Page 20 of The Tycoon’s Affair: Tempted By Desire

CHAPTER SEVEN

F OR AN AWFUL second Sidonie thought she might faint. She couldn’t actually believe that Alexio had just said those words... daughter of a criminal.

She went icy cold, despite the heat, and forced words out through numb lips. ‘What do you mean, the daughter of a criminal?’

His voice flat, he admitted, ‘I know all about your mother, Sidonie. I know that she blackmailed her married lover and went to jail.’

The words fell like shattered glass all over her.

The old shame rose up to grip her vocal cords so she couldn’t speak, much in the same way as had happened when she’d been eight years old in the schoolyard and her classmates had surrounded her, jeering, ‘Your mother’s going to jail. ..your mother’s going to jail...’

Sidonie could not believe she was hearing this. It had to be a nightmare. Perhaps any minute now she’d wake up to Alexio saying, Sid...wake up. I want you .

She blinked. But nothing changed. Alexio was still standing there. A stranger. Cold and remote. Condemnatory. She felt dazed, confused.

Somehow she managed to get out, ‘How on earth do you know about that?’ Something else struck her. ‘And how do you know about my aunt’s debts?’

Alexio crossed his arms and now he looked completely forbidding. ‘I had you investigated.’

This information made Sidonie literally reel. She had to put her hands behind her on the railing just to hold onto something or she was afraid she’d fall down.

‘You had me investigated ?’ she whispered incredulously, looking at him, at this complete stranger.

Alexio lifted one shoulder minutely and didn’t look remotely ashamed or sheepish. ‘I can’t be too careful... Someone, a complete stranger, comes into my life... I got suspicious.’

‘My God,’ Sidonie breathed, horrified. ‘Who are you?’

She felt sick. And then angry. It was a huge surge of emotion, rising up within her. She stood up straight, let go of the railing. She was shaking.

‘And how dare you pry into my private life? What my mother did has got absolutely nothing to do with you.’

Sidonie had lived with that shame all her life but had finally come to terms with what her mother had done—not least because she understood a little of why she’d acted the way she had.

Something that she could never explain to this cold stranger.

She hadn’t even let her guard down enough with him to tell him of her deep private secrets. He’d gone looking for them.

Sidonie was aware of parts of herself breaking off inside, shattering. She knew she had to hold it together.

Alexio spoke again, his voice as cutting as a knife. ‘But it wasn’t just that, was it? She put your aunt into severe debt, to fund her own expensive tastes.’

Shame heaped on top of shame. Sidonie felt horribly exposed. From somewhere deep inside, and far too late, she reached for and pulled up an icy shield.

‘That is none of your concern.’ Because she’d never intended to tell him about it. It was part of the real world, which wasn’t part of this fantasy world.

Alexio’s mouth twisted. ‘But it would have been, wouldn’t it?

You were waiting for the right moment, when enough intimacy had been established, and then you were going to make your move.

I just wonder if you were going to ask only for enough to cover the debts or more.

..based on how many nights we’d spent together?

Based on how duped you thought I was by then? ’

‘Theos.’ He was lashing out now, making Sidonie flinch. He narrowed wild-looking eyes on her.

‘You were good. I’ll give you that. But there were a few signs... The way you were so blasé with the clothes, as if you had expected nothing less. That little wistful moment outside the jewellery shop... Were you hoping to wake up and find a diamond bracelet winking at you on the pillow?’

Sidonie desperately tried not to let the awful insidious insecurity take hold, telling her that despite everything she was her mother’s daughter.

Had something about the sheer level of Alexio’s wealth called to her?

More than the man himself? Suddenly she doubted herself.

She had to take deep breaths to avoid throwing up right there on the terrace.

The sheer depth and evidence of Alexio’s cynicism was astounding, shocking. The lengths he’d gone to because he hadn’t really trusted her... Because he’d suspected something.

The things he’d found out... The fact that she had so fatally misread this man. How had she not seen an inkling of this? Only those most fleeting moments when a look would cross his face...hardly enough to make her wonder.

Nevertheless, a small, tender part of Sidonie not lashed by this terrible revelation was making her say, ‘You have it all wrong. I was only telling my aunt something to reassure her. She was hysterical. I didn’t mean it.

You were never meant to hear that and I had no intention of asking you for money. ’

To Sidonie’s own ears it sounded flat. Didn’t sound convincing. She couldn’t seem to drum up the necessary passion to convince him. She was too stunned, too shocked...too wounded.

Predictably, Alexio didn’t believe her. His eyes were a dead, emotionless void.

‘I do not wish to discuss this any further. We’re done here. I am going back to Athens within the hour. If you come with me I will ensure you get a flight home.’

Sidonie felt devoid of all feeling except one: she hated this man. And she couldn’t believe how gullible she’d been—how na?ve not to have assumed that a man as powerful as him would, of course, be suspicious and cynical by nature.

She said flatly, ‘I would prefer to swim home.’

Alexio shrugged minutely, as if he couldn’t care less. ‘As you wish. There’s a boat leaving for Piraeus this evening. My housekeeper’s husband will take you to the port.’

Sidonie welcomed that. Because right now she hated herself for automatically thinking about what it would be like to get on a plane again without this man distracting her from her fear with his charming sexy smile. With that wicked mouth.

He turned away and then turned back abruptly, his eyes dark. Something in his voice was a bit wild, but Sidonie was too traumatised to notice it.

‘Tell me...was it on the plane, when you knew who I was? Did you decide then to try and hook me by making me believe you were different from every other woman I’ve ever met?’

Sidonie just looked at him. Words of defence were stuck in her throat.

She had no defence—not when this man had proved that he had suspected her of something long before he’d even had a reason to.

And he still had no reason to. She had trusted him, blindly, right from the start, never suspecting for a moment how dark he was inside. How he could so easily condemn her.

She never wanted to see him again because he had just proved that she would never be free of the past. He had broken her heart into a million pieces and she’d never forgive herself for that weakness. Or him.

His condemnation would be her defence, so she said, ‘Yes. On the plane. As soon as I knew who you were.’

Alexio looked at her for a taut moment and then he turned and strode away, leaving her standing there. As soon as he was out of sight Sidonie blindly made her way into the en suite bathroom of the bedroom where they’d made love too many times to count and was violently ill.

Afterwards, when Alexio’s helicopter had left and she’d changed into her own clothes and packed her bag, Sidonie sat on a lounger outside with the glorious view unnoticed in front of her. She was still numb. Devoid of any substantial feeling. She knew it was the protection of shock.

One thing impinged, though: disgust at herself for having indulged in this fantasy.

She’d wanted one night and had then grabbed for more.

.. Had she on some level hoped that Alexio would want her for longer?

Deeper? Had she ignored her own usually healthy self-protective cautious nature because she’d been blinded by opulence? The thought made her feel sick again.

Bitterly she surmised that she should have listened to him more closely when he’d told her his reasons for turning his back on his inheritance. He was driven and ruthless—had dashed his own father’s expectations and dreams to fuel his own desires.

She’d believed his reasons were justified when she’d heard them at first—she’d heard the way his voice had constricted when he’d talked about his father, as if even now he felt the unbearable yoke of expectation. She’d admired him.

But now she saw him for what he really was: an amoral, ambitious, greedy man who would step over his nearest and dearest to get ahead.

She hadn’t stood a chance. He might have heard her damning conversation with her aunt, but he’d already investigated her at that stage and had clearly believed her worthy of judgement because of her mother’s criminal record.

Those two years of her mother’s incarceration were etched like an invisible tatoo into Sidonie’s skin. A stain of shame that would never be gone, but which had faded over time...until now.

Sidonie’s well-ingrained sense of responsibility rose up. She should never have indulged herself like this. She had her aunt to worry about now, and clearing the debts.

She heard a car pull up somewhere nearby.

It would be the housekeeper’s husband. She stood up and tried not to let the emotion brewing within her break free.

She couldn’t let it. She was afraid of its awesome power.

Of how much it would tell her about a hurt that shouldn’t be so deep—not after just a few days with a man she hadn’t even known.

A man appeared, old and bent, with a weathered face and black eyes. His dour expression gave Sidonie some sense of relief. If he’d been kind she might have broken apart altogether. He took her bag and at the same time handed her a white envelope with nothing written on it.