Page 27 of Vows of Revenge

Damos kept his voice smooth. ‘Kassia. Hi. How did your weekend go? Well, I hope? Whereabouts are you now? Do you still happen to be in the UK?’

She took a moment to answer.

He felt himself tense.

‘Um...yes. I’m at my mother’s house. But she’s not here. She and my stepfather are in Spain. I’m just...well, just about to book my flight back to Athens.’

‘Do you have to get back?’ he asked.

Again she took a moment to answer, and again he felt himself tense.

‘Er...no, not really.’

Damos felt his tension drop a level.

‘In which case, I’ll come right out with it. Could I possibly persuade you to do me yet another favour?’

He kept his voice light—deliberately so. She was back to sounding awkward again, and he wanted that gone. Wanted her to relax with him. But there was something else in her voice too. Something that his masculine senses were indicating that he definitely wanted to be there.

She is glad that I have phoned her.

‘It’s a bit of an ask,’ he went on, ‘but I need another plus one. You were so kind last week, to be that at the college dinner, and I was wondering if I could prevail upon you a second time.’ He paused. ‘Let me explain.’

She didn’t say anything, so he went on. He needed this to sound plausible—genuine.

‘I’m in London and, rather like in Oxford, I’ve been invited out of the blue to an evening affair.’ He made his voice dry, and deliberately humorous. ‘It seems that wealthy Greek businessmen are currently in high demand! Anyway, as in Oxford, it would be good for me to arrive with a plus one. So, I’m afraid I immediately thought of you.’ He made his voice humorously apologetic now. ‘What do you say? It’s the day after tomorrow. You’d enjoy it, I’m sure—it’s at the Viscari St James, up on the roof garden, so we must hope it doesn’t rain.’ He paused again. ‘What do you say? Can I persuade you to rescue me yet again? I don’t want to hassle you, but I’d be really grateful. Of course, if you don’t want to I understand completely, and can only apologise for importuning you.’

It was a classic negotiating technique—putting something forward, then seeming to withdraw it.

‘It isn’t “importuning” me,’ she responded. ‘Only... Well...um...if you really think...?’

He moved in for the close. ‘Kassia, thank you! I’m so grateful. OK... What would be involved is this: I’ll send a car for you, the day after tomorrow, then there will be the evening function and a night at the hotel. Of course I’ll be covering all expenses. Would that suit? I can’t thank you enough. I’m just going to need the address of your mother’s house...’

He had it already, but she would not know that.

She gave it to him, somewhat falteringly.

‘Great,’ he said. ‘Look—do forgive me—there’s an incoming call from Athens that I need to take. I’m so sorry. But, Kassia—thank you!’

He rang off. There was no incoming call, but he didn’t want her having second thoughts. He put his phone away, crossed to the sideboard in his hotel suite, and poured himself a beer from the fridge. Relief was filling him. She might have turned him down...might have had other commitments. But she hadn’t. She’d agreed to what he wanted.

The ice-cold beer slid down his throat as he took a long draught of it.

And what he wanted was to see her again. As soon as he could...

Oh, he wanted her to fall in with his plans—wanted all of that—but he wanted more, too. A lot more...

He took another, more leisurely draught of his beer.

Of that he was quite, quite certain. Because against all his expectations, all his assumptions, Kassia Andrakis had become more than just a means to an end. She was an end in herself. A very desirable end.

When she had become so, he didn’t know. Sometime during that day at Blenheim, or that evening at the college dinner. Sometime when he’d found himself reacting against her downplaying of herself, her passive acceptance of herself as someone men would not be attracted to, when all along...

I know I can show her herself differently, teach her to think well of herself, not ill.

And now he had the opportunity to do just that. The perfect opportunity. It could not have worked out better.

He smiled to himself, finishing his beer, and set aside the empty glass, anticipation filling him. And impatience.

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