Alone in the pretty room that would put the world’s finest hotels to shame, she clutched at her cheeks.
It was the lack of sleep causing her thoughts and emotions to veer so wildly, she assured herself. It was no wonder old memories were being dredged up. A good night’s sleep and some distance from Xander would put her back on an even keel.
She tried the internal doors. She opened three before she found the one adjoining Xander’s room. It was already locked on the other side.
* * *
‘Have you been to Athens before?’ Xander asked her the next day, shortly before they were due to land. ‘Other than just the airport?’
‘A handful of times, but that was work. I don’t know the city at all.’ She was dressed in the clothing she’d worn out to St Francis, his staff having laundered it for her overnight. Her honey-blonde hair was loose and glossy around her shoulders, all signs of exhaustion from the day before eradicated.
They’d managed to avoid each other for the rest of the day, Elizabeth staying in her room, only emerging at dinner. She’d eaten quickly, making only the blandest of conversation before excusing herself, her goodnight to Loukas going unacknowledged.
They’d breakfasted early and dropped Loukas at school on their way to the airstrip. He had refused to look at Elizabeth. He hadn’t spoken to her since he’d told her to go away. Xander knew the best thing he could do was give his nephew time to get used to her being there.
He handed her a credit card.
‘What’s this for?’
‘To pay for your clothes and other stuff. There’s no limit on it so spend whatever you like.’
She looked momentarily disconcerted but then nodded and slipped it into her purse.
‘You don’t feel comfortable taking it?’
‘I’ve paid my own way for ten years. It’s a little strange, that’s all, but I know it’s necessary. I can’t afford to buy a new expensive wardrobe with what’s in my bank account. The money you’ve paid me won’t last long once I’ve refunded all my clients.’
‘Give me a list of the refunds and I’ll reimburse you.’ He should have thought about that before.
‘Okay.’ She shrugged. ‘And I’ll give you my shopping receipts later so you can deduct it from the final amount you pay me when this is all over.’
‘There will be no deductions. While you’re acting as my wife I’ll pick up all your tabs. The money I’m giving you is recompense for the loss of your business.’
But they weren’t acting, he reminded himself. Elizabeth really was his wife. And as he thought this, she met his gaze. A look passed between them, one that sent heat to his loins and the faintest hint of colour to her cheeks.
Xander gritted his teeth and turned away to look out of the window.
When he’d first learned their annulment hadn’t gone through, the thought of her being his wife had been an abstract concept. It hadn’t seemed in the slightest bit real. Their marriage was a piece of paper, nothing more.
Two days together, back with the one woman in the world who’d been able to turn his head as well as his loins, and that piece of paper was starting to feel a lot different.
He didn’t deny that he’d once had real feelings for Elizabeth but that had been the result of the chemistry neither had felt restrained from acting upon. So strong had it been that it was hardly surprising remnants of it still simmered between them.
How would she react if he grabbed her to him and kissed her?
Locking his jaw, he wiped the pointless question from his mind.
Whatever desire Elizabeth might feel for him now, she’d made it clear she wouldn’t entertain acting upon it. And neither would he. She might not be the dreamer from before but he’d given his word and intended to keep it.
The adjoining door separating their two bedrooms would remain locked for the duration of their marriage.
* * *
Elizabeth’s few visits to Athens had left an impression in her head of a bustling city brimming with noisy, exuberant people. Those impressions turned out to be correct. Athens was an amazing city.
Xander got his driver to drop her in the Kolonaki district where, he assured her, she would have no trouble finding suitable shops to buy a new closet of clothes in.
Being an enthusiastic shopper, she welcomed the opportunity to forget her troubles for a few hours of retail therapy. That she didn’t have to consider price tags made for a welcome bonus.
Living in New York was expensive. Her mortgage payments took a huge chunk of her income so she normally selected her clothing carefully, knowing she had to choose items that made her look professional but not threatening. She had to fit into whoever’s company she might find herself and, most of all, she had to not stand out. She had to be unobtrusive. Most of all, what she selected had to be affordable.
Suddenly, she could dress for herself again, something she hadn’t felt able to do since she’d left college and formed Leviathan.
About to hand her new credit card over to an assistant in a boutique that sold the most gorgeous clothes, she felt her cell vibrate through her purse and pulled it out. It was a message from Xander telling her to make sure to buy herself some evening wear.
Her cheeks heated at the words. Evening wear...? Then she realised he meant cocktail dresses and gowns, not lingerie.
Turning her mind away from wearing anything racy in front of Xander, she paid for her goods, which were boxed up for her and put aside for Xander’s driver to collect later, and walked to an upmarket department store further up the street. She might have no intention of buying anything racy but she did need to buy underwear.
After five hours she’d spent an absolute fortune and wandered to Kolonaki Square to find the café she’d agreed to meet Xander at.
Her heart skipped to find him already there, chatting on his phone. He’d removed his tie and undone the top button of his shirt.
When he spotted her, he ended his call and stood to greet her.
‘Are you done?’ he asked, putting his hands on her hips and pressing a kiss to her lips.
The gesture was so unexpected that she froze.
Xander had kissed her.
He gave a half-smile and traced a thumb across her jawline. ‘Married couples usually kiss, kardia mou.’
Totally flustered, she groped for the nearest chair to sit on. ‘Can’t we just settle on air kisses?’
His eyes held hers. ‘Not in public. Take a seat. I’ve ordered us coffee.’
She put her purse on the table and opened the menu. ‘I’m starving. Have we got time for me to grab a salad?’
‘We’ve plenty of time.’
She scanned the menu, anything but to have to look at him. Looking at Xander made her stomach do funny things. It made her entire body do funny things.
When a waitress arrived with their coffee she ordered a slice of chocolate baklava tart.
Xander pulled a bemused face at her choice. ‘I thought you were going to have a salad?’
‘So did I until I saw the word chocolate.’
He grinned and there, right before her eyes, he turned into the young man with the irresistible smile she’d fallen in love with all those years ago.
Her heart, already pounding erratically, seemed to bloom within her chest and an ache spread low in her belly. She had to fight to stop herself staring at the exposed strong throat and the sensuous lips she had so loved to kiss.
‘Is something the matter?’ he asked, staring at her closely.
She grabbed her coffee, but as she shook her head to deny anything was wrong a sense of dread raced through her to realise that, as incomprehensible as it was, she wanted him to do far more than kiss her.
* * *
Xander checked his watch as he waited for Elizabeth to appear. He’d had to leave early that morning for a breakfast meeting in Athens and only just made it back in time to say goodnight to Loukas.
He hadn’t seen her all day. That hadn’t stopped him from consta
ntly thinking about her, which was damned frustrating as he was supposed to be concentrating on spreadsheets for the company’s year end.
He took satisfaction from the fact that their profits for the year were up seven per cent, but with his head in Diadonus and the woman living under his roof that satisfaction was muted.
His thoughts were broken when a figure stepped into the infinity room.
The effect was like being struck by a bat. ‘Elizabeth?’
‘You sound surprised,’ she said tartly. ‘You summoned me and here I am.’
He’d messaged her earlier to say they would be eating out that night.
‘Your hair...’
Unlike the glossy sleek hair he’d become accustomed to, she’d gone for the natural look, drying it into a mass of thick, tight blonde curls.
‘What’s wrong with it?’ she demanded.
‘Nothing. It’s beautiful.’ He’d forgotten how curly her hair truly was. The difference was astounding.
Looking at her...
It was like staring at a portrait of the past and he had to swallow a lump in his throat that accompanied the sudden strong hammer of his heart.
The insolence that had been set on her face when she entered the room softened and colour stained her cheeks as she looked away from him and murmured, ‘It takes for ever to straighten.’
‘Why do it, then?’
A shrug. ‘It made me feel more professional. And now I don’t need to look professional, so...’ Another shrug.
She was wearing a pretty baby-pink dress that fell below her knees and had the thinnest of straps, falling in a V to skim her golden cleavage.
He remembered the first time he’d taken one of her breasts into his mouth. He’d thought nature must have made them especially for him. Small but beautifully formed, enough to fit into his mouth and cover with the palm of his hand. He remembered making love to her, how she would arch her back and grab his hair, how her legs would tighten around him as she came with loud moans.
Suddenly he ached to have her, to thrust deep inside her and experience that heady pleasure again.
He’d never found that compatibility or connection with anyone else. He’d had relationships throughout the years but had always been careful in his selection of lovers. No wide-eyed dreamers with a zest for life. No one with the potential to charm him with one beaming smile or a ringing laugh. Not that there was anyone remotely like her in his world.
A decade ago she’d been a virgin. He’d been old enough to have experience but young enough to still be discovering women’s bodies. By the end of their fortnight together he knew more about the workings of Elizabeth’s body than he knew of his own.
Making love to her now would be different from how it had been ten years ago. They both had an adulthood of experience to add into what was already proving to be a combustible mix.
‘Let’s make a move,’ he said abruptly. Theos, he couldn’t be alone in a room with her for a minute without thinking of sex.
She wrapped a creamy shawl around her shoulders. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Diadonus Town.’
Her relief was obvious.
‘What?’
‘I thought you were going to take me to Athens.’
‘You don’t like Athens?’
‘Sure, but it’s a bit of a pain to get to if we’re only going for a meal.’
That those were his exact thoughts was something he kept to himself.
‘Just so you’re prepared, there’s a few members of the press on the island itching to get another picture of us together, so remember to smile.’
‘I shall turn my frown upside down.’
With a tug in his groin, he was taken by the urge to wipe the frown off her face with something stronger than words.
Jamming his hands in his pockets, he led the way out.
* * *
The restaurant Xander took her to was a short drive away, an old-fashioned taverna perched above a beach. There were only six other diners.
‘Is it always this quiet?’ Elizabeth asked while they waited for the main courses to be served.
‘It’s winter,’ he answered with a shrug. ‘Come the spring and the whole of Diadonus will be filled with tourists.’
‘I read it’s a party island.’
‘We attract a young crowd but it’s not like Mykonos or Santorini. We get a lot of family vacationers.’
‘Do the tourists bother you?’
‘Not at all. Tourists are what keeps our economy floating.’
She sipped her glass of rosé and was relieved when the owner returned to their table with their next course. If they were eating she could pretend the atmosphere between them didn’t shimmer with a strange electricity and that every time she met his gaze her lower belly didn’t clench with longing.
CHAPTER SEVEN
FOR THE FIRST TIME in days, Elizabeth finished a meal. A couple Xander knew had joined them for a few minutes to say hello, which had given her time to regroup mentally. They hadn’t spoken English so the only requirement on Elizabeth’s part had been to smile and not flinch when Xander took possessive control of her hand. Having his warm skin against hers...
She could still feel the tingles in her bloodstream.
Now they were alone again, she pushed her empty plate to one side and gazed out across the sandy beach, drinking the view in. Diadonus was more beautiful than she had imagined. ‘Why did you go to St Francis for a vacation when you live in your own paradise?’
Xander took so long to answer that she thought he was ignoring her.
‘Going to St Francis, it wasn’t a vacation, it was an escape,’ he eventually said.
‘Why?’
His eyes met hers. ‘I didn’t want to stick around for the fallout when I ended my engagement to Ana.’
‘You ran away?’
‘That’s one way of looking at it,’ he conceded.
Looking back, Xander could see he had taken the coward’s way out. It hadn’t seemed like that at the time of course. To his twenty-year-old self it had seemed perfectly logical. If he took himself off, there would be no one in his ear demanding he change his mind. He’d determined to go back when the dust had settled but in the interim take some time out and see something of the world that wasn’t business related. Have some fun like others of his age.
In his arrogance it hadn’t crossed his mind that Ana would have to suffer the price of his absence.
‘How long after you ended your engagement did you leave?’
‘Two days.’
‘You didn’t even give me two hours.’ She shook her head, her long curls bobbing with the motion.
‘There was no point in prolonging it for either of us.’
‘For either of us?’ There was a catch in her voice. ‘That makes it sound like you cared for me.’
‘I did care for you, Elizabeth.’
Her eyes flashed. ‘Did you care for Ana too? Did you tell her you loved her and that you couldn’t live without her like you told me?’
He took a long drink of his beer, studying the tight-set face before him. He remembered saying those words to Elizabeth. He remembered meaning them.
‘My relationship with Ana was nothing like the one between you and me.’
‘Of course it wasn’t. She was your childhood sweetheart.’
‘We were never childhood sweethearts. We mixed in the same circles, we were casual friends, but that was the extent of it. We got engaged when I turned twenty because it was expected of us and our parents made it very clear it was what they wanted. It’s traditional in my family to marry young and with someone who can bring wealth and contacts to the family business. My father married my mother because she was an heiress. Their marriage was arranged by their own parents. My brother married Katerina for the same reason. Ana came from an extremely rich family from Mykonos. We were engaged for less than a month.’
‘If you were so well-suited, why did you end it?’
‘Because
it wasn’t what I wanted and I should never have gone along with it.’ He should have trusted his gut instincts from the start. Instead, he’d let his misgivings fester until they’d become bugs hatching in his skin.
Elizabeth’s expression remained stony.
‘I wasn’t in love with her. I didn’t want to be trapped in a marriage I couldn’t get out of like Yanis was. Divorce is unheard of in my family. It’s too risky for the business. From what Yanis tells me, they haven’t had sex since they conceived Loukas. Even before that it was a volatile relationship.’ He drained his beer. ‘I decided that no marriage was better than living with one like theirs.’
‘Yanis wanted out even then?’
‘They both did. I’m certain it’s why they turned to drugs and alcohol. It numbed it for them.’ He paused before adding, ‘They were both in love with other people.’
Her eyebrows drew together. ‘So why did they go along with the marriage in the first place?’
‘The alternative meant being cut off.’
‘Weren’t you worried that would happen to you when you dumped Ana?’
He grimaced at her bluntly delivered words. ‘For sure, but I’ve always been more independently minded than Yanis. I took an educated risk. Yanis has never had much input in the business but I’d already proven myself to be an asset. I knew my decision would enrage my parents but they’re clever people and clever people do not cast off assets making them money.’
But they hadn’t been so clever when Xander had made the deal that resulted in Timos SE being signed under his control, taking the power and control away from them for ever.
Elizabeth was silent before asking, ‘How did Ana take it?’
Xander signalled for another beer. ‘Better than I thought she would. I thought she was okay with it. For sure, I knew she would be a little hurt; everyone’s got their pride, but she understood. She was a nice girl. Better than most of the socialites I grew up with who were so vapid they made a plastic doll seem like a Nobel laureate.’
Ana really had been nice. She’d been sweet and warm, a woman any right-thinking man in his position would have been proud to call his wife. It hadn’t been her fault he’d felt zero desire towards her.
His parents had both openly taken lovers through the years but that hadn’t been something he could entertain. To Xander, marriage meant fidelity and commitment otherwise why do it? If he’d had to marry anyone it would be someone he desired and who held his intellectual interest too. He’d been selfish. He’d wanted it all. And so he’d ended it with Ana, determined that he would have it all.
Married for the Greek's Convenience Page 7