The Greek's Ultimate Conquest

by Kim Lawrence

Nik proved a little more informed.

  ‘The Vela that has just been reunified.’

  She nodded.

  ‘So where do you fit in?’

  Chloe used her stock reply. ‘I’m the sister who hasn’t married the future King.’

  ‘Lucky you.’

  It was not the usual stock response and Chloe bristled defensively at the slightest suggestion of criticism of her brother-in-law. ‘Lucky me? Most people envy my sister!’

  ‘Do you?’ The speed with which she had jumped to the man’s defence made him wonder if there wasn’t a personal element to her reaction, and the possibility tugged his lips into a cynical sneer.

  The sheer unexpectedness of his response made Chloe blink and shake her head. ‘What sort of question is that?’

  He ignored the spiky question and reverted to his original comment. ‘I meant lucky because a queen with any kind of history has to be a nightmare for the PR people-lovers with kiss-and-tell stories coming out of the woodwork,’ he explained, pointing out the obvious.

  She was tempted, but only for a moment, to retort that her only lover was more concerned about keeping a low profile than she was, so that was problem solved. But what would he say if he knew that? The question circling in her head jolted her back to her usual common-sense mode.

  Unable to adopt a sufficiently shallow socialite tone while she was looking at the outline of his disturbingly sensual mouth, Chloe switched her focus to his hard, stubble-covered jaw. ‘Yeah, it really was a lucky escape for me,’ she began, and then stopped, her eyes darkening as the memories of feeling cheap and used, still fresh and raw, surfaced once again. Why was she pretending to be someone she wasn’t? She didn’t care what he thought of her and her chin lifted a notch in defiance. ‘Oh, why don’t you just call me an easy lay and have done with it?’

  His half-closed eyes lifted from the heaving contours of her breasts and collided with her blue shimmering glare. She pulled in a deep breath and, lower lip caught between her white teeth, took a moment to control the quiver in her voice before she drove home her point.

  ‘Just because you treated me with zero respect, Nik, do not assume that I don’t respect myself!’

  She was lecturing him! Nik was too astonished to immediately react to her accusation and too ashamed to admit anywhere but in the privacy of his own thoughts that he probably deserved it.

  ‘And for the record this is the twenty-first century; nobody expects a prince to marry a virgin bride these days!’

  ‘Again, that’s lucky or the European royalty would be a doomed species...’ As he spoke the gaps between his words extended as he almost lost track of what he was saying. Her currently outraged attitude meshed with the images and little snatches of memory from that night in his head, flickering faster and faster until he could hear his own thoughts from back then—so deliciously tight, so excitingly shocked... As if everything was new to her, shockingly new! Had she been a virgin?

  ‘We are a doomed species anyway, I suspect,’ she was saying. ‘They call it evolution, but I suppose royals are a bit like dinosaurs. In the future there will be entire floors of museums displaying our fossilised remains in glass cases.’

  ‘Evolution is preferable to revolution... How didn’t I treat you with respect?’ he suddenly shot at her, trying to catch her by surprise so she would answer him truthfully.

  She said nothing.

  ‘So you did have a problem with me walking out on you?’

  Her eyelids half lowered. ‘It was a first for me, I admit.’

  A first? A first of what, exactly? The idea that she could have been a virgin, considering the way she’d approached him that night, was totally crazy, and even if it were true, did he actually want to know? Didn’t he have enough guilt in his life without adding any more? The problem was that now the idea was out there, swimming around in his brain, he had to voice it, even if he did end up looking like a fool.

  ‘The first time you’d woken up with the pillow beside you empty, or the first time for you full stop?’

  She felt a trickle of sweat trace a sticky path down her back and decided to deliberately misunderstand him. ‘First one-night stand? You really haven’t read any of the surveys in the magazines, have you? Everyone’s doing it.’

  ‘The thing about those surveys is that people lie.’

  His intent stare made her feel as though he were looking directly into her head and she could feel the blush she was willing away materialise until she felt as though every inch of her skin were on fire.

  ‘And I’m not talking about one-night stands,’ he added flatly.

  Pushed into a corner, she reacted with cool-eyed hauteur. ‘I really don’t think there’s any need for a post-mortem...but if you’re asking what I think you’re asking, I don’t think I owe you any explanation.’

  ‘So you were a virgin.’

  ‘Weren’t we all once...even you?’ Hard as it was to imagine. ‘How old were...?’ Her eyes flew wide. ‘Oh, God, I said that out loud, didn’t I?’

  ‘I was sixteen and she was...older.’ The glamorous, bored stepmother of one of his friends at boarding school, and he’d been very willing to be seduced. ‘But even at sixteen I would not have thought it the greatest idea in the world to pick up a total stranger in a bar and have sex with them.’

  ‘It wasn’t exactly planned!’

  ‘Look, I’m fine with youthful rebellion. I’ve been there and done that, but I sure as hell don’t much like being the unwitting partner of it.’

  Chloe felt her embarrassment slip away, incredulous anger rushing in to fill the vacuum; his hypocrisy was staggering. ‘So now you’re the victim and I should apologise? Not that there is a victim, I mean... I just saw you that night and...’ She met his eyes and looked away. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s not as though you were fighting me off with a stick, is it?’

  A laugh was wrenched from Nik’s throat before he closed his eyes and wondered how a man could feel like a defiler of innocence and incredibly turned on at the same time.

  ‘I guess I crushed a few of your romantic illusions,’ he said heavily.

  She sucked in a deep breath. ‘Well, it had to happen sometime so relax; after the therapy I’m totally fine.’ She stopped suddenly, remembering that she was talking to someone who might really have needed therapy for something more than making a poor choice. She’d slept with the wrong man; he’d seen his friend die in his arms. ‘Not that there is anything funny about therapy...in fact, it’s a very useful tool,’ she told him earnestly.

  A nerve began to slowly clench and unclench in Nik’s jaw, and it had a mesmeric effect on Chloe.

  ‘What has my sister been saying to you about me?’

  Chloe began to shake her head, thinking his sister’s opinion of him proved that love really was blind... Lust, however, was a completely different proposition... She tilted her chin and refused to acknowledge the shameful ache of arousal she felt just looking at him, but in her own defence this man took the term eye candy to a whole new level! ‘Absolutely nothing...except of course that you are an expert on just about everything. To be totally honest with you, I’d got sick and tired of hearing the sound of your name.’

  All the time she had been ripping up at him he’d stood there looking at her in that disturbing way. When she finally stopped talking he placed a finger against her lips just to make sure he was not interrupted. ‘You are really, truly perfect! Hell, I so want to take you to bed right now.’

  The raw driven declaration, barely more than a husky whisper, made her catch her breath, the air between them shimmering with suppressed sexual tension. She could only stand there, her eyes wide as he moved his finger down her cheek, the light touch, barely there, making her shiver with delicious sensation.

  Her eyes had half closed in drugged pleasure when from somewhere a sliver of sanity shattered the sensual haze.

  What the hell are you doing, Chloe?

  ‘Does that line really work for you?’ She was pre
tty sure it did, and she’d have been yet another of the women who’d fallen for it if it hadn’t been for that one word...perfect! He still saw her as the woman with the perfect body he remembered from eighteen months ago.

  The ugly reality would surely have him running for the hills.

  ‘It isn’t a line.’ His heavy-lidded eyes moved in a slow approving sweep from the top of her glossy head to her feet in kitten-heeled slingbacks. ‘You look fantastic.’

  ‘Yes, I know.’ But looks, she reminded herself, were cruelly deceptive. Even if she had been tempted to accept the offer he was making, she knew that it wasn’t about her; it was only the perfect body that he wanted.

  The body that no longer existed.

  Loss was something she didn’t normally allow herself to feel but it slammed through her now.

  ‘I’d forgotten how direct you were. It’s really refreshing,’ he said.

  The memory of how direct she’d been brought a flush to her face. If she ever regained the sort of confidence she’d once had, then it wouldn’t be with a man like Nik Latsis. It would be with a man who could see beyond her scars, and who would want her for the woman she really was.

  ‘Ah, well, I’m so glad to have refreshed you, and speaking of which, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to refresh my glass. I’m not interested—is that direct enough for you?’

  ‘I’d be devastated if I believed you,’ he returned with a level look.

  ‘Believe me, you are the last man in the world I would be interested in!’ Interested, no, she was fascinated...but equally she recognised it was an unhealthy ‘moth to the flame’ sort of fascination. One that would only lead to her being burnt up, and not in a good way.

  ‘Never mind, Nik. If I was interested you’d be the first man to know...or maybe the second,’ Lucy Cavendish corrected. ‘My dentist has the loveliest eyes.’ Her smile deepened as she looked at Chloe. ‘So have you.’

  Chloe’s face burned with embarrassed heat.

  Just how long had the model been standing there listening to them? And yet she didn’t seem even a jot put out by what she’d heard... Maybe because she had heard it all before? Chloe speculated. Maybe she was fine with sharing her man? Or even...? None of my business, she told herself, swiftly closing down this lurid avenue of speculation.

  ‘Dinner is served and I’m starving,’ Lucy drawled, then, turning to Chloe, she added, ‘I loved your blog, by the way. If you want to know any of the dirty details on this one, I’m the girl to come to.’ She gave her a conspiratorial wink before leading Nik away.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  DAZED AND BEWILDERED, Chloe experienced a quite irrational sense of abandonment as she watched the couple walk away arm in arm. She hung back as the guests made their way through the double doors, which had been flung open revealing a long table covered in white linen and groaning with antique crystal and fine china. The last to enter the room, Chloe saw that Eugenie was directing guests to their places. As she watched Nik bent down and kissed his niece’s cheek.

  ‘I’m working, Uncle Nik,’ she remonstrated, kissing him back despite her protest.

  Chloe watched him throw a quizzical glance at his sister. ‘Child labour, Ana?’

  ‘Laying the foundations for a healthy work ethic, you mean,’ Tatiana shot back.

  ‘You were right the first time.’ Eugenie raised her voice as her uncle moved away. ‘No, you’re down that way, Uncle Nik,’ the girl called, pointing in the opposite direction from where her uncle was heading.

  ‘No, kiddo, I think I’m sitting here.’ Nik picked up one of the place cards and held it up to show her his name.

  His niece frowned, pulling a slim tablet from her pocket. ‘But I thought...’

  Her mother leaned in and closed the tablet. ‘It’s fine, love,’ she said drily, picking up a card from the floor and, glancing at the name on it, placing it at a gap on another table.

  Her brother reacted to the pointed look she sent him with an unrealistic innocent expression.

  Watching the interplay, Chloe had a sinking feeling, and so she was unsurprised when the teenager smiled at her and directed her towards where Nik was holding out a chair next to his place.

  Chloe’s eyes brushed his and her stomach vanished completely!

  The prospect of spending the entire meal next to him made her feel nauseous. Oh, get over yourself, Chloe, she told herself sternly. What’s the worst that can happen—you get indigestion?

  ‘Now, isn’t this nice?’ The innocence was gone and instead there was a feral gleam of challenge in his steady stare as he stood behind the chair waiting for her to take her seat. ‘So cosy,’ he murmured, pushing in the chair neatly behind her legs before taking his own seat.

  Cosy? Huh. Chloe decided, nodding to the woman seated to her right, that was the last word she would use where Nik Latsis was concerned, so she didn’t voice any of the half-dozen sarcastic responses that trembled on her tongue. The best way to cope with this situation was simply not to rise to the bait; instead, she would rise above it.

  ‘Thank you,’ she murmured, rather pleased with her aloof little nod, a nice combination of condescension and coldness. Yes, she decided, the high ground was definitely the route to take in this situation. Right but not very easy when even without looking at him she could feel the male arrogance he was radiating.

  He set his elbows on the table and looked at her. ‘You’re dying to ask me, so go ahead.’

  She squared her shoulders, and took a long swallow of the very good wine, looking at the plate that had been put in front of her; it smelt fantastic but she had virtually no appetite. ‘Sorry, I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘I’ll put you out of your misery, then. You’re right, Lucy and I are not a couple, just, as they say, good friends.’

  ‘Well, that’s a relief. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight if you hadn’t explained that to me.’

  Far from annoying him, her sarcastic riposte drew a broad grin. ‘Ana often invites potential mates to her cosy little dinners.’

  ‘This dinner isn’t little or cosy or, as it happens, all about you.’

  A smile quivered across his lips. ‘Ouch!’

  ‘You could always try dating agencies, which would be a bit more scientific than relying on your sister to set you up,’ she suggested.

  ‘I’ve always thought a sense of humour is overrated, especially when I’m the joke. Ana wants to see me settled down; she thinks that marriage is the magic bullet that will solve all my problems. She means well but it can get...tiresome. But you don’t want to know all that; the point is... Lucy isn’t my girlfriend.’

  ‘Why are you telling me this?’

  ‘Because I want you to say yes when I ask you to come home with me tonight.’

  Having delivered this conversational dynamite in the same manner a normal person would discuss the weather, he calmly turned to the man on his right and inserted himself into the conversation concerning the most recent banking scandal.

  Chloe couldn’t hear what they saying, because she couldn’t hear anything much beyond the static buzz inside her own head. Of course, she was going to say no to him.

  She rested her hand on her thigh, running her fingers lightly across the raised damaged skin under the fine blue silk. The outline of the ugly ridges beneath her fingertips had an instant mind-clearing effect, and the doubts fluttering around in her head vanished. A man who hadn’t bothered hanging around to say goodbye the morning after they’d had mind-blowing sex wasn’t interested in her emotional journey; he only wanted perfect.

  ‘I used to be a fan of your blog...is there any chance of you resurrecting it?’

  Chloe snapped clear of her reverie before it reached self-pitying territory and smiled at the woman sitting across from her who’d just asked her a question. ‘Well, never say never, but at the moment I can’t see it happening.’

  The woman looked disappointed. ‘You were very successful and you had so many followers, but I suppose
you’ve got your hands full at the moment.’

  Nik had disengaged from the conversation he was involved in and took an indulgent time out to study Chloe, watching as the fine muscles along her firm jawline quivered beneath the smooth creamy skin. Her long fingers tightened around the stem of her wine glass, and he noted the absence of rings.

  ‘So what is this blog I keep hearing about?’ Nik asked curiously.

  He had just announced his intention of inviting her to spend the night in his bed and now he was making small-talk! Did he compartmentalise his life as neatly as he did his conversations? she wondered, envying him the ability.

  ‘It was a fashion blog. I started out just writing about things that caught my attention, fashion tips, current style trends, that sort of thing, and it took off after your sister—’ she glanced towards Tatiana ‘—gave me a plug.’

  ‘Was?’

  She nodded and directed her gaze to the wine swirling around in her glass. The crystal caught the light of the chandelier that hung over the table, sending little sparks of colour through the flute. ‘I’ve moved on to other things.’

  Dreams were not reality, they were an exaggerated, distorted form of it, and Nik had assumed his memory had been guilty of making some editorial cuts, smoothing out the flaws and adding a rosy tinge to the reality of the woman who had shared her body with him. Sharing hardly seemed an adequate description for the lack of barriers that had existed between them—but actually sitting beside her now, he realised that the reality was even better than his memory. And she’d been a virgin—her cagey reaction had virtually confirmed his stab in the dark—but it still didn’t seem possible.

  ‘I suppose a lot of people would get bored quickly if they didn’t have to worry about paying the rent, Lady Chloe.’

  His efforts to needle her into a response were rewarded when she slung him an angry glare and drained her glass in one gulp.

  It was not the first time that someone had added the title and her background together and come up with the totally inaccurate conclusion that she was a lady of leisure who didn’t have to work for a living.