutinised, analysed and judged by strangers.’

      ‘Iannis, I’m—’

      ‘What? Sorry?’ he demanded tensely. ‘It’s a bit late for remorse, Charlotte.’

      He was right. It was far worse than she had imagined. Even the photographs she had taken in the early part of her stay, before she met him, had been used to embroider the story of the so-called double life of Iannis Kiriakos, handsome Greek billionaire.

      But she had only sent them to her chums at work because she’d wanted to share her time on Iskos with them, Charlotte remembered. Her editor must have pounced on them, put two and two together and sold them to the newspaper along with her article. She should check her e-mails for confirmation.

      ‘Could I use your laptop to check my incoming mail?’ she said as calmly as she could manage, in an attempt to keep a lid on the situation.

      Iannis folded his arms across his chest in apparent unconcern, but she saw a muscle working in his jaw as he fought to keep his feelings under control.

      ‘Please yourself,’ he agreed, in a voice that suggested it would do her no good at all.

      Charlotte watched him move towards the window as she started to key in all the necessary information. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she hurried to uncover some evidence that might help to put her in the clear. But all she found was mail that seemed to add to her guilt.

      ‘Have you found what you were looking for?’ Iannis asked coldly, swinging around when he heard Charlotte’s small cry of despair.

      ‘I’ve found some mail from my editor,’ she admitted, straightening up to face him, ‘but I’m afraid it will do me no good in your eyes. Apparently my contract with the magazine allows them to sell excerpts where they choose—I should have known. It’s quite a coup, apparently,’ she said, embroidering the remark with a helpless gesture. ‘My editor thought I would be pleased.’

      ‘Do you always treat business contracts with such casual disregard?’ Iannis queried icily.

      He looked every bit the tycoon now, Charlotte thought, feeling her heart leap in response and then plummet again in the same tortured instant. Imposing, but relaxed, his hair neatly groomed and his tanned face freshly shaved, Iannis looked—As the knife of regret stabbed deep into her heart Charlotte put a hand up to her own face and knew what a sight she must be. What a fool she had been to imagine a man like Iannis Kiriakos could ever be interested in her…

      ‘You do know what you have done, don’t you?’ Iannis said. His voice was frighteningly calm and dispassionate. ‘At best I shall be ridiculed, at worst my state of mind will be questioned, and then the share prices of my companies will dive and jobs will be put in danger.’

      ‘Aren’t you exaggerating just a little?’ Charlotte demanded with alarm.

      ‘Would that I were,’ Iannis murmured. Glancing at his slim gold wristwatch, he observed, ‘The London stock market and several of my major companies open for business very shortly. May I suggest that you go and get yourself washed and dressed, and then return to determine for yourself whether what I am saying is true or not?’

      Charlotte’s shorts and tee shirt had already been washed and pressed by the tactfully elusive Marianna. She found them lying on her bed when she returned from the bathroom and, after quickly putting them on, she looked at her naked face in the mirror. Marianna’s balm was a miracle cream, but there was still a suggestion of redness across her cheekbones and on the tip of her nose. She had no make-up with her so could do nothing about it—not that she supposed Iannis would even look at her now. In the light of the disaster she had set in motion her appearance was the last thing that mattered.

      Iannis turned to face her as she entered the room. ‘Theos! What happened to your legs?’

      Charlotte frowned in bewilderment and followed his stare down to where her legs were sunburned, the backs covered in bruises and criss-crossed with dried blood after her panic-driven slide down the cliff to get away from him. Her mind was full of the crisis about to unfold—the crisis she was responsible for.

      ‘Has Marianna seen this?’ Iannis demanded in a more insistent tone, hunkering down to take a closer look.

      ‘Yes, yes,’ Charlotte said vaguely. ‘She gave me some cream.’

      ‘And where is it?’

      ‘Here.’ Charlotte showed him the pot she was СКАЧАТЬ