this is the end of the road for Kandy Kate. You are an intelligent woman and you know this is your last chance. Because if you don’t agree to my terms I will be taking over Kandy Kate anyway, and once it’s under my control who knows what I will do with it?’
With all his fingers pulled back, one by one, he looked at his raised hand, then back again to Kate.
‘Is that enough to be going on with?’
‘So this is blackmail?’ Kate’s voice faltered with horror. ‘If I don’t agree to marry you you will ruin my family business—is that what you’re saying?’
‘Your family business is already ruined, Kate. The sooner you wise up to that, the better. Any investor—myself included—would simply strip the company of any remaining assets, then sell out to one of the major corporations. Obviously they would ditch the name, close the factories, merge what’s left of the business with their own brands.’
‘No!’ She let out a yelp of anguish. ‘I won’t let that happen.’
‘I thought as much.’ Nikos fixed her with a steady gaze. ‘Then it looks as if I am your only option.’
Kate bit down hard on her lip. Everything about his harshly determined face—the firm line of his mouth, the dark glitter in his eyes—spelled out the fact that he meant what he said. Nikos Nikoladis had both the power to save Kandy Kate and to ruin it.
Pulling her gaze away, she drew in a much-needed breath. She looked around her at the tiny cluttered office, with its low ceiling and peeling paintwork. It felt as if her life had shrunk...closed in on her. As if she was in a tunnel with no sign of light at the end. And the tunnel was now blocked by the menacing presence of her ex-lover.
‘So what are these circumstances?’ Kate tried to get the fog of her mind to clear. ‘Why do you need a wife?’
It sounded even more stupid when she said it out loud. Even more archaic.
‘I will explain.’ Nikos glanced around her office in much the same way as she had. ‘But not here. This place depresses me.’
Welcome to my world.
It depressed Kate as well—not that she would admit it to him.
She watched as he strode towards the door, stepping back to usher her through.
‘Come on.’ He gestured impatiently. ‘I’ll find us somewhere that serves a decent cup of coffee.’
* * *
Nikos’s choice of venue was an old-fashioned Greek diner, tucked away up a nearby side street. Seating them in one of the booths, he ordered them both coffee without bothering to ask Kate what she wanted.
In the banquette seat opposite him, Kate had to wait for the waitress to bring their order before she could start her interrogation.
‘So, what’s this all about?’
She plunged right in, anxious to get this ordeal over with as quickly as possible. The sooner Nikos told her what he wanted from her, the sooner she could inform him that it wasn’t going to happen and he could disappear from her life again.
Nikos took a sip of coffee, slowly replacing the cup to its saucer. ‘You remember Philippos?’
The question was as direct as it was surprising.
‘Yes, of course.’ Kate replied quickly. ‘Your friend in Agia Loukia.’
‘He died.’ His voice was cold, unemotional. ‘Two months ago.’
‘Oh!’ Kate’s hand went to her chest. ‘I’m very sorry to hear that.’
Nikos shrugged as if her sympathy was of no consequence.
‘What happened?’
‘An accidental overdose.’ Nikos continued matter-of-factly. ‘He was self-medicating while the balance of his mind was disturbed.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Kate repeated, recalling the awkward young man Nikos had introduced her to during that summer in Crete, describing the reluctant individual as his ‘genius new business partner’.
Kate remembered how Philippos hadn’t been able to meet her eye, instead flashing a panicked look at Nikos because he might have to interact with this alien female creature.
‘I know what good friends you were,’ she said.
‘He was a good friend of mine, certainly, but I’m not sure the same could be said of my friendship with him.’ Nikos looked away.
Kate stared at his profile in surprise.
‘Anyway...’ He turned his head back, the shutters coming down to conceal that chink of vulnerability. ‘Philippos has a younger sister—Sofia.’
‘Yes, I remember.’ Kate thought back. ‘She would be how old now? Fourteen? Fifteen?’
‘She’s fifteen.’
‘This must be so terribly sad for her. Didn’t you say that their parents died in a road accident some time ago?’
Nikos nodded.
‘So she’s all alone in the world. Poor Sofia.’
‘One thing she is not is poor. When she comes of age she will inherit Philippos’s largely untouched fortune.’
‘I didn’t mean that sort of poor. I meant—’
‘I know what you meant.’ Bluntly interrupting her, Nikos folded his arms across his chest. ‘But because of her wealth Sofia needs protecting. There are people out there already making moves to try and get their hands on her money.’
‘She must be grieving so badly I don’t suppose she cares about that now.’
‘She might not care, but I do.’ His shoulders stiffened. ‘Which is why I have applied to the courts to become her legal guardian.’
‘Her guardian?’ Kate couldn’t hide her astonishment. She had already seen Nikos undergo one transformation, from laid-back lover to hotshot businessman. But this was not a role she would ever have put him down for. ‘But what do you know about raising a teenage girl?
‘That is none of your concern.’ Nikos brutally cut her short. ‘The important thing is I will be able to protect her fortune, invest it wisely for her, until she is old enough to know what she wants to do with it.’
Kate looked down, tracing the grains of sugar on the tabletop with her finger as she imagined how Sofia must be feeling. She had never met the teenager, the summer she had been in Agia Loukia—Sofia had been away on some sort of exchange scheme if Kate remembered correctly. But even so her heart went out to her.
Kate’s own family was far from perfect, but at least she still had a mother. Did Sofia really have no one to care for her?
‘Surely the most important thing is to find her a secure home?’ She faced Nikos again. ‘Somewhere that she feels safe...loved. Where all her emotional needs will be met.’
‘Then I will do that too.’ Fierce determination lit Niko’s eyes. ‘But let me make one thing clear, Kate: I am not here to seek your opinion on child welfare. Your role in this is quite straightforward.’
He pushed his coffee cup decisively to one side.
‘It is a condition of the courts that in order to become Sofia’s guardian I have to prove I am in a stable relationship—preferably married.’
He paused, gauging the way the penny was dropping. And drop it did—clattering through Kate like a cold weight.
‘What I need now is an agreement from you that you will be my wife.’
Kate blinked, reminding herself to breathe. This was the second time Nikos had proposed to her, but the circumstances couldn’t be more different. The first