Mediterranean Tycoons. JACQUELINE BAIRD
front of his desk and walked around to take the seat behind it. He let his eyes rest coolly on Selina.
She was wearing the black dress she had worn for her grandfather’s funeral. Her hair was pulled back into a single thick plait to hang down her back, her face was carefully made up, and high-heeled shoes were on her dainty feet. He watched her smooth the skirt of the dress over her hips and thighs as she sat down, placing the black satchel she carried on her lap. She looked elegant and businesslike, but in his mind’s eye he was picturing her gorgeous body naked—her soft skin, the perfect breasts he had tasted so many times. Only last night she had been like a living flame in his arms. They had made love well into the early hours of the morning. Yet now she sat there, seemingly cool and composed, wanting the money …
Selina glanced around the huge office—all glass and steel, hard like the man. They’d met the lawyer over breakfast and pretended they were good friends while Kadiekis explained the handing over of her grandfather’s shares to her so she could sell them to Rion before the estate was finally wound up. That way the provision they had agreed for Anna was guaranteed and all debts would be covered. There would still be a healthy amount of money left over for Selina. She had signed the paper he’d given her, confirming the fact, and another notified document to cancel the guardianship. That had been fraught enough. Especially when he’d given the share certificates straight to Rion for safekeeping, as though she was some silly woman who would lose them before she got ashore.
But the trip from the marina in a chauffeured car to Rion’s office in Athens had taken almost an hour, and been a whole lot worse.
Rion had worked on his laptop or made calls the whole time, never saying a word to her. Not that she had wanted him to, but sitting beside him in the close confines of the car with the slight scent of his cologne tantalising her nostrils, she had been intensely aware of him. Wearing an immaculate grey suit, with his black hair swept back from his brow, he’d looked broodingly attractive, and she hadn’t been able to help noting every tiny movement he made—his arm touching hers when he raised the phone to his ear, the deep velvet tone of his voice, the accidental brush of his thigh against hers with the movement of the vehicle.
By the time she’d got out of the car she’d been hot, tense, her nerves wound tight as a drum. And her nervous tension had not improved when he’d taken her arm and led her into what was obviously a new building—nothing like the old office she had visited once when they were married. Then he’d urged her into the elevator, and now had ordered her to ‘Sit.’
‘I am not a dog,’ she said tartly, to break the growing silence.
‘No,’ he said, and lifted a black brow.
The insult, not spoken but implied, enraged her. This was the man she had stupidly, eagerly given her body to last night—and her heart and soul, if she was honest, because she’d known it would be the final time.
‘Trading insults is your thing, Rion. Why am I not surprised?’ she sneered. ‘You traded me once for a company, and again for sex. You’d trade with the devil himself—Bratchet for one. Now, give me the form to sign. Why we could not have done this on the yacht I will never understand. Then let me get out of here.’
‘You are overreacting to an imagined insult. And let’s get one thing straight,’ he said curtly. ‘I would never have married you to acquire the Stakis shipping line. I married you because I’d had unprotected sex with you. With the possibility you might be pregnant it seemed the right thing to do at the time.’
Appalled, Selina stared at him, the air between them crackling with tension. ‘My God—and that is supposed to make me feel better? Just give me the damn paper to sign.’
Not a muscle moved in Rion’s face as he pushed the relevant documents across the desk. He was within a hair’s breadth of losing his temper with her, but with a terrific effort of will he controlled the urge to shake some sense into her. She wanted him. He wanted her. But she blew hot and cold for no apparent reason and arguing with her would get him nowhere. The day wasn’t over yet, and with business out of the way he had plans to end it with Selina in his bed.
‘This is a copy of the official notification from Kadiekis agreeing to the sale of your grandfather’s shares to me before the estate is wound up. You’d better keep that. And these are the share certificates, which you might like to check to make sure they add up to what I told you. Finally, a transferral form, which you should read and sign where indicated.’
‘I don’t need to read it. Just give me a pen.’
‘Is that wise? How do you know you can trust me?’ he asked with a cynical arch of an ebony brow. ‘From what you just said, you don’t have much of an opinion of me.’
Mr Cool, Selina thought—while she was getting madder by the minute. ‘No, I don’t. At least not on a normal human level. But when it comes to a deal I know you are meticulous to the nth degree,’ she mocked. And, picking up the pen he had pushed across the desk, she signed the document. Standing up, she handed it to him. Then, placing the copy of the agreement he had suggested she keep in her satchel, she took out a notepad and wrote down her bank account number. Tearing it off, she held the page out to Rion.
‘You will need this. When you and Kadiekis have settled everything I would like any money that is left transferred to this account. That way we need never communicate again.’ The quicker she got out of here the better. She was perilously close to losing her temper altogether and telling Rion exactly what she thought of him. She might love him, but as a man he was a waste of space …
Rion’s eyes narrowed sardonically on her beautiful face. ‘I do have to sign as well, Selina.’ He knew she was hiding something. Her mention of Bratchet and the devil in the same sentence had set him thinking, and he was determined to find out what it was. Taking the document, he signed it. ‘Did you notice how much money you will receive?’ he asked, hoping to delay her. Taking the note from her hand, he felt her flinch as their fingers touched.
‘What you said a fortnight ago, I presume.’
‘Yes, that is correct.’ Glancing at the number on the note he wrote something else on it and turned to the computer on his desk. ‘I’ll enter your account number in the relevant file, and I might as well arrange the transfer of the shares now with my broker.’
In a matter of minutes it was done. Then, rising to his feet he walked around the desk and handed the note back to her.
‘In the unlikely event that anything goes wrong and you need to contact me, my personal cell phone number is on there.’ She took it, avoiding touching him this time, he noted. ‘Have you thought what you are going to do with the money that is left?’ he asked, wanting to delay her departure. He saw relief mingled with the anger in her expressive eyes.
‘Give it to a children’s charity,’ she said, pushing the note into her handbag and slinging it over her shoulder. ‘Now I’ll be on my way.’
‘The same children’s charity as before, I presume?’ he prompted, not convinced by her glib reply any more than he had been the first time.
‘Yes.’ She turned to go.
‘Not so fast.’ He wrapped his hand around her upper arm and spun her back to face him. ‘You and I are not finished yet.’
Selina glanced at Rion, furious at his bullying tactic to delay her. She had had enough. ‘We were finished years ago.’ She tried to pull her arm free but he simply tightened his grip, his fingers digging into her flesh, and she lost her temper completely. ‘My God, Iris did me a favour, telling me about you.’
‘Iris?’ He looked puzzled. ‘Telling you what?’
‘You are supposed to be brilliant—work it out,’ she snapped.
His other hand slid up her back to catch her long silken plait and tug her head back. ‘Cut out the sarcasm and tell me.’
Held in his firm grip, Rion’s eyes boring down into hers, she registered the implacable determination in the dark depths. Refusing to be intimidated,