Her heartbeat accelerated but not with the arousal pounding through her bloodstream. She heard the clear warning in Theo’s tone. Anything short of what he’d demanded of her would see her family ruined completely.
She opened her mouth. Closed it again and swallowed hard.
A trace of fear washed over Pietro’s face. Despite their strained relationship, there’d been times in the past when they’d been close. She knew how much a political career of his own some day meant to him. How much he was pinning his hopes on what her father’s campaign would mean to him personally.
She tried again to speak the words Theo demanded she speak. But her vocal cords wouldn’t work.
‘Would someone hurry up and tell me what’s going on?’
Fierce hazel eyes drifted over her face in a look that spelled possession so potent her breath caught.
Theo curled his arm over her shoulders and pulled her into the heat of his body. He drifted his mouth over her temple in an adoring move so utterly convincing she reeled at his skilful deception.
She was grappling with that, and with just how much of the kiss they’d shared had been an exercise in pure ruthless seduction on his part, when he spoke.
‘Your sister and I have become…enamoured with each other. We only met last night but already I cannot bear to be without her.’ His voice held none of the mockery from before, sparking another stunned realisation of his skill. He stared down at her and she caught the implacable determination in his eyes.
When his gaze reconnected with Pietro’s she stared, mesmerised, at his profile then shivered at the iron-hard set to his jaw.
‘Tomorrow she will be moving out of your home. And into mine.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘LIKE HELL YOU ARE,’ Pietro repeated for the hundredth time as their chauffeur-driven car stopped outside the opulent Ipanema mansion she’d grown up in.
She quickly threw open the door and hurried up the steps leading to the double oak front doors although she knew escape wouldn’t be easy. Pietro was hard on her heels.
‘Did you hear what I said?’ he demanded.
‘I heard you loud and clear. But you fail to realise I’m no longer a child. I’m twenty-four years old—well over the age when I can do whatever the heck I want.’
He slid a hand through his hair. ‘Look, I know I may have pushed you into playing a greater part in Pai’s fund-raising campaign. But…I don’t think getting involved with Pantelides is a good idea,’ he said abruptly.
Inez’s heart lurched at his concern but she couldn’t reassure him because she herself didn’t know what the future held. ‘Thank you for your concern but like I said, I’m a grown up.’
He swivelled on his heel in the vast entrance hall of the villa. ‘Are you really that into him? I know what I saw on his deck tells its own story but you only met him last night!’
‘I hadn’t met Alfonso Delgado before last night either and yet you expected me to charm him.’
‘Charm him, not move in with him!’
‘There’s no point arguing with me. My mind is made up.’
Pietro’s face darkened. ‘Is this some sort of rebellion?’
Inez sighed. ‘Of course not. But I’d planned to move out anyway, once you and Pai started on the campaign trail.’
‘Move out and go where? This is your home, Inez,’ he replied.
She shook her head. ‘My world doesn’t begin and end in this house, Pietro. I intend to rent an apartment, get a job.’
‘Then don’t start by ruining yourself with Pantelides.’
Her throat clogged. ‘My reputation is already in shreds after Constantine. I really have nothing left to lose.’
She turned to head up the grand staircase that led to the twin wings of their villa. Behind her, she could still hear Pietro pacing the hallway.
‘This doesn’t make any sense, Inez. Perhaps a good night’s sleep will bring you to your senses.’
She didn’t answer. Because she didn’t want to waste her time telling him the decision had already been made for her.
For Theo to have gone to the effort of staging that kiss and paving the way for the lies she had to perpetuate, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that his demands were real.