is one of Mills & Boon’s most popular and

bestselling novelists. Her writing was an instant

success with readers worldwide. Since her first

book, Bittersweet Passion, was published in 1987, she has gone from strength to strength and now has over ninety titles, which have sold more than thirty-five million copies, to her name.

In this special collection, we offer readers a

chance to revisit favourite books or enjoy that rare

treasure—a book by a favourite writer—they may

have missed. In every case, seduction and passion

with a gorgeous, irresistible man are guaranteed!

LYNNE GRAHAM was born in Northern Ireland and has been a keen Mills & Boon® reader since her teens. She is very happily married, with an understanding husband who has learned to cook since she started to write! Her five children keep her on her toes. She has a very large dog, which knocks everything over, a very small terrier, which barks a lot, and two cats. When time allows, Lynne is a keen gardener.

A Mediterranean Marriage
Lynne Graham

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ONE

WHEN his new investment consultant had finished speaking, Rauf Kasabian gazed out across the Bosphorus strait towards the city of Istanbul, his lean, handsome features grim.

For once, Rauf was impervious to the magical spell cast by his waterside home. The ever-changing play of light and shadow over the shimmering water and the gentle lapping of the tide usually relaxed him. But his bitter memories triumphed over his surroundings and now his anger had been roused as well. So, the Harris family had played ducks and drakes with his money and Lily was flying out to Turkey in person to ask for what? Special treatment? On what grounds? That her family should choose her as messenger had to be the ultimate insult!

In receipt of that bewildering lack of response from a tycoon whose ruthless intolerance for dishonest business practice was legendary, Serhan Mirosh regarded his employer with anxious eyes. Had he himself overreached his powers in taking instant punitive action in the affair? True, the funds involved were mere pocket change to a media mogul as wealthy as Rauf Kasabian, but Serhan took keen pride in his attention to detail. Uncovering the disturbing history of Rauf’s unprofitable investment in the small English travel firm concerned had seemed a laudable effort for he had been dismayed that his predecessor should have allowed such flagrant irregularities to continue without intervention.

‘That in over two years you should have earned no financial return for your backing is outrageous,’ Serhan recapped with measured care, in case he had omitted some salient point in his previous explanation. ‘In line with the contract you agreed with Douglas Harris, I have demanded the repayment of the original sum invested plus the percentage of profits which you should have received during that period.’

‘I’m grateful that you have brought this matter to my attention,’ Rauf asserted with a cool nod of acknowledgement.

Praised, Serhan relaxed and spread speaking hands. ‘I cannot understand why this Harris woman should now seek a meeting with you but my faxed response to that effect and indeed my refusal on your behalf has been ignored. Yesterday I received a second request for an appointment between the fourth and the fifteenth.’

As it was now the second of the month that could only mean that Lily would soon be on Turkish soil, Rauf registered, his lean, lithe, powerful length tautening at that awareness. ‘The English can be stubborn.’

‘But such persistence is rude,’ Serhan lamented. ‘What is the point of this woman coming here? The time when explanations might have been considered is past. Furthermore, it is her father who owns the firm.’

Rauf decided not to add to the other man’s confusion with the additional news that Lily Harris was, or had been three years earlier, training as a nursery school teacher. ‘Leave the file with me and I will deal with it,’ he instructed. ‘I would also like to know where Miss Harris is staying.’

‘In an Aegean coastal resort,’ Serhan advanced drily, but he was unable to quite conceal his astonishment that Rauf should be prepared to give his personal attention to such an undeserving cause. ‘Perhaps Miss Harris believes Gumbet is next door to your head office in Istanbul!’

‘It’s possible.’ In a mood of rare abstraction, Rauf was studying the file that he had already opened with hard dark golden eyes. ‘When I knew her, geography wasn’t her strong point.’

When I knew her? A startled exclamation on his lips at that revealing comment, Serhan thought better of voicing it and departed. At the same time, he wondered how his employer would react to the discovery that Harris Travel had treated the Turkish builders engaged to build villas for them in a dishonest and disgraceful manner.

Some minutes later, Rauf cast aside the file, a cold gleam in his dark gaze, his handsome mouth clenched hard. He was outraged by what he had read: Lily would receive no mercy from him. He remembered her eyes blue as the summer sky telling him that he was the centre of her world. A cynical laugh fell from Rauf’s wide, sensual mouth. Yes, he had believed her to be both sincere and innocent. Like countless men before him, in burning to possess one particular woman, he had, momentarily, shelved intelligence and caution. Mercifully, it had only been the weakness of a moment from which he had soon recovered.

But then, long before he had met Lily, Rauf had recognised what had once been his own essential flaw and had tracked it back to its unfortunate source. He had great respect and affection for his mother but she had indoctrinated him with a lot of foolish romantic notions about her own sex that had caused him nothing but grief. But then his naive parent had no concept of the much more basic level at which men and women of Rauf’s generation interacted, and regarded his womanising reputation as a source of deep shame.

Whereas Rauf rejoiced in the knowledge that what he had once got wrong, he now always got right. Women passed through his bedroom without causing him any concern that he was taking cruel advantage of their supposedly weaker and more trusting natures. Having shaken off the dangerous misconception that good, old-fashioned lust was love, he enjoyed his male freedom of choice. He would get a kick out of seeing Lily Harris again, he decided. No doubt Lily imagined that her beauty allied with some soppy recollection of their brief relationship might blunt his business acumen and soften his heart towards her: she would soon find out her mistake…

Lily came downstairs lugging her case step by step.

Her three nieces, Penny, Gemma and Joy, were playing in the sitting-room and the sound of their giggles brought a smile to her tense mouth. It said a lot for her older sister, Hilary, that her children were able to laugh like that in the wake of events that might have destroyed a less close-knit family. It was only a year since Hilary’s husband, Brett, had walked out to move in with her sister’s former best friend.

At the time, Brett and Hilary’s youngest daughter, Joy, had been undergoing the last phase of her treatment for leukaemia. Mercifully, Lily’s four-year-old niece had since made a full recovery but then, right from the moment Joy’s condition had been diagnosed, Hilary had refused to contemplate any other possibility. Lily’s sister was a great believer in the power of positive thinking and she had needed every atom of that strength to keep up her spirits in the testing times that had followed.

Lily’s father, Douglas Harris, had signed over his comfortable detached house to Hilary and Brett lock, stock and barrel soon after their marriage and had continued to live with them. In the divorce settlement, Brett had been awarded half the value of the marital home, which he had never put a penny into either buying or maintaining, and as a result it had had to be sold. Not long after that development, it had emerged that Lily’s father’s travel agency, Harris Travel, which Brett had until recently continued to manage, was also in trouble. Just a month ago Douglas Harris, Hilary and her little girls had moved into the tiny terraced house that was now their home for the foreseeable future.

‘You should have let me help you with that case!’ Hilary scolded from the kitchen doorway. She was a tall, slender woman with short light brown hair, but even her ready smile could not conceal the tiredness of her eyes for she ran herself ragged struggling to keep up her many commitments. ‘We have time for a cup of tea before we leave for the airport. Have you said goodbye to Dad yet?’

‘Yes, and once we head off he’s going to take the girls down to the park—’

‘That’s great…I was beginning to think we needed a tin-opener to prise him out of that bedroom upstairs!’ In spite of her look of relief at the news of that planned outing, Hilary’s light-hearted response wobbled a little. ‘Once Dad starts taking an interest in life again, he’ll be fine. There’s no point looking back to what might have been, is there?’

‘No,’ Lily agreed, averting her gaze from the bright shimmer of tears Hilary was attempting to conceal, for she was well aware that her elder sister held herself responsible for their father having been forced out of the house he had lived in all his life and his subsequent depression. ‘Shouldn’t we run through my schedule for Turkey again before I leave? My first priority is to see Rauf about—’

‘Are you still worrying about that stupid letter his accountant sent?’ Hilary gave her a reproachful glance. ‘There’s no need. As I told you, I’ve checked the agency books and those payments were made. In fact we’ve kept every part of that agreement and the accounts are in apple-pie order. This business with Rauf Kasabian is a ridiculous storm in a teacup. When he realises that his new accountant has made a gigantic embarrassing mistake, I’m sure he’ll be very apologetic.’

Lily’s imagination refused to put Rauf in that guise and her thoughts shied away from him again in discomfiture. Hilary always thought the best of people, always assumed that a genuine mistake or simple misunderstanding lay at the foot of problems, she reflected anxiously while her sister poured the tea. Lily, however, was less trusting and more of a worrier. When she had seen that very official letter from Rauf’s high-powered accountant she had been shocked by that blunt demand for the return of Rauf’s investment, not to mention a request for payments that had already been made.

Indeed, Lily would have been happier if her sister had consulted a solicitor or even another accountant over that demand. However, having seen large sums of money she could ill afford consumed by such professionals during her divorce, Hilary was determined only to request legal or financial advice as an absolute last resort. In addition, Hilary believed that the contract that Rauf Kasabian had signed with their father was watertight. But what if it weren’t? What if there were a loophole and Rauf just wanted his stake back out of what had proved to be a far from profitable enterprise?

Lily felt very much personally involved. Had she not brought Rauf home to meet her father that investment would never have been made, for at the time Douglas Harris had already dismissed Brett’s suggestion that he should borrow from the bank at high rates of interest. Cautious as he had always been in business matters, her father had, however, been tempted by the offer of financial backing from a silent partner that would spread the risk of the ambitious expansion plans his son-in-law had persuaded him into considering.

‘Stop worrying about that silly letter,’ her sister urged, reading Lily’s troubled air with the ease of a woman who had virtually raised her from birth, and then addressing herself to the task of serving out juice and biscuits to her trio of daughters. ‘Getting those two villas Brett had built at Dalyan into the hands of a decent estate agent is more of a priority. Once they’re sold, the cash-flow problems I’m having at Harris Travel will be at an end. Just make sure a reasonable price is set on them. I can’t afford to hang out for the best possible offer.’

‘Will do and, if they’re looking a bit shabby after lying empty for so long, I’ll do what I can with them,’ Lily promised, wondering if Hilary was aware that her face still shadowed whenever she mentioned her ex-husband’s name, and then feeling horribly guilty that the divorce had been a secret source of intense relief where she herself was concerned.

‘The budget would run to a lick of paint but that’s about all.’ Hilary grimaced, breaking off to settle a sudden squabble between Penny, who was nine, and Gemma, who was eight, both girls carbon copies of their mother with their fine, flyaway brown hair and hazel eyes. ‘Aside of that, concentrate on getting in all the sightseeing trips you can and I’ll use your feedback to work out some all-inclusive tour packages to Turkey for next spring. I’m determined to take the agency back to its roots. We can’t compete with the big travel chains but we can offer a personalised exclusive service to up-market travellers.’

‘I’ll sign up for every tour available.’ Lily let her youngest niece Joy climb up onto her knee and hugged her close. She was a little blonde sprite of a child and very slight in build. For endless months she had been weak as a kitten and the sparkling energy that she had regained was a delight to them all.

Leaving the children in the care of their grandfather, Hilary drove Lily to the airport. ‘I know you don’t want me to say it…but thanks from the bottom of my heart for everything you’ve done to help out these last few months,’ the older woman said abruptly.

‘I’ve done next to nothing and here I am getting a free holiday off you into the bargain!’ Lily teased.

‘Solo holidays aren’t exactly fun and I know that you could’ve spent the whole summer in Spain if you hadn’t turned down that invite from your college friend on our behalf—’

‘How did you find out about that?’ Lily demanded in surprise.

‘Dad heard you on the phone to Maria and, let’s face it, I’m sure you’re in no hurry to meet that rat, Rauf Kasabian, again.’ Hilary sighed with audible regret. ‘But there’s just no way I can leave the kids and Dad and the travel agency right now.’

Eyes staring dully straight ahead, Lily forced a laugh of disagreement in determined dismissal of her sister’s concern. ‘This long after the event, I’d be a sorry case if I was still that sensitive about Rauf. And don’t call him a rat. I mean…what did he do?’

‘He was a gorgeous, arrogant louse and he broke your heart!’ Hilary countered with an unfamiliar harshness that shook Lily. ‘If he wanted female company to wile away his stay in London that summer, he should have picked someone older and wiser. Instead he led you up the garden path and then ditched you without a word of warning.’

At that angry response, Lily turned startled blue eyes to her sister’s taut profile. ‘I never realised that you felt like that.’

‘I hate his guts,’ Hilary confided with a shocking lack of hesitation. ‘More so since I’ve realised the damage he did to your confidence. It’s unnatural for a girl of your age not to date. You’ve always been a little shy and reserved but, after what he did, it was like you locked yourself up tight and threw the key away! I’m sorry…I should mind my own business.’

‘No, it’s all right.’ Lily swallowed the aching thickness in her throat, touched by Hilary’s loyalty and love but pained by her perception.

Although her sister remained unaware of the reality, she had pushed herself out on dates over the past year, hoping to meet someone who might make her feel as Rauf once had and enable her to finally shake free of the past. Only it hadn’t happened. But, very fortunately, her sibling had got the actual identity of the man who had most damaged Lily’s trust in his sex quite wrong and Lily knew that she would never tell the sister she loved the truth for there would be no gain to be made from causing Hilary such pain now.

Yes, Rauf’s sudden defection had hurt her terribly, but then he had never mentioned love or the future and indeed had told her that he had no intention of ever getting married. On his terms, what they had shared had only been a minor flirtation. She was not bitter about it. Was it Rauf’s fault that she had managed to convince herself that he thought more of her than he in fact had? No, she answered for herself. She had been young, inexperienced and so much in love that she had not wanted to face the unfortunate reality that these days a gorgeous, sophisticated guy expected sex to be part of any relationship, serious or casual. Most probably, Rauf had dumped her because she had failed to deliver on that score.

‘No, it’s not all right,’ Hilary muttered unhappily. ‘You’re almost twenty-four and I really shouldn’t be talking to you and interfering in your life as though you’re still a teenager.’

An involuntary grin lit Lily’s tense face for Hilary was like a mother hen and never stopped interfering. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Almost fourteen years older than Lily, Hilary often treated her more like a daughter than a sister. Their mother had died from post-natal complications within days of Lily’s birth and from then on Hilary had shouldered a lot of responsibility within their home. Childcare had been arranged for the daylight hours but it had been Hilary who had fed her newborn sister during the night and rocked her to sleep. It had also been Hilary who had sacrificed her chance to go to university sooner than leave her toddler sibling to the charge of an ever-changing series of carers and a father, who had often acted as guide for the tours that had once been the core element of Harris Travel’s prosperity.

She was very conscious of how much she owed Hilary, and there was little that Lily would not have done to lighten her sister’s current load in life. Between family commitments and the endless challenge of battling to prop up a failing business and live on a shoestring, her sister already had too much on her plate and Lily only wished that she were in a position to do more to help. Unfortunately, during term time, she worked in a nursery school a couple of hundred miles away.

In a few short weeks, when the new school term started, she would be returning to work and nowhere within reach when Hilary needed an extra pair of hands or even a supportive hug. Unhappily, flying out to Turkey in Hilary’s stead was all that lay within Lily’s power and, although she dreaded seeing Rauf again, accepting that necessity without dramatising the event felt like the very least she could do in return.

‘There’s a message for you,’ Lily was informed when she finally got to check into her small hotel at two the following morning.

As she trekked after the porter showing her to her room, Lily shook open the folded sheet of paper and then sucked in a sharp sustaining breath.

‘Mr Kasabian will meet you at eleven a.m. on the fourth at the Aegean Court Hotel.’

For what remained of the night, she dozed in stretches, wakening several times with a start and the fading memory of vivid dreams that unsettled and embarrassed her. Dreams about Rauf and the summer she had turned twenty-one. Rauf Kasabian, the guy who had convinced her that a woman could actually die from unrequited love and longing. How had he done that to her? How had he got past her defences in the first instance? It still bewildered Lily that she, who had until then backed off in helpless distaste from masculine overtures, had somehow felt only the most shocking, soaring happiness and satisfaction when Rauf had been the offender.

When she walked out of her hotel later that morning to climb into a taxi, she felt hot and bothered and so nervous she literally felt sick. The document case she carried contained copies of all the relevant account-book entries and bank statements that Hilary had given her as proof that all dues had been paid over to Rauf’s company, MMI, on the correct dates. She was dropped off at an enormous, opulent hotel complex with a long line of international flags flying outside the imposing main doors.

Rauf had not paraded his great wealth in London. In fact she had had no grasp whatsoever of his true standing in the business world until her father had made discreet enquiries through his bank about the male offering him financial backing. Her father’s bank manager had suggested that Douglas Harris break out the champagne to celebrate such a generous offer from a business tycoon whom he had described as being one of the richest and most powerful media moguls in Europe.

In the vast reception lounge inside the Aegean Court, Rauf sank back into his comfortable seat, a glass of mineral water cradled between his lean brown fingers for he never touched alcohol during business hours. He was secure in the knowledge that the staff were hovering at a discreet distance to ensure that nobody else sat down anywhere within hearing for it was his hotel. Conducting his meeting with Lily in a public area would ensure that formal distance was maintained and keep it brief.

But then he might have staged their encounter in his penthouse apartment on the top floor had it not been for the fact that it was already very much occupied by family members expecting him to join them for lunch. The pushy but lovable trio of matriarchs in the Kasabian family had that very morning elected without invitation to come for a heady spin in his private jet. Rauf suppressed a rueful groan, for his ninety-two-year-old great-grandmother, his seventy-four-year-old grandmother and his mother could in combination be somewhat trying guests. Was it his fault that he was an only child and the sole unappreciative focus of their hopes of the next generation?

Shelving that reflection with a wry grimace, he concentrated his thoughts back on Lily. He fully expected, indeed he was even looking forward to, being disappointed when he saw her again. No woman could possibly be as beautiful as he had once believed her to be.

So, it was most ironic that, when Rauf saw the two middle-aged doormen compete in an undignified race to throw the doors wide for the woman entering the hotel, it should be Lily in receipt of that exaggerated male attention that only a very real degree of beauty evoked. Lily, who still seemed to drift rather than walk, her long dress flowing with her fluid movements and baring only slim arms, narrow wrists and slender ankles. As Lily approached the desk, Rauf watched the young clerk rush to greet her and his wide, sensual mouth compressed into a line harder than steel.

Hair the colour of a sunlit cornfield fell all the way to Lily’s waist, even longer than it had been that summer. Her modest appearance, though, was pure, calculated provocation, Rauf thought in raw derision. The plain dress only accentuated her classic beauty and anchoring that mane of fabulous golden hair into prim restraint merely imbued most men with a strong desire to see those pale silken strands loose and spread across a pillow.

In fact it was an education for Rauf to watch every man in her vicinity swivel to watch her move past and note how she affected not to notice the stir she caused. But no woman blessed with her perfect features could remain unaware of the gifts she had been born with. Had he not let himself be fooled by that same air of innocence, had he just taken her to his bed and enjoyed her body, he would surely have realised then that she was not only nothing that special, but also a practised little tart.

As Lily headed in the direction that the desk clerk had indicated her heart started to beat very, very fast, indeed so fast that she could hardly catch her breath. She still could not believe that she was about to see Rauf Kasabian again. But then across the wide empty space that separated them she actually saw Rauf rise from his table. Her whole body leapt with almost painful tension and she froze, paralysed to the spot by that first glimpse of him.

He was so very tall. He stood six feet four inches with the wide shoulders, narrow hips and lithe, muscular build of a male in the peak of physical condition. And gorgeous did not begin to describe that lean, bronzed face, Lily conceded in dazed acknowledgement. Rauf was so startlingly handsome that even on the crowded streets of London women had noticed him and turned their heads to stare. Lustrous, luxuriant black hair was cropped to his proud head. He had a riveting bone structure overlaid with vibrant skin and tawny eyes that could be dark as bitter chocolate or as pure a gold as the sinking sun.

Her legs behaved like sticks without the ability to bend as she forced herself to move towards him. Her colour was high at the lowering awareness that she had stopped dead to look at him like an impressionable schoolgirl. He did not make the moment easier for her by striding forward to meet her halfway. Instead he stayed where he was, making her come to him. How had she forgotten how he dominated everything around him? How he could entrap her with one mesmerising look from those thick-lashed, brilliant eyes?

Rauf watched her approach. She was a perfect doll, dainty and exquisite as a Meissen ornament. On even that very basic level she had once appealed to every masculine protective instinct he possessed. Rauf drew in a stark short breath. Memory hadn’t lied, memory had only dimmed his recollection of her wonderful skin, not to mention those deep blue eyes wide as a child’s and fringed by soft brown lashes a baby deer would have envied. The cool intellect that outright rejected the temptation she presented warred with the much more primitive urges of his all-too-male body. When lust triumphed, stirring him into aching sexual tension, Rauf was infuriated by his own weakness.

Lily hovered several feet away, alarmed by the jangling state of her nerves, the terrifying blankness of her mind and the even more demeaning truth that she could not drag her attention from him. ‘It’s been a long time,’ she said breathlessly, almost wincing at the nervous sound of her own voice.

‘Yes. Would you like something to drink?’

‘Er…pure orange, please.’

Rauf passed on the order to the waiter nearby and turned back to her. ‘Let’s get down to business, then,’ he drawled with intimidating cool. ‘I don’t have much time to spare.’

CHAPTER TWO

TAKEN aback by the coldness of that greeting, Lily was grateful for the small hiatus created by the waiter, who stepped forward to swing out a high-backed armchair for her occupation. ‘Thank you.’

‘My pleasure, hanim,’ the young man asserted with an admiring smile until a cool word of Turkish uttered by Rauf sent him into hasty retreat.

‘You may have noticed that my countrymen go for English blondes in a big way,’ Rauf remarked in his dark, deep drawl.

‘Yes,’ Lily confided ruefully, thinking of the taxi driver who had tried to chat her up and all the discomfiting male attention that she had attracted since her recent arrival.

Yet she was conscious of Rauf’s masculine proximity with every fibre of her being and even more aware of the weird tight little knot low in her pelvis of something that felt dangerously like suppressed excitement. Her tension increased for she was as unsettled by her own reactions as she had been at twenty-one, because no other man had ever had that effect on her.

Rauf lifted a broad shoulder in a casual shrug. ‘Here, I’m afraid, and in certain other resorts, British female tourists have the reputation of being the easiest to bed in the shortest possible space of time.’

Lily’s face flamed. ‘I beg your pardon?’

Rauf dealt her a cool golden glance laden with mockery. Being downright offensive was not the norm for him but he was determined to blow her I’m-so-sweet-and-shockable front right out of the water. ‘Some Englishwomen go mad for Turkish men, so don’t blame the guys for hassling you.’

‘I wasn’t aware that I was blaming anybody.’ Lily’s fingers tightened round the document case on her lap. She just could not credit that he was talking to her in such a way and, bewildered by the antagonism she sensed, she allowed her scrutiny to linger on the scornful slant to his beautifully shaped mouth.

Without the slightest warning, she found herself remembering the wicked, unforgettable excitement of those firm, hard male lips on her own. A deep inner quiver slivered through her slight frame and her skin heated. Mortified by the intimate nature of her wandering thoughts, she could not even recall what they had been talking about. Forcing her head up, she encountered intent tawny eyes and stopped breathing altogether.

His lush black lashes dipped to a slumbrous level over his stunning gaze and she shifted on her seat, every muscle tightening, every nerve-ending flaring with agonising immediacy into sensitised awareness. Desperate to break free of the raw magnetic power he exerted over her and shattered that she could still be susceptible to a male who had once rejected her, she tore her eyes from him and muttered with an abruptness that only increased her discomfiture, ‘You said that you didn’t have much time…so can we discuss this misunderstanding over the contract that you agreed with my father?’

Rauf’s shimmering golden scrutiny rested on her evasive gaze with grim amusement and no small amount of satisfaction. So she did want him and that, at least, had not been a total lie like all the rest. He elevated a challenging black brow. ‘There is no misunderstanding.’

‘There has to be.’ With hands that were betraying a dismaying tendency to tremble, Lily dug into the document case and dragged out the sheaf of papers that Hilary had put together.

Wondering what on earth she could hope to achieve by going to such pointless lengths in an effort to convince him that his highly qualified investment consultant was incapable of spotting a rip-off when he came across one, Rauf released his breath in an impatient hiss. ‘I have no intention of studying those documents. By failing to make the agreed sharing of annual profits your father has been in breach of our contract for more than two years. That’s the base line and the only one that counts.’

‘Dad would never default on any contract.’ Alarm gripping her at Rauf’s stubborn refusal even to direct his attention at the papers that she had set on the table, Lily leant forward, frantically swept up the first sheet and extended it herself. ‘This is last year’s account-book entry. A sizeable sum of money was wire-transferred to an account known as Marmaris Media Incorporated at your Turkish bank in London. I have every identifying detail of that transfer. For goodness’ sake, if that’s not proof that a major misunderstanding has occurred, what is?’

His interest now fully engaged by what she had said, for he did not use a Turkish bank in London, but making no attempt to accept the proffered document, Rauf gazed at her flushed and anxious face. ‘This sounds remarkably like a misunderstanding destined to end up in the hands of an international fraud squad.’

Her natural colour draining away, her blue eyes rounding, Lily let the sheet of paper drop back on the pile and gasped, ‘What on earth are you trying to suggest?’

‘That it seems very suspicious that the trading name Marmaris Media Incorporated should bear such a very close resemblance to the name under which my own companies operate—’

‘Which is MMI…Marmaris Media Incorporated!’ Lily argued in bewilderment.

‘No, I rather think that you must know that that is untrue,’ Rauf countered with sardonic cool, for he was now convinced that she was attempting to mount some kind of clumsy belated cover-up. ‘MMI stands for Marmaris Media International and no part of my holdings trades under any similar name. Any cash paid into an account in the name of Marmaris Media Incorporated has nothing to do with me.’

‘Then the money must still be there in that wretched account!’ Lily exclaimed, immediately believing that she had found out where a fatal error might have occurred in Harris Travel’s dealings with Rauf. ‘Don’t you see? Nobody at Harris Travel realised they’d got the name wrong and the payments have gone into someone else’s account…oh, my goodness, suppose they’ve spent it?’

Against his own volition, Rauf was becoming more entertained with every second he spent listening to her spiel. She looked like a live angel and, had he not known what he did know about her, the appeal in her beautiful eyes might have penetrated even his armour-plated cynicism. He lowered his dense black lashes over his appreciative gaze. She ought to be on television creating kiddy-orientated whodunnits of shattering simplicity. That climax of a punchline, ‘Suppose they’ve spent it?’ was priceless and he would long cherish its utterance for he had an excellent, if dark, sense of humour.

Nobody with any wit could have been taken in by so unlikely a tale. He was willing to bet a good half of his vast wealth that were he willing to go through the laborious motions she was trying to prompt him into making, willing to act like her trusting ally in pursuit of an unknown criminal, he would find out…guess what? Surprise, surprise, he didn’t think! The fake account called Marmaris Media Incorporated would be as empty as the old lady’s cupboard in the English nursery rhyme. Switching money between accounts to conceal where it was heading next and false entries in the account books were one of the most rudimentary and common methods of concealing fraud.

‘Didn’t you hear what I said?’ Lily prompted, incredulous at his lack of reaction and actually jumping to her feet to stress her enthusiasm for that possible explanation. It seemed obvious that a stupid but simple mistake had sent the payments that Rauf should have received into the wrong bank account. ‘Either all those payments have been piling up in one of those dormant accounts that you read about or someone’s been having a merry old time for the last two years on money that was rightfully yours!’

‘Thankfully it’s not my problem,’ Rauf responded smooth as silk, but he was operating on two levels again, his brain attempting to disengage from his libido as he tensed with growing annoyance. As she automatically angled her slender body towards him he was maddeningly aware of the tantalising thrust of her lush little breasts beneath the shrouding dress and his body hardened on a surge of instant sexual hunger that inflamed his pride.

‘But it’s your money…don’t you care about that?’ Deflated and bemused by his apparent disinterest, Lily dared to look at him direct and clashed with smouldering golden eyes.

Her heart skipped a beat and in the interim she felt her full breasts shift inside her cotton bra, the soft tips pinching into sudden taut sensitivity. Rigid with shamed awareness of what was happening to her, she lowered her head and dropped back down into her seat again at speed. Could he still sense the appalling effect he had on her? A crawling sense of humiliation engulfed her, for she had never dreamt that, three years on, she might still be vulnerable around Rauf Kasabian. After all, she wasn’t in love with him any more, and he might be a good-looking guy—all right a very good-looking guy—but that was no excuse, was it?

Sheer anger having overwhelmed his arousal, Rauf was reminding himself of what a cruel little tease Lily had always been. Once she had drawn him in with the same languishing looks and responsive body language, only to treat him to shrinking reluctance when he had dared to react to those invitations. But her most effective ploy of all had been three quite unforgettable and very clever little words. “You scare me,” she had once confided in a breathy little voice of apparent apology, shocking and shaming him into the kind of total physical restraint that he had never had to practise round any other woman.

Still raw from the memory of that unjust and wounding accusation, Rauf squared his wide shoulders, his formidable intelligence now fully back in the ascendant. ‘Harris Travel would still be in breach of contract and I do wish you luck in pursuing the dormant account scenario. However, all that is owed to me must be repaid—’

Tense as a bowstring, Lily parted dry lips. ‘Yes, of course I accept that, but—’

‘I don’t like being ripped off.’ The chill in Rauf’s hard dark-as-midnight eyes was now pronounced. ‘In fact, with very little encouragement, I can be a total unforgiving bastard.’

‘I’m just asking you to be reasonable and examine these papers and you won’t even do that for me.’ Lily regarded him with reproachful blue eyes. ‘That’s not so much to ask…surely? Why are you treating me like this?’

‘Like…what?’ Rauf asked in the same cool tone.

‘Like we’re enemies or something….’ Lily muttered uneasily.

‘There’s nothing deader than a dead love affair, except perhaps an affair that never was,’ Rauf spelt out with cutting clarity.

Lily went very still and paled as though she had been struck. She stared with strained intensity at the papers he had refused to scrutinise while she fought to hold back the lowering tears stinging the back of her eyes. There it was, confessed in his own words: the truth of why he had lost all interest in her. An affair that never was. It was so belittling to appreciate that what she had believed they’d shared had meant nothing to him without sex. She had always suspected it but that direct confirmation truly hurt. She snatched up her glass of pure orange and took several sips to ease the aching fullness in her throat. Reminding herself that she had much more important matters to concentrate on, she struggled to pull herself back together again.

‘Time’s running out.’ Rauf steeled himself against the artful way she was sitting bolt upright in the chair with the brave but vulnerable aspect of a punished child. As he had already learnt to his cost in the past, she was a very convincing actress and her sole objective then as now had been his wallet, not the wedding ring he had once naively assumed.

Swallowing hard, Lily lifted her head and breathed in deep. ‘I’m willing to admit that since we last met, Harris Travel may not have been run quite the way it ought to have been. Two years ago, after a spate of ill health, my father retired and Brett took over. Now he’s gone and it’s my sister, Hilary, who is managing the business. You say that the contract has been broken and you won’t allow any leeway for human error. But if you insist on reclaiming your stake in the agency right now, it may well bankrupt it.’

‘Business can be tough. I’m sorry but I’m not prepared to sit through the plucking of a thousand violin strings,’ Rauf said very drily, wondering with revulsion where Brett Gilman had ‘gone’. The grave? To employment elsewhere? He would not allow himself to ask.

‘Brett went off with Hilary’s best friend, Janice,’ Lily extended heavily and he noted that, just as he recalled from the past, even now when she referred to her sister’s husband her eyes were carefully screened in a secretive way. ‘Hilary and Brett are divorced now.’

So that was why Lily had come all the way out to Turkey to beg his indulgence and bat her fawn-like eyelashes in his direction! Smarmy Brett had scarpered with yet another foolish woman. His lean, strong face taut, Rauf’s handsome mouth compressed with distaste. Look beyond the illusory purity of her beauty and Lily was revealed for what she was: an unscrupulous, greedy little schemer, ever ready to tell lies when it suited her to do so. Once, she had been stupid enough to lie to him and in lying had convicted herself with her own tongue.

‘I get this feeling that you’re really not listening to anything that I say, but what I’m saying is so very important,’ Lily emphasised in a low intense plea. ‘If those payments which you say were never made—’

‘I know for a fact that they were never made.’ Rafe’s aggressive jawline squared. ‘Do we have to keep on going over the same ground?’

‘Well, if they weren’t made, then it was a case of a genuine mistake. Surely you have enough understanding and patience to allow Harris Travel to sort it out?’

‘Why should I be patient?’ Rauf dealt her an enquiring glance in which the milk of human kindness was most noticeable by its unapologetic absence. The Turkish builders defrauded by Harris Travel had also practised patience and much good it had done them!

‘I don’t know you like this…’ Lily mumbled sickly, sinking ever deeper into a sense of shock over the extent to which he seemed to have changed. Had Rauf always been so cold, callous and unfeeling? Had she only imagined that she’d seen other finer and more sensitive qualities in him?

She tried afresh to reach him. ‘I’m only asking for some more time—’

‘No.’ Rauf uttered the word in a tone of crushing finality. ‘You’ve wasted enough of my time.’

‘Look, I didn’t come out here prepared for this awful situation!’ Lily protested, her voice rising in spite of her attempt to keep it level, and a flush of embarrassment covered her face as Rauf elevated an ebony brow in meaningful rebuke. ‘Couldn’t you help me with this? I don’t have the resources to check out this bank account mix-up from here.’

Lily down on her knees and begging. Rauf liked the idea even though he knew that he would still pull the plug on the travel agency and cut that last reminder of her out of his life. For his own amusement, would he play along for a little while with her absurd stories and excuses? What would he discover? That she and her family were a set of outright thieves? Reckless thieves too, unable to look ahead and spot the obvious fact that their dishonesty would inevitably be exposed. Then he reminded himself that his own newspapers were full of tales of such foolish fraudsters, who, regardless of the obvious consequences, were quite unable to resist temptation.

Sensing that she finally had his attention, Lily pushed the documents across the table again. ‘Please look these over…and I can offer one concrete promise—whatever happens, you will be compensated. Brett built two luxury villas near Dalyan and I have to arrange for them to be sold. Harris Travel does have some assets,’ she proclaimed in desperation.

But the biggest asset of all was seated just feet away from him, Rauf conceded, looking direct into her pleading violet-blue eyes, a kind of wonderment laced with cold, deep anger rising at volatile force inside him. He could not credit her gall! How dared she feed him such falsehoods? How could she think that he would have agreed to their meeting without having all the facts at his disposal? That Lily should face him with outright lies proved beyond all doubt that she was involved up to her throat in blatant deception! That was the moment that Rauf decided to take a harder line with Lily.

Anxiety holding her taut, Lily noted how very still Rauf had become and her attention lingered on the semi-screened shimmer of his unreadable gaze. Then even as she watched Rauf reached out and swept up the Harris Travel documents he had earlier disdained, sending a surge of hope travelling through her. ‘I’m not making any promises,’ he asserted in a dark, deep, honeyed drawl that sent the oddest little shiver down her spine.

‘Oh, no, of course not…I wouldn’t expect that at this point,’ Lily hastened to assure him, almost sick with relief at his change of heart and certain that he would be more sympathetic once he had gone over those papers.

‘But the amount of time that this tangled affair will consume only comes at a price.’ Rauf moved in for the kill, knowing just how much he would revel in making Lily dance to his tune while he kept her in suspense. Hadn’t she once done the same to him in a much more primitive way? With raw contempt, he recalled the pseudo-nervous squeaks he had been made to suffer that summer while she had swerved between brief bouts of melting enthusiasm to keep him hooked and sudden attacks of timidity. She had played him like a violin virtuoso, convincing him one hundred per cent that he’d been dealing with a very nervous virgin. But on this occasion, he had the whip hand.

‘A…price?’ In confusion, Lily frowned, her heart hammering as she noted the gleam of gold in his arresting gaze.

Rauf angled his arrogant dark head back with the measured and confident timing of a hunter about to spring a trap. ‘In this world everything comes at a price…haven’t you learnt that yet?’

‘I’m not sure I follow…’ Her oval face taut, a frown marked her smooth brow.

A faint sardonic smile lightened Rauf’s lean, dark features. ‘It’s very simple. If I have to go through these documents in detail, I need your help.’

Her frown evaporating at that statement, Lily sat forward with an air of eagerness, soft blue eyes brightening. ‘Certainly…that’s not a problem. How could you think it would be?’

‘I’m only here in Bodrum for a few hours. Since I have a board meeting in Istanbul tomorrow, I’ll be flying back there this evening. Later tomorrow, however, I’m going to my country estate and I suggest that you join me there and stay for a few days,’ Rauf murmured levelly. ‘It would be more convenient to have you on hand to answer any queries I might have and assist in my inquiries.’

As Rauf delivered that bombshell Lily had parted her lips several times as if she’d been about to speak, but on each occasion caution had made her bite her tongue. She was unnerved by the prospect of staying as a guest in Rauf’s country home. However, in the circumstances, his request was a reasonable one. She could hardly expect him to fly back to the coast just for her benefit.

‘Yes, all right,’ Lily conceded tautly.

Rauf had had no doubt that she would agree and her obvious discomfiture surprised him not at all. Naturally, she could not refuse the opportunity to keep an eye on the course of his inquiries because she would be afraid that he might turn up evidence that would incriminate her and might even be hoping for the chance to bury it again. At the same time, however, she had to continue to play the innocent. Before he took her to Sonngul, he would ensure that they made an unannounced detour to view the ‘villas’ she had proffered as assets. Even the cleverest liar could not hope to lie her way out of what he intended to confront her with!

‘When would you like me to come to your home?’ Lily prompted uncomfortably. ‘Is it far from here?’

‘Quite some distance. I’ll make arrangements for you to be picked up at your hotel tomorrow morning at eleven. I’ll meet you at the airport, so that we can travel on to Sonngul together.’ Studying the soft pink fullness of her lips, Rauf was picturing her splayed like a wanton temptress across his magnificent bed at the old house where he had, out of respect for his family, never taken a woman. Would he…or wouldn’t he take advantage of her present eagerness to please? No, he decided with fierce determination, he would not. He would take no woman to his bed on such sordid terms.

‘Thank you. I appreciate your kindness in making time for this.’ Lily felt her lips tingle from his glinting scrutiny and a wave of slow, painful colour warmed her fair complexion. In the pulsing atmosphere, her mouth ran dry and her breathing pattern quickened. She recognised her own excitement, her longing for him to touch her, was shamed by it but not to the degree she had once been when her own contrary physical responses had scared and confused her. But that had not been Rauf’s fault or, indeed, even her own fault, she conceded with pained regret.

Rauf was offended by that unsought and forbidden image of Lily ornamenting his bed, and his lean, strong face was grim. He could not give credence to the smallest doubt of her guilt now: she had played her part in defrauding him. Once he had assembled the necessary evidence, he would hand her over to the police. He would do what was right and would not be swayed by her desirability or his own lust into compromising either his own ethical code or the honour of the Kasabian family. There should be no distinction between his treatment of Lily and any other wrongdoer. In daring to approach him with her lies and invite his investigation of the facts, she would discover that she had merely precipitated her own punishment and, even worse, had done so in a country with a judicial system far less liberal than that of her own.

That decision etched in stone on his soul, Rauf rose upright, his brilliant dark eyes cool and bright as a mountain spring. ‘I’m afraid I must close our meeting here—I have a lunch engagement to keep.’

Disconcerted by that sudden conclusion to their meeting, Lily scrambled up in even greater haste, but by then she had already lost Rauf’s attention. Following his frowning gaze, she saw a tiny silver-haired old lady with a stick moving towards them, a helpful young man by her side.

Rauf ground his teeth together as his great-grandmother approached with all the unstoppable determination of a stick-propelled missile. One of the hotel staff must have let drop that his appointment was with a young and beautiful foreigner. That exciting disclosure would have been all it would have taken to shoot Nelispah Kasabian into the penthouse lift and down to the ground floor to satisfy her lively curiosity.

‘Mrs Kasabian says…’ The hotel executive acting as Nelispah’s guide and translator skimmed Rauf a strained glance of apology before turning to address Lily. ‘Mrs Kasabian says…what a lovely dress you are wearing!’

Rauf blinked and then scrutinised the billowing folds of Lily’s shroud. Yes, he supposed a dress that only hinted that an actual female body existed beneath it was right down his very modest great-grandmother’s street. The entire family and their staff conspired to ensure that Nelispah’s delicate sensibilities were protected from the shocking moral laxity of a world that would distress her for her heart was weak. Fortunately, she did not watch television or even read the family newspapers because she believed that her late husband would not have approved of her engaging in either activity.

‘I have the honour of introducing you to my great-grandmother, Nelispah Kasabian…Lily Harris.’ Rauf performed the introduction with gritty reluctance but spoke in soft, gentle Turkish to the little woman, who barely reached his chest in height.

‘Please tell her how very happy I am to meet her.’ Lily returned Mrs Kasabian’s big, beaming smile with warm appreciation.

Resting a frail hand on Rauf’s supportive arm, Nelispah chattered on in Turkish while Rauf employed a fast covert signal to send her translator into silenced retreat. ‘Lily hanim has a sweet smile. I like what I see in this young woman’s face,’ his great-grandmother confided with alarming enthusiasm. ‘Would she like to join us for lunch and tell us about herself and her family?’

Striving not to wince at the threat of what might emerge were Lily to come into contact with the matriarchal inter-rogation team, Rauf depressed that hope and, with a quiet word of apology to Lily, he walked the old lady back towards the lift. Seeing the affection that had softened his stunning eyes, Lily glanced away again, pained by that contrast to Rauf’s abrasive treatment of her.

But then this was a business matter, not a personal one, she reminded herself doggedly. Evidently, Harris Travel had messed up big time when it came to that contract. Had Brett been responsible for that? Although Lily loathed her sister’s ex-husband, she knew that both Hilary and her father had been very impressed, not only by the efficient way in which Brett had run the family business, but also by the long hours he had worked. Profits might have sunk to a dismal level but nobody had blamed Brett for that reality. After all, it was hardly his fault that another travel agency had opened up in competition in the same town.

Whatever, Lily was uneasily aware that Rauf had only been willing to relent after she had mentioned the villas that were to be sold. What was going to happen if those payments made into the wrong account could not be tracked down and retrieved? And if the cash from the sale of the villas had to go to Rauf rather than Harris Travel, would Hilary still be able to stay in business? Deciding to wait until she had concrete facts at her disposal before passing on any bad news to her sister, Lily tensed as Rauf returned to her side.

‘My limo will take you back to your hotel,’ Rauf imparted, shortening his long, fluid stride to her slower pace to walk her outside.

On the pavement, she hovered and stole a strained glance up at him, intimidated and troubled by his continuing detachment. ‘This business stuff aside…can’t we still be friends?’ she heard herself ask in a rush.

As he met her beautiful blue eyes seething derision at that appeal flamed through Rauf’s big, powerful frame, hardening his superb bone structure, firing his fantastic eyes to raw, shimmering gold. It infuriated him that once upon a time he had swallowed her every mushy sentence. ‘I’m not five years old and neither are you.’

Lily flushed in embarrassment and cringed for her own impulsive tongue.

‘On the other hand, güzelim,’ Rauf growled soft and low as he reached for her with two lean, purposeful hands and pulled her to him on a surge of anger so strong he did not even question what he was doing, ‘I hate to disappoint a woman.’

Pinned into startling connection with six feet four inches of hard, masculine muscle and power, her heart pounding like crazy, Lily gasped, ‘Rauf—?’

His wide, sensual mouth came down on hers with explosive force, all the passion of the volatile nature he usually kept in check powering to the surface to drive that kiss. For an instant Lily froze in total shock and then, without any mental prompting she recognised, she stretched up on tiptoe and wrapped her slim arms round his neck. As the first wild wave of response rocked through her trembling length, she loosed a low moan, angling her head back, letting the erotic plunge of his tongue feed from the sweetness of her mouth.

With an abruptness that left Lily in a turmoil of confusion, Rauf set her free again. A dark line of febrile colour scoring his taut cheekbones, he was appalled both by his own reckless disregard of his surroundings and by her unexpected encouragement. Trust Lily to change her game plan when he could least afford her to do so! Such public displays were frowned on by his people. What the hell had come over him?

Her lush mouth reddened from the fiery imprint of his, Lily focused on Rauf with dazed eyes and a helpless surge of pride in herself. She had stayed in his arms without succumbing to an attack of unreasonable fear. Finally making herself acknowledge those disturbing feelings and openly discuss what had caused them with a counsellor the previous year had worked.

‘That will not be repeated,’ Rauf breathed with icy emphasis, yanking open the door of the long silver limo waiting by the kerb with his own hand. ‘There is nothing between us now.’

Then why had he touched her in the first place? Stiff with hurt bewilderment, Lily climbed into the opulent car. She wished she had pushed him away, indeed done anything other than thrown her arms round him in encouragement. She was furious with herself. Here she was almost twenty-four years old, still a virgin and still, it seemed, as immature as an adolescent. Obviously Rauf had reacted to the willing signals that she must have been putting out! On the strength of that demeaning conviction, Lily stopped being angry and felt that she had asked to be humiliated.

But then who would ever have forecast that she of all women might ever be guilty of forward behaviour around a male of the species? As Rauf’s limousine drove Lily back to her hotel in Gumbet she was pale and taut and already mental miles away from their recent meeting. Memories that she only rarely allowed herself to take out and examine had engulfed her…

Hilary had married Brett when Lily had been only twelve. Delighted to be their bridesmaid, Lily had been thrilled that Hilary had been so much in love and even happier that Brett had been willing to move into their family home rather than take Hilary to live somewhere else. Their father had been equally impressed with Hilary’s bridegroom for Brett had always awarded the older man pronounced respect and deference. A year later, Douglas Harris had signed his house over to his daughter and son-in-law.

Just two years after that, when she’d been only fifteen, Lily had had her first sight of Brett with another woman. Heading home from a friend’s house, she had cut across a car park on the outskirts of town. Seeing Brett’s sports car parked there and the shadow of movement within, she had hurried towards it thinking that she would get a lift with him. Instead she had seen her brother-in-law locked in a passionate embrace with a stranger. Devastated by that sight but grateful that the guilty couple hadn’t noticed her, she had been so upset that she had wandered round town for several hours before she’d been able to face going home.

All her life up until that point, Lily had told Hilary virtually everything. But what she had seen that day had deprived her of her only true confidante for she had been painfully conscious that her big sister had worshipped the ground her handsome husband had walked on and had also been heavily pregnant with their second child. Lily had agonised for weeks over what she ought to have done before finally deciding to confide in her father and put the responsibility of that knowledge in his hands.

But in no way had Douglas Harris reacted as his teenage daughter had imagined he might have done. ‘You were mistaken,’ her father told her in instant angry rebuttal.

‘But I saw them…it was Brett and it was his car!’ Lily protested.

‘Don’t you ever mention this again and don’t you breathe a word of this nonsense to your sister!’ the older man censured in even greater fury. ‘Brett and Hilary have a very happy marriage. What’s got into you that you can make up such a wicked and dangerous story about your own brother-in-law?’

In her turn, Lily was shattered that her usually mild-mannered father could react in such a disbelieving and unjust way to her trusting confession. She had to get older before she could appreciate that her unfortunate parent had too much invested in the stability of Hilary’s marriage to easily face the threat that Brett might not be the fine, upstanding young man he had believed him to be. And how could she have foreseen that worry over what she had told him would eventually drive her father to make the very great mistake of warning Brett that he had been seen in that car park?

Faster than the speed of light, for there was nothing slow about Brett’s survival instincts, Brett added two and two together and worked out who had seen him. That same afternoon he picked Lily up from school and frightened the living daylights out of her with his rage and his threats. Then and there Lily’s happy home life and her faith in the adults around her came to a harsh and final end.

‘You sneaky little bitch!’ Brett roared at her, after shooting his car into the same car park in an act of intimidation that she soon learned was pure Brett Gilman. ‘From here on in, you’d better mind your own bloody business. Haven’t you ever heard of the three wise monkeys? Speak no evil, hear no evil and see no evil. Tell tales on me again and you won’t have a home any more…I’ll tell Hilary that her precocious little sister has been trying it on with me and she’ll believe me long before she’ll believe you!’

Lily then learnt what it was to live in fear. Resenting her, and determined to punish her for exposing his womanising ways to Douglas Harris, Brett gloried in his power over Lily and soon worked out the kind of treatment that would make her feel most threatened. Out of her sister’s sight and hearing, he began to look at Lily’s developing curves in a way that made her skin crawl and taunt her with crude familiar comments. He never actually touched her but she lived in terror that some day he might.

By the time Lily escaped her home to start her teacher-training course at a college a long way away, Brett had turned Lily into a silent, secretive and timid teenager, who covered every possible inch of her body and who went in genuine fear of male aggression and sexuality.

Surfacing from her recollections of that traumatic period of her life, Lily found a sheen of perspiration on her skin. When she went for a shower in her room, she reminded herself that that nightmare was in the past. Yet her most bitter regret was still that the damage Brett had inflicted had almost inevitably destroyed any hope of her having a normal relationship with Rauf Kasabian when she had first met him.

Three years on, Rauf was hostile, cold and detached in a way that Lily had never dreamt he could be and she was much too vulnerable. Lily recognised with shamed self-honesty that she would still do just about anything to get a second chance with Rauf. But he had made it clear that he had no intention of getting involved with her again.

Could she even blame him for that? Lily asked herself as she lay in bed that night. If anything, Rauf had been kind when he’d described what they had had as the affair that never was. With pained hindsight, Lily knew that Rauf might have utilised more hurtful candour. He might have told her that blowing hot and cold with a man was a huge turn-off and that treating a decent guy like a ravenous sex beast was an even less enthralling experience…

CHAPTER THREE

THE summer after she finished her second year at college, Lily had taken a temporary job working as a waitress in a fashionable London bar while she looked for a suitable position as a nursery nurse.

Within the first week, Lily had begun dreading going into work for she hadn’t been able to easily handle the sort of teasing and touching that the other waitresses had withstood from the male customers. However, her salary plus the generous tips she’d received had met the rent on the tiny apartment she’d been sharing and had made it possible for her to avoid having to return home and live under the same roof as Brett.

Rauf had come in with a female in tow one lunchtime.

‘Why are all the really gorgeous men already spoken for?’ Annabel, her flatmate since first year and fellow waitress, lamented while she and Lily waited at the counter for their orders.

‘Who have you noticed now?’ Lily groaned, accustomed to Annabel’s frequent complaints about the extreme rarity of the free and fanciable male.

‘He’s sitting down with the brunette in the sexy white dress.’

Lily glanced over. His commanding height and build, the slashing angle of his high cheekbones, strong nose and wide, passionate male mouth combined with his lustrous black hair made him stand out from the common herd all right. But she would have looked away again had not Rauf thrown his arrogant dark head back as he sat down and let her see his extraordinary eyes. Tawny gold as polished tiger’s-eye stones reflecting the light, riveting, beautiful, utterly hypnotic. Involuntarily she stared, heartbeat kicking up pace, breathing fractured, her whole body tight and tense as if she was waiting for something indescribably exciting to happen. Then his narrowed gaze clashed with hers and it was as if somebody had switched on Christmas lights inside her. Suddenly she was electric, wired, alive for the very first time.

‘And wouldn’t you just know it?’ Annabel muttered resentfully as she watched Rauf appraise Lily’s glowing blonde beauty with predictable male intensity. ‘I might as well be invisible but he’s yours for the asking. You should wear a little “I’m gay” badge, Lily…at least it would stop the guys wasting their time and let the rest of us get a look-in!’

Aghast at the startling content of that disgruntled little speech, Lily shot her attention back to Annabel. ‘Say that again?’

Annabel just shrugged. ‘Well, you are, aren’t you? You might still be in the closet but the way you feel about men makes it pretty obvious. I guessed ages ago.’

‘I’m not gay…’ Lily countered in whispered but emphatic denial as Annabel lifted her laden tray.

‘Look, it’s none of my business.’ Annabel grimaced. ‘I was only being a jealous cow about your looks.’

Shaken that someone she had known for two years could have got her so wrong, Lily went to serve Rauf. Not once did she look directly at him or his companion but, even in the ennervated state she was in, she noted his rich, dark drawl and the faint exotic accent that edged his excellent English. Disaster only struck when she delivered their drinks. As she tried to set the glass of red wine down the brunette made a sudden snatch at it mid-air and their hands collided. The glass fell, spilling a cascade of ruby-red liquid down onto the woman’s lap.

‘You stupid girl!’ the irate brunette screeched, behaving as though she had been subjected to a deliberate assault. ‘Wasn’t coming on to my man enough for you? Did you have to ruin my dress too?’

As Lily’s boss hurried to the scene and Lily proffered napkins and apologies that were ignored while really wanting to sink through the floor in chagrin, Rauf dropped a banknote on the table and herded his hysterical lunch date out at speed. Lily didn’t expect ever to see him again. But the next day when she turned up for her shift a beautiful bouquet was waiting for her along with a card.

‘Sorry that you were embarrassed yesterday. Rauf’

‘When a bloke spends about a hundred quid on flowers, it certainly tells me who was coming on to who,’ her female boss quipped with considerable amusement.

Emerging from the powerful pull of the past, Lily needed enormous effort to shut down the surging tide of memory keeping her awake. What did it say about her that she should still be so obsessed with a relationship that Rauf had long since left behind him? Angry at her lack of self-discipline, Lily told herself to grow up.

The next morning, Rauf flew in on a sleek private jet half an hour after Lily arrived at the airport. In the brilliant sunlight of midday, she watched him emerge and descend the steps with the fluid, measured pace of a very self-assured male. Sheathed in a beautifully tailored dove-grey business suit, he looked stunningly handsome and, even at a distance, his bold bronzed features emanated all the decisive authority of his forceful personality. Exchanging a laughing word with the official waiting to greet him, he paused, lean, strong face settling back into striking gravity again as he aimed a cool-eyed glance at Lily where she waited just inside the building.

‘You can go through now, Miss Harris,’ she was told.

Rauf watched her walk towards him. Clad in a pale blue dress and a cardigan that had to be roasting her alive in the heat of midsummer, golden hair glittering in the bright light, Lily looked apprehensive and very young.

An insane impulse to urge her to turn back and board the first available flight home assailed Rauf. Faint colour demarcating his hard cheekbones, his jawline clenched hard. Had she been a man, he would have harboured no second thoughts. So who was being sexist? He was only doing to her what she had once done to him: luring her down a path that would look safe until the very last moment. How would she react when she found herself staring into the abyss with the police waiting to make an arrest on the other side?

As yet, he hadn’t called in the police, hadn’t identified her to them. But the gendarme in the village where the villa project had misfired already had a file prepared on the case. Furthermore, Lily, Rauf had discovered, was now listed as a director of Harris Travel on the firm notepaper and as such could be held liable. But what Rauf wanted most of all was Brett Gilman’s head on a plate.

‘It’s hot,’ Lily murmured as she drew level with him.

‘And likely to get hotter,’ Rauf imparted in his distinctive drawl, a light hand touching her spine just enough to turn her in the direction of the helicopter sitting parked.

‘Will it be a long flight?’

‘About an hour or so in all. We’re making a stop on the way.’ Without hesitation, Rauf made a smooth change of subject. ‘How are you enjoying your stay so far?’

‘I’m still getting acclimatised. Next week, I’m going to sign up for all the trips and see the sights. Hilary’s hoping to organise special tours for the spring…’ Lily said, her voice petering out as Rauf closed his hands round her waist and lifted her up into the helicopter as if she weighed no more than a child. ‘Thanks.’

As he settled in beside her and signalled the pilot, the rotor blades began to whir. Lily struggled to tighten the seat belt, which had been loosened to hold a much larger frame than her own. Rauf leant over to assist and she tensed, soft brown lashes flying up on uncertain blue eyes to connect with reflective gold. Her hands fell from the clasp and let his take over. As he bent his dark head his luxuriant black hair brushed her chin. Breathing in the warm, achingly familiar scent of him, she trembled, feeling her breasts lift and stir beneath her dress and the tender tips swell into prominence, and biting her soft lower lip in an agony of discomfiture.

She wanted to plunge her fingers into his silky black hair and drag his mouth up to hers again and she was shocked rigid by the depth of her own longing. In the midst of such crazy promptings, she didn’t know herself. What was it about him that he could reduce her to such a level without even trying? Mouth bone-dry, her fingers curled in on themselves lest they too developed a will of their own, she only breathed again when he had settled back into his own seat.

For the entire flight, she stared out the window. She had a fantastic view of the bright turquoise sea studded with islands and edged by tall crags and sandy beaches before the helicopter went into a turn and headed inland. When the coastal development was left behind, she saw the ruin of a castle built on bare rock, hazy tracts of soft green pine forest, the occasional dust road leading out miles through tiny cultivated fields and orchards to small clusters of remote dwellings. She remembered Rauf telling her that virtually every family had links with a village and would often maintain contact with their roots there generations after they had taken up residence in a town.

After the tranquil, soothing scenes of beautiful unspoilt countryside, it was something of a surprise to Lily to see a coalmine come into view as the helicopter started to land. Coalmining was a business, she reminded herself, and Rauf had mentioned a stop on the way. Perhaps one of his newspapers or magazines was doing a feature on the mine, she thought dimly.

Springing out of the craft, Rauf swung back to extend a hand to her. Lily stepped out onto waste ground and saw a dust road several yards ahead of them.

Level dark golden eyes zeroed in on her. ‘Do you know where you are?’

Lily shook her golden head and wondered how on earth he could imagine she would know. ‘I haven’t a clue.’

‘I think you’ll solve the mystery soon enough,’ Rauf asserted, leading her across the road towards a steep paved driveway edged with fancy carriage lamps and really the very last kind of opulent entrance one would have expected to see within yards of the fencing that surrounded the mine.

Lily frowned. ‘Is this where you live?’

‘Even the locals don’t live in this neck of the woods. Who wants to look out the windows and see the slagheaps?’ Rauf derided.

Some sixth sense she had finally picked up on the scorn that edged his every sentence, the strange challenge in his watchful gaze. A wave of tension infiltrated her. She stared back at him, her slender body very taut. He withstood that appraisal with unflinching assurance and her cheeks warmed with self-conscious colour, for he might look intimidating in his current mood but he also looked drop-dead gorgeous. Unhappily that reality kept on playing havoc with her concentration.

‘So if you don’t live here, where are we going?’ Lily prompted, dry-mouthed.

‘I decided to surprise you with a flying visit to the villas built by Harris Travel,’ Rauf responded drily.

Lily blinked and then a startled laugh fell from her lips. ‘Then I’m afraid you’ve got the address wrong. The villas are near Dalyan, which I understand is quite a beauty spot.’

As she came to a halt Rauf closed a hand over hers. Disconcerted by that move, she flexed her fingers in his and then stilled as a sensation of warmth travelled up her arm, making her outrageously aware of him. He drew her on up the long, winding driveway and then came to a halt, releasing her fingers at the same moment. ‘This is the land Brett Gilman bought for a song because nobody else wanted it.’

Closing both of her hands together in front of her, Lily stared at him. ‘It can’t be…for goodness’ sake, this doesn’t even look like a tourist area. I’m telling you this is definitely not where our villas were built—’

‘Since it was my money that financed the project, do you honestly believe I could make such a mistake?’

Lily sucked in a slow, steadying breath of the hot still air and struggled to think straight. ‘You were only a silent partner—’

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