In Petrakis's Power (15 page)

Eva Petrakis pulled him into her arms and hugged him fiercely. Then she moved across to Natalie and gently
touched coral-painted fingertips to her cheek. Her pretty blue eyes were moist with tears.

‘Not only has my dear son returned to me, but he has brought me the daughter that I have long prayed for. One day I hope she will grant my dearest wish and present me with my first grandchild.’

The sound of birdsong, and in the distance of the waves crashing onto the seashore, faded out to be replaced by an almost dizzying white noise in Natalie’s head. She didn’t seem to have the ability to feel anything but shock and distress after Ludo’s poignant outburst. And now, after what his mother had just said, she hardly trusted herself to string a coherent sentence together. All she knew was that the woman standing in front of her with such hope and trust in her eyes didn’t deserve any more heartache or pain. But then neither did her son …

‘I think we have stood out here in the midday sun for long enough.’ Eva smiled. ‘We should all go inside for a while, and I will see to some refreshments for us. I assume you are staying for lunch? But of
course
you are! We have so much to celebrate. This is turning out to be a very good day indeed.’ Frowning at her husband, who hadn’t moved so much as an inch since his son had publically berated him, she said, ‘Come with me, Alekos. I think we should have a little talk before we join the children.’

As they moved towards the open patio doors that led inside the house Ludo gripped Natalie’s hand hard—as though it were a lifeline in the choppiest of stormy seas. He made a point of deliberately ignoring his father’s gaze completely.

L
UDO HAD STAYED
ominously quiet so far on the return journey to his villa, and Natalie knew why. Although his mother had tried hard to get the two men to make peace with each other during a delicious prolonged lunch they had both stubbornly resisted her efforts. Ludo was angry with his father for not understanding or forgiving his need to escape after his brother’s funeral, and in Natalie’s opinion Alekos was holding on to an old perception of his son that he either couldn’t or
wouldn’t
change.

At any rate, the conversation that had taken place had mostly been between herself and Eva Petrakis, and by the time it had come for the two couples to say their goodbyes father and son were barely even making eye contact.

The situation couldn’t have been sadder. After Ludo’s impassioned outburst, confessing his feelings, there should have been some resolution between him and his father—or at least a willingness on both their parts to forgive what had happened between them so that they could make some headway into forging a better relationship in the future.

But in spite of her compassion, and her concern for
Ludo’s dilemma, Natalie found she couldn’t ignore her own needs. She wanted to make it clear to him that she wasn’t blindly going to go along with whatever he wanted to make his life easier just because he’d paid her father more for his business. He’d asserted he was no blackmailer, but he
did
have a reputation for ruthlessly winning deals, and she didn’t want to end up feeling a fool.

As they drove on towards the villa, Natalie couldn’t remain silent any longer. ‘I know that the situation at your parents’ was very difficult for you,’ she told him, nervously clutching her hands together in her lap, ‘but it wasn’t easy for me either. I can see now why you brought me with you and made that deal with me. It’s easier to confront a situation like you have with your father when you have someone else in your corner—someone to help act as a sort of buffer between you. But my big concern is that you’re thinking of me purely as one of your business deals, and all you want is the outcome you desire without taking into account
my
feelings.’

She saw Ludo’s shoulders tense immediately and his hands firmed on the steering wheel. He momentarily took his eyes off the road to consider her bleakly.

‘Is that really the impression you have of me, Natalie? That I only think of you as a business deal I want to win at all costs and don’t regard you as a person with needs of your own?’

The surprised and hurt tone in his voice made her anxious that she’d got his motives completely wrong. Her face coloured hotly.

‘You
do
regard me, then?’ Her voice dropped to a near whisper even as her eyes filled with tears. ‘I mean … you do care about what I feel?’

‘The fact that you have to ask tells me that you do not think I do. I think it is probably best if we finish this conversation back at the house.’

Scowling, he trained his gaze firmly back on the road, and Natalie turned hers away to stare forlornly out of the window.

It was dusk when they reached the villa. Still quiet, Ludo held the door open for her to precede him. As they entered the spacious open-plan lounge with its sea of marble flooring she was about to speak when he abruptly brushed past her and swept up the marble staircase.

‘Ludo, where are you going?’

Because of their conversation in the car, Natalie’s felt almost sick with fear that he was going to tell her to go home … that he no longer required her help. She made a snap decision to pursue him, seeing with surprise that he was ripping open the buttons of his linen shirt and taking it off as he went. The arresting sight of his bare, taut, tanned musculature and athletic shoulders sent her heart bumping not only in alarm but with a dizzying sense of excitement too. What on earth was he doing?

Not quick enough to reach him, she saw him get to his bedroom and stride inside without even turning to see if she followed. Taking a deep breath, she cautiously rapped her knuckles against the door. Even though it was partially open she wouldn’t risk walking in unannounced.

‘Ludo? I know you’re probably not in the mood for talking, but you’re starting to worry me. I don’t want the conversation we had in the car just now to come between us and make us stop communicating. Can I come in?’

‘Of course. Unless you want us to converse with each other from either side of the door.’

Smoothing a nervous hand down the front of the blue dress he had professed to like so much, Natalie pushed the door wider and walked inside. Ludo was standing in front of the large silk-canopied bed that dominated the room and seemed to be making a deliberate point of tracking every step of her cautious approach.

‘Why did you take off your shirt?’ It hadn’t been the first thing she wanted to ask him, but she asked anyway because she was curious.

‘I wanted to get rid of the taint of disapproval from my father. Unfortunately it’s apt to cling and cast a shadow if I keep it on. I didn’t want that.’

Even as he discarded the crumpled garment onto the bedspread he glanced at Natalie with a provocative smile. His magnificent sculpted torso was bare, and his rust-coloured chinos were riding low enough on his well-defined lean hips for her to glimpse the column of darker hair that led even lower down. She forced herself not to be so swayed by his arresting male beauty that she wouldn’t be able to discuss things sensibly.

‘So it’s not because I made you angry by asking if you regarded our arrangement as purely a business deal you had to win?’

‘It didn’t make me angry, but it did upset me coupled with the fact that our reunion lunch with my parents was
spoilt by my father glaring at me across the table like I was public enemy number one. It’s not hard to understand why I’m on edge and would prefer to just forget about the whole thing.’

‘But it won’t help if you simply put what happened to the back of your mind.’ Natalie sighed. ‘It won’t be as easy to discard as your shirt, Ludo. The memory will surface again and again if you don’t try and deal with it properly. If you want to talk about it then I’m a good listener.’

‘So you would still listen to my troubles even though you are suspicious of my motives?’

Her heart twisted with regret that she’d expressed that. ‘I’ve just had to contend with you telling your parents that you’re buying me an engagement ring tomorrow and there will be a wedding in the autumn, when none of that is remotely true. But now that I’ve met your parents and seen how much they mean to you I think I’m astute enough to know that you mean no harm by the deception. If you want to talk to me about things I really am willing to listen and try and help if I can.’

‘It might not be true that we’re getting married in the autumn, but I still intend to buy you an engagement ring. Our engagement will hardly be convincing if I don’t. I take it even if you don’t agree you will still keep your part of the deal?’

Pursing her lips at the suggestion of doubt in his tone, Natalie nodded her head. ‘I will. But right now I’d like you to open up to me a little and tell me how you
really
feel about things.’

Ludo scowled. ‘You think I’ll feel better if I get
things off my chest? Is that what you’re saying? Don’t you think I’ve done enough of that today? You saw how my father dealt with it. It only made things even worse between us.’

‘He’s probably feeling just like you are right now. Instead of feeling justified that he was so stubborn, I bet he wishes he could turn back the clock and have the time over again to make things right. You’re his son, Ludo. I’m sure he loves you very much.’

The man in front of her was still wearing a mistrustful scowl. ‘I don’t want to discuss this any further. What I want to do is have a drink. Preferably a
strong
one.’ Feeling uncomfortably cornered, he rubbed an irritable hand round his jaw.

‘And that’s going to solve everything, is it?’ Shaking her head in dismay, Natalie frowned. It was quite unbelievable how stubborn he could be. Clearly he must have inherited the trait from his father.

‘No. It’s not. But it’s going to help me feel a hell of a lot better than I do right now after that debacle of a family reunion!’

He dragged the heel of his hand across his chest and his riveting sapphire eyes glistened furiously. But the anger that had appeared as suddenly as a flash flood out of a clear blue sky dispersed just as quickly, and this time his gaze transfixed her for an entirely different reason. It was smouldering with unmistakable
lust
.

‘That is,’ he drawled, ‘unless you can think of another way of making me feel better, Natalie …

She swore she could count every single beat of her heart as she stood there. In the past few seconds her ability
to hear every sound that echoed round that stylish and spacious bedroom, right down to the waves breaking onto the shore outside, had somehow become preternaturally sharp, as had the rest of her senses.

Lifting her hair off the back of her neck to help cool her heated skin, she murmured, ‘I can’t. But that doesn’t mean I want you to drink. Alcohol is what my father resorted to when he couldn’t deal with his despair—and take it from me, it only made things worse. Is that what you want, Ludo? To feel worse than you do already? Much better to talk things out than to let your feelings fester and make you ill.’

‘It must have been a great boon to your father to have a daughter like you. So wise for someone so young … and so forgiving.’

Natalie felt the heat rising in her cheeks, because she didn’t know if he was being sincere or sardonic. ‘When you love somebody you naturally want to do everything you can to help them when they need it.’

‘I agree. But what if sometimes you need
their
help even more? Do you think that makes you a bad person?’

‘Of course not.’ Tucking her hair behind her ear with a less than steady hand, she realised that Ludo might have taken her well-meant reply about helping someone you love as a criticism of his own actions when he’d departed after his brother’s funeral instead of staying behind to help his parents deal with their grief. She’d be mortified if he believed that. ‘Ludo, I hope you don’t think I was being insensitive. I was only trying to explain what motivated me to help
my
dad.’

‘Is it even possible that someone like you could be insensitive? I don’t think so. Come over here.’

‘Why?’

He shrugged a shoulder. ‘I want to talk to you. I also want to apologise for making you think I don’t regard your feelings.’

Gesturing for her to move closer, he gave her a smile that was indisputably slow and seductive. Natalie did as he asked—she couldn’t resist him. But her legs were shaking so badly she hardly knew how she managed it.

When they were face to face Ludo lifted his hand and slid it beneath the heavy silken weight of her long hair, letting his palm curve warmly against her nape. His touch and the intimate closeness of his body electrified her into stillness. So much so that her nipples stung with an almost unholy ache for him to touch them. Never before, in all her twenty-four years, had she experienced such wanton, primitive desire for a man—and the force of it shook her hard.

‘I said I would only expect you to share my bed if you invited yourself into my room,’ he reminded her huskily, his burning blue gaze shamelessly scorching her.

‘Is that why you said you wanted to talk to me?’ She found herself mesmerised by the alluring sculpted shape of his lips and the heat that reached out to her from his half-naked body. It was impossible to keep her nerves steady.

‘Do you know how long I’ve waited for a girl like you to come into my life?’ he asked.

‘What do you mean by that? Do you mean you hoped
to meet someone ordinary who doesn’t move in the same exalted circles as you do?’

‘You are far from ordinary,
glykia mou …
and I don’t care where you come from or what kind of circles you move in. I’m simply telling you that I want you.’

‘Why?’ She barely knew why she even asked, because the answer was shockingly apparent as his eager hands shaped her bottom through her dress and brought her body flush against his. Behind the button fly of his chinos she sensed his heat and his hardness—and he didn’t try to hide it to spare her blushes.

‘I think there’s been enough talking. I’m sure you knew that when you knocked on my door and asked if you could come in …’

A shuddering sigh of need left Natalie’s throat as Ludo reached for the zip at the back of her dress, dragged it downwards and stripped the garment off her shoulders. Just when she thought he might be going to kiss her he slid his fingers beneath the straps of the daring black lace bra that she’d bought for this trip, hardly knowing why she should select such an uncharacteristically impractical item. It was a million miles away from her usual safe utilitarian style.