Sara shrugged to show she didn’t care, even though she did desperately. Alekos frowned but continued, ‘I also did what every bridegroom is expected to do and asked your father if he would allow me to marry you.’
Sara choked on her mouthful of champagne. ‘You did what?’ She was so angry she wanted to hit him and for about twenty seconds she forgot that she wanted to kiss him. ‘There is no way I would agree to marry you to keep the board members of GE happy.’
‘Good, because that’s a terrible reason for us to marry,’ he said calmly, although his eyes blazed with a fierce heat that melded Sara to the floor and stopped her rushing towards the door.
‘I’m being serious.’ She put her hands flat on his chest to stop him coming closer but he clasped her wrists and pulled her arms down, at the same time as he tugged her against him with a force that expelled the air from her lungs.
‘So am I.’ He stared at her intently and his jaw clenched when he saw the tears she was struggling to hold back. ‘Why were you jealous when you saw the photo of me with Charlene?’
She flushed. ‘I wasn’t jealous.’
‘Did you feel like I did tonight when I saw you dancing with that guy and I wanted to tear his head off?’
‘Definitely not.’ She didn’t know what game of refined torture Alekos was playing but it had to stop before the intoxicating warmth of his body pressed up against hers and ruined her for ever.
‘Liar,’ he taunted. ‘Were you jealous because you love me?’
She could deny it but what would be the point? She couldn’t fight him or herself any more, and Sara knew she would be his mistress if he asked her because she’d learned that life was too short to turn down the chance to be with him, even though he would break her heart when he ended their affair.
But she still had her pride and her eyes flashed with green fire. ‘Yes, I love you. I’ve loved you for ever, even though you are the most arrogant man I’ve ever known.’
‘But I am the only man you have ever known intimately, arrogant or not,’ he said softly, his mouth curving in a crooked smile that tugged on Sara’s heart. He sounded strange, as if his throat was constricted, and her eyes widened in disbelief when she saw that his lashes were wet.
‘Alekos?’ she whispered.
‘Sara mou...’ He held her so tight that she felt the thunder of his heart. ‘S’agapo. I love you so much.’ He framed her face with his hands that were shaking. ‘When I watched your life ebbing away in the ambulance on the way to hospital I was terrified I would lose you. And I realised then that I had tried hard not to fall in love with you because of fear. I associated love with the loss and pain that I felt after Dimitri died.’
‘That’s not surprising,’ she said shakily. ‘You were at an impressionable age when he died, and your brother was your best friend.’
‘We became friends when you worked for me, didn’t we, Sara? I liked you and I respected you when you put me in my place. I felt closer to you than I’d ever felt with any of my mistresses. But one day I walked into my office and I was blown away by a gorgeous sexy brunette. You can imagine my shock when I discovered it was you.’
She flushed. ‘Before that day you didn’t notice your frumpy PA.’
‘I did notice you. Often I would find myself thinking about a funny remark you’d made, and I appreciated your fierce intelligence and your advice on how to handle work issues. I almost resented you when you made me desire you too. I knew I was in danger of falling in love with you and I told myself that once we were lovers my interest in you would fade. Instead, it grew stronger every day and night that we were together. When you told me you were pregnant I seized the excuse to marry you without having to admit how I felt about you.’
How he felt about her. Sara bit her lip and told herself it was too good to be true. ‘You said love is a word that poets use to describe lust. Are you sure you haven’t got the two mixed up?’
‘I don’t blame you for doubting me, kardia mou. That means my heart, and I love you with all my heart.’
Sara’s head advised caution but her heart was desperate to believe that, incredible as it seemed, Alekos was looking at her with adoration in his eyes. She caught her breath when he stroked his finger gently down her cheek.
‘Will you marry me, my Sara, for no other reason than you are the love of my life?’
That was the moment she knew she should have listened to the warning that it was all too good to be true. Carefully she eased out of his arms and closed her eyes to blot out the sudden haggard look on his face. ‘I can’t.’
‘Theos, Sara, I will do whatever it takes to prove to you that I love you.’ His voice cracked. ‘Please believe me.’
‘I do. And I love you. But you need an heir to one day run GE, and there is a strong chance I won’t be able to give you a child because I lost one tube and there is a higher risk I could have another ectopic pregnancy.’
He caught her to him and buried his face in her hair. ‘Then we won’t have children. There’s no way I will risk your life. I need you,’ he told her fiercely. ‘Nothing else is important. Whatever the future holds, I want us to share it together, the ups and the downs, for the rest of our lives.’
He tightened his arms around her so that she was aware of his hard thigh muscles pressed against her. ‘My body knew the truth before I was ready to accept it,’ he said roughly. ‘When we made love it was so much more than great sex.’
Joy fizzed inside Sara like champagne bubbles exploding. Hearing Alekos say he loved her wiped away the pain and misery of the past weeks and the future shimmered on the horizon like a golden sun. ‘Mmm, but it was great sex, wasn’t it?’ Her smile was wicked and adoring. ‘I think you should remind me.’
His laughter rumbled through her and the unguarded expression in his eyes stole her breath even before his mouth did the same as he claimed her lips and kissed her so thoroughly, so lovingly, that she was trembling when he finally lifted his head.
‘I’d better warn you that this is the honeymoon suite and the staff have really gone to town,’ he murmured. ‘There are rose petals everywhere in the bedroom.’
Alekos had been right about the rose petals, Sara discovered when he carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed, adorned with fragrant red petals. He undressed her slowly, kissing each part of her body that he revealed, and when he removed her knickers and pressed his mouth to her feminine heat she told him she loved him, loved him. She repeated the words when he thrust into her so deeply that he filled her and he made love to her with all the love in his heart.
It was as wonderful as she remembered and more beautiful than she could ever have dreamed because this time Alekos didn’t just show her he loved her; he told her in a mixture of English and Greek.
‘Will you let me love you for ever, and will you love me?’ he murmured as he drew her close and they relaxed in the sweet aftermath of loving.
‘I will,’ Sara promised him and she meant the words with her heart and soul.
* * *
They were married three months later on Christmas Eve, in a church decorated with holly and ivy and fragrant red roses, and filled with their families and friends. Sara wore a white satin and lace gown and carried a bouquet of white lilies. Alekos looked stunning in a dark grey suit, but it was the look in his eyes as he watched his bride walk down the aisle towards him that made his mother and sisters wipe away tears. Sara’s father walked proudly beside her to meet her husband-to-be, and her half-sister was her maid of honour.
After the reception at Lionel Kingsley’s home in Berkshire, the happy couple flew to South Africa for their honeymoon. ‘Somewhere hot where you can wear less clothes,’ Alekos had stated when Sara had asked him where he wanted to go.
As it turned out, neither of them got dressed very often during the three weeks they stayed in a private bungalow at a luxury beach resort, a fact that Sara later accounted for her pregnancy that was confirmed a month after they returned to London. It was an an
xious time until an early scan showed that her pregnancy was normal and they watched the tiny beating heart of their baby with hope in their hearts.
Theodore Dimitri Gionakis, to be known as Theo, arrived in the world two weeks early with a minimum of fuss and instantly became the centre of his parents’ world.
‘Love changes everything,’ Alekos said one evening as he held his son in the crook of one arm and slid his other arm around his wife’s waist. ‘You changed me, Sara mou. You showed me how to let love into my heart and now it’s there to stay for ever.’
‘For ever sounds wonderful,’ she told him, and then she kissed him and no further words were necessary.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
Raul Di Savo desires more than Lydia Hayward’s body—his seduction will stop his rival buying her! Raul’s expert touch awakens Lydia to irresistible pleasure, but his game of revenge forces Lydia to leave…until an unexpected consequence binds them forever!
Read on for a sneak preview of
THE INNOCENT’S SECRET BABY
Somehow Lydia was back against the wall with Raul’s hands either side of her head.
She put her hands up to his chest and felt him solid beneath her palms and she just felt him there a moment and then looked up to his eyes.
His mouth moved in close and as it did she stared right into his eyes.
She could feel heat hover between their mouths in a slow tease before they first met.
Then they met.
And all that had been missing was suddenly there.
Yet, the gentle pressure his mouth exerted, though blissful, caused a mire of sensations until the gentleness of his kiss was no longer enough.
A slight inhale, a hitch in her breath and her lips parted, just a little, and he slipped his tongue in.
The moan she made went straight to his groin.
At first taste she was his and he knew it for her hands moved to the back of his head and he kissed her as hard back as her fingers demanded.
More so even.
His tongue was wicked and her fingers tightened in his thick hair and she could feel the wall cold and hard against her shoulders.
It was the middle of Rome just after six and even down a side street there was no real hiding from the crowds.
Lydia didn’t care.
He slid one arm around her waist to move her body away from the wall and closer into his, so that her head could fall backwards.
If there was a bed, she would be on it.
If there was a room they would close the door.
Yet there wasn’t and so he halted them, but only their lips.
Their bodies were heated and close and he looked her right in the eye. His mouth was wet from hers and his hair a little messed from her fingers.
Don’t miss
THE INNOCENT’S SECRET BABY,
By Carol Marinelli
Available March 2017
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Copyright ©2017 Mills & Boon
ISBN: 978-1-474-05211-5
ACQUIRED BY HER GREEK BOSS
© 2017 Chantelle Shaw
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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