Ruthless Greek Boss, Secretary Mistress

by Abby Green

  Shock coursed through Lucy. ‘No! That’s not what I meant at all. I’d much prefer to be here…’ She hated that he’d jumped to that conclusion. ‘I just mentioned it because I hadn’t seen it. That’s all.’

  Ari flicked her a glance. ‘It’s not listed because I’ve deliberately kept it private. It was my mother’s house—where she grew up.’

  ‘Oh.’ There didn’t seem to be anything more to say, and Lucy could feel a wall spring up between them. Clearly he wasn’t going to elaborate. It seemed important to make him believe so she leaned across and took his hand. ‘Ari, I’m glad you brought me here. Really.’

  After a long day in the sun, exploring the island’s beaches and eating a basic picnic, drinking sparkling wine in the shade on an empty beach, making love until their bodies seemed boneless and sated, Ari couldn’t stop thinking about Lucy’s words and expression from that morning. She’d seemed sincere. He’d believed her to be sincere when she’d professed to liking the place.

  He held her hand in his now, as they wandered through the ancient winding streets of his mother’s birthplace. He repressed the urge to ask her if she’d really meant what she’d said—if she really loved this humble little place as much as she seemed to—because he hated how important it felt to him that she did.

  A little later Ari sat back in his chair in the small taverna he’d brought her to, and Lucy’s belly flipped over at his expression. He was looking at her so intensely she had to ask, ‘What…? Have I got something on my face?’

  He shook his head and smiled, and her heart turned over. She had once thought he was incapable of smiling, but the younger-seeming, softer side of this man was altogether far too enticing.

  ‘Just a lot of freckles. Who would have known you’d freckle so easily?’

  Lucy grimaced. ‘I have celtic ancestry.’

  He smiled wider, lounging back, cradling a half-empty wine glass. ‘They’re cute.’

  Lucy scowled at the word. ‘Unfortunately we can’t all go a deeper shade of bronze in the sun.’

  She tried to stop her eyes roving over his powerful form but couldn’t resist. His T-shirt strained over broad shoulders and clung to that lean torso; low-slung jeans were so low slung that she could see a sliver of taut dark flesh just above the button, the dark shading of hair making her heart trip.

  ‘Stop devouring me with your eyes, or I’ll carry you back to bed over my shoulder, Lucy Proctor.’

  She looked up again and blushed. He leant forward and captured her hand.

  ‘It’s amazing that you can blush when you’re so incredibly sensual…when you wear such decadent underwear…’

  Lucy groaned.

  ‘…and have a body to put the Venus de Milo to shame…’

  ‘I don’t…Stop.’ Lucy glanced around, mortified, in case someone had heard him. He laughed out loud.

  ‘Yes, you do—and it’s entirely appropriate that we’re here, because this is the island that supplied the Parian marble for the sculpture.’ He kept her hand and asked then, ‘Tell me, Lucy, why is it that you have these two different sides? And why did you fight not to fall into my bed? Was it all a game?’

  His voice had hardened, his hand had tightened, and Lucy looked at him and felt nervous. It suddenly seemed very important to be honest with him.

  Even more so when he added, ‘And how is it that you speak at least two other languages fluently and can hold your own in the snobby dining rooms of Athens?’

  Lucy was silent for a long time. She looked out of the window that they were seated beside and saw the dark ocean, and fishing boats twinkling under a moonlit sky. And then she said haltingly, ‘My mother was one of the most celebrated burlesque performers in the world…’

  And before she knew it she was telling him everything, and he was listening, as rapt as she’d ever seen him. She told him about living in Paris, and before that Rio de Janeiro, New York…London. The ever-changing schools, the nomadic nature of their lives.

  Lucy wrinkled her nose. ‘Her real name was Mabel Proctor, but she changed it to Maxine Malbec.’

  Ari frowned. His thumb stopped making little circles of sensation in her palm.

  ‘The Maxine Malbec?’

  Lucy nodded, feeling slightly sick. Was he going to judge her now or, worse, judge her mother? She started to pull her hand back, but he gripped it again.

  He was shaking his head. ‘Lucy, that’s an amazing story…The picture I saw in your flat—I thought there was something familiar about her.’

  She smiled wryly. ‘That’s what I was afraid of. And it’s not a story—it was my life.’ She shrugged, feeling self-conscious. ‘Having a mother who was so overtly…sexual made me wary, I think, of that side of me.’ Her mouth tightened. ‘It’s also why I have an aversion to expensive jewellery…trinkets…Seeing my mother fobbed off by so many rich men over the years…My father was one of those men, married with his own family. He had no desire for a love-child.’ Lucy’s voice trailed away. She was shocked she’d revealed so much so quickly.

  She didn’t elaborate on how precarious her life had been until she’d grown older and taken control of herself and her mother. She also didn’t elaborate on the fear she still had of becoming dependent on a man, on how her father’s rejection had fostered a deep feeling of insecurity she was only just beginning to let go of.

  Ari winced inwardly when he recalled her reaction to his asking her to buy something for Augustine Archer, and then dragging her around that jewellery shop. He remembered the innately sexy way Lucy had stripped for him that first night. ‘You’ve obviously inherited her natural sensuality—that’s all. She sounds like she was an amazing woman, and it must have been hard, raising a daughter on her own.’

  Lucy was struck somewhere very vulnerable by his easy understanding. She nodded and smiled weakly, feeling emotion rise. ‘She was…is an amazing woman.’

  Ari frowned. ‘She’s still alive?’

  Lucy nodded. ‘Yes, but…’ She told him about her mother’s illness and the home that she was now in.

  He said quietly, ‘It must be hard to see her like that…diminished.’

  Lucy just nodded, terrified she might start crying. ‘It is.’

  To her relief he seemed happy to let it drop there, and discreetly paid the bill before tugging her up and leading her back down the quiet winding streets to the humble little house.

  A few hours later Ari lay on his back, his arms around Lucy’s sleeping form, her breasts rising and falling gently against his bare chest. Even though he was recently sated, that subtle movement made him hard again. He shifted minutely and bit back a groan when Lucy moved too, and he felt her nipples against his side like two hard berries.

  For the first time in his life he’d put himself in a situation where he couldn’t just get up and leave a woman behind—after all, where could he go? And for the first time it wasn’t sending that usual feeling of suffocating claustrophobia into his belly.

  The following evening Lucy was changing while Ari had a shower in the small bathroom downstairs. The house was tiny, and rustic and beyond basic, but she loved it. Ari had told her earlier of how his mother had grown up there with her sister and her mother, his grandfather having died when they were small.

  She went to the balcony and smoothed the plain dark red sundress over her hips. Her skin tingled from being in the sun, and she felt freer than she’d felt in a long time. She’d called her mother’s home earlier, and she was obviously having a good day—although Lucy had had to explain again why she wasn’t able to visit for another week. It seemed as if her mother was making friends with some of the other residents, and the matron had assured her again that she was being well cared for. The relief was enormous.

  A sound made her whirl around from where she was leaning against the balcony rail, watching the sun go down over the sea. Ari stood in the doorway with just a towel around his lean hips.

  She looked up, throat dry, and met his eyes. They glowed with dark, decad
ent promise. He put his hand to the towel and with a flick of his wrist it was gone. Lucy’s body flamed.

  ‘Come here…’ he said softly.

  Lucy tried to resist the feeling of hot insanity. ‘Ari, I’ve just changed…’

  ‘Come here.’

  On shaky legs and bare feet Lucy walked over and said, ‘Has anyone ever told you that you’re extremely bossy and arrogant?’

  He shook his head and pulled her right into him, reaching for her dress and pulling it up, at the same time pulling her pants down. Excitement made Lucy shiver uncontrollably.

  ‘Only you seem to have the nerve to say these things…’ he growled, mock angrily.

  And then talking stopped for a long, languorous moment.

  Much later, when the moon had risen and the stars were out, they headed out for dinner. Lucy had put on a light cardigan as the late spring evening had a slightly cool edge. Her eyes drank Ari in as she trailed him, her hand firmly clasped in his. She never would have imagined him to be so tactile, but he was always reaching out to touch her, to take her hand, rub the back of his hand down a cheek…She sighed inwardly. He was wearing black trousers and a snowy white shirt, and he was more gorgeous than any one man had a right to be.

  This part of northern Paros was a sleepy fishing village. The summer hordes hadn’t descended yet, but in the distance Lucy heard music and recognised a traditional Greek tune as they rounded the corner into an idyllic little square where a taverna was all lit up. A mad profusion of flowers erupted from every windowsill and around the door.

  Lucy heard shouts and laughter, and as they went in Ari ducked his head to avoid hitting the doorframe. An even bigger shout went up, and suddenly a crowd was thronging around them and a huge man was dragging Ari’s face down and kissing him soundly.

  When he could, Ari pulled Lucy forward, feeling an incredible lightness in his chest. He’d missed coming here. A gut-wrenching sense of homecoming nearly floored him with its intensity. London and the merger and Athens and Helen all seemed to be light years away from this moment.

  But as if he couldn’t hold it down the thought rose up like a spectre: the emotion… The threat of it was rising up to swallow him whole. That was why he hadn’t been back.

  He felt for Lucy’s luscious curves and let her distract him from those dark thoughts, introducing her to his mother’s old friends and even to some distant cousins. He could see a few of the young bucks eyeing her up, but with one warning look from him they retreated, shamefaced. Ari kept her close when they were seated in the corner with Costas, the owner, who pulled up a chair and ordered a veritable feast on their behalf.

  Lucy sat back a while later and groaned, wiping her mouth with a napkin, ‘I’ve never eaten as much as I have these last two days. And I do not need any extra padding.’

  Ari looked at Lucy from under hooded lids, his eyes drifting down to that delectable cleavage in her red dress. It made him remember taking that dress off her only hours before, unhooking her bra and letting those voluptuous mounds spill into his hands. His body tightened and grew hot with annoying predictability. She turned him on with such ease…

  She caught his eye and smiled and leant forward, crossing her arms so that her breasts were pushed together and forward. ‘See something you like?’

  Ari’s green gaze glittered and darkened. He leant forward too and said softly, ‘Witch. I’ll punish you for that.’

  They looked at each other, everything fading into the background for a long intense moment, until Costas came over and pulled Ari up, breaking the spell. It was only then that Lucy saw the tables and chairs had been pushed back, the volume of music had been raised and Ari stood now with Costas, arms high, as they started to do a mesmeric Greek dance.

  Lucy’s breath caught in her throat. It was so beautiful. It should have made Ari look effeminate, but it did the opposite. A couple of the older ladies dressed in black got up and danced with the men, their steps in sync as the music started to increase in tempo. As more people, young and old, joined in and linked arms, the music got faster and faster. The next thing Lucy knew she was being hauled up to join in.

  She hissed at Ari. ‘Don’t you dare.’

  But he didn’t listen, just drew her into the melee, and Lucy found herself laughingly trying to keep up with everyone else. The women were showing her the complex steps, it was frantic and captivating, and as the last evocative chords died away she stumbled right into Ari’s arms.

  Something potent and silent was vibrating between them, and without further ado Ari grabbed Lucy’s cardigan and they left, a silent intensity surrounding them all the way until they returned to the small house. Barely had the door closed before their mouths were fused, hands seeking desperately to touch bare flesh. They didn’t even make it up the stairs. Ari took her there and then, fast and furiously.

  It was only later, after they’d made it to the bed and made love again, that Lucy woke from a tangled dream to a strange sound. She was curled close to Ari’s big body and she looked up to see that he had an arm flung over his face. His breathing was fast and shallow and he was speaking in Greek.

  Lucy put her hand on his arm, tried to draw it down, and it was only when she did that she saw the tracks of tears on his face. Her heart turned over.

  At her light touch, he was awake in an instant, eyes alert, straight on hers. Lucy’s voice was incredibly husky. ‘You were…’ She faltered, nearly saying crying but instinctively stopping herself. ‘You were having a dream…you sounded upset.’

  He did nothing for a moment, and then his face closed over and became so cold she nearly shivered. His expression was quite clear in the bright moonlight streaming in through the open doors.

  In an instant he’d jackknifed off the bed to go and stand with his back to her at the balcony railing, looking out to the dark expanse of the sea. He was naked, and his physique was so gloriously powerful that it took Lucy’s breath away for a moment. He was also extremely tense.

  She got up and pulled on a T-shirt, went over silently to stand next to him. She noticed that his hands were wrapped so tight around the railing that his knuckles shone white. Instinctively she put her hand over his nearest one, and he flinched minutely as if he’d been unaware of her presence. When Lucy looked up at his face it was unbearably harsh, and she knew instantly that this man was worlds apart from the one-dimensional playboy tycoon she’d first believed him to be.

  She didn’t say anything, just kept her hand on his, and after a long moment he said, so quietly that she had to strain to hear, ‘I remember being here…in this house…with my mother and father on holiday, just before she died. Ya-ya was still alive too, and my aunt…and we were happy. Really happy.’

  Lucy didn’t interrupt.

  ‘My father had met my mother when he’d come here on a day-trip with some friends. They were typical Athenians—cocky, arrogant, rich…But he saw her, and within a month he’d taken her back to Athens to be his wife.’

  ‘He must have loved her a great deal.’

  Ari jerked his head to look down at Lucy. She felt tension spike in his form as if he’d just realised that he’d spoken out loud and had a witness.

  ‘Loved her so much that after she died he married again within the year? Please. My father left me here with my grandmother, and the next time I remember seeing him he had Helen Savakis with him. His new wife.’ His lip curled. ‘She convinced him to send me to boarding school, where I was conveniently out of the way, so that she could have her own son and raise him to be my father’s golden child.’

  Lucy’s shock at Helen’s cold-hearted ruthlessness was palpable. ‘But your father left everything to you…?’

  Ari nodded, looking back out to sea. ‘Which is why Anatolios hates me and Helen despises me even more now than she did when I was a child. She hates the fact that she needs me for her security. She hates the fact that I’m not in Athens, where she can try to make me marry a woman of her choosing to control me even more…’


  Lucy winced reflexively at his mention of marriage and remembered his caustic response to Helen’s obvious fear that what was between them might be serious. She guessed in that moment that Ari’s memory of this place and that time when his parents were together ran deep for a reason. If they’d had a halcyon time here, only for his mother to die so suddenly and his father disappear, it must have been heartbreakingly confusing for a small child. How would someone so tiny make any sense of loving a place when it was also the scene of such sorrow?

  But from the sounds of it, if his father had been a successful young man, with the world at his feet, it must have been love for him to marry Ari’s mother, who would have been very poor.

  ‘I can only imagine how hard it must have been for your father to leave you behind…perhaps that’s why he married again so soon…’

  Ari turned then, and looked down at Lucy properly. She felt very exposed in the face of his deep hurt and unmistakable cynicism.

  ‘Yes—and why he found it no chore to send me away to school on his new wife’s recommendation.’

  ‘Ari, I’ve seen the way a woman can enchant a man. Maybe he was just—’

  Just enchanted the way you’re being enchanted right now? The revelation made Ari’s voice harsh. ‘What, Lucy? Please don’t try and feed me some psychobabble nonsense. This subject is closed for discussion.’ His eyes flashed a warning in the silvery light. ‘And you’re far too overdressed.’

  Ari picked Lucy up with an intensity that sent a flutter of fear through her. Instinctively her hands tightened on his shoulders. And then something happened. Almost instantaneously she sensed a different intensity run through him. The mood altered. He looked down at her and she could see feral desire mixed with something almost like confusion in those dark green depths, and her heart ached with a mirror emotion.

  The fact that she could sense his need to dilute the emotion he’d just revealed with physicality made her reach up and touch her mouth to his. She felt him tremble slightly, and as she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss he responded.