He wished she trusted him—but it was hardly surprising that she didn’t after the lies her damned mother had told about him years ago. Trust was something that grew slowly as a relationship developed. But did he want a relationship with Louise that was based on any more than simply great sex?
‘When you walked into my office a week ago I felt like I’d been poleaxed,’ he told her roughly. ‘You looked stunning, and if I’d followed my first instinct I’d have made love to you there and then on my desk. I couldn’t forget you, and I used my interest in buying the island as an excuse to find you in Paris.’
Louise could not drag her eyes from Dimitri’s face. His voice was so soft that it seemed to whisper across her skin like a velvet cloak, enfolding her and drawing her to him. Her heart thudded as his head slowly lowered.
‘I’m glad you’re here with me,’ he said, and kissed her.
It was a slow, drugging kiss that stirred her soul. She could not resist him and parted her lips so that he could slide his tongue between them and explore the interior of her mouth until she trembled with need for him.
‘I’m glad too.’ The words slipped out before she could stop them. But it was the truth, Louise acknowledged as Dimitri scooped her into his arms and laid her on the sun-lounger.
He knelt over her and she wound her arms around his neck to pull his mouth down to hers. This was the only place she wanted to be, and he was the only man she had ever wanted to be with.
The kiss became fierce and hungry as passion quickly took control. His hands shook as he untied the straps of her bikini top and pulled it down to bare her breasts.
‘I want you, glikia mou,’ he said thickly. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever have enough of you.’
She watched him pull off his shirt and shorts and her mouth went dry as she stared at his naked bronzed body. He was a work of art—as perfect as a Michelangelo sculpture. Her eyes traced the dark hair that arrowed down over his powerful abdominal muscles and grew thickly at the base of his manhood. The size of his arousal made her catch her breath, and molten heat flooded between her legs when she saw the fierce intent in his eyes as he straddled her.
Soon he would be inside her. She arched her hips, impatient for his possession, but he smiled and shook his head.
‘Not yet. Not until you are ready.’
He could arouse her simply with a look, with one of his sexy smiles, but the feel of his lips closing around one nipple and then its twin was so exquisite that she gave herself up to the mindless pleasure he was eliciting with his hands and mouth. Her heart thundered when he trailed kisses down her body. What he was doing seemed shockingly decadent when they were out in the open, with the hot sun beating down on them. But he slipped his hand between her thighs and gently parted her to explore her with his fingers and then his tongue, and the world disappeared as she became a slave to sensation.
‘Louise …’ Dimitri groaned when she reached for him and stroked the swollen length of his erection. ‘It has to be now.’
Sweat glistened on the bunched muscles of his shoulders as he positioned himself over her. He had never felt like this before—so out of control. He wasn’t sure he liked the feeling. He was used to being in command of himself and everyone around him. But when Louise smiled at him as she was doing now, with her eyes as well as her mouth, he felt—he felt that nothing in the world was more important than making her happy.
‘Dimitri …’ His name left her lips on a soft sigh and she looked into his eyes and saw the tiny gold specks dancing like flames. And then he thrust into her so powerfully that she gasped. But it was pleasure not pain that made her cry out, and as he withdrew almost fully and then thrust again she arched her back and welcomed each forceful stroke that took her higher and higher.
His woman. His woman. The drumbeat thundered in Dimitri’s head and matched the rhythm of his movements as he quickened his pace. He was out of control, driven by a primitive need for this woman and only her.
Faster, harder … with each thrust Dimitri filled her—and Louise loved the way he moved inside her, making their two bodies one. She belonged to him—heart and soul. The thought floated into her mind as unobtrusive yet as tangible as a feather carried on a breeze.
And then he thrust the deepest yet and she stopped thinking, her entire being focused on the explosion of pleasure that detonated within her and sent shockwaves of sensation hurtling to every nerve-ending in a mind-blowing orgasm.
He came almost simultaneously. For a few seconds he fought it, but the intensity of pleasure caused by her internal muscles convulsing around him could not be borne for long, and he gave a savage groan as the tidal wave crashed over him and he felt the sweet flood of release pump from his body.
For a long time afterwards Dimitri could not move. He felt utterly relaxed, with his head pillowed on Louise’s breasts, and he was reluctant to withdraw from her and break the bond between them. He hadn’t had sex that good since—well, he couldn’t remember when. Maybe never, whispered the little voice inside him. But it was still just good sex. There was no reason to think that the wildfire passion he had just experienced with Louise was anything more profound.
No reason at all, he reminded himself as he lifted his head from her neck and saw the sparkle of tears on her lashes.
‘Pedhaki, are you all right? Why are you crying?’
Louise swallowed the tears that clogged her throat. She felt stupidly emotional and utterly overwhelmed. ‘It’s just … it was beautiful.’
Dimitri nodded. Beautiful was a perfect description. He couldn’t have put it better.
CHAPTER TEN
‘YOU look incredible,’ Dimitri murmured later that evening, when he strolled out of his bathroom and caught sight of Louise wearing the blue silk cocktail dress.
‘It’s a beautiful dress.’ Louise studied her reflection in the mirror and felt a little thrill of feminine pleasure as she acknowledged that she did look good. ‘Thank you for buying it for me.’
She had agreed to wear the dress on the understanding that he would not give her any more presents. She believed him when he insisted he did not think she was like her mother, but the memory of Tina wearing expensive clothes and jewellery that had been gifts from her lovers strengthened Louise’s determination not to accept anything from Dimitri. That way there could be no misunderstandings.
‘My grandmother’s diamond fleur-de-lis would have been the perfect accessory.’ She voiced her thoughts unthinkingly.
Dimitri frowned. ‘The pendant belonged to your grandmother?’
‘Yes. My grandfather gave it to her as a wedding present. When she died she left it to me. I loved it because it reminded me of her.’
He had misjudged Louise badly, Dimitri thought guiltily. He had been quick to label her a gold-digger, but the truth was that she was nothing like her mother.
‘You speak as if you no longer have it.’
There was a brief, awkward silence before Louise said quickly, ‘It’s at the jeweller’s. The clasp was loose. Actually, that’s where I went after I left your hotel in Paris.’
It was not a lie. The jeweller had told her that the clasp which secured the pendant to the gold chain was faulty and that he would have to repair it before he could sell the necklace.
Dimitri studied her intently, as if he guessed she was keeping something from him. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said finally. ‘You don’t need any adornment. The colour of the dress matches the blue of your eyes just as I thought it would. If you would allow me to I would love to fill your wardrobe with beautiful clothes.’
‘You said you like me best wearing nothing at all,’ she reminded him with a wicked smile that set his pulse racing.
‘That is true, and I will demonstrate my appreciation for your naked body later, glikia mou.’ He laughed softly when she blushed. ‘Anyone would think you were an innocent virgin,’ he murmured, running his finger lightly down her pink cheek. ‘But we both know that’s not true.’
His kiss
held tenderness as well as desire, and Louise melted into it, parting her lips beneath his so that his tongue could probe the moist interior or her mouth.
‘I knew I should have cancelled dinner,’ Dimitri growled, wondering how the hell he was going to get through the evening with a rock-solid erection straining against his zip.
Dimitri’s dinner guests were personal friends rather than business associates. Louise sensed their surprise when they learned that she was staying with him, and was puzzled because she’d assumed that he often invited his mistresses to his home.
She did not like to think of herself as his mistress. Having seen her mother flit from one affair to the next, she had vowed that she would never give up her career and her independence for any man. Tina had treated the men she’d had affairs with like gods—but when they had tired of her they had treated her like dirt.
When her affair with Dimitri was over she would go back to Paris and the job she loved, and she would do her best to forget about him, Louise told herself, trying to ignore the way her heart lurched when he strode across the room towards her.
‘My sister has just phoned to say she’s running a little late,’ he explained. Dimitri introduced the man with him. ‘Louise, this is a good friend of mine—Takis Varsos. Takis is a curator at the National Art Gallery in Athens.’
‘It is a pleasure to meet you,’ Takis murmured.
He was a few years old than Dimitri, Louise guessed, pleasant-faced, with greying hair and brilliant black eyes behind heavy spectacles.
‘I understand you work at the Louvre? I have many questions I’d like to ask you—and perhaps I can tell you about Greece’s national art collection?’
Dimitri laughed. ‘I’ll leave the two of you to talk while I go and check that Halia is okay to delay dinner until Ianthe arrives.’
Fifteen minutes later Louise had finished a fascinating conversation with Takis when Dimitri rejoined her, accompanied by a dark-haired woman whose facial features bore a striking resemblance to his. She felt suddenly nervous, wondering if his sister resented her because of her mother’s affair with Kostas Kalakos, but Ianthe greeted her warmly.
‘Louise, I’m so pleased to meet you again. It’s many years since we met on Eirenne, and there wasn’t time for us to get to know one another,’ she said without a hint of bitterness. ‘How amazing that you and Dimitri met by chance in Paris.’
Louise flushed as she caught Dimitri’s eye. ‘Yes, it’s a small world,’ she murmured dryly.
‘I’ll get you some champagne, agapiti,’ he told his sister, and strolled away.
‘He’s wonderful, isn’t he?’ Ianthe glanced after him. ‘I was badly injured a few years ago, and he looked after me for months after I left hospital.’ She looked curiously at Louise. ‘I understand you are selling Eirenne to Dimitri? It will be nice to go back to the island. We loved it when we were children, and I would like to take Ana there for holidays when she’s older.’
She turned towards the man who had come to stand beside her. ‘This is my husband, Lykaios.’
Louise returned Lykaios’s greeting, but her eyes were drawn to the tiny bundle wrapped in a shawl that Ianthe now carefully lifted out of her husband’s arms.
‘And this is our daughter,’ Ianthe announced with fierce maternal pride. ‘Ana Maria—which was my mother’s name. I fed her before we left, so hopefully she’ll stay settled during dinner. Would you like to hold her?’
She could hardly refuse. Louise hoped that if anyone noticed her sudden tension they would think she was simply nervous about holding a newborn baby.
Ianthe placed the precious bundle in her arms and she stared in wonder at the little face peeping from the folds of the shawl. Ana was beautiful, with a mass of black hair and petal-soft pink cheeks, her long eyelashes fringing huge dark eyes.
The pain in Louise’s chest was so intense that she drew a sharp breath. It shouldn’t hurt so much after all this time, she thought bleakly, but the loss of her baby was something she would never forget. A lump formed in her throat. If things had been different years ago she would have held her own baby in her arms, breathed in the evocative scent of her own newborn son or daughter. Dimitri would have been a father. But he was not even aware that she had conceived his child.
She wished now that she had told him—wished they could have shared the pain of losing their child. But perhaps he would not have cared. Perhaps he would have been relieved that her unplanned pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage.
The other guests had crowded round to admire Ianthe’s baby and there was some good-natured teasing going on among the men about who was next in line for fatherhood.
‘Dimitri’s way behind,’ Lykaios commented. ‘He’s not even married yet. You’ll have to get a move on,’ he told his brother-in-law. ‘It’s up to you to produce an heir to take over running Kalakos Shipping.’
‘I don’t think a child should be brought into the world to fill a pre-determined role.’ Dimitri’s tone became serious as lifted his niece from Louise’s arms. ‘A baby should be conceived from love, and if I ever have children I would encourage them to follow their dreams and live their life how they choose.’
Louise shot him a startled look. It was a bittersweet irony that his views on parenthood were exactly the same as hers. She’d felt instinctively that he would be a good father, and the tender expression on his face as he cradled Ana against his chest intensified the ache inside her.
She would love to have his child.
The thought stole into her head and refused to leave. It was stupid to think things like that, she reminded herself. After her first pregnancy had failed she had been warned that she might have difficulty conceiving again. And more pertinently, she must not forget that Dimitri had brought her to Athens so that she could fulfil her side of the deal they had made. She was his temporary mistress, and two weeks from now she would return to Paris and never see him again.
The guests had departed and the staff had returned to their own homes for the night. As Dimitri walked through the ground-floor rooms switching off the lights his thoughts were focused on Louise. She had seemed to enjoy the dinner with his friends, but beneath her smile he had sensed an air of sadness about her. He had even leaned close to her at the dinner table and asked if anything was wrong, and although she had assured him she was fine he had glimpsed a haunted expression in her eyes that bothered him.
The patio doors in the sitting room were open, the voile curtains billowing in the soft breeze. Louise was standing on the terrace and appeared to be absorbed in her own thoughts. She glanced up as Dimitri reached her and dashed her hand across her face—but not before he caught the glimmer of tears on her cheeks.
‘Glikia, what’s wrong?’
Louise shook her head, unable to explain the ache in her heart. If only she could turn back time … if only she hadn’t listened to her mother and believed the worst of Dimitri … if only she hadn’t lost their baby.
Regrets were pointless, but knowing it did not stop her wishing that things had been different.
Dimitri caught a tear clinging to her lashes on his thumb-pad and felt a strange sensation, as if a hand was squeezing his heart. ‘Pedhaki? ’
‘I was just looking at the stars and thinking how small and insignificant we are.’ She laughed self-consciously. ‘I think I must have had too much champagne.’
He knew she had only had one glass, but he said nothing and stared up at the black sky, pinpricked with millions of tiny diamonds.
‘You see that bright star up there?’ He pointed. ‘That’s the North Star.’
Louise stared at the heavens. ‘Have you studied astronomy?’
‘Not in great detail, but I used to go sailing with my father when I was a boy and he taught me a little of how to navigate using the stars. Of course GPS systems mean there’s no need to look at the night sky now, but it was fun.’ He sighed. ‘I often wish I could turn the clock back.’
It was uncanny that they had both been
thinking the same thing—almost as if their minds were connected, Louise thought.
‘Why do you wish that?’ she whispered.
‘I regret that I was never reconciled with my father. Both of us said things that would have been better left unsaid, and I never got the chance to tell him that I was sorry, that I loved him. No one could have predicted his heart attack,’ Dimitri said heavily. ‘I was on the other side of the world when it happened and by the time I arrived back in Athens I was too late. He died an hour before I reached the hospital.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Louise heard the raw pain in his voice and her heart ached for him. Dimitri had been estranged from his father because of Kostas’s relationship with her mother, and although he did not mention it the spectre of the affair that had ripped his family apart hovered between them.
‘It’s not your fault,’ he said gently, as if he had read her mind. ‘None of it was your fault. I blame myself and my pigheadedness. I was young and arrogant. I saw everything in terms of black and white and forgot that life doesn’t last for ever.’
Louise stared up at the stars. Sometimes life was over before it had even begun, she thought painfully.
‘Dimitri—if what we had on Eirenne meant something to you, why didn’t you try to contact me again later?’ She tilted her head and studied his handsome face, felt the familiar dip of her stomach. His eyes were shadowed and she had no idea what he was thinking, but she had to ask the question that had been eating away at her. ‘I know you couldn’t at first, while Ianthe was in hospital, but after she had recovered why didn’t you call?’
‘I didn’t for several reasons,’ he said after a long silence. ‘My damnable pride was one of them.’ Louise had rejected him and it had hurt—although he had refused to admit it. He raked a hand through his hair. ‘I wasn’t in a position to contemplate any sort of relationship with you. My father had disinherited me and I thought—what the hell? I was angry and determined to prove to him that I didn’t need him. I established my company, Fine Living, and worked obsessively to make it a success. I guess I needed to prove to myself as well as my father that I could make it on my own. My social life took second place to my ambition, and the women I dated were …’
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