Acquired by Her Greek Boss

by Chantelle Shaw

  ‘No...he...wasn’t around.’

  ‘Luckily for me, Sara joined GE,’ Alekos said smoothly. ‘I realised as soon as I met her that she would be an ideal person to organise my hectic life.’ He rang the little bell on the table and almost instantly a steward appeared, pushing the dessert trolley. ‘I see that my chef has excelled himself with a selection of desserts. My personal recommendation is the chocolate torte.’

  Following his words, there was a buzz of interest around the table over the choice of dessert and the awkward moment passed. Sara gave Alekos a grateful look.

  ‘After lunch I thought you might like to use the jet skis,’ he said to Charlotte and Freddie. ‘Or if you prefer an activity that involves less adrenalin there is snorkelling equipment, or the glass-bottomed dinghy is a fun way to view marine life.’

  ‘You’ve got one heck of a boat here, Alekos,’ McCuskey commented. ‘Is it true there is a helipad somewhere on the yacht?’

  ‘The helipad is on the bow and there is a hangar below the foredeck which is specially designed. I could give you a tour of Artemis if you’d like to see all of her many features.’

  ‘I surely would,’ the Texan said enthusiastically.

  * * *

  Sara had never had as much fun as she did that afternoon. The sea was warm to swim in and, with Charlotte and Freddie’s help, she soon got the hang of snorkelling. Alekos joined them later in the day and when they took the jet skis out Sara rode pillion behind him and hung on tightly to him as they sped across the bay. With her arms wrapped around his waist and her cheek resting on his broad back, she allowed herself to daydream that it was all real—that she and Alekos were lovers and her half-siblings accepted her as their sister.

  ‘Dad and Warren are driving back to Antibes. But Charlotte and I are meeting up with some friends in Monte Carlo this evening,’ Freddie said as they stood on deck and watched the glorious golden sunset. ‘Why don’t you and Alekos come with us?’ He put his head on one side as he studied Sara’s face. ‘It’s bugging me that you remind me of someone, but I can’t think who.’

  Alekos slid his arm around her waist. ‘What do you say, agapi mou? Would you like to go to a nightclub?’

  ‘Yes. But I don’t mind if you’d rather not,’ she said quickly, unaware of the wistful expression in her eyes.

  ‘I want to do whatever makes you happy,’ he assured her.

  Sweet heaven, he was a brilliant actor, but it was all pretend, Sara reminded herself firmly. She must not allow herself to be seduced by the sultry gleam in Alekos’s dark eyes and the velvet softness of his voice that made her wish for the moon even though she knew it was unreachable.

  * * *

  Monte Carlo at midnight was a blaze of golden lights against a backdrop of an ink-black sky. Sara followed Alekos out of a nightclub that apparently was the place to be seen and to see celebrities. She had spotted a famous American film star and a couple of members of a boy band, but she’d only had eyes for Alekos.

  They had met up with Charlotte and Freddie’s friends, and Alekos had arranged for their group to use a private booth in the nightclub. He had stayed close to her all evening, draping his arm around her shoulders when they had sat in the booth drinking cocktails, and drawing her into his arms on the dance floor so that her breasts were crushed to his chest and she was conscious of his hard thigh muscles pressed against her through the insubstantial black silk dress she had chosen to wear for a night out.

  He led her over to a taxi and opened the door for her to climb inside. ‘My feet are killing me,’ she complained as she flopped onto the back seat.

  Alekos slid in beside her and lifted her feet onto his lap. ‘Your fault for wearing stilts for shoes,’ he said, inspecting the five-inch heels on her strappy sandals. Sara caught her breath when he curled his fingers around her ankles and unfastened her shoes before sliding them off her feet. While they had been in the nightclub they had continued the pretence of being lovers in front of her half-siblings. But now it seemed way too intimate when he trailed his fingertips lightly up her calves. ‘Did you enjoy yourself tonight?’

  ‘It was the best night of my life,’ she said softly. ‘And the best day.’ Her eyes were drawn to him. In the dark taxi his chiselled profile was shadowed and the sharp angles of his face were highlighted by the glow from the street lamps. ‘Thank you for making it possible for me to spend time with Charlotte and Freddie, and with my father earlier today. I hope you weren’t too bored showing Warren McCuskey around Artemis. I guessed you had offered to give him a tour of the yacht so that I could have time alone with Lionel.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m all heart,’ he drawled. His oddly cynical tone made Sara dart a look at him, but the taxi drew up to the jetty and he climbed out of the car. She couldn’t face putting her shoes back on, and while she stood contemplating whether to walk the short distance along the jetty in bare feet Alekos scooped her up in his arms and carried her up the yacht’s gangway.

  ‘Thanks.’ She silently cursed how breathless she sounded and hoped he couldn’t feel the erratic thud of her heart. ‘You can put me down now.’

  He continued walking into the main saloon before he lowered her down. She curled her toes into the soft carpet. Every sensory receptor on her body felt vitally alive and she was intensely aware of Alekos, of the spicy scent of his aftershave, the heat of his body and the smouldering gleam in his dark eyes. It all felt like a wonderful dream—staying on a luxurious yacht, spending time with her half-siblings and dancing the night away with a man who was so handsome it hurt her to look at him.

  ‘I wish tonight didn’t have to end.’ She blurted out the words before she could stop herself and flushed, thinking how unsophisticated she sounded.

  ‘It doesn’t have to end yet. Will you join me for a nightcap?’

  ‘Um...well, I shouldn’t. It’s late and we both have to be up early in the morning. You’re flying to Dubai to visit Sheikh Al Mansoor, and my flight to London is at ten a.m.’

  ‘I realise that it’s three hours past your bedtime,’ he said drily. ‘But why not live dangerously for once?’

  Alekos had simply invited her to have a drink with him. This was not a defining moment in her life, Sara told herself firmly. ‘All right.’ She ignored the warning in her head that sounded just like her mother’s voice, and sided with the other voice that urged her to stop hiding from life and live. ‘Just one drink.’

  ‘Sure. You don’t want to overdose on excitement.’ He gave her a bland smile as he ushered her out of the main saloon and towards the stairs that led to the upper decks. When she hesitated he murmured, ‘There is champagne on ice in my suite.’

  Sara had never been in the master suite before and its opulent splendour took her breath away. The décor of the sitting room and the bedroom she could see beyond it was sleek and ultra-stylish while the colour scheme of soft blue, grey and white was restful. Not that she felt relaxed. Quite the opposite as she watched Alekos slip off his jacket and throw it onto a chair before he strolled over to the bar. His white silk shirt was unbuttoned at the throat, showing his dark olive skin and a glimpse of black chest hairs. His hair fell across his brow and the dark stubble on his jaw gave him a rakish look that evoked a coiling sensation in the pit of her stomach.

  The sliding glass doors were open and she stepped outside onto the private deck and took a deep breath. On this side of the yacht facing away from the port there was only dark sea and dark sky, lit by a bright white moon and stars like silver pins studding a black velvet pincushion.

  Alekos’s footfall was silent but she sensed he was near and turned to take the glass of pink fizz he handed her. ‘Kir Royale, my favourite drink.’

  ‘I know.’ He held her gaze. ‘Why were you looking sad?’

  Sara sighed. ‘Charlotte and Freddie both talked a lot about their happy childhoods, and how much their parents loved each other. Lionel’s wife suffered from multiple sclerosis for several years and he cared for her devotedly until her death t
wo months ago.’ She bit her lip. ‘If Lionel reveals that I am his daughter, all their memories of growing up in a happy family will be tainted by the knowledge that their father cheated on their mother.’

  She placed her glass down on a nearby table and curled her hands around the deck rail, staring into the empty darkness beyond the boat. ‘I’m afraid that my half-siblings will hate me,’ she said in a low voice.

  ‘I don’t believe anyone could hate you, Sara mou.’

  The gentleness in Alekos’s voice was unexpected and it tore through her. ‘I’m not your Sara.’

  He smiled at her fierce tone. ‘Aren’t you?’ He uncurled her fingers from the rail and turned her to face him. Sara trembled when he drew her unresisting body closer to his—so close that she could feel his heart thundering as fast as her own.

  Of course she was his. The thought slipped quietly into her head. It wasn’t complicated; it was really very simple. She had been his for two years and she could not fight her longing for him when he was looking at her with undisguised hunger in his eyes that made her tremble even more.

  ‘I want you to be mine, and I think you want that too,’ he murmured. She felt his lips on her hair, her brow, the tip of her nose. And then his mouth was there, so close to hers that she felt his warm breath whisper across her lips, and she couldn’t deny it, couldn’t deny him when it would mean denying herself of what she wanted more than anything in the world—Alekos.

  * * *

  Maybe it was because she had made him wait that explained the wild rush of anticipation that swept through him, Alekos brooded. And perhaps it was the lost, almost vulnerable expression on her lovely face moments ago that had elicited a peculiar tug on his heart.

  The haunted look in her eyes should have warned him to back off while he still retained a little of his sanity. But it was too late. His desire for her was too strong for him to fight. Sara had driven him to the edge of reason for too long and the feel of her soft curves pressing against his whipcord body, and the little tremors that ran through her when he smoothed his hand down her back and over the taut contours of her bottom decimated his control.

  He took possession of her mouth and gave a low growl of satisfaction when she parted her lips to allow his tongue access to her sweetness within. This time she would not reject him. He felt her desperation in the way she kissed him with utter abandon, and her response fuelled his urgency to feel her naked body beneath his.

  He liked the little moan of protest she made when he ended the kiss and lifted his head to stare into her green eyes with their dilated pupils. She was so petite he could easily sweep her up in his arms, but he stepped back and held out his hand. ‘Will you come and be mine, Sara?’

  He liked that she did not hesitate. She put her fingers in his and he led her into the bedroom. His heart was pounding faster than when he’d gone for a fifteen-mile run that morning. And he was already hard—Theos, he was so hard; his body was taut with impatience to thrust between her slim thighs. The sight of her wearing a bikini when they had swum in the sea earlier in the day had driven him to distraction, and he had suggested using the jet skis to hide the embarrassing evidence of his arousal that his swim shorts couldn’t disguise.

  Most women would have played the temptress and given him artful looks as they performed a striptease for his benefit. Sara simply stood at the end of the bed and looked at him with her huge green eyes. Her faint uncertainty surprised him. She was, after all, a modern single woman in her mid-twenties and he assured himself that this could not be new for her. It was difficult to picture her as the drab sparrow who he had barely noticed in his office but, remembering the old style Sara, he thought it was likely that she hadn’t had many lovers.

  But he did not want her to be shy with him. He wanted her to be bold and as eager as he was. His hunger for her was so intense and he sensed that this first time would not last long. He needed her with him all the way, which meant that he must turn her on by using all his considerable skill as a lover.

  ‘I want to see you,’ he said roughly. The bedside lamps were switched off but the brilliant gleam from the moon silvered the room and gave her skin a pearlescent shimmer as he pulled the straps of her dress down, lower and lower until he had bared her breasts.

  ‘Eísai ómorfi. You are beautiful,’ he translated, realising he had spoken in Greek. His native tongue was the language of his blood, his passion, and he groaned as he cradled her breasts in his hands, testing their weight and exploring their firm swell before he was drawn inexorably to their dusky pink crests that jutted provocatively forwards, demanding his attention.

  She shivered when he flicked his thumb pads over her nipples, back and forth before he rolled the tight nubs between his fingers until she gave a low cry that corkscrewed its way right into his gut. Giving her pleasure became his absolute focus but when he lowered his head to her breast and closed his mouth around her nipple, sucking hard, she bucked and shook and her undisguised enjoyment of what he was doing to her drove him to the brink.

  ‘Sara, I have to have you now. I can’t wait,’ he muttered as he straightened up and sought her lips with his, thrusting his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers. Next time he would take it slow, he promised himself. But he was fast losing control and the drumbeat of desire pounding in his veins demanded to be assuaged.

  He would have liked her to undress him, maybe knelt in front of him to pull his trousers down and then taken him in her mouth. His body jerked at his erotic fantasy and he swore beneath his breath. There was no time for leisurely foreplay and he fought his way out of his clothes with none of his usual innate grace, while she stood watching him, her eyes widening when he stepped out of his boxers. She stared at his rock-hard arousal, and the way she swallowed audibly made him close his eyes and offer a brief prayer for his sanity.

  ‘Alekos...’ she whispered.

  ‘If you have changed your mind. Go. Now,’ he gritted.

  ‘I haven’t. It’s just...’ She broke off and ran her fingertips lightly, almost tentatively over his proud erection.

  He grabbed her hand and lifted it up to his chest where his heart was thundering so hard he knew she could feel it. ‘Playtime’s over, angel.’ He tugged her dress over her hips and it slithered to the floor. A pair of black lacy knickers were all that hid her femininity from him and he dealt with them with swift efficiency, sliding them down her legs before he lifted her and laid her on the bed.

  The strip of soft brown curls between her thighs partially shielded her slick heat from his hungry gaze. He lifted her leg and hooked it over his shoulder, then did the same with her other leg, and his laughter was deep and dark when she gasped in protest.

  ‘Beautiful,’ he growled. She was splayed in front of him, open and exposed, and he had never seen anything as exquisite as he lowered his head and placed his mouth over her feminine heat.

  ‘Oh.’ She jerked her hips and clutched his hair. It crossed his mind that maybe she hadn’t received pleasure this way before, and the possessive feeling that the thought elicited rang a faint alarm bell in his mind. He had never felt possessive of any woman and Sara was no different than any of the countless lovers he’d had since his first sexual experience when he was seventeen.

  She squirmed beneath him. ‘You can’t...’ She sounded scandalised, but there was something else in her guttural cry, a note of excitement that made Alekos smile.

  ‘Oh, but I can,’ he promised. And then he bent his head once more and probed his tongue into her slick heat, straight to the heart of her. Her hoarse moans filled his ears and her sweet feminine scent swamped his senses. She tasted of nectar and he licked deeper, sliding his hands beneath her bottom to angle her hips so that he could suck the tiny nub of her clitoris.

  The effect was stunning. She gave a keening cry, bucking and writhing beneath him so that he gripped hold of her hips and held her fast while he used his tongue to drive her over the edge. She shattered. And watching her climax, her fingers clawing at
the satin bedspread as her body shook, fired his blood and his need.

  Theos, he had never needed a woman before. His brother had been needy for the woman who had broken his heart, but Alekos had learned from Dimitri’s death that needing someone was a weakness that made you vulnerable. Although he was loath to admit it, right now he needed Sara the same way he needed to breathe oxygen.

  Somehow, Alekos retained enough of his sanity to take a protective sheath from the bedside drawer and slide it over his erection. And then he positioned himself between her spread thighs once more and his need was so fierce and consuming that the flicker of apprehension in her eyes did not register in his mind. Not until it was too late.

  He could hear the sound of his ragged breaths and his blood thundering in his ears. His fingers shook as he stroked them over her moist opening and found her hot and slick and ready for him. He was so close to his goal and with a groan he thrust his way into her and froze when he felt an unmistakable resistance.

  She could not be a virgin.

  But the evidence was there in the sudden tension of her muscles and the way she went rigid beneath him. His brain told him to halt and withdraw, but his body was trapped in the web of his desire. A sense of urgency that was more primitive and pressing than logical thought overwhelmed him. His shock at discovering her innocence was followed by an even greater shock as he realised that he was out of control. His body was driven by a fearsome need that drove him to move inside her and push deeper into her velvet heat.

  Somewhere in the crazy confusion of his mind he was aware that she had relaxed a little and she flattened her hands against his chest and slid them up to his shoulders, not pushing him away but drawing him down onto her. She shifted her hips experimentally to allow her internal muscles to accommodate him, and just that small movement blew his mind. With a sense of disbelief Alekos felt his control being stretched and stretched. Everything was happening too fast. He closed his eyes and fought against the heat surging through his veins, but he couldn’t stop it... He couldn’t...