But her raging thoughts wouldn’t quieten. That was impossible when her world had been totally turned upside down. Leon Kariakis was insisting they marry. Offering a contract, not his heart. But she was going to be okay with that because she was not going to make the mistakes of her own past, or of her mother’s. She was going to learn from Leon—be businesslike and efficient.
She slipped lower, appreciating the silken slide of the water on her bare skin, and her mind wandered to less businesslike imaginings. This bath was definitely built big enough for two.
* * *
All thoughts of efficiency fled as sexual frustration suddenly flared. Why hadn’t he touched her again since they were interrupted in that lift? That kiss had been incendiary and she ached for more. The nausea that had plagued her for days had dissipated as arousal replaced it. She wanted him to send her into that place where thoughts couldn’t impinge, where there was only feeling and pleasure and so much touch…
‘Ettie?’
She almost jumped right out of the bath.
‘Sorry, I won’t be a minute,’ she gasped. ‘I’m just in the bath.’
There was a moment’s silence on the other side of the door. ‘You must be hungry.’ He sounded a little huskier.
Absolutely. But not for what he meant. ‘Sure. I won’t be long.’
She levered herself out of the bath, wrapped her body in one of the enormous plush towels and quickly dressed.
He was waiting for her in the kitchen. ‘I got this for you,’ he said without preamble, pushing a small box across the counter to her.
Ettie’s heart stopped. Reluctantly, but unable to refuse, she opened the box. She blinked a couple of times, almost blinded. ‘Where’d you get it from?’
‘Christmas cracker, where do you think?’
‘You bought it?’
‘Well, I didn’t steal it.’ He rolled his eyes.
She didn’t ask if it was synthetic. She didn’t want to give him another chance to look smug.
‘You can’t just buy what you want,’ she muttered, her resistance to him building in a wave of heat and fury. Because it was such a beautiful ring and there was that weak, romantic, foolish part of her that would’ve loved to be given this in another time, another circumstance, with other words… ‘You can’t buy me,’ she added ferociously.
‘I know that,’ he said softly. ‘If there’s anyone who knows money can’t buy happiness, it’s me.’
His reply struck her silent. Unexpected and revealing—had he not been happy? When? She waited, willing him to say more. Instead she watched that expressionless veil slide across the flare in his eyes.
‘Just put it on, Ettie.’
It was a flawless square-cut emerald set in a platinum band. A large diamond sat either side of the pale green stone. Simple yet sublime, and so very stunning.
She stalled for time because she was shaking inside. She’d never touched anything like it in her life. ‘You often go out to get takeaways and come back with precious jewels?’
‘Every Wednesday. You can set your watch by me.’
Smart Alec. ‘I thought this was business.’
‘It’s personal business.’ But there was a glint flicking in his eyes again. ‘And it is straightforward.’
How could it be? He didn’t think this was complicated?
Was this really just another acquisition for him—a fiancée and a baby? He was so in control and unconcerned and capable. Didn’t he feel fear? Didn’t he feel anything? Was he really as emotionless as he appeared?
‘Stop overthinking. It’ll work out.’ He walked around the counter, took the ring out of the box and reached out to hold her cold hand. ‘For the baby, okay? You want your child to have two actively involved parents. Here you go. A united front. A team, Ettie.’
She sent him a baleful look. She did want that, very much. Because it was what she hadn’t had and he knew it. He was counting on that as he slid the ring down.
But people co-parented the world over with perfectly amicable arrangements and weren’t married or even engaged. They made it work. There was no reason why she and Leon couldn’t work out something just as successful.
Except his argument for marriage was compelling. She too wanted her child to have the security Leon was offering. And she’d nailed being practical at work, so why couldn’t she apply the same to her personal life?
Intuition sent a tinge of unease down her spine. The problem was his magnetism. He only needed to stand this close, to hold her hand like this, and her heart was racing, sending excitement through every vein, to every cell. Ettie could fall far and fast—make the mistake of believing that, rather than being his “for the practicalities” fiancée, she was his match for real. And that wasn’t fair on him. Or on her. Because the same was so not happening for him. He was only about the practicalities.
So she had to focus on the same. Keep her guard up, warn off her weak, blind heart.
She hauled together all her emotional strength and pulled her hand from his, tore her gaze from his. She’d accept this for what it was.
She smiled down at the ring. ‘It’s beautiful, thank you.’ Then she turned, desperately commenting on the first thing she saw. ‘I didn’t know you already had a dog.’ She was determined to make things easy and casual between them.
Blinking, he sent her a mystified look.
‘The dog bowl on the bench behind you?’
‘Oh?’ His eyebrows snapped down, forming a frown. ‘I ordered those when I thought that Toby might stay.’
Really?
‘I’m sorry I said yes to that resident taking him without talking to you first,’ she muttered thoughtfully. The sense she’d wronged him somehow in making that choice had been nagging her for these last couple of days.
‘Don’t apologise; it was best for the dog,’ he said crisply.
So he hadn’t really wanted him? But she’d sent Toby to that other resident the very next day, so Leon had been super-quick off the mark getting in bowls for him. But that was just his hyper-efficiency, wasn’t it? Just as he’d convinced her to agree to marrying him and ensconced her in his home within two hours of learning she was pregnant. It was how he was a billionaire before thirty. Leon Kariakis got stuff done with single-minded, ruthless efficiency and there was nothing emotional about it.
Yet she couldn’t look away from him—aware once more of that simmering intensity that his stillness masked. He’d loosened his tie and his shirtsleeves were rolled back and a tuft of hair was still ruffled. She suspected it was from when she’d run her fingers through his hair in the lift earlier. Did he know how tormenting he was?
‘You’re feeling better.’ He changed the subject.
Yes. With every step closer she was to him unfortunately. And she was incredibly curious. He wasn’t just a closed book. He was padlocked-and-sealed-in-an-underground-vault private. But they were having a baby together. Getting married. Even in business arrangements, people did due diligence, didn’t they? Maybe if she offered information first—broke the ice—he might feel a gentle obligation to reciprocate?
‘My father wasn’t there for me. Ever,’ she said quietly.
He paused and glanced at her.
‘So thank you for wanting to stick around.’
He tensed. ‘I’m not like him.’
‘I know.’ The guy was already a better father than what her own had been and what Ophelia’s had been by the simple fact he was actually interested. ‘My mother got her heart broken a couple of times. It hurt her badly.’ She was quiet a moment before summoning courage. ‘What about your parents?’
‘Absent, mostly.’
Really? She was surprised. ‘Didn’t they turn up to sports day?’
‘No. Are you ready to eat? You must be hungry.’
She frowned, irritated that he’d shut that conversation down so quickly. ‘We can’t just…start living together and being engaged. We need to get to know each other, Leon.’
He blinked at h
er again. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘I don’t know. Anything.’ Everything. She glanced at those empty bowls on the far bench. ‘Did you have a dog when you were a kid?’
‘No.’ To her amazement his expression became like blank granite. ‘Come on, dinner is on the table.’
‘Which one?’ she asked tartly.
Leon knew he’d been abrupt, but some things she didn’t need to know. Life was for living in now, not remembering the miseries of the past. He tried to ignore the prickling at the base of his spine. He was satisfied she was in his house finally, yet he was unbearably aware of her in his space. The mansion was large but her presence seemed to permeate every inch…the scent of her, the soft sounds as she moved about.
He’d had to get out just to clear his head. Sort out the ring as consideration for the contract. Decide on dinner. Check in with his assistant and ensure everything at the office was under control…but he’d listened with only half-concentration and in the end he’d not been able to get back fast enough to check on her.
Stupid to be so concerned. He knew emotions weakened a man—muddying the mind and making decision-making difficult. Isolation and independence brought clarity. There were mergers and acquisitions, splits and divisions, and this was just another. It should be simple.
‘Oh.’
He suppressed a chuckle as Ettie came to a halt at the entrance to the formal dining room.
‘When did you do this?’ She gaped at the table laden with dishes.
‘It was delivered while you were in the bath.’
She gazed from the table to the discreet trolley in the corner. ‘It’s from a restaurant.’
Yeah, as concierge to an exclusive apartment building, she knew how it worked. He paid, the staff delivered. And it was worth it for the privacy.
She lifted the silver cover of the nearest dish and her eyebrows lifted. ‘Do you only dine from award-winning restaurants?’
He took a seat and stared at her with all the lazy arrogance he could muster. ‘I like savouring perfection,’ he drawled.
She rolled her eyes and he laughed in delight.
‘You asked for it,’ he ribbed her. ‘You think I’m pompous? I can eat a wrap on the street from a food van like anyone else, but tonight I want to sit in comfort and privacy and let all my senses feast.’ He sent her a meaningful look. ‘I have a pretty companion to ogle. Besides which, you’re tired and you need a decent meal.’
And frankly, her enjoyment of decent food increased his own pleasure in it.
She sighed and sank into the chair opposite his. ‘You’re so used to doing everything your own way, aren’t you?’
‘Isn’t everyone?’
She laughed aloud, a bubble of genuine amusement. ‘The fate of the only child,’ she teased. ‘You’ve never had to learn to compromise.’
He tried to smile but his mouth had swiftly dried. It wasn’t her fault. She simply didn’t know.
‘You’re very serious,’ she continued her judgement. ‘Hard-working.’
‘It’s how I became successful.’ He tried not to sound like a stiff-necked ass, but it was true.
‘So,’ she angled her head to study him, that teasing light brightening her eyes even more, ‘not a wild playboy…at least not publicly. You were never the spoilt heir to a fortune who fritters it all away on women and wine and destructive vices…’
‘No, that’s not me.’
‘But why not?’ She seemed quite fascinated. ‘It’s the trap lots of people in your position fall into, isn’t it? Stories like that fill the news… Playboy heirs. Dissolute, depraved, who end up broke—’
‘Or dying of an overdose; I get the picture,’ he finished coldly. ‘I guess that’s not the way I was raised.’
‘So how were you raised?’
He eyed her across the table and she met his censuring look with a radiant smile of utter innocence. Yeah, she knew what she was doing and he knew she wasn’t about to let up.
‘Strictly,’ he muttered.
‘You said they were absent.’ She looked thoughtful. ‘Do you see them now?’
He didn’t think of his parents much and he certainly never discussed them. Why would he? But he had to give her something—she was like a dog with a bone. The bald facts would do. ‘We have dinner once every six months. It’s scheduled—the full year in advance. We discuss returns, hotel occupancy rates, the stock market.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Twice a year?’
‘Yes.’
‘And that’s it?’
‘Yes.’ He could see her mind working overtime.
‘Do you ever take a date?’
‘Never. It’s an obligation on both sides. They never doubted I would do anything other than succeed. And they ensured I was never spoiled by the wealth I was born into.’
He pointedly stabbed a chunk of steak and shoved it into his mouth. That was enough, surely? She was more curious than a barn full of cats. And the meat tasted like sawdust and glue. He made it go down with a hard swallow. ‘Look, I know you’re worried about how little we know of each other, but it isn’t something that can be forced, or hurried,’ he said, closing off the conversation. ‘Time will take care of it.’
She still looked thoughtful. And utterly unconvinced. ‘Most people wouldn’t work as hard as you if they didn’t have to.’
‘Why not? Don’t we all need a purpose? A sense of dignity from a job well done? What makes you think I wouldn’t need that too?’
‘But to be so driven… When is it enough?’ She gestured at the furnishings in the large room. ‘What is it you have to prove?’
‘I don’t need to prove anything,’ he growled. ‘Perhaps it’s just that the goalposts shift. I make a plan to achieve one thing, when it’s knocked off I feel like a challenge for something more. Isn’t that human nature?’
A shadow crossed her eyes. ‘So you’re never satisfied with what you have?’
His chest tightened and he laughed and groaned at the same time because her effervescent curiosity was going to be the death of him. But she was irresistible. It was that manner that made her so popular with the residents at Cavendish House. She made you feel like you could confide everything in her and she’d sort it all out for you. ‘I’m satisfied,’ he growled. ‘I just want more.’
Right now he was greedy for her. She was wearing a thin old T-shirt and jeans that hung a little loose. But she was still flushed from that bath and her skin looked luminous and silky soft. She smelled tantalising and her hair was a wild, damp mess down her back and he just wanted to thrust his hands into the gorgeous length of it and bind her close beneath him.
‘I’ll tell you something, Ettie,’ he said bluntly, shoving those X-rated thoughts to the back of his mind, ‘when you come from a background like mine, you swiftly learn that people only stick around because they want something from you.’
She perked up. ‘Is that true, really?’ She looked at him keenly, a teasing smile flicking at her mouth. ‘Aren’t there any uncomplicated, nice people out there who just want to be friends?’
He couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Perhaps I’m too prejudiced to be able to spot them.’ He leaned closer and called her out on it. ‘Even you wanted something from me.’
‘But you wanted the same thing from me.’ She wagged a finger at him. ‘So that makes us even.’
‘I’m as bad as you?’ he asked in mock-outrage.
‘Possibly worse. Because you took advantage of everything you have to seduce me.’
‘And you didn’t?’ He scoffed. ‘With your wild ponytail and passionate eyes?’
‘My what?’ She looked astounded.
‘All the emotions.’ He pointed to her eyes, suddenly quite serious. ‘Here.’
‘What are my eyes expressing now?’ she asked, still but breathless.
He stared at her intently—searching those beautifully clear eyes for the signal he’d wanted for so long. And then it was there.
‘Your desire for me
to take you to bed.’ He simply snapped. He didn’t want to think any more. Didn’t want to try to solve unworkable problems. Damn well didn’t want to talk around the issues or, heaven forbid, his freaking past. He didn’t want to think of her being hurt by some jerk and her mum dying and leaving her to raise her sister alone. He wanted to relax, damn it. Eat good food and kiss the beautiful woman in front of him over every inch of her delectable body until she arched and begged him to finish her hard and fast. Everything else be blowed.
Her mouth opened, then shut and he could see her deciding how to handle her reply.
‘Wow. Impressive.’ But her sass was all bluff because what he’d said was true.
He clocked her rising colour, her quickening breath, her widening eyes. And he really didn’t want to talk any more. Talking wasn’t anywhere near as effective as action. He’d thought he should back off, especially after she’d been so mortified about that woman catching them in the lift. But they needed to clear the air of this tension that kept building. There was only here and now. Together they’d find oblivion.
He pushed back from the table and stalked around to where she now sat bolt upright. He grabbed her hand and tugged her to her feet.
She thought he’d seduced her that night? That was nothing on what he was about to do. He wasn’t waiting. He wasn’t taking this slow. He wanted her beneath him, about him. He craved the welcome of her soft heat. He pulled her against his body and gazed into her green eyes. For a moment it was as if they’d romped back to that first night—soft laughter, whispered desire, sensual freedom. It didn’t need to be anything more than that.
But there was no time for whispered words and soft laughter tonight. His need was too raw. He kissed her, and in that moment it was all over.
Unrestrained, ruthless, he stripped her bare right there in the formal dining room, boldly touching every spot he revealed. The emerald and diamond ring caught the light, sending small, sparking chinks of light onto the ceiling. His pleasure intensified at seeing her wearing it—the time-worn signal that she was taken. For a second he stilled, paralysed by the sudden ferocious anticipation of seeing her belly swell with her pregnancy over the coming months. She’d be softened and ripe with his child. His mark. He wanted to mark her all over—suddenly possessed by a primal, appalling need to stamp her as his. And he gave way to it in that instant, curling his arm around her waist to lift her up and carry her to his bed.
Modern Romance May 2019: Books 5-8 Page 43