The Greek's Convenient Wife

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  She gave him a withering look. ‘Chocolate tempts me; you just annoy me.’

  He laughed again, which only made things worse. She felt as if he’d just pulled a thin silky ribbon right out of the middle of her heart to coil it around his little finger, pulling her inexorably closer to him.

  ‘You’re so cute when you’re all fired up.’ He smiled down at her outraged features.

  ‘And why wouldn’t I be all fired up?’ She glared back. ‘I’m cold and wet from my baptism in the creek and there’s not even a hot shower at that disreputable structure you loosely describe as a wilderness retreat! Why wouldn’t I be angry with you? I’m so angry with you I could…I could…’ She hunted for a suitable punishment but couldn’t think of anything with him smiling at her so disarmingly.

  ‘I’ll boil you some water on the fire so you can have a bath,’ he offered.

  ‘Funny—’ her tone was desert dry ‘—but I didn’t happen to notice a bathtub alongside the cold tapped shower, cracked basin and mottled mirror in your luxuriously appointed bathroom.’

  ‘I have a big basin you could use.’

  She stared at him incredulously. ‘You expect me to bathe in a mixing bowl?’

  ‘It’s big enough for two.’

  ‘Two what? Goldfish?’

  ‘Two people,’ he said. ‘No point in wasting water.’

  ‘I’m not sharing a bath with you.’

  ‘It could be fun.’

  ‘For you maybe, not for me.’

  ‘You are very definitely underestimating my ability,’ he chided her gently with a seductive light in his eyes.

  ‘I’m very sure your ability, as you call it, has left a legion of very satisfied women in its wake, but I’m determined not to be one of them.’

  ‘Determined, but tempted all the same,’ he observed.

  ‘Right now I would happily sleep with an axe murderer for a hot shower and a meal that didn’t come out of a packet with instructions to just add water.’

  ‘You don’t like my cooking?’

  ‘I don’t like anything about you,’ she shot back. ‘I hate you.’

  He gave her a long, contemplative look. ‘You bandy that hate word around a lot. It kind of makes me wonder if the lady is protesting rather too much.’

  She gave him her best fulminating look. ‘Would you kindly point me in the direction of your little lean-to so I can get out of these sodden clothes? I’m tired and wet and in no mood to continue this pointless discussion.’

  He led the way without another word but all the way back to the hut Maddison felt as if he’d somehow yet again had the last word.

  The fire was burning low in the hearth and while Demetrius attended to it Maddison went to the bathroom and removed her wet clothes.

  She gritted her teeth under the dripping spray of the cold shower, determined to wash off the mud of the creek in private. She could just imagine the little fireside seduction scene he was probably planning for her but, as tempting as the thought of hot water was in her current state of borderline hypothermia, she was going to do everything within her power not to give in to it.

  Demetrius looked up from the water he was bringing to the boil when she came back in. He’d stripped off his wet T-shirt but his jeans were still damp and she was sure she could see steam coming off them as he stood with his back to the fire to face her.

  He gave her an assessing look for a long moment before observing with a frown, ‘You’re still shivering.’

  ‘N…no I’m n…not,’ she denied through chattering teeth.

  He gave her a you-can’t-fool-me sort of look before taking the two strides that separated them. He took both of her cold hands into the warmth of his, his fingers closing over her trembling flesh until she could feel the life coming back into them.

  ‘I’ll leave the hut so you can bathe in peace,’ he offered.

  ‘I’ve had a shower,’ she said. ‘I’ll just sit by the fire and thaw out a bit more.’

  ‘Your lips are blue.’

  She ran her tongue over them as if to see for herself, but then wished she hadn’t when his dark gaze followed the movement with a burning intensity that sent an arrow of awareness straight to her core.

  Her desire for him was suddenly like a presence in the room.

  She could feel it seeping through the cold layers of her skin as if to reach out to his pulsing heat; there was nothing she could do to stop it from leaking out from each and every pore of her body. She felt as if it were written in big letters all over her: I want you, Demetrius Papasakis—only you.

  She could tell he knew what she was feeling, for she saw the answering gleam of fiery hot desire leap in his eyes as they meshed with hers in the deep timeless silence that throbbed between them.

  Maddison felt her breath hitch in her throat when he drew her closer to his warm frame. His body heat began coursing through her, igniting the fire in her veins, sending arrows of need to every nerve and cell. She could feel the imprint of his arousal against her, the steamy dampness of his jeans against her a heady reminder of her own moistening response to him between her thighs.

  She watched in silence as his lips came down towards hers, the soft bow of her mouth trembling not with cold now, but in anticipation of the calefaction of his.

  As soon as his lips settled on hers Maddison knew her fight to resist him was more or less over; she had no way of resisting the all-consuming heat of his mouth, no way to escape the tantalizing rasp of his tongue as it searched for hers as a hungry flame went in search for fuel, and no way to stop her heart from beating as if she’d just run the race of her life.

  Her response to him both shamed and thrilled her. She didn’t understand how she could hate and need him at the same time. It made her feel as if she no longer knew herself, as if she’d turned into someone else with the first brush of his mouth on hers.

  She’d felt it the very first time he came to her apartment in search of Kyle. His dark, compelling gaze had ignited something within her, a tiny seed of need had sprouted and grown, spreading like wildfire through her and now she had no hope of containing it.

  Her need of him made her reach for him in shameless abandon, her fingers feeling the hard ridge of him straining against his jeans as he leaned into her. His harsh groan into her mouth as her fingers traced him sent an answering shiver of need right through her.

  His kiss deepened as he pressed her backwards to the floor in front of the leaping flames of the fire, his weight coming over her, his body pinning her intimately as her thighs shifted to accommodate him.

  Their clothes were a barrier but Maddison couldn’t help feeling as if they added to the intensity of desire. The straining denim over his pelvis made her all the more greedy to uncover him, and the soft fabric of her top was unable to conceal the proud tilt of her breasts as they swelled under his palm.

  She undid the top button of his jeans and slid the metal zipper down with an urgency that belied her inexperience. She was going on pure feminine instinct, relishing the power she discovered she had at her fingertips when he sprang forth in response.

  ‘Oh, God!’ He sucked in a breath as her hand shaped him shyly.

  His harsh response gave her courage.

  Her tentative touch tightened, her fingers lingering where she felt his need was intensified the most. She felt his chest rise and fall against hers as he fought for control, the features of his face contorted with pleasure as she gazed up at him.

  Demetrius took charge by removing her hand and securing it above her head, his eyes pinning hers as much as his body.

  She knew this was the time to call a halt, but something in her resisted it. Why not? she thought instead. I want him, he obviously wants me, so what’s the problem?

  The problem was he didn’t love her.

  She was just a smokescreen for the relationship he valued the most—his affair with Elena Tsoulis.

  ‘You know what’s going to happen if you don’t tell me to stop, don’t you, Madd
ison?’ His words caressed the surface of her lips as he spoke softly above her mouth.

  She nodded her head once without speaking.

  His black-brown gaze consumed her sapphire-blue one like a flame licking its way through spilled petrol, lapping her up, drawing her further into the furnace of his blazing passion.

  ‘This wasn’t part of the arrangement,’ he reminded her as his hand shaped her uncovered breast, the pad of his thumb rolling over her engorged nipple again and again.

  ‘I don’t care,’ she whispered as she shifted beneath him, searching for the evidence of his need with an instinct as old as time itself.

  She found it and felt her spine instantly liquefy at the impact of his hard body probing her searchingly.

  ‘This is supposed to be a marriage on paper.’ He spoke just above the swell of her lips, his lower body aching to be surrounded by the tight sheath of hers. ‘I shouldn’t be doing this.’

  ‘Doing what?’ She drew in a snagging breath as his hand moved to the elastic waist of her track pants and began pulling them down, taking her underwear with them.

  She felt his eyes on her feminine form, their heat burning through the layers of her skin as if he’d held a blowtorch to her quivering flesh.

  ‘This…’ He pressed a soft open-mouthed kiss to the cave of her belly button before moving downwards.

  She dragged in some much needed air as his tongue moved over her, separating her delicately, tantalisingly, slowly.

  She could barely think for the sensations rushing through her at the feel of his mouth on her, the tightening of muscles unfamiliar to her as his tongue sought the pearl of her womanhood with devastating expertise.

  She couldn’t hold back her response; it rolled over her in waves of delight that lifted her out of herself on to another plane of feeling. She was floating, then free falling and plunging into a spiral of ecstasy that she hadn’t known existed.

  Demetrius waited until she had come back down from the heights before he shifted over her and entered her with a single thrust, his breath expelling at the feel of her warm tightness enclosing him.

  He felt her flinch and stilled his movement.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ He looked down at her, his brow creasing into a frown at the sight of her biting her bottom lip.

  She let her lip go and smiled a tremulous smile.

  ‘No…I’m fine…you’re just so…’ Her words trailed off as her face flamed.

  He waited for a moment before moving within her, but as soon as he did so she bit down on her lip once more and to his horror the sparkle of tears sprouted in her blue eyes.

  He froze as realisation suddenly dawned.

  ‘Oh, my God,’ he groaned and withdrew from her as gently as he could.

  She clamped her eyes shut to stem the tears but still they came, trickling down her cheeks as fast as she could brush at them with a shaky hand.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said as he got to his feet, reaching for his jeans.

  She heard the slide of his zip and squeezed her eyes even tighter.

  ‘Maddison.’

  His voice commanded her to look at him but she was too embarrassed. Instead she averted her gaze as she struggled back into her track pants, her hands shaking uncontrollably as she tried to restore whatever dignity she could under the circumstances.

  Demetrius stood watching her uncertainly, his brow still deeply furrowed.

  ‘You should have told me,’ he said after an agonising silence.

  She sniffed and brushed her sleeve across her face in a gesture that totally undid him.

  ‘I had no idea you were…’ He let the sentence trail away, still unable to come to terms with his actions.

  He pushed a hand through the rough disorder of his hair, fighting for some sort of control.

  This was totally out of his field of experience.

  He’d been with countless women over the years and not one of them had affected him quite the way Maddison had. It wasn’t just the fact of her innocence, which on reflection he knew he should have picked up on earlier, but her whole personality, her fierce loyalty to her brother and her courageous defiance in the face of overwhelming odds.

  Guilt assailed him as he looked down at her slim body hunched over her up-bent knees, her eyes avoiding his with all the determination of her nature. For the very first time in his life he knew he was in deep trouble, the sort of trouble he’d so cleverly avoided all his adult life.

  Love trouble.

  ‘I don’t know how to go about apologising,’ he began uncomfortably. ‘I must have hurt you.’

  She lifted her tear-stained face to his momentarily. ‘Only a bit…I’m fine now.’

  ‘I would have taken things more slowly had I known.’

  ‘It’s all right.’ She bent her head once more.

  ‘No, Maddison,’ he said gruffly. ‘It’s not all right. Do you have any idea how bad I feel?’

  She got to her feet with such awkwardness that another shaft of gut-wrenching guilt darted through him.

  ‘Please don’t beat yourself up about it,’ she said. ‘I’m sure there are worse things to feel bad about.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

  ‘Why didn’t you ask?’ she returned with a spark of her usual spirit.

  He considered her question for a moment or two.

  ‘You’re right, of course,’ he finally admitted with a touch of wryness in his tone. ‘I shouldn’t have assumed anything about you. You are, after all, exactly as you said—not like other women, or at least not like the ones I’m most familiar with.’

  ‘Well, no doubt this will be a rather special tick to put in your little black book,’ she said.

  ‘You have an appalling view of my character.’

  ‘That’s because you have an appalling character,’ she tossed back. ‘Anyone who resorts to blackmail has to be somewhat deficient in the character stakes, don’t you think?’

  She’d recovered well, he thought. Her fighting spirit was back with a vengeance, and it seemed she wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to get in a couple of well-aimed and no doubt well-deserved king hits.

  ‘You didn’t have to marry me,’ he pointed out. ‘You could have told me of your brother’s whereabouts and left it at that.’

  ‘And watch you destroy him as you did my father?’ she flared at him. ‘Over my dead body!’

  ‘The sacrificial virgin, no less.’ One dark brow quirked at her.

  She was tempted to hit him, he could tell. He saw the tightening of her fists by her sides and prepared himself for a swinging arc but she must have changed her mind for she simply ground her teeth and turned away.

  He was surprised at how disappointed he felt.

  A part of him wanted her to hit out so that he could take her in his arms and subdue her. A very big part of him wanted her back in his arms and not just temporarily. He wanted her to reach up to him with love in her flashing blue eyes, not hate. He wanted her to love him the way she’d taught him to love her in the space of days…

  ‘Maddison…’ He paused when he saw her back stiffen as he spoke, but then, coming to a decision, continued roughly. ‘Pack your things; we’re going back to the city immediately.’

  She swung back around to look at him, a flicker of relief crossing her face as she saw him begin to damp down the fire.

  ‘We’re…leaving?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘Don’t argue with me.’ Impatience crept into his tone as he kicked at a piece of charcoal that had slipped from the grate. ‘Just get your things and let’s get going.’

  He brushed past her and left the room without another word.

  She stood for a moment or two, staring at the space he’d occupied, the dying fire sending up thin curls of grey smoke into the old chimney in its last choking breaths.

  What a time to realise you’re in love, she thought.

  The fire of his desire was squashed, just like the fire befor
e her, while the embers of her love were glowing inside her, spreading the heat of aching need to every secret place in her body.

  She loved him.

  CHAPTER NINE

  THE drive back to the city was conducted in a silence that was more or less by mutual agreement.

  Maddison sat back in the leather seat and stared sightlessly at the passing scenery as it flashed past, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach at what lay ahead.

  She cast covert glances in Demetrius’s direction but his eyes were fixed on the road ahead, his expression mask-like. However, from time to time she noticed he drummed his fingers on the top of the steering wheel as if he were mulling something over in his mind.

  She wondered what it was.

  She imagined he was planning how he was going to resume his relationship with Elena once they got back to the city, working out his next assignation with the Greek woman under the guise of his new marriage.

  The fierce hot tongues of jealousy licked at her until she had to clench her teeth against their venom.

  She had no right to be jealous.

  He’d laid out the terms right from the start, even warning her against becoming too attached to the Mrs Papasakis role.

  How ironic!

  She’d only been his wife for twenty-four hours and she was irrevocably attached not just to the role but to him! How had love crept up on her so stealthily? She’d been so busily stoking the fire of her hatred that the wildfire of love had swept her up from behind, consuming all her resolve, all her rationality and all her reasons for revenge. Her body could still recall his overpowering presence. She squeezed her thighs together to remind herself of what his hard length had felt like, the tug of tender muscles a delicious combination of pleasure and pain.

  She felt his glance and met his eyes across the gear lever as he shifted the gears. She wondered if he knew she was thinking about the interrupted intimacy they’d shared and quickly looked away, her cheeks feeling hot and her legs instantly weak.

  The car surged forward and she was set back in her seat with a jolt as he overtook a line of slow-moving cars on the motorway.

  It was another timely reminder to her of the latent power at his fingertips. He had only to issue a command and the devastation of his power would be unleashed, sweeping up Kyle’s future along with hers. But then she recalled his cousin’s words at the wedding and wondered again if perhaps Demetrius had a side she’d overlooked. He’d certainly been ruthless in his dealings with her over Kyle but his apology over their lovemaking had appeared both gracious and genuine.