by Lynne Graham
They had had their first real argument over that car. She had refused to accept it, and he had ranted about how dangerous the bike was, until the dissension between them had reached such a peak that she’d given way out of a genuine fear of losing him. The only other bone of contention between them was his ongoing refusal to accept rent from her as one of his tenants.
‘How do you expect me to accept your money?’ Atreus had demanded angrily. ‘You work long hours to make a living. Do you think I don’t know that? Why should you pay rent to me when I have more money than I could spend in one lifetime?’
That debate was still continuing in the background, for while Lindy doggedly continued to ensure that the rent was paid every month, Atreus continued to have the money returned to her bank account. When she stopped to wonder what the estate manager must think of the whole stupid business, she just cringed. All too many people were well aware of her involvement with the owner of the Chantry estate. It had been naive of her to imagine it could be otherwise. She had even run into the vicar of her church one afternoon at Chantry House. Atreus had innumerable staff as well. People knew, but minded their own business; it had taken Ben to confront her head-on. But what right had he to talk? Ben who, as far as she knew, had never once had a serious relationship with a woman.
Around six that evening Lindy came down the stairs with her weekend bag and her dogs. She was wearing a well-cut grey pencil skirt with a fine purple sweater, and black patent shoes with high heels. Since she had met Atreus she had gradually transformed her wardrobe and her appearance. Newly found confidence in her body had persuaded her to experiment with more figure-flattering garments. Her old shapeless skirts and loose sweaters had gone to the church jumble sale. Her hair had been styled from a haphazard mop into a sleek bouncy mane that framed her face, and she had rediscovered make-up.
But if Atreus had noticed a single change while she polished up her image he hadn’t mentioned it, Lindy acknowledged wryly. Nor had her improved looks given him the urge to take her out and show her off. Why was she so contrary, though? In spite of her having once told him that she didn’t want to be seen out in public with him, she now craved such an invitation. But she was not about to ask Atreus any stupid questions about the future. She was secure and happy as she was…
Twenty minutes later the limo drew up outside and Lindy, with her dogs at her heels, climbed in. The luxury vehicle whisked them up to the big house. The chauffeur opened the door and sidestepped the dogs to greet her. Phoebe Carstairs only worked weekdays. Every weekend a French chef and several Greek menservants came down in advance of Atreus’s arrival and took charge of the household to ensure the assiduous level of service and attention to detail that the tycoon expected from his staff. There was lightness in Lindy’s step and a bubbling anticipation inside her. Following the path of Dmitri’s helpful hand, she headed straight for the library, which Atreus used as an office…
CHAPTER FOUR
A STUNNING vision of masculine style in a charcoal-grey business suit flawlessly tailored to his tall, well-built frame, Atreus was poised by the library’s elegant windows while he talked on the phone. For a split second Lindy paused to refresh her eyes with the sight of him and revel in the pleasure of seeing him again. He swung round, his lean, breathtakingly handsome features briefly shedding their often sombre aspect with a sudden flashing smile. Samson and Sausage squeezed past Lindy to race across the room and hurl themselves at him. Knowing that that energetic welcome would go down like a lead balloon while he was on the phone, Lindy threw herself in the dogs’ path and acted as a barrier between her lover and her pets.
Atreus closed a steadying arm round her as the impact of the animals against the back of her legs almost unbalanced her. The glow of warmth in her eyes captivated him. He liked the way she never hid anything from him, never tried to play it cool. He found her as straightforward as he found others of her sex artificial. As the evocative scent of her hair and her skin made his nostrils flare, he was instantly aware of the erotic pulse at his groin. He lowered his head to press his skilful mouth hotly to a tender spot just below her ear, a move he had long since learned drove her wild. With a sensual moan of surrender, Lindy quivered with the delicious awakening that was hurtling like liquid fire to her every pulse-point and nerve-ending. Atreus said something rather abrupt into his phone, set it down, and hauled her to him with impatient hands to kiss her breathless.
‘A weekend isn’t enough for me when it’s followed by five days of celibacy,’ he growled when he finally let her breathe again.
Lindy was thrilled by that admission. ‘I suppose I could come up to London occasionally,’ she began, eager to gain an entrance into that other part of his world which had so far been closed to her.
His jawline clenched. ‘I like things the way they are. I’m free to concentrate on business during the week. We both have plenty of space.’
Her eyes dimmed. She didn’t want that space, had never wanted that space, and only put up with his frequent unavailability in silence because it seemed to be what he expected from her. That belated admission shook her. Just when had she started fitting in with his wishes and ignoring her own? But what woman wanted her lover to see her as clingy? she asked herself defensively. Atreus might be her only source of experience, but she knew that a needy, demanding woman could make a man feel trapped.
Cursing the insecurity that Ben’s outspoken criticism had roused in her, Lindy blanked out her anxious thoughts and rested back in the seemingly secure circle of Atreus’s arms.
She loved him so much, and she had a whole weekend to luxuriate in. Was she about to let her lack of confidence spoil what they shared? She hadn’t intended to fall for him—had thought intelligence would help her to hold back and protect herself from getting too attached to a man who was unlikely to stay with her. But there had been no protection from his innate charisma and high-voltage sexuality, or the clever brain that consistently intrigued and entertained her. She sank deeper and deeper into love every time she saw him. By the end of the first three months of their affair she had been a totally lost cause.
Atreus was suspicious of her sudden suggestion that she see him in London during the week. Where had that unfortunate idea come from? Had the one-time love of her life been muckraking again? Atreus wondered grimly, for he was already aware that Lindy’s alleged friend had visited her that afternoon. Ben Halliwell was a thorn in Atreus’s side, playing a waiting game and always ready to make trouble. Lindy was so impressionable, Atreus reflected ruefully, keeping her close while he smoothed a soothing hand down over her taut spine, recognising her mood of disquiet with growing annoyance. Perhaps it was time that he had a word with Halliwell and warned him off. Lindy, who thought the best of everyone and the least of herself, would never do it for him. Evidently it had not yet occurred to her that her old friend now wanted what he had so carelessly rejected at university, and Atreus was in no hurry to point out Ben’s change of heart.
‘I missed you,’ she confided, only to regret the revealing admission as soon as the words left her lips.
His arms tightened round her. ‘The week went very slowly,’ he conceded, letting his mouth graze over hers and then return to part her lips with a sudden hungry urgency that sent the blood hurtling in a mad race through her veins. Her knees went weak, the tug of craving in her pelvis almost more than she could bear in silence. It had not taken him long to teach her that desire could be a cruel taskmaster, for while her brain teemed with troubled thoughts and fears, her body was only capable of craving the urgency of his. Lindy closed her eyes tight in frustration, fighting to restrain the intensity of her longing, hating the knowledge that she only ever felt really secure in bed with him. That was when she felt most needed and valued, and what did that say about their relationship?
‘What’s wrong?’ Atreus murmured.
Lindy cursed his sixth sense where she was concerned, his unexpected ability to pick up on what she was feeling. ‘Nothing.’
It took only a clipped word from Atreus to restrain the dogs from following them upstairs. Her heart was pounding when he lowered her down in the bedroom. Unzipped, her skirt shimmied down over her hips. Her sweater was tossed aside. With an earthy, masculine sound of satisfaction, Atreus appraised the succulent swell of her creamy breasts within her bra and lifted her onto the bed, pulling off her shoes in the process.
‘By Friday lunchtime you are all I can think about,’ he said huskily, long fingers briefly framing her face as he claimed another kiss and unclipped the bra to gain full access to her luscious curves.
‘I thought we were going to talk,’ Lindy framed breathlessly, fighting the erotic languor overcoming her and the paralysis of intelligent thought.
Having already shed his jacket and tie, and unbuttoned his shirt, Atreus sank down on the bed beside her with a groan of reluctant amusement. ‘The state you’ve got me in, I’m not fit to talk, mali mou.’
Her fingers splaying across the bronzed hair-roughened contours of his superb torso, Lindy could not even think about what it was that she had believed she’d wanted to talk about as other, more basic promptings took charge of her. The burning and dampness gathering between her thighs ignited an almost unbearable yearning. His lips closed round a distended pink nipple while he skimmed off her panties. The very first touch of his mouth on her torturously tender flesh made her spine swoop off the mattress in a responsive arch. Her heart thundered and her legs trembled when he teased the sensitive bud below her mound. Very quickly she reached a saturation point of arousal, when waiting became an intolerable torment, and a pleading moan of protest parted her lips.
‘You couldn’t possibly want me yet as much as I want you, glikia mou,’ Atreus countered with fierce conviction, strong hands anchoring to her hips to pull her under him.
But as her body braced for his possession he fell back from her with a stifled curse and reached for the protection he had almost forgotten ‘We don’t want any mistakes in the contraception department,’ he told her, with a grim edge to his rich dark drawl. ‘That would wreck everything.’
Even as he drove into her wildly receptive body that edge in his voice lingered in her memory and chilled her. She suppressed her disquiet and told herself he was only being sensible. He sank his hands below her hips and plunged deeper into her. The delirious pleasure his lovemaking always gave her had taken on an unfamiliar driven urgency. Excitement was cascading through her in a dazzling storm of white-hot sparks. He ground into her and she gasped, what remained of her control melted by the flames of excitement. His wildness thrilled her and the ecstatic climax she reached took her body’s capacity for enjoyment to new heights. Even as the exquisite waves of erotic bliss consumed her, she was conscious that she was crying—and shocked by the fact.
‘I must have been good, glikia mou,’ Atreus breathed with irrepressible satisfaction, holding her locked in his arms and kissing her before falling still to stare down into her wide shaken eyes. ‘We share the most unbelievable chemistry. No other woman has ever given me so much pleasure in bed.’
Lindy cherished the rare compliment that made her feel more important than any of her more glamorous predecessors, but her mind was still working back over what he had said only minutes earlier.
‘Why did you say a mistake with contraception would wreck everything?’
Atreus tensed. ‘Because it’s the truth. I don’t want a child with you.’
Inside herself, where he couldn’t see, Lindy, who loved children and who had dreamt in whimsical moments of having his baby, recoiled from that cruel candour. Her dreams were suffering an axe attack. ‘Don’t you like children?’ she asked.
An alarm bell was by now ringing in Atreus’s handsome dark head, and his ebony brows drew together in a frown. She had never admitted it, but he knew how much she liked babies. Her friends sent her photos of their children and she gushed over them. Months ago he had reached the conclusion that the homeless dogs and cats she doted on were most probably substitutes for the babies she would one day have.
‘A couple of paternity battles took the edge off any desire I might have to reproduce,’ Atreus confided, opting for the truth.
‘Paternity battles?’ Lindy parroted in dismay. ‘Are you saying that you already have a child?’
‘None that I know of—a reality that some women have in the past chosen to regard as a challenge.’
Lindy collided with hard dark eyes and recognised that this reality still had the power to rouse his anger. ‘In what way…a challenge?’
‘A rich man is a lucrative target in the paternity stakes,’ he extended with rich cynicism. ‘Thankfully, DNA tests proved that I was not the father of either child. But if I hadn’t been able to prove that I would have been made financially responsible for those women and their offspring for many years to come.’
‘Naturally you wouldn’t want a child in those circumstances,’ Lindy remarked with understanding.
‘I will only want a child when I’m married.’
That declaration hung there like a second slap in the face; having already told her that he didn’t want a child with her, or until he was married, he was effectively letting her know that she was not in the running as a potential wife. Had she thought she might be? Lindy eased away from him with the stealth of a mouse hoping to escape a cat ready to pounce. All of a sudden, lying in Atreus’s arms no longer felt like a safe and proper harbour.
‘And what sort of woman are you planning to marry?’ she heard herself enquire. Having gone so far, she thought she might as well fully satisfy her curiosity.
Atreus skimmed a glance at her pale, pinched profile. ‘I don’t think we should stray any deeper into this conversation.’
‘Atreus, it’s clear that you’ve already thought in depth about your future and planned it all out,’ Lindy pointed out in a tight, stretched tone he had never heard from her lips before. ‘I think it’s a reasonable question for me to ask after the length of time we’ve been together.’
Annoyed with her for opening the subject in the first place, and disregarding his every attempt to head her off at the pass, Atreus rested simmering golden eyes on her. ‘I’ll marry a wealthy woman from a background similar to my own.’
Until that deeply wounding moment Lindy had not appreciated just how far her dreams had gone. Nor had she grasped how painful it might be to realise that she had never had and could never have a chance of becoming a contender in the bridal stakes. She had neither wealth nor background to impress him with, and as such could never be anything other than a casual lover on his terms. In an abrupt movement, she snaked out of bed and began to get dressed in haste.
Ben’s confident assurance that she wouldn’t like the answer she got from Atreus was already reverberating like a death knell in her ears. Atreus didn’t love her. Feeling as he did, how could he possibly care for her in any way? He didn’t even see her as being in any way special. That she was poor, industrious and the child of working class uneducated parents would always hang on her like a badge of shame in his eyes.
‘Lindy…what’s going on here?’ Atreus demanded in growing exasperation.
‘Nothing’s going on,’ she fielded flatly. ‘But I do I think that you should have been more frank with me months ago. I didn’t realise that I was in a dead-end affair.’
‘What’s dead-end about it?’ Atreus raked back at her with splintering impatience. ‘It’s not as though I’m planning to get married any time soon!’
‘You’re such a snob, too!’ Lindy delivered her judgement with scorn. ‘I haven’t got money or a fancy family tree, so you’ve never taken me seriously…’
Atreus was a vibrant male presence as he lounged back ag
ainst the tossed pillows, his wide shoulders and bronzed torso providing a startling contrast with the plain white bedlinen. ‘Why would I take you seriously?’ he cut in lethally. ‘We’ve had a good time together. Snobbery didn’t come into it. In fact, it’s more likely that the differences between us made our relationship more entertaining…’
‘Well, I’m not finding it entertaining at this moment!’ Lindy launched back at him, her lush mouth biting off that last word as she forced her lips shut again. She didn’t trust herself. She could not be sure what words might come out of her mouth next, and she was fighting to retain a little dignity. Even so, she was devastated. The man she loved was talking down to her in the shallowest and most patronising way, telling her that they’d simply had a good time together when her feelings for him ran so much deeper and stronger. She had entertained him because her differences had provided him with a welcome diversion.
Atreus was stunned by Lindy’s behaviour. From the outset of their affair he had enjoyed the fact that she didn’t throw tantrums or suffer from petulant moods. She was calm, laid-back in temperament and sensible, not given to making unreasonable demands or staging arguments. She only revealed her passion between the sheets, where he found her eagerness for him insanely, brilliantly sexy.
He sprang out of bed, crossed the floor and lifted her off her feet without further ado.
‘What the heck do you think you’re doing?’ Lindy demanded furiously.
‘I’m taking you back to bed in the hope that you regain your senses, glikia mou,’ Atreus imparted in an aggrieved tone.
‘I’m not getting back into bed with you!’ Lindy hissed, swatting away his hands and sliding straight back off the bed again. ‘We’re finished!’