After the Greek Affair

by Chantelle Shaw

  She smiled at Loukas. ‘I hope you’re right. I’m prepared to work hard and devote all my time and energy to making Wedding Belle a success.’

  A curious expression crossed his face, but it was gone before she had time to wonder about it. ‘In that case we had better make the most of your remaining time on Aura, before you leave to take the fashion world by storm,’ he drawled softly. His sensual smile stole her breath and her pulse quickened when he ran his hand lightly up her bare arm. ‘Are your shoulders aching again?’

  She closed her eyes blissfully when he stood behind her and began to massage the knot of muscles at the base of her neck. ‘Mmm…that feels good. I am a bit stiff.’

  He gave a low chuckle, his warm breath fanning her ear as he pulled her up against him. ‘So am I, my beautiful Belle—and not just a bit.’

  ‘Yes…I can feel,’ she said breathlessly. Molten heat pooled between her thighs as she felt the solid length of his arousal nudge the cleft of her bottom through her thin cotton skirt. Desire thundered through her veins. Their clothes were a frustrating barrier and her heart thudded when he tugged the straps of her top down her arms so that her breasts spilled into his hands. ‘Loukas, I need to work…’ It was a token protest which he ignored as he brought another gasp from her by rolling her nipples between his fingers until they stiffened to taut, tingling peaks.

  Pleasure seared a path down Belle’s stomach to her pelvis, and she offered no protest when he turned her to face him. ‘You need this,’ he told her assuredly. ‘And so do I, Belle mou.’

  His mouth captured hers in a deep, drugging kiss, seducing her senses so that she was only aware of the musky scent of his aftershave and the faint abrasion of his jaw against her cheek. How could she deny her need for him when it consumed her and caused her limbs to tremble?

  When he lifted her into his arms she rested her head on his shoulder, her heartbeat quickening with every stride he took along the hallway to the master bedroom. One more week—the words beat dully inside her head and filled her with an urgency to snatch the days and hours she had left with him. He lowered her onto the bed and she wound her arms around his neck to draw him down beside her.

  Loukas gave a rough laugh as he fought a losing battle to control his hunger for this fragile blonde who had become a serious addiction. He loved her eagerness and delighted in her unrestrained passion, in the little cries of pleasure she made when he stripped off her skirt and knickers and pressed his mouth to the moist opening between her thighs. With exquisite gentleness he explored her with his tongue, until she arched her hips in mute supplication for him to take her to the magical place that was uniquely theirs.

  He would miss her. The thought slid into his head as he stood to remove his own clothes, his eyes never leaving her as he watched the rays of sunlight filtering through the blinds gilding her slender body. He briefly considered asking her to remain as his mistress for the next month or two, or however long it took before he grew bored of her—as he undoubtedly would, he assured himself. But he dismissed the idea. Business would keep him in South Africa for at least a month, and he knew Belle was impatient to return to London, hopeful that Larissa’s wedding would generate interest and new orders for her company.

  He had one more week to enjoy her, and he intended to do just that, he vowed as he swiftly donned protection and positioned himself over her. Her smile evoked a curious tugging sensation on his heart, but as he eased forward and entered her with one deep thrust his mind closed down and he was aware of nothing but the velvet grip of her body’s embrace and the pounding of his blood in his veins. He withdrew almost fully and then thrust again, deeper, faster, the sound of his ragged breath mingling with her soft moans as she matched his rhythm and their bodies moved together in total accord, reached the heights, and shattered in the ecstasy of simultaneous release.

  The wedding had been a fairy tale; there was no other word to describe it, Belle thought afterwards. Larissa had looked breathtaking in her wedding gown, and the bridesmaids had been equally stunning in dresses of palest pink taffeta which matched the bride’s bouquet of pink rosebuds and the groom’s buttonhole.

  Georgios had looked handsome, and a little nervous, but the expression on his face when he had smiled at his bride had evoked an inexplicable ache inside Belle. She wasn’t envious, she assured herself. She was quite certain that she never wanted to get married. But to be loved as much as Georgios clearly loved Larissa and to be able to return that love without fear of being hurt or rejected must be a wonderful thing.

  Suddenly restless, she jumped up from her bed, closed the zip of her suitcase and walked over to the window. The evening sunlight was mellow and golden, and the scent of lemons drifted up from the grove beneath her room. She had fallen in love with this place, she thought with a sigh: the villa, the island…Loukas. Her heart jerked against her ribs. Of course she hadn’t fallen for Loukas—it was just that her imminent departure from Aura was making her stupidly emotional.

  He was leaving too. His flight to Cape Town was due to leave Athens an hour after her return flight to London, and in a few minutes they would make the journey to the mainland on his private helicopter.

  Her mind turned back to the wedding. There had been a gasp from the congregation when Larissa had entered the church, but Belle’s eyes had been fixed on Loukas as he had proudly escorted his sister down the aisle. He had been a surrogate father to Larissa since she was a little girl, and had shouldered the responsibility of bringing her up after the death of their parents, when he had been so young himself.

  As the service had begun Belle had glanced at his hard profile. His expression had revealed nothing of his private thoughts, but she had sensed instinctively that he was fighting to control his emotions as his sister left her old life and started out on a new journey with her husband. Without pausing to question what she was doing she had reached out and clasped his hand, trying to tell him with actions rather than words that she understood and sympathised with how he must be feeling.

  For a few seconds Loukas had stiffened, and she had been prepared for him to reject her. But then he had gripped her fingers tightly and glanced down at her upturned face. Something had flared in his eyes, but faded before she was able to assimilate it. She had given him a tentative smile, and in response he had squeezed her hand and held it captive in his own for the remainder of the service.

  Forcing her mind back to the present, she checked her watch and saw that it was time to go. The rest of the day had been madly hectic as four hundred guests had filed into the huge marquee erected in the garden of Villa Elena for the reception. Loukas had been so busy with his duties as host that she had barely spent any time with him. And now it was too late. The dull ache in Belle’s chest intensified as she carried her case downstairs to the main hall.

  ‘Hey, I was just coming to get that for you.’ Chip, impeccably smart in his butler’s uniform, greeted her. ‘The boss is waiting for you on the pad.’ He picked up her case and preceded her down the front steps. ‘I hope you’re going to come and visit Aura again, Belle.’ He slanted a sideways glance at her and added quietly, ‘Loukas keeps his thoughts private, and he can be hard to get to know, but he’s a great guy—one of the best. I reckon he’s going to be lonely with Larissa and you both gone.’

  ‘I don’t suppose a good-looking billionaire will remain lonely for long,’ Belle said drily. The ache inside her became a searing pain as she imagined Loukas making love to another woman. ‘I bet he has hundreds of girlfriends,’ she muttered.

  Chip shrugged, but did not deny it. ‘He’s never brought any of them to stay on Aura, though.’ He paused and gave her another speculative look. ‘Apart from you.’

  Belle coloured. Of course Chip was aware of her affair with Loukas. It must have been pretty obvious that for the past month she had never slept in her own bed. But what did it matter? She was leaving now, and she was sure Chip knew as well as she did that she wouldn’t be coming back to the island. It was a wel
l-documented fact that Loukas’s affairs never lasted long.

  He was standing by the helicopter, his tall figure silhouetted against the setting sun. She drank in the sight of him greedily, wanting to impress his handsome features indelibly on her mind. He had changed out of the formal suit he had worn for the wedding into beige chinos and a black polo shirt, and looked relaxed and so utterly gorgeous that she felt a sharp pain pierce her like an arrow through her heart.

  ‘All set?’

  His sunglasses shielded his eyes. She wanted to snatch them from him so that she could look for one last time into his slate-grey gaze. But perhaps it was better this way, for if he looked into her eyes he would surely see the tears she was fighting to hold back.

  ‘Yes, I’m ready to leave.’ Somehow she managed to sound convincing, even cheerful. ‘Larissa and Georgios should already be on their way to the Maldives. What a wonderful venue for their honeymoon.’ She bit her lip when he helped her step up into the helicopter and she breathed in the familiar spicy fragrance of his cologne mingled with another subtly masculine scent that was uniquely his. It was imperative that she kept on talking, before her composure cracked and she begged him to allow her to stay with him.

  ‘I had a call from Jenny, my office manager, who has been manning things at Wedding Belle while I’ve been away,’ she chatted brightly as she sank down into a plush leather seat and fastened her safety belt. ‘Apparently photos of Larissa’s dress have already been posted on the internet, and we’ve received dozens of enquiries by email.’

  ‘Good,’ Loukas replied in a clipped tone. Just as he had predicted, Belle clearly could not wait to get back to London and her business. When she had walked towards the landing pad, dressed in the elegant cream and black silk skirt and jacket she had been wearing the first time he had seen her on Kea, he had once again been tempted to ask her to come to South Africa with him. He was glad now he had hesitated. It would have been embarrassing for both of them. No doubt he’d soon forget her once he was involved with the new project in Cape Town, he told himself.

  By the time the helicopter had dropped them at Athens airport and they had made their way through the crowds to the check-in desks Belle’s flight number had flashed up on the screen, indicating that it was time to walk through to her gate ready for boarding. Loukas had seemed remote since they had left Aura, and from the various phone calls he had made on his mobile she guessed his mind was already focused on his business trip.

  ‘Well…’ She dredged up a brilliant smile, pride her only ally against the tears that were hovering perilously close. ‘I guess this is goodbye.’ What on earth was she supposed to say to him? she thought desperately. They had been lovers for the past month and it was only now, when she was facing the fact that she might never see him again, that she admitted how much she would miss him. ‘If you’re ever near the river in south-west London and you happen to see a houseboat called the Saucy Sue, come onboard and say hello.’

  His dark brows lifted quizzically. ‘Your boat is called Saucy Sue?’

  ‘My brother named her. Don’t ask.’ This was hell. Loukas plainly did not give a damn that they were unlikely to ever see each other again, while she cared way too much. She flashed him another smile and checked in her handbag for her boarding pass for the hundredth time. ‘Goodbye, Loukas.’

  ‘You don’t think I’d let you go that easily, do you?’ His sexy smile stole her breath and his lazy words made her heart leap. Maybe he wasn’t going to let her go at all? She trembled when he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face to his. The brush of his mouth over hers instantly transported her to heaven and she parted her lips for him to deepen the kiss. But almost immediately he lifted his head. The disappointment was crushing, excruciating, and for a moment she could not breathe as he released her chin and stepped back from her.

  Loukas stared down at Belle, memories of the past weeks they had spent together flooding his mind. The passion they had shared had been electrifying, but there had been so much more than that, he acknowledged. He had enjoyed simply being with her, taking her for rides on his motorbike, swimming with her in the sea, and they had talked for hours.

  He hadn’t expected that saying goodbye to her would be this hard. But there was no alternative. Belle’s life was in England, where she ran her business, and his was in Greece. A long-distance affair would be unsatisfactory, and he wasn’t looking for a relationship, he reminded himself. His jaw hardened and he forced himself to turn away from her. ‘Antio, Belle. And good luck with Wedding Belle.’

  And then he was gone, striding through the crowd with his natural grace, his height making him easily visible. Belle watched him go, willing him to turn his head, to give one last wave of his hand, but he did not look back.

  She remained staring across the vast foyer long after he had disappeared from view. She had always known their affair was a temporary arrangement, she reminded herself. It was for the best. She could not focus on developing Wedding Belle if she was involved with Loukas. When she was with him he filled her thoughts to the exclusion of everything else, and if she was going to follow her dream of being a top designer she could not allow herself to be distracted by anyone.

  Three weeks later, Belle stared dazedly at her GP. ‘I can’t be pregnant,’ she said shakily.

  ‘According to the test, you conceived approximately eight weeks ago,’ the doctor told her. ‘Do you remember if you had unprotected sex then?’

  ‘Only once,’ she admitted. But of course once was all it took, she thought sickly. ‘But I had my period a few days later.’ She recalled how relieved she had been. It was true her period had been lighter than usual, but they had never been heavy, and she had been thankful that her irresponsibility that first time she had slept with Loukas had not had any consequences.

  She had only visited the doctor at her brother’s insistence because she had been feeling constantly tired since she had returned from Greece. She hadn’t really expected anything to be wrong. It was not surprising she was tired when she had been spending up to ten hours a day at the studio, as she’d reminded Dan. The media exposure from Larissa’s wedding had triggered huge interest in Wedding Belle, and she had been determined to make the most of this opportunity to establish herself as a designer.

  ‘Some women experience bleeding in the early months of pregnancy,’ the doctor explained. ‘But it isn’t a proper period and it often stops as the pregnancy progresses. And not all women ovulate around the middle of their cycle. For some it happens earlier or, as must have happened in your case, later.’

  ‘You have to tell Christakis,’ Dan insisted when she broke the news to him. ‘He is the baby’s father and he has a duty to help you—financially at least. Let’s face it, he can afford to,’ he added fiercely, when Belle looked as if she was going to argue. ‘You can’t bring up a child on your own. How are you going to work with a baby in tow? And where will you live? I’m afraid Saucy Sue won’t survive another winter without major work on her hull. And anyway, a houseboat is no place to bring up a baby.’

  ‘You’re not telling me anything I haven’t already gone over in my mind a hundred times,’ Belle said bleakly, hugging her arms around her body as if she could somehow protect herself from the nightmare that was unfolding. She still could not take it in. She was expecting Loukas’s baby. It was crazy, unbelievable, but since her visit to her GP, scarily real. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ she admitted shakily.

  She had no idea how Loukas would react to the news that she had conceived his child as a result of their carelessness the first time they had slept together. He had certainly appeared to share her relief when she had informed him that her period had started. No doubt he would be as shocked as she was.

  ‘You don’t have to go through with it, Belle.’ Dan sounded hesitant and carefully avoided her gaze. ‘I’ll support any decision you make.’

  She swallowed the lump in her throat. Her brother’s loyalty meant so much to her. But Dan’s words b
roke through the sense of numbness that had enveloped her and forced her to face up to the reality that she was expecting a baby. A new life was developing inside her and was totally dependent on her for its survival. It was a humbling thought, and she was shaken by the feeling of fierce protectiveness that swept through her.

  ‘If Mum had terminated her unplanned pregnancy twenty-five years ago I wouldn’t be here,’ she said huskily. ‘I can’t make the baby pay for my mistake.’

  ‘It’s Christakis’s mistake too,’ Dan said tautly.

  ‘What if I tell him, and he accepts responsibility for his child but resents it—like John resented me?’ Belle voiced her greatest fear.

  ‘This is different. You know now that John isn’t your biological father. When we were growing up you were a living reminder that Mum had been unfaithful to him. It wasn’t your fault, and it was unforgivable that he took his bitterness out on you,’ Dan muttered grimly. ‘But you are carrying Christakis’s child—his flesh and blood.’

  Dan’s words tore on Belle’s fragile emotions. How could she deny her child its father and keep his identity a secret, as her mother had done to her? Since she had learned the truth of her parentage she had felt as though she was half a person, she thought painfully. She wasn’t a Townsend, like Dan, but she wasn’t really an Andersen; she had just taken her mother’s maiden name to distance herself from John. She would never know who she was, or whose blood ran through her veins. How could she inflict that same uncertainty, that feeling of not belonging anywhere, on her baby?

  ‘I’ve got to go.’ Dan’s voice broke into her thoughts. ‘I’ll be away on the photoshoot for a couple of days.’ He slung his backpack over his shoulder, leapt off the boat onto the towpath and paused to look back at her. ‘You have to tell Christakis.’

  ‘I know,’ Belle said heavily. In her heart she accepted that Dan was right. For the baby’s sake she had a duty to tell Loukas she was carrying his child.