Vows of Revenge

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

D AMOS FROWNED . Kassia was having her morning shower—he could hear the water splashing—and he was using the time to catch up with his business affairs. Athens was two hours ahead of the UK, and the morning there was well advanced. Most of the updates he was receiving were routine, but the one that was currently bringing a frown to his forehead was not.

Things were on the move between Cosmo Palandrou and Yorgos Andrakis, so his sources were telling him. The director of a well-known firm of corporate accountants who specialised in mergers and acquisitions, and were known to have been previously engaged by Andrakis on such matters, had been seen arriving with his team at Cosmo’s company HQ. Andrakis was clearly having due diligence done.

And there was more. Andrakis had been reported as lunching with the senior partner of a law firm specialising in inheritance and marital contract law, giving weight to what Damos was sure Andrakis had in mind for Cosmo and his daughter.

Damos closed down his laptop, still frowning. But not because it was clear that Andrakis was moving in on Cosmo Palandrou. Because two worlds were colliding.

The world of Kassia, here with him in this idyllic Highland retreat, so wonderful to him, so special, theirs and theirs alone.

And the world of his life in Athens—his business life, that had driven him all his life.

He set the laptop aside, getting to his feet and walking over to the bedroom window, with its breathtaking view out over the loch and the forest and mountains beyond. The fortnight with Kassia was flashing by...day after glorious day, night after passionate night.

I don’t want it to end.

The assertion was in his head, almost audible and crystal-clear. He heard it again, more clearly still.

His gaze rested on the vista beyond, his thoughts running.

His time here in the Highlands must end.

But not my time with Kassia.

The words were as clear as the Highland air around him. And their imperative just as clear.

There is no reason for it to end.

Why should it? Why should his time with Kassia not continue when they were back in Greece? Oh, once—long ago now, it seemed—he had assumed that the affair he was going to engineer with her would end once its purpose had been achieved. But now...

Now it was absurd to think that.

He felt his mouth tighten, made himself think of what he’d just read about Andrakis and Cosmo Palandrou. For an instant he wished it all to perdition—wished he knew nothing about it, knew nothing of what they were planning and scheming. He consigned his own whole damn plan to perdition as well. He wanted nothing to do with it any more—nothing to do with his plan for getting hold of Cosmo’s empire.

Then he drew in a breath—a sharp one. Forced his brain back into the gear it normally operated in, the well-oiled channels it was used to. Acquiring Cosmo’s logistics business made perfect sense. It would provide an expansion and a synergy for him that would significantly increase his own reach, bringing in handsome profits after he’d knocked the ailing business into shape and had it properly managed.

That hadn’t changed.

His mouth tightened. And nor had the fact that Andrakis was going to try and use his own daughter to get hold of it first.

Unless...

Unless I spike his guns.

Using the method he’d envisaged from the first.

It’s all I have to do.

That was the beauty of it—the simplicity.

A question forced its way into his head. He didn’t want it to, but it did all the same.

And is it still that simple?

He felt his jaw tighten, his eyes resting on the surface of the loch, its waters dark and impenetrable. Just as were his thoughts.

He brought them to the surface. Saw them clearly.

Yes. Yes, it was still that simple. All he had to do was show Cosmo that Andrakis’s daughter was not available to be his bride—just as he had planned from the off.

It really is that simple.

And because it was so simple there was no reason not to stick to it—not to go ahead with it...go through with it.

For a moment longer his gaze went on resting on the dark waters below, as if there were currents moving deep below the surface that had not previously been there, stirring deep waters in unknown ways.

Then, abruptly, he turned away, not wanting to think about it any longer. The day stretched ahead, and they were planning on heading off further afield, doing more sightseeing—this time towards the coast and Dunrobin Castle—for the day was fine and sunny.

He could hear that the shower had cut out, and shortly afterwards Kassia was stepping into the bedroom, wrapped in a towel, her hair pinned up loosely on her head, tendrils falling damply around her face. She looked effortlessly beautiful—bare shoulders, long legs, slender body.

He crossed to her, with a familiar glint in his eyes and an even more familiar tightening in his loins.

‘That,’ he told her, and he could hear the husk in his own voice, ‘is a very dangerous thing to do, Kassia. If you want us to set off sightseeing in good time.’

His hand reached for where she’d knotted the towel over her breasts, gently easing the knot loose.

She caught his hands. ‘Damos, no!’ she laughed.

His eyebrows rose. ‘No?’

‘Yes! As in no,’ she said firmly, stepping away from him. ‘Breakfast will be waiting for us!’

He gave her a considering look. ‘Hmm, tough choice... One of Mrs MacFadyen’s gargantuan breakfasts versus making passionate love to you.’

She laughed again. He liked to hear the sound, and answered it with a laugh of his own.

‘OK, breakfast wins. But...’ he held up a hand ‘...don’t think I won’t claim making passionate love to you when we get back this afternoon!’

She blew him a kiss, but kept her distance.

Damos knew why—and knew, with a sense of deeply masculine satisfaction, that she would have been just as happy to defer breakfast a while...

‘It’s a date,’ she promised, and her eyes had a glint in them that matched his own.

She turned away, fetching fresh undies from the chest of drawers and a smart pair of trousers—nothing baggy any more, Damos thought with satisfaction—and a stylish cotton top to go with them that skimmed her breasts and shaped her slender waist. Brushing her hair out, she clipped it back with a barrette. Its new rich colour still held, catching the sunlight.

He watched as she applied a little mascara, a trace of lip gloss, but nothing more. There was appreciation in his regard. Oh, when she went for the full works—face, hair and gown—she could look sensational, just as he’d told her that evening at the Viscari Art Deco dinner-dance.

But she does not need to—not for me. Just to see her like, this is enough...more than enough.

Just being with her was more than enough.

And he had no intention—none—that he should not be with her...

OK, so their time here in the Highlands was coming to an end and soon they would be returning to Greece. But there...

I’ll get the business of Cosmo and her father out of the way, dispose of it, and then focus entirely on Kassia.

It was a pleasing prospect—a very pleasing one indeed.

Kassia and me—me and Kassia...

Again, as he had that very first night with her in London, he felt the strange, powerful emotion sweeping up in him that he could not identify. He only knew that it was possessing him.

Body and soul...

‘Well, it was certainly a magnificent place,’ Kassia said, as they headed back to their very own castle—a mere scrap in comparison with the vastness of Dunrobin Castle, another ducal residence, this time of the Duke of Sutherland. ‘Such a pity about the Highland Clearances, though.’ She gave a sigh. ‘So ruthless...’

Damos steered the four-by-four along a road threading through dramatic scenery. ‘Sheep were simply more profitable than crofting,’ he said.

‘So that makes it all right? Evicting the crofters? Burning down their crofts so they couldn’t return?’

He shook his head. ‘It’s understandable, Kassia. The profit motive is a powerful one. It drives people to do things they might otherwise regret.’

She felt unease prick at her.

But there are some actions that shouldn’t ever be undertaken. However profitable! However much money is at stake.

Her thoughts darkened. Her father would have no qualms about doing whatever was necessary to make a profit. Whatever it did to anyone else. Her expression softened again. But Damos was not like that at all. He’d just been stating blunt truths—not advocating them. Let alone practising them.

He was speaking again.

‘And don’t forget, as we learnt today, that crofting life was hard for the crofters. The idea was that they should move to towns, get other jobs—easier ones—or even emigrate, as so many did, and make a better life for themselves in the colonies. It wasn’t completely black and white.’ His voice changed. ‘It seldom is,’ he said.

She could hear something in his voice—a note of constraint—and looked across at him as he drove back towards their castle along the winding road. Some things were black and white, though, surely...?

As if he sensed her doubts over what he was saying, he turned towards her. A smile lightened his face.

‘Let’s not talk about such sad things,’ he said. ‘They are over and done with, thankfully. Let’s talk about us, Kassia.’

His smile deepened, but then he had to flick his eyes back to the road again, as they climbed up towards a col. For all the warmth of his smile, Kassia felt a chill. Their fortnight was nearly up—what would come after?

Is this all there will ever be?

It was the question she did not want to ask...and yet the closer they came to the end of their holiday, the more intrusive it had become.

She knew the answer she wanted to give—longing filled her, and hope—but would it be the same for Damos? She had dared to hope...but hopes could be dashed. Discarded and dismissed.

Damos was about to speak again, still keeping his eyes on the road, his hands on the steering wheel. There seemed to be a lump forming in her throat...a stone... The dread of what he was going to say.

‘I know I’m based in Athens, and you’re not, but I think we’ll be able to manage, won’t we? For weekends together, at least?’ he posed. ‘And we can grab all the holiday time we can get together as well?’

The stony lump in her throat dissolved instantly as relief coursed through her—his words were music to her ears.

‘Oh, I’m sure we can!’ she exclaimed.

He reached towards her with one hand, flashing his warm smile at her, then looked back to the road again.

‘Great—so that’s sorted. Now, how do we make the most of our last day here tomorrow? What about a visit to the whisky distillery Duncan recommended?’

‘Good idea,’ she agreed.

Warmth was filling her, as if several wee drams had just been consumed, making her glow from the inside. This time in the Highlands was not to be the end for her and Damos!

He still wants me—wants us to be together. How wonderful is that?

Again, she knew the answer. It was more wonderful than she dared believe...

To keep him in my life...and me in his...

‘We can get a couple of bottles for the MacFadyens,’ Damos was saying now. ‘As a thank-you to them.’

‘And maybe I can buy a scarf or a brooch for Mrs MacFadyen,’ Kassia said.

Happiness at what Damos had said to her about them seeing each other in Greece was filling her.

They were descending now, towards the valley in which their own loch lay. Soon Damos swung into the driveway of their castle. As he did so, Kassia heard her phone beeping from her handbag. She reached down to fetch it out, but as she glanced to see who the message was from her happiness collapsed like a punctured balloon.

It was from her father.

Summoning her to Athens.

Damos stood by the edge of the loch, its dark water lapping near his feet. Kassia stood nearby, hands plunged into her jacket pocket, her face grave. He stooped to pick up a pebble, flat and thin, and stood up to skim it across the loch. The late sun, still high at this latitude at this season, despite the hour, had gone behind a cloud.

‘You don’t have to go,’ he said.

He didn’t look at Kassia. But he could tell from her tone of voice that she was troubled.

‘I think I do, Damos. He isn’t asking much—just that I show up for some dinner or other. You know that he does that from time to time. I turn up and be his docile daughter, and then he goes on being patron of the museum. It’s...it’s worked so far. And I suppose, in a way, I don’t want to break with him entirely. I just wish, sometimes, that he—’

She broke off, then spoke again.

‘That he wasn’t always so dismissive of me. I know I disapprove of so much about him...how ruthless he is in business...but, well...’ She swallowed. ‘He’s still my father, and it would be nice if sometimes...just sometimes...he might think something good of me.’

‘Do you?’

He looked at her now. Her face was troubled. But then his thoughts were troubled too. He knew the reason for Andrakis’s summons to his daughter. He was going to parade her in front of Cosmo, present her as a suitable bride, and set his scheme in motion.

But that was never going to happen.

Cosmo himself would to reject it out of hand.

The moment he knows what is between Kassia and myself.

On the short walk from the car down to the loch’s edge thoughts had been marching through Damos’s head. Now that the moment had come—now that Andrakis had shown his hand, made his move, set the timetable—Damos knew he had to react just as he’d always planned to do.

But do I have to do it in that way?

That was the question incising in his head now. What if he and Kassia simply flew back to Athens and went out and about together? Let word get out that they were an item? The trouble was, time was tight. Kassia had relayed, with reluctance in her voice—both at the summons itself and the high-handed short notice afforded her—that her father had demanded her presence the evening after tomorrow. The very day they were leaving the Highlands. And he had told her to present herself at, of all places, the Viscari Athena.

The irony was not lost on Damos.

The venue itself was a giveaway. It was newly opened, to great fanfare, and tables at the rooftop gourmet restaurant were like gold dust. Andrakis was clearly wanting to impress Cosmo.

Thoughts churned in his head. Unless Kassia refused the summons—and she seemed to be disinclined to do so, as she’d just said—there wouldn’t be time for word to get out that he and Kassia were a couple. Which left only—

Only the way I originally envisaged.

And besides...

His question to her just now echoed in his head. Kassia’s father had always sneered at his own daughter, castigating her cruelly for what he considered her lack of looks, condemning her to think so little of herself.

But now that is all changed!

No one—not even her cold-hearted father—could dismiss her now. Not any longer.

Kassia was speaking, answering his question. There was a sad, plaintive quality to her voice.

‘But he never will, I know,’ she was saying.

Damos’s expression changed. Decisiveness fired in him.

He met Kassia’s eyes full on. ‘Oh, yes, he will,’ he said, and there was something in his voice that only he himself could hear.

He stooped, picked up another flat pebble, straightened, and hurled it out across the loch. Then he took Kassia’s hand.

‘He will,’ he said again.