His eyes glinted a deliberate challenge as he answered, ‘One of our hotels is sited on the Zambezi River, just above Victoria Falls. It is on my itinerary.’
‘So this move has nothing to do with my sister?’
‘I will be meeting with people who may help.’
‘May? May?’ Her uncertainties coalesced into a shaft of anger. ‘May I remind you, Zageo, that you’ve had a very comprehensive downpayment on my side of our agreed trade and I have yet to receive any solid indication that you are doing anything productive on your side.’
‘A downpayment!’ he scoffed. ‘Is that what you call doing what you want to do? Where’s the cost to you, Emily? What have you paid?’
The counterattack was so swift and deadly, it threw her mind into chaos. Had it cost her anything to be with him? Not really. Which meant the trade wasn’t equitable. And that left her without a reasonable argument. Panic whirled, wildly prompting action that might set the balance right again. She flung herself away from him, rolling off the bed, landing on her feet and backing away out of easy reach.
‘So you think I would have said yes to you anyway. Is that it, Zageo?’ she fired at him. ‘You think I find you irresistible?’
He propped himself up on his side, observing her with narrowed eyes. ‘If there had been any resistance on your part, Emily, I would have been aware of it,’ he mocked.
‘Well, how about resistance now?’
‘Don’t be absurd.’
Emily steeled her backbone. Her eyes defied his arrogant confidence. He might be the most beautiful, sexiest man on earth but…‘I can say no to you,’ she declared with enough ferocity to warn him she was serious.
His heavy-lidded gaze raked her naked body, reminding her of how intimately he knew it and how deeply he had pleasured it, sending her temperature sky-high in a rush of self-conscious guilt over her ready compliance to whatever pleased him.
‘Why would you want to frustrate both of us?’ he asked, his mouth curving into a sardonic little smile that derided such obvious foolishness.
Emily struggled to rise above the sexual pull of the man. If she didn’t fight him now she would lose any bargaining power she had.
‘You withhold information from me,’ she swiftly accused. ‘Why shouldn’t I withhold myself from you until you share what I need to know?’
‘So…we are back to bartering, are we?’ Anger tightened his face and flashed from his eyes. ‘There has been no progression in our relationship?’
‘A relationship can only grow from sharing,’ she hotly argued.
‘Have I not shared much with you?’
‘Yes,’ she had to concede. ‘But I want you to share what you’re doing about Hannah and her family.’
Steely pride looked back at her. ‘I have said I shall move them from harm’s way and I will. That is all you need to know.’
‘Will! And just how far in the future is that, Zageo?’ She was on a roll now and nothing was going to stop her from pinning him down. Her pride was at stake, too. She had given herself to him in good faith and she was not going to be taken for a ride. ‘Will some action be taken from your hotel in Zambia?’
‘Enough!’
He swung himself off the bed, rising to his feet with an autocratic hauteur that squeezed her heart and sent flutters through her stomach. His eyes blazed shrivelling scorn at her as he donned a robe, tying the belt with a snappy action—signal enough that the intimacy they had shared earlier was at a decisive end. He waved a dismissive hand over the bed.
‘Consider it yours. I will not require any more payment from you…’
His tone was so savage it took Emily’s breath away.
‘…until you have received satisfaction from me,’ he concluded bitingly, as though she had dismissed all the sexual satisfaction he’d given her as nothing worth having.
Emily sucked in some air, needing a blast of oxygen to clear the shocked fog in her brain. ‘I just want some news of Hannah!’ she cried. ‘Is that so unreasonable? Too much to ask when I’m so frightened for my sister?’
He ignored her, striding for the door which he clearly intended to put between them.
‘I don’t know where you’re coming from, Zageo,’ she hurled at his back. ‘But where I come from we have a saying that every Australian understands and respects. Fair go! It’s an intrinsic part of our culture—what we live by. And to me it’s not fair of you to brush off my concern when I have tried my utmost to please you in every respect.’
He halted, his shoulders squaring with bunched tension. They rose and fell as he drew in and exhaled a very deep breath. His head did not turn. She could feel violence emanating from him as though it was a tangible thing, attacking her nerves and making them leap in a wild frenzy.
‘No harm comes to the source of a lucrative deal while the deal is still pending,’ he stated coldly. ‘At this point in time, you need have no fear for your sister’s life. Nor the lives of her husband and children.’ He cast one hard glance at her as he added, ‘We fly to Zambia in the morning. Be ready.’
Then he was gone.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I WILL be meeting with people who may help.
This must be it, Emily kept thinking, observing the preparations for a special dinner being set up on the perfectly manicured and very green lawn, which ran smoothly from the long line of white buildings comprising the hotel, right to the edge of the water. It was a fantastic site, overlooking the vast spread of the Zambezi River just before it plunged down a massive chasm, the spume from Victoria Falls sending up clouds of mist.
Government dignitaries from various African nations had been arriving all afternoon and the paths around the numerous units of accommodation were being patrolled by their security guards. A stage had been constructed under one of the large shade trees, facing the carefully arranged tables and chairs. Three African tenors were checking out the sound system, rehearsing some of the same operatic arias Emily had heard sung by the famous three—Pavarotti, Domingo and Carrera.
She had barely seen Zageo since they had arrived at this unbelievably beautiful place. He had appointed a hotel staff member to see to her every need and arrange whatever Emily wished to do. It felt as though he was divorcing himself from her.
Accommodation was designed in four suite units, two up, two down, each with a balcony or verandah with a direct view of the river. Emily was installed in an upstairs suite and she knew Zageo was in the adjoining one but he had made no attempt to visit her.