The hum of his worked muscles and a low nag at the very back of his mind were both trying to issue him with a timely warning. But he chose to ignore it and allowed his head to sink luxuriously back into the depths of the deep, cool pillows.
He breathed in extravagantly and reveled in the moment once more.
This small, rude, velvety, adorable creature was fun, but he resisted the urge to wake her up even though he was missing their playful, waking banter.
He was busy making plans.
So she insisted on having a boring old job? He could deal with that, but how he was going to let her out of his bed long enough to go to it was a problem he’d have to work around somehow. And he’d also have to make sure there weren’t any male colleagues around her, he thought with an uncomfortable burst of possessiveness.
He rubbed quietly at his brow. No, cheating wasn’t a possibility he was prepared to even consider—she was his woman now, but the nagging worry would not go away.
Would she be tempted? She had thanked him for taking her virginity, as if it was something she couldn’t wait to be rid of—maybe this was just the beginning for her, the start of some pioneering sexual adventure that didn’t necessarily involve him any further.
Hell, he was getting carried away in his own head! He was becoming insanely jealous at the mere idea of Kizzy’s having another man in her life, and that wasn’t the deal they’d made. Not in the long term, anyway.
Andreas rubbed the back of his neck. Somehow she’d gotten under his skin.
His mind went blank for a moment as he tried to untangle his thoughts, and his eyes were beginning to hurt. He needed to get back on planet Lazarides quickly. He needed to keep Kizzy under his control—to protect her from opportunists and those who might hurt her; she seemed so naïve about people.
But before he could do that he needed to get a grip on himself.
When Andreas emerged from the shower ten minutes later, Kizzy was gone, just a crumpled pillow where her head had been. A sense of loss hit him, which was ridiculous as she had every right to get out of bed and wander off if she wanted to. There was no reason she should stay within a few feet every moment of the day.
But a persistent little voice in his head informed him that he wanted her to do exactly that.
Where had she gone?
He wrestled on his robe and shoved his way through the bedroom door, marching much more quickly than necessary down the silent corridor.
…
Kizzy jumped with fright as Andreas’s grimly set face appeared through the door, the force of his shoulder causing it to slam roughly into the stone wall.
“What on earth’s the matter?”
He shrugged himself upright, running a hand through his wet, unruly hair.
“Nothing,” he replied in stiff acknowledgement. “I need coffee that’s all.” He must have noticed the bemused look on her face as she stood motionless with a spoon drooping in her hand, because he added, “To wake myself up.”
“I thought we were being ambushed or something,” she half laughed. “Slow down!”
His eyes flickered around the kitchen and, if Kizzy wasn’t mistaken, he seemed to be struggling to say something.
“Are you all right?” she ventured gently, putting down the spoon and taking a step toward him.
He took her by the shoulders, closing his eyes as he buried his face in her hair and breathed in her spicy floral scent. “I just wondered where you were, that’s all,” he murmured.
“Well, it was probably reckless,” Kizzy replied as she wriggled in his embrace, “but I thought I’d make a start on breakfast—surprise you.”
Andreas smiled. “So what are we having, pethi mou?”
“Um, well, I’d gotten as far as finding the coffee.”
“Then let me take over,” he replied as he took the spoon from the table. “Your kitchen slave days are over now, and besides, I want to spoil you.”
“Wow.” Kizzy rewarded him with a wicked grin. “Do I pay for this later?”
“You most certainly do. In kind. You’re quite good at that but I can’t yet vouch for your coffee.” He shot her a look of admonishment. “And if we don’t stop getting distracted, madam, it’ll be lunchtime before either of us gets fed!”
He fended off her playful jab in the ribs with his elbow and felt laughter rising within him as she grabbed the belt of his robe and gave it a suggestive tug.
“I’m serious. If we don’t get out of the villa very quickly, I will be driven to taking you back to bed again.” He stroked a palm over the rounded swell of her bottom. “And that will be the entire day gone, won’t it?”
“It’s so beautiful here, so peaceful. I feel as if I could stay here forever,” Kizzy mused as she brushed breakfast crumbs off the robe she was wearing on to the stones of the outside terrace.
“You can if you like,” Andreas murmured.
Kizzy laughed uneasily as she noticed the serious expression on his face. He was astonishingly beautiful.
Their eyes locked for a few seconds before he lowered his gaze to his coffee cup.
She shouldn’t allow herself to imagine things that weren’t really there. It was just sex—a temporary, no-strings arrangement between consenting adults.
“No, I can’t stay, Andreas. You freed me from my ties in England, gave me my wings and now… When all this is over and I’ve paid back what I owe, I have to chase the dreams I never thought I could fulfill.”
“You don’t have to pay me back, Kizzy. I thought I’d made that clear.”
“But I do,” she replied with widened eyes. “It’s important to me, to stand on my own two feet—to be independent.”
Andreas ground his teeth silently before replying. “So what are these dreams, Kizzy? Tell me exactly what you want at this stage of your new life.”
Kizzy eyed him warily, unsure if she should open herself up fully to this beautiful man. He’d taken the body she had so eagerly offered up to him over and over again, but was she ready to give him a secret, tender slice of her soul as well?
“They’re all a bit low-key.”
“Let me be the judge of that,” he replied and placed his coffee cup down on the table with a look of intense purpose.
Kizzy took a deep breath. “Well, we never had a decent kitchen. I’d like an ultra-cozy one with enough room to have a long, wooden table and a bashed-up old sofa in the corner—with a fat cat sleeping on it. And copper pans.”
She shot him a sharp look to gauge his reaction, but his face gave nothing away.
“I want to ride a stallion across New Forest heathland at dusk.” Not even a twitch. “And I want to see what it’s like to get my hair done in a proper salon.”
Andreas swallowed. “I can give you all that, Kizzy. Won’t you let me do that for you?”
“I can’t,” she replied sadly and bit down on her bottom lip.
“Why not? Why not let me look after you? I have the means, you know that.” He glanced briefly toward the ocean, toward the sound of waves crashing against the rocks, and then switched his gaze back to her. “And I’d like to.”
She was almost too scared to continue as she looked into the dark, forbidding depths of his eyes, searching for the chip of ice she knew was in there. It was as if she were standing on a cliff edge over a deep, untested pool, balanced precariously as the wind buffeted her. One foot poised. Jump in? Or jump back?
“Because it’s not enough.”
“What’s not enough?”
She dived.
“One day I might want a baby, a family of my own, and I want to make a proper life for that family—better than the miserable one I had. I can’t bring my mum back, but I can try to keep the promise I made not to follow in her footsteps. But that’s a step too far on the wish list as far as you and I are concerned, isn’t it? “
His brooding silence told Kizzy all she needed to know and for some reason she was allowing it to slice her heart into tiny little pieces as she felt the f
lutter of something new, fragile, and beautiful die within her. She knew the score and had to stop herself from wanting to change the rules now their little game was under way.
“So, much as I love your kitchen and your island, and know you can buy all those other material things for me, I haven’t got much time to fit everything in.”
Her heart was pounding with sickening force and she was beginning to feel horribly light-headed. This was terrible, but she had to finish what she’d started. She couldn’t back out now. Straightening her back as if erecting an impenetrable shield around herself, she lunged in with a quick conclusion.
“So before I settle down I’d like to see some of the world. Move on, get that Gypsy wanderlust out of my system once and for all—I can’t do that with a mortgage and a fat, old cat relying on me, can I?”
Her breath quickened as Andreas tapped a coffee spoon on the table and let out a long, slow breath—the sound of his agreeing with her presumably, and not wishing to continue with this awkward conversation.
“Now look,” Kizzy announced and waved her hand in the air. “I’ve gone and spoiled our lovely breakfast.”
“Not at all.” He put the spoon down with a profound click, and a muscle worked in his jaw as he stared at the table. “Planning for the future is natural and sensible. Your hopes and wishes just go to show that you’re a normal human being. It’s a good job one of us is.”
Before Kizzy could ask him what he meant by that odd comment, the frantic rasping sound of a horn outside made her jump.
“What the—?”
“That’ll be Orfeas with our luggage. He always was a noisy little beggar and I’m sure he makes such a racket just to annoy me!” Andreas abruptly stood and raised a hand to stop Kizzy joining him. “Wait here while I sort him out.”
It was an order, not a request, Kizzy realized, as he strode quickly off through a tunnel of bougainvillea.
She let out a long sigh as she refocused her attention on the endless, sparkling blue of the sea instead of the broad shoulders she longed to cling to. She’d gone too far, stepped over an invisible line as far as their relationship was concerned.
Relationship.
It was laughable; they’d met only a short while ago, fallen into bed almost straightaway, and here she was, daring to use the word “relationship” in the privacy of her head. No wonder Andreas had been so keen to distance himself from her suppressed desires—he’d leaped up at the first opportunity and disappeared quicker than a scalded cat. This was supposed to be an exciting affair, a week of sizzling, passionate sex—not a depressing rerun of her inadequate childhood.
She had a lot to learn, especially about when to keep quiet.
But it was done now, she’d blurted out her secret wants and desires to him, and there was nothing more to say on the matter. She just needed to remember not to do anything so stupid again, and then maybe they’d be able to enjoy this luxurious time together—if it wasn’t already too late.
…
Andreas stood with his hands on his hips in the middle of Kizzy’s bedroom and stared silently at the boutique boxes that Orfeas had piled up on the floor and stripped bed.
Andreas had quickly taken the crumpled bed linen that had been left in one corner and hidden it in the bathroom before Orfeas could notice. The bare mattress had taken him by surprise when he’d first gone in; the room looked like a bomb had hit it and blown everything toward the edges of the room. Something dramatic had clearly been going on in her head when all this had happened.
Had she been angry, keen to remove all traces of their lovemaking? Was she ashamed of what they’d done?
Yet he too had hidden the sheets in case Orfeas saw them. Why had he felt the need to do that?
So many questions he didn’t have answers to. He shook his head to chase the thoughts away.
Bundling the washing against his chest, he nudged open the bedroom door with one foot and marched down toward the utility room. He hadn’t stepped foot in the annex since the building had been renovated, and now looked irritably around for the washing machine. Having located the top-of-the-line appliance and shoved in the linen, he paused for a moment to study the buttons, dials, and digital display on its control panel and frowned.
He rasped a large hand across his chin and felt a growl of frustration building up inside him—he didn’t have a clue how to work the damn thing.
It was his house, his bloody laundry room, and he was at a complete loss as to what to do next. It was ridiculous; any normal adult would be able to deal with it—he was sure Kizzy would know how to work this washing machine.
The way he had started to analyze his behavior and lifestyle in the last few days was becoming draining—taking him emotionally to places he would rather not be. He didn’t have answers for all the questions in his head, and it unnerved him, and Kizzy wasn’t reacting toward him in the way she should, in the way he had anticipated.
He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t just let him look after her, give her a carefree life. One part of her wanted stability and security and another craved wild and reckless freedom—she didn’t know what she wanted, it seemed to him. But it had also come as little surprise that precious jewels and expensive holidays weren’t on her list of priorities; life had been very hard and very cruel to this woman so far.
He forced his brain away from thoughts of Kizzy and back into practical mode. He’d leave a note for Orfeas’s wife to sort out all the laundry and unpacking later, and he would concentrate on sorting out Kizzy. He’d make her see sense.
Andreas glared at the washing machine once more before he left the room. Its large, round drum almost seemed to be laughing at him.
…
“You’ll be pleased to hear we’re staying for the week,” Andreas announced to Kizzy’s back as she stared across the infinity pool toward the glittering ocean.
“Pardon?” She turned to face him with a look of surprise.
“Yes,” he continued and rolled his shoulders enthusiastically. “I’ve cancelled everything.”
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
“So what about the contract, your diplomatic missions next week, and all the other stuff that’s made you so desperate to get your minions moving?”
“Cancelled. Well, not exactly. It’s time my senior executives started pulling their weight and earning their salaries. I have delegated all my commitments to them for the next seven days.”
“But, Andreas, you made me come here because of your ridiculous gag order. You can’t just cancel it!”
“Things have changed.”
Kizzy crossly placed her hand on her hips and cocked her head to one side. “Because we’re lovers now?”
“Yes,” he agreed stiffly. “With regard to the contract—it’s not something I feel necessary any more.”
“Well, that’s all right then.”
“I said that I don’t feel it’s necessary but if you do, of course, then you can name your terms and it will be done.”
“I never wanted it in the first place, remember? It’s unnecessary.”
“So you trust me?”
“I’ve already said I do.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Andreas replied softly, and an unusual feeling of light-headedness washed over him. “Your swimwear is on your bed—get into it and join me back here. It’s time both of us had the opportunity to behave normally again. Do you realize how long it’s been since I swam in the Aegean?”
“Tell me.”
“It’s been so long that I can’t remember.” Which was a lie, he noted inwardly. It had been shortly before Callista’s fatal accident that he had last swum in the Aegean. “Don’t forget to bring a hat and some sunscreen. The sun can be fierce at this time of day, and your skin is very pale.”
…
“So what are you missing in Paris next week?” Kizzy ventured as they bobbed like corks in the sparkling, turquoise sea.
“A key meeting of the Global Roma
Rights Committee—I represent Greece there just as often as I can,” he replied. “It’s scheduled as a follow-up to the meeting I missed in London, but a bomb scare stopped that, I’m informed.”
“Yes, it caused chaos didn’t it?” Kizzy commented wryly. “That’s what made me late for our meeting.”
Andreas seemed to drift off into his own little world for a moment. “Isabella never mentioned that.”
“Isabella wasn’t in the mood to listen that day, believe me,” Kizzy replied with a playful grimace. “Sweet revenge for all my annoying phone calls, I guess.”
Andreas raised his eyebrows in silent, ironic agreement. “Yes—Isabella has her difficult moments. And while we’re on the subject, Kizzy, I never did ask why you pretended to be my tyrannical secretary that day in London.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Kizzy said weakly and lowered her eyes to follow the swish of her hand just below the water’s surface. “It—it just came out, the first name that popped into my head.”
Andreas laughed softly. “What’s wrong with good old Kizzy Dean?”
“You were a stranger,” she replied quietly.
Andreas placed his fingertips under her chin and gently pushed her face up to meet his gaze. “I don’t understand.”
Kizzy swallowed. “You’ll think me very peculiar.”
“I won’t,” he insisted. “Tell me.”
She frowned, and then shrugged. “A lot of bad things happened to Mum when I was a baby—she was very vulnerable and learned a lot of hard lessons. One of the things she drummed into me as soon as I was old enough to understand was never trust a stranger. You don’t tell them your age, where you live or even your name, because they might be trying to ‘get’ you.”
Andreas curved the palm of his hand against her cheek as she spoke. He was trying to comfort her with its warmth, to encourage her. And then he realized that everything seemed to feel so much better when he was touching her.
Kidnapped by the Greek Billionaire Page 11