Free The Savakis Merger by Annie West Page B

movement behind her and shuffled a couple more paces forward.

    The sound of the door sliding closed made her scalp prickle. To her overwrought imagination it was as loud as the thud of a cell door. She licked dry lips then wished she hadn’t as Damon stopped beside her, his gaze zeroing in on her mouth.

    ‘Would you like a drink?’ He gestured to the bar.

    ‘No. No, thank you.’ That would only prolong the agony of waiting.
    Better to get this over before her craven urge to run sabotaged her intentions.

    He stopped before her, eyebrows raised. ‘No? So eager, Callie. I like that.
    I like it very much.’ With one hand he tilted her chin so she met his ebony eyes. They gleamed with a heat that scorched her right to the soles of her feet in her high-heeled sandals. The stroke of his finger along her jaw evoked memories of pleasure she’d almost forgotten in her anger and distress.

    Maybe…maybe this wouldn’t be as hard as she thought. If he’d sweep her into his arms, kiss her with the same passion they’d shared once before, perhaps she could forget she was selling herself to him. That she had no choice.

    But even as her eyelids fluttered in expectation of his next caress, his hand dropped and he stepped back.

    What now? Why had he stopped?

    ‘You want me to make this easy for you. Don’t you, Callie?’ The words hung between them as the silence lengthened.

    Yes, she almost screamed at him, her nerves raw with the tension crawling through her. Please, please, just…

    ‘But, given your condescension and your cold treatment, I think it’s time you made the first move.’

    Callie’s jaw sagged and she snapped it shut as a surge of vibrant emotion straightened her weakening resolve.

    ‘You want your pound of flesh, is that it?’ She spoke through clenched teeth.

    His lips twitched. ‘You could say that, glikia mou.’ His firm mouth, so beautifully sculpted, curled up into a smile that made her want to smash something. Preferably him.

    ‘So what did you have in mind?’ Already she dreaded the answer.

    ‘You’re my mistress now. I’m sure you’ll think of something. Why don’t you just seduce me?’

    Seduce him! She had no idea where to start. When they’d made love there’d been little thought involved. It had seemed so natural, so right, she didn’t remember a conscious decision to give herself to him.

    Tentatively she reached out, screwing up her courage as she lifted her hand to his face. But she moved too late. Her hand touched air as he stepped away and sank onto a long sofa. Nonchalantly he spread his arms along its back and stretched his long legs, crossing one ankle over the other.

    ‘Go on,’ he urged, for all the world as if he anticipated a show!

    Did he expect a striptease? Wrath heated her chilled body at his deliberate show of power.

    How like Alkis he was in his smug superiority. Something like hatred clawed at her chest, tightening her throat. But it helped. Now her hands were rock-steady as she jerked out the rhinestone pins holding her hair up.

    Moments later her hair slipped down, a concealing weight around her shoulders and breasts. Callie let the pins fall.

    ‘And the diamonds.’ His face was unreadable but his voice sounded curiously thick. ‘I don’t want you coming to me wearing another man’s diamonds.’

    His proprietorial demand reinforced her contempt. He thought by possessing her body he had a right to control her. She unsnapped the bracelet and tossed it onto the marble coffee-table. Her earrings followed, splashes of scintillating light in the lamp-light. Callie raised her hands to the clasp of the necklace and caught Damon’s look as it raked her face and upthrust breasts.

    A shock of sensation jolted her out of her fury. A shock of something almost like excitement.

    She dropped the necklace to the table and discovered she was breathing hard, as if she’d run here instead of tottering on ridiculously high heels.
    She stepped out of the