without a trace while everyone else deals with the aftermath. The merger had fallen apart after that night because Dimos suddenly didn’t want to get married. It has taken me years just to get the Antoniou-Volakis wedding to this point.”
“I was banished.” She wanted to stamp her feet. This was bad. It was as if her hard-earned poise had disintegrated into nothing. “There’s a difference.”
“Banished?” Stergios repeated with skepticism. “You’ve always been dramatic.”
And you’ve always been cold and hateful. No, she realized that wasn’t true. Stergios had been tolerant the first time she’d moved in with the Antoniou family. He had been her only companion, her one true confidant. But gradually he had become distant.
The more he was around her, the more he knew and learned about her, the more hostile he became. It had been a relief and yet agony when he missed her eighteenth birthday to work overseas on a project. He had returned a few months later but her joy had been brief and misplaced. It had become obvious that Stergios couldn’t stand being in the same room with her.
“If you were banished, why are you working so hard to return to the family fold?” His tone was casual but he watched her with open suspicion. “You’re not the type to forgive.”
Stergios knew her too well. Having one person understand her should bring comfort, but this man would use that knowledge against her. “I am here,” she said slowly, emphasizing each word, “to repair my relationship with my father.”
“And that’s all?”
No, this time she wanted Gregory Little’s concern and interest. She wanted to be a priority. She’d always wanted that from her father but she had tried to gain it the wrong way when she had been a teenager.
Jodie lifted her head when she suddenly understood Stergios’s question. “Oh...you think I’m here to get revenge or to cause trouble. To stop this merger that you need so badly. I hate to disappoint you, but the Antoniou family isn’t worth my time.”
One winged eyebrow arched at her statement. As if he couldn’t believe his family wasn’t everyone’s top interest. “You returned just when Dimos and Zoi are about to marry.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get the family newsletter,” she said with exaggerated sweetness, “or I would have timed my visit better.”
She was about to flounce away but Stergios easily read her next move. He grabbed her arm, his large fingers biting into her pale flesh as he held her still. Her skin went hot as she remembered the last time he touched her. She knew better than to look at him or she would betray her conflicted emotions.
“I don’t trust you.” His voice was low against her ear.
She shivered from his nearness. “I don’t care.”
Stergios’s grasp tightened. “Stay away from Dimos.”
“With pleasure,” she said in a hiss and forced herself to look into his dark eyes. “Now let go of me.”
Jodie saw the turbulent emotions chasing across his face before he abruptly released her. She was uncomfortably aware how her skin tingled from his touch. “I have no interest in Dimos,” she continued. “I didn’t seduce him back then and I’m not pursuing him now.”
“Why should I believe you? You’re a liar.”
Her anger flashed wildly. Yes, she had lied in the past, but it had been a stupid and instinctual attempt to protect Stergios that night. She had made a sacrifice for him and he couldn’t see it, couldn’t appreciate it. The hurt and the injustice of it all rolled inside her. “And if I wanted to seduce Dimos, there is nothing you could do about it,” she slung at him.
“I’m warning you, Jodie.” His voice was low and menacing.
She pressed her lips together. Why did she say that? Why was she provoking Stergios? She knew better but she was unable to stop. “I could have had him in my bed like that.” She gave a satisfying snap with her fingers. “I certainly wouldn’t have picked a cold wall in a dark wine cellar.”
They stared at each other, instantly trapped in the inconvenient memories. She shifted, her spine aching as she remembered the rough brick against her back. Jodie swallowed as she recalled how she had laved her tongue against Stergios’s warm skin. She felt her cheeks flush as the echoes of their mingled gasps and incoherent words reverberated in her mind.
She couldn’t think about that. Not now, not here, not ever. “I could have contacted Dimos any time over the years,” she declared in a rush. “And he would have dropped everything for the chance to have sex with me.”
Stergios sneered with disgust. “So you know the power you have over him.”
She did now, not when she had been eighteen. “I know the power I have over all men,” she said loftily. “Dimos is more susceptible than most.”
“And why do you think that is?”
No doubt he saw it as her fault. “I haven’t encouraged him at all, but warn me off again,” she said in a growl as she glared at him, “and all bets are off.”
Stergios braced his legs as if he was preparing for battle. “You dare to threaten me?”
“There is very little I wouldn’t dare,” she told him boldly as her legs shook. “I am here to be with my father. If you block that in any way, I will do everything in my power to stop the Antoniou-Volakis merger.”
His expression went blank. There was no anger or repulsion. It was like a mask and that unsettled Jodie more than his cold fury.
“It wouldn’t take much.” She knew she had to stop talking and yet she pursed her lips and made a show of looking around the party. “All I have to do is crook my finger and Dimos will—”
“You have always been a destructive force.” His voice was just a rasp. “But I won’t allow you to destroy this family.”
“I don’t care about the Antonious.” The family was simply an obstacle to her goal. She had to play nice with them if she wanted even a tenuous bond with her father.
Stergios set his hands on his lean hips. “You need to leave and never return.”
Jodie regretted saying anything to Stergios. He could prevent her from getting what she wanted. She wished she had planned a better strategy to meet with her father. She had been too impulsive, too impatient and too scared of getting rejected again. But she couldn’t show her uncertainty or Stergios would use it against her. She lifted her chin and met his gaze. “That is out of your control.”
His smile chilled her to the bone. “It’s foolish of you to think that.”
Dread trickled down Jodie’s spine. It was foolish for her to go toe to toe with Stergios. He was a dangerous animal who lashed out if he felt threatened or cornered. “I have every right to be here.”
“And I have a right—a duty—to protect my family at all cost.”
She’d always known that. It was one of his traits she had admired and it used to hurt that his protection hadn’t included her. “According to Dimos, I am family.”
Stergios’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I have never considered you family.”
Those words would have slayed her when she was fifteen but now they slid right off her. “It’s easier for you to think that, isn’t it?” Jodie leaned closer, refusing to show how his words, his presence, had shaken her. “Helps you sleep better at night.”
The mask fell away and exposed Stergios’s wrath. A ruddy color seeped beneath his golden skin. His eyes glittered as he hunched his shoulders, ready to pounce. Jodie’s chest seized as she watched his upper lip curl, pulling tightly at his scar.
“After all—” her voice trembled “—the great and virtuous Stergios Antoniou is supposed