Rion was her problem, Selina thought scathingly. Ignoring his compliment about her hair, she took a few deep breaths in an attempt to stay calm. Unfortunately she needed his agreement for Anna’s sake, so slowly she turned to face him—and her breath caught in her throat at the sight of him.
He had taken off his jacket and removed his tie, opened the top few buttons of his shirt, revealing the strong column of his throat and the beginnings of black curling hair on his bronzed chest. With his long legs stretched out before him he looked totally at ease and as sexy as sin …
She stiffened, banishing the guilty blush that rose in her cheeks at the wayward thought. With a mighty effort of self-control she swiftly raised her gaze to his face. There was nothing easy in the dark eyes that met hers, she realised, but a cold predatory gleam that threatened her in some way. A flicker of fear trickled down her spine.
‘I am not going to jump on you, Selina. It is safe to sit down. I seem to remember the last time we were here you were not wary but willing.’
He had sensed her fear. The damn man could read her mind.
Marshalling her thoughts, she picked her words carefully. ‘I was an infatuated young fool,’ she said slowly, realising that if she hoped to win Rion over to her way of thinking there was no point in arguing over trivia. Reluctantly she sat down, leaving as much space between them as the close confines of the pavilion allowed. ‘But, just so we understand each other, age and experience have taught me caution. Now, can we get down to business?’
Underneath she was silently seething. As if she needed reminding that it was in this pavilion that Rion had made love to her for the first time and then asked her to marry him. She’d been hopelessly in love with Rion and of course she had said yes. Later she’d realised he had seduced her and married her for business reasons. And now she knew more than she’d ever wanted to know about the sex business, she thought grimly.
‘You were never a fool, Selina—quite the opposite. Few if any people get the better of me, but you did,’ he said, shooting her a dry glance. ‘Yet sitting here I find this place brings back so many memories. I remember when we had sex for the first time. You gave yourself to me so sweetly, so eagerly, you blew my mind.’
The husky tone of his voice got to her and she could not look at him. Instead she stared straight ahead at the view of the bay. The sea was shimmering in the golden rays of the setting sun.
Gave herself so sweetly! Blew his mind! Once Selina had believed that with all her heart. Rion had kissed her and the world had ceased to exist. In between kisses the daybed had been opened and he had undressed her and encouraged her to do the same, and she had gazed in wonder at his magnificent naked body as he had laid her down on the bed and joined her. She had known she’d been born for this moment—this man. She had given herself rapturously, eagerly, totally mesmerised by him.
Six years ago she had been fathoms deep in love with Rion and utterly convinced he felt the same way about her. It had only been later—much later—that she’d realised she had been seduced by a master player, and the pain had been like a knife in her heart. For months after she’d asked herself how could she have been so stupid as to believe a handsome, wealthy business tycoon like Rion Moralis had married her for love.
After the wedding he had installed her in his bachelor apartment and carried on with his life as usual—working sixteen-hour days, business trips abroad—while she had spent her days sightseeing and her evenings waiting for Rion to come back and take her to bed.
At first she had made dinner every night—until at Rion’s suggestion she’d stopped, because he’d rarely known what time he would be back, and it had been simpler to have dinner delivered, which was what he had done before. In the nightmare week after they parted she had worked out that he had only taken her to a restaurant three times and twice to a party in the whole time they were married. He had probably spent more time with his other women than he ever had with her.
Then to be confronted by his lawyer and her grandfather and told Rion wanted a quick divorce on the grounds of her adultery had been the final straw.
Men, who needed them? Selina thought scathingly. She had a father who had paid not to know her and a grandfather and a husband who had used her for their own benefit.
It was anger and the injustice of it all that had finally saved her sanity. She had returned to England and told Beth the whole story, and to Beth’s credit she hadn’t said I told you so. Though on the day of Selina’s wedding Beth had tried to warn her that it was all a bit quick. With hindsight she should have listened. Instead she had gone ahead, convinced all her dreams had come true.
It had turned into a nightmare, and at her friend’s suggestion she had spoken to Beth’s father—an international lawyer—and with his help had found the courage to hit back. It hadn’t eased the ache in her heart but it had done wonders for her self-esteem …
Rion was so handsome, so physical, and so outside her experience. He had overwhelmed her and she had fallen headlong in love with him the night they’d met. He had called her a few days later and taken her out to dinner a couple of times. Then three weeks after they’d met Rion had accepted her grandfather’s invitation to spend the weekend at the villa and seduced her …
The rest was history … And the present was all she cared about.
‘Cut out the ramble down memory lane, Rion, and let’s get to the point,’ Selina said curtly. She was not going to let him think he could seduce her with a few soft words. She wasn’t that girl any more. The fact he had just said ‘we had sex for the first time’—not made love, as she had once naively imagined—simply confirmed her rock-bottom opinion of the man and defiantly she held his gaze.
The atmosphere between them simmered with sexual tension, and something in the depths of his black eyes made her temperature rise and her temper quickly follow suit. Swallowing hard, she regained control of her senses. Rion could spot any weakness a mile off and she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing he still affected her. Business was his thing, and now it was hers.
‘Contrary to what you think, I don’t want anything for myself. But I do care about Anna and her daughters. They mean more to me than my grandfather ever did. Not content with setting me up to marry you, he actually lied on his deathbed—he said he had taken care of Anna.’ She shook her head in disgust. ‘Naturally Anna must stay at the villa, and as you are my trustee for the next few years I need to know the share dividends will cover the mortgage, enable me to give Anna a decent sum of money and pay her salary for as long as she wants to work. Preferably you’ll buy your shares back, which hopefully will give me enough to pay off all the debts and take care of Anna. Then I never need see you again. Make up your mind fast. I know how valuable your time is.’ She could not resist the facetious dig. ‘Plus I have a flight booked from Athens tomorrow evening, and I want everything settled before I leave.’
Abruptly straightening up, Rion turned sideways and let his gaze rest on Selina. Conflicting emotions were battling within him and he was not happy with that. She was really exquisite, with her long red-gold hair framing her face and falling around her slender shoulders, the soft swell of her breasts beneath the silk of her dress and her long legs neatly crossed at her ankles. There was a reserve about her, but also an innate sensuality that nothing could disguise, and he could feel the rush of blood to his groin … the tightening of arousal. Her small chin was tilted at a determined angle and her amber eyes stared coldly at him.
He frowned. The innocence he had admired when they’d met had well and truly gone, he realised with a tinge of regret but no surprise. Selina had the nerve to say she never wanted to see him again, but he was the injured party, he reminded himself. He had caught her in bed with another man and there must have been many more since then …
Rion let his anger at her betrayal fill his mind and easily regained control of his body. He would take Selina, enjoy her, then cut her out of his life for ever … But first he was curious to know
why she needed money.
‘Anna is not my concern,’ Rion finally responded. ‘Though commendably you have made her yours. What I find odd is why you need money so quickly. I gave you a generous settlement for a brief nine weeks of marriage … I’d be interested to know what you have been doing since the divorce to spend it all.’
He casually slipped his arm along the back of the seat and let his hand rest on her shoulder. He felt the slight quiver in her slender frame.
‘As you know I’m a businessman, and I don’t throw good money after bad.’ He watched her long lashes lower, masking her expressive eyes, and knew she was not as unaffected as she pretended. He waited …
Selina was no longer cool. She wanted to shrug Rion’s hand off her shoulder, but the past few years had taught her to show no weakness where men were concerned, and bluntly she told him the truth.
‘I went to university, as originally planned. Aunt Peggy called to tell me I had passed my exams the week before we married. I was offered a place at university. She suggested I accept and then talk it over with you later. I agreed simply to keep her happy,’ she said honestly. ‘I mentioned it to you the same night, but you barely listened in between taking calls and working on your laptop as usual …’ She shot Rion a scathing glance. ‘Anyway, when I returned to England at the end of September luckily I was in time to take up my place at university. Three years later I got my degree, and since then I have travelled the world as a translator. Mandarin and Arabic are very popular and always in demand. I make a good living. I gave the bulk of my settlement to a children’s charity.’
Selina did shrug her shoulder now, hoping to dislodge the disturbing warmth of Rion’s hand from her skin, but it didn’t happen.
Orion Moralis—a highly successful man of the world—was for an instant struck dumb. He’d had no idea Selina had accepted a place at university. He had naturally assumed that when she’d agreed to marry him she had given up the idea of further study. Had he really been so arrogant, so insensitive, he barely listened to her?
Yes, he had, he realised. Her willing body in his bed had been enough for him and he had never given much thought to anything else. Work had been his main priority at the time.
For a moment he was slightly ashamed. Then he remembered the divorce … and exactly how clever Selina was. He was not surprised she’d got her degree—but as for the rest …
He glanced down at her, his dark eyes narrowing as they met cool amber and then roamed over the beautiful face, the sultry pink lips that invited a kiss. ‘Very noble of you,’ Rion offered, but the cynic in him found it hard to believe she’d given that much money to charity.
She was a sophisticated lady, so she had travelled the world and enjoyed the high life till the money ran out, probably. But he had never met a more sensual woman. He only had to look at Selina even now to be turned on, and he knew he was not alone among the male population. Hell! Seeing a face and body like Selina’s, a host of men would queue up to employ her even if she spoke gibberish. The dress she wore was designer label, as were the shoes. He knew because he had bought a few in his time, and it was more than likely some man had provided them for her … Not that it mattered to him—in fact, it made it easier.
‘In that case, Selina, I am certain we can make a deal.’
CHAPTER FOUR
SELINA glanced up at Rion. His statement was music to her ears.
‘You are …? We can?’ she exclaimed with a relieved smile. ‘Thank heaven for that. I’ll go and tell Anna.’ She made to rise but Rion’s arm slid from the bench down her back, his hand gripping her side.
‘Not so fast, Selina. You have not heard what I am offering.’
Suddenly Selina was acutely aware of how close they were. Never mind worrying about Rion’s touch on her shoulder—she knew she was in much deeper trouble. The pressure of his long-fingered hand against her ribcage was perilously close to the underside of her breast. He moved slightly, his taut thigh pressing against her leg, and to Selina’s dismay she could feel an old familiar heat flooding through her veins.
How had that happened?
‘In any successful deal both parties have to be satisfied, you would agree?’ Rion queried, his dark eyes boring down into hers.
She would have had to be blind not to notice a different question in the black depths. Selina tensed as her stomach lurched, and she fought to break free from the hypnotic power of his intent gaze.
‘Yes.’ She nodded her head to break eye contact. An inner voice of reason was telling her she must get this conversation over with as quickly as possible, while her body was telling a different story. Her immunity to Rion was suddenly taking a stomach-churning nosedive.
‘Good. I’m quite happy to cancel the trust and buy back the shares you hold at their present value.’ Rion mentioned a sum of money that made Selina gasp. ‘You will easily have enough to take care of Anna and do whatever else you want to do.’
‘That’s very generous of you. I’ll—’
‘I haven’t finished,’ Rion cut in, his free hand sweeping back the long length of her hair from one shoulder to curve around the nape of her neck. A thumb seemingly idly stroked her throat, making each separate nerve end tingle and tauten in response. ‘To satisfy me, Selina, I want you to join me on the yacht for the next two weeks—as my lover.’
Fighting against the sensual awareness that his close proximity aroused, Selina thought for a moment she had heard wrong … Rion couldn’t have asked her to be his lover … Then she looked into his eyes and for a moment was transported back in time. The desire in the black depths was a potent reminder of what they had once shared.
Helplessly, she stared at him, her mind screaming that he was worthless, she hated him, even as her pulse accelerated like a rocket in shameful response to the promise of passion in his gaze, to the warmth of his hand curved around her neck.
Then he spoke, and as the import of his words sank in she snapped back to reality.
‘Think of it as the honeymoon we never had, Selina, but without the marriage. No strings attached. I buy back the shares, you get the money, and no further contact between us—business or otherwise—will be necessary.’
Her eyes widened and she glared with rising anger at his handsome face. He was smiling complacently. How dared the arrogant devil assume he could walk back into her life and insult her by trying to blackmail her into his bed when he had so spectacularly thrown her out before? It was too incredible to believe! And to actually suggest calling the trip a honeymoon was so callous—the man had to have about as much sensitivity as a block of granite. But why was she surprised? she asked herself. She already knew that …
They had spent their wedding night on the Moralis yacht, cruising back to Athens. Rion had promised to take her on a dream honeymoon a week later but it had never happened …
Selina’s lips moved but she could not get the words out, too furious to make a sound.
‘If you really care about Anna you will agree. As you said yourself, Selina, you are no longer a teenager but an experienced woman of the world. You must have had quite a few lovers—some good, some not so good … But you already know we are compatible, and a trip on my yacht will be fun. At least you’ll know what you are getting.’
A few lovers! Fun! The assumptions and the arrogant conceit of the man so enraged Selina she was almost apoplectic.
Grasping his hand at her side, she determined to break free.
Rion had put totally the wrong interpretation on her silence. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she thought of his disgusting proposal, but before she could say a word his arm tightened around her ribcage like a band of iron. His thumb scraped over a nipple, the fine fabric of her dress no deterrent to the hardening peak. His mouth captured her parted lips in a seductive kiss, his tongue exploring the moist interior with a subtle eroticism that soon changed into a blazing statement of intent.
Stirred on different levels—excitement, anger—Selina knew she should
resist. But it had been so long since she had been held kissed and caressed by a man … and the fact that it was Rion, her one and only lover, had a catastrophic effect on her self-control.
She trembled, and sensations she had repressed for years cascaded through her body overwhelming her defences. Involuntarily she reached for his broad shoulders and clung to him as the kiss she had thought to resist turned into a passionate seduction of all her senses, and she responded eagerly, matching his passion with her own.
His mouth left hers and she stared up into his dark eyes. She saw smouldering passion overlaid with a hint of male triumph, and the haze of desire slowly faded from her bemused mind. She lowered her head and let her hands fall to her sides. She was reeling with shock, mortified by the force of the emotions he had unleashed in her, and for the first time in years she blushed. She didn’t dare look at him.
His hand twisted in the long length of her hair and tilted her head back so she had no choice but to face him. ‘Ah, Selina, there is no need to blush.’ He pressed a kiss to her brow and brushed her lips with his as his arm fell from her waist. Only his hand in her hair was keeping her captive. ‘In fact I’m amazed you still can blush—and it is good to know the chemistry is as explosive as ever,’ he murmured against her mouth. His lips trailed across her cheek, his breath warm on her ear. ‘Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.’ And, lifting his head, he smiled into her eyes. ‘Agreed, Selina?’ Freeing her hair, he smoothed the curling tendrils over her shoulders
Furious with Rion, but even more furious with her helpless reaction to him, she wanted to slap the triumphant smile off his face. Okay, so he could turn her on with a kiss and a caress, but then Rion was the type of man who could probably turn on any woman from eighteen to eighty. He had certainly had plenty of practice, Selina reasoned.
But to insult her with his crack about blushing, and then in his arrogance ask her to trust him and think she would fall into his arms like a besotted idiot, ready to do his bidding … Well, he had another think coming …
Return of the Moralis Wife Page 5
