Playing by the Greek's Rules

by Sarah Morgan

  ‘So you’ve been trying to cook like a Minoan?’

  ‘Yes. We’re using tools and materials that would have been available during the Cretan Bronze Age.’

  ‘That’s what you’re digging for?’

  ‘Brittany and the team have different objectives, but while they’re digging I’m able to access clay. I spend some of my time on site and some of my time at the museum with a small team, but that’s all coming to an end now. Tell me what you do.’

  ‘You work in my company. You should know what I do.’

  ‘I don’t know specifically what you do. I know you’re a technology wizard. I guess that’s why you have a shower that looks like something from NASA. I bet you’re good with computers. Technology isn’t really my thing, but you probably already know that.’

  ‘If technology isn’t your thing, why are you working in my company?’

  ‘I’m not dealing with the technology side. I’m dealing with people. I did a short spell in Human Resources—you keep them busy by the way—and now I’m working with your personal assistants. I still haven’t decided what I want to do with my life so I’m trying different things. It’s only two days a week and I wanted to see how I enjoyed corporate life.’

  ‘And how are you enjoying “corporate life”?’

  ‘It’s different.’ She dodged the question and he gave her a long, speculative look.

  ‘Tell me why you became involved with that guy who looked old enough to be your father.’

  Her stomach lurched. Because she was an idiot. ‘I never talk about my relationships.’

  ‘On short acquaintance I’d say the problem is stopping you talking, not getting you talking. Tell me.’ Something about that compelling dark gaze made it impossible not to confide.

  ‘I think I was attracted to his status and gravitas. I was flattered when he paid me attention. A psychologist would probably say it has something to do with not having a father around when I was growing up. Anyway, he pursued me pretty heavily and it got serious fast. And then I found out he was married.’ She lowered her voice and pulled a face. ‘I hate myself for that, but most of all I hate him for lying to me.’ Knowing his views on marriage, she wondered if he’d think she was ridiculously principled but his eyes were hard.

  ‘You cried over this guy?’

  ‘I think perhaps I was crying because history repeated itself. My relationships always follow the same pattern. I meet someone I’m attracted to, he’s caring, attentive and a really good listener—I fall in love, have sex with him, start planning a future and then suddenly that’s it. We break up.’

  ‘And this experience hasn’t put you off love?’

  Perhaps it should have done.

  No one had ever stayed in her life.

  From an early age she’d wondered what it was about her that made it so easy for people to walk away.

  The dishes were cleared away and a sticky, indulgent dessert placed in the centre of the table.

  She tried to pull herself together. ‘If you have one bad meal you don’t stop eating, do you? And by the way this is the best meal I’ve ever had in my whole life.’ She stuck her spoon in the pastry and honey oozed over the plate. She decided this was the perfect time to check a few facts before finally committing herself. ‘Tell me what happens in your relationships. We’ll talk hypothetically as you don’t like revealing specifics. Let’s say you meet a woman and you find her attractive. What happens next?’

  ‘I take her on a date.’

  ‘What sort of date?’ Lily licked the spoon. ‘Dinner? Theatre? Movie? Walk on the beach?’

  ‘Any of those.’

  ‘Let’s say it’s dinner. What would you talk about?’

  ‘Anything.’

  ‘Anything as long as it isn’t to do with your family or relationships.’

  He smiled. ‘Exactly.’

  ‘So you talk, you drink expensive wine, you admire the romantic view—then what? You take her home or you take her to bed?’

  ‘Yes.’ He paused as their waiter delivered a bottle of clear liquid and two glasses and Lily shook her head.

  ‘Is that raki? Brittany loves it, but it gives me a headache.’

  ‘We call it tsikoudia. It is a grape liqueur—an important part of Cretan hospitality.’

  ‘I know. It’s been around since Minoan times. Archaeologists have found the petrified remains of grapes and grape pips inside pithoi, the old clay storage jars, so it’s assumed they knew plenty about distillation. Doesn’t change the fact it gives me a headache.’

  ‘Then you didn’t drink it with enough water.’ He handed her a small glass. ‘The locals think it promotes a long and healthy life.’

  Lily took a sip and felt her throat catch fire as she swallowed. ‘So now finish telling me about your typical date. You don’t fall in love, because you don’t believe in love. So when you take a woman to bed, there are no feelings involved at all?’

  ‘There are plenty of feelings involved.’ The look he gave her made her heart pump faster.

  ‘I mean emotions. You have emotionless sex. You don’t say I love you. You don’t feel anything here—’ Lily put her hand on her heart. ‘No feelings. So it’s all about physical satisfaction. This is basically a naked workout, yes? It’s like a bench press for two.’

  ‘Sex may not be emotional, but it’s intimate,’ he said softly. ‘It requires the ultimate degree of trust.’

  ‘You can do that and still not be emotionally involved?’

  ‘When I’m with a woman I care about her enjoyment, her pleasure, her happiness and her comfort. I don’t love her.’

  ‘You don’t love women?’

  ‘I do love women.’ The corners of his mouth flickered. ‘I just don’t want to love one specific woman.’

  Lily stared at him in fascination.

  There was no way, no way, she would ever fall in love with a man like Nik. She didn’t even need to check her list to know he didn’t tick a single one of the boxes.

  He was perfect.

  ‘There’s something I want to say to you and I hope you’re not going to be shocked.’ She put her glass down and took a deep breath. ‘I want to have rebound sex. No emotions involved. Sex without falling in love. Not something I’ve ever done before, so this is all new to me.’

  He watched her from under lowered lids, his expression unreadable. There was a dangerous stillness about him. ‘And you’re telling me this because—?’

  ‘Because you seem to be the expert.’ Her heart started to pound. ‘I want you to take me to bed.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  NIK SCANNED HER in silence. The irony was that his original plan had been to do exactly that. Take her to bed. She was fun, sexy and original but the longer he spent in her company the more he realised how different her life goals were from his own. By her own admittance, Lily wasn’t the sort to emotionally disengage in a relationship. In the interests of self-protection, logic took precedence over his libido.

  ‘It’s time I took you home.’

  Far from squashing her, the news appeared to cheer her. ‘That’s what I was hoping you’d say. I promise you won’t regret it. What I lack in experience I make up for in enthusiasm.’

  She was as bright as she was pretty and he knew her ‘misunderstanding’ was deliberate.

  ‘Theé mou, you should not be saying things like that to a man. It could be taken the wrong way.’

  She sliced into a tomato. ‘You’re taking it the way I intended you to take it.’

  Nik glanced at the bottle of champagne and tried to work out how much she’d had. ‘I’m not taking you to my home, I’m taking you to your home.’

  ‘You don’t want to do that. My bed is smaller than a cat basket and you’re big. I have a feeling we’re going to
get very hot and sweaty, and I don’t have air conditioning.’

  Nik’s libido was fighting against the restraining bonds of logic. ‘I will give you a lift home and then I’m leaving.’

  ‘Leaving?’ Disappointment mingled with uncertainty. ‘You don’t find me attractive?’

  ‘You’re sexy as hell,’ he drawled, ‘but you’re not my type.’

  ‘That doesn’t make any sense. You don’t like sexy?’

  ‘I like sexy. I don’t like women who want to fall in love, settle down and have lots of babies.’

  ‘I thought we’d already established I didn’t want to do any of that with you. You don’t score a single point on my checklist, which is exactly why I want to do this. I know I’d be safe. And so would you!’

  He decided he didn’t even want to know about her checklist. ‘How much champagne have you had?’

  ‘I’m not drunk, if that’s what you’re suggesting. Ask me anything. Make me walk in a straight line. I’ll touch my nose with my eyes closed, or I’ll touch your nose with my eyes closed if you prefer. Or other parts of you—’ She gave a wicked grin and leaned forward. ‘One night. That’s all it would be. You will not regret it.’

  Nik deployed the full force of his will power and kept his eyes away from the softness of her breasts. ‘You’re right. I won’t, because it’s not going to happen.’

  ‘I do yoga. I’m very bendy.’

  Nik gave a soft curse. ‘Stop talking.’

  ‘I can put my legs behind my head.’

  ‘Cristo, you should definitely stop talking.’ His libido was urging logic to surrender.

  ‘What’s the problem? One night of fun. Tomorrow we both go our own ways and if I see you in the office I’ll pretend I don’t know you. Call your lawyer. I’ll sign a contract promising not to fall in love with you. A pre-non-nuptial agreement. All I want is for you to take me home, strip me naked, throw me onto that enormous bed of yours and have sex with me in every conceivable position. After that I will walk out of your door and you’ll never see me again. Deal?’

  He tried to respond but it seemed her confusing mix of innocence and sexuality had short-circuited his brain. ‘Lily—’ he spoke through his teeth ‘—trust me, you do not want me to take you home, strip you naked and throw you onto my bed.’

  ‘Why not? It’s just sex.’

  ‘You’ve spent several hours telling me you don’t do “just sex”.’

  ‘But I’m going to this time. I want to be able to separate sex from love. The next time a man comes my way who might be the one, I won’t let sex confuse things. I’ll be like Kevlar. Nothing is getting through me. Nothing.’

  ‘You are marshmallow, not Kevlar.’

  ‘That was the old me. The new me is Kevlar. I don’t understand why you won’t do this, unless—’ She studied him for a long moment and then leaned forward, a curious look in her eyes. ‘Are you scared?’

  ‘I’m sober,’ he said softly, ‘and when I play, I like it to be with an opponent who is similarly matched.’

  ‘I’m tougher than I look.’ A dimple appeared in the corner of her mouth. ‘Drink another glass of champagne and then call Vassilis.’

  ‘How do you know my driver’s name?’

  ‘I listen. And he has a kind face. There really is no need to be nervous. If rumour is correct, you’re a cold, emotionless vacuum and that means you’re in no danger from someone like little me.’

  He had a feeling ‘little me’ was the most dangerous thing he’d encountered in a long while. ‘If I’m a “cold, emotionless vacuum”, why would you want to climb into my bed?’

  ‘Because you are insanely sexy and all the things that make you so wrong for me would make you perfect for rebound sex.’

  He looked into those blue eyes and tried to ignore the surge of sexual hunger that had gripped him from the moment he’d laid eyes on that pale silky hair tumbling damp round her gleaming wet body.

  Never before had doing the right thing felt so wrong.

  Nik cursed under his breath and rose to his feet. ‘We’re leaving.’

  ‘Good decision.’ She slid her hand into his, rose on tiptoe and whispered in his ear. ‘I’ll be gentle with you.’

  With her wide smile and laughing eyes, it was like being on a date with a beam of sunshine. He felt heat spread through his body, his arousal so brutal he was tempted to haul her behind the nearest lockable door, rip off that dress and acquaint himself with every part of her luscious, naked body.

  Vassilis was waiting outside with the car and Nik bundled her inside and sat as far from her as possible.

  All his life, he’d avoided women like her. Women who believed in romance and ‘the one’. For him, the myth of love had been smashed in childhood along with Santa and the Tooth Fairy. He had no use for it in his life.

  ‘Where do you live?’ He growled the words but she simply smiled.

  ‘You don’t need to know, because we’re going back to your place. Your bed is almost big enough to be seen from outer space.’

  Nik ran his hand over his jaw. ‘Lily—’

  Her phone signalled a text and she dug around in her bag. ‘I need to answer this. It will be Brittany, checking I’m all right. She and Spy are probably worried because they saw me go off with you.’

  ‘Maybe you should pay attention to your friends.’

  ‘Hold that thought—’

  Having rebound sex. She mouthed the words as she typed. Speak to you tomorrow.

  Nik was tempted to seize the phone and text her friends to come and pick her up. ‘Brittany was the girl in the blue dress?’

  ‘She’s the female version of you, but without the money. She doesn’t engage emotionally. I found out today that she was married for ten days when she was eighteen. Can you believe that? Ten days. I don’t know the details, but apparently it cured her of ever wanting a repeat performance.’ She pressed send and slid the phone back into her bag. ‘I grew up in foster homes so I don’t have any family. I think that’s probably why my friends are so important to me. I never really had a sense of belonging anywhere. That’s a very lonely feeling as a child.’

  He felt something stir inside him, as if she’d poked a stick into a muddy, stagnant pool that had lain dormant and undiscovered for decades. Deeply uncomfortable, he shifted in his seat. ‘Why are you telling me this?’

  ‘I thought as we’re going to have sex, you might want to know something about me.’

  ‘I don’t.’

  ‘That’s not very polite.’

  ‘I’m not striving for “polite”. This is who I am. It’s not too late for my driver to drop you home. Give him the address.’

  She leaned forward and pressed the button so that the screen closed between him and the driver. ‘Sorry, Vassilis, but I don’t want to corrupt you.’ She slid across the seat, closed her eyes and lifted her face to his. ‘Kiss me. Whatever it is you do, do it now.’

  Nik had always considered himself to be a disciplined man but he was rapidly rethinking that assessment. With her, there was no discipline. He looked down at those long, thick eyelashes and the pink curve of her mouth and tried to remember when he’d last been tempted to have sex in the back of his car.

  ‘No.’ He managed to inject the word with forceful conviction but instead of retreating, she advanced.

  ‘In that case I’ll kiss you. I don’t mind taking the initiative.’ Her slim fingers slid to the inside of his thigh. He was so aroused he couldn’t even remember why he was fighting this, and instead of pushing her away he gripped her hand hard and turned his head towards her.

  His gaze swept her flushed cheeks and the lush curve of her mouth. With a rough curse he lowered his head, driving her lips apart with his tongue and taking that mouth in a kiss that was as rough as it was sexually explicit. His inten
tion was to scare her off, so there was no holding back, no diluting of his passion. He kissed her hard, expecting to feel her pull back but instead she pressed closer. She tasted of sugar and sweet temptation, her mouth soft and eager against his as she all but wriggled onto his lap.

  The heavy weight of her breasts brushed against his arm and he gave a groan and slid his hand into her hair, anchoring her head for the hard demands of his kiss. She licked into his mouth, snuggling closer like a kitten, those full soft curves pressing against him. It was a kiss without boundaries, an explosion of raw desire that built until the rear of the car shimmered with stifling heat and sexual awareness.

  He slid his hand under her dress, over the smooth skin of her thigh to the soft shadows between her legs. It was her thickened moan of pleasure that woke him up.

  Cristo, they were in the car, in moving traffic.

  Releasing her as if she were a hot coal, he pushed her away. ‘I thought you were supposed to be smart.’

  Her breathing was shallow and rapid. ‘I’m very, very smart. And you’re an amazing kisser. Are you as good at everything else?’

  His pulse was throbbing and he was so painfully aroused he didn’t dare move. ‘If you really want to come home with me then you’re not as smart as you look.’

  ‘What makes you think that?’

  ‘Because a woman like you should steer clear of men like me. I don’t have a love life, I have a sex life. I’ll use you. If you’re in my bed it will be all about pleasure and nothing else. I don’t care about your feelings. I’m not kind. I’m not gentle. I need you to know that.’

  There was a long, loaded silence and then her gaze slid to his mouth. ‘Okay, I get it. No fluffy kittens in this relationship. Message received and understood. Can this car go any faster because I don’t think I’ve ever been this turned on in my life before.’

  She wasn’t the only one. His self-control was stretched to breaking point. Why was he fighting it? She was an adult. She wasn’t drunk and she knew what she was doing. Logic didn’t just surrender to libido, it was obliterated. All the same, something made him open one more exit door. ‘Be very sure, Lily.’