The Millionaire's Daughter (The Carew Stepsisters Book 1) Page 18

  ‘You’re wonderful,’ said Kosta.

  He sounded as if he meant it, thought Annis, marvelling.

  There were only two things they did not do. They did not talk about his habit of sticking to the same woman for a maximum of a month. And they did not plan.

  So, what? thought Annis. I can’t say I trust him and then start nit-picking. Either I do trust him or I don’t. I’ve decided I do. So stop worrying.

  It was not difficult, living as she was in Kosta’s uninhibited appreciation, sleeping in his arms. Even on the plane back Annis was still basking in bliss, despite the fact that she had said goodbye to Kosta in Naples.

  ‘I’ve got to go back to Milan. Come with me,’ he had urged, even when they’d been in the airport, standing in front of the screen that announced her departing flight.

  Annis shook her head. ‘I’ve promised Roy.’

  ‘Do you always keep your promises?’

  She kissed him lingeringly. She, who never kissed anyone in public.

  ‘Always.’

  His fingers closed on hers so hard she thought they would break. She knew the look in his eyes, too. If they had been in the kitchen at San Giorgio, instead of the concourse, they would have disappeared under the table. Annis drew a shaky breath.

  He said harshly, ‘Sit by your phone tonight.’

  ‘I promise.’

  She did too. But, by then, everything had changed.

  It started when she got back to the flat. Annis ran through the messages on the machine and there were too many from Lynda, increasing in brevity and agitation as the days had gone by. Annis called her at once.

  ‘Lynda, it’s me. What’s wrong? Has something happened to Dad?’

  But it was not Tony. It was Bella. And Annis should have seen it coming.

  ‘She says you’ve been away for the weekend with Kosta Vitale. Is it true?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Annis bewildered.

  She could hear a sob in Lynda’s voice, though she valiantly tried to suppress it.

  ‘Oh, darling, don’t let him break your heart like my poor Bella.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I should never have let your father invite him to dinner. I knew Bella was interested. I even knew his reputation. He danced Jane Granger’s daughter all round the maypole and then dumped her without any warning.’

  Annis’s lips felt anaesthetised. ‘After a month.’

  Lynda was trying to be sensible. ‘Bella didn’t even last that long. He took her out a couple of times. Then just stopped calling.’

  Before or after he had taken Annis to bed? Annis wondered. How long before he was going to tell her that he had been dating her sister? He had told her so much this weekend. He had said she would end up knowing everything about him. Would he ever have told her about Bella?

  Why should he? said her inner voice nastily. He could have kept it quiet for another three-and-a-half weeks.

  Lynda was saying mournfully, ‘Bella usually weathers these things. It never occurred to me that she would be so hurt. Or that you—’ She broke off.

  ‘Would be the one to pinch her boyfriend,’ supplied Annis.

  This was going to hurt. It was going to hurt a lot. Any minute now, when she started to feel again.

  ‘Oh, darling, don’t think that. You weren’t to know. She didn’t tell anyone. She didn’t tell me. A mother just picks up the signs.’

  Annis pushed a mechanical hand through her hair. ‘What do you want me to do? Talk to her? Not see him again?’

  Lynda sighed. ‘You can’t hand a man round like a parcel. If he doesn’t want Bella, whether you give him up or not isn’t going to make any difference. I just don’t want you to get hurt.’

  Because, unlike Bella, you don’t weather these things so well. Lynda did not say that, of course. But Annis knew it was what she meant. She thanked her in a suffocated voice and rang off.

  She was sitting by the phone when he rang all right. Sitting and listening to his voice as he left a message. He even managed to sound disappointed.

  ‘Bastard,’ shouted Annis, throwing a coffee cup at the wall.

  He called every hour. Then every half-hour. She still did not answer. By the end he was starting to sound alarmed.

  So now he’ll know how it feels for once, thought Annis.

  She was at Vitale’s at six-thirty the next morning. She worked like a whirlwind, hardly speaking to anyone, not eating, just inhaling black coffee and ploughing grimly on. Slightly to her surprise, Kosta did not call.

  Maybe he was too busy. Or maybe he had lost interest already, she reasoned. Well, she was glad about that. Wasn’t she?

  She was utterly unprepared when he walked in at two o’clock. He was unshaven and with yellow shadows under his eyes. He marched into his office and banged the door behind him.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  Annis jumped to her feet, suddenly deathly pale.

  ‘Kosta!’

  ‘Yes, that’s me. The one you promised to be waiting for last night. Remember?’

  Annis pulled herself together. She even managed to shrug. ‘That was then.’

  For a moment his expression was little short of murderous.

  ‘I thought you kept your promises.’

  She blinked. She had imagined their next meeting. In the last eighteen hours she had thought of little else. It had never once occurred to her in all that time that she would be in the wrong.

  She said now furiously, ‘Well, sorry about that, but I decided to cash in my chips.’

  He was blank. ‘What?’

  ‘It was great ride. But I think I’ll waive the next three-anda-half weeks and go straight to the trash can now.’

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

  Annis gave an angry little laugh. ‘Isn’t it usually a month before you dump your women? I just thought I’d go before I was pushed.’

  Kosta pushed a hand through his hair. ‘What have you heard? Gossip? Why haven’t you even asked me whether it’s true?’

  ‘Because I know it’s true,’ said Annis, icy calm. ‘Don’t forget I’ve read your e-mails. And my sister told me all about it before I realised you were the one she was talking about. When I did, of course, it all fell into place.’

  ‘Your sister!’ He looked thunderstruck. ‘Bella? Am I supposed to have had a thing with Bella?’

  ‘Didn’t you?’

  ‘Of course I didn’t.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘So what else is new?’ he said grimly. ‘What does a guy have to do to get you to trust him?’

  Annis wanted to scream. ‘Telling the truth would be a start.’

  ‘I am telling the truth. Before your parents’ dinner party I’d met her precisely four times. A party, a private view where Melissa ducked out and asked me to take Bella instead, once at a club, and once she turned up on my doorstep with champagne.’ His voice was clipped. ‘I’ve driven her home twice and kissed her once. I’ve never made a date with her and I’ve certainly never taken her to bed.’

  Annis flinched. He saw it and his voice softened.

  ‘Look, maybe she fancied me. I don’t know about that. But I wouldn’t have chased her. She’s Tony Carew’s daughter. I don’t mix business with pleasure.’

  Annis was scornful. ‘I know that’s a lie.’

  In spite of the hard, anxious look, his mouth relaxed briefly. ‘You are an exception to every rule I’ve ever given myself.’

  She hardly heard that. ‘But you couldn’t take your eyes off her, could you? I saw you at my parents’ dinner party.’

  And she could still, only too clearly: Bella in her nightdress straps and short, swirling skirt, Kosta looking across the room at them, arrested and intent. She even knew what that intent look meant now. She could have wept. Instead she snarled, ‘When Bella arrived you just stared and stared. Don’t try and lie. I saw you.’

  ‘Because I couldn’t take my eyes off you.’ He was exasperated. ‘Think. Who did I
hunt down over coffee? Why would I do that if I weren’t already going crazy over you? You’d told me comprehensively that you didn’t date. You clearly meant it. And you also clearly didn’t like me. What man would go looking for another poke in the eye if he could help himself? I couldn’t.’

  Annis did not believe him for a moment. That did not stop her wanting to believe him. ‘Oh, you’re so damned plausible,’ she cried in despair.

  He took her hands.

  ‘Listen,’ he said urgently. ‘I broke every rule for you. I don’t date millionaire’s daughters. I don’t date business connections. I don’t have affairs with awkward, bad-tempered women who don’t know how to play the game. And I don’t take anyone to San Giorgio, date or not. Doesn’t that tell the true story?’

  Annis stared at him.

  ‘From the moment I saw you at that party I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind,’ he said quietly. ‘I never meant to start an affair. But from the moment I kissed you in the car—do you remember? You told me I needed civilising—I knew I’d met my match. I love you.’

  Annis made an ugly sound of anguish.

  ‘You’ll stop at nothing, will you?’ she whispered. Tears were pouring down her face. She did not even bother to dash them away. ‘This isn’t about love. This is about winning. Everyone knows you chase women until they give in and then you lose interest. I was a challenge, more of a difficult project than my poor Bella, so you chased me. And now you’ve got to get me back or you’ve lost the game.’

  His head went back as if she had hit him. ‘You don’t mean that.’

  But she did and he knew it.

  She gathered up her belongings and put them into her briefcase. Her hands shook. They were very cold.

  ‘Well, you can have your victory.’ She blew her nose, not looking at him. ‘I thought I was in love. I trusted you. You won. Well done.’

  She snapped her briefcase shut and walked round the desk. Kosta barred her way. A muscle was working in his jaw and the green eyes were narrowed to dangerous slits.

  ‘I’m going,’ said Annis.

  She was not afraid. He could not hurt her any more than he had done already, she thought.

  She was wrong. He seized the briefcase away from her and flung it violently. Papers scattered as it bounced off the wall. But, by that time Annis was in his arms and he was kissing her as if he would devour her.

  Terribly, her whole body convulsed with longing. Her hands even went to cradle his head, threading her fingers through that oh, so familiar hair. She knew him to the core, she knew his smell, the way his heart pumped when he wanted her—

  Annis wrenched herself away. She could not bear it. She fled.

  It was only out in the street that she realised she had left everything behind in the small purse she carried in her briefcase—cards, money, even her house keys. Well, she was not going to go back for anyone. She set out to walk home.

  The Mayfair streets bustled with office workers coming back from late lunches. Fashionable women drifted in and out of discreetly luxurious shops. One or two of them glanced at Annis curiously. She realised that she still had tears on her face and dashed them away, furious with herself.

  She had to go home. The porters had spare keys and she could walk to her block. It was only—what, four miles? And half of that through Hyde Park which, in all its golden autumnal glory, would be wonderful, Annis told herself firmly. She set a cracking pace and after a while the tears stopped.

  She collected the keys and went wearily into the shower. She knew she had to ring Tracy and get her belongings back but, just for the moment, she could not face it.

  The doorbell rang while she was just coming out of the shower. Annis hesitated. Would the porters have let Kosta in without ringing up to check that he was invited first? Surely not. But her heart was thundering painfully as she pulled her bathrobe tight up to her chin and cautiously opened the door.

  ‘Oh,’ she said, disappointed. ‘It’s you.’

  ‘Where on earth have you been?’ said Bella, marching in. She was holding a smart carrier bag and Annis’s briefcase. ‘I’ve been sitting downstairs with Gillie Larsen for hours. I was worried but she kept saying that you must have run away with a laser-tongued sex god.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Annis flushing. ‘Well, I haven’t.’

  ‘No, I didn’t think so,’ agreed Bella grimly. She put her burdens down and surveyed Annis, hands on hips. ‘You’ve been too busy listening to my mother.’

  ‘Well, I—’

  ‘You don’t have to tell me. Kosta called.’

  Annis flushed even harder.

  ‘He said he wanted me to bring your case back. But what he meant was, how on earth could he get you to see sense?’

  ‘I don’t think what has gone on between Kosta and me is any of your business,’ said Annis with dignity.

  ‘It is if my daft mother has put a spanner in the works,’ said Bella unanswerably.

  She perched on the arm of a chair and met Annis’s eyes, flushing faintly.

  ‘Look, I had a crush on him, I suppose. I was piqued that he didn’t take any notice of me. And then I saw what a really great guy he was. End of story.’

  Annis stared. ‘But you said you were in love,’ she said slowly.

  ‘I said I thought I was.’ The tinge of pink deepened along Bella’s perfect cheekbones. ‘Heck what do I know about love? Anyway, he was never interested.’

  ‘Never?’ echoed Annis. Quite suddenly hope began to dawn.

  Bella shook her head vigorously. ‘Never. No matter how much I told myself this was a good sign or that was a good sign, he never even kissed me properly. I now realise he was only interested in you. I’m sorry I was too stupid to see it at the time. Like I said, what do I know about love?’

  ‘Oh, Lord,’ said Annis. ‘What have I done?’

  She sank down onto the sofa and dropped her head in her hands.

  ‘I called him a liar. I said he was plausible.’ She raised a tragic face. ‘I said all he wanted was to win.’

  Bella was rummaging in her bag. She produced a set of car keys. ‘Then you’ll have to grovel hard,’ she said unsympathetically. ‘Get dressed. I’m driving you over there.’

  ‘Over where?’

  ‘To Kosta’s.’

  Panic flared in Annis. ‘I can’t. I don’t know where he lives.’ The enormity of it struck her. ‘I don’t even know where he lives. We’re complete strangers.’

  ‘Complete strangers?’ said Bella dryly. ‘When you just spent an isolated weekend together? I don’t think so. Come on. You’re going to see him. And you’re going to get him back.’

  Annis stared at her in sudden suspicion. ‘You mean, you know where Kosta lives?’

  ‘Of course I do,’ said Bella. She was patient but only just.

  ‘I can’t,’ said Annis.

  Bella had pulled black trousers and a lovely jewel crimson sweater out of her wardrobe, though the murals made her blink briefly.

  ‘It must be like sleeping in the middle of a market place.’

  ‘That’s what Kosta said,’ Annis remembered unwarily.

  Bella stared at her. ‘You let Kosta in here?’

  Annis sniffed but she could not deny it.

  Bella raised her eyes to heaven. ‘How the hell can you say you are strangers? You’re an ungrateful toad. Get dressed before I start throwing things.’

  ‘What will I say?’ wailed Annis.

  But she knew, of course. Bella had told her weeks ago what the modern woman did to get her man. Annis had quailed then and she quailed now. But there was no other way. She was in the wrong and she had to put it right.

  ‘Ring the bell,’ said Bella, pushing her out of the car outside his prestigious Docklands block. She reached into the capacious carrier and handed Annis a bottle of champagne. ‘Don’t drop that.’

  ‘But I—’

  ‘When he opens the door you give it to him. You say, “I’m sorry. I love you. Please take me to bed.”�
�

  Annis hesitated, appalled.

  ‘Go on,’ said Bella briskly.

  ‘I’ve never done anything like this. What if he won’t listen?’

  ‘You should have thought of that before you started throwing briefcases at him.’

  ‘I didn’t. He was the one who threw it.’

  But remembering the passionate, uncontrolled kiss that had followed, Annis began to feel more hopeful. She clutched the champagne to her bosom, looped her bag over her shoulder and drew herself up to her full height.

  ‘That’s it, Brain Box. You can do it.’ Bella blew her a kiss and slammed the passenger door shut. ‘Just do me a favour? Get married quickly so I don’t have to trip down the aisle after you in blue tulle.’

  She drove off. Tears that she had been suppressing ever since Kosta’s phone call streamed down her face. But Annis did not see them.

  Annis was standing surrounded by box trees in terracotta pots with her head whirling. Get married? Get married?

  As if she were in a dream she rang the entry phone and went in.

  Kosta was waiting for her at the door of his apartment when she got out of the lift. He looked grave. He also looked exhausted. He still hadn’t shaved, she saw.

  Her heart turned over. Quite suddenly it did not take any courage at all.

  She thrust the bottle of champagne at him.

  ‘I’m sorry. I love you. Please take me to bed,’ she recited, as Bella had instructed. And then, on her own initiative she added, ‘I do trust you really. Or I wouldn’t have let you see my Venetian fantasy. I just didn’t know I did.’

  He did not say anything. Over his shoulder she saw a huge untidy room, full of golden wood and books, with a great movie screen of a window onto the river.

  She thought, He doesn’t want me here. Then she thought, He’ll never forgive me. And then, He’s got someone here and I’m embarrassing him horribly. She writhed at that thought. But as long as there was a chance, she could not bring herself to turn and go.

  At last he said in a harsh voice, ‘Do you really think I only care about winning?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do you believe I’ve never felt about a woman the way I feel about you?’