Kostas's Convenient Bride

by Lucy Monroe

  “That’s not what you said this morning. You were pretty critical of this outfit then.”

  “My perspective has changed since.”

  Five alarm bells went off inside her. How much more confirmation did she need? Andreas was in seduction mode. Full stop.

  His eyes roamed over her, sending more tingles through her, touching her as intimately and surely as his fingertip had done. “I’d really like it if you wore the dress you had on last for me again.”

  “I wasn’t wearing it for you.” Her words came out far too softly, her breath coming in pants.

  She needed to be firm, to let him know seduction wasn’t an option, but her body was already softening for him, her brain throwing up all sorts of reasons why it was okay.

  His eyes darkened, his mouth twisting with displeasure. “I know.”

  “You’re too possessive for friendship, Andreas.” He had to realize that.

  “Am I?” He leaned forward until his mouth hovered right over hers, his lips brushing hers as he spoke again. “It doesn’t feel like it to me.”

  She had no opportunity to answer as he kissed her. She tried to tell herself this was a very bad idea, but her lips were already responding to his, her body leaning into his heat, her mouth parting just slightly.

  She would pull away and tell him no more kisses, in a minute.

  But not yet.

  She couldn’t give up this feeling. It was too right. It always had been.

  A sexual high like no other, but it was so much more than that when she and Andreas Kostas came together. It was a sense of belonging. It was home. It was family.

  And for a woman who had none, that was addictive.

  Necessary.

  And very, very dangerous.

  Because she knew it wasn’t the same for him.

  For Andreas Kostas, it was all endorphins, satiation and stress relief.

  His arms came around her, his hands pressing into her back, pulling her toward him, despite the restrictions of their seat belts. Someone made a mewling sound of frustration and she realized it was her. She wanted to be closer, no clothes in the way, much less seat belts.

  She might have been embarrassed if there was room in the maelstrom of emotions inside her for such a thing. If he wasn’t making his own masculine sounds that said he wanted the same thing.

  The realization of how far they both wanted to take what should have been a simple kiss should have shocked her back to sanity, but she was sinking into the crazy too fast. His lips were too good, too right against her own, sending messages along nerve endings so her whole body was totally on board with the insanity. His tongue pressed oh, so perfectly into her mouth, so sexy, so enthralling.

  Her thighs pressed together, heat pooling in her core, an ache building inside her that she knew could be assuaged only one way. One of his hands slid down her back, then along her waist and up her rib cage before cupping the bottom of her breast.

  She moaned. Gripping his shirt with both hands, her fingers curled tight, unable to let go.

  The kiss turned full-on incendiary, both of them biting and licking at one another’s lips.

  Kayla’s moans mixed with his deep, masculine noises, more like growls than anything. She would be straddling him if she wasn’t tethered by seat restraint.

  Something about that made it even hotter.

  The fact she couldn’t do what she wanted, and, oh, how she wanted.

  He pinched the hard tip of her breast through her top and lacy bra, sending shock waves of delight through her. She’d always had really sensitive nipples, but only Andreas had known what to do with that truth.

  Or how much to do with it.

  Now both his hands were on her, manipulating her fleshy curves, pinching and rolling her nubs, the two layers of cloth no impediment to sensation, Andreas expertly using the silky texture of her bra against her nipples for maximum stimulation. His kiss continued to push her passion higher and higher, everything inside her spiraling out of control. It had been so long since she’d felt this level of desire, wasn’t sure she’d ever known anything this strong.

  Even with him.

  There was something to be said for giving in to a sexual need that had grown over years rather than days, with someone she’d known as long as she’d known Andreas, the one person in the world she trusted as much as she did him. On a level she could never trust another.

  Despite his actions of the past forty-eight hours.

  Kayla let herself go, knowing deep inside, where it really mattered, that she could trust Andreas to catch her.

  And her body spiraled completely out of control, an incandescence of pleasure building, her womb spasming, her thighs clenching even tighter as the heat and need grew there.

  He kissed along to her neck, giving her love bites and whispering seductively in her ear. “Are you going to give me your pleasure, pethi mou?”

  She shuddered as his words registered on a very visceral level.

  “That’s right, Kay-love. Your passion is so beautiful.” He nipped at her earlobe. “And it is mine.”

  “Andreas.”

  “That is right. It is me, no one else.” He breathed gently into her ear.

  She shivered, chills of sensation skating along her already overloaded nerves. “Possessive.”

  “Yes.” Then he was kissing her again, his mouth claiming hers with unmistakable intent, his hands busy on her body, touching her so skillfully, drawing out the pleasure.

  He nipped at her bottom lip at the same time as he squeezed both her hard nipples with exquisite pressure.

  And that was all it took, her climax washed over her, at once familiar and all new at the same time, drowning her with ecstasy. With a final tweak to her sensitized flesh, he moved his arms back around her, giving Kayla a sense of safety and warmth as the gale-force winds of sexual satisfaction buffeted her.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  HE BROKE THE KISS, nuzzling against the apex of her neck and shoulder again, inhaling as if taking in the very essence of her through her scent. “That is right, pethi mou, show me how perfectly we fit.”

  She let her head fall against his, her face warm, her body suffused with heat and a wholly inappropriate sense of well-being. “You are very bad for my self-control, Andreas.”

  “You said I was suddenly affectionate.” His words sounded like secrets whispered quietly in the back of the luxury car.

  “Yes.”

  “I could not touch you and maintain the friendship line.” It sounded like a painful admission.

  And yet... “No, that can’t be right.” He’d dismissed her from his bed so easily.

  “I promise you.”

  Confusion filled her. Andreas did not lie. Not to get what he wanted, not to seduce. Not to convince. And his promises? He never broke them. There was also no denying the evidence as she managed to let go of his shirt, one of her hands brushing a rock-hard erection as it dropped into his lap.

  “You are still needing.”

  “It can wait.”

  Oh, how many times had he said that very thing six years ago? He turned self-denial into a fine art and the springboard for her ecstasy as well as his own ultimate and very loud, energetic satisfaction. Andreas was apex sexual alpha.

  Primal man.

  “You are winding me up,” she accused with little heat.

  His smile was too damn sexy. “Only in the best way.”

  A tap on the door window alerted her that they were at their destination. She had no idea how many minutes the car had been stopped.

  Kayla groaned. “How long has he been standing out there?”

  Andreas shrugged.

  She pulled away and looked around her. The privacy darkening shield was closed between the chauffeur and the back, the tinted windows preventing any curious New Yorkers from witnessing her and Andreas’s heavy make-out session.

  “I can’t believe we just did that.” Only, really, she could.

  Andreas lifted one brow. “It
was inevitable.”

  “Because I dressed too sexily today, according to you?” she demanded, not liking that excuse.

  He shook his head. “Because from the moment I thought I might lose you, the need to reclaim you in a very primal way has been paramount.”

  There was that word again. “You just admitted to being more Neanderthal than modern man.”

  “Did I?” He asked, sounding more amused than offended.

  “I’m pretty sure.”

  “Maybe I’m just more Greek than either of us ever realized.”

  “Or, you know, just a throwback.”

  “You enjoyed it.”

  “The driver is waiting,” she reminded him, instead of answering.

  His very predatory smile said he knew the truth. And really, after climaxing from, well...making out, what could she have said? No, I didn’t? Kayla didn’t lie.

  Not outright.

  Omission? That was something else entirely. She’d never told him she loved him and she never would. It would be the fastest ticket to getting Andreas Kostas to walk out of her life. And really, no matter what she told herself in the midst of fury and pain, that was not what she wanted.

  “Are you going to open the door?” she prompted.

  How could laughter sound both so darn appealing and diabolical at the same time?

  * * *

  The Brooklyn Bridge was even more impressive up close than from afar. No question, but watching Kayla fall in love with another piece of history was even more satisfying than seeing it for himself.

  Andreas marveled that it had taken him so long to come up with his current solution to both their issues. He was not usually a dense man.

  His only excuse was that he got tunnel vision when he had a goal in sight. She was a friend, he’d been blind to other options, so focused on the final steps of proving to his father and the rest of the Georgas clan that Andreas could succeed without them. He’d not realized how well that goal fit with the only other long-term one that mattered. That of keeping Kayla Jones in his life.

  She pulled her phone out and smiled, typing something with her fingers, taking a picture of the bridge, typing something else and then sliding it back into her pocket.

  “This is just so amazing. The ingenuity of design, the aesthetics.” Her deeply appreciative sigh warmed him, though he was still irritated she was texting someone else on their date.

  “Do you want me to get a picture of you here?” he asked, his tone even.

  See him not even mention the texting.

  She looked around, biting her lip, clearly torn. “It’s so busy.”

  “We’ll wait as long as it takes to get a good shot.”

  Her smile was worth his promise and the patience he’d promised.

  “I want another one in the middle of the bridge, okay?” she asked when they were done.

  “Sure.”

  Her phone buzzed as he handed it over. She looked down, a small tilt of her lips saying she liked whatever she saw on the screen. She typed something again.

  Andreas felt a frown forming. Whom was she talking to? He didn’t ask, striving manfully to respect boundaries.

  She should appreciate his restraint.

  They started their walk across the bridge, needing to stop every few feet for another perfect picture of the view, or the structure, and more than once she wanted him to allow her to take his photo too. She also continued texting with someone.

  They reached midway and she wanted another photo, this time with him. “You take it. You have longer reach, you’ll get more of the bridge in.”

  He grabbed her phone, sliding his finger over the pattern that would unlock it. It was still open to the text app from her last message.

  She was chatting with that damn actor. Who else would have the screen name OnBroadway?

  Another man might have clicked out of the app. But Andreas’s respect for boundaries only went so far. It was not as if she had never read his texts before and vice versa. If she didn’t want him reading her messages, she should have shut the app before handing him her phone.

  Andreas scrolled up to scan the discussion.

  OnBroadway: My sister showed me a steamy pic.

  Codergirl: Your sis needs to mind her own biz.

  OnBroadway: Looks like you and the boss man are friends again.

  Andreas smiled to himself. And then some. The ride in the back of the private cab had gone even better than he had anticipated when he’d closed the privacy screen. But then the passion between them had always been incendiary. It had taken every ounce of Andreas’s self-control not to demand the driver take them to the hotel, instead of getting out at the bridge.

  Codergirl: I guess we never stopped.

  Well, at least she admitted their relationship wasn’t something that could simply stop at the click of her fingers.

  OnBroadway: That’s so sweet.

  Andreas grunted.

  Codergirl: Don’t mock.

  OnBroadway: My sister’s mad at you.

  Codergirl: Andreas isn’t happy with you either.

  OnBroadway: Maybe we should all get together for a meal while you’re in town.

  “No way in hell!”

  Andreas would share a table with the man who had designs on Kayla the day he changed his name back to Georgas and gave his wealth away to his cousins.

  Kayla grabbed his wrist of the hand with her phone in it. “What are you doing? Are you reading my texts?”

  “We are not going on a double date with Jacob and his sister.” He gave Kayla a look to let her know he was serious about this. “I have no interest in the woman and you have none in the brother.”

  “Are you sure, Andreas? I’m pretty certain she would tick all of Genevieve’s boxes for you.”

  “I told you, Genevieve and her boxes are no longer an issue for me.”

  “I see.”

  “And you aren’t interested in that Broadway actor.” He needed to hear her confirm that. It shouldn’t be too hard for her to do, not after what they’d done in the car.

  “I’m not, am I?” she asked, her tone teasing, her expression assessing.

  “You are not.” He was nothing but serious.

  The little tease laughed.

  He felt his temper rise and opened his mouth to remind her just who she had been showing interest in, in the not-so-distant past, but her expression shifted, went thoughtful and soft.

  She placed her fingertip on his lips. “No, Andreas, I’m not interested in Jacob.”

  “I knew you were not.” That was not relief he felt, more likely heartburn from something they’d eaten at lunch.

  They wouldn’t be eating at that restaurant again, no matter how beautiful the view.

  “Are you going to take our selfie now?”

  He put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her body tight into his and did just that. He kept his arm around her after.

  * * *

  Kayla followed Andreas down the steps off the bridge, still reeling from what had happened earlier. His touchy-feely, all-possessive boyfriend-like behavior as they walked across the Manhattan-to-Brooklyn landmark hadn’t helped her sense of unreality either.

  The texts from a near stranger, who felt like a new friend, seemed like her only link to planet Earth.

  “Where to now?”

  “You assume I have a plan?”

  “You always have a plan.”

  “We’re going to DUMBO.”

  “Like the elephant?” Andreas was not a cartoon-movie guy.

  He made a scoffing sound. “Like Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. There’s shopping.” He said it like he knew that would be a selling point with her.

  Of course, he was right. Even when she didn’t buy anything, she loved to window-shop. “But it’s the Brooklyn Bridge.”

  “I did not name the neighborhood.”

  She laughed, delighted by the tinge of annoyance in his voice, even as his hand held tightly to her own.

  DU
MBO turned out to be an amazing district with old converted brick warehouses now filled with living space, shops and restaurants. Some of the streets were cobbled, old freight-train tracks interspersed amid the stones.

  They were browsing in a bookshop, Andreas lost in the DIY section, his guilty pleasure. He read them like Kayla read romance novels, with intense fascination and no hope of experiencing the culmination of what was between the pages.

  Andreas Kostas was too busy conquering the world to build his own coffee table out of pallets, much less enjoy having such a thing in his living room. Kayla didn’t foresee herself ever getting her happily-ever-after with the man of her dreams either.

  Her phone buzzed with another text.

  OnBroadway: You never answered my last text.

  Codergirl: Andreas wasn’t keen.

  More like no way, no how, but she figured Jacob would get the subtext. He’d met Andreas, after all.

  OnBroadway: He wouldn’t be.

  Codergirl: He wants to work on our friendship.

  OnBroadway: Looks like he’s working on more than friendship.

  Kayla sighed and sat down in one of the chairs provided for book browsers before replying.

  Codergirl: He doesn’t know what he wants.

  Except she was pretty sure Andreas wanted sex. Hot, extremely satisfying sex.

  It took a few seconds longer than she expected for the next reply.

  OnBroadway: I think he does. Do you?

  Now it was Kayla’s turn to stop and think. Did she know what she wanted? In broad strokes, sure. She wanted security for her place at KJ Software; she wanted Andreas in her life. She could admit that.

  But could she afford to want him? Specifically, sex with him.

  Her phone buzzed. Another text.

  OnBroadway: That silence? Maybe that’s your answer.

  Codergirl: ?

  OnBroadway: Those words you can’t make yourself say.

  Codergirl: You’re kind of smart.

  OnBroadway: Just kind of?

  Codergirl: Egotistical.

  OnBroadway: Hey, my ego’s taken a big enough hit because of a certain beautiful geek.

  Codergirl: I’m sorry.

  OnBroadway: Don’t be. We’re going to be good friends.

  She smiled. She kind of thought they were already on their way there.