His Mistress By Blackmail. Maya Blake

the first clue how much it cost to stay on a private island with a dozen staff waiting hand and foot on guests. What she did know was that, with less than a thousand dollars in her bank account, she could ill afford it.

      That was most likely what Xandro had counted on. Their encounters to date might have been relatively short and sour, but it was clear he calculated his moves a dozen steps ahead before he played a single hand. He’d controlled every single move, right down to his appearance here this morning.

      Almost on automatic, she returned her suitcase to the dressing room, emptied its contents back onto the shelf and stashed the case in the provided cubbyhole.

      She was still perched on her bed a long while later, contemplating ways to evade the unbreakable net she could feel closing in on her, when the housekeeper came to announce that a buffet lunch was served on the terrace outside.

      As Sage trudged downstairs, she realised that at no point had Xandro Christofides revealed to her just what he intended her fate to be. Just as he’d refrained from pointing out why he’d come to her bedroom in the first place.

      She found out several hours later that he intended to carry on with his mind games when, with a few simply uttered words, Melissa held out a tantalising glimpse of Sage’s dream, now just one seven-minute audition away from coming true.

      ‘You’ve made it through to the final twelve, Miss Woods. One more step and you could be part of the Hunter Dance Company. Congratulations,’ the director announced with a toast of champagne once their dinner plates had been cleared away.

      She forced herself to respond to the felicitations. To nod and smile and agree that yes, it was awesome and everything she’d worked so hard to achieve.

      But Sage couldn’t stop the premonition blooming that she’d just been handed her worst nightmare. And that Xandro was still very much in control of it.