Black as the darkest night hair against a crisp linen pillow, brown skin against a blindingly white sheet, and tiger’s eyes burning with deliberate cruelty and triumph into hers.
In horrified rejection of the imagery that had sprung into her mind, Lara Anderson shuddered violently, dimly aware that she was still in the grip of severe shock.
Abruptly, she was dredged from her turmoil by the insistent shrill of the telephone in the hall. Reluctantly she answered the summons, carefully shutting the lounge door behind her so that her father was not disturbed.
“Lara...?”
She froze, her stunningly beautiful face white as snow between the silken wings of her blonde hair. Her breath caught in her throat in a strangled gasp. The receiver dropped from her nerveless fingers and swung towards the floor.
That voice, that truly unforgettable voice... deep, dark, and rich as golden honey. He said her name as no one else had ever said it, nor before him, nor after. She hadn’t heard him speak in three long years and yet recognition was instantaneous and terrifying.
Her throat closing over, she bent down to retrieve the phone.
“I’m so sorry to have startled you,” Christophe Moreau purred, lying between his even white teeth.
Her own teeth clenched. Lara wanted to reach down the telephone line and slap him silly. And feeling that way again... Feeling that strange surge of raw violent hatred which he alone invoked, scared her rigid. Her mouth went dry.
“What do you want, Christophe?”
“I’m in a very generous mood, chérie,” he imparted with a husky edge to his slow drawl. “I’m prepared to offer you a meeting…”
Her fingers clenched like talons around the receiver.
“A meeting... Why?”
“Can it be that you haven’t seen your father yet?” he murmured.
Lara went white.
“I’ve seen him,” she whispered, not troubling to add that Kenneth Miller was still in the room next door.
“As you know, embezzlement is a very serious offense.”
“My father had gambling debts,” Lara protested in a feverish undertone. “He panicked... He didn’t mean to take the money from the firm! He was borrowing it…”
“Euphemistically speaking,” Christophe inserted with more than an edge of mockery.
“The firm used to belong to him,” she reminded Christophe with helpless bitterness.
“But it doesn’t now, chérie,” Christophe traded softly. “Now it belongs to me.”
Lara’s teeth gritted. Three years ago, burdened by the demands of a wife with expensive tastes, aging machinery, and falling profits, her father, Kenneth Miller, had allowed Christophe Moreau to buy the family firm.
Duly reinstalled as chief executive, her father had seemed content and, with new equipment and unparalleled export opportunities through the parent conglomerate, ‘Miller Engineering’ had absolutely thrived.
Guilt stabbed like a knife into Lara. If it hadn’t been for her, Christophe Moreau would never have come into their lives. If it hadn’t been for her, the firm would still have belonged to her father. If it had not been for her, Kenneth Miller would not now be facing criminal charges for embezzlement.
Nausea stirred in her stomach, churned up by a current of raw loathing so powerful, she could taste it in her mouth.
“Dad intended to repay the money... if it hadn’t had been for the audit, you wouldn’t even have found out!” Lara said in desperation.
“Why do you think I spring occasional surprise audits on my companies?” Christophe enquired gently. “Employees like your father get greedy and sometimes they get caught as he has.”
Lara trembled, her heartbeat thundering deafeningly in her eardrums. His deliberate cruelty appalled her.
“My father wasn’t greedy... He was desperate!”
“I’m willing to meet you tonight. I’m staying at the Northern Star. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you which suite I’ll be occupying. Eight,” he specified. “I will wait one minute past the hour, no more. If you’re not there, there’ll be no second chance, chérie.”
Aghast at the site he had specified and absolutely enraged by his instinctive sadism, Lara gasped.
“Don’t waste your time! I’ll see you in hell before I set foot inside that hotel again!”
“You must’ve been quite a sight limping out on one shoe that afternoon,” Christophe mused provocatively. “The chambermaid found the other one under the bed. I still have it. Cinderella’s slipper…”
“How dare you?” she seethed down the phone in outrage.
“And as I recall it, you damned near left something far more intimate behind,” he breathed reflectively.
Blushing profusely, Lara slammed down the receiver before she could be further reminded of her own appalling, inexcusable weakness that day.
“The hell with him and his invitation!”
The very last thing Lara wanted to think about right now was that day at the Northern Star, three years ago.
‘No more!’ she wanted to scream. ‘No more!’
But of course, she wouldn’t. Lara didn’t scream. Lara hated to lose control. She had grown up sobbing silently behind closed doors, covering her ears from the sound of her mother screaming at her poor father. And she had sworn then that she would be different and that her own fiery temper would be subdued by every means within her power.
Lara would be strong without passion. And if she stayed away from the passion, she wouldn’t be hurt. The worst thing of all now had to be looking back, seeing how she had broken her own rules and how she had suffered accordingly.
Struggling to escape those frightening echoes from the past, Lara returned to her father. Grey with strain, Kenneth glanced up and began talking again, not even acknowledging that she had been out of the room, so cocooned in his own problems that he might as well have been on another planet.
“I had to hand over all my keys... Even my car keys… I wasn’t allowed to enter my own office again,” he relived painfully. “Then I was escorted out of the building by two security guards... It was a nightmare!”
Those must’ve been Christophe’s instructions. Hadn’t her father deserved just a little bit more consideration? Couldn’t he have been allowed to retain even a tiny sliver of dignity?
“Dad...”
Her voice suspended by choking tears, Lara darted across the room to offer comfort but her father pulled away from her.
“I would’ve treated a thief the same way…”
The admission was stark.
“You’re not a thief, Dad!”
But Kenneth didn’t reply to his daughter. Every which way Lara looked, she felt responsible. She should’ve been there for her father, should’ve seen that he was in trouble.
A week after Christophe had bought ‘Miller Engineering’, Lara’s mother had walked out and asked for the divorce. The amount of cash from the sale had proved too severe a temptation for Linda Miller.
Bad as the marriage had been, Kenneth had been utterly devastated. Her father had adored her mother. He had been terrifyingly loyal and forgiving through her every extra-marital affair. He would’ve done anything to keep her... For Linda, he had crawled, begged, pleaded.
The only person relieved by Linda’s departure had been her daughter. But she should’ve seen the immense void that had opened up in her father’s life. She had watched him turn into a workaholic, living and breathing business and profit because that was all he had left.
Why hadn’t it occurred to her that, as the firm thrived and made all the money her greedy mother could ever have wanted, her father must have bitterly resented the fact that the firm was no longer his and that those healthy profits had come too late to sustain his shaky marriage? But gambling...?
“It was somewhere to go, something to do,” Kenneth proffered while she stared back at him horrified. “And then I started losing and I thought I couldn’t go on losing forever...”
The silence went on and on and then abruptly and without any warning, Kenneth rose heavily from his seat and moved with the shambling pace of a much older man towards the front door.
“Where are you going, Dad?” Lara demanded, her blue eyes almost purple with the strength of her distress.
“Home, baby girl... I need to be on my own... Please understand that, Lara.”
In despair, she hurried down the path after him.
“Dad, we can cope better with this together! Please stay,” Lara pleaded.
“I’m sorry. Not now, baby,” he breathed tightly, unable to look at her.
Cope with the shame, the publicity, the court case? With the loss of his home, his job, his self-respect? Would he be able to cope? It was a tall order, she registered dully, especially for a man of his age.
But what alternative was there? You coped, you survived. If Lara had learned anything in recent years, it was that truth. Yet struggle as she did, she could no longer keep her mind fully focused on her father’s problems. The past was surging back to her, the past she had buried three years ago...
The day she had met Christophe Moreau she had been in London, shopping for her trousseau in the company of a friend. It had been less than two months before her wedding to Randall Anderson.
Lara hadn’t been wearing her engagement ring. One of the stones had worked loose and it had been in the jeweler for repair. She had been standing chatting to Liza at a busy intersection, waiting on the lights to change so they could cross.
Somebody behind her in the crowd had pushed her and she had fallen into the road, practically beneath the wheels of Christophe’s chauffeur-driven limousine. She didn’t remember falling. She had knocked herself out.
What she did remember was coming dizzily back to consciousness before the ambulance arrived and focusing on the most extraordinary golden eyes above hers. Astonishing pools of brilliant gold… So, naturally, Lara had stared. She had never seen eyes that shade before.
“Stay still... don’t speak.”
Christophe had been shooting autocratic instructions in every direction, including hers. Lara didn’t appreciate his arrogant behavior.
“I’m fine…”
“Keep quiet,” she had been told.
“It’s only my head and I want to get up...”
She had begun trying to move. A brown hand like a giant weight had anticipated such daring.
“Look, mister... I want to get up… Right now!” Lara had said again, embarrassed eyes flickering over the gathering crowd of witnesses.
“You’re not getting up... You could have injured your spine.”
Her temper had begun to spark. ‘Who the hell is this guy thinking he is?’ she thought.
“My spine is perfectly fine... I’m perfectly fine…”
“We will have a doctor tell us that.”
Christophe had continued to stare down at her with the most phenomenal intensity and then he had run a forefinger almost caressingly along her delicate jawbone.
“I will never forgive myself for hurting something so incredibly beautiful...”
Liza had been totally useless, absolutely hysterical somewhere in the background. Lara had found herself in a private ambulance, accompanied not by her friend but by Christophe.“She will follow in my car,” he had asserted, getting in the way of the paramedics while simultaneously telling them what to do. Lara just hadn’t had the strength to fight Christophe Moreau off that day. Her head had been aching fit to burst and her stomach churning with nausea. She had shut her eyes to escape, telling herself that this explosive and domineering stranger was simply attempting to make amends for an accident that hadn’t been his fault in the first place. She had been taken to a clinic, subjected to an alarmingly thorough examination against her will, and tucked into a bed in a very expe
With an inner shudder of distaste, Lara stepped out of the elevator, outraged by the direction of her thoughts. She had come here without allowing herself to think of what she had to face at journey’s end but the eerie familiarity of her surroundings was like a razor twisting inside her. Three years ago, Lara had stalked along this corridor in a rage to confront Christophe Moreau. And even this length of time after the event it was quite impossible for her to explain how she had very nearly ended up in his bed. The two of them... like animals… Her clothing half off, his hands on her body, her hands on his… Obscene, she reflected with a stab of revulsion. And had it not been for the noisy entrance of the chambermaid into the lounge next door to the bedroom, that disgusting incident might’ve gone
“Never!” Lara gasped breathlessly, searing his dark, savage visage with all the tortured fury of her discomfiting and powerless position.“The very image of you touching me again makes me feel physically sick!”“One lesson wasn’t enough for you, was it?” Christophe murmured huskily, narrowed eyes raking over her outraged features. “Don’t you remember how it was like when I made love to you?”“That wasn’t love!” Lara vented fiercely. “That was pure, unadulterated lust! Nothing more!”“And you have a problem with that... I don’t,” Christophe confided in a silky-smooth voice. And then, with a sardonic laugh, he released her when she was least expecting the gesture and thrust her carelessly back from him. Lara was trembling in cons
Lara didn’t need another invitation. On unsteady legs, she backed out in haste. Out in the corridor, she closed her eyes and breathed in slowly and deeply. She felt hurt, alone, worthless, and the sensations were intense. Christophe confused her, cast her into turmoil. He still had this power. They were opposites in every way but just for a strange and highly disturbing moment, she had recognized an utterly inexplicably glimpse of empathy. When she saw that, Lara had wanted to put her arms around him. Crazy! Unbelievable! Just one of those mad tricks of the mind when one’s emotions were on a high... ‘After all, would I pet an enraged tiger plotting to put me on his menu?’ Lara thought. 
She kept the car waiting an hour. Lara packed as though she was going away for the weekend. In the back of her mind, a voice kept on talking… scolding her… ‘You can’t be doing this... You can’t have agreed…’“Three months… This is going to be pure hell,” she whispered and lifted a photo of Randall off the nightstand and stared at it tautly. It had been taken the day he opened the photo studio. He was wearing a suit… so unusual. A slim, fair man of medium height with gentle brown eyes.“It doesn’t matter to me... That sort of thing isn’t really important,” Randall had soothed when she sobbed out her shame and despair after that dreadful afternoon when she had almost ended up s
Silence fell. Since Christophe wasn’t a man easily silenced, Lara looked up. He cleared his throat, tension thrumming from his poised stance by the window.“I want you to pretend to be my fiancée.” She couldn’t hide her astonishment.“Why?”“I have my reasons,” he parried, the anger gone and replaced by a set gravity that disturbed her.“If I have to play this role, I don’t see why you can’t tell me…”“I’ll tell you only this,” he breathed shortly, his golden eyes grim and distant as he studied her. “I’ve been estranged from my father for some years and now he’s dying. I wish to spend some time with him and, in order for me to do so, I need a fiancée to accompany me to his home.”&n
Lara woke up from a long, dreamless sleep, wonderfully relaxed. And then she opened her eyes. Christophe was less than six inches away. Dark golden eyes raked mockingly over her startled face. And so, the relaxation vanished and tension took its place.“I don’t think a woman has ever fallen asleep waiting for me before. You could be seriously bad for my ego…” With a falsely bright smile on her lips, she sat up.“Good gracious, is that the time?” she gasped. “Why didn’t you wake me?” Christophe dealt her a genuinely amused smile that quite transformed his powerful dark features. He anchored one hand in the tumbled fall of her blonde hair before she could take evasive action and pulled her head closer to his.“Don’t worry
She looked at Christophe trying to understand the reason for such evilness on his part. ‘Don’t cry, Lara! Don’t you dare crying!’ she encouraged herself.“Why do you have to be so cruel? Why do you treat me this way?” Her voice was strangely steady, but she was dying inside.“I have a photographic memory of you walking down the aisle in your virginal white dress to marry another man!” Christophe raked back at her.“Well, I still don’t understand why should that have bothered you? You didn’t want to marry me!”“That annoyed you, did it?” he incised.“I hated you, Christophe... How could it? And I certainly had no desire to be your traveling whore!”“Excuse me?” He looked
“Yes… I can see it…” she murmured and felt shivers down her spine.“Perfect! And now you can watch me fall asleep... Such incriminating stuff… Oh, get ready! Meghan makes her entrance in about half an hour…”“Meghan…” Lara echoed weakly.“I could’ve had all this material cut and rearranged, but I didn’t want to spare you a single second of the entertainment.” Swallowing hard, Lara dutifully watched Christophe falling asleep, the most awful suspicion beginning to assail her.“You can fast forward if you like,” she mumbled in a small voice.“Are you sure, chérie?”“Quite sure…” With a sinking heart, Lara watched Meghan creep in and stand gazing down at Christophe. A litt
“I’ll tell you what I don’t enjoy now. Your jealousy, chérie,” Christophe replied to her with blistering derision. “At least Meghan knows when to shut up and be feminine and warm...”“Seriously?” Lara went white, lowering her lashes over shocked and wounded eyes.“I can’t believe you just said this…” Christophe had turned on her with biting cruelty unfamiliar to her.“All I wanted tonight was the sweet oblivion of your body…”So that’s my mission tonight after you being away for so long… To provide sex,” Lara countered with a shudder of mingled rage and pain.“Why not? You’re my wife,” he slung back at her harshly. Dear God
Lara shivered in spite of the heat. Demis had left careful instructions for his burial and he had chosen to come back to Greece to the sunbaked hillside where his own parents had been laid to rest. The funeral was small, strictly family but the press was just beyond the graveyard, a sea of hungry wolves, restrained only by the strong police presence.“It’s time to go.” Francine briefly leaned on Lara’s extended arm for support and then straightened again. Lara felt deserted and superfluous to requirements. For days she had told herself not to be childish, not to be selfish, not to expect Christophe to find time for her when his every waking moment was filled with ceaseless demands for his attention. Lara had innocently expected to make
There was just one detail she needed to ask him about… something she had always wondered about…“Chris… What did you do with that shoe I left behind three years ago?” He looked at her and smiled.“Well, dear Cinderella… It’s somewhere safe.”“Oh…”“Did you think I might have had it dipped in pure gold and placed in a glass case?” Christophe teased her.“Until that day it was one of my favorite pairs of shoes.”“What did you do with the one you had left?”“Dumped it.”“There you are, then,” Christophe mocked. “I was more sentimental than you were.” Lara became serious once again.“I thought you’d laugh about
Christophe stilled. His fiercely narrowed gaze slewed at speed back to Lara and simply stayed there.“Gay? Anderson was gay?” he practically whispered in disbelief. Lara unfroze and whirled out of the room. She was outraged and devastated at one and the same time. Demis Agelastos must have had her investigated. Where else could Meghan have obtained such information? All along Christophe’s father had known all about her background. She felt invaded and violated, horrified that such information should have fallen into Meghan’s grasping hands, cheap fodder for her spite. Christophe caught her back on the landing before she could head for the sanctuary of their bedroom. A far from gentle hand closed around her forearm.“Pull yo
Her strained smile glazed over. Oh, God, Christophe had laid on the ‘I-love- your-daughter’ routine with a trowel. Very impressive indeed.“Christophe’s a rather more complex character than I ever appreciated,” Kenneth admitted. “I always thought of him as very cool and controlled. He is in business. But in love... he’s all emotion and reaction. So, now you tell me how you feel.” Lara took a deep breath.“I’m… Uh… I’m crazy about him, of course.”“Oh… You’re much more reserved than he is... Hmm… Did your mother and I do that to you?” he sighed regretfully. “I’m sorry, Lara… Both Linda and I ruined everything for you. And Randall…”“Daddy, stop,” she begged him and put her loving arms around hi
Christophe scanned the wildness in her sapphire eyes for a fulminating ten seconds, a muscle jerking tight at his hard jawline.“Listen, I don’t know what the hell you think you’re playing at but the wedding goes ahead tomorrow... Even if I have to drag you through it by the hair!”“I don’t think so! I refuse to be a part of this disgusting masquerade. You hear me?” Lara slung rawly. “No. Meghan told me why you had to get married! So go and find yourself another woman willing to play this game!”“Ah… Meghan… Alright, let’s hear why do I have to get married?” Christophe invited very softly. “I’m extremely curious about my real reasons behind this wedding.”“Stop it, Christophe! You know why… You lied to me,” Lara condemned fiercely. “Every single thing you told me was a lie..
His words came back in her mind, harsher and harder to digest than before. ‘Someday you will come to me on your knees and beg me to take you... and I will break you.’ Lara shivered, suddenly cold and scared. Just a few short days ago, Christophe had still been talking in the same vein. And though he had yet to discover it, he had already won. She was over the moon in love with him… the man she learned to hate for three long, excruciating years. Whatever happened, Lara knew she was going to be very badly hurt. But the heart wants what the heart wants and cancel her love for Christophe wasn’t an option anymore. Another knock sou
His hands wrenched down the straps of her sleeveless dress and Lara glanced down, shocked to see her own bared breasts, helplessly shy of him and yet unbearably aroused by his impatience. With a groan, Christophe lifted her and suckled at an erect pink nipple and her hands clenched fiercely into his shoulders, an involuntary moan of excitement torn from her. Her head fell back as his tormenting mouth bit at her sensitive flesh with a knowing eroticism that drove her out of her mind with excitement. Lara was boneless in his grasp, a wanton creature drunk on sensation. A lean hand skimmed beneath the flimsy silken fabric of her gown, following the upward curve of a slender thigh and lingering there with devastating effect.“You drive me crazy, chérie…” Christophe groaned, sinking to his knees t