by Kendrick, Sharon; Lawrence, Kim; Crews, Caitlin; Milburne, Melanie
Her chin came up to a defiant height. ‘No one’s going to believe it, you know. Not us. We’re known to positively loathe each other.’ Her cheeks went a shade darker. ‘Especially after that night in London in December.’
He smiled at the memory. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt that tingle of attraction. More than a tingle. A shockwave that had left him buzzing for hours afterwards. ‘Ah, yes. It wasn’t one of your best moments, was it? I was only trying to help and what did I get? A glass of red wine poured in my lap. Hardly the behaviour of a grown woman.’
Her jaw looked as though she were biting down on a metal rod. ‘You provoked me. And it was either have that wine in your lap or splashed in your face, and your throat cut with the glass.’
He tut-tutted and shook his head at her as if she were a wilfully disobedient child who consistently disappointed him. ‘It seems I may have to teach you how to behave. That will be fun: Wife Behaviour for Beginners.’
She sprang off the sofa as if something had bitten her on the behind, throwing him a look that would have stripped tarmac off a road. ‘You think you’re so smart, manipulating me into this farce of a marriage, but I’ve got news for you. I will not be a doormat. I will not be treated like a child. I will not sleep with you. Do? You? Understand?’
Draco loved it when she got angry with him. She was always so buttoned up, cool and controlled. But with him she showed the depth of passion in her personality others didn’t see. She was feisty, a firebrand with a flaying tongue and a whip-quick wit. He enjoyed their verbal sparring. It was a big turn-on for him. Few women stood up to him or challenged him the way she did. He liked that she had spirit. That she wasn’t afraid to lock horns with him.
He would much rather she locked those gorgeous lips on his, but all in good time.
‘I understand you’re a little apprehensive about sex, but I can assure you, I’m excellent at it.’
Twin pools of bright pink flared on her cheeks. ‘I am not apprehensive about sex. I have sex—I have it all the time. I just don’t care to have it with you.’
How he wanted to make her eat every one of those words and lick them away with that hot little tongue of hers. He wanted that tongue all over his body. He wanted. He wanted. He wanted. It pulsed through him like an ache. He’d been too long between relationships. It had been weeks—no, months—since he’d had sex. He’d been too busy, distracted by work and the dire financial situation Cosimo Kallas was in, to bother about hooking up with anyone.
But now he was ready.
He was so ready he could barely keep his hands off those slim hips, from pulling her against him so she could feel how ready. ‘You will share my bed even if you don’t share my body to begin with. I won’t have my household staff snickering behind my back at my inability to consummate my marriage.’
She glared at him so hotly he thought the champagne in his glass was going to boil. ‘If you so much as lay one finger on me, I’ll scream loud enough for them to hear me in Albania.’
Draco gave an indolent smile. ‘I can guarantee you’ll scream, glykia mou. You certainly won’t be the first. Most women in my bed do.’
Her mouth went into a flat line and her hands clenched into tight little white-knuckled balls. Her whole body seem to vibrate like a child’s battery-operated toy. ‘I’m surprised you want to wait until we’re married. Why don’t you throw me to the floor and have your way with me now?’
‘Tempting, but alas, I’m a civilised man.’ He swept a hand behind him where he’d entered the room earlier. ‘See? No knuckle marks along the carpet.’
Her caustic look showed just how uncivilised she thought him. She swung away and put herself behind one of the sofas, as if she needed to barricade herself. ‘I suppose you’re only making me wait to ramp up the torture quotient.’
‘The sort of torture I have in mind will be mutually pleasurable.’
She shook her hair back behind her shoulders in a haughty manner. The silky swing of it always fascinated him. It was like the swish of a curtain. ‘I find it hard to understand how you could want to bed a woman who hates you. It seems a little kinky to me.’
‘You don’t hate me, Allegra. What you hate is how you can’t get your way with me. You need a strong man. Someone who will allow you to express that passionate nature you keep under wraps all the time. I’m that man.’
She gave one of her derisory laughs. ‘Hello? We’ve actually had a women’s movement during the last century. Didn’t you hear about that or were you too busy clubbing mammoths and dragging them back to your cave?’
Draco’s groin tightened at her witty come-back. She always gave as good as she got, which was another reason he thought her perfect wife material. He didn’t want a doormat. He didn’t want someone who didn’t have the spirit to spar with him.
He wanted her.
It was as simple as that. Since he’d seen her in London he had lost interest in other women. He had found the dating scene increasingly boring and predictable. But every encounter, every conversation, with Allegra was full of surprises. She stimulated him physically and intellectually.
He reached into his top pocket and handed her the ring box he’d brought with him. ‘That reminds me—I have something for you. If it doesn’t fit, I’ll have it adjusted.’
She took the box and cautiously opened it, as if whatever was in there might leap out and bite. But then she let out a breath and picked up the diamond solitaire with almost worshipful fingers. ‘It’s beautiful.’ She looked up at him, her blue eyes showing a hint of uncertainty he found strangely touching. ‘It looks frightfully expensive…’
Draco shrugged. ‘It’s just a ring. I threw a dart at the counter. This was the one it hit.’
She slipped the ring over her knuckle. ‘It fits.’
‘Must be an omen.’
Her gaze flicked to his. ‘I’ll give it back when we divorce.’
Draco didn’t want her thinking there was any hint of romance in his choice of a ring. He’d done that once and it had been the worst mistake of his life. ‘Keep it. I’m not sure any future bride of mine would want to wear a second-hand ring.’
She opened and closed her mouth, as if she couldn’t find what to say. Then she looked down at the ring winking on her hand. It was a moment before she looked up at him again. ‘How can I be sure you won’t play around while we’re married? You’ve played around all your adult life. Men like you get bored with one lover.’
Right now, Draco couldn’t imagine ever being bored by her, but it didn’t mean he would propose anything long-term. Long-term was for the in love, and that hardly described him in this case. He wasn’t going to go down that path ever again. In lust? Yes. Big time. ‘When I get bored, I’ll let you know. We can end the marriage before anyone gets hurt.’
‘Perhaps I’ll get bored first,’ Allegra said. ‘Women have the right to choose their own husband, not have one thrust upon them. If I wanted to choose one, then you’d be the last man I’d consider. The very last.’
Draco smiled at the insult and moved across to the door. ‘We’d better let your father know the happy news. But, let me remind you, apart from your father no one—and I mean no one—must know this isn’t a love match. I’m not interested in the press attention it would receive otherwise.’
* * *
Later, Allegra didn’t know how she got through the rest of the evening, with Draco and her father chatting away over dinner like two good mates who’d just nailed a successful business deal. Damn it. She was the business deal. How could this be happening? Married to her worst enemy! And it was happening so quickly. Her phone hadn’t stopped buzzing with incoming messages because Draco had taken the liberty of announcing their engagement on social media. Every platform of social media. Grr. It annoyed her because she’d been left looking like an idiot for not saying anything to her f
riends and colleagues about her ‘secret relationship’ with Greece’s most eligible bachelor.
But when her secretary and best friend Emily Seymour texted, WTF? Is this a joke? Allegra couldn’t quite bring herself to lie to her.
No joke but it’s not what you think. Will explain later. Can’t talk now.
Emily’s text came back.
Can’t wait! Knew you had a thing for him since that guy was a no-show. He’s so HOT!!!’
She’d followed the word ‘hot’ with an emoticon of flames burning.
Allegra texted back.
MOC. No sex.
Emily sent an emoticon of a person laughing and holding their sides.
Allegra rolled her eyes and typed back.
I mean it!
She put away her phone before she was subjected to any more teasing. She wasn’t sure how Emily had picked up on her attraction to Draco. But then, Emily was a bit of a romantic. What signals had Allegra given off? Or was she protesting too much?
‘Well, I think I’ll leave you two to chat while I head off to bed,’ Allegra’s father said, rising from the table. He paused by Allegra’s chair and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘I know you’ll be happy with Draco. He’s exactly what you need.’
There were a hundred retorts she wanted to throw back but in the end she stayed silent. Her father gave her shoulder a quick pat, as if he were patting a dog he didn’t quite trust, before he left the room and quietly closed the door behind him.
Draco twirled the amber contents of his brandy glass, his gaze steady on hers sparkling with amusement. ‘Nice to know I’ve got the father-in-law’s big tick of approval.’
Allegra picked up her wine glass and surveyed him over the top of the rim. ‘What a pity you don’t have mine. But that doesn’t seem to matter to you—I wonder why? Maybe you’ve engineered this because you’re secretly in love with me. Is that it?’
His expression became shuttered and he put down his own glass with a soft little thud. ‘I’m not sure I’m capable of romantic love. I’m a little too practical for that. But I care about you, if that’s any consolation.’
She gave a laugh. ‘People care about their pot plants. How nice to know you’ll offer me water and fertiliser occasionally.’
His crooked smile came back and sparked a sardonic glint in his gaze. ‘Whenever you want fertilising, you just let me know.’
Allegra sent him a gimlet glare even though her ovaries were packing their bags and heading to the exits. And it was not just her ovaries that were getting excited. Her feminine core was contracting with a pulsation of lust that made it difficult to sit still in her chair. She had never really thought about having a baby before now. She was a career girl, not an earth mother. An image popped into her head of her belly swollen with his child. His DNA and hers getting it on and producing a baby with dark eyes and dark hair. She saw another image of him holding that baby, his strong arms cradling the tiny bundle while his eyes met hers in a tender look…
She gave herself a mental shake. ‘So, you’ve never been in love? Apart from with yourself, I mean.’
He gave a soft chuckle and draped one arm along the back of the neighbouring chair. ‘I’m not averse to a bit of self-love now and again. How about you?’
Allegra wasn’t going to give him an account of her sex life even if these days it was mostly with herself. ‘I thought I was in love with my first boyfriend but we both know how that ended.’ And it had been Draco’s fault. Damn him.
‘Did you sleep with him?’
‘Yes,’ she answered in spite of herself.
‘And?’
Allegra gave him a ‘wouldn’t you like to know?’ look. ‘You think I’m going to swap bedroom tales with you? It was your fault it was such a dis—’ She clamped her mouth shut, furious she’d given away more than she’d intended.
‘It was consensual…wasn’t it?’ There was a note of concern in his tone and he moved forward in his chair with a frown pulling at his brow.
‘Yes.’
He was still frowning, his posture tense, on edge. ‘What happened to make it such a disaster? Is that the word you were going to say?’
Allegra looked at the rim of her glass rather than meet his probing gaze. ‘I wanted to get rid of my V card and he seemed the right one to do it with.’ She twisted her mouth. ‘Obviously these things are easier for you guys. You seem to have fun no matter what.’
‘Biology isn’t always fair,’ Draco said. ‘To women especially.’
There was a little silence.
‘You were right about him, though,’ Allegra said. ‘He was such a loser in the end. He told all his mates what a disappointment I’d been in bed. Needless to say, I was completely and utterly mortified.’ Why she was telling him that excruciating detail escaped her. Emily was the only other person she had told, because it was too painful to think about, let alone recount to someone else. And too skin-crawlingly embarrassing.
‘Yes, well, I reckon he only said that to take the attention off his own inadequacies,’ Draco said. ‘He should’ve made your pleasure a priority. That’s the golden rule of decent manhood.’
She was pretty certain none of Draco’s lovers had ever complained about his lack of prowess in bed. Just the thought of him pleasuring her with that virile body of his was enough to make her get all excited downstairs. But why was she talking about this stuff with him? If she told him much more, he would realise she was practically a nun.
‘Fancy an evening stroll out on the terrace?’ he asked after a moment, as if he sensed she was uncomfortable with the subject.
‘I miss all this when I’m in London,’ Allegra said once they were outside and looking at the dark blue, wrinkled silk of the ocean below with its silver band of moonlight shimmering on the surface. ‘But then, when I’m here I miss lots of things about London.’
His shoulder brushed against the skin of her bare arm, his left hand within a couple of millimetres of her right one where it was resting on the railing. ‘It’s a problem when you love two places. That’s why I move between the two, so I get the best out of each of them by commuting between seasons. But, of course, not everyone has the financial flexibility to do that.’
The early summer evening air was scented with the salt spray of the sea and the faint but familiar fragrance of the vigorously blooming bougainvillea hanging in a swathe of crimson over the side of the terrace. The far off braying of a donkey and the clanging of the rigging of the yachts in the marina lower down carried in the light, warm breeze.
Allegra stole a covert glance at Draco. The moonlight put his impossibly handsome features into relief, making him look all the more like he had stepped off a marble plinth in an antiquities museum. The high, intelligent forehead with the prominent jet-black eyebrows, the strong nose and sculpted mouth were etched on her brain like a tattoo. What other man had ever compared to him?
It was a cliché, but tall, dark and handsome—and Greek—was her poison. She was lethally attracted to him. She knew it. He knew it. It swirled in the air when they were alone together like a potent but forbidden drug. One taste and Allegra knew she would be addicted. Which was why she had to keep her distance, even though every cell in her body was trembling with the need for contact. It didn’t matter how much she fantasised about Draco in secret. No way could she afford to indulge in a physical relationship with him. He had rejected her once. She wasn’t going to let him do it again.
But it would be kind of exciting to kiss him…
He turned and saw her looking at him, and before she could put any distance between them he lifted a finger to her face and tucked a breeze-teased tendril of her hair back behind her ear. His face was mostly in shadow, but she could see the moonlight reflected in his gaze like a glint of quartz in black marble.
Allegra knew she should step away
, knew too she should brush his hand aside, frown at him and tell him to back off in her sharp, schoolmistress-y tone. But it seemed her mind and body had other ideas. Wicked ideas. Dangerous ideas. Ideas that made her picture her body crushed beneath his, his mouth clamped to hers, their bodies writhing in mutual, skin-shivering ecstasy. She drew closer to him as if someone had a hand in the small of her back, her hips brushing against his. The shock of the erotic contact made her insides twist and coil with lust, her breath hitch and her heart race. She saw her hands slide up to lie flat on his chest, the hard muscles flinching as if her touch electrified him.
Draco’s hands went to her waist, his fingers gentle but as hot as a brand. His muscle-dense thighs were so close she could feel their heat and sense their latent strength. His head came down but his mouth hovered rather than landed, his warm, brandy-scented breath mingling with hers.
Allegra sent her tongue out over her lips to moisten them, her whole body poised in that infinitesimal moment before final touchdown.
Go on. Do it. Kiss me and prove that you want me as much as I want you. ‘Are you going to kiss me?’
‘Thinking about it.’ His voice was two parts gravel, one part honey, making her insides quiver.
‘What’s to think about?’ She moved even closer, her breasts, bumping against his chest, making her flesh tingle. ‘You know you want to.’
If she was wrong, this was going to be mortifying.
Draco’s breath moved in a sexy waft along the side of her mouth, the rasp of his stubble grazing her cheek like fine-grade sandpaper. ‘You’ve had way too much to drink,’ he said.
‘I’m not drunk—not even tipsy.’ Not on alcohol, that is.
His tongue glided over her beauty spot, then circled it as if he were circling one of her nipples. A savage jab of lust assailed her, pooling in a liquid heat between her thighs. Then he moved his mouth to her jawbone, his lips working their way up in nibbles and nudge-like movements to the sensitive space below her ear. Her whole body shivered when Draco’s teeth gently caught her earlobe, the tender tug sending a riot of sensations in a quick-silver streak down to the base of her spine. Her legs were without bones, without ligaments, trembling to stay upright and only doing so because his hands on her waist were keeping her there.