Why hadn’t she?
Because Georgia had pressed all the right buttons, she perceived silently. Shock, disbelief, anger had done the rest.
Anger flared. ‘What did you expect, Nicos? That I’d turn a blind eye? Dammit, my heart felt as if it had been ripped from my body!’
‘Did you spare a thought for my reaction?’ His voice dropped to a dangerous softness. ‘Have you tried beating your head against a brick wall, yet make no impression?’
She was temporarily bereft of speech.
‘Do you know how long it took for me to get proof of my innocence? How many legal battles I fought to have Georgia submit to DNA testing during her pregnancy? And failed?’ His features assumed an angry mask. ‘How the legal system forced me to wait until the child was born, and go through the process of a court order to have DNA tissue testing carried out on the child?’
‘Just how long have you known the result of the DNA test?’ she demanded.
‘Since late yesterday afternoon.’
He thrust his fists into his trouser pockets in an attempt at control. ‘Georgia’s intention was to latch onto me for child support, and acquire a meal ticket for life. She didn’t care who got in the way. Or who she hurt.’ His eyes were hard, his expression inflexible. ‘It seems the father of the child is a charming playboy living far beyond his means. They set up the scenario together.’
Her expressive features conveyed more than mere words, unaware he read every emotion.
‘You doubt I would leave any stone unturned?’ he queried hardily.
Katrina stood silent for several seemingly long seconds.
‘I have copies of court documents, reports from private detectives, and now the DNA result,’ Nicos explained.
Nine months of anguish, broken dreams, lonely nights. They had each experienced their own individual hell, caused by a woman whose wicked inability to let go of an ex-lover had damaged their lives and had almost wrecked their marriage.
To think how close Georgia came to achieving her goal… It made Katrina shudder to even contemplate it.
‘I owe you an apology.’ Her voice was stiff, the words almost disjointed.
His gaze held hers. ‘Are you offering one?’
A whole gamut of emotions crowded for release. ‘Yes, dammit!’ Oh, hell, she wouldn’t cry. That would be the final humiliation. Her chin tilted as she fought for control. ‘You’re right. Here, now, isn’t the time or place for this.’
She turned away from him and took two steps towards the door, only to have a hand close over her arm as he pulled her back towards him.
‘Oh, no,’ Nicos said with lethal softness. ‘You aren’t going to walk away this time.’
Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. ‘What do you want?’
Her voice broke, and it almost undid him.
‘You hold me to blame for using the terms of Kevin’s will?’ he demanded quietly. ‘Taking the opportunity to repair what Georgia had torn apart?’ He waited a few seconds, then pursued her, saying, ‘Proving to you that what we shared was too special to cast aside?’ He released her arm and thrust hands into his trouser pockets so as not to catch hold of her shoulders and shake her.
‘I needed for you to see, to feel you’re the only woman in my life. Each time we came together, you had to know it was an act of love. Not just physical sex to scratch an itch.’
Dear God, she had known. Deep down in a subconscious level, there had been recognition. She should have listened to her instincts, instead of allowing Georgia’s vicious innuendo to take root.
‘Except once,’ Nicos revealed darkly. ‘When I hauled you back from the hotel.’ He smote a fist into the palm of his hand, and the explosive sound echoed starkly round the room. ‘I was so angry at yet another legal delay; then to arrive home and discover you gone… I was so close, yet still not close enough to a resolution. To have you openly defy me attacked the barriers of my control.’ He lifted a hand and pushed fingers through his hair. ‘I lost it. And shocked you.’
‘No, you overwhelmed me,’ Katrina corrected. ‘You were always the one in control of your emotions. To have you display such a degree of unleashed passion was exciting. Mind-blowing,’ she added. There was nothing left. Not even pride. ‘I loved you so much.’ It was all she had. Words. Yet they came from the depths of her soul.
Something moved in his eyes, fleetingly, then it was gone. He lifted a hand and brushed his knuckles over her cheek. ‘And now?’
‘It never changed,’ she admitted simply.
‘Thank you.’ He knew what it cost her to say it.
He touched the tip of his thumb to her lips, felt them quiver, and offered a faint smile. ‘Was that so hard?’
‘Yes.’
Such honesty, so hard-won. His fingers slid down her throat, caressed the hollow there, then slipped to cup her nape.
Her mouth was soft, tremulous beneath his own, and he savoured it gently, then took her deep, with such passionate intensity there could be no room for doubt.
He felt the breath sigh from her throat, caught it, and pulled her in against him until the softness of her body melded to the hardness of his own.
His hand slid down her back, shaped the firm buttocks, then paused on her thigh, aware of its line, before shifting beneath her skirt.
The heat of her flesh drove him almost to the edge, and he had no other thought but to divest her clothes, his own, and ravish her here, now, uncaring of time or place.
He explored the moistness, sent her up and over, then caressed with an expertise that drove her wild.
It was almost more than she could bear, and her fingers tore at the buttons on his shirt, found the skin she so desperately sought, and moved lower in a feverish craving to touch him as he was stroking her. Until he was past need, beyond hunger.
Dear heaven, it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
His mouth left hers, trailed the slim column of her neck, then grazed her throat, nibbling the swollen softness of her lower lip before plundering at will.
Katrina became lost, so caught up with him, she was hardly aware he had dragged his mouth from hers until she registered the insistent buzz of the in-house phone.
‘Kasoulis.’ His voice was hard, inflexible, and she swayed slightly, then moved back a step.
Only to have him circle her wrist and hold her still.
His eyes never left hers, and she felt her own widen as she took in his dishevelled clothes, the state of her usually immaculate business suit.
‘Reschedule, please. Tomorrow afternoon.’
Katrina could imagine his secretary’s response.
‘I don’t give a damn what excuse you offer.’
Nicos listened, then cut in, ‘The deal is more important to them than it is to me. They’ll concede.’ He cut the connection.
Katrina tried for calm, and failed miserably. ‘I should go.’
‘We are.’ He brushed light fingers over her breasts, lingered, then reluctantly tended to the buttons on her blouse.
With deft movements he redid his own buttons, tucked his shirt back into his trousers, and straightened his tie.
His mouth curved into a lazy smile. ‘Somewhere with no interruptions.’
‘But you have an important meeting—’
‘I just cancelled.’
A witching glimmer