THE GREEK'S BARGAIN VIRGIN BRIDE

Chapter 3

  She sent him an imperious look over one shoulder as she wandered back to her chair, taking her time to arrange her skirt over her knees.
     'So—' she inspected her neatly French-manicured nails before lifting her blue gaze back to his '—what do you do these days, Kane? I don't suppose you've followed in your mother's footsteps and clean up other people's messes for a living?'
      She knew she sounded exactly like the shallow socialite he'd always considered her to be; she could even see the slight curl of his damaged lip as if he was satisfied his opinion had been justified by her crass words.
      'You suppose right.' He leant back against her father's antique desk with the sort of indolence she'd come to always associate with him. 'You could say I'm in shipping.'
     'How very Greek of you,' she observed with undisguised sarcasm.
      His dark eyes challenged hers, a flicker of anger lighting them from behind.  'I am just as much an Australian citizen as you are, Bryony. I've never even been to Greece, nor do I speak any more than a few words of the language.'
      'How can you be sure of your true heritage?' She asked.
'I thought you didn't know who your father was?'
       It was a nasty taunt, and one she wasn't proud of,' but his manner had increasingly unnerved her to the point of reckless rudeness.
       She watched as he reined in his anger, the white edge of his scar standing out as his mouth tightened.
       'I can see you still like to play dirty,' he said.
      She shifted her gaze back to the unfathomable depths of his. 'When pressed to do so, yes.'
       'Let's hope you can cope with the consequences if such a need arises in the very near future.
        Bryony  couldn't hold back a small frown at his coolly delivered statement. There was something about his demeanour that alerted her to the strange undercurrents she'd felt swirling about her ever since she'd driven down from Sydney that morning.
      'Why are you here?' She asked. 'What possible reason could you have to be here?'
     'I have several reasons.
     'Let's start with number one.' She set her chin at an imperious angle even though inside she was trembling with an untamed fear.
      He crossed one ankle over the other, his action drawing her eyes to his long muscled thighs.
      She tore her gaze away and forced herself to hold his Sphinx-like stare.
      'Number one is—' He paused for a mere fraction of a second, but it was long enough for another flutter of unease to feather along the lining of her stomach. 'I now own Mercyfields.'
       Her eyes widened in alarm. 'W-what did you say?'
       Kane ignored her question and continued with implacable calm, 'Number two is I also own Mercer Freight Enterprise.'
    She swallowed her rising panic With difficulty. 'I-I don't believe you.'
     Again he ignored her strangled comment. 'I also own the harbourside apartment and the yacht.' He paused as he gave her an inscrutable look before adding, 'However, I have decided to allow your father to keep his Mercedes and Jaguar; I have enough cars of my own.'
     'How very magnanimous of you,' she managed to quip caustically. 'Is there anything else in the Mercer household you think you now own?
    He smiled a hateful smile that chilled her already tingling flesh.
    'I don't just think I own the Mercer package, Bryony— I do own it.'