by Lucy Gordon;Sarah Morgan;Robyn Donald;Lucy Monroe;Lee Wilkinson;Kate Walker
Why did he care so much about his public image? Why didn’t he just not buy newspapers if the contents bothered him so much? She didn’t understand him at all. They were so different.
Whatever had possessed her to demand that he marry her?
Just whom exactly had she believed she’d be punishing?
The truth was, she hadn’t thought at all. Feeling miserable and unsettled, she rifled through the rails. If she had stopped to think, then she never would have suggested such a thing. She wasn’t the sort of woman who could ever be comfortable with a man like Nikos. He was accustomed to women who cultivated a level of glamour that she couldn’t begin to match. Being with him just brought out all her age old insecurities and threatened a degree of social exposure that she’d been avoiding all her adult life.
She stared at the clothes, unsure what to select, her mother’s voice echoing in her head. You haven’t a clue how to dress, Angelina. You’re so dowdy. You’re so frumpy. You’re nothing like your sister. Her hand closed over a simple white top and a pair of loose turquoise trousers. She knew she was nothing like her sister. Tiffany had been truly beautiful and extremely confident. Holding the trousers against the shoe rack, she selected a pair of strappy sandals that looked about the same colour. Was she supposed to wear the same colour or a different colour? Suddenly she wished she had someone she could ask. Tiffany would have known the answer.
Wondering how he could have known her size, Angie didn’t even glance in the mirror because her confidence was already at rock-bottom and she didn’t need visual evidence of her physical deficiencies to push it down any further.
Nikos had made four phone calls in rapid succession and finished his coffee by the time Angelina walked hesitantly on to the terrace.
The first thing he noticed was that she’d left her hair loose. The second was that she looked incredible in the clothes that had been selected for her.
The simple white top moulded discreetly to her body, hinting at tempting curves underneath, and the well-cut trousers skimmed her long legs—legs that he’d felt wrapped around him the night before as he’d thrust into her welcoming heat.
Lust thudded through him and he gave a soft curse and reminded himself that a decent set of clothes and a surprising talent between the sheets didn’t change the person she was. She, her sister and her mother all shared the same genes.
And, if it weren’t for the urgent necessity of restoring the diamond to his family with the minimum of fuss, he never would have agreed to her ridiculous terms.
She was wearing no make-up, her face was pale and she looked vulnerable and uncertain as she walked to the table and sat down.
For some reason that he couldn’t identify, the vulnerability increased his irritation by several degrees and suddenly he wished she’d glare at him or issue one of her dignified retorts.
Instead she sat in silence, her eyes bruised from lack of sleep, her lips still slightly swollen from the ravages of the night.
One of his staff stepped forward and poured her coffee.
‘Thank you.’ Her husky voice curled itself around his senses and suddenly he contemplated cancelling the business meeting so that he could take her straight back to bed and spend the day furthering her sexual education.
Shocked by the strength of the urge to grab her and drag her across the table towards him, he rose to his feet in a forceful movement, almost knocking the chair over. ‘I’ll see you later.’
She looked up. ‘You’re leaving? Already? You haven’t finished your coffee.’
The fact that she found his behaviour surprising simply increased his irritation. ‘I’m not in the habit of explaining my movements to anyone, least of all a wife with tendencies towards blackmail,’ he informed her in a deadly tone. ‘I have work to do.’
He could easily have worked from his state-of-the-art office in the villa but had decided that it would be better to work from his office in Athens. It was the only way he could be sure that he wouldn’t be tempted to leave his desk and seek out his new wife for another hasty round of mindless sex.
Her fingers played nervously with the coffee cup and her blue eyes slid away from his. ‘When will you be back?’
‘When I want to be.’ Nikos reached forward and picked up his phone from the table, noting the flush in her cheeks with a certain grim satisfaction.
At this present moment in time he’d be hard pressed to know which one of them was finding this marriage the worst punishment.
‘And what am I supposed to do while you’re gone?’
He slipped the phone into his pocket and gave a casual shrug. ‘The way you choose to entertain yourself in my absence is of absolutely no interest to me. This is Crete. I’m sure you’ll find some mud to dig in, if you look hard enough. It shouldn’t be a problem for you, given that your family seem to specialise in dirty tactics.’
Her narrow shoulders stiffened. ‘I’m trying to be civil and you refuse even to meet me halfway.’
‘I don’t require you to be civil. I have no interest in your personality at all. I just require you to strip naked and lie in my bed whenever I demand it,’ he said softly, watching as the flush deepened. ‘That, agape mou, is what I expect from our marriage and from you. You chose this marriage and you made the rules.’
‘I didn’t think you meant—’
‘Clearly there are no end of things that you didn’t think through,’ he informed her in a helpful tone. ‘If it’s any consolation, that lack of attention to detail is surprisingly common, even amongst experienced businessmen. It’s why I always win. You see, I do think things through.’
He reached for his jacket and she leaned across the table and caught his arm. ‘Wait. Before you go, there’s something I need to ask you.’
The touch of her slender fingers send a stab of lust through his body and the intensity of his reaction stoked his anger still further. ‘My pilot is waiting.’
‘Was it here?’ Her voice was small. ‘I need to know whether it was here that my sister died.’
He hesitated and then moved his arm, watching as her hand dropped to her side. ‘You sister was in my villa in Athens when she fell. I never brought her here.’ Memories stirred inside him and his mouth tightened. How, he wondered to himself as he strode towards the helicopter pad, had he ended up in a situation that he’d been careful to avoid all his life?
His expression grim, he was forced to admit that he hadn’t thought things through either. At the time he’d needed the jewel and had been determined to turn her ‘punishment’ right back at her. But at the moment, he thought to himself with a complete lack of humour, it would be difficult to identify exactly who was suffering the worse punishment.
She didn’t understand why he was so mad.
Surely she was the one who should be angry, given that it was her sister who had been in love with him? Her sister he’d left broken-hearted.
But he was behaving as though she’d been totally unreasonable. Maybe she had overreacted a little, she conceded, wishing now that she’d tried to view the situation calmly, but even he should surely be able to admit that he’d behaved extremely badly.
And having to think about the way he treated people wouldn’t do him any harm, she told herself firmly.
Obviously he just hated having to pay for his crimes. His normal pattern was to sleep with a woman and move on.
Which meant that her punishment was working, didn’t it? She wanted him to think twice before he hurt another woman. And now he was stuck with her. And, judging from the black look on his handsome face, her plan was succeeding beyond expectation.
Clearly last night hadn’t been anything special for him. Far from it. He hadn’t exactly lingered in the bed, waiting for more, had he?
Exhausted from lack of sleep and endless sex, miserably self-conscious and feeling totally out of place, Angie sipped her coffee and wondered how she was going to spend her day.
She heard the helicopter take off and stared up into the perfec
t blue sky, watching as it lifted and then sped across the sea. Where was he going?
Anywhere, she thought dully, as long as it wasn’t near her.
Which was a good thing. Absolutely. It would be a blessing to be relieved of his ice-cold, sarcastic line in conversation.
In the end she spent the day quietly, exploring the grounds of his beautiful villa, sitting on the beach and swimming in his fabulous pool, which just appeared to drop straight into the ocean.
If it hadn’t been for a constant nervous awareness that Nikos would eventually arrive home and end her idyll, she could have believed that she’d been dropped straight into the middle of paradise. Except that the paradise was dulled by the knowledge that she’d spent the night with the man that her sister had loved.
She wandered down the steps that led to the private beach, deep in thought. How had it happened? How had her desire to teach him a lesson turned into a lesson of her own? A faint ripple of sexual awareness, an echo of the night before, passed through her body, a reminder of the part of herself that he’d awakened. Disturbed by the feeling, she sat down on the warm sand, staring at the perfect curve of the bay.
‘You opened the box, Pandora,’ she whispered in a hoarse voice as she curled her toes into the sand and hugged her knees with her arms. ‘You’ve released something that you’ll never again be able to lock away. It’s going to be with you for ever.’
Because now she knew what she was capable of feeling.
But, even knowing that, she wasn’t going to let him touch her again. Last night had been a mistake and everyone made mistakes. The important thing was not to repeat them.
She sat for ages, just watching the sea, and then finally wandered back upstairs to the bedroom. It was late in the afternoon and she took another shower and was standing in the bedroom wondering what to wear when she heard the helicopter arrive.
She froze, her heart pounding against her chest, and moments later Nikos strolled into the bedroom.
‘Already naked and waiting for me,’ he drawled with sardonic humour as he dropped a black case on to the floor. ‘You’re learning fast, I’ll say that for you.’
Clutching the towel, she started to back away from him but she couldn’t drag her eyes from his face. He was unbelievably handsome. ‘I was just about to dress.’
‘Don’t waste your time.’ Without further preamble, he slid an arm round her waist and pulled her hard against him, leaving her in no doubt as to his intentions. ‘I thought about you today—’
Disturbed by her dreamy contemplation of his thick, dark lashes, she tried to concentrate. ‘Y-you did?’
‘Unfortunately, yes.’ His dark brows were locked in an ominous frown as his mouth hovered above hers. ‘I was planning your next lesson.’
‘Lesson?’ She could feel the warmth of his breath against her mouth and her lips parted in invitation. ‘Lesson in what?’
‘Sexual relations. I think you’re ready to move on to the intermediate level,’ he murmured, lowering his mouth to hers and delivering a lingering kiss. ‘Last night was the beginner’s course. You passed with honours, by the way, Dr Kyriacou. Obviously that brain of yours makes you a fast learner.’
She knew she ought to lift a hand and slap his arrogant face but already her pelvis throbbed and the now familiar feeling of heat was starting to spread through her limbs. Instead of hitting him, her hands slid up the front of his shirt and quickly released the buttons, revealing a tantalising expanse of male chest. She forgot her promise to herself not to let him touch her again. Forgot that her sister had loved this man. In fact she forgot everything except the tempting feel of his smooth skin under her seeking fingers. She slid her hands up his chest and hooked them round his neck and he brought his head down and kissed her hard, the thrust of his tongue a merciless, passionate invasion that bordered on the angry. His hand cupped her bottom through the towel and then she felt him give an impatient tug and felt cool air slide over her skin as the damp towel slipped to the floor.
His mouth still on hers, both his hands slid to her bottom and held her hard against him and then he moved slightly and she gave a little gasp as she felt his fingers touching her intimately.
‘I want you again. I’ve been thinking about this all day,’ he groaned as he dipped his fingers inside, causing her to gasp and tighten her grip on his neck.
She ought to resist him. She knew she ought to resist him, but she couldn’t.
‘Stop doing that,’ she begged against his mouth but he just gave a low laugh and backed her towards the bed, the hard thrust of his arousal pressing against her naked flesh.
‘Why stop something so good?’ He slid his hands up her body and took her arms firmly in his, removing them from his neck, placing them instead on the waistband of his trousers. His eyes glittered dark and dangerous, issuing a direct challenge, and she felt her heart pound against her chest.
Every part of her body throbbed with an urgency that she couldn’t fight. Her fingers struggled with the clasp of his trousers and then the zip until she felt the silken hardness of his erection brush against her fingers.
His breathing harsh and unsteady, he muttered something in Greek and then turned her so that she was facing the bed.
Confused, she was just about to ask what he was intending to do, when he piled several pillows in front of her and pushed her over them.
Suddenly feeling intensely vulnerable, aware that her bottom was facing him, she tried to straighten but she felt the warm, moist flick of his tongue trailing down between her thighs and she gave a strangled cry of disbelief and clutched at the pillows, her hair falling forward, her eyes tightly closed.
Sensation exploded around her as his tongue explored every detail of her womanhood and she was just about to beg him to stop, when she felt his strong fingers digging into her soft flesh as he took her bottom in his hands to hold her steady. She felt the blunt tip of his erection teasing her gently and then he entered her in a series of purposeful thrusts that sent her soaring into an orgasm so explosive that she bit down on the pillow rather than risk allowing the cries to leave her throat.
He didn’t slow his thrusts, his rhythm dominating and primitive in its force, the only sound in the room the harshness of his breathing and the slick sound of bare flesh against bare flesh.
She heard him groan something in Greek and then felt his hands tighten on her hips as he ground deep, emptying himself into her.
He withdrew, lifted her limp compliant body and turned her to face him, his breathing still unsteady. He stroked a hand through her tangled hair and studied her flushed cheeks.
‘Lesson number two, passed with honours.’
Then he released her so suddenly that she plopped down on to the bed.
It was only when he stepped out of his trousers and strolled towards the shower that she realised that he hadn’t even bothered undressing.
So much for her resolution about resisting him.
The moment he came within touching distance she just couldn’t keep her hands off him and she didn’t understand it. She didn’t understand what happened to her when he touched her. Logic would say that she would never be able to respond to this man. They had nothing in common and he’d broken her sister’s heart. On top of that, there was no affection or warmth in his lovemaking and she couldn’t pretend that there was. It was a basic, carnal sexual experience with no emotional connection at all, certainly not on his part. If anything, he seemed angry with her again, just as he’d seemed angry this morning after the night they’d shared.
And she was angry with him too, she reminded herself with something close to desperation.
This man had led her sister on. Had promised marriage.
And yet, when he walked into the room, her stomach flipped. And when he touched her she was lost. When he touched her, her brain emptied and she cared about nothing except her body and what he could make her feel.
It was wrong.
So wrong. And she didn’t understand it.
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She was so deep in thought that she didn’t hear the sound of the shower being turned off, didn’t realise that he’d finished until she glanced up and saw him standing in front of her, doing up the buttons of a white dress shirt.
‘You have ten minutes to dress,’ he said in a cool voice as he reached for a black bow-tie. ‘We’re going out.’
‘Out?’ Hideously self-conscious, she bent and retrieved the towel from the floor, holding it in front of herself. ‘Out where?’
‘To a charity ball.’ He snapped out the words, his fingers swift and sure as he secured the tie. ‘Boring, but there you are.’
A charity ball? She felt a twinge of horror and shrank back on the bed. ‘No, don’t make me do that. I really don’t want to go.’
‘It isn’t optional.’
He was angry about something. Really angry. ‘Please.’ Her voice cracked slightly and she hated herself for betraying just how anxious social events made her. ‘I’m hopeless at that sort of thing. I never know what to wear or what to say. I’m hopeless at mindless chit chat. I’ll just show you up, embarrass you—’
He pulled on his trousers and reached for his jacket. ‘I need a partner and, thanks to you, I have no choice about who I go with. Get dressed. If you’re worried that you’ll say the wrong thing, just don’t open your mouth.’
‘Who will they think I am?’
‘My wife.’ He gave a mocking smile. ‘You’ll be the object of no end of speculation. They’ll all be guessing as to why you were the one to finally hook me.’
Which meant that everyone would be staring at her. And gossiping. Shrinking inside, Angie closed her eyes and shook her head. ‘I’m not getting dressed.’
‘Fine, then you go naked, which should guarantee that you’ll be the centre of attention.’ He reached out and pulled her to her feet and suddenly her mouth was within a breath of his. Her heart thundered out of control and he gave a faint smile of understanding. ‘Not now, agape mou. Unfortunately we don’t have time. But later, definitely. That’s a promise. Now, get dressed.’