“It’s time you picked on someone your own size,” Nikos muttered under his breath as he entered his private office.
“What was that, sir?” Margaret, the senior administrative assistant for the casino, was filling in on some rudimentary duties as his executive secretary. She temporarily sat in Anna’s old desk outside his office.#p#分页标题#e#
“Please let me know when Victor Sinistyn arrives.” Closing the door behind him, he went to the outside windows and stared down at Las Vegas Boulevard, watching the hectic traffic below. He went to the crystal decanter and started to pour himself a small bourbon, then stopped.
Was it possible that he was doing the same thing as Sinistyn? Trying to possess Anna when he had no right?
No, he told himself fiercely. It wasn’t the same at all. Sinistyn was trying to force Anna to marry him to satisfy his own selfish lust. Nikos just wanted to protect his family. To protect his son.
But still, the voice of conscience, rusty from disuse, whispered in his mind, you’re going to make her fall in love with you on false pretenses, to bind her to you forever. Isn’t that just as bad?
He tried to shake the thought out of his mind, but it wouldn’t go away. He paced back and forth through his office, trying to concentrate on Sinistyn, the Singapore deal—anything but his plans for Anna. In the end he gave up, and pummeled the boxing bag in the corner of his office with his bare hands to clear his mind. The pain helped him forget. Helped him focus.
There was blood on two knuckles when he went over to the wall of one-sided windows that overlooked the main casino floor. He glanced down, impatiently looking at his watch. Sinistyn was two minutes late.
Then his eyes sharpened.
Sinistyn wasn’t late. He was already in the casino downstairs, beneath the high crystal chandeliers, in between the gilded nineteenth-century columns and wealthy, attractive gamblers at the roulette tables and slot machines.
He wasn’t alone, either. He’d brought two hulking bodyguards from his club. But he wasn’t talking to them.
He was talking to Anna.
Anna. Still wearing the slim white shirt and black skirt, but sexier than ever, with her long, long legs and glossy black pumps. Her dark hair, which he’d mussed so thoroughly nearly making love to her on his desk, cascaded down her shoulders. Her lips were full, pink and bruised, as if she’d just come from bed.
She was too enticing—innocence and sin wrapped up into one luscious package.
Nikos cursed under his breath. She’d defied his direct orders and come down here to intercept Sinistyn. He clenched his jaw. From this distance he couldn’t read the expressions on their faces. What was she saying to him? What was he saying to her? His hands clenched into fists as he strode out of his office to the elevator.
When he reached the casino floor he signaled Cooper, his head of security, to follow with two bodyguards. Trailing bodyguards in his wake, he stalked through the noise of slot machines and gamblers toward Anna and Sinistyn, barely able to keep his fury in check.
Why couldn’t she trust him to handle things? Not even once? Why did she always have to make everything so damned hard?
“Sinistyn,” he said coldly, grabbing the man’s shoulder. “Let’s go upstairs to talk.” He gave Anna a look. “Leave.”
“I’m staying,” she said, raising her chin.
He heard Sinistyn snicker under his breath. Nikos ground his teeth. “Let me handle this.”
“This isn’t your fight. It’s mine.” To Nikos’s shock, she turned to Victor Sinistyn and put her hand on his hairy arm, looking deep and soulfully into his eyes. “Victor, I’m sorry this has gone so far. It’s my fault.”
“About time you came to your senses, loobemaya. I’ve waited long enough for you to be my wife.” Looking up from her cleavage with a triumphant half-smile, he locked eyes with Nikos. “About time you chose the better man.”
Nikos felt a strange lurch in his chest. A sick feeling spread through his body. She’d chosen Sinistyn over him? She trusted that man over him?
“No.” Anna was shaking her head at Sinistyn. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m sorry, but I don’t love you, Victor. I never have. I should have made it clear from the first time you flirted with me, ten years ago. I will never be with you. No matter how much money you loan my parents. Never.”
The smug expression disappeared from Sinistyn’s face. He looked dangerous and hard. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“You bought the palace for nothing. I’ll pay you back the money we owe. But I don’t want you.”