Wife For A Night Page 4

  'Well, what will you have to drink?' he asked.

  Kate, still feeling overwhelmed, chose a safe gin and tonic, while Philip opted for ouzo, the traditional Greek aniseed liqueur. When the drinks arrived Philip raised his glass in a salute.

  'Yasu/' he exclaimed.

  'Yasu!' she replied.

  'Now,' said Philip, setting down his glass after a swift gulp, 'perhaps you will be good enough to explain why you are treating me as if I have bubonic plague.'

  Kate choked on her drink, alarmed at such directness.

  'I'm not!' she lied hastily, but the spreading colour in her cheeks betrayed her.

  'Oh, yes, you are,' contradicted Philip. 'On Sunday night I had you in my arms, Katarina. Warm and soft and yielding. So soft and so yielding that I think I could have taken you without the slightest opposition.'

  His dark eyes seemed to imprison her so that she sat trapped like a frightened bird in their penetrating stare. Her heart beat so wildly that she thought he must see it through the thin chiffon of her dress.

  'That's not true!' she denied.

  'Isn't it?' he demanded huskily. 'How strange. Do you know, I had the strongest impression on Sunday night that you longed for me to undress you and caress your naked flesh? That you wanted me to carry you to bed and take you, just as badly as I wanted to do it?'

  'Stop it!' begged Kate, scarlet with embarrassment. 'People will hear you.'

  'Oh, I think not,' said Philip mildly. 'I asked for a very private table precisely so that we could discuss all this without being overheard.'

  'How dare you?' cried Kate through quivering lips. 'You told me you wanted to discuss business with me!'

  'So I do,' agreed Philip with infuriating calm. 'But all in good time. First I want to know why your manner has changed so much towards me.'

  'It hasn't,' said Kate with a toss of her flaming auburn curls.

  'Hasn't it?' demanded Philip.

  Suddenly his hand shot out, imprisoning hers. She looked down at the lean brown fingers that held her in a vice-like grip, at the sleek dark hair that covered Philip's powerful wrists beneath the crisp white cuffs. A little gasp escaped her.

  'You're nothing but a savage underneath that expensive suit!' she accused angrily.

  'Exactly,' agreed Philip, his eyes glittering dangerously. 'And smart women don't provoke savages. So why don't you finish your drink and then tell me why you have suddenly become so cold towards me?'

  As he spoke his grip softened, till it was nothing more than a warm caress against her skin. Kate swallowed convulsively and tried to withdraw her hand.'Give me one good reason why I should!' she flung at him.

  His hand tightened again on her fingers.

  'If I told you I fell half in love with you on Sunday night would that be good enough reason?' he demanded urgently.

  It was all she could do to pull away from that warm, seductive hold. He's going to marry another woman, she told herself fiercely. This is nothing but a game to him. Tears prickled at the back of her eyelids. The haunting Remvetika music in the background, the soft lights, the scent of the roses were nothing but a snare that he had laid to trap her.

  'No,' she retorted angrily.

  'Katarina,' he begged, 'look at me. Say something to me.'

  No power on earth could have stopped her from turning her head to face him. The tears brimmed over and sparkled on her lashes, but she held her head high and met his gaze.

  'Why didn't you tell me you were engaged?' she whispered.

  He sat back in his chair and a pained look came over his face.

  'So that's it!' he said with a mirthless laugh. 'I might have known.'

  'Yes, you might!' agreed Kate, stung beyond endurance. 'You might also refrain from telling other women you're half in love with them when you ought to be wholly in love with your fiancee!'

  'My engagement has never been like that,' protested Philip. 'The match was arranged years ago by our families. Love has nothing to do with it!'

  'Really?' demanded Kate furiously. 'Then you have my sympathy, but I still don't see that you have any right to go around making love to other women.'

  '1 see!' retorted Philip with equal fury. 'You're absolutely right, of course.

  Obviously I should have taken the precaution of breaking off my engagement before I set out on my journey last weekend!'

  'I didn't say that!' hissed Kate. 'But you certainly should have taken the precaution of keeping your hands off me. What possible right do you have to lead me into some squalid little affair that I can only regret?'

  Philip leant across the table, his eyes flashing, ready to reply. But at that moment a waiter arrived, coughed discreetly and produced two large leather-clad menus. Kate's hands trembled as she took the menu which the waiter opened ceremoniously in front of her. She felt that at last she was beginning to get her bearings with Philip Andronikos, but she didn't like the direction the conversation was taking at all. Obviously the time she had spent in his arms at Ayia Sofia, which had seemed so precious and magical to her, meant absolutely nothing to him. Even if the emotion that had flared up between them really was love, what difference did it make? Hadn't he just said that love had nothing to do with marriage? What she must do was stay calm and distant and remember that she was only here for the sake of her career. Grimly she scanned the menu.

  'Do you really hate our Greek cuisine so much that it makes you scowl like that?' asked Philip mockingly.

  Kate started.

  'No, of course not!' she replied in an embarrassed tone. 'I love Greek food.

  It's just that it's all so unfamiliar.'

  'Then perhaps you will allow me to help you choose. Let me explain what all this means.'

  Philip led her step by step through the menu, and Kate ordered mesethakia, a mixed hors d'oeuvre with pickled olives, cheese and squid, followed by spit-roasted lamb with potatoes and a side-dish of stuffed peppers. Once the waiter had taken their orders she sat back in her chair with her hands clenched tightly in her lap and her gaze fixed stonily on a point six inches above Philip's head.

  'Look at me, damn you,' said Philip.

  Her eyes darted angrily down to meet his, then slewed away. He gave a harsh laugh.

  'You're wrong about one thing, you know,' he said meditatively.

  'Oh. What's that?' demanded Kate frostily.

  'I never intended to lead you into a squalid little affair that you'd regret.'

  'Is that right? And just what exactly did you intend?' she parried.

  'Nothing specific!' he retorted irritably. 'For heaven's sake, woman! Do you think I set the whole thing up? You must have an amazing view of my talents if you think I can turn on an earthquake purely in order to lure you into my bed!'

  Kate's lips twitched unwillingly.

  'I wouldn't put it past you!' she said in a stormy voice.

  'And while you're busy blackening my character please remember that I had you in my bed and didn't lay a finger on you.'

  'That's true,' admitted Kate.

  Philip looked at her with an intent searching gaze that seemed to strip her naked. Then his fingers came out and touched her gently under the chin.

  'So can't you accept that I was carried away when I kissed you, just as you were?' he asked.

  Kate swallowed, acutely conscious of his feather-like touch. Reaching up her own hand, she moved his fingers away.

  'Even if you were, then where does that leave us?' she retorted bitterly. 'All right, so we felt a mutual attraction, but there's no future in it, is there?'

  Philip's eyes blazed defiantly.

  'I'm not so sure about that,' he murmured.

  'What do you mean?' demanded Kate with an edge of panic in her voice.

  'What do you want from me, Philip?'

  At that moment the waiter arrived with a bottle of the ruby-red Mavrodafni wine for which the area was famous. There was a brief pause as Philip sniffed the powerful fruity bouquet and then swirled the wine thoughtfully on his pal
ate. With a satisfied nod he motioned for their glasses to be filled.

  Only when the waiter had withdrawn did he answer Kate's question.

  'I don't know what I want from you,' he confessed moodily. 'Everything.

  Nothing. If you're asking me whether I want to take you to bed, well of course I do! You're all woman, Katarina. Beautiful, sensual, yielding. I want to crush you against me and feel you throbbing with longing beneath me. I want to make you ache with need for me.'

  Kate felt an unwilling thrill of excitement at his words.

  'Don't, Philip,' she protested. 'You mustn't say these things! You're already committed to somebody else.'

  Philip gritted his teeth.

  'Committed!' he said. 'It sounds like a prisoner, doesn't it? Committed for trial, committed to gaol. And that's what it feels like sometimes. Do you have any idea what an arranged match is actually like, Katarina?'

  'No,' admitted Kate.

  'Well, let me tell you,' said Philip in a low, urgent voice. 'Let me just tell you how I came to be engaged to Irene. I wasn't always wealthy, you know. In fact, I was poor—dirt poor. I didn't even own my first pair of shoes until I was fifteen years old, but right from the start I was ambitious. When I was seventeen years old I went to London and started working twenty hours a day in a hotel, trying to get enough money together to start up my own business. After I came back to Greece three years later I found a run-down tavern in Sithonia, and I pestered everyone I knew for help. Most people

  laughed at my ambitions, but Irene's father Con lent me money, and my own father sank every last drachma he had into the business. I won't bore you with the details, but within two years the place was showing a good profit.

  At that point Con approached my father and suggested a match between their children to cement the partnership. I was twenty-two then. Irene was seven.'

  'Seven!' echoed Kate in an appalled voice. 'That's awful!'

  Philip shrugged.

  'It was the custom,' he said. 'And it suited everybody well enough at the time. For me it was a chance to postpone any family obligations well into the future, which meant I could throw myself into my work. And Irene was able to rule the roost among the other seven- year-olds by bragging about the wealthy husband she was going to have.'

  Kate choked on an unwilling laugh.

  'It sounds barbarous,' she said, shaking her head.

  'I don't think I realised how barbarous it was at the time,' agreed Philip seriously. 'But, in all fairness, I must say that such marriages often work out very well. Frequently the partners do come to love each other.'

  Kate felt her palms grow damp and there was a sensation of tightness in her chest, but she had to put the question that was preying on her mind.

  'Do you love Irene?' she asked haltingly.

  A pained expression came over Philip's face. For the first time Kate noticed the lines of anxiety or weariness etched from his nose to the corners of his mouth.

  'No,' he replied curtly. 'At first I was so busy that I hardly saw her. And then later, as the hotel chain grew bigger and more money came in, she was sent away to boarding-school in England. After that she went to a Swiss finishing-school. It's only this year that I've had much to do with her.'

  Something in his tone roused Kate to a profound sense of uneasiness.

  'Don't.. .don't you get along well together?' she asked.

  Philip picked up his glass and took an impatient gulp.

  'She's a spoilt brat,' he said bluntly. 'Not that it's entirely her fault. Her mother was a very foolish woman, and finding herself suddenly wealthy went to her head. She brought up Irene and her brother Stavros to be as frivolous and extravagant as she is herself. No, I don't get along well with Irene. As a matter of fact, I'd really begun to believe that I'd lost all capacity for feeling. Until I met you.'

  'Don't, Philip!' begged Kate. 'It's impossible!'

  'Is it?' demanded Philip. 'Perhaps things are only impossible if we make them so!'

  He took her hand and felt it fluttering nervously under his fingers.

  'Didn't you tell me,' he murmured softly, 'that sometimes you have to take rash moves if you don't want to settle for second best in your life?'

  She was silent, staring at him with wide green eyes.

  'I'm about to take a very rash move,' said Philip. 'I want to ask you something.'

  Deep down she knew she should make him stop, but she could not find the will-power to do so.

  'What is it?' she whispered.

  'Come away with me on my yacht,' he urged. 'Just for a few days. All I want is a chance to get to know you, Katarina. It's as simple and difficult as that.'

  'No!' she cried, dragging her hand out of his. 'It's impossible, Philip.

  Anyway, I thought you disapproved of foreigners who made love with men they hardly knew!'

  'I do. But there is no need for any lovemaking. We could simply enjoy the cruise together, go fishing, visit some of the islands, spend time talking. I feel we have a lot to say to each other, don't you?'

  Kate paused, reluctantly tempted. How she would love to sail out into the sparkling blue waters of the Aegean with Philip beside her! But the idea was outrageous.

  'No!' she said desperately. 'Perhaps things would be different if you weren't engaged to Irene, but you are!'

  He laughed derisively.

  'And so I have to break my engagement before I can spend any time alone with you?' he demanded. 'You ask a lot for a single date, Katarina.'

  'I can't help that,' retorted Kate doggedly. 'It just seems like a matter of simple decency to me.'

  'Decency?' echoed Philip in a baffled voice. 'You hitch-hike around Europe alone, and yet you talk to me of decency? Are you serious, or is this some game you are playing with me?'

  His liquid dark eyes met hers with a mixture of scepticism, amusement and growing interest. Kate gritted her teeth in exasperation. Suddenly the whole situation became horribly clear to her. In Philip's view a girl who could hitch around Europe on her own obviously had no moral scruples of any kind. So he was hardly likely to believe that Kate was genuinely troubled by the thought of having a fling with somebody else's fiancee. She searched desperately for an argument that would mean something to him.

  'Yes, I am serious!' she said, tossing her head so that her auburn curls blazed in the candlelight. 'Just because I travel alone doesn't mean that I'm easy game for a man who wants a cheap sexual adventure. I can't come on a

  cruise with you, and I am offended that you should even suggest it. How could I go with you? It would be... it would be a stain upon my honour!'

  There! she thought triumphantly. That should be Greek enough to convince him that I mean what I'm saying. But it did more than simply convince Philip. A look of consternation passed over his face.

  'I have offended you!' he said. 'I apologise, Katarina. The truth is that I misjudged you when I first met you.'

  'What do you mean?' asked Kate cautiously.

  Philip fixed her with a gaze that seemed to scorch right through her thin chiffon dress.

  'Simply this,' he admitted huskily. 'When I found you alone and unprotected on the mountainside I thought you did not care about your honour. But now I see that I was wrong. In fact, your honour is so important to you that you will not even spend time alone with a man, much less offer him the gift of your body. That pleases me. It pleases me very much indeed. I never expected to find a foreign girl of your age who was still a virgin.'

  Kate's face flamed. A virgin! she thought with a sudden vivid recollection of her torrid affair with Leon Clark. Well, that was over and done with, and it was hardly any of Philip's business anyway. And there was certainly no point in mentioning it now. So she simply murmured something inaudible, lowered her eyes and fingered a white rose in the vase in front of her. Philip gazed at her with an expression of warm approval in his dark eyes.

  'So you are keeping yourself for one man alone?' he mused. 'I envy him, Katarina. Does he know what a prize
he has found in you?'

  'Who?' replied Kate blankly.

  'Your boyfriend,' prompted Philip impatiently.

  'Boyfriend?' echoed Kate in a puzzled voice. She had forgotten all about Andrew. Then memory dawned. But suddenly she felt ashamed of her

  impulsive lie. Whatever he had left unsaid at their first meeting, Philip had been totally honest with her tonight. Didn't she owe him the same frankness?

  'Andrew's not really my boyfriend,' she admitted reluctantly. 'Although he is my very dear friend. We were next-door neighbours in a country town in New South Wales, and you can't get much closer than that. So nat-urally, when I decided to come to Europe, I wanted to visit him at Nyssa. But there's no romance between us. I only said that to try and fend you off. I'm sorry for deceiving you.'

  But to her surprise Philip showed no sign of resentment.

  'You lied for the best possible reason,' he conceded magnanimously. 'So how can I blame you for it? Besides, I cannot help feeling pleased to learn that you are not planning to marry that undoubtedly very ordinary young man. Yet does romance play no part in your life at all?'

  'I didn't say that,' retorted Kate a shade too quickly. She thought of Leon and a shadow passed over her face. 'Love is just as important to me as to any other woman, but I can't regard it as a business arrangement the way you Greeks seem to. Or as a game.'

  'Whereas I have never seen it as anything but a business or a game,' sighed Philip, sipping his wine. 'One marries a wife with a dowry, one plays games with divorcees who want a good time, but what does one do with a girl like you, Katarina? A girl who only wants love? Love! An impossible ambition, but one that is beginning to intrigue me, I must confess.'