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‘Right now your place is by my side’

‘I will not dignify that with an answer! You’re being horribly unreasonable’

‘I have an important question,’ Lysander countered levelly ‘Will you allow the restoration work here to continue?’

Ophelia alht of the roof leaking and the dae that would continue if she took a selfish short-ter that to the house she loved ‘Yes!’ she ground out between clenched teeth

Stalking over to the bed, she snatched up a pillow and the bedspread that had spilled onto the floor She marched over to the luxuriously upholstered ottoman couch by the

‘Aren’t you hungry?’ Lysander indicated the selection of food on offer ‘Neither of us had the chance to eat this afternoon’

In spite of the fact that her tu with emptiness, Ophelia wrapped herself in the bedspread and lay down on the couch ‘Goodnight’

Lysander surveyed his defiant bride while he satisfied his appetite A slight frown line now divided his ebony brows, for she was not behaving as he had expected She was excessively obstinate Why had she offered to sell the house without any effort to negotiate a stupendous price? Why the continued obsession with the walled garden? Did she genuinely like gettinga thorn in his flesh, rather than taking i presence in his life? What had happened to her profiteering instincts? Cue for dia financial benefits of anise it

Five minutes later he strode over to the ottoman, lifted Ophelia off it and strode back to the bed

‘What the blazes do you think you’re doing?’ she yelled at him

‘You sleep in the same bed,’ Lysander inforle of challenge

Ophelia was taken aback to feel tears threatening because she was genuinely exhausted and the prospect of another rousing battle of as too much for her just then ‘Don’t you dare touch me,’ she warned him

But it was soon obvious that Lysander had far more important matters in idly turned to him, he made five separate phone calls in a total of three different languages His dark deep draas brisk and authoritative But he paced round the roo in tone as he spoke in Greek He even laughed a couple of tih that humorous note struck her as a little forced She was convinced he was talking to another woh she couldn’t understand a word Was he explaining to a favoured etting e as apretence?

And why had he slept with her? She couldn’t accept that the che for hihly sophisticated eous women to choose froist When she had tried to deny that they were trulyher off to bed

While Ophelia agonised over her failure to say no, Lysander had a television wheeled in and watched the business nehich provoked another round of phone calls She was alht He hadn’t even noticed she had a pillow over her head to blank out the light and noise level An alpha-y He also had a passion for controlling everybody and everything around him His nature was neither tolerant nor patient He was the last guy alive ould stand the hassle of coping with a dee, Ophelia savoured, lay her salvation and her escape route froe she didn’t want What would Lysander most dislike?

Publicity would obviously coave an interview to a downmarket tabloid would be an ey, possessive wo to knohere he was and who he ould revolt him even h A sleepy s a nightot back to her garden sooner rather than later

For the third ti day, Lysander checked that no phone call or e from Ophelia had been intercepted and withheld from him

His sardonicinto an even thinner line, he turned his attention back to the boardThe stock-market crisis had ensured that he had to fly back to London at seven that ht and plunged him into an icy shower at dawn One tiny taste of Ophelia had unleashed a disturbingly powerful stor What the hell was the matter with hiy tension nagging at him

In contrast, Ophelia, to whom histrionics caht as well as through his departure But then he was convinced that Ophelia would sleep through an earthquake, since he had contrived to clasp a superb pearl and diah he had spoken to her she had only ain

Any woift, he reasoned with conviction He had also for the first ti the course of a phenoarden to betheir absence In short, Lysander could not recall when he had ever made that much effort on a woman’s behalf and received less appreciation for it Or, been treated to a total silence that was steadily beginning to grate on him

Ophelia enjoyed an equally busy ned note on the pillow ‘At office, flight Greece 2000 hrs’ She had alh she were in thediscovery that she earing an opulent pearl and diaant dog collar Was it payinity? A reward for submission?

Filled with self-loathing at that awful suspicion, Ophelia was sufficiently preoccupied to find herself accepting the luxury of breakfast in bed without complaint The same maid offered to run her a bath and lay out her clothes and a PA phoned to tell her that she would be leaving for Lysander’s house in London at eleven Ophelia, who had relished her recent freedoarden, felt trapped by the schedule already mapped out for her

Ophelia rang Pamela

‘No, of course I didn’t tell e,’ Pamela declared ‘In fact Matt’s furious that I didn’t tip hie by the paparazzi down here Lysander’s security men have put up barriers at the foot of the lane and the police are patrolling It’s hugely exciting’

Ophelia was deep in thought ‘Do you think anyone would be interested in interviewing me?’

‘Are you crazy? Any journalist would kill for the chance! You’re hot ne’

Ophelia reckoned that she would never have a better opportunity to take the first step in her caain her freedom Did she have the nerve to pull it off? She could not think of anything that Lysander would like less than a ho could not wait to gush about him and his lifestyle in print ‘I think it would be fun to do an interview, but it would have to be in London this afternoon Do you think your brother would like to do it?’

Pamela was so thrilled by that offer that she offered to act as a go-between and handed out loads of tips on self-presentation Ophelia inspected her neardrobe with a pu

rposeful glint in her gaze and combined several colourful items to achieve the tarty over-the-top effect she wanted Lysander had to be made to appreciate that threat could only take him so far and no further, and that it would provide no defence whatsoever against the indignity of an unsuitable wife

Lysander travelled back to his London town house around four that afternoon and found it in uproar Stareeted hi an interview to the press Staff were grouped in doorways in strained silence Nobody had the courage to aze

‘Which newspaper?’ Lysander deed hi time

Sta shoulders took on a visible slump He named a very popular tabloid that had run several scurrilous stories about Lysander’s sex life in recent years For a split second Lysander actually felt his skin turn clammy with shock, a sensation he had experienced on only one other occasion since reaching adulthood, which had been when his nosed

‘Where are they?’

‘The library,’ Stamitos said heavily

Lysander could barely credit what he was being told His library, the most private place in his London home, into which he invited only a chosen few He had failed to appreciate that the very fact that Ophelia was his wife had put her in a position of unfettered power Who would dare to question anything she did unless he first told thee to phone hi?

The library door stood open on a room croith people and camera equipment Lysander breathed in slow and deep It was beneath his dignity to make a scene but the violation of his privacy felt like an act of treachery Ophelia was curled up on an antique sofa, looking as tiny, exotic and colourful as a tropical bird Her make-up was dramatic and she had teamed a very short cerise pink dress with over-the-knee sheer black lace stockings and silver high heels It was a bizarre outfit His attention travelled fro cherry-red ered with satisfaction on the pearl and dia swell of her breasts and finishing at the slender expanse of white thigh visible above the lace stocking His libido reacted with raunchy enthusiasly sexy