by Lynne Graham
‘You’re playing with some pretty strong emotional issues here. That’s why I would try to be reasonable, if I were you.’
‘But I think that Leonidas is just curious. I don’t see him getting that involved with Elias,’ Maribel said tautly. ‘Leonidas has never been that fussed about kids.’
The older woman subjected her to a shrewd appraisal. ‘You really know Leonidas Pallis very well, don’t you?’
Maribel lowered defensive lashes. ‘Reasonably well.’
‘Then hang onto that bond before you lose it,’ Ginny advised ruefully. ‘For your son’s sake. Some day, Elias will want to know all about his background and he will want to know his father, as well. Making decisions on Elias’ behalf is a big responsibility.’
Shamed into reconsidering her stance, but with all her misgivings still very much in place, Maribel went straight back home and phoned Leonidas on his private number. Leonidas answered the call. The instant he heard her voice, he gave his PA a signal that his meeting with his legal team was on hold until he finished the dialogue.
‘Maribel,’ he murmured smooth and soft.
‘All right, you can see Elias. I was being unreasonable. Just let me know when you would like to see him.’
A wave of satisfaction engulfed Leonidas and a rare smile banished the cold set of his lean, strong features. ‘I’ll send a car to pick you up in an hour. Okay?’
Maribel swallowed. The immediacy of that request disconcerted her and she would’ve preferred to stage the meeting on familiar ground. On the other hand, Ginny’s warnings had unnerved her and she did not want to be awkward. ‘It’s short notice, but I don’t work on Thursdays, so that will be fine.’
‘You’ve pleased me, glikia mou,’ Leonidas imparted with approval. ‘I’ll see you later.’
Maribel came off the phone with gritted teeth. She suspected that had she had four legs like Mouse Leonidas might have rewarded her with a pat on the head and a chocolate treat for her obedience. But surely that was better than being at odds with him? She pelted upstairs with Elias to get changed.
A vast limousine complete with an accompanying carload of what appeared to be security guards arrived to pick her up and filled her with dismay. So much for discretion! Fastened into his car seat in the palatial passenger area, Elias took a nap. Garbed in a turquoise skirt and top, Maribel sat with a mirror and did her make-up while attempting not to be impressed by the cream leather upholstery and the built-in array of entertainment equipment. It was some time before she appreciated that possibly she should have asked Leonidas where their meeting was taking place, because the limo did not head into London as she had expected. Her tension increased when the car swept down a long drive and a vast Georgian mansion appeared ahead. Surrounded by rolling parkland that was furnished with stately trees, it was as picture-book perfect as a film set for a historical costume drama.
Resolving not to be intimidated, Maribel balanced Elias on her hip and strolled into a hall the size of a small football pitch. A manservant spread wide a door for her entrance into an exquisitely furnished reception room. She paused to lower Elias to the ground because he was a little squirming, impatient bundle after being cooped up for so long in the car.
Leonidas saw Maribel first and was immediately distracted, for, as she bent over, the neckline of her top gaped to reveal the creamy swell of her full, rounded breasts. Lust took Leonidas instantaneously and infuriated him. Not for the first time, he wondered why it was that a slight provocative glimpse of Maribel’s violin curves should have a more powerful effect on him than a full-on striptease. As she straightened, glossy chestnut tresses fanning back to reveal her vivid eyes and pouting raspberry-tinted mouth, he knew he was going to bed her again. But then as the child who had wandered behind her finally came into view and took his attention by storm Leonidas totally forgot what he had been thinking.
‘He’s so small,’ he breathed gruffly.
Her mouth ran dry when she saw Leonidas. On the brink of pointing out that Elias was actually very tall for his age, Maribel also forgot what she was thinking. Leonidas, garbed in well-cut jeans and a coffee-coloured T-shirt teamed with a designer linen jacket, grabbed the entirety of her attention. Black hair brushed back from his brow, and dark, deep-set eyes intent on Elias below level ebony brows, Leonidas looked jaw-droppingly spectacular. Achingly handsome, fashionable and elegant. Suddenly she felt hot and underdressed—and horribly plain.
‘Elias!’ Maribel called as the little boy tried to climb over the big square coffee table. He was at an age where he wanted to scale every obstacle in his path.
‘Let him enjoy himself,’ Leonidas told her with impatience.
The Pallis approach to parenting, Maribel thought, and then scolded herself for being prejudiced. Leonidas crouched down on the other side of the low table. Clambering upright, Elias gave him a huge grin and fell still halfway in his journey towards the elaborate flower arrangement that had attracted his attention. From several feet away, Maribel watched man and boy exchange eye contact. Elias was fearless and full of beans. Leonidas had only to open his arms for Elias to chuckle and run at him, sensing that fun was on offer.
‘Man,’ Elias pronounced with approval, for there was none in his world.
‘Daddy,’ Leonidas contradicted without hesitation, resting his broad shoulders back against the sofa behind him to allow Elias to scramble freely over him.
Maribel parted her lips to object and then sealed them shut again. Leonidas lifted Elias up and held him upside down above him. Elias was thrilled by that manoeuvre. Maribel watched in frank fascination while Leonidas, whom she had never seen make an uncool move in his life, engaged in horseplay on the rug with Elias. They ambushed each other round the sofa. Elias got rolled and tossed about and he clearly adored every minute of such robust handling. Feeling superfluous, Maribel sat down on the arm of a chair. She had expected to act as a connecting point, but neither her son nor his father required her encouragement to get to know each other. The discovery that Leonidas could relax to that extent with a young child astonished her.
‘He’s amazing,’ Leonidas pronounced finally. ‘What do I do with him now?’
Exhausted by all the excitement, Elias was draped over Leonidas now like a small crumpled blanket.
‘He’s ready to go to sleep.’
‘No problem.’ Leonidas vaulted upright. ‘I’ve got a crib waiting for him upstairs.’
‘Do you want me to carry him?’
‘No. I need to learn how to manage him.’
‘You’re doing very well for someone who’s not used to children.’ Maribel accompanied him up the long, elegant stone-and-iron stairway.
‘Elias is different. He’s mine.’
The bedroom that contained the crib also contained a uniformed nanny, who could just as easily have competed as an entrant in an international beauty contest. A six-foot-tall Nordic blonde with a pearly smile, she took Elias and cooed over him while attending to him with an efficiency that could only impress. Even so, Maribel was dismayed at the speed with which Leonidas had acquired a member of staff to take care of Elias, and said so.
Leonidas shrugged. ‘We have to talk. Elias has to sleep and he needs someone to watch over him. Diane has superb references. Loosen the apron strings, glikia mou.’
Maribel was mortified. ‘Is that what you think?’
‘I want to share the responsibility of raising Elias. Stop worrying. You’re not on your own any more.’
‘But I’ve managed fine on my own.’
Ignoring that defensive rejoinder, Leonidas rested a lean hand lightly at her spine and walked her to the end of the landing where a giant window overlooked a fabulous view of the parkland. He knew exactly what he was doing and he was determined to win her agreement. If everything went to plan, she and Elias would be flying out to Greece with him the next morning and he would be introducing his son to the family. ‘What do you think of Heyward Park?’
‘This place?’ Her bro
w furrowed in bemusement. ‘It’s—it’s magnificent.’
Leonidas turned her round to face him. The sudden intimacy in the air took her by surprise and she went pink, insanely conscious of his masculine proximity. His stunning dark golden eyes glittered in his lean, devastatingly handsome face. ‘I would like you and Elias to make this your home.’
Shattered by that proposition coming at her right out of the blue, Maribel froze, her brain going into override while she attempted to work out exactly what he meant. But she could think of only one possible interpretation: he was asking her to move in with him! What else could he possibly mean? It was so typical of Leonidas to behave as though the most important issues were quite inconsequential. He understated, rather than overstated, with a dispassionate cool that few could match. ‘Leonidas…’ she tried to say, but her voice ran out of steam and croaked into silence again.
‘Why not?’ Leonidas murmured softly, staring steadily down at her while combing her luxuriant hair back from the sides of her face with surprisingly gentle fingers.
Her breath rattled in her constricted throat. He had never set up home with any woman before and she was very much aware of the fact. So were the newspapers and magazines that recycled incessant stories of how ruthlessly he ended his affairs and maintained his unfettered lifestyle. But then, nobody had taken account of how the advent of one little boy might affect the Pallis outlook. ‘You’ve really taken me by surprise.’
‘You’re not fighting me any more.’ A charismatic smile curved his wide sensual mouth as she gazed up at him with anxious violet-blue eyes. ‘I appreciate your generosity.’
Her heart was beating so fast it felt as if it were in her throat. He was only asking her to move in because of Elias. She couldn’t accept on those terms; she couldn’t possibly. Didn’t she have any pride?
‘And I also appreciate you very much, glikia mou,’ Leonidas stressed as though he could read her mind. He lowered his arrogant dark head, his breath fanning her cheek. ‘Se thelo…I want you.’
Shaken by that additional declaration, Maribel blinked in confusion. It felt like too much too soon, but Leonidas was very decisive and he always moved fast. It would be stupid, she told herself, to expect a male as forceful an individual as he to behave like everyone else. The faint familiar tang of his cologne flared her nostrils, releasing an intoxicating tide of intimate memory. She felt weak, wicked. A little inner voice warned her to back off and she ignored it, ensnared by the frisson of anticipation coursing through her. He made her feel astonishingly good. He made her feel sexy. He made her feel totally unlike staid, sensible Maribel, and she would not have exchanged the high she was on at that instant for a fortune in gold and diamonds. It was crazy. He had not seen her in over two years and yet he was inviting her to live with him.
‘Are you planning to slap me?’ Leonidas husked, pressing his expert mouth to a tender pulse point just below her ear and almost making her knees buckle in the process.
Her clutching fingers curled round his lapel to help her stay upright and tip him towards her. A low-pitched, sexy laugh was dredged from deep in his throat. He toyed with her mouth. She couldn’t breathe for excitement, certainly couldn’t think. Time hung in suspension while her heart hammered. His tongue slid moistly between her lips in a sensual plunge that stirred a shocking ache between her thighs. That cautionary voice at the back of her mind was jumping up and down and shouting now. Stop, don’t be stupid…it’ll end in tears again! But she could not resist the temptation he offered. Her disobedient fingers dug into his hair and held her to him as she kissed him back with passionate fervour.
Leonidas hauled her up into his arms with more haste than ceremony, as he was determined to take advantage of the moment. One of her shoes fell off and she giggled. She was all passion and high spirits, and he couldn’t get enough of her in that mood. He hadn’t been able to get enough of her that night he’d slept with her either. She had put a pillow down the centre of the bed and threatened to scream if he dared to cross it again. As he bore her off to the bedroom he was satisfied that he had played a winning hand. He had not been totally confident that she would agree to his scheme. Ninety-nine out of a hundred women would have bitten his arm off in their eagerness to say yes, but Maribel approached every issue with a shopping list of far from flexible expectations. Add in her old-fashioned streak, and when she dug her heels in it could take dynamite to shift her.
A door thudded shut somewhere. Maribel had yet to open her eyes again. He lowered her to a carpet that was soft and silky below the sole of her foot. She kicked off the remaining shoe and snatched in a jagged breath when he released her reddened mouth from the devouring onslaught of his. He was unbuttoning her cotton cardigan. Long brown fingers anchoring in her hair, he tipped her head back. ‘Look at me,’ he urged thickly. ‘I’ve waited a long time to get you back into my bed.’
Her lashes lifted on dazed violet-blue eyes. Just like that occasion more than two years previously when she had thrown her principles in the rubbish heap, it was all happening too fast for her and doubts were piling up almost as quickly. He nipped at her tender lower lip with his teeth and made her jerk taut with delicious tension. But that tiny pleasure pain reunited her with rational thought and she muttered feverishly, ‘Shouldn’t we be talking about what you suggested?’
‘Later…’
‘But…isn’t this a very big step for you?’ Maribel prompted worriedly.
‘Ne…yes,’ Leonidas confirmed in husky Greek, uneasy with the topic, determined not to go there unless forced. He’d planned to ease her into the arrangement with every atom of guile he possessed and gloss over the imperfections.
‘Are you sure about this? That we’re what you want?’ Maribel whispered with wide, anxious eyes welded to his darkly handsome face.
‘Absolutely.’
‘But I’m so ordinary,’ Maribel muttered, still unable to credit that he was willing to offer her more than she had ever dreamt he might.
‘Filise me…kiss me,’ Leonidas urged, coaxing her lips apart to let his tongue dart with sinuous skill into the sensitive interior of her mouth and wreak havoc with her self-control. Irresistible sensation made Maribel shudder and a whimper of reaction escaped low in her throat.
By the time Leonidas set her back from him, she was trembling. Not quite knowing what to do, she hovered while he unclipped her bra. Last time she had had two glasses of wine, a lot of turbulent emotion and a sense of recklessness to get her to the brink of intimacy. But guilt and an unplanned pregnancy had given her an instinctive fear of her wanton inner woman and when the swollen bounty of her breasts spilled free of the lace cups his guttural groan of masculine approval only fired self-conscious crimson colour into her cheeks.
‘You are magnificent, mali mou.’
Maribel still felt incredibly unsure of herself. But then he touched her with strong male hands and helpless physical response enfolded her, stopping her thoughts in their tracks. He moulded the firm creamy mounds and chafed the pouting pink buds that crowned them. His every caress sent tiny little tremors through her while a velvet knot of heat and anticipation uncoiled in her belly. He toyed with her tender nipples and lowered his mouth there to tease the lush, straining tips. Delicious tension gripped her until she was breathing in shallow little gasps, her entire body boneless with simmering, tingling pleasure.
‘This is not how I imagined today would turn out,’ she confessed unsteadily, a kind of wonder finally daring to blossom inside her and become joy.
Gorgeous golden eyes hot as flames on her oval face, Leonidas tipped her back on the bed. ‘Set your imagination free. Today and every day can be what you want it to be now, mali mou.’
‘Wish-fulfilment,’ Maribel muttered, a slim hand curving to a long, powerful male thigh.
‘My wish at this precise moment is to be very dominant, and for you to lie there and allow me to pleasure you,’ Leonidas husked in a roughened undertone.
He eased up her skirt in a s
low, erotic manoeuvre and nudged her nerveless legs apart. She could feel herself melting like butter beneath a blow torch. Long before he could reach the sweet, damp warmth between her thighs, her excitement was at screaming pitch. Her languorous purplish-blue gaze clung to his bold dark features. ‘This once,’ she traded unevenly, ‘I shall just lie here and think of living with you.’
Leonidas saw disaster hovering on the horizon and almost cursed out loud in his seething frustration. Avoiding the discussion of detail was one thing; lying an impossibility. He rolled over and pinned her in place beneath a muscular thigh. ‘We won’t be living together,’ he murmured. ‘This will be your home with Elias and I’ll stay only when I’m visiting.’
Visiting? Maribel felt herself freeze in self-protection from the giant rolling wave of pain threatening her composure. Her sense of rejection was acute, but as nothing next to the awful sense of humiliation she experienced. She felt as though she had been slapped in the face with her own stupidity, for he had no desire whatsoever to live with her. He simply wanted to house his son in a luxury dwelling where he could conveniently visit him and occasionally enjoy a little recreational sex with his son’s mother. By no stretch of the imagination was he offering her a normal relationship or indeed any form of commitment towards a shared future. Shutting her eyes tight, she tried to pull free of him.
‘No…no, you’re not bolting on me again!’ Leonidas growled, catching both her frantic hands in his and pinning them above her head in one of his to hold her in place. ‘Calm down.’
‘I’m calm,’ Maribel declared.
‘I’m sorry if I misled you.’
‘Let go of me,’ she framed tightly between compressed lips.
‘Sometimes I could stay the whole weekend with you. Maybe we could even share the occasional vacation,’ Leonidas proffered, holding her wildly squirming body captive with the considerable weight of his own. ‘It would be good. It would be a very efficient arrangement.’