In fact her experience with Glen now made her wonder if it might not be better to opt for an anonymous donor after all. In the meantime, she had to cope with knowing she was physically responsive to Markos in a way she hadn’t experienced in the three years since her divorce—if ever!
Jack had been several years older than her when they’d married, and more experienced. Their lovemaking had been fun to explore at the start of their marriage. That interest, for obvious reasons, had eventually faded. To the point that by the end of their marriage, they hadn’t made love in months.
Eva’s self-esteem had been at a very low ebb after the divorce, her confidence in her desirability even lower, and it had taken months for her even to go out on a date with another man—only to discover that her emotions were completely numb, and the most she could feel for any of those men was a distant liking.
But it wasn’t anything as lukewarm as liking—distant or otherwise!—she felt in regard to Markos Lyonedes.
Eva had been convinced—with the experience of her disastrous marriage behind her, and after listening for hours to Donna’s broken-hearted meanderings down the telephone as her cousin mourned her lost love—that she was destined to be the one woman who wouldn’t ever be stupid enough to fall under the sensual spell of all that lethal Lyonedes charm and charismatic good-looks.
Which only went to prove what an arrogant fool she had been.
Because Eva now knew she only had to be in the same room as Markos Lyonedes to be aware of every single thing about him. She could feel the tug of that desire even now, causing her hands to tremble slightly, her breasts to feel hot and swollen, and a dampness between her thighs.
She could see the same desire reflected towards her in the warmth of those dark green eyes. It was a physical attunement that seemed to make the very air between them crackle and dance.
‘It was fine,’ Eva dismissed abruptly. ‘Now, if we could—’
‘Have you and Glen been together long?’
Eva frowned slightly. ‘I’m not sure that it’s any of your business, but we haven’t “been together” at all.’
Eva had gently but firmly refused Glen’s suggestion, before they parted on Saturday evening, that the two of them might go out together again this week, having lost all interest in him with regard to approaching him about IVF.
Markos raised questioning brows. ‘Yet…?’
‘Really, Mr Lyonedes—’
‘Markos.’
‘Markos.’ She gave a brief, meaningless smile of acknowledgement. ‘I really didn’t come here to discuss my personal life—so if we could we just get down to business?’
Markos settled more comfortably against the front of the desk and folded his arms across his chest. He considered Eva with narrowed but appreciative eyes. Her features really were extremely delicate: those gold-coloured eyes, high cheekbones, slender jaw, those full and sensuous lips glossed a deep peach today. With her hair secured at her crown it was now possible to see the slender arch of Eva’s delicious throat, with skin as delicate as pale china.
It was a delectable delicacy that Markos found himself aching to taste. Presumably that wasn’t completely out of the question, if Eva and Glen really weren’t together.
He straightened slowly. ‘That’s a pity, because the only thing that I’m in the least interested in talking about this evening is your personal life.’
Those gold eyes widened warily. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘No?’
Markos found himself watching intently as she moistened those peach-glossed lips before speaking again.
‘I understood from our telephone conversation earlier today that you wanted me here at five o’clock so that we could discuss possible new designs for the décor in your apartment.’
Markos smiled slightly. ‘I don’t remember so much as mentioning any designs for my apartment during our brief conversation this morning.’
‘Well…no,’ she conceded slowly, after a few seconds’ thought. ‘But that was the reason for our two earlier appointments.’
‘Two appointments which you didn’t ever have any intention of keeping.’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
Eva felt about two inches tall as she realised she had behaved like an idiot. But it had just been so tempting, when she had received the call the previous week from Markos Lyonedes’s secretary, asking if she would come to his office to discuss the possibility of redesigning the interior of his apartment. Tempting to accept and then cancel as a small way of showing him that not every woman jumped at the click of his fingers.
She should have realised—given more consideration to the repercussions of her behaviour if the powerful Markos Lyonedes decided to make an issue of it.
Her gaze didn’t quite meet his now. ‘I really did have to be somewhere else on Monday evening.’
‘And Friday?’ He quirked dark brows. ‘Did you really have an emergency appointment with your dentist?’
‘Er—yes.’
Markos eyed her warily. ‘Would you care to explain?’
She grimaced. ‘Perhaps when I introduced the two of you on Saturday evening I should have mentioned that Glen is a dentist.’
His mouth thinned. ‘I see.’
She winced. ‘Do you…?’
‘Oh, I think so.’ Markos nodded slowly, his interest well and truly piqued by the woman now standing in front of him. More than piqued, if he were honest. Markos had no idea why it should be, but he found everything about Eva Grey intriguing. From her lippy conversation to her desirable hourglass figure. ‘You obviously felt an urgent need to have a cavity filled.’
Those golden eyes widened in blank shock, her cheeks filling with colour as she gasped her indignation.
Now it was Markos’s turn to chuckle at Eva’s expense. And for that chuckle to develop into full-throated laughter as he saw that he really had succeeded in rendering this complicated woman speechless. ‘My God, Eva, you should see your face!’ he finally managed through his laughter. ‘Or maybe not; you look a little like a fish out of water at the moment.’
Probably because Eva felt like a fish out of water at that moment. Mouth opening and shutting, her chest rapidly rising and falling as she gasped for breath, her eyes wide and staring. ‘I can’t believe you just said that!’
‘Actually, neither can I.’ He sobered. ‘My Aunt Karelia would consider my conversation most ungentlemanly. Unfortunately for you, I’m more than happy to risk her disapproval if I’ve succeeded in rendering you speechless for once!’
‘Really?’
‘Really,’ Markos confirmed teasingly, aware that Eva was still having trouble regaining her usual spiky confidence.
She gave a disbelieving shake of her head. ‘Your Aunt Karelia would be perfectly correct in her assessment of your behaviour just now.’
‘She usually is,’ he acknowledged ruefully.
A frown appeared between those golden eyes. ‘Who is your Aunt Karelia, exactly? And why does her opinion matter to you?’
Markos gave an affectionate smile. ‘My cousin Drakon’s mother. She’s also been a mother to me since I was eight years old—after I went to live with her and my Uncle Theo when my parents were killed in a plane crash.’
Eva drew her breath in sharply as she heard the pain underlying the practicality of Markos’s tone. She hadn’t known that about him—hadn’t cared to know that about him—and she frowned slightly as she acknowledged that his confiding that information to her had introduced a different sort of intimacy between the two of them from their previous physical awareness, which had seemed to sizzle and crackle in the air only minutes ago. An intimacy that was emotional rather than physical.
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ she murmured finally.
‘Thank you,’ he accepted gruffly.
Eva shifted uncomfortably. ‘Did you like living with your cousin and his parents?’
His grin warmed his eyes to the colour of emeralds. ‘Eventually. I w
as pretty traumatised the first year or so, and probably gave my Aunt Karelia a few grey hairs. But eventually I settled down, and I really couldn’t have asked for a better surrogate family.’
‘You and Drakon are close?’
‘As brothers,’ he confirmed without hesitation.
Eva raised dark brows. ‘I met him a couple of times when he was in New York. I didn’t find him a particularly warm man.’ Tall, dark and gorgeous, yes—just like his cousin Markos—but there was a single-minded ruthlessness to Drakon Lyonedes that he made no effort to hide.
Was it a trait his cousin also possessed…?
Probably, Eva concluded, remembering how Markos had changed on Saturday evening, his manner going from lazily charming to coolly precise, after she had made the comment concerning how he ended his relationships. In fact, apart from the heat of desire that glinted in Markos’s eyes when he looked at her—something that had certainly never been present on the two occasions when Eva had met the coldly remote Drakon Lyonedes—the cousins were very much alike: heart-stoppingly gorgeous and lethally powerful.
Markos’s grin widened. ‘That’s probably because you aren’t a blonde with sea-blue eyes named Gemini!’
‘Gemini is your cousin’s new wife?’
‘It’s been very much a case of “how the mighty are fallen”!’ Markos nodded. ‘One look at Gemini and Drakon was knocked off his feet.’
‘I somehow can’t imagine anything knocking your cousin off his feet.’ Eva eyed him disbelievingly.
Markos shrugged. ‘Neither could I until it happened.’
This conversation had become altogether too personal for Eva’s liking. ‘Interesting as this conversation is, it’s getting late, Markos,’ she said briskly.
He raised those dark brows. ‘Do you have yet another appointment to go to this evening?’
She could so easily have said yes. But instead… ‘Well…no. But—’
‘But what?’
‘But it’s Monday evening, and I always clean my apartment on Monday evenings,’ Eva rallied weakly.
He eyed her mockingly. ‘I thought that was what the weekends were for?’
She gave a disbelieving snort. ‘Admit it, Markos, you’ve never had to clean your own apartment, or anywhere else you’ve lived, at the weekends or any other time!’
‘Not true. I had to keep my own rooms clean when I was at university in Oxford.’ He grimaced. ‘Admittedly I couldn’t see the bedroom carpet for the clutter after the first few weeks, and I ran out of clean clothes on a regular basis, but I coped.’
‘By ignoring the clutter and buying new clothes, probably,’ she guessed derisively.
‘Guilty as charged,’ Markos admitted with an unrepentant grin.
‘That is so— Oh, wow…!’ Eva gasped as she noticed the view from the huge picture window behind him for the first time—surely testament to exactly how powerfully attractive she found Markos, because the view from the window was amazing. New York City in all its glory.
Eva continued to look at the New York skyline as she slowly walked over to the window, dazzled by the combination of the tall, gleaming buildings and the lush green park.
‘I seem to recall you said you thought of Lyonedes Tower as just another tall building blocking the view,’ Markos reminded her as he joined her at the window.
Eva gave a wince at this reminder of the bluntness of her conversation when they first met. ‘I may have been a little…impolite to you at the party on Saturday evening.’
‘May have been?’ he taunted softly.
‘I was impolite,’ she conceded.
‘Any particular reason why…?’
‘Does there have to be a reason?’ Eva glanced sideways at Markos, totally aware of how close he was now standing to her. Close enough for her to inhale the heady combination of the lemon soap and sandalwood aftershave. Close enough that their arms were almost touching. Close enough that Eva was now fully aware of the heat emanating from Markos’s body.
Close enough that Eva could barely breathe for wanting to close that short distance between them and lose herself to the feel of those sensuously chiselled lips devouring her own.
Instead she rushed into speech. ‘I behaved badly—unprofessionally—and I apologise.’
He arched dark brows. ‘Does that mean you’ve reconsidered and are now willing to give me—and my reputation—the benefit of the doubt…?’
‘I’m not sure I would go that far,’ she said warily.
‘Liar,’ Markos murmured huskily. He’d seen the way those luscious golden eyes had darkened to amber, the slight flush appearing in Eva’s porcelain cheeks. Her lips were slightly moist and parted. As if waiting to be kissed.
As if she realised that was Markos’s intention, Eva took a step back and away from him. ‘I really do have to go now. If you’ve changed your mind about considering my designs—’ She broke off as Markos took another step forward, until they were now once again standing so close they were almost touching. She gave a determined shake of her head. ‘Markos, if you’re trying to intimidate me then I think I should warn you—’
‘Warn me of what…?’ Markos murmured throatily, even as he raised one of his hands to cup the warmth of her cheek, before moving the soft pad of his thumb over the softness of her lips, feeling the warmth of her breath against his fingers as he parted those lips in preparation for his kiss.
His own arousal intensified at the feel of that sensual warmth against his skin. His shaft was hard and pulsing, demanding…
Eva’s eyes were wide, deep amber pools as she stared up at him. ‘I should warn you—’
‘Yes…?’ Markos prompted softly, holding that wide and startled gaze with his own as his head began to lower towards hers.
She breathed softly. ‘I really should warn you—’
‘Warn me later, hmm?’ he dismissed gruffly, before finally claiming those full and pouting lips with his own.
Eva totally forgot what it was she wanted to warn Markos about as his other arm moved firmly about her waist and he pulled her in tightly against the heat of his body, angling her face up to his before his mouth finally took possession of hers.
Markos’s kiss was everything that Eva had known it would be—not in any way a gentle exploration, but an instant explosion of the senses, taste, smell, feel, and it felt so good to be against the hard heat of his body as they kissed hungrily, deeply, lips devouring, tongues duelling.
Eva tightly gripped Markos’s shoulders, her legs feeling weak as he crushed the ache of her breasts against his chest. Heat pooled between her thighs as she felt the hard throb of his arousal pressing insistently against her.
The sky could have fallen at that moment, the building collapsed around them, and Eva wouldn’t have noticed, too lost in the heat that consumed them both as Markos’s hands moved down to cup her bottom and pull her in more tightly. He ground his erection against and into her even as their mouths drank greedily of each other.
Eva was on fire, her inner ice melting, and her fingers became entangled in the dark hair at Markos’s nape as she returned that heat, needing, wanting—
She wanted Markos Lyonedes…!
CHAPTER FOUR
‘OH, I’m terribly sorry! I had no idea…!’
Eva wrenched her mouth free of Markos’s to push against the hardness of his chest in an effort to free herself as she heard that startled gasp from the other side of the room. Her cheeks were aflame with embarrassed colour as she turned to see the middle-aged woman who had shown her into the office earlier—obviously Markos’s secretary—now standing in the open doorway, her eyes wide with shock at having interrupted them in a moment of intimacy.
Eva’s efforts to free herself proved totally ineffective as Markos’s arms tightened about her. ‘Let go of me!’ she said fiercely under her breath.
His only answer was to give her an amused glance before turning to look at the woman still standing in the doorway. ‘Are you ready to leave for the day…?’
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The woman looked flustered. ‘I was about to, yes. I— Yes.’
In stark contrast, Markos appeared completely at his ease as he nodded. ‘Thanks, Lena, I’ll see you in the morning.’
‘Mr Lyonedes. Ms Grey.’ The woman Markos called Lena didn’t meet either of their gazes before she quickly turned and left the room, closing the door briskly behind her.
‘I asked you to let go of me!’ Eva instructed, agitated as she once again pushed against the solid muscle that was Markos’s chest. That particular moment of madness was definitely over.
‘Do I have to?’
‘Yes!’
‘Why?’
Eva glared up at him. ‘Because I asked you to.’
He regarded her with amused green eyes. ‘And do you always get what you ask for?’
Sometimes Eva got a lot more than she asked for! For instance, she hadn’t asked to be attracted to this man. Just as she hadn’t asked to enjoy his experienced lips moving so surely and sensually against and over her own. Or to feel her heart almost leap out of her chest as she recognised her own desire to feel and taste the hardness of Markos’s obvious arousal throbbing against the heat of her thighs. All of them were emotions Eva had believed herself to be incapable of feeling. Emotions she didn’t want to feel!
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you…’ she murmured, before reaching behind her to grasp one of his hands, bringing it forward before bending the wrist up at a painful angle as she slipped deftly out of his arms before releasing him.
‘Ouch!’ Markos frowned as he grasped his pained wrist. ‘Where did you learn to do that?’ He eyed her with bemusement once he was sure nothing was broken.
‘Self-defence classes.’ She briskly straightened her jacket before checking that her hair was still neatly secured at her nape, sincerely hoping that Markos couldn’t see that her hands were trembling as she did so. ‘A necessary evil since I moved to New York.’ She shrugged unapologetically.
‘Hmm.’ Markos grimaced as he once again leant back against his desk. ‘You never did tell me the reason you moved to New York.’
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