Devil Lover

His eyes narrowed. ‘Does that mean you will marry me?’

‘No,’ she shook her head firmly.

He shrugged. ‘Then you will wear the perfume tonight. It is called “Desirable"—let us hope I find you that way by tonight.’

Regan was aware that he was insulting her again, that his words were designed to cause humiliation. ‘You can't get away with this sort of thing in this country,’ she informed him tautly. ‘It's called kidnapping. And rape will be added to that if you carry out your threat.’

‘You came here of your own free will, I have witnesses to the fact.’

‘But I'm not staying from the same freedom.’

‘In a few weeks’ time you will not want to leave,’ he told her with indifference. ‘I will make sure of that.’

‘You're doing all this because of what happened ten years ago?’

His mouth tightened. ‘Yes.’

‘And if I agree to marry you?’

‘Then you will be shown every consideration.’

‘Except that I would still have to share your bed.’

‘Unless you know of some other way we can have children.’ His smile was cruelly mocking.

Regan took a deep breath. ‘All right, I'll marry you.’

His green eyes narrowed questioningly, his intent gaze searching her features. Regan forced herself to remain calm. ‘You are up to something.’ he said slowly, suspiciously. ‘Do you think that by agreeing you will encourage me to let you roam freely about the estate? Do you take me for a fool, Regan? You will remain in your room until tomorrow. I have arranged for us to be married then.’

‘You were so sure of me.’ she said bitterly.

‘You have no real choice,’ he told her arrogantly.

Oh yes, she did, and one he wasn't aware of. She hadn't been a tomboy for nothing. Once Andreas Vatis had left her room she intended climbing down the drainpipe she had seen outside her window, something she had done a lot as a child, and escaping that way. ‘Does that mean that you'll leave me alone tonight?’

‘Poor Regan, are you afraid of being in a man's arms?’ he taunted.

‘Not a man's,’ she flushed. ‘But the devil's, yes.’

‘So I am the devil now, am I?’ he rasped, obviously not liking what she said. ‘Then make sure you do not bring out the devil in me when I possess you,’ he warned. ‘I could hurt you very much.’

He would never possess her, never! ‘Will you have my lunch sent up here?’ she asked.

He looked taken aback, finally giving a husky laugh, ‘I will never understand the workings of a woman's mind—her body, yes, but never her mind. One minute we are talking of sharing a bed, the next you are talking of food.’

Because her mind was racing on to her escape, to gaining the most time before it was discovered she had gone, and she needed to know whether a maid would be coming up here in the next hour or so. ‘They're both appetites,’ she dismissed. ‘At the moment I happen to consider the latter of more importance. And you probably don't understand a woman's mind because that has never been the part of a woman you're interested in.’ She knew he kept a low profile on his affairs, but she also knew there had to have been several, the experience of his hands hadn't been carried forward ten years from his wife. Besides, he emitted a sexual aura that in any other circumstances she might have been drawn to. But never through force, or under duress!

‘You are probably right,’ he didn't rise to her taunt. ‘And yes, your lunch will be sent up here. I dare not risk you seeing Clive and trying to convince him to take you back to London with him. He is loyal to me, but he also has a strong sense of what is wrong and what is right.’

‘And he would know this is wrong!’

‘I'm afraid so,’ he nodded.

Regan was more and more convinced her plan was going to work. Once she had climbed down the drainpipe she could stow away in the back of Clive's car. There was a blanket on the back seat she could cover herself with, and he had said he would be leaving shortly after lunch. If she timed this right she shouldn't have to be cramped on the back seat for long. Once away from here she was sure she could convince Clive of Andreas Vatis’ ruthless plan to slake his revenge on her.

‘Then you admit it,’ she accused.

‘I admit that to an Englishman what I am doing would not be thought—gentlemanly,’ he sneered the word. ‘But I do not consider it gentlemanly of one man to try to kill another either. Oh yes,’ he said grimly as she made to protest, ‘your father did not intend to blind or even maim me when he forced me off the race circuit, he intended to kill.’

Regan was once again deathly pale. ‘I don't believe you,’ she shook her head in denial of his words. ‘My father——’

‘Was a very dangerous man. He thought that by killing me he would be free to marry Gina. But we Vatises do not die so easily. I was very badly injured——’

‘I know,’ she put in quietly. ‘I—I saw a report of the crash.’

‘So,’ he nodded. ‘Both my legs and one arm were broken, several ribs also, one of which punctured a lung. But none of these things mattered to me in comparison with the taking of my sight. That I could never forgive.’ His mouth twisted bitterly. ‘Gina could take none of it, and I admit I was not a sight to please the eyes of a woman, not even the woman who had sworn before God to love me for all time. Gina went on a visit to her parents and she did not come back. Your father had arranged to meet her there, deciding that it would have to be a divorce after all. There was only one thing he did not take into account, and that was that I would still not divorce Gina. I do not believe in it.’

‘My father loved your wife. He—he wanted to marry her. I don't believe he would harm anyone to get what he wanted.’

‘Considering he was no father to you I am surprised you still feel it necessary to defend him,’ Andreas Vatis scorned.

‘I'm not defending him, I'm saying you're wrong about him. My father would never deliberately hurt anyone, let alone try to kill them.’

‘But I have witnesses, Regan.’

She had gone very pale. ‘W-witnesses?’

‘Of course,’ he nodded haughtily. ‘You are not listening to the ramblings, of a demented man,’ he snapped. ‘Shortly before the race in which I was injured your father and I had an argument. He wanted me to divorce Gina, when I refused he threatened to kill me.’

‘The words of any angry man.’ Regan remembered her father's explosive temper well, his nature as fiery as the red lights in his hair.

‘I do not think so. And neither did the other five drivers who heard him say it. While I lay unconscious in my hospital bed an enquiry into the accident was taking place, privately, of course. It would not do to cast aspersions on a man's character until they were sure. If I had not been unconscious I could have told them that your father deliberately swerved in front of me.’ His harsh features were frightening in their anger.

‘And the—the enquiry?’ she hardly dared to ask.

His dark gaze levelled on her. ‘It was dropped.’

‘There you are, then,’ she said triumphantly. ‘You must be mistaken.’

‘I am not mistaken. Strange, is it not, that your father retired from racing after that race? A few months later he was dead.’

‘And you've been planning this revenge all those years.’

‘Oh yes. I told you, it may take a long time, but a Greek never forgives or forgets.’

‘So it seems,’ she said dully, putting a hand up to her aching temple. ‘I—I would like to lie down. I'm not feeling well.’

‘Poor Regan,’ he taunted. ‘What a shock for you!’